30 April 2013

love: a busy rainy day

We are working on something BIG over here... While I'm bust working away, here are some lovely photos of my favorite place to spend a rainy day...
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xo Lea Hart

23 April 2013

entertain: tourists in DC

We've got some really fun guests coming to visit today! As soon as they get here we are going to grab some coffee at Northside Social. They make one of the best lattes I've ever had and the savory scones are what my cheesy dreams are made of. Then we are off to be tourists in the District!




You can see what we are up to on Instagram!
xo Lea Hart

22 April 2013

entertain: Our Wedding: the schedule of events, or what do do in the middle of nowhere!

Hey y'all last Monday I started to tell y'all all about our wedding. This week its all about our itinerary. Since we knew we would be entertaining a large group of guests for the whole weekend, we wanted come up with a working schedule of events. Most people were arriving on Friday, but a good number of folks came earlier, so we kicked off the wedding weekend extravaganza on Thursday with a casual cookout at the Ranch. This link is from part of our wedding Documentary by Halidou Epics.  The fact that we have a wedding documentary about the whole weekend is the. best. thing... EVER! It's so fun, one of our best friends made it for us. I'm going to share all about that too!  But here is a clip from it. This is a what its like driving up to the ranch. So remote and beyond beautiful.

Pino Wedding 02 - The Drive from Moustapha Halidou on Vimeo.

Super fun and totally not stressful, lots of cold beer, grilled chicken, veggies, and tons of Cousin Willie's crazy hot salsa and chips. We ate gallons of it all weekend long!


Good times and it was one of the few times I got to relax and just hang out! This is what it's usually like at the ranch during the reunions.




You might have noticed the stacks of chairs, tables, and dishes in the background. We rented everything including two huge tents from a rental company about an hour away. When we scheduled the delivery, we just thought we needed to be there to let them in and supervise.... Ummm yeah, we were so wrong!!! Thank goodness so many folks were around. This clip is from the Documentary and it's only of the funniest things I've ever seen. How many engineers does it take to set one of these crazy tents up??? And I loved hearing my NYC friend asking the Motel if they had a fitness center!! haha.... enjoy!

Pino Wedding 03 - Thursday Prep from Moustapha Halidou on Vimeo.

Hilarious!!! And how awesome are all our friends!?! They rock.

So on Friday we encouraged all of our guests to explore around the area during the day. Then off to the No Scum Allowed Saloon for our Rehearsal Dinner!
A bunch of folks went to White Sands, which is soo cool! Its mountains of white sand in the middle of the desert. My family went there on a family vacation years ago.  Looks like Uncle David and Cousin Sara had a blast!



Some of our Trekkie type friends headed over to Roswell, to look for aliens. It's pretty cheesy, but if you are into UFOs and extraterrestrials... it can be fun. 




We created a blog for our wedding guest and listed fun stuff all over New Mexico. There is sooo much to see in New Mexico. We also let everyone know where the best green chili cheeseburgers, are. One of our friends ate one everyday he was here! They are so freaking good.
Another cool spot is Bonito Lake, near Ruidoso, Mike and I went there the year before. The high desert of New Mexico has a very diverse landscape. It looks so green and lush! This year it was off limits because of wild fires. Lots more about the Wildfires later, too! 


Lots of folks just hung around Zozo, there are some fun art galleries, antiques shops, a cute coffee shop, and Roy's Soda Counter, it's famous for ice cream floats! 







Next up Friday night Welcome Party, and the Wedding Day...


xo Lea Hart

ps- How great are the videos? Mous did an amazing  amazing job. We really love having that to look back on. It really shows y'all what it was like out there! I'll post videos about the No Scum and from the Big Day. 







19 April 2013

entertain: Daft Punk

On a lighter note today, one of our favorite groups, Daft Punk just released the first single "Get Lucky" off of their new album, Random Access Memory, which is due out next month.



A little back story: After a couple of months of casual dating, I invited Lea to see Daft Punk with me at Coney Island's Keyspan Park. It was at that show that we decided we wanted to date exclusively. It was an amazing show and an amazing night.

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We also walked down the aisle for the first time as a married couple to One More Time blasting, that was great. We really hope to be able to catch them again.

Peace Mike

love: reflecting on the news

It's hard to think about design and entertaining, with all the crazy news about Boston unfolding on the TV as I type. This disturbing news comes on the heels of many other recent events that are separately but equally distressing. In times like these I can only seem to think is that love is a BIG deal.
It is.
Even if everything else in the world is scary and confusing... I know that the right thing to do, and the best thing to do is to love one another. "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you LOVE one another." John 13:35
Call or hug the ones you love, it's the only way to fight all the hate that attempts to destroy. I'm loving for these guys, so hopefully, when they get older the world will be a better place.

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I'm praying hard today for Boston, my family, the United States of America, and for LOVE to overcome.
xo Lea Hart

18 April 2013

design: chic nurseries + stylish kids rooms

I'm busy toddler proofing the whole house because we are having a couple of special visitors to the Casa Pino next week. I can't wait! Aunt EE (that would be me) loves spending time with her nieces and nephews! As a designer, I think kids rooms should reflect your style and they can be as sophisticated as the rest of your home. They need to be cozy fun safe spaces for babys and children to learn and grow, but they DO NOT have to be Pepto Bismol Pink or Baby Boy Blue!
What they could have could have is a super chic antelope carpet,  or colorful wallpaper on the ceiling (babies do spend a good amount of time on looking up that first year), some funky engaging art, a bird cage light fixture that could double as a mobile, or black and white photography (babies might love high contrast as much as I do).  So while I'm making our house less of a danger zone for our little visitors, check out some of these gorgeous spaces designed especially for little ones.








When the time comes for us to turn the guest room into a room for our little one, I think this light and a few of these prints will be tops on my "to buy" list...


... along with diapers, bottles and all that other good stuff! But we don't have plans for that quite yet, Mom!

Shhhhh.... we do have something big cooking in the oven! Exciting news coming next week!!

xo Lea Hart

sources and more ideas for Baby here

17 April 2013

design: outdoor spaces

Oh allergies, you always rain on my Springtime parade... I have the worst allergies, and living in Virginia this time of year is well, torture. So since I've barricaded myself inside with lots of meds, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite outdoor spaces.









Sources for these lovelies and more here. Hope you kids enjoy the rest of your pollen filled day!

xo Lea Hart

16 April 2013

design: black + white interiors

I love color.  I really do.  I like bright neons, barely there pastels, rich emeralds and teals, orangey- reds, but you wouldn't know it from my Pinterest board...?!?
Whenever I'm working with clients, I ask them to gather images of spaces they like. Its a great tool to see what they gravitate towards, especially when words like of modern, rustic, clean lines, casual are so subjective. Usually, right away I can identify themes or common threads in these look pictures, sometimes ones the clients weren't even aware of. So let's take a look at a few (and by a few I mean a ton) of my personal look pictures!








































I think you'll see that overwhelmingly I love high contrast black and white interiors. I suspect it's why I keep messing with my Living and Dining rooms. They are nice, well laid out, with personality pieces... but too much color. I think. Sorry these pictures aren't the best...



It's a good lesson to learn, even if it's exactly what I already tell clients, follow you instincts and listen to your innate sense of style, pay attention to the little whispers. Yep. These are good words to live by, not just for interior decor.

- all links to original sources can be found here + a whole bunch more black+white interiors-

xo Lea Hart
ps- it would also appear that I love greenery, modern art, and antlers....eh?