AK Studio » holiday

Fall Dinner

Alex Kaehler — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Last week I had a couple girls over for a fall dinner. You might remember (from here and here) that I love to cook, entertain and decorate. We ate roasted butternut squash salad with arugula and goat cheese, herb and lemon chicken, wild rice salad and apple crumble. I didn’t get any pictures of the food (too busy stuffing my face), but the table was too festive not to share.

I also decided to use our wedding china. If I don’t use it when we entertain I never will, right?

all pictures by me
China is Kelly Wearstler for Pickard

And PS today I am over at The Now Stylebook sharing my obsessions of the week!

Happy Valentine’s Day

Alex Kaehler — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

On Sunday I had a couple girls over for an annual Valentine’s day celebration.

Well, happy Valentine’s. Whether you hate the holiday and are counting down until tomorrow or are celebrating every minute today, you can’t deny how much fun all the red and pink is.

I’ll be spending the night with handsome man.

And loving every second of it.

And don’t forget to enter the KnitWit giveaway!

xoxo

Valentine’s Day

Alex Kaehler — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:06:00 +0000

Valentine’s Day is not one of those holidays where I have a picture of Spencer and I from every year, but we do like to go out to a special little dinner. When we first graduated from college and moved back to Chicago, we didn’t realize that Valentine’s Day was a seriously big deal at restaurants. So a week before, Spencer tried to make reservations at about every restaurant in the entire city and we couldn’t get in anywhere. We both had roommates so cooking at home wasn’t the most romantic option. I just figured we’d have to celebrate the day before or the day after, until my roommate offered up her sister’s reservation, she had decided to stay home and before cancelling offered it up to us.. Neither of us eat sushi, but we took the reservation. Needless to say I was a bit of a brat about celebrating at a restaurant where they served food we didn’t eat.

Well, we got there and were completely surprised. The atmosphere was great, and the non-sushi menu was incredible. Turned out to be one of our very favorite meals we’ve ever had. So in honor of that night, we have gone there for every Valentine’s Day since. Its a tradition that I look forward to every single February.

Although this restaurant isn’t the most fancy, I love dressing up for Valentine’s Day. It gives you a perfect excuse for a new dress and a pretty outfit. So this year, I’d like to be wearing this:

dress, watch, shoes, clutch, studs

The shoes are girly and soft, whereas the rose gold watch gives it some edge. Love the entire look! And so looking forward to our dinner.

Do you have any big Valentine’s plans? Or do you brush off the silly holiday?

Holiday Break

Alex Kaehler — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Thank you all for the well wishes. Who would’ve thought a couple teeth would take it out of you so much?? I’ve got quite the week coming up, so… I am going to take a blog break. I will be back January 2. Promise.

In the mean time some things I am looking forward to in the next two weeks

- My very first Christmas. I am Jewish and although I love a good Hanukkah, Christmas is sooooo much fun. My fiance has always been on his vacation over Christmas so we have never celebrated together. This year, I am going with them so I actually get to celebrate!!!

- I was given Christmas jammies as a birthday present. They are scary, but I will most definitely be wearing them Christmas morning. Note: these are the actual pajamas I was given. Hoody and footy. Woohoo.

- Laying out on the beach, getting a tan, eating way too much guacamole and having a few too many delicious beverages.

- An amazing opportunity that has presented itself. Hence the photoshoot! Cannot wait to share with you all!

- Celebrating New Years with friends at a cozy, delicious, cheap Italian restaurant. Perfection.

Hope you all have the happiest holidays and New Year. See you in 2012!!

Happy 4th!

Alex Kaehler — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Have a fabulous long weekend everyone. I will be enjoying every.single.minute of it.

Multiple fireworks viewings


A lot of eating (if its red, white and blue it doesn’t matter how fattening it is)

A good amount of amazingly festive attire

See you all back on Tuesday. Have fun!!! xoxo

Happy Mother’s Day!

Alex Kaehler — Sun, 08 May 2011 12:38:00 +0000

I found these old pictures from college and thought I’d share. I am such a proud momma…

Maverick as a gangster

Maverick as a teacher

Maverick as a creepy fairy thing

And my personal favorite… Maverick the cowboy.

So, yeah, I’m not a really mom, but my puppy son is about as special as they get. And I swear, he enjoys being dressed up, he was really didn’t mind. Ohhhhh college.

Hope all of you momma’s have an amazingly perfect day. And to my mom, you are the most incredible Harry I could ever ask for.

Me and my beautiful mom a couple days after I was born.

xoxo

A Girl’s Valentines Day Dinner

Alex Kaehler — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:00:00 +0000

The table! How perfect does my painting look with this setting? They were made for each other. Love my PartyPoms.

A little closer… ahhh the flowers aren’t centered. Its killing me.

White CB2 plates, black floral dessert plates from Anthro pologie. And no that isnt a jail cell on the top left, its the staircase up to our roof.

A little floral arrangement I put together. Didn’t like how you could see the stems through the vase so I wrapped it in some ribbon. Love the way it turned out. And yes, I filled champagne glasses with pink M&Ms.


And even though I kicked my special man friend out of the house for the night, he still brought me these gorgeous flowers. I really heart him. Ohh, and you get a little peak at my little cake stand that I originally saw in Rue


And last but not least, some of the ladies who made this night so amazing. I am obsessed with your faces. Except mine. Why did I not get the “smile-like-a-human” memo?? (Dear MJ, Are you happy you have now been featured?!)

Hope you enjoyed the peak! We had so much fun. I plan on doing this every single year from here on out. Such a great excuse for a dinner party.

Girls Night: Valentines Table Setting

Alex Kaehler — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 13:00:00 +0000

On Friday I am having some girlfriends over for a Valentines Day dinner. We are planning on having a lot of this…

and although I am really excited for lots of fun and food, I am REALLY excited for an excuse to set a seriously pink table.

Here is an adorable Valentine’s Day setting… But a little more crafty than what I’m going for.

I love this ombre look. Pink to red is just perfection.

I also love this little candy wreath. This would be such an easy DIY.

These two tables are adorable. A total overload of pink sounds absolutely perfect.

I am also going to be adding in some black to go with some amazing little plates I want to use.

I’ll be sharing pictures with you on Monday, but in the meantime I’ve already started setting up, its just too much fun not to! Definitely taking some tips from my NYE table.

*sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9

Valentines Day Pressies

Alex Kaehler — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:30:00 +0000

With Valentines day just a little under two weeks away I wanted to post some of my top jewelry picks. Here’s the thing, some girls think that always getting jewelry gets boring… not me. I always like jewelry. But lets face it, Valentines Day is a made up holiday (writing it sort of makes me believe it…) so here are some jewelry pieces all under $200. For the guy whose not looking for diamonds, but still wants to find something special.

Heart Ring (so dainty and delicate), Green Earrings (a la Kyle Richards), YSL ring (have it in green, but pink is a necessity), JCrew Necklace (wouldnt it just look perfect with ANY outfit?), Kendra Scott Studs (of course) and Bow Bracelet (Kate Spade, since when are you so cute?)

My idea… leave this open on your computer screen for the boy to find. Or better yet? Get one of these goodies for yourself! Which is your favorite? I can’t decide…

NYE Table!

Alex Kaehler — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 13:35:00 +0000

After lots of holiday breaks and crazy travel plans my life has finally returned back to normal. I even have this whole week off!

Today I would like to share with you my New Year’s Eve table setting. My idea was to have lots of metallics, fresh flowers and bits of black. I also really didn’t want it to look too tacky (metallics with black are a little scary sometimes). I think I struck a really nice balance though! I am so so pleased with how it turned out.

I know you didn’t ask for the details, but since my pictures aren’t all that great. I figured I would share them anyways!

The table cloth was a really disgusting sequin fabric that I bought the day before. I ended up using the back of the fabric since it was a little less aggressive- black with a gold shimmer. Turned out perfectly.

The votives are these little beauties from Crate and Barrel. Candlesticks are a collection of random crystals I’ve gotten from anthropologie over the years.

The flower arrangements were unreal. They were from Dilly Lily in Chicago. Anyone in this city should take a trip over there. Not only are they incredibly talented, they are the absolute nicest people EVER! You can’t really tell from the pictures but there were winter greens sprayed silver, and sticks painted gold. It added the perfect amount of shimmer.

Plates were a mix of my CB2 square plates and these gorgeous plates with a pewter rim by Match. Napkins were tied with black sequin ribbon and gold twine.

Hope you enjoyed the little peak and that you had a fantastic NYE filled with lots of shimmery, glittery goodness.