Wednesday, June 29, 2011

shopping spree

Just went on a bit of a shopping spree on Etsy. One of my finds comes from MGMart, a shop that is closing it's doors and has everything marked down 50%. What did I get? I'd love to show you however I dumbly "checked out" before I saved photos. So instead I'll share some of my other favorites from the shop that are still available. For now anyway.





Check out these goodies before the shop closes on July 6th!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Sneak Peek! Mega Project Progress

Hopefully in the next couple days I will be able to share updated photos of the mega project. In the meantime, here is a sneak peek of what is happening this very moment.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Play dress up with your shower curtain

Before I get into this DIY, I already know some of you are going to say, "aren't you getting ready to move back home?" And the answer to that is yes. However I purchased the items with the intent to do this quite awhile back and there was no point in packing everything away. Now when I move into a new house (someday), my pretty shower curtain will be waiting patiently to be hung. So let's do it!

The inspiration for this came from these gorgeous shower curtains from Anthropologie. While I can say that I overall LOVE their items, I don't always love their price tags. If my mother, or future husbie for that matter, found out I spent $148 on a shower curtain they might faint. It's actually kinda insane. But they are awfully pretty. Don't ya think?

So I decided to look into making my own. I started with a plain, light gray shower curtain because that's what I already had up. If you want to copy these looks more exact, look for a lightweight white one. I purchased a variety of sizes of doilies from Joann Fabrics but you can find them at any home decor shops. Garage sales are also a great place to find them, if you get lucky. You will also need white thread.

Determine how you want your pattern. I focused mine in the upper left corner and decided to give it a falling effect, where they spill out across the curtain.
a. Stitch around one of the opening at the top of the doily. I wanted mine to be even more textured so instead of stitching at the very top of the scallop, I stitched at the base. This way, the scallops can flop around a bit.

b. Hang your curtain up and determine where the rest of the stitches will fall. I pinned mine in three places around to keep it where I wanted it. Take it back down and add the tacks all around the circle. I was able to skip every other scallop and it still laid nicely.

c. Lastly, hang your curtain and pin out the rest of the doilies. For the most texture, consider layering small doilies directly inside larger ones. The result will be a pretty flower effect. In this image I show the direction of the "spill". I ended up using twelve doilies on mine. To achieve a look more like the Anthropologie ones, go for a zig-zag pattern straight across the upper third of the curtain.

What do you think? Would you try this on your shower curtain?

A casual, fun couple e-sesh; Molly + Chad

Eeeeeeeek. < That was a squeal of delight, my friends. Why, you ask? Well not only is today my birthday (the big 2-5), but I also get to share an e-sesh that I love. And I don't just love it because the bride-to-be is one of my besties and I get to be in her wedding and wear a fun dress (more on that later) but because I really love these photos. One glance at them and you can tell exactly why I love this couple. They are fun, laid-back, and completely head-over-heels for each other and it just makes me smile. Let's get on with the pictures shall we? And I'll save the best part about this entire shoot until the end. Because I can.


Okay, are you ready to hear the awesomeness of this shoot? My dear, penny-pinching friend Molly (and I mean that in the kindest of ways) found their photographer on Groupon.

I'm not even pulling your leg. When she told me that (well before the shoot) my eyeballs grew to the size of ping pong balls and my mouth dropped to my knees. I said "Molly! You have got to get a REAL photographer! You will want to keep these photos forever and you cannot use some wannabe photographer from Groupon." But Molly stuck with it because it was a good deal and she figured she could always do a re-shoot if they came out horrid. And lucky for her because she walked away with some great photos, extra change in her pocket, and the joy that always comes from saving moula.

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Monday, June 20, 2011

Missing flowers and how to deal

Let me just say that helping friends and relatives coordinate their weddings has given me a lot of incite. Not only am I gaining hands on experience for my own wedding, but I'm also learning a lot about who they are with decisions they make. Women kind of become a different person when they become a bride. But that's not the point of this post; let's get to it.

If you follow me on twitter, which you obvs should, you would know that one of the weddings I helped coordinate ran into a tiny little speed bump. The flowers that were ordered in bulk online somehow got shipped to the wrong state. Ok, maybe that's more than a speed bump in the wedding world. I think it would be comparable to the Grand Canyon. The bride had ordered bulk flowers online that were to look abit-alike-athis:
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Right about now they are laying in a garbage can somewhere in Massachusetts instead of a vase in east central Indiana. I wonder about the confused look on the brides face when two completely different orders of flowers arrived for her. I don't have to wonder about the look of horror when my dear cousin/hair stylist Kim found out her flowers were in New Jersey on Thursday and Massachusetts on Friday, the day before her wedding. Don't worry, the online vendor refunded her money. As if that's really what a freaking-out bride wants to hear.

What is a girl to do when it's the day before the wedding and she has no flowers. Zero. Zilch. Nada. None. Do you get it? So she calls every florist in town. Unfortunately for her she had three big strikes: 1.  She needed them the next day. 2. It's the middle of wedding season. 3. Our town lost a hero of a firefighter last week and his funeral was the day of the wedding. What does this mean?

EVERY. FLORIST. BOOKED. yeah.

My suggestion: There are two places in our town that carry flowers other than florists and they are a farmers market about the size of my left foot (because my right foot is slightly smaller) and the grocery store. The flowers scrounged up ended up looking very nice. Three hot pink daises for each of the bridesmaids, a small but lovely white flower that I am remiss of the name for the boutonnieres, and white and pink tulips with large leaves for the bride. Not bad at all for thrown together flower story. 
My favorite part was the centerpieces but you will have to wait for the professional pictures to see those. Okay okay, I guess I'll share a little teaser. Twist my arm.


Let me just say, I'm not typically a huge fan of painted flowers. But the tables looked cute when they were finished and the fit the bride and grooms personality completely.

So that's the first hiccup I've been involved in. It just goes to show: something unexpected will go wrong. Never would I have anticipated the flower vendor would fall through. But things happen. You may have to purchase flowers from Main Street Market. It will not matter at the end of the day. You will still get married and you will still enjoy the night. And it will always be memorable.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

NEOCON11; a furniture roundup

You know how the Indy 500 has the tag line "The greatest spectacle in racing"? Well for some reason, every time I say "NeoCon" the little voice inside my head chimes in with 'the greatest spectacle in designing'. I really have no idea why, but I would say it's pretty correct.

I digress. Monday I had the joy (or pain if you ask my feet) of attending NeoCon at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. I did a horrid job of remembering to take photos and the photos I did take aren't so great. But here they are in their glory. Some items are new and some are just new to me.

 This is the Hon Ceres chair. A nice looking, affordable chair that has a cute sister side chair. Loved this so much I just specified 156 of them for the mega project.

 This chair is by Spec Furniture and I unfortunately do not know the name of it. Somewhere between the slap-wrist watches and iridescent tote bags they were handing out, I managed to forget the name. I do remember I loved it though because the mesh fabric was sooper-dooper soft and it felt so comfortable. Plus it was petite, which doesn't happen often in a task chair. This one has a coordinating side chair and stool.

 And just for fun, Spec made a table (their Cha Cha table) with a recycled money top. Oh yeah, dolla-dolla-bills yall; on yo table top. Old shredded money pressed and finished with a resin-like material. Kinda makes me depressed though.

 This sofa/lounge thingamabobber is by Gunlocke and I mostly loved it for the textured fabric.

 This is the Nucraft Arena. This pretty little baby has crispy clean open legs and a variety of panel options for the back. Nucraft was also smart and built in outlets so you can plug right into the seat. Smart, huh?

Ugh. Horrible photo, no doubt. Regardless, this was one of the COOLEST things I saw on Monday. Meet Steelcase's media:scape. A video conferencing solution that is ultra easy and going to be huge in the industry. It comes in four parts: tables, lounge seating, the video conference screens, and the connectivity between computer and screen.

Here is an image of the lounge with a table and screen for a different type of set-up available.

 
 Steelcase also had their new version of the Node chair. I love the look of this. Such a smart looking classroom chair.

Another awesomely designed chair from Steelcase: i2i. Ask me why it's named that! Actually, I'm not entirely sure but I made up a reason and it sounds darn good to me. The chair swivels in two ways and I don't mean two directions. I mean the seat pad itself can swivel and the back and arms can swivel the opposite way. Meaning it's a super fun chair. (Notice how I've used super a lot? It's because it was all super.) So you can swivel around and see eye to eye with the person next to you. Hence i2i. Whatever.

And lastly from Steelcase is Airtouch which is a pneumatic table with digital screen stating the table height. It moves smoothly and easily to reach a wide range of height options.


Couple Counselling, as inspired by HeyGorg

The future husbie and I are blessed to have great role models as far as relationships go. Which of course makes me anxious that ours is doomed. (Sidenote: If I were actually concerned I wouldn't be getting married. As you may remember, I like to be dramatic.) So, when HeyGorg posted this blog on a DIY counselling I immediately told FH that we needed to do this, starting right then.

Rhi's "team building exercise" consists of meeting weekly and hashing out goals for the next week, both individually and as a couple. Kyle and I did this last week and it worked pretty perfectly. His goal was to apply for three more teaching jobs (since it was his last week of school, it was hectic to add to the plate) and mine was to get my desk and one dresser packed and taken to the new place along with the empty dresser. We both succeeded. Our couple goal was to each plan a mini-date on different nights during the week. We only half succeeded in this, as my activity fell through. The time was still spent together though so maybe that's a 80% success.

This week Kyle's goal was to work out six consecutive days. Mine was to drink at least six glasses of water each day. So far, Kyle is right on schedule. I have failed miserably. But Kyle keeps pestering me about it today and I can proudly say I have managed to drink more than half of today's already. This weeks couple goal is to write a note to each other on a day we feel especially loving so that we can both receive a mushy love note the next time we meet to set goals.

Kyle thought it would be a good idea to make the goals compound; each week we do the same goal as last week and add a new one. We may try that for the individual side of the goals next week.

What do you do to keep your relationship fresh? Do you have any recommendations for our couple goal? We are open to advice and suggestions.

And now, a cute picture of us... because I can.
Sorry about the watermark. Haven't had a chance to purchase the downloads of our e-sesh yet. Hey, maybe a goal for next week?!

Friday, June 10, 2011

fridayyyyyy

Happy weekend. Sunday and Monday I will be tweeting from Chicago and NeoCon 2011. I will have images to share with you on Tuesday!


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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

One awesome e-sesh. Julia + Aram

 Bam.

Tell me that's not amazing. You can't? Figured as much. That's why I'm sharing it.

Meet Julia and Aram. These two are made for each other. I should know because I somehow managed to be cool enough to be their friends. Score! And today I'm delighted to share their stunning e-sesh. Newbie photographer Heather Smith managed to capture their playful spirits in the awesomeness that is the West Lafayette Celery Bog and the Purdue Horticulture Park.
( love this one ^ like whoa. )



Aren't they awesome? I just can't get over those huge twisted stick/hay/bales thingamabobbers. What do you think? Which is your favorite?

Before the Days of Pinterest

Sadly, I found these before the days of pinterest and I failed to document the source. If anyone should happen to know, I would love to credit them. {There's also a good chance I have blogged them before but I can't seem to find them.}


Monday, June 6, 2011

wedding colors

Number two question people ask when they find out I'm wedding planning (following "do you have a date set?") is...

"What are your colors?"

Now, I know that in a typical wedding a bride selects a pair of colors for her wedding decor and theme if you will. While that is all good and dandy for them, I have always had a different image in mind for my big day. So when people ask and I try to explain that my day will be soft and pastel but mostly neutral, I receive a half smile and glazed eye look. They don't understand. They want me to say "red and black" or "navy and pink" or "teal and purple (which sounds horrendous but could be pulled off)".

So I started searching for a color palette that describes my wedding day as best as possible. I came across one that is pretty spot on as far as color and texture. It's only missing a bit of rustic, but I'll save that for a surprise. Without further adieu...

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What do you think of my wedding color palette? Image it with lots of pretty pastel flowers and wood and iron. What are/were your wedding colors? If you could do it again, would you choose different colors?

Thursday, June 2, 2011

OBSESSION

Currently, I'm coveting the look of vintage and special edition stamps. Don't even try to argue that they're not awesome. Don't.



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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

BABIES! Get customized bedding

I found a new playground! Don't you love when you discover a new website that has one of those creative, do-it-yourself, mix-and-match type of curators. Boy I do! And it was no different when I came across Carousel designs.

{Now, don't start reading into this in any way. No, I'm not prego, no I'm not even thinking about it. Guys, get real: I'm way to selfish at this point in my life to think about putting someone else's needs first.}

In all seriousness though, this site is pretty awesome. You start out with a blank room and blank crib, then you customize to make the room look like your nursery. Next you can change the crib color and features of the bedding (add a ruffle at the top of the bumper, add trim to the skirt or make it pleated). There are tons of options.  Next you select your fabric palette. You can choose any fabric you want or have the color schemes narrow as you select certain fabrics- that way the colors match. Then you just drag and drop your fabrics to each section of the crib. If a fabric cannot be applied, a little notification box will pop up. Get it how you want it and make sure the four boxes are checked at the top. A price will be listed per item. You then can add it to your shopping cart or add it to a registry. Simple as that!

Here are some of the ones I did. Don't be afraid to play with bright colors and mix patterns. While it may seem expensive, keep in mind it's being custom made to your order, these are quality fabrics, and you can always use them for the next baby.

This one is gender neutral. The total price comes to $395.
Soft and sweet for a baby girl, this suite comes to $449.
Dark and cleanable for a rough little boy, $454.
My current favorite colors, this options comes to $459.