BACK AND ON TOP.

what the what? it may or may not have been approximately one entire year since i blogged; is that important?

NO.

all that is important is that this morning, i put my college degree (a bachelorette's degree in fine arts with an emphasis in graphic de-zines, y'all) to good use when i made this here fancy graphic:

the occasion? build direct has selected me as one of The 15 Best Interior Designers in Houston. trust that i am every bit as surprised as you are and extremely flattered.

also, lest you think i am getting too big for my britches, here is one of houston's top designers, as photographed this morning without help from a team for hair and makeup team, nor the fine photography and retouching efforts of my usual portrait-taker (julie soefer, people).

i will admit that i had to go track down some red lipstick so you'd recognize me and hopefully not focus too much on how cool my costco spectacles are. also, let's just call this my signature pose from now on.

it's all happening: logo edition.

unbeknownst to the the outside world, things have been cranking away behind the scenes at kristina wilson design (uh, unless the world is following me on instagram, because i spill the beans almost daily over there. follow me on instagram, y'all: kristinawonders). we have been getting the website ready, hiring folks to join the team, planning for a new office, buying giant computers and fancy software that makes life easier, styling epic photo shoots and designing up a storm for amazing clientele. it's a lot of moving parts and these things take time, but i'm pretty jazzed to officially unleash a small part of the action today: the new logo. 

SO GOOD, RIGHT??? i mean, i'm certainly biased, but those snakes are f.i.e.r.c.e. i'm debating between arm band or tramp stamp, but regardless, these snakes are going to make one sick tattoo. 

what's weird is, i've constantly had dreams about snakes (and flying, but you know... off-topic), which have increased considerably since starting this business. aside from being the year of the snake, snake dreams, as it turns out, represent the dreamer's creative urge toward wisdom and indicate that the previous day's activities were involved some sort of creative pursuit (at least according to the internet). 

so snakes = creativity, which is both awesome and a rad coincidence, because you know i just happened upon that shit post-logo. more ferocity and coincidence headed your way soon, folks, so stay tuned.

just chill till the next episode.

hey girl heeeee-eeyyy. i'm not just covered up with amazing interior design projects these days, i'm also throwing back-to-back baby showers and rescuing stray dogs and selling a house and buying a new house and said new house may or may not be super old and full of termites and maybe it needs a gut renovation anyway? IT IS MY DREAM HOUSE Y'ALL. the goal is to be back on some sort of regular-ish blogging schedule soon, says my new marketing consultant, who is also going to oversee the launch of my new website, because that shit is almost ready to drop but will take me another seven months if i have anything to do with it.

so there is a lot going on, allegedly.

in the meantime, here is a video that everyone probably saw like three months ago, but is new to me and i've only watched it like seventeen times today, but only because it is funny and relaxes me and not because i've got a strange news-crush on brian williams (I DON'T, HE'S GROSS AND TOTALLY DID NOT STEAL MY HEART WHEN HE HOSTED SNL A FEW YEARS AGO).

smitten, swoon and drool-worthy.

what i mean is, how about we all stop using these words? i'm talking to you, bloggers, because no one actually speaks these words out loud, unless they want to find out what the five fingers said to the face. while we're at it, let's throw GLAM and POP OF COLOR into the mix. also i do not need to hear about your fucking washi tape project.

in less grumpy news, brad just left for breakfast tacos and then we are going to the farmers market and then if i have time BEFORE WE GO HOUSE HUNTING WITH OUR REALTOR, i'm going to make some pickles, and not just any regular old cucumber pickles, people. RADISH AND CARROT pickles, and probably some cucumber ones too, because THEY'RE MY FAVORITE, GIRL, ala this recipe.

yesterday was my six-monthiversary at kristina wilson design, LLC incorporated dot com, and ho. lee. shit. y'all. i'm busier than a one-armed wallpaper hanger. busy in a great way with great clients and wonderful projects but wayyyyyyyy busier than i thought i'd be at this point and too busy to make getting my website finished a priority. I'M TOO BLESSED FOR STRESS Y'ALL. at first i started typing 'success' instead of 'stress' so i'm not sure what that means, but clearly i've too busy for blogging, since it's been cricket noises around here.

i have been waking up extra early to read all my favie blogs via the bloglovin' app, because nothing beats the stress away like planning to buy this bag or plant this garden or make those pickles (but i'm totes making those pickles y'all. and someday i will grow my own radishes and haul them inside in my totes tote.), and then i'll feel real bad about neglecting my blog, so today i was like I WILL BLOG. I WILL MAKE THE PICKLES. I WILL GO HOUSE SHOPPING FOR SOMETHING WITH A KILLER YARD. I WILL PUT ON AN ADORABLE AND COMPLETELY IMPRACTICAL OUTFIT AND HAVE MY HUSBAND TAKE PHOTOS OF ME MODELING AND THEN LIST WHERE ALL THE PIECES ARE FROM. just kidding, just kidding (totally not kidding please refer to instagram feed for selfies).

so that's what's been going on here. don't hold your breath for updates. i did happen to find the absolutely most perfect and adorable house, in the area of town where i'd really like to live, at a price that was within the realm of possibility, with a huge garden and pool sized yard, with a 2 car detached garage including garage apartment that would be perfect for a interior design home office, AND SUGARBEAR ACTUALLY KIND OF LIKED IT, and was saying promising things like, well we can have our foundation guy take a look into it, as we stood on the porch with our realtor, nodding and enjoying the shade from the two beautiful pecan trees in the front yard and imagining how great the brick would look when we painted it white. and then i was like, this is what it feels like. THIS IS HOW YOU FEEL WHEN YOU REALIZE YOU ARE HOME.

and then approximately twelve seconds later, we found out that the house next door, the house across the street, the house two doors down AAAANNNNNDDD the apartment complex on the corner were all treatment facilities for people with mental disorders. no, not mental handicaps, people. FUCKING BIPOLAR BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER STABBY SCHIZOPHRENICS.

i tried to make some jokes like, well i hope they have room for one more! and OH GOOD-i can just switch all my other services to a much more convenient location! but brad and jay just stood there shaking their heads at me, so today we try again.

say a little prayer for me as you roll through some of my house inspiration pics and i'll TTYL, hookers.

i quit my job, y'all.

after thursday's post, it may seem strange, but believe it. i've quit my job as vice president of world-renowned interior design firm laura u and yesterday was the end. today the sky is my oyster and pearls are the limit, or something like that.

in all seriousness, though, as much as it killed me to walk away from a great gig, it was time for me to move on. it's actually BEEN time to move on for a long time, but my love for my coworkers and our clients runs so deep that it was hard to take the leap and say goodbye. i resigned october 1st and every day for the past month has been a continuous series of huge-lump-in-my-throat-don't-cry-don't-cry-go-eat-like-nine-xanax moments. it was really, really tough to leave and i almost changed my mind a million times.

but ultimately, i think there is more out there for me. sugarbears believes in me and in the most humbling way, so do other people? so cross your fingers for me, be-hotches, and stay tuned.

when it rains, it pours: a PR story.

Y'ALL. after what seems like ages and ages of working my spindle-y fingers to the fingerbones, two articles have come out in less than a week featuring my interior design projects. for a little farm girl from vinland, kansas, i feel RILL FANCY DOT COM. (backslash: your mom.)

actually, the articles, both extremely well-written, are super humbling in a way i could never imagine, because they are open for comments. i had forgotten there are commenters who are just. not. nice., but that is okay, jerks! it was very eye-opening to read some of the feedback, some of which was mean; some of which very constructive and helpful and some of which was kind, thoughtful and defensive of this very hard profession. thank you, kind people like jan moyer, for getting how hard it really is to do this job.

so here are those articles, girl. read 'em and weep.

CULTUREMAP : 
Houston designers head for the Hollywood Hills to freshen up 1920s home

HOUZZ : 
Playful Luxury Infuses a 1929 Houston House

and because i am fan of keeping it real and because i do not like posts without pictures, here are some photos of me sitting on a pink toilet in a temporary outhouse in kansas with my uncle larry, wearing sequins and holding a feral kitten. uncle larry constructed the outhouse on his farm for his 30th wedding anniversary party (SHOUT OUT TO AUNT LADONNA), and that thing had hand sanitizer and running water flushes from a garden hose, making it the fanciest non-fancy thing ever. my aunt and uncle also figured out a way to make a soda machine serve rum and cokes. they are amazing.

saying goodbye to goldie.

next week i will start driving a fancy grown-up car, the kind that a responsible, respectable lady would drive; the kind that your sweet husband gives to you when he's starting to think about car seat safety; the kind of car that you chauffeur your clients around in when you take them shopping for $32,000 sofas. in short, i am getting a car that is more ladylike than me, and it really freaks me out.

naturally, this means that next week, i will also say goodbye to my dear old friend, goldie the 4runner, aka the gold digger, aka goldschläger, aka goldie the magic dildo (don't think about that last one too much), who has outlasted everything as the final stronghold on my extremely fast and furious youth. the other day we decided that if goldie's walls could talk, they would probably scream, but the truth is, i've had that car since i was 23, and i am about to be 33 (fuckfuckfuck), so goldie has been around to witness all the stumbling i did when i was not a girl, not yet a woman. i prefer to think of these as my adult formulative years, and some of those stumbles are AWESOME.

since i bought her (all on my own in 2003), goldie's been my bottom bitch while i traversed the countryside, living in arkansas; the woodlands, texas (aka communist china); chicago; and finally, dear old space city, houston. in 10 years, i've put just 120,000 miles on goldie while simultaneously accumulating the following statistics.

goldie has transported me to a staggering ELEVEN places of employment, the highlight of which has to be my sports bar waitressing stint at a joint called fox & hound, where i slung beer buckets to finance my day job as a non-paid interior design intern. it's fairly bittersweet to think that the car i was driving when i didn't know what i was doing with my life is the car i'm driving now, when it seems everything has been figured out.

speaking of not having had it figured out, goldie's been chaperone to vehicular interludes with a disconcerting amount of mr. wrongs: 1 fiance (slash ex-fiance), 4 serious boyfriends (aka ex-boyfriends, aka assholes) and 11 quasi-boyfriends (goldie and i both knew they weren't ex-boyfriend material) all rode shotgun at some point before i found sugar bears. what a whore bag.

although i've only ever gotten one traffic ticket during the goldie years (failure to wear a seat belt), goldie and i have been involved in multiple accidents, one of which was car wreck with mario lopez, who did not have car insurance. also, he rear ended me, but i've never been able to say that i was rear-ended by mario lopez with a straight face. goldie has had her airbags replaced, a new front end at least three times that i can remember, a new back end (twice, i think), two entirely new sides and also two major window replacements, so i challenge you to find an original component of her that isn't the roof. one accident, unfortunately, caused permanent damage to her cassette player, which means we've been listening to tape 5 of lalita tademy's cane river for over six years. goldie and i had some pretty killer road trips listening to books on tape.

so farewell to goldie. you were the hi ho silver (emphasis on the hoe part) to my lone ranger, and i never had to worry about spilling an entire cup of coffee in your passenger seat, BECAUSE YOUR UPHOLSTERY IS THE PERFECT SHADE OF SPILLED COFFEE STAINS.

and you don't find a car like that every day.

chicago circa 2005. this is really the best i can do as far as photos of myself and the golddigger. goldie has also seen me through HUNDREDS of hair color choices.

i can't find any other photos that contain both me + goldie, so i submit this one as evidence that i bought her in arkansas, had illinois plates, am a licensed scuba diver and a proud member of delta theta. also, the man with the key map admiring his rear-end job is mario lopez.

this is a totally different accident.

bolstering words for young designers.

applicants for our internship program are always a bit surprised to hear that REAL interior design is like, 4% coming up with design ideas and concepts and 96% problem-solving and-slash-or dealing with some generally unpleasant situations, so this is a SHOUT OUT (what, what) to all my real interior designer peeps out there: you know what i'm talking about.

{via my pinterest. if you are still not on pinterest, leave a comment and i will send you an invitation!}

white panda wednesday.

it's no lie: i love a musical mashup, evidenced by multiple posts prior on the flashdance and girl talk. if you love a badass mashup as much as i do, or if you just enjoy shaking your ass can, you WILL LOVE this white panda biznazz.

like say if you love weezer and that song TIPSY?

or maybe you like jay-z and jackson 5 and lil' wayne, and are like, why did they not exist at the same time and get a group together? and why did michael have to die?

skee-lo and that break your heart song? by taiaiaio cruz or something? MAGICALLY BLENDED INTO ONE.

or maybe you like a slow jam because your name is lauren walsh, and you wish you could combine that with an owl city track?

so alls i'm saying is that these crazy hipster computer nerds are GREAT and just what the doctor ordered this wednesday. if i weren't going to the masters, i'd totally get my buns to austin on april 7th to see them play (spin? compute? mash?) in person. tickets here, jill.

{this band via my younger brother's extremely hip friend nick.}

attainable vs. obtainable.

i mentioned yesterday that from now on, i'm setting realistic and attainable goals (part of the S.M.A.R.T. plan, duh) and almost immediately i worried that i meant obtainable? so let's all learn something, or re-learn it, because surely this was covered in our nation's great education program?

obtainable speaks of truth that some thing exists and one can get. attainable speaks use of intelligence to get it.

"A prostitute is obtainable, but true love is not attainable so easily."

obtainable- that may be procured or gained.
adjective 1. available, to be had, procurable.
adjective 2. accessible, achievable, at your fingertips, at your disposal, reachable, realizable, gettable, accomplishable.

attainable-possible to achieve
able to be achieved, accomplished or obtained. possible to achieve, reach, or get.

rubbing elbows: celerie, newell, charlotte, suzanne.

so i still don't exactly know why or how, but houston had a pretty flossome november, design-wise. first of all, celerie kemble was in town on her book tour, signing autographs and just generally being adorable, so robyn and i went to that and got to meet her. sadly, i am unable to locate the photo of celerie + kdubs, but trust when i say that i looked super fierce. JUST KIDDING. but one of her handlers DID tell me that i had 'killer platinum' and i only had to ask him twice what he meant, and he was talking about my hair. celerie's adorable dress is by dallas native lela rose, if you need one, btw. it bears mentioning that robyn and i (plus everyone at my office, at my INSISTENCE) want very much to be as like cel-K as possible, so we have all taken vegatable names. i'm leeks luebe and robyn is cabbage patterson. do you have a vegetable name? you can't use aubergine, because that's obviously the prettiest-sounding vegetable that ever was.

by the way, celerie kemble thinks architectural digest is for assholes. just kidding! she totally took it back.

then the very next day, the decorative center houston hosted house beautiful's design institute, and i got to meet NEWELL TURNER, editor of house beautiful. the discussion also featured suzanne kasler and charlotte moss, and i thought it was pretty special. charlotte moss is a starchy gal and said that she not only loves chintz (so does newelly), she comes from the school of more is more, which made me want to stand up and do the arsenio because I TOTALLY GET IT, CHARLOTTE, i do. i love shit everywhere also, girl! clutter my liiiiiiiife.

we got to the lee jofa/suzanne kasler book signing early, but planned to hang out there because IT'S LEE JOFA and what's not to love, but in walks suzyK, and the next thing i know, she's giving robyn, jennifer and moi a tour of her new fabric collection for lee jofa, which had just been released. SPOILER ALERT: it is awesome.

FOR YOUR PLEASURE ALONE, i am posting all of these photos, even though in some of them i look normal and then in others i look like i may or may not have slept in my car. PS, thanks for the giant triple EFF ma-maw boobs to both of my grandmothers. i may as well just start buying all of my clothes at effing chico's, and from now on, if anyone asks what my personal style is, it's MATRON CHIC.

i was totally resisting the urge to hug him THE ENTIRE TIME.

charchar.

suzeballs

oh, did you think that was it? IT IS NOT, because the week of awesome continued on the very next evening when i managed to invite myself along get invited to the grand opening of restoration hardware's new monster flagship store in highland village. but i am kinda blogged out so that will have to wait until tomorrow.