Jess Lively

Good afternoon! I don’t know about you, but I hear there are a lot of people surfing the interwebs this week looking for holiday gifts (read: Cyber Monday). One great place to start for inspiration is MakeunderMyLife sponsor, Lovely Clusters. Rachel has done a great job creating a space to upload photos of your favorite [...]

Just a quick update from the shop. We’ve decorated Jess LC for the holidays (pictures below), and there are 48 hours left for our online sale. Take a look at the styles which are 40% off. Black Friday Sale- Two Days Left! Just a reminder that today and tomorrow are the last two days of [...]

Good morning! I’m feeling quite relaxed after a “long” weekend starting semi-formally on Wednesday. Though I did a trunk show on Friday, the break from regular studio hours was nice. I attempted to keep my exercise output as high as my food intake over the past week. I was reasonably successful, however this recipe is [...]

Good morning and happy Black Friday to you! Though I slept in (and slept off my cheesecake coma), I am up and ready to do an impromptu trunk show at Macy’s (I mention these a lot, just in case you happen to be able to stop by!) from 11-5. So if you happen to be [...]

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you and your families have a great holiday and enjoy a homemade meal. I’d also like to let you know how thankful I am for you reading this blog and making my life more purposeful. I personally am staying in Chicago and having Thanksgiving with my cousin, Danny. We’ll be making [...]

Mark your calenders and sleep off the turkey hangover on Friday! Here is my only sale during the holiday season. Judging by the orders already coming in for the holidays I imagine Suzie and I are going to be pretty busy on Monday… …and I thank you for that!

As I mentioned in the studio tour, I did a quick makeover on this generic office wipe board to make it more pretty. The result is pretty great for the minimal effort needed to make the changes. Here’s what it looked like before the makeover: Yuck. Earlier I had tried to cover up an odd [...]

I’d like to give a big shout out to CCC Scholarships, the newest Soc Chic cause and their adorable necklace, The Bright Side. I got in touch with this amazing cause through the founder, Carolyn Rubenstein. Though she started out as a Jess LC customer, we quickly became fast friends. Over the past few months [...]

Good morning! I hope you had a great weekend. I spent the last two days relaxing and walking along the shore as much as possible while the Chicago weather stays in the 50′s. Now that I’ve shown how I made the chevron paintings and giant inspiration board, I can now reveal the full studio tour! [...]

Happy weekend! I hope you have something wonderful planned. I will be at Macy’s doing a trunk show today 11-5. This weekend I’ll be flying solo as Erwin visits Ann Arbor for the Michigan/Ohio State football game. Which means perhaps some more decorating may be in store… CB2 is having a sale at their North [...]

Good morning! As you read this I am busy getting ready for another Macy’s Chicago Desginer Trunk show from 11-5 today and tomorrow. If you are around State St. this afternoon and want to say hi- please do! Today’s DESIGN YOUR LIFE is brought to you by our newest MakeunderMyLife sponsor, Rebecca of The Pink [...]

Ohmygoodness. I am so excited to share this project! I have had this idea floating in my head for months and now I get to share the results. The concept of painted chevron first came to mind after reading Kelly + Olive’s post about DIY Chevron. I followed their instructions and used the pattern linked [...]

Good morning! Before I reveal what the (almost) finished studio looks like, I’d like to share two projects I completed for the space. The first one I’m sharing today is the over-sized bulletin inspiration board that takes up one whole wall. To make the inspiration wall, I decided to use cork board contact paper (normally [...]

As promised, here are photos of our living room and dining room now that we’ve lived in the new apartment for two and half months. A great deal of help came from Courtney and Lauren of Kelly + Olive. I really like how this space turned out. The only things I will add will be [...]

I am excited for this weekend to begin. On Sunday, my mom is coming into town, so we will be exploring Chicago and she will get to see the new apartment. Speaking of the apartment, I’m excited to share an update on the decorating next week. Lauren and Courtney of Kelly + Olive are going [...]

As I mentioned on Tuesday, three lovely ladies and I are starting a new video conversation called Spring where we will talk about passion, intention, and many ideas shared on these DESIGN YOUR LIFE interviews each week. Carolyn and Michelle have already shared their intentions in previous DYL interviews, so I’m excited to share the [...]

It’s been quite a while since we’ve had such an awesome custom piece, so I thought I’d share it here with you as well. Our client wanted the big, bold, bib look using our large Wellington crystals. Here’s how it turned out. Perfect for holiday parties or layering with ruffle tops. Please email me at [...]

With all of the excitement from the Daily Candy feature and Spring announcement, this post is long overdue. Last week I got the following email from Laura B., In August I submitted a photo for your exfoliation project when I moved. I still feel like my life is filled with physical and emotional clutter and [...]

Oh man. This is some big news. I’ve secretly been working on a project with three lovely ladies from across the country. They are none other than Carolyn Rubenstein (Carolyn’s DYL), Michelle Ward (Michelle’s DYL), and Jess Gonacha Swift. We are all passionate about our unique professions (author/non-profit founder, life coach, artist, and jewelry designer), [...]

Good morning! First, I’ll apologize for missing last Friday’s End of the Week Exfoliation- I went to Ann Arbor to visit my dear friends and was travelling most of Friday by train. I had a great time revisiting the old places I used to love and seeing my friends. Off the Chain: Daily Candy Now [...]

Good morning! Welcome to a brand new DESIGN YOUR LIFE. This week Michelle of When I Grow Up is sharing her intentions and some amazing ways she’s designed her life around them. I’m going to let our first meeting remain a mystery (to be revealed in the weeks to come), but I’ve loved getting to [...]

As far as most frequently eaten meals go, I think oatmeal has been topping my charts for the last six months. Ever since I discovered the joys of Cheesy Oatmeal (don’t judge until you’ve tried it), I’ve been eating oats for breakfast. And as my old coach on the Michigan Men’s Crew Team (I was [...]

Before I get into the topic of my contribution to the world, I’d like to share something which comes to mind every so often. I think many other bloggers may feel as I do about this subject. It’s about “when” I blog. I have found that if I can have a post updated at 7am [...]

Happy November! I cannot believe October has already come to a close. With this weekend’s Halloween festivities, that extra hour for daylight savings time was much needed. I used it for shopping, decorating, and my chevron project (more on that to come this week). I’d also like to thank everyone who came to the trunk [...]