Some random photos from my iphone....

 

So excited to be heading out to Tennessee!

 

My first Cracker Barrel 

 

Taking care of the burn pile.

A glorious experience!

 

Rainbow birthday cake for my favorite gal!

 

My 15cent garage sale find!

 

Beautiful skies on my last night.

 

Somewhere over Arkansas

 

Thats my pink suitcase!

While in Tennessee I had the immense pleasure of watching my best friend's daughter play the last wto games of her little league baseball season!  Not having any children of my own, I was wholly unprepared for the intensity and nerve-wracking I had to endure!

 

(little Davy cheering on his sister!)

Ana played catcher this season, and was an absolute champ. She was all over the place, throwing her body around like it didn't matter. My heart was in my throat pretty much the entire time! (there was some talk amongst the parents and they said things like "best in her age bracket."  You better believe that I was one proud aunty!)

She also managed to hit every time she was at bat!  There was some really quick and evasive running to second...

 

...and she even had the most beautiful slide into home for the run!! (I was too busy screaming and jumping up and down to catch a picture of her awesome moves!)

 Unfortunately one of her games was at 1pm on the hottest day of the week - so you better believe that as soon as the game was over we headed back to the house and jumped right into the pool!

 

Last week, after about a month of crazy schedule wrangling, expedia and priceline stalking, and many many secretive phone calls, I was able to finally pull off the surprise of the century.  You see,  it was my best friend's 30th birthday, and we have not been able to see each other in almost 6 years!

She was obviously delighted, and I have to say that it was probably one of the best weeks I have had in years!  There was rainbow birthday cake, horses, 90+ degree weather, a pool, and lots of wine and girl talk.  I am so blissed out right now! 

Of course I have about a bazillion photos, but I want to dedicate this post to the beautiful horses of Kensington Farms, where my friend is a riding instructor.  (I know - dream job right?)

What is it about horses and girls - how is it that pretty much every little girl is born horse crazy?  I don't know any little boys who wake up one day and want to plaster their walls with pictures of horse magazines.  

  

I was pondering this while I was taking pictures, and I started to realize that horses have such an amazing spirit.  They are so giving and loving - it is no wonder horse therapy is becoming more and more popular.  There is nothing more powerful that the love between a rider and their horse, and the first time you really look into a horse's eyes, your heart grows a little bit bigger.  (It has been said that the eye is the hardest to capture - that is why there is so much bad horse art out there!)  And we as women, who are also born givers, feel drawn to horses because we instinctualy know that they have the capacity to help give back and soothe our own souls.

 

 

Anyway... I am so grateful for my week of fun (I feel like a new person!) and I am excited to share with you the rest of my adventures!

 

I am so enamored with Keri Russel's kitchen featured in the latest Elle Decor.

Those reclaimed wood cabinets.

The dining room table that her (hunky hunky) hubby built!

And  while not part of the kitchen, that bathroom is pretty swoon worthy as well (that slab of wood as a bath caddy!!)

I am actually surprised by how much I love this spread, as I am usually a girl who embraces color! But there is something about reclaimed (dark) wood that really gets my heart racing.

Of course I would fill those open shelves with my collection of colorful vintage pottery and that bathroom seriously needs some dark teal towels...

(to see William Waldron's beautiful images in all their un-cropped glory hop on over to the elle decor)

Remember my 30 before 30 list? Remember number 13 (sidenote - I have always thought that 13 was a lucky number becuase there were 13 letters in my maiden name!) about starting my own design firm?  Yah... well, lets just go ahead and cross that one off the list!

For the last few months I have been working with a handful of amazing clients, and I LOVE it!  I get to play with color and textiles, and help people turn their spaces into places where they actually want to spend time!

I am still working on getting my logo and business cards designed (why is it so much harder to do this stuff for yourself?) and I will definitely share that if i ever make a decision! 

Today I am going to give you a little sneak peak into my favorite client's home.  She is a lovely young gal with an adorable husband and the most gorgeous little baby you have ever seen.  They love color and are definitely into combining a mid-century vibe with their classic Portland bungalow!  They recently moved here from Chicago, where their apartment was a lot smaller, so its been fun to pretty much start from scratch!

Here is the dining room before:

 And here is a picture of my Sketch-Up model.  We were ordering that gorgeous table online, and were concerned about how it would look with and without all the leaves (they have a large family here in town, and want to be able to entertain comfortably).

The dining room in progress:  (The table, chairs, paint, and rug are all in and we are just waiting on the drapes to be made and installed)

The adjoining living room before:

As you can see, she is not afraid to mix colors and patterns (which I LOVE), however we do have to be careful to strike the right balance as we layer in more elements so that it does not end up feeling like a carnival!  (and yes, that is my blurry finger in the corner there - I was taking this picture at a really awkward angle, not even looking at the screen as I tried to get the widest shot possible!)

And here is my Photoshopped after.   

We were looking at a few pieces, like that CB2 credenza, and that Amy Butler rug, but knowing that online ordering is always risky (as color changes immensely depending on the lighting, time of day, etc) we decided to only order one piece at a time so we could make smart decisions and not have a bunch of stuff that doesn't look quite right.

So we started with the rug, and as you can see in  this photo, the greens are much less saturated, and verging on sage rather than the acid in the online photo.  We really like the rug in the space, especially since the softer tones actually help balance all the boldness of the adjoining dining room.  And as you can see from the leftover birthday decorations, pops of bold color will really be fun (and will help relate to the dining room nicely!)

We are now considering alternative options to the CB2 credenza, and I think we are going to try and find a neat old piece that we can paint!  We have also talked about painting the brick area of the fireplace, and updating the chandeliers in both the living and dining rooms.  

It has been so much fun this far, and I am excited to share more updates as we progress! (and as I learn to take better photos in our gray gray city!)

the zero dollar craft project

I've had this idea in the back of my head for quite awhile now (no seriously - this idea has been germinating for years) and I only acted upon it recently.  I think the title might be misleading... originally everything did cost money.  However, I have slight hoarding tendency's, and so when I finally embarked upon this project I didn't have to leave the house, or buy anything new!

I have always been a candle fan.  There is nothing like a candle light for setting a mood, flattering a complexion, or even just resting the eyes.  For years I would buy generic glass jarred candles and try and make them more unique by wrapping them in cool paper, or even just nesting them inside a different container.  I wanted to try making my own, but there has always been a certain air of *crunchy granola* associated with candle making, as well as remembrances of a failed jr high crayon melting experiment... and so I never really did anything with my generic glass jars.

Fast forward a few years, and I became a manager at that ubiquitous lotion and candle store (you know the one i'm talking about - it has a store at almost every mall across the country).  Needless to say, my candle collection grew to almost ridiculous proportions.  (I mean seriously, what is a girl to do during that amazing sale that happens twice a year).  Some of my votive collection ended up getting wrapped in tissue paper in order to add a little color and ambiance to our wedding decor (you can sort of see them on the table here), but I still had plenty sitting in boxes in my closet.

Until yesterday, when in a spurt of boredom  anti-housecleaning  inspiration, I matched up some of my vintage tea tins with some of my yummiest smelling candles.

I tried a few different ways of melting down the wax  First I chopped up the existing candles and then melting them down double-boiler style (and by double boiler I mean using spatulas to prop up a plastic mixing container T found for me in the garage); and then I went straight to immersing the existing jar in the water.  Both worked, but pre-chopping definitely led to quicker melting!

Not only was it super easy, but it made the house smell amazing!

I can't wait to send this one to a dear friend on the east coast who has waited ever so patiently for me to finally get around to finishing the knitted cowl for her dog I started about two years ago.  Yes, I said dog-cowl (he's a whippet, and he gets cold).  And yes, it sometimes takes me forever to get things accomplished.   
 
I have two more tins, however the existing wicks I have are too short.  So I think round two will cost a few more dollars.  I also want to try blending the remaining scented candles with some unscented wax - hopefully this will soften the color and the strength of the scent!

 

Last week, during our adventures around town, N and I discovered the most charming animal portraits by Ryan Berkley. 

This handsome fellow went home with N...


While this little guy stole my heart!

(To be honest, I originally purchased a different print that was going to go in the master bedroom, however, when I got it home T was less than thrilled.  Luckily he went back to the shop with me and was just as enamored with these portraits.  It came down to a coin toss between Mr Cheetah, Mr Otter, and Mr Polar Bear - but the jaunty angle of the Otter's hat definitely tipped the scale in his direction!)

lots of fun & a confession!

Lost of fun:

On Thursday night I had the immense pleasure of picking up an old friend (someone who new T & I back when we were first crushing on each other) from the train station.  We proceeded to spend an amazing 36 hours together talking about everything under the sun (books, design, philosophy, hipsters, our secret fascination with housewife blogs (specifically the Mormon ones), hair, children, philanthropy,  architecture, movies, business ventures, travel, art, fertility, how much we love Anthropologie, and of course all the old camp memories.  We walked all over Portland and took tons of photos.

We ate delicious food:

 

 

Saw interesting art:

 

Spent a blissful couple of hours in Powell's:

And had the strangest afternoon of weather (seriously these photos were taken about 5 minutes apart!):

 

What an amazing weekend!!!

**********

Now on to the confession:

Before you read any further hop on over to one of my favorite blogs Design Gal and Her Handyman to read one of the most honest confessions ever.   What I especially love about this post is that her secret mess truly IS a mess.  (unlike some people's "befores" which are usually my "after")

One of the things I dislike about the blogging community is how much we sugarcoat/edit our lives - and I think the worst part is that I totally do it to.  Only it keeps me from actually blogging.  The reason why I have not shown you my master bedroom paint color yet is that I am afraid to take pictures of the mess of clean clothes sitting on top of my dresser.  (And don't even get me started on the dresser - I started painting it 3 years ago and never finished the very last bit, so I can't show you how cool it turned out!)  Or that my husbands bedside table is still pre-hacked.  (This is what I want it to look like.  This is what it actually looks like.)

Anyway - the whole point of this rambling is to share my own secret shame - except that because of the afore mentioned friend in town, my upstairs had to look good too! (overnight guests get a way cleaner house that dinner party guests!)  So whats a girl to do?

 Thats right - shove it ALL in the closet(s).  Click on the photos to enlarge - at your own risk!

Before and After

I am so very excited about sharing all the details of my upholstery class, but until I can figure out how to get all the words out, I will let the pictures do the talking!

a weekend recap

I have so many things to share (Like how I re-painted my master bedroom over christmas break.  Or how I just completed an amazing upholstery class where I did an entire chair(!).  Or how last November we had our in-laws come to stay and I totally re-decorated the guest bedroom.  Or how I have started making and selling things in a few local shops and they are selling well) and yet I feel as though getting them into writing is the hardest thing!

So maybe I will just start slow with a little weekend re-cap.  Many of my favorite blogs do this, and I always feel that it is such a sweet little personal moment.  Its like having a quick coffee break with a friend!

So here goes:

Saturday night we ventured across the river and had dinner with friends at a darling new (to us) restaurant called Decarli.  The best part about eating out with our group is how willing everyone is to try new things, and share - we ordered a bunch of yummy appetizers, and pretty much were in heaven!   Can I just say that polenta fries are a revelation!

After we were sufficently stuffed, we headed over to Sykart - and indoor go-kart track!  SO fun, and the accessories were definitely fun to model!

Today was a relaxing stay at home kind of day.  We made pancakes, talked on the phone with family in Boston and Florida,  and finished up some fun projects I have been working on. 

All in all it was a really fun weekend, and I feel so lucky that I have such great friends to have fun with!