a home in the making

{inspired} by my blog friends

2012-02-01T09:42:00.000-08:00

Friends. My job opened its enormous jaws and swallowed me whole. Last Thursday. It finally spit me out late yesterday afternoon, but I'm still feeling a little dazed. The past five days (weekend included) have been a doozy. One of the things that got me through was sneaking peeks at YOUR BLOGS here and there when I needed a quick break.

While I'm pulling my wits back about me, I thought I'd share some of my favorite posts from the last week. You all are so creative, and I just LOVE visiting each of your blogs.

The living room board Holly put together for a friend is gorgeous. Love the pops of varying blues and a little yellow. So comfy. Visit: west pear avenue

This winter tablescape that Kirsten put together is to light and bright. You can never fail with hydrangeas. Visit: restored style

I'm always so inspired by vertical gardens, but seeing this one, and the step-by-step instructions, makes me think even I could build one! Visit: old house, new home

These photos of Switzerland inspire me to be a better photographer AND go back to Switzerland. Just gorgeous. Visit: kristatomic via nubby twiglet

Kat's new kitchen light has me drooling. So much industrial goodness. Actually, her whole kitchen has me drooling. You're gonna want to check it out. Visit: maple leaves, sycamore trees

Thanks for all the inspiration and for getting me through my really tough week. I hope you've found at least one new blog on the list to explore and be inspired by :).

{inspire} slow. down.

2012-01-28T08:21:00.000-08:00

A simple reminder for both me and you this weekend.

ignite light

Work has been more than a little crazy for the last couple days. The result? Slowing down my life a little to balance it all out. It works :).

Hope you all are having a great weekend, so far!

{inspired} creating your own style

2012-01-25T09:27:00.000-08:00

I had a weird epiphany this weekend. Chris and I were out running errands Saturday afternoon and we innocently stopped by a Pottery Barn. As I wandered around the gorgeously styled place setting, bedrooms and bathrooms, I had a weird feeling niggling at me. You know those feelings that you can't quite put your finger on? It didn't occur to me until later that the feeling was actually disappointment.

pottery barn

I've always loved Pottery Barn. I loved spending time in their stores. I loved receiving their catalogs, from which I would tear out page after page for my inspiration folder. A few years ago I would've been so happy if I could've decorated my entire house from that store.

pottery barn

But I sense something shifting in me. Walking through the Pottery Barn this weekend, I couldn't help feel that everything fell a little ... flat. Sure if I pick a piece of theirs up here and there I make it personal. I do have and LOVE these dishes. But gone are the days of my wanting to pick up an entire room of theirs and bring it home.

I blame this on blogs. But, not in a bad way. :) Reading blogs, writing my own blog, have really opened my eyes to so many different ways of creating a space. Now, when I need to put a room together I look in many, many places for inspiration and I choose what works best for me (and Chris :). I pick pieces that I love and try to stay away from my room looking like any other room. I choose pieces that I can transform and make into my own. As I continue to learn and refine my own personal style I realize that I am most comfortable in rooms that are a little quirky, a little traditional and a little fun.

I don't mean this to post to be down on Pottery Barn. Their items are gorgeous and I'm sure it would happen if I walked into any big chain store (well, maybe not you West Elm ;). I just hadn't realized this change that was occurring in me. It caught me a little off guard. I had really dove into looking at our style last year (here and here), but it's nice to have another piece of that puzzle fall into place.

Blog friends, what changes have you seen to your style since you started your blog? How do you feel about stores that encourage/inspire all rooms looking similar? I am very curious to see what you guys have to say about this! :)

{create} gallery wall, part deux

2012-01-23T09:46:00.000-08:00

A little insight to my family: My parent's are completely amazing. They are the type of parents that I hope I can be if/when we have a kiddo. One of my greatest memories growing up, and even now, is Christmas. My mom's favorite holiday, she spends an enormous amount of time picking gifts that she knows the recipient will LOVE. The thought and details she puts into making sure that everyone is happy (both via gifts and experiences) is truly outstanding.

My parents also happen to be impossible to buy gifts for. They are at that stage in life where if they want something, they buy it. So a few years ago I decided that I wanted to make sure my parents had as memorable a Christmas as they'd always given to us kids growing up. I teamed up with my younger brother, Jeff, to gift them experiences for Christmas. Concerts they would never buy tickets to, but would love, a tour of Oregon's wine country with their close friends, etc.

Why am I telling you all this? Because today I'm going to share what we gift them this year: a gallery wall. Not an experience, per se, but also not something they would ever create themselves.

They sort of unexpectedly moved out of the house they'd lived in for 30 years, a couple years ago. It's taken my mom a couple years to really get comfortable and start to decorate. The downstairs is gorgeous, but the upstairs walls are a little neglected. This is the view when you walk in the door. Because of the insane staircase, you automatically look up to see ... nothing.

Here's the wall. Jeff is a super amazing photographer, and every once in a while I get a good shot. So we decided to pull together some of our best photos of places that have meaning to my parents and create a gallery wall.

Here's how we went about doing that :

1. Creating a layout doesn't have to be as structured as I'm showing here. You can see how I created the layout for my own gallery wall here. It was way more casual. But, since this was a gift I wanted my parents to see what we had in mind for the wall right away. So I pulled all the photos into Adobe Illustrator, sized and scaled them to the wall measurements. I came up with three layout,s and Jeff and I picked one. The perk of this is we realized we were short one frame and were able to get a new picture framed without holding up the whole process. We also gave this layout to my parents after they'd opened all the frames so they could see what we were planning.

2. I think paper guides are a MUST DO for large gallery walls. Even though we had a very specific guide, we ended up making a couple minor changes once the guides were on the walls. Moving taped paper is so much easier than creating more nail holes.

3. Hang the frames. Here Jeff and Chris working hard, while I'm .... ~~managing~~ taking photos. HAHA!

This one was also a HUGE help ;)

4. Remove the paper guides from under the frames. And, you're done!

You can see that we mixed brown and black frames. All from IKEA. We tried to get the widest variety of IKEA frames to keep it from being too matchy-matchy.

Do you recognize the bridge sunset picture above? It's from our trip to Astoria last summer! My mom grew up there and my parents met there. I was so happy to captured such an awesome moment in that town to share with them.

And, here's the view now when you walk in the stairs. So. Much. Better. My parents LOVE it, which is the most important thing of all.

Have you ever created a gallery wall for someone else?? What unique gifts have you given someone in the past?

ps. If you'd like to take a look at my gallery wall, you find it here.

I am also linking up to:

{create} double-chocolate brownies

2012-01-20T10:08:00.000-08:00

Let's talk about brownies. Chocolate-y, gooey brownies. Do you fall in the fudgy brownie camp? Or, the cake-y brownie camp? I fall squarely into the fudgy brownie camp. And for the record, I don't like cake. So friends, the recipe I'm sharing with you? If you fall anywhere near fudgy, you're gonna want to make it this weekend.

If you've delved into our archives at all, you know that we're a gluten-free home. Chris has some pretty crazy food intolerances, so I'm always on the lookout for awesome recipes that will make him feel not as bad about the situation. And here's how I judge if a recipe is AWESOME: I serve it to our friends. Not only do I make this recipe all. the. time, but it's requested by our really picky, overly-opinionated friends. Which means, I NEEDED to share the love with you guys! :)

Yep, technically, they're paleo. Grain free. Please don't let that scare you. They are in no way *healthy,* and are so insanely awesomely yum.

Double-chocolate brownies

Adapted from Fly Through Our Window

Ingredients:

16 oz of almond butter, creamy or crunchy. We use Trader Joe's raw almond butter and it works really well.
2 eggs
1 cup honey or agave
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
5 ounces dark chocolate bar {I use 83% cocoa}, chopped, or chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix almond butter, eggs, & honey. Mixers work better than a whisk. Add in cocoa powder, salt, & baking soda. Fold in chopped dark chocolate/chips.
Spread into a greased 9×13 pan.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool before cutting.

Don't be fooled by the no flour and no white sugar. These brownies are DIVINE. And, so easy to whip up. These pictures make me want to eat a brownie for breakfast. Oh wait. I already did :).

Happy friday friends!

I'm linking this post up to:

{create} felt art

2012-01-18T10:47:00.000-08:00

Before Christmas, I created a small custom art piece for our mantle. I meant to post a how-to, but then never actually got around to it. But a couple people have asked and it has made the transition to our *winter* mantle, so today I'm going to show you how to make felt trees.

It's really simple. Felt. White artist canvas. I got the idea from here. And, I kept the trees neutral, hoping this simple this piece of art would transition nicely from *Christmas* to *winter*. It does.

Here's how you can create your own:

Supplies: Felt, of any color cut into triangles (2 per tree) and a stump. Thread, of a coordinating color and stuffing. 1. Put the two triangles together and straight stitch* down one side. 2. Round the corner to the bottom and put the stump in place. Stitch over to secure. 3. Stitch up the third side until almost to the top. 4. Fill with stuffing and then stitch up the rest.

Using hot glue, glue the trees onto an artist's canvas into any configuration you'd like. I chose striped rows to keep it more modern looking, rather than *cute* looking.

*Straight stitch. Below are directions on how to sew a straight stitch. Please skip if you already know how. But, I once didn't know how, and so I know there are some of you that don't know how either. It's really easy though, and worth giving a try.

1. Thread the needle from behind, with enough space to create the stitch length you'd like. 2. Bring the needle back toward the last stitch. 3. Pull through the fabric to create a stitch. 4. Repeat. At first it will feel like you're working backward, but it produces a great, easy stitch. It also helps me keep the line straight. 5. What the back will look like.

The great thing about this project is that you can create any shape for any space. I can see cute stitched flowers in a nursery. Have fun and be creative!

Do you have Christmas decorations that make the leap to winter?

If you're looking for more great crafty diy projects, visit our project gallery here.
I'm linking this post up to Serenity Now's weekend reads. So. much. good. stuff friends. Go check it out! :) And, also linking up to Along for the Ride's weekend craft link.

ALSO, linking up here:

{inspired} simplicity

2012-01-16T15:08:00.000-08:00

Last week I shared about how I was having trouble kick-starting this year. This weekend, the reason WHY I'm struggling hit me.

Last year, I was inspired in a big way to get cleaned out and organized right after Christmas. I also took a very close look at my style, and the direction we're headed for our house. (You can read about all that good stuff here.) But this year, we don't really have a lot to clean out and I'm still on board with the conclusions we drew last year about our style.

Yesterday we FINALLY put away all our Christmas decor (I know, I know). We put away all our Christmas stuff, but haven't yet brought our regular decor back in and I felt this huge rush of calm. This feeling that I could actually breath again. Our living room is completely emptied of *stuff*, and I just want be there and revel in the calm.

My motto, at least for now, has quickly become:

What does this mean? Friends, I'm not even all that sure. But I know for now it means that I'm going to very carefully choose what I bring back into this room. And it definitely means it'll be a little minimalist for awhile. I think in the bigger picture though, it ties back to my resolution of getting healthy. In a way I can't quite put my finger on, I feel like simplicity and healing go hand in hand.

**all photos are taken of my bare-bones, simple living room. Aaaaahhhh. So much room to breath. :)

Today I leave you with these incredibly wise words:

"Simple living is about living deliberately. Simple living is not about austerity, or frugality, or income level. It's about being fully aware of why you are living your particular life, and knowing that life is one you have chosen thoughtfully. Simple living is about designing our lives to coincide with our ideals."
-- Janet Luhrs from The Simple Living Guide via Operation Simplicity

{inspired} Focusing on 2012

2012-01-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

I'm having a hard time kick-starting this year. Usually I come off the holidays with a list and a ton of energy to just get things done. Not this year. I was inspired to create a list of home goals from a couple of my bloggy friends. I have my resolutions, but I think I need concrete tasks for the house. Tasks that will focus me and help me start planning our bigger projects.

My biggest obstacle is that the projects on our list are HUGE. Like, gutting rooms HUGE. So they're a little intimidating. But if I've learned nothing from this blog, it's that if you take projects one step at a time they become both manageable, and finished.

2012 Home Goals

Kitchen

Install new counter top
Tear up linoleum (BOTH layers) and refinish hardwoods
Build a kitchen island
Install a dishwasher

Back Porch

Refinish chairs
Paint floor

Bathroom: gut.

Install new non-wood window
Tear out everything
Tile floor
Tile shower
Paint

Craft room

Find a suitable organizing system
Finish decorating

Are we crazy for thinking that we can tackle a kitchen AND a bathroom in one year? Maybe. Probably. So we'll see how that goes. We need to decide which is more important (bathroom) and which will be easier/less intrusive to our life (kitchen). Sigh.

What's the #1 thing you like to accomplish in your home this year?

I'm linking up to Nester's 2012 Home Goals party.

{inspired} painting interior doors

2012-01-10T13:29:00.000-08:00

I have the urge to paint. Specifically, an interior door. Even more specifically, our front door, the one that opens up to our living room.

Top, the front door. Let's not even talk about the hardware. It's on *the list*. Bottom. You can see the door in comparison to the gallery wall. This will be important below.

Clearly we've done this before. I love the pop of color on our back door, but am hesitatant for a pop on the front door. Besides the fact that it's easy to be wild and crazy with color in a spot that is NOT a focal point, my main concern about a pop of color on the front door is the door's proximity to the gallery wall (see above). I don't want our living room looking like a circus.

Yet, I still think the door, as-is is snooze-ville. Let's look at some interior painted door ideas, shall we?

Pop of color.

One of my favorite doors of all time. I originally posted it here. Love it. But, probably better in a room that is more mellow than my living room.

Black doors.

thrifty decor chick

Black interior doors are gorgeous. And, incredibly in style right now. But, maybe too much black in that back corner with the door, black gallery wall frames and black dresser?

One shade darker.

apartment therapy

This is more the direction I am thinking. Painting the door one to two shades darker than the wall color. Adds a little interest, but not so much overwhelming *wow*.

Same color.

how do i love thee style

This one also caught my attention. I like the simplicity of painting the door the same color as the wall. This door is beautiful, without having to scream it.

What do you guys think about painted interior doors? Have you done it in your home? What are your thoughts on a pop of color vs blending it in with the wall?

{inspire} winter color palettes

2012-01-06T11:29:00.000-08:00

Fact: there are very few times of year that I shop more than at after Christmas sales. Every year I tell myself to not even bother looking, but then every year I happen to catch wind of one amazing sale and it's all down hill from there. From that vein, I thought it was time again** to pull together a couple of my current favorite color palettes, for both you and your home (!), to get through the rest of winter and into spring.

Palette #1

Neutrals, especially gray, with a pop of color are my work uniform. I love this shade of plum. I think the whole look translates to a room that is light, airy and doesn't take itself too seriously.

Anthro skirt JCrew sweater

forever lovely

Palette #2

To me, this palette is a touch of 70s and a touch of modern. I love it. You all know that I LOVE yellow in rooms and I think the shades of brown really ground it.

Ruche dress

deedee914

**A word about color palettes: For each season I pull together a color palette that translates to both your room and your home. For previous posts see: fall color palettes, summer color palettes, and spring color palettes.

What is your favorite look of the two? What colors, for both rooms and clothes, are you loving right now?

Happy friday friends!

{create} a happy new year!

2011-12-30T14:47:00.000-08:00

Friends, where did this year go??

Just wanted to wish you all a very Happy New YEAR! :) See back here in 2012.

What are you plans for New Years Eve? Any fun traditions? Do you stay up till midnight? Am I old for even asking that? Okay don't answer that! We are having QUIET new years eve this year .... I'm so excited! :)

{create} new years resolutions

2011-12-28T19:52:00.001-08:00

Does anyone else find it a little hard to pick up where you left off after the holidays? How was your NYE? Our weekend was so amazing! It was incredibly hard to come back to work - and real life - yesterday :).

Let's talk about new year resolutions. Do you make them? I used to make a long list of everything I wanted to do/change in a year, and then I'd promptly forget about it around February. Not the point, right? But I'm a believer not only setting goals, but publicly declaring them. It keeps me more accountable. So last year I set only two resolutions: to be more spontaneous and to take risks. It was the perfect number. I remembered them. I thought of them when situations arose. And, I feel like I achieved them. I took a couple big risks that were WAY out of my comfort zone. And, I was a little more spontaneous. In all honesty, I am still working on this, but I made good headway last year. Baby steps, right? :)

So this year I have two new resolutions.

1. Take better photos

I'm excited about this resolution. I absolutely love and am so inspired by the images people create. I want to learn to not only capture a scene, but to capture a feeling.

2. Get healthy

MursBlanc

This one I'm not as excited about, but I am determined. I have trouble talking about this, so I usually don't. I have this crazy type A personality that hates to admit that I might not be able to handle somethings. I've been diagnosed (a couple times) with pretty severe Adrenal Fatigue, aka burnout. Basically I'm exhausted all the time, and my body just needs time to heal. I've been working through it for about three years and was doing really well earlier this year. Since I was feeling so awesome, I climbed a mountain and walked a marathon within a month of each other. Friends, that was a bad idea. The last couple months have seen me almost back to square one. Really disappointing.

What I've failed to realize is I am a huge part of the solution - sounds like an after school special, right? I have to take things easy for awhile. I have to say no sometimes. I can't take it all on. This is where my type A crazy personality kicks in. It occurred to me, though, that if I'd taken the diagnosis seriously three years ago, I would be fine now. Instead I'm still frustrated and .... exhausted! So this is the year that I'm taking back my health. I can't live the life I imagine if I'm being pulled down by my health. It might be a slower year, but my hopes are that it will be a year filled with things that nourish me and make me happy. And, who knows. Maybe I'll love a little slower pace of life?

What are your resolutions for the year? Do you like to set lots of goals, or keep it simple? Do you follow through on your resolutions?

{2011} A Home in the Making

2011-12-28T09:50:00.000-08:00

Did you all have a great Christmas? We had such a lovely holiday. It was filled with family and so much love and fun. Over the next couple weeks I'll share some of the gifts we received + one of the gifts we gave. You'll love it :).

But today we're going to take a look back at the year we've had at A Home in the Making. We've had this little blog going for over THREE years. Can you believe that? And, it just keeps getting better each year. I like looking back on the year because it's fun to remind myself all we've accomplished on our little home.

So here are my favorites, by month.

January

Was all about organizing. The kitchen, the basement. And taking a look at our decorating style.

February

In the midst of a couple major projects, we found a compass. On our floor.

March

Was a big month. We revealed our back bedroom makeover, our new hardwood floors, and posted a tutorial about refinishing your own hardwoods.

April

We revealed our back entry.

May

We finished up our hardwoods by installing quarter-round. And, we talked about why we are NOT moving. Right now.

June

Was a month of risks, and of starting the {yet to be finished} craft room.

July

Launched the summer of fun series that took me on a crazy whirl-wind tour of the NW and lasted through September.

August

Included creating a capiz pendant and learning many lessons from painting a high-gloss ~~black~~ navy blue door.

September

Was all about our new gallery wall and a variety of living room updates.

October

We showed you a peek into our wedding and created wall stripes in our hallway (!).

November

We showed you how to create glam gold vases and we hosted our first Thanksgiving.

December

Was all about the holidays. Of course.

I think what I love most about the last year is how many big house projects we tackled. Especially compared to last year. I feel like we really made a dent in our house project list.

I'm linking up to Southern Hospitality's link party. I can't wait to read everyone's lists! :)

{inspired} holiday traditions

2011-12-21T12:15:00.000-08:00

When I hosted a the little Anthro gift card giveaway a couple weeks ago I threw out a pretty arbitrary question: tell me your favorite holiday tradition. Friends, you blew me away. You have so many unique and amazing traditions! You also blew away each other ... so many comments included excitement about the various ideas and about sharing traditions with others. Thank you all for sharing :).

meadow brook blog

It got me thinking about my favorite holiday tradition. I think I have two: one quirky and one more traditional. Quirky: as an entire family (even though my brother and I are both adults) we pick out a Christmas tree, at a Christmas tree farm. In October. It has a lot to do with my mom not liking to pick out Christmas trees in the cold, wet December weather. I love it :). And, it spreads the Christmas cheer out a little. Traditional: the weekend before Christmas we go to a Christmas piano concert at a beautiful old church in Portland. We have a nice family dinner out beforehand, and then we listen to beautiful music in a completely inspiring venue. It's a tradition I treasure and hope we do for a very long time.

forever is a lie

Below are a few of my favorites from that post. If you haven't had a chance to read them all, there are 40+ amazing and inspiring traditions here.

My favorite holiday tradition is taking a family photo in front of our tree each year. Since it is just my husband, me and our dog (and our fake tree) the photos don't change a whole lot and yet looking back at them I remember all the different places we've lived and what was going on in our lives. - Tovah Fair Winds, Following Seas

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My favourite holiday tradition is to have an airing of grievances with my siblings! We get together, celebrate Christmas, tell each other 'grievances' we have with each other over the last year, get it out and adore each other for the rest of the holidays!- Meagan from Row House Nest

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My favorite christmas tradition is a new one (this is our second year). Matt and I have a cocktail party 'open house' on Christmas Eve and both sides of our family come. It's nice to have one part of the holiday season where we don't feel torn between two families. We break out the catch phrase or cards and try to do something inclusive for everyone. - Erin from House of Earnest

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My favorite tradition is the Christmas Eve Swedish Smorgasbord we do in our family. We have tweaked and Americanized the offerings a bit and even my kids list this as their most memorable tradition! - Cathy from Room Rx

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My favorite tradition just started last year..my 4 + 5 years olds each get a little christmas tree in their rooms. On the weekends when we visit stores to do our holiday shopping they each pick out ornaments for their tree's.. they are sure filling up this year! And they remember where they came from, who we may have been visiting ( grams )so it's alot of fun for them! - Sarah from Flourish Design and Style

creature comforts blog

And, on that note, I hope you all have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS filled with love and family and friends! I'll be back next week with some year end wrap up posts :).

{holiday} decorations!

2011-12-19T11:36:00.000-08:00

Are you all ready for Christmas? I had a weekend FULL of decorating and shopping, and I finally feel ready to relax a little and enjoy the holiday. Since I did {finally} finish decorating, I snapped a few peeks into our holiday festive-ness.

I did actually change up the mantle a little. It's how we roll around here :). You can see the first round of the mantle here.

I'm excited that I managed to decorate within the color scheme I originally laid out. I like the addition of a little blue, so the Christmas decor doesn't look quite so out of place in my very blue living room.

The next couple days will be filled with listening to Christmas music and wrapping presents by the tree. I can't wait. :) Are you guys finished decorating? How's your shopping going? Anyone out there see themselves in stores on Christmas eve? :)

** I am linking up with Cottage and Vines house tour party :)

{inspired} new artists + a winner (!)

2011-12-16T07:31:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my Monday's Portland Bazaar post, I actually got to attend TWO awesome craft/artisan fairs last weekend. The other was Crafty Wonderland. I posted about it last year, so this year I decided to share with you some of the awesome artists I *discovered*. These were my favorite from the event, and I hope you find someone you love out of the group too!

Girls Can Tell

Actually dissect things via art. I was super impressed with this clever concept and love seeing everything from unicorns to the brain to vintage noise makers dissected and labeled.

Slide Sideways

Slide Sideways creates quirky awesome posters. You all know how much I love those :).

Dan Stiles

A local artist/graphic designer that does amazing show posters. The poster above is one of the only things we bought at the show this year. Oh, and in case you're wondering why this looks nothing like my usual style? Sometimes marriage is a compromise :).

Appetite

This shop stole my heart. The fabrics she uses are amazing and I immediately added her bags and pillows to my with list.

And now, for the giveaway winner!

THANK YOU to all who entered! I had such a fun time reading about your holiday traditions, and I loved to see other people both enjoying reading them and getting ideas for their families :).

We had 41 people enter, and random.org chose #7.

#7 is Sarah, from Flourish, Design and Style.

Sarah's favorite tradition is :

How sweet of you! My favorite tradition just started last year..my 4 + 5 years olds each get a little christmas tree in their rooms. On the weekends when we visit stores to do our holiday shopping they each pick out ornaments for their tree's.. they are sure filling up this year! And they remember where they came from, who we may have been visiting ( grams )so it's alot of fun for them! x Sarah

Congratulations Sarah! And, thank you again to all who not only entered, but read this blog. You guys are the best :).

Have a great weekend!

{holiday} tree!

2011-12-14T14:47:00.001-08:00

A little blog business before we begin! Don't forget to enter the Anthro gift card giveaway. I'll be announcing the recipient first thing Friday morning :).

Now, want to see our tree?

I'm here to show you, but first, a couple disclaimers.

I have no idea how to take pictures of trees. For some reason, every year I'm at a loss.
After I took this photos and brought them to work to upload, I realized that I don't actually have our tree topper in place. This, sadly, is indicative of how this season is going.

So, with that intro, do you still want to see our tree? :)

Ta-da! We kept the tree SUPER simple this year. We usually fill it with ornaments from each of our pasts, but this year, to keep with the rustic glam theme, we simply adorned it with a couple of garlands, red and white balls and gold balls.

To compliment the book snowflakes, I made a paper chain garland out of books. It ties the mantle in nicely with the tree.

Making an appearance again this year is the red felt circle garland I made for last year's tree.

Overall, I can't decide. Chris LOVES the simple, more rustic tree. The sentimental side of me really misses the rest of our ornaments. A few might just make their way onto the tree before all is said and done :).

What do you guys think about tree decor? Do you keep it simple? Do you fill the tree with years and years of memories? Do you theme your tree each year?

I am linking up with the Tree Party at Thrifty Decor Chick. You better believe I'll be pinning lots of these beautiful trees simply for inspiration and instruction on how to take tree photos!

{inspired} Portland Bazaar

2011-12-11T13:50:00.001-08:00

Almost weekly, I'm reminded why living in Portland is so amazing. But I felt down right lucky this weekend when got to visit not one, but TWO amazing artisan fair/markets. Both Crafty Wonderland and Design Sponge's Portland Bazaar were held this weekend. I know that Portland is a city full of amazing artists and artisans, but to see them all in one place really is a special, friends. There was so much creativity at each event, and Chris and I were just buzzing with excitement and inspiration when we left.

Since most of you have read about the Portland Bazaar over the last couple weeks, I thought I'd start with a recap, and my favorite finds.

I think what I liked best about the bazaar is it felt incredibly well curated. It wasn't huge, but the vendors were AMAZING. Truly. I found a few new favorite artists/stores.

First up, the handbags at xobruno are absolutely to die for. I'm still trying to justify the dauphine:

They had it in grey wool and brown leather at the show this weekend and it was gorgeous. I'm crossing my fingers for Christmas someone (ahem, Chris) will take the million hints I was dropping :).

I've seen photos of Caravan Pacific's lights online (and they AMAZING), but they don't even come close to comparing with how gorgeous they are in person.

There's also a photo below of them all lit up.

I also discovered hjolisland's lovely illustrations.

You all know how much I love Portland represented in art, and this poster just stole my heart.

I also had my iphone on hand to capture a few photos of the event itself, just in case you all were curious. There were so many people, which I hope means the vendors had amazing sales, and there will be many more of these in the future :)

{inspired} gift guide and a giveaway!

2011-12-06T12:16:00.003-08:00

What are you guys wishing for for Christmas? I feel like the older I get, and the more I appreciate what this time of year is TRULY about, the harder it is to make a *Christmas list*. And when it comes right down to it, I would way rather give gifts than receive. Do you guys know what I mean?

Of course, that doesn't actually stop my family from demanding to know what I want for Christmas. It's sweet because they want me to be happy with my gifts. So I did put a little thought into what I'd like. Want to see what I asked for? And, make sure you scroll down to win a little holiday treat for yourselves :).

Top row: Purse, Storage Bins; Middle row: Portland Print (to add to the gallery wall), Schoolroom clock, Graphic Clutch; Bottom row: Black rimmed dishes, Camera bag (I know, so many bags! But, I'm sure you all know, they're a necessity :)

And, that brings me to you guys! One of the things I'm most thankful for this season is YOU. My awesome readers. Thank you for hanging in there with me each week as Chris and I navigate the fun, but sometimes scary and slow, process of turning our house into a home.

I don't really do give-aways here. But I did a give away last December and loved it. So, in the spirit of the season, and to THANK YOU (!) all for the amazing year, I have a little gift to give away: a $50 gift card to Anthropologie*. That way, you can buy yourself a little something sweet this season :).

So, the rules:

What: A $50 Giftcard to Anthropologie

How to enter: Please leave a comment on this post and your email info, and let me know: What is your favorite holiday tradition? OR what is the #1 item on your wishlist. To double your chances, blog or tweet about this giveaway and leave a second comment.

When: I will announce a winner next Friday, the 16th.

Have a great weekend friends!

*Anthropologie has NO idea who I am and is not sponsoring this post. I'm just doing this because I like you all!

{holiday} mantle

2011-12-06T12:16:00.001-08:00

Whereas my everyday decor is more on the restrained side, I tend to go a little crazy at Christmas. I can't help it. There are GREENS! And SPARKLES! And, how am I suppose to restrain myself. While I'm no where near done, I did pull together my mantle.

As I said last week, I wanted to keep my decor more on the neutral side. So, I kept the mantle to doses of green neutrals, with pops of gold and red. The only color not in my original color scheme is blue, but I have an idea on how to incorporate that, and I'll update you all when I do :).

A sneak peek of our tree in the mirror!

Here are a few of the book snowflakes I posted about on Monday.

And a few close-ups.

The garland on the fireplace is a mixture of the felt garland I made last year, and a simple twine rope.

And, just for fun, the whole thing lit up in the evening.

I'm linking up to the holiday home link party and Ten June's mantle party. Make sure and pop over to see everyone's gorgeous mantles! :)

{create} book snowflakes

2011-12-05T10:42:00.001-08:00

A couple weekends ago, Chris and I fled to the coast to relax before the upcoming holiday craziness began. We don't have cable at home, but our beach house does have cable. So while we're there, we catch up on as much HGTV as possible. That weekend, Emily Henderson's holiday special was airing. And friends, it was amazing. So, so, so inspiring. I think it's coming on again soon, so make sure to catch it if you can.

One of the crafts she made for the episode was flowers/snowflakes out of old books. I LOVE them. They're so very Anthropologie-ish. I went online to see how she did it, but I couldn't find a tutorial - or even photos - anywhere. I wanted to incorporate them into our holiday/winter decor, so I set about recreating them this weekend. And took pictures, just in case you all are interested in creating a few. :)

Gather up a few old books. I actually went to Goodwill and bought a few random, super cheap books. I apologize to any Koontz fans out there ... I'm sure his books are amazing. But, I prefer them in flower form :).

Then you do the unthinkable ... you break the spine. Gasp! In a couple different places. You need the spine to easily form a circle.

Sorry about the totally creepy finger photo! Ugh!

Then gather up a bunch of pages to form the first *petal*, and fold them into the book. Play around with the amount ... it will totally depend on how thick you want your petals. If you gather too many, it'll be harder to glue. Add a couple spots of hot glue to the page where you're folding into.

Keep moving through the book, folding pages inward and gluing until you have a flower!

The one part that tripped me up with the cover. I recommend removing it before you get started. Or, when you get to having only the cover left, cut the pages way down and glue together.

Which will look like this.

Once you have a bunch made, they look really beautiful in a grouping. Clearly, they look more like flowers, but Chris keeps calling them snowflakes, which is adorable. And fitting for this time of year! So, that is how you make holiday snowflakes.

And, here is how they look in our decor. See more of them here.

Did you make any holiday crafts this weekend? Have you ever destroyed a book in the name of crafting and decor? I felt a little weird doing it, but I love how they turned out :).

Update 12/12: I'm linking this post up at Centsational Girl's holiday craft party. Pop over to check out all the amazing crafts!

{inspired} school house electric

2011-12-02T06:27:00.001-08:00

Do you know School House Electric and Supply Co.? They make the coolest lights I've ever seen and they recently bought a huge, old, gorgeous warehouse in Portland to create a factory and showroom for their new line of furniture and home goods.

Last night Chris and I stopped by their holiday open house after work. It was so fun to see all their new products in person! I took a bunch of {iphone} photos of my favorites.

This bed. OMG. Love. I also really love the mirror hanging above it.

These dishes. Chris loves them too, which maybe means ..... ? The black accents are beautiful, and they'd be a great compliment to our current dishes. Does it sound like I'm trying to justify them? Because I am :).

How amazing is this blanket? The pattern, oh my goodness! It's also really super soft.

I would love to only have schoolhouse lights in my house. Maybe next house? This one in particular though, I would install on each side of our bed. Beautiful.

We also both really like this vintage school clock. It's HUGE. But comes in such fun colors and would be an awesome statement piece in one of our small rooms.

I also took some photos of vignettes and the party. It was super fun. Lots of people, food and drinks. And just enough holiday decor to feel festive, with out being in-your-face Christmas.

Have you guys ever heard of School House Electric? Have you ever bought one of their lights? If so, which one ... I need to live vicariously through you :).

Have a great weekend friends!

{inspired} decorating for Christmas

2011-11-30T11:57:00.001-08:00

So, am I the ONLY one in blog land who hasn't even begun decorating for Christmas? :)

We don't even pull the decorations out until this week. I never realized just how much I compartmentalize my holidays until I became a blogger. I have no Christmas creativity until AFTER Thanksgiving. So, this week I've been thinking a lot about how I'll decorate this weekend. I usually go for lots of red, white and greens. Traditional Christmas colors. But this year I want to do things a little different.

Here's the color scheme I've worked up:

Wood grains, turquoise, greens, white, gold (yes, that's gold? I have NO idea how to make gold in photoshop. Obviously ;), and a hint of red accents.

I'm going to be working a lot with what I already have and making the rest. I see a weekend full of crafting/decorating. And maybe a little shopping on the side ;).

Here are some of the images/items that have been inspiring my Christmas scheme so far.

somewhere splendid

once wed

emily henderson

cottage and vine

Are you all done with your decorating? How will you be decorating for the holidays this year? Taking any color risks?

{create} 10 Great Holiday Crafts

2011-11-25T09:14:00.000-08:00

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

I don't know about you, but the weekend after Thanksgiving is when I let myself start thinking about Christmas: how I'll decorate, gifts I'll purchase, and of course, what crafts I'll create!

Below are 10 holiday diy projects that I LOVE. Some of these I want to make, some I have already made :). But, I hope they give you a little inspiration to create something special this holiday season.

Yarn Wreath

a home in the making

Felt Ball Wreath

west elm

Not a tutorial. I know. But, I REALLY want to figure out how to make it.

Felt Flower Wreath

a home in the making

Felt Garland

purl bee

Glitter Candle Holders

martha stewart

Felt Trees

purl bee

Popsicle Stick Wreath

kid spot

Sparkly Gift Tags

a home in the making

Snow Globes

a pretty cool life

Cork Wreath

centsational girl

Great for Christmas cards! :)

Now, to decide what to make this weekend .....

{create} a backdrop for the thanksgiving feast

2011-11-23T08:49:00.001-08:00

Are you all ready for Thanksgiving? My turkey is busy brining away in the fridge. I didn't even know what brining was until last week. We'll be doing a lot of food prep tonight, but I am excited that my table is all set and ready to go! Priorities, right? :)

The blue background for the color scheme is a little untraditional, but I LOVE the way it looks with orange and gold. I think the light blue napkins help tie it all together. It's part rustic (berries, dried leaves, woven napkin rings) and part glam (gold, gold, gold). I really like the combo.

As you can probably tell, our table is TINY. There was a LOT of editing happening here. On a table this small, there is a fine line between making the table look festive and making it completely unusable.

Some details: besides painting vases this weekend, I also painted pumpkins! Above is a Charlie Brown sweater chevron pumpkin.

And on the other side of the table are are a couple gold pumpkins with a fancy herringbone pumpkin.

For the place settings, we're using our everyday dishes, which are these from Pottery Barn. I wanted to add a little substance to the setting, but we don't have chargers, so I added our wood grain melamine plates to serve as chargers. I love just the little bit of brown peeking out. The blue napkins and the napkin rings are both from Pottery Barn, but they're a few years old. The orange berries really pop against the light blue, and tie the place settings into the middle arrangements.

For name cards I simply pressed a few leaves and then spray painted them glossy white. It worked okay. I like the way it looks in context of the table, but it was really hard to write on the leaves.

Here's how it'll look in the evening .... since we'll probably be eating in the dark.

I LOVE how the candles make all the gold sparkle. So lovely.

And just in case you were worried that the other vases didn't get used on the table ....

Don't. They found a home on the mantle with extra flowers and an extra gourd. This is a first .... our mantle decorated for a holiday other than Christmas!

I hope it doesn't get used to it :).

I hope you all have an AMAZING holiday! One of the things I am most thankful for this year is all of you. Thank you for always being so encouraging and delightful. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

{create} glam gold vases

2011-11-21T07:15:00.001-08:00

I went a little crazy with gold paint this weekend friends. It was glorious. :) Today I'm sharing one of the projects that was the recipient of the gold paint...

Gold vases!

Do you guys save bottles? I have this crazy kombucha addiction and for some reason I always save the bottles. We have quite a collection :). In fact, many were used earlier this year for my chalkboard vases. I pulled them out this weekend to add a little glam to our thanksgiving decor.

(ps. Sorry about the picture quality in this post .... they are all iphone photos. My camera went in for a much needed pre-holiday cleaning :)

Start with a clean, dry glass bottle.

Tape your design. You can see the striped vase in the background. For the gold squares, I taped the entire bottle, and then cut the shapes with a steak knife. I'm sure that was great for the knife. If you try this at home, use a blade :).

Peel off your cutouts and then make sure the tape is secure around the shapes edges.

For the white inside, pour in a little oil-based primer or paint. I used oil-base because I want to put water in the vase after it's dry. And, I've learned from experience that water-base paint will come off in water :).

(Do you see how sunny and bright out it was yesterday! Beautiful!)

Swirl the paint around in the bottle until the whole inside is coated. Pour out the remaining paint.

Last, spray the entire bottle with gold spray paint. After the paint is dry, carefully peel off the tape.

On the brown bottles, I free-handed designs with a gold paint pen that was leftover from my mirror project.

Unfortunately, the inside paint wasn't completely dry this morning, so I don't have any fully-styled pics for you. Come back Wednesday though, to see my fully styled, glam thanksgiving table.

I am completely loving gold right now, and I'm am so excited for the little bit of glam these will bring to the table, but also to our home year round. Of course these will find a way into my Christmas decor too :).

{inspired} festive table settings

2011-11-16T08:52:00.001-08:00

It turns out that I'm going to be hosting Thanksgiving this year! We usually spend the holiday with one of our families, but we decided this year to host a couple friends in our itty-bitty house. And, we're so excited! Since the decision was made this week though, I have a lot of planning to do!

First up, I've been looking at table decor. My favorite part :). Remember, that we we have a wee farm table, which means not a lot of space to work with. But I've gathered up images that are both beautiful, and could work on a smaller space table.

jenny steffens

style at home

layla grayce

studio ten 25

lauren leonard interiors

by stephanie lynn

The theme running through all these photos is neutral + non-traditional colors. A blue thanksgiving? Lovely. I know for the most part I'll be working with what I have on hand, and what I have on hand it not really geared towards thanksgiving. But you can be assured that no matter what I end up doing, I'll share the result with you all. :)

What table setting is your favorite? Have you ever hosted Thanksgiving? How do you decorate your table?

{inspired} Mood Board Monday: dinnerware

2011-11-14T10:30:00.001-08:00

Happy Monday friends!

Today is an extra special monday because it's .... Moodboard Monday again! Moodboard Monday is a monthly event hosted by the lovely Sarah of Pewter and Sage. Each month Sarah teams up with another blogger to pick the theme for the moodboard. This month's theme is dinnerware, and how it fits into a dining room. Sarah gave us four different, all beautiful, dinnerware sets to choose from. I chose to design a dining room around David Stark Wood Slices. I just love the gold, it's so perfect for this time of year.

For this board, I set out to create a room that is a a little moody, a little rustic and a little refined. I set out to pull in some darker wood tones and offset them with a lovely khaki green, gold highlights and a pop of light blue to keep the room from being too serious.

The wall color would be a deep blue grey, Divine Almond from Miller Paint. Accent colors are khaki green, gold and dark wood.
The Oslo sideboard is a perfect deep toned, but still modern, spot to serve food, hold accessories, etc.
Above the sideboard is a lovely dining scene by Janet Hill Studio. I chose it for the lovely blues, yellow and pinks, but also because regardless of the lovely colors, it manages to still come across a bit moody.
I would pair the woodcut dishes with rustic chargers, to keep them from looking too fancy, and striped blue napkins to add a dash of color and texture. A blue serving tray rounds out the color and adds a serving functionality.
The dining table is the classic West Elm Parson's Table. Simple, beautiful and again, wood-toned. The Crate and Barrel side chairs bring in the khaki green color and are streamlined, yet still comfortable. The Anthropologie end chairs are just plain gorgeous :). A neutral patterned rug ties the dining space together and adds a dose of texture.
A fun, funky light fixture hangs above the table and keeps the space from being too formal.
Light, airy curtains balance out the bolder, darker, colors, texture and fabrics.
Gold chevron diy artwork hangs on the opposite wall from the buffet.

Last night I was very ready to give up. Mood boards are not easy for me, but I'm glad I kept working at it. I really love how this room came together and it makes me really wish I had a dining room in my house!

Make sure you hop over to Sarah's blog and check out the other mood boards. They're all GORGEOUS!

{inspired} quilts of Gee's Bend

2011-11-08T11:43:00.000-08:00

I have quilts on my brain. Again. Probably because it's turning cold - super cold - here. But, most likely because I haven't sewn in months and I'm itching to sew something. Anything. But, preferably a quilt :).

auburn

I lived in Boston for a couple years, for school. When I was offered a job in Portland, I had to make the decision to move pretty fast. I had just a couple weeks to cram in as much of Boston as I could. One sweltering July day I took myself to Boston's Museum of Fine Art. Mostly because there was air conditioning :), but also because I actually love art museums. I don't love the weekends crowds; having to stand in line to get in and trying to shove your way through a crowd to see a painting. But, I was an art minor in college for awhile and there's just something incredibly inspiring about wandering through exhibits of amazing art. I highly recommend a quiet weekday afternoon stroll through a museum. That day happened to be my lucky day because the museum's featured exhibit was the Quilts of Gee's Bend.

auburn

Friends have you heard of these quilts? Since that fateful July day, I haven't been able to shake the beautiful quilt designs or the amazing story behind the quilt makers.

Gee's Bend is a small rural community in Alabama that was formed by freed slaves just after the Civil War. Read: poor. For the woman of the community, making quilts were necessary to keep their families warm in their unheated, primitive homes.

auburn

They created more than just cozy quilts to keep warm though. They unintentionally created works of art. Woman would piece together scraps of whatever fabric they had on hand: clothes, old linens, etc. They free-form quilted by hand, and what emerged was a quilting style that was highly improvisational, especially when compared to the more strict, tight-lined European style quilts. The Quilts of Gee's Bend look like modern abstract paintings.

google

Today, the original quilts tour art museums. And photos do not do them justice. I spent hours looking at them that day in Boston. The part I love best about this story, though, is in 2003 50 women of Gee's Bend founded the Gee's Bend Quilters Collective. This group of women have the exclusive rights to produce and market the quilts, and are still producing quilts today. Each quilt coming out of this group is individually made and authentic. So awesome.

If you are interested in learning more about these amazing women and their beautiful quilts, go here.

If you are interested in purchasing a quilt, there's more info here.

Happy friday friends! I hope you've enjoyed this little slice of history, and I hope you have a great weekend! :)

{renovate} shanghai-d

2011-11-07T11:18:00.000-08:00

Hello friends! Did you all have a great weekend? We spent a lovely weekend at the coast with friends. I NEVER get sick of spending time there. It's so relaxing.

Do you want to see a project that just didn't work out? It's fun to see that not everything is perfect, don't you think?

This spring, when I linked up to the Jane's red neck link party, I showed you a glimpse of our Shanghai sign and shared the story of how we came to have a HUGE shanghai sign in the first place. In our backyard, none-the-less (if you haven't read the story, you want to. It's a good one :).

Even though I wasn't all that happy when my husband showed up at home with a 14-foot fluorescent sign, I quickly decided it might look cool in our back porch. We're in the middle of updating it and were looking for cool, funky artwork. And, while maybe not cool, the shanghai sign is definitely funky.

After a few measurements, we determined that the ONLY spot in our entire house the sign would fit was along the back wall of the back porch.

It took a couple months, but Chris finally had some extra time last week to hang it. And friends, it is enormous.

I think part of the problem is that not only is the sign long, but it's also really deep. A foot and a half deep, to be exact. So it protrudes off the wall in a really overwhelming way. The other part of the problem, and one I was worried about before we did this, it that is covers the window. It's not a window we really use, obviously, but it's still awkward because it's a window.

But the main issue is that we're creating a room that is a very light, a little rustic, charming and cozy. The Shanghai sign completely destroyed all of the atmosphere and screamed SHANGHAI right when you walked in the door. I was immediately against it. Chris thought he liked it. So we decided to think about it when we were out of town this weekend. Sunday morning, the first thing Chris said to me was, "we have to take that sign down. It's too big." Good husband :).

It came down first thing when we returned home last night.

You guys have been so incredibly patient about our porch update/renovations. We aren't done. But, I'll give you a formal update later this week/next week. It's looking good friends :).

Have you guys ever had a major difference of opinions with your s.o. about decor? How did you solve it? Did you ever have something you were sure you'd love it a space, only to have it fall completely flat?

{inspired} the anniversary getaway

2011-11-04T10:34:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, Chris and I celebrated our three year wedding anniversary, and I gave you in the inside scoop on our wedding (you can read about it here and here). I realized earlier this week that I never finished the series. Namely, how did we celebrate?!

We stopped giving each other gifts when it became clear, shortly after we were married, that Chris is not only impossible to buy for, but also a pretty bad gift giver. Yes, he knows and admits this :). In an effort to save myself years of disappointingly picking out my own gifts, and save him the stress of trying and failing, we decided to celebrate with experiences instead of gifts.

For our second anniversary, we visited Boston. For our birthdays this year (which are only two weeks apart) we spent a night in Astoria. Last year for our birthdays we went to Bend, in central Oregon. We had so much fun that we decided to head back this year for our anniversary.

Bend is located in a gorgeous high desert. It's well-known for it's outdoor activities -- hiking, mountain biking, skiing, etc -- but for also having great restaurants, stores, etc. The best of both worlds. In fact, South Sister, which I climbed earlier this fall, is in those clouds in the previous picture.

We inadvertently stumbled into Bend's annual fall festival. The city shuts down all the streets in the downtown area and brings in craft and art vendors .... it was HUGE and completely adorable. We had such a fun time wandering through booths and check out all the artists goods. Below are my photos for the weekend. I was actually coming down with a massive cold, so the weekend was incredibly low-key, but lovely none-the-less.

How do you guys celebrate significant events? I love it when people creatively celebrate anniversaries with the traditional wedding gifts. But I also love having amazing experiences with my adorable husband. I know we'll treasure them forever.

{create} the writing on the mirror

2011-11-02T06:13:00.000-07:00

Are you all ready for a today's Pinterest challenge? You can see my project, plus all the others at Young House Love, Bower Power and House of Earnest.

I am so excited to see what you've all linked up! For the last Pinterest challenge I went dramatic with my dining room chandelier. This time I kept it a lot simpler. We were just crazy busy this weekend. So, I used this challenge as a motivation to finish up a simple project that I've just been putting off.

nubby twiglet

The inspiration for my project was the photo above. Specifically that mirror (although I'd take that couch in a heartbeat). I pinned it months and months ago and knew immediately I needed that on my mantel. So of course, I set out to find the perfect mirror, which I did find and blogged about here.

For some reason I never finished the project. You know, the part which actually made the mirror amazing.

This weekend I set about remedying that ... with a gold paint pen. I wish all remedies were this glamorous.

Instead of stamps, like the inspiration photo, I used my handwriting because .... well, because I really like my handwriting. It's a little funky, yet still legible. I chose a gold paint pen instead of black because it's a little subtler, but also because I'm loving gold right now. I'm actually trying to figure out how else to add gold to this room!

So what does the mirror say?

“You can stay the same, not lose anything, but never know what there was to be gained. Or you can risk, guaranteeing some loss, and yet gain more than you knew was possible.”

I originally posted that quote here, when I told you all about my new job. It's turned into the theme for our year. But it would be great to change the quote out each year. Or even as necessary. It's nice to have a beautiful reminder of important things :).

I think what I ended up loving most about this project is the gold paint. It adds a lovely sparkle to the room (and shows up better in person than in the photos).

Have you guys painted anything gold lately? :)

As for the Pinterest challenge, I'm also submitting my striped hallway. Because if you look at my Pinterest boards, you'll see that that project came directly from there. I just happened to post about it a week too early! :)

{renovate} hallway lighting

2011-10-31T10:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween friends! Since I'm kind of a big Halloween scrooge (aka, I just don't care!), we're going to talk about lights today. Specifically, our hallway light.

We made one more change over the weekend to our newly striped hallway, and it's made an amazing difference .... both how the space looks and the amount of light.

This was our oh-so-lovely existing light.

Maybe it's fine (?), but knock-off Tiffany lights aren't really my style. Not to mention the fully-opaque glass shined very, very little light. It wasn't even worth turning on, which made for a pretty creep hallway when guests were over.

Enter this lovely lady. We found her at Portland Rebuilding Center. I love her pretty glass shade and shiny base.

I also love how much light she shines. Guests won't have to feel their way to the bathroom anymore! :)

I think the new light finishes off the space nicely. What room doesn't benefit from fresh paint a little bling? :)

Did you do any quick fixes/updates to your abode this weekend?

I hope you all have a great day!

{inspired} new pillows

2011-10-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

Today I wanted to share my favorite new home accessory with you all. It's a small addition to our living room that has made an enormous difference. You know, in the way only the best of accessories can liven up a space difference?

Here's the living room last week.

And here it is this week. Do you notice the difference? (Besides my needing overhead lights to make the space bright enough to photograph? Sigh. Summer I already miss you.)

That's right. We have a new pillow!

Now, I know. Some of you are thinking: seriously Jenn? But friends, this is exciting stuff. The last time I added a new pillow to the living room was THREE years ago. For a person who loves pillows, and has the ability to make her own, that's just sad.

This lovely pillow was made by my friend Jane, of the Janery and The Borrowed Abode fame*. Isn't the fabric gorgeous? She posted a sneak peak when she first bought the fabric a few months ago and I knew I needed it in my house. Blue + yellow = perfect for my living room. I immediately emailed and told her I had to have one when she made them.

You guys need to go check out her shop, if you haven't already. These pillow are perfection. I am so impressed by the quality. The fabric is not only gorgeous, but the perfect pillow weight, and what I'm showing you in this picture is the nearly invisible zipper. My Pottery Barn zippers aren't even invisible! It's truly gorgeously made.

I think my favorite part (which is NOT my incredibly wrinkled couch - ew), and what drew me to this fabric, is the navy blue. I've been thinking that adding touches of darker colors to the room might add some depth. So, now I'm inspired to make some changes, maybe add some more deeper, richer color to the room. And it will not be three years before I switch out my pillows again. Next to my new gem, the current pillows feel a little stale. I'll keep you updated :).

What small updates have you made lately that made a room feel new? Or, that inspired you to take a bigger leap?

*I was not compensated for this post. I just like Jane, and I wanted to support her lovely shop the Janery. Make sure you go check it out!

{create} wall stripes

2011-10-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all the super sweet comments about my newly striped hallway! I'm back today with a tutorial about creating stripes in your own home. I feel like I should preface this whole post by saying this project was not as hard and did not take as long as I was imagining it would. Granted, it is an incredibly small space, BUT, there are seven doors to work around, so it had its own set of complications. My original intention was to stripe the space over last weekend, but I actually decided to head to the beach with my family instead. So, Thursday night I spent three hours taping the hallway. Friday night I spent four hours painting. Seven hours? This project could be done in one day! :)

Wall Stripe Directions:

CREATING STRIPES

Tools:

Scotch Brand Edge Lock blue tape*
Pencil
Straight edge
Tape measure
Level

*I'm not getting any compensation for promoting this. I was inspired by how many success stories I've read over the blogosphere and wanted to give it a try. It was awesome!

Directions:
1. Paint your walls.

Start with a completely dry, painted space. One recommendation I read a couple times is to start with the lightest color. This makes sense, but I wasn't about to repaint the hallway white, just to add blue stripes back in. I crossed my fingers that the blue was light enough not to be a problem under the white.

2. Determine stripe widths.

After you have your base color painted, you need to determine your stripe width. This part seemed the scariest to me, but trust me if I can figure it out, so can you. Math genius, I am not. With a tape measure, measure the height of the wall from the top of the base molding to the corner of the ceiling in inches. Ours = 95". I determined that I needed an odd number of stripes to both start and end with blue. Then I simply picked how many stripes I thought I'd want and started dividing. For 7 stripes, the stripe width would be 13.57". I measured this out on the wall and it seemed a little large. For 9 stripes, I would need to create a 10.55" width stripe. This actually came out perfectly for what I was imagining. But if you want smaller stripes, just divide higher. If I wanted 15 smaller stripes I would've created 6.33" stripes. I hope this makes sense.

3. Measure and tape.

From the ceiling, measure down the width of your first stripe. This is where the straight edge ruler comes in handy because it's easier to handle than a tape measure. Once you've determined where your stripe should be, draw a line with your straight edge and pencil. Don't worry about the lines on your walls, you'll be painting over them. After you've drawn your line, place your tape so the bottom edge touches just ABOVE the line.

Use the top stripe as a guide for the rest of your stripes. This worked really well for me because it was the only stripe not impeded by a door, but I also quickly discovered that my ceiling is not straight. (Let's hear it for old houses!) So I measured down 10.55" and then went around the entire room with my pencil, straight edge and level. This was the longest, and most frustrating part, but it ensured straight lines.

After the top line is straightly taped, measure and tape the rest of your stripes. Remember that once you draw a line, tape above or below it so that your paint is covering the pencil mark. You can see in the photo above (on the far wall) that every other stripe appears smaller. Those smaller stripes were remaining the original wall color blue. For the stripes you're painting, you want the distance between the tapes to be the full width you'd measured earlier.

3. Secure the tape to the wall.

I know, you just put the tape up. But especially on the tape lines you'll be painting over you need to make sure that the tape is really pushed into all the wall texture. You can actually see a difference once you start doing it. I tried it with a straight edge, but found that my finger worked a lot better. Was having crisp, straight lines worth a blister on both pointer fingers? Yes.

PAINTING STRIPES

Tools:

Foam brush
Wall color paint
Stripe color paint
Paint brush or roller

Directions:
1. Seal your tape lines, aka most important step.

With your existing wall color paint and a foam brush, paint along the tape lines of the stripes you'll be painting. Sound repetitive? It WORKS! Make sure you gently paint up against the paint line so the paint actually gets into any remaining holes, while being careful not to wrinkle the tape. I almost didn't take this step because I was out of wall color. I am so glad I made the trip to the paint store to pick up more - this is the most important step in the process. It seals the tape so your stripe color can't seep into the cracks.

2. Paint your stripe color.

Let the wall color dry for about an hour. I read a couple sources that recommended 24 hours, but it was completely unnecessary. After an hour the paint was dry to the touch and I simply painted over it with the stripe color. Take your tape off immediately after you paint the stripe color. You don't want to let this layer dry.

3. Admire your crisp lines.

The result was perfectly crisp lines. I only had to touch up one completely tiny spot. I was so excited. I did, however, have to go back and paint another coat of white in a lot of places. I recommend starting with the lightest color if at all possible.

I relied on a couple wonder sources to figure all this out. The first source was Living With Lindsay. If anything, pop over and check out her chevron wall. Gorgeous! The second source was Scotch Blue's video on Apartment Therapy. Super helpful!

I hope this tutorial helps, and please let me know if you have any questions or if anything is unclear.

Have you painted stripes before? Do you have any other tips to add? Please share! :)

{renovate} stripes!

2011-10-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

**Update: I'm submitting this project to the Pinterest challenge today! If you look at my Pinterest boards, you'll see that that project came directly from there. I just happened to post about it a week too early! You can see my project, plus all the others at Young House Love, Bower Power and House of Earnest. Enjoy! :) **

Does it feel like forever since I've actually shared a home project? It feels like forever to me, which makes the project I'm sharing today even more fun :).

A couple weeks ago, I posted about painting stripes in my hallway. You can read about why and see my inspiration rooms here.

As a reminder, here is what our hallway looks like. Late last week, I set about painting stripes.

And so now, this is what our hallway looks like! Stripes! Aren't they fun?

The hallway is actually an incredibly awkward .... especially for taking photos! There are actually SEVEN doors in this tiny space. So, you can imagine that taping straight and accurate was .... interesting ;). The door on the right in this picture is the door to the craft room.

I am so happy with how it turned out though. The lines are SUPER crisp, and I think everything is straight. If you read my previous post about this, you'll remember that Chris was actually out of town this weekend. Not only did he have NO idea I was painting, but we'd never even talked about stripes in the hallway. He was completely surprised when he got home last night, but he loves it :).

I think the stripes add an interesting element to what could be a very boring, basic, door-filled hallway. I kept the blue color that was already in the hallway, and is the color of the living room, to keep the spaces tied together. The stripes are the same white/cream color as the trim in the entire house.

Here's the view into the kitchen:

And the view from the kitchen, down the hall:

This is what you see when you walk in our front door:

Because of the number of doors, there isn't a lot of space for decor. I've always kept it really simple.

A dashboard from a vintage car hangs on the wall; a nod to Chris' ~~obsession~~ hobby. The letterpress print is from our trip to Boston last year when we stumbled upon the Hatch Show at Boston University. You can read more about the show here. It was incredible. None of the Hatch Prints were for sale, but we managed to snag a letterpress show poster. I love that the guy is blue and coordinates incredibly well with the wall color.

On the only other wall big enough to hold art is Crate and Barrel candle holder we received as a wedding gift. It's beautiful when all the candles are lit, and makes the space sparkle.

I'll be back Wednesday with a how to, in case you'd like to create stripes of your own! It actually turned out to be quite simple, and only took a few hours from start to finish.

What projects did you tackle this weekend? Have you painted stripes in your house? Would you ever paint stripes in your house?? :)

{inspired} fall color palettes

2011-10-21T17:02:00.000-07:00

It seems that fall is officially here, with all this talk about quilts and hibernating, and I think its only appropriate to talk about fall's color palettes!

Palette #1

I LOVE neutrals in the fall and winter. They're just seem so fitting for this time of year and are so soothing. I actually wear this color combination a lot, and firmly believe that the lack of color does not mean it has to be boring. I think this dress (which I LOVE) and this room are proof of that.

Pendleton Portland Collection

desire to inspire

Palette #2

I love the fresh pops of navy and orange against the tan. The shirt is just lovely and the room is just awesome. I love the colors against the neutral grass cloth. It all feels very fresh.

anthropologie

pinterest

Palette #3

It's no secret that I love orange, but I've never thought about pairing it with tan. It's such a gorgeous fall combo though. For homes, I don't think neutrals with a pop of color will ever go out of style.

anthropologie

pinterest

What is your favorite palette of the three?

If you'd like to see past palettes, here is summer and spring.

I hope you all have a great weekend! I'll be tackling my striped hallway. Can't wait to share it with you! :)

{inspired} photography class + tips

2011-10-19T12:11:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending a *Photo Safari* in downtown Portland. Jennifer Costello, a professional photographer here in pdx, hosts Sunday workshops on the streets of downtown. She teaches both how to use your dslr (which even after nearly a year I STILL need help with(!), angles, lines and approaches to photos in general.

It was a fantastic class. There were only five attendants, which gave us all quality time with Jennifer. I thought I'd share a couple of useful pointers I learned from her this weekend, along with some of the photos I shot.

Tip #1

Your LCD screen brightness is off. The brightness that comes standard on the screens is too dark. She explained the math (!?) behind how she's know this, but I believe her because when I uploaded my photos I didn't need to brighten them at all. That's a first.

How do you change this? If you own a DSLR camera, there is an LCD screen setting. Check your manual. When you find it, set it to -2. So easy!

Tip #2

Get closer. Jennifer believes that most amateur photographers aren't willing to get close enough to their subject. I know this is true for me .... mostly because it looks silly! But, I loved the final product when I actually did get up close and personal with the subjects.

Tip #3

Make it easier on yourself. Jennifer recommends only adjusting one of your settings at a time. She always shoots with her aperture at 4.0 and her ISO at 400. That way she only has to adjust her shutter speed.

My lens aperture doesn't go down to 4.0, it's lowest setting is 5.6. I found that at 5.6 aperture with a 200 ISO, I could easily adjust my shutter speed to get the shot I was look for and not have to worry. You guys, it really is so much easier!

Of course, there are exceptions to this .... namely, landscape shots, or in home blogger's case, full room shots. But it's a great place to start, and makes for quick and easy shooting.

I will definitely be using all these tips to better shoot the details in my house. I can't wait till I'm home in the daylight to try them out!

I hope these are helpful for you all! I love learning new things about photography. What are some pointers you've learned recently about shooting with a DSLR?

If you'd like to check out more of Jennifer's work - she's an AMAZING portrait photographer - you can check her out here.

{inspired} hibernating

2011-10-17T13:59:00.000-07:00

It never fails. This time of year both Chris and I get the urge to hibernate. The days are cooler, the suns sets much, much faster, and (at least in Oregon) the weather is gloomy and rainy. I really do enjoy the slower pace of life, but last week when I was sick, sore and just plain tired, I was dreaming of places I would love to spend the day curled up with a book or movie.

I think everyone's idea of that dream place to curl up and relax is a little different. But even if you are just relaxing, it doesn't mean the room you're relaxing in can't be stylish and cozy :). If I actually had time to hibernate, here's how I would do it:

Blankets:

I love piles of warm, cozy, bright blankets.

Pillows:

Pottery Barn

A super comfy bed:

Interior Design Story

Or couch.

Lonny

Hot Cocoa.

Beauty in Everything

A Huge selection of books and movies.

Storage and Glee

Do you feel like hibernating this time of year? What's your recipe for a cozy fall/winter room?

{inspired} the non-inspired

2011-10-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

Friends, do you ever have weeks like this? One minute (last week) I was completely on my game and then next moment (aka, this week) ... not so much. So, I thought I'd catch you up on what's been going on this week.

First, I completed a marathon!

We walked. It was my dad's idea ... a dream, of sorts. He's not a runner, but he's always wanted to complete a marathon. He's 64. So when he asked me to join him, how could I refuse? I was completely overconfident (cocky?) about the race, and totally didn't train. I just climbed the third highest peak in Oregon. How hard could walking 26.2 miles BE?

Friends. I died.

I had plans to take pictures along the route and share my adventure with you, but by about half way it became obvious that finishing was more important than pictures and it was taking all my concentration just to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I am definitely not as cool as the 80 year old woman who was participating in her 44th marathon.

So death by marathon + a horrible cold + really stressful, completely last minute work event / no prepared blog posts = a home in the making silence this week!

So I wanted to say hi! Tell me friends, what have you been up to lately??

{ahomeinthemaking} the wedding

2011-10-07T09:48:00.000-07:00

This is wedding week at A Home In the Making, in celebration of our third anniversary. Wednesday I showed you all the planning that went into our wedding (you can read about it here). So, today I'm sure your wondering ... how did it all turn out? Let's take a look!

I forgot to mention our favors in the last post. They were simple brown boxes tied with raffia. Inside was a incredibly awesome truffle.Gold chargers, gold/bronze napkins, and brown table clothes created a great backdrop for the flowers.

And oh wow, were the flowers ever amazing. Seriously, the florist nailed my vision. Around the flowers there are million candles along with more flower petals, rocks, acorns, moss and other natural, organic materials that gave it the *rustic* I was looking for.

This pic is sort of weird ... pic of a pic. But it shows a great view of the *tent* setting, all lit up.

And here is the table as it started getting dark. With the candles and the flowers it was so sparkly and beautiful.

I mentioned the flowers, right? I just could NOT get over how amazing they were. Seriously. Dahlias, lilies, roses, orchids, beautiful greens.

Our wedding party was beautiful. The girls had brown dresses and smaller version of my bouquet. The guys were in tuxes with brown ties and vests. And the boutonnieres? Fiddle head ferns. SO. PERFECT. That handsome blonde? That's my brother :).

Want to see my dress?

Strapless, lace overlay at the top and at the bottom.

I never thought I was a veil girl until that veil. LOVE it.

And guess what? It rained.

We made it through pictures, thank goodness. And we actually had set up a second tent so our guests wouldn't get wet, just in case. Again, thank goodness. It started sprinkling as the wedding party walked down the path, and it started full-on raining as my dad and I were walking. There was actually a collective gasp from the guests. It stopped when we reached the gazebo with the pastor. The whole thing was actually pretty amusing.

And really. How cute is she, holding the big umbrella. I died. She was rock star. I think this made the rain all worth it :).

And here's a couple of gratuitous shots of us. Friends, it was the perfect wedding. Everyone kept telling me before that I wouldn't remember any of it, it would all be a blur. I still can't get over how wrong they were. We had so much fun and I remember every detail. Every. Single. Detail. Chris and I still recount entire conversations we had with our guests. And to share how happy we were with all of our closest friends and family was just so perfect.

Of course, in planning a wedding, I learned a few things. And, thought I'd share, for anyone out there planning a wedding, or soon to be planning a wedding.

The one change I would've made was seating chart. Seating charts are not common in Oregon and I got talked out of it by my family because they thought it would be too formal. Wrong. As we went table-to-table saying hi to everyone, it struck me that the wrong people were sitting together. I think some of the guests would've had more fun if they'd been seated with their friends.
If you don't already have a day-of wedding coordinator, find one immediately. Even if it's just an organized friend. You do not want to be bossing people around on your wedding day, or worrying about if the florist arrived. A day-of coordinator lets you just relax and enjoy the festivities.

Sources (for you portland peeps who might be interested):
Photos: Holland Studios
Florist: An Affair to Remember
Site/catering: Abernathy Center

{the wedding} inspiration

2011-10-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

Today I'm going to share with you some of went into planning our wedding! I'm really excited. As I mentioned yesterday, I LOVED planning our wedding. Besides the obvious (marrying this amazing man!), it also introduced me to the world of blogs! I was scouring the internet looking for great wedding ideas when I came across Design Sponge and Brooklyn Bride, which opened up a whole new online world. And, of course, I was completely hooked.

SITE.

I have always, always, always wanted a fall wedding. Fall is by far my favorite season and is generally great weather in Oregon. The leaves are changing color, the air is crisp, and it's just beautiful. To take full advantage of the fall gorgeousness, we chose to have our wedding in an outdoor garden.

source: Wedding site.

evrim gallery: Reception site.

I was incredibly torn when choosing a site. I didn't want to go with standard wedding site, but I also didn't want to go in a completely DIY route. There are so many amazing things you can do on a DIY site, but in the end a little more standard won out because I realized I didn't want to be setting up tables and chairs on my wedding day :). The garden is GORGEOUS and it won me over and soon as we went for a look. As you can also see in the photos above, it's a mostly evergreen garden. There weren't a lot of fall colors happening, which left me a lot of room to play.

COLORS.

My colors/theme were the hardest for me to decide on. I seriously agonized over this friends. But one day I was flipping through an old Martha Stewart magazine and came across a full page photo of the most amazing dahlias I've ever seen. Brilliant oranges, pinks, yellows .... it just screamed fall. I wish I'd kept that page I tore out of the magazine ... but it was completely trashed by the time our wedding came around and I didn't expect to be blogging about it three years later :).

So my colors, as you see above, were coral, brown, golden yellow and orange. The theme I went with can be described as *Elegently-Rustic Fall*. It would features these colors, dahlias and lots of wood and natural elements.

INVITES.

Our invites were super special to me because they were custom designed by a lovely friend of mine. I am WAY to chicken/OCD to design my own invites, but I wanted them to be special. I was beyond excited when my talented friend offered to design them for us.

So after that, I needed to pull together programs, menus and other day-of paper products. And I was lucky enough to find the PERFECT paper to pull everything together. Enter, Paper Source's Flora and Fauna paper.

PROGRAM.

I am not a fan of programs at weddings. I know they're helpful and can be really sweet, but I can't get over what a waste of paper they are! So, instead of handing everyone a program, we simply made a huge program poster and had it next to the gifts table for people to look at if they were interested. I found a huge cheap frame at Goodwill and spray painted it cream. I used the paper source paper, and the same fonts from our invite to tie everything together.

MENUS.
We opted to have one menu per table. It was a nice way to carry out font/color theme through each table.

Also on our tables were coral napkins and, on family tables, place holders.

CUPCAKE DISPLAY.

The last element of the wedding that we did ourselves beforehand was the cupcakes holder. I couldn't find anything that wasn't white. cardboard. Blurgh. So we bought one and transformed it into something that would be lovely at our wedding.

We spray painted it dark brown and added cream ribbon with brown dots. It was a perfect compliment to the coral flowers the florist added.

Want to see how it turned out? I'll be back friday with a few day-of pictures to show you how all the planning came together. I'll also share the one thing I would've changed about the day and a couple other tips I picked up along the way :).

{a home in the making} anniversary, no. 3

2011-10-04T09:58:00.000-07:00

Friends, today we, as in the two of us pictured above, turn THREE! That's right, three years ago we got married on a beautifully rainy fall evening. And it was perfect. Not only am I completely type A (read: ocd), but I also have an event planning background. The combination made for a wedding that I absolutely loved. Even to this day there is only one thing I would change, and it's a very minor point. I was thoroughly prepared for the wedding, and it was truly beautiful evening.

Being married though, is nothing like what I expected. It's better :). I am so thankful everyday that I married Chris because he is my perfect compliment. When I'm freaking out, he's calming. When I'm taking on too many things, he reminds me that I need to relax and recharge too. When I'm feeling completely lazy and anti-social, he reminds me that our friends are awesome and that I actually feel energized after hanging out with them. We've had our ups and downs, but through it all I like him and love him more today than I did three years ago when I said *i do* at our perfect party. I think we're off to a good start :).

To celebrate, this week I'm going to take you on a behind-the-scenes look at our wedding! I've never shown our wedding here on the blog, and we incorporated some fun diy elements that I know you'll love, and maybe be a little inspired by :). I'll even tell you the one thing I'd change if I could go back and do it again. Tomorrow, we'll talk about colors schemes, themes and collateral. All super fun stuff!

{two become one} house tour guest post

2011-10-03T09:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday friends! I hope you all had a great weekend!

Today, you'll find me guest posting over at Two Become One.

Samantha has become a good blogger friend of mine and her blog is mix of home decorating, and her and her husband's adventures in being married. They've had quite a journey over the last year, and I am always in awe of both her candor and in their ability to handle (sometimes drastically out of their control) life-altering changes.

Please go over and say hi! You can check out my post, Sam and her husband's new rental home, and the story of just how they came to be in that rental home (it's a good one :).

{inspired} roomspiration

2011-09-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

Have you been following along with the Roomspiration link-up series? It's pretty awesome friends.

There are only a couple more link parties left, but so far there has been a TON of beautiful rooms and great inspiration. Today is bedrooms, so I linked up our *master* bedroom (you can read about it here and here), but I wanted to encourage all of your to head over and check it out the whole link-up series. Below are some of my favorite rooms from over the last couple weeks.

my old country house

pawley island posh

abode love

baylor says

hi sugar plum

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! I am have a super special week planned for next week here on the blog and I'm super excited to share that with you! :)

{inspired} striped walls

2011-09-28T12:20:00.000-07:00

So, I have an idea. I've been rolling it around in my head for awhile (like, for the last year!), but I think I'm gonna go for it. I want to stripe my hallway.

{Hallway currently}

Every October, Chris goes to California for a couple days. Which means, every October I take on a painting project that's a complete surprise to him. My boldest yet was painting our bedroom dark gray. Now, there is nothing wrong with our current hallway. I basically just have an itch to stripe something and I think it would look great in our hallway. Are there a million other projects I should be finishing first? Um, YES: I'm looking at you back porch and sewing room. But, really, I'm sure we can all agree that updating your home is nothing if not a little chaotic and non-linear.

Of course, I've been eyeing gorgeously striped rooms on Pinterest.

Picasaweb

I'm leaning towards subtle stripes. They're gorgeous.

landee see landee do

But, it's hard to deny that bold stripes are just completely amazing.

Apartment Therapy

Especially when I see this hallway.

Abode Love

Honey and Fitz

I found this great tutorial today over at Honey and Fitz. I don't plan on creating gradiated stripes (although hers are amazing), but I really like Dina's technique.

So, I think I'm all set. I just need to decide: to stripe BOLD or to strip SUBTLE.

Any suggestions friends?

{inspired} wallpaper mood board

2011-09-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

I am so, so, so excited to be participating in Pewter and Sage's Mood Board Monday. The premise is that Sarah chooses a topic to design a room around. This month's topic, chosen by Cathy at Room Rx, is wallpaper!

This was a HUGE challenge for me. I love wallpaper, but have never thought about designing a room around it. So, I chose Amy Butler's Lily Field to start. From there I decided that I wanted this wallpaper to go in a library. It's my dream (and probably a far-fetched one at that) to have a library one day, but not a traditional dark, stuffy library. I envision a completely girly place to spent an afternoon reading my favorite book. And with that in mind, the space below was born.

To the wall paper, I added a neutral, but graphic rug. From there I added a great daybed to lounge on, filled with great pillows for texture, color and comfort. A cozy, over-the-top-girly duvet cover completes the look. A great vintage closed-in bookcase would hold all my books, and a poster on the wall contains a quote from Pride and Prejudice. I like the addition of orange for two reasons: I LOVE orange. And, it keeps the look from being too girly. I tried to balance out the girly with graphics to make sure the look doesn't become too polarizing, but still stays comfy, cozy and a place you can curl up for an afternoon. This was a super huge challenge for me, but I like the result.

Sources:

Duvet cover
Daybed
Striped rug
Orange table
Pillows: Ampersand, grey flowers, orange and white flowers
Pride and Prejudice poster
Cabinet/bookshelves

Friends, head over to Pewter and Sage to check out the rest of the AMAZING mood boards. Thanks Sarah ... I can't wait for the next challenge!

{inspired} around the web

2011-09-23T14:16:00.000-07:00

Happy friday friends!

In the interest of keeping it real .... this week has kicked my boot-y. Late nights and a huge work event have left me completely exhausted and really excited for a weekend of recharging my batteries.

Since I don't have anything creative of my own to share with you today, I'm going to share with you some of the creativity/projects that have caught my eye over the last week or so. Friends, there are some incredibly talented and awesome people out there. Make sure you head over to their sites to see the entire projects .... I promise you won't be disappointed.

Erin at house of earnest featured this super easy centerpiece idea. I LOVE it and am so excited to try it in my own home.

Kelly at View Along the Way featured a tutorial for those gorgeous striped curtains. Aren't they awesome?

Kirsten at Restored Style featured her newly completed numbered stairs. I adore this idea and she pulled it off flawlessly. By the way, if you pop over to Restored Style's post today, you'll see ME and our recent little meet up! :)

Meredith at Welcome to Heardmont recently taught herself how to make roman shades - I KNOW, impressive. They turned out lovely.

Katie at Newcomb Home spent a DAY cleaning up the side of her yard. People, go look at the before. It gives much such hope that I can tackle my back yard and that it won't take me months like I'm imagining. Katie, want to come help with that ?? :)

I hope you enjoy! And, I hope you all have a GREAT weekend! :)

{inspired} quilts

2011-09-21T10:42:00.000-07:00

I quilt. Did I ever tell you guys that? While I say it in the present tense, it has, in fact, been a couple years since I made a quilt. House projects seem to be taking priority over hobbies at this point. Or maybe house projects have become a hobby? Whichever.

The beginning of fall always puts my in the mood to quilt. And curl up in a quilt. So on that note, I thought I'd share some of my favorite quilts I've run across lately. They're both quilts I would love to own and inspiration for quilts I would love to make.

beeper bebe

Love the simplicity of this quilts design. And, wish I was a good enough quilter to get that kind of quilting detail. You need special machines for that friends!

little miss shabby

This quilt is so sweet. I love the different size squares and I could definitely curl up here for an afternoon.

babble

Love. This. Quilt. Everything about it .... the chevron pattern, the colors, the fabrics.

camillero skelly

Just beautiful. Really love this pattern. This is a quilt I would make in a heartbeat.

lolly quiltz

LOVE the colors of this quit. I especially love that they're all solids .... it's very modern and still so cozy.

Have you ever made a quilt? Which one of these beauties is your favorite??

Have a great Wednesday friends!

{renovate} a view of the back

2011-09-19T11:02:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday friends! Did you all have a good weekend? We had a lovely weekend that even buckets of rain couldn't dampen.

Today I'm going to update you on the state of the back of our house. I know. Hold onto your seats, friends. Okay, so it might not be the most exciting subject, but I do have an AWESOME sneak peak at the end that you'll want to stick around for.

Remember a couple weeks ago when I finally finished the garage (post here)? Well, I also finished painting the back of our house. It's a little more of an in depth story, and I couldn't photograph it until this weekend, so it's getting its own post.

A year ago, this was your view as you entered our back yard. This lovely, rusty, bent-up, jail-cell-reminiscent screen door leads to our screened in porch. Chris and I walk through this door multiple times every day.

Last fall, when Chris and his BFF (BFF pictured, not Chris) replaced the door to our back entry (the one that actually goes into the house from the screened porch), we also replaced the screen door. We wanted something more welcoming, less you're-going-to-prison-ish.

We completely scored and found this lovely, simple, solid-wood door at the Rebuilding Center for $25. Chris installed siding, recycled from our garage makeover, to match the rest of the house. Sidenote: The green is the original color of the house. I know there's a photo floating around of what the house looked like when Chris bought it, but we can't seem to find it. Once we unearth it, you'll be the first to see :). Also, if you look closely in the picture, you can see that the wall of the screened porch is not even close to straight. It's actually slanted way out. Such as it goes with an older home! :) Luckily, we're learning to work around it.

The other small detail to note here is the back windows.

Yep. One with trim finished, and one not. We had to replace a couple panes on those windows and had yet to finish the trim.

One quick afternoon of painting later and the screen door wall looks like this. So much better! The wall got a coat of yellow and the door was updated with a coat of creamy-white to match the trim. I was thinking about painting this door a fun color, but I think I actually like how fresh and clean the white looks. It'll stay that color. For now. :)

And, the rest of the back looks much more cohesive as well.

I just can't say enough about the powers of paint. Like I said, it's not the most exciting of all reveals, but it's something feels SO GOOD to check off our list.

And that sneak peak I promised you? You've been so patient as we've taken our sweet time working on the back porch, so I thought you'd like to see this:

Here's where are back porch is as of yesterday. It's SO CLOSE. Just a couple things to hang on the wall and I'll give you guys the grand tour.

I hope you're all having a super happy Monday!

{create} a gallery wall + sources

2011-09-14T09:17:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the all the super sweet comments about our new gallery wall! Today I have sources for you and quick instructions for easily creating your own gallery wall.

Let's start with sources. As you remember, this is the gallery wall:

Because it's so big, I split up the wall into three parts, below. You'll see below that a lot of what we picked up was from antique stores, some we made, and others we'd had on hand. If these are still available for purchase, I've linked up, and I also linked to the projects we made. Hopefully you'll see that what makes this wall so personal, and so US, is that we collected objects and prints from a variety of places, and that we're both represented here. Because we have such an extreme variety of art, I used all black frames to tie it together.

Left Side:

Fabric ampersand;Vintage hand pump, from our garage; Food on Sticks, Vintage map of St. Johns (our hood) from a garage sale; Graphic Portland map; Vintage Letters, from an antique fair; Vintage postcard, from a second hand store; Wooden-handle wrench, from our garage; Live what you love letterpress.

Middle:

Curly Girl postcard, which says "If i had known i would get to spend the rest of my life with you" he said "I would have started the rest of my life much sooner."; Vintage Timberline Lodge pennant, from an antique store; Portal mirror; Vintage car poster, from Chris' collection; Vintage london print, from an antique store; 1932 License plate, from Chris' collection.

Right Side:

Joy letterpress; Oregon forest art, nation wide one here; Fabric; Kite Hill; Vintage car grill, from Chris' collection; Button Art,which says "Kiss Me My Fool"; Three Potato Four; Made in Oregon print; Pic of us on our honeymoon; Vintage Letters, same as left side.

Please let me know if you have any questions about sources! :)

Now, for how we created this. Usually I am pretty good about *eyeing* placement when I'm hanging frames. But, I was a little intimidated by how big the wall is, so I wanted to be more precise .... and keep the number of nail holes to a minimum.

First, I cleared the wall. Then I found frames for all the art. Which wasn't actually a problem since I found 45 frames in our basement in January. My advice on making this project incredibly budget-friendly is start collecting high quality frames from garage sales, Goodwill, etc. I don't recommend amassing a collection of 45 (clearly we have a problem), but frames are incredibly easy to spray paint and this technique will really keep costs down. Don't have a mat that works with your artwork? You can go to any frames store, with your dimensions, and they'll cut a mat for you. Bonus: cutting mats is actually incredibly inexpensive. For this wall, I only needed three mats cut, and the total came to less than $20. You guys, that's less than $20 for 19 frames and their mats.

Next, I grabbed my roll of parchment paper. I use parchment to wrap gifts, so I always have huge roll on hand. I laid out all the frames, traced them, labeled the tracing, and cut them out.

And, then I taped the cutouts on the wall. I've seen this method all over the internet and thought it seemed like SO. MUCH. WORK. But really? It was awesome! Over a few weeks, I moved the paper around more times than I can count .... with no holes in my wall! Love it.

The result? Hanging everything on the wall was super easy. And, we didn't have to move ANY nails. Which, no matter how good at *eyeing* things I think I am, was a first.

That's how we went about creating our wall. We stretched it out over a couple months, but this could easily be done in a weekend, once you have your artwork picked out.

I hope you're all having a super week! :)

{renovate} living room updates

2011-09-11T20:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday! I have a fun update to share with you guys this morning.

Little by little, I've been working on creating our living room. First, we added colorful lamps earlier this spring, and then the huge ceiling drum shade. We're loving how this side of the room is looking.

But what about the other side? When I first started decorating our living room, I created a small gallery wall. At the time I knew I wanted to create a much bigger gallery, but I didn't actually have the artwork to accomplish it. So, for the last couple years I've been collecting art here and there and setting it aside. Earlier this summer I set about hanging all the art I've collected. As a reminder, up until July (seriously, some projects take us forever!), our gallery wall looked like this:

And as of this weekend, it looks like this:

I am so excited about our new wall! It's been a really long time coming, and I think it adds so much quirky, eclectic dimension to the room :). Plus, I think it really show off who we are, because we took so much time to collect things we love.

But that's not all! The other small update in the room is our fireplace area. Here was it looked like earlier this year:

I have been searching for a huge affordable mirror for months - less than $100. Of course, I'd be willing refinish it, etc. Do you guys know how expensive mirrors are?! After searching garage sales and vintages store all summer, I finally found the mirror I was looking for. Less than $100 and all I had to do was clean it.

I found it a couple weeks ago at Noun, an adorable Portland store. We had already installed the mirror on the gallery wall, and together they bounce so much light around the room. I love having two mirrors in the room now.

And, it reflects the new wall really well :). It's the small things, right?

I'll be back Wednesday with more information about the art on the gallery wall + an easy how-to for creating your own gallery wall! :) (Update: you can find complete instructions for hanging your own gallery wall here.)

I'm also linking this up to Cottage and Vine's living room link-up and View Along the Ways Roomspiration link up. Please come over and check out all the awesome living rooms!

{inspired} weekend crafts

2011-09-09T16:32:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday friends! Today has been quite a day. So, to send you off into the weekend on a good note, I thought show you some of the crafty/DIY projects that have caught my eye. Hopefully you'll have more time this weekend to be creative than I will!

Mason Jar Lights from Wedding Gawker. If I hadn't JUST bought lights for the back porch, I would be making this for that space in a heartbeat.

Bunting from Vintage Pretty Pearl. I have to find a reason to make this. Wait. Do I need a reason? So cute!

Painted Flatware from Sania Pell, via Creatures of Comfort. I have no idea how practical this is, but I REALLY want to try it for our next dinner party.

Photoshop Bokeh from Alex Beadon Photography. I love learning new tricks in Photoshop, and this one is GORGEOUS! Especially until I actually figure out how to do bokeh on my camera.

Do you have anything crafty planned for the weekend? If you have time and are looking for some fun ideas, check out my *to makes* board on Pinterest, or my diy gallery. Both are filled with some awesome projects! We having a weekend full of wedding events for a dear friend that I've known since I was three. It should be a lot of fun.

Enjoy!

{renovate} outdoor chair makeover

2011-09-07T10:10:00.001-07:00

*Update!: I'm linking the post over to Saved by Suzy's House Party! Make sure you come over, say hi, and see all the awesome projects featured!

Four years ago, this coming weekend, I bought four chairs at an antique fair. Four years seems like eons ago! At the time, I was living by myself in an adorable, and historic, one bedroom apartment. In fact, I had only just recently started dating Chris. Even though they're outdoor chairs, I thought they'd look fabulous in my dining room with this table.

As per usual with this type of thing, the shape was gorgeous, but they needed work. The wire frame was incredibly chipped and rusty.

And, let's talk about the cushions. The vinyl fabric was definitely retro, but it was stained dirty. I thought this would be a simple recovering project, but when I pulled the vinyl off the base I discovered a very old and falling apart foam and seen-better-days piece of chipboard. I have this problem .... once I underestimate a project, I get overwhelmed and usually put it off. So these lovely little chairs have sat unused for four years, until now ...

So much better right? When we started pulling together an eating area in the back porch, I knew these were PERFECT for the space, and I was so excited to finally use them. It actually wasn't as hard as I'd been dreaming in my head. Thank goodness! Actually, the hardest part was choosing fabric. A simple coat of spray paint covered the rust. We did need to have new foam cut, but we had it done at a small shop near where Chris grew up. It's two-inch thick foam, and super comfy to sit on.

Unfortunately, even though the foam is super thick, it didn't sit well on the wire frame base. It wanted to sink through the chair -- not so good. We didn't want company sinking through their chairs! So I had to cut new bases for under the foam. Luckily we have tons of scrap wood in our backyard, so I found more than enough to cut our four circles. And, in the process I learned how to use a jigsaw!

Have you ever used a jigsaw? They're super cool, and pretty easy with a little practice. The one major tip I have for you is: drill a hole, outside your line, as a starting point for the saw. SO. MUCH. EASIER. Then you have a clear beginning and end.

I securely clamped the wood onto two saw horses to help stabilize it.

And, proceeded to cut along my lines. Easy-peasy!

I LOVE this fabric. I'd actually envisioned green cushions for the longest time, and even ordered a beautiful green fabric online. But something just wasn't right and I couldn't put my finger on it. Earlier this summer I popped into my local fabric store to pick up thread and found this beauty. It was a remnant, but more than enough to cover my chairs. Yes!

After sewing the covers, I slipped the foam and the wood circle into it, and stapled the fabric over the ends, which made the whole package nice and secure.

Aren't the lines on these chairs gorgeous? A little girly, which I love. The rest of the space it pretty masculine, so these chairs bring just the right amount of softness.

From the back.

My willing assistant, always ready to test the comfortability.

So, what do you think of my new chairs? Have you recovered any chairs lately? Do you have projects that have been waiting for love for four years?! Do you, like me, ever overestimate a project in your head and become paralyzed with overwhelmingness?

I hope you're all having a GREAT week! :)

{summer of fun} south sister

2011-09-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Labor Day friends! I hope you're all having a great long weekend and enjoying some time off!

I thought it was only appropriate, seeing how labor day is the *end* of summer (we won't talk about the forcasted 97 degrees later this week), to wrap up my {summer of fun} series by sharing what we did over the long weekend.

We hiked up South Sister, one of a trio of *Sister* mountains in central Oregon. South Sister is the third tallest peak in Oregon, at 10,358 feet. Somehow, it's a non-technical climb, but it's still a butt-kicker: you gain 4,900 feet in elevation in 5.5 miles.

The top is actually the top of that red hill. Waaaayyyyy up there. It's a 2,900 feet elevation gain between the lake in the bottom right of the photo, and the top. And, only about 1/4-mile in distance.

You're probably wondering why? HA! I don't even remember exactly how this started. Last summer, a friend of mine at work was arranging a trip, and I thought *why not?*. We headed over in late September to tackle the mountain. About half way up, a thunderstorm moved into the area, forcing us to turn around. It was so sad, but of course by then we were all completely determined to summit. So a group of us headed over this weekend and we made it all the way up.

This is the view from the lake (last photo). We actually hiked over all the brown terrain to get to where we were.

And, the view from the top! It was an amazing feeling to make it all the way. You feel so small when standing on top of a mountain, and it's actually quite humbling. It's also completely exhausting. I'm still recovering a little :).

It was a great way to end the summer though. On the hike up the hill, I was thinking about this declared summer of fun. Giving myself permission to lay off on house activities allowed me to have so many amazing adventures this summer.

I spent a day in gorgeous Hood River.
I visited a great friend in eastern Washington. Complete with a great day of wine tasting :).
We took some friends to the beach with us for the 4th, and went on an awesome hike.
Yes, it was for work, but I spend an amazing week rafting the Rogue River.
I went on a glorious hike in the Columbia River Gorge, to train for South Sister.
And, we spent a lovely weekend celebrating our birthdays in Astoria.

Pretty great summer, right? We've even snuck a few house projects in their too, which we're wrapping up now, and I'm itching to start sharing with you!

What are you guys up to this long weekend?

{renovate} the garage ... three years later

2011-09-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

It recently occurred to me that a few years ago I shared pictures of our garage *before* and our garage *progress*, but never of the finished garage. Then I remembered it was because, 2 years later, we still hadn't finished painting it. PLEASE someone tell me we're not the only ones who lose motivation when we're this | | close to finishing a project?! Really, all we had left to do was finish painting the trim. Which is exactly what I set out to do last weekend.

As a reminder, here is the garage in 2008. Notice the tarp on the roof? Notice how the garage door doesn't eve come close to fitting?

It's hard to tell, but the structure was actually leaning a little also, and was just a plain mess. Not structurally sound is an understatement.

Oh, and I can't forget my favorite ... the boarded up door! The great part about this project is the original siding of the garage (the green boards above), is the same siding we needed to finished out the screened porch (see photos here). So we were actually able to salvage a lot of the garage boards and put them to very good use.

This is as far we got in 2009. It's hard to tell here, but the garage is actually done. It's a horrible picture, but I thought you'd all enjoy the wood stripe :). There was a board missing from the middle when they finished construction in the fall, so I had painted the gap to help in blend better until we could add the missing board. Then, after the Oregon painting window was over, Chris added the unfinished board. Classy.

Last summer, I made huge progress! I painted the wood stripe, and I filled the holes in the trim boards. What? Huge is a relative term :). I actually walked out of the house with paint and paint brush in hand one day with every intention of finishing this up, only to find the people who were painting our neighbors house had actually taped off the garage so they wouldn't hit our garage too. While I appreciate that, it was definitely a motivation killer.

That bring us to last weekend when I FINALLY finished! I painted over the filled holes and I added black trim around the door, to match our house trim.

Now, I think we can all call this is a HUGE difference from the beginning. This was the very first big project we undertook together. I can't say I worked a lot on the construction, but I did paint the whole thing :). Chris, his dad, and the same wonderful friend who helped with our back entry, tore the existing garage down to the studs. They rebuilt the walls, layed the roof, and finished it off with siding that matched our house. Honestly, at first I didn't see why we this was such a priority -- there was still so much we needed to do inside -- but now I'm so happy it's done. It makes a huge difference in our house's appearance.

And, from the side. Did you all actually think we'd moved the Shanghai sign yet?? The good news is that I know where it's going to live, so in the next couple weeks it'll have a new home. I'll be sure to show you photos.

Don't you LOVE crossing pesky projects off your list? It's only took me 3 years and 30 minutes to finish painting the garage :).

So please, help me feel better here .... what unfinished projects do you right now that you just can't seem to get done?

And also, I hope you all have a FANTASTIC long weekend! :)

{inspired} North Portland

2011-08-31T06:41:00.000-07:00

While I live in (and LOVE) the city of Portland, like a lot of larger cities, it is divided into incredibly distinct neighborhoods. Each neighborhood within the city has it's own unique feel, crowd, activities .... it's own culture, if you will. We happen to live in North Portland. NoPo, to the locals. With a small, private, upscale college a quarter-mile from our house one direction, and one of the largest city-planned low-income housing projects a quarter-mile from our house in a different direction, NoPo is an incredibly diverse, quirky and interesting place to live. So, when Kate at Centsational Girl announced her *favorite things in your town* link party, I thought it'd be a great opportunity to show you around and share with all YOU what I LOVE about my 'hood. Then I realized it would also be perfect for Cat, of Budget Blonde's, *this is {wherever}* party!

Here are my top 10 favorite reasons I love NoPo:

Paul Bunyon Stands Guard.

How can a neighborhood NOT be awesome with this guy standing guard? Measuring in at 31 feet tall, Paul Bunyon was constructed in NoPo in 1959 to commemorate Oregon's centennial. I walk past him every morning on my way to catch the train for work.

Parks Galore!

No really. There are so many awesome parks in NoPo. In fact, there are at least six within a 5 -7 minute bike ride. I have favorites depending on what I want to do: picnic, listen to live music, walk friends dogs and read.

The Sidewalks Tell Stories.

Most namely, the year they were built. It's hard to see in this picture, but on the bottom right, 1912 is etched into the sidewalk. This is completely common in our neighborhood, and it's fun to check the street years on evening walks.

The Gorgeous St. Johns Bridge.

Built in 1931, the bridge spans 2,067 ft. When it was built, it was had the tallest clearance in the nation: 205 ft. It's just one of the ways to enter the neighborhood, but it's the most dramatic, and by far my favorite.

Even the Icons Have Personality.

There are quite a few different bike lane icons in NoPo, and they're all hilarious. And, completely random and quirky. Love.

Proximity to One of the Nation's Largest Urban Parks.

Stretching for eight miles through Portland, Forest Park is just outside of NoPo, and is full of awesome trails. It was actually planned by Olmstead, the same guy who designed Central Park. We LOVE spending afternoons wandering through here.

Best. Library Ever.

I know. A library isn't unique to my neighborhood. But, I run into someone I know every time I visit and that is something I find unique and awesome. Besides, aren't libraries just great?

Great Independent Cafes.

Yes we have a Starbucks. Obviously. But, there's a large number of small independent cafes that are just adorable. They serve great drinks, are super cozy and let you sit for hours. I love meeting friends and chatting it up in them.

Places to Tie Up Your Horse.

Okay, no one rides a horse here anymore, BUT, you can still find these horse ties on some of the older sidewalks. And, if you're lucky, you'll find a miniature horse tied up to it as well :).

I hope you enjoyed the brief glimpse into my neighborhood! Make sure you head over to Centsational Girl and Budget Blonde to check out what others love about their towns! And, just for kicks, what's one of your favorite things about your town/city/neighborhood?

{inspired} commodore hotel

2011-08-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday friends! Did you all have a great weekend? It was our first weekend at home in quite a few weeks, so I took the opportunity to get some painting done: back porch, house trim, garage, frames. By late yesterday afternoon my pinky finger was cramping around the paint brush, but I got SO MUCH DONE! :) This time of year I start get panicked about how much time I'll have left to get *outdoor* projects done before the weather turns crummy. It's like a mad dash before the rains start for the rest of the fall/winter!

But enough about painting. We have plenty of time to talk about that later. Today, let's talk about inspiration in the form of the Commodore Hotel. Last week I mentioned the Commodore when I shared our recent trip to Astoria with you. We stayed there, and I'm so in love with design, so I thought we'd kick the week off with a quick tour.

The original hotel closed in 1965. The building was purchased in 2007 and restored with both attention to historic detail and a wonderfully updated, contemporary feel. The outside showcases the beautiful historic building. I love the two rocking chairs out front. It was such a cozy place to relax for a few minutes.

The hotel is connected to a cafe, and this is the view from the cafe into the lobby. LOVE the dark walls and the lobby font.

Friends, the lobby is amazing. It isn't big by any stretch, but it's full of quirky, fun, inviting decor. There's plenty of places to sit, a nice fireplace and a great bookcase.

Let's take a closer look at that incredible bookcase. SO MUCH TEXTURE. There are so many gorgeous books, and I love that they have them facing both ways. Pair that with great antiques and the ends of rolled up paper, this bookcase is an amazing focal point for the lobby.

The rooms are by no means fancy, but they were so comfortable. Usually I shy away from wood windows, but I LOVE the dark wood on these. It makes them a very appropriate feature in the room, especially paired with the mostly-white/light colored furnishings. Oh and that orange coffee table? You better believe that MADE the room for me :). It's a great pop of color.

The all white bed was so crisp and clean and inviting. Oh, and it was comfortable too :).

The bathrooms are super white with lots of great white tile and white and gray granite. I love this look in a bathroom. Especially a hotel bathroom. It feels so luxorious.

Orange door with a fire escape info painted on the window? YES.

Hallway light. Gorgeous detail.

The interior was designed by Andee Hess' Portland interior design company Osmose. She is the genius behind this gorgeous kitchen:

Photos via me, Commodore Hotel, Remodelista and Dwell.

What do you think of the hotel? And, what's a great hotel that you stayed in recently? Or what's a hotel that you dream of staying in someday? We'd all love to hear! :)

{summer of fun} Astoria

2011-08-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

To belatedly celebrate our birthdays, Chris and I fled the city and headed to a small coastal town at the very northern tip of Oregon. It's a town that's had a significant impact on both the nation's past and MY past. The spot? Astoria, Oregon. Have you heard of it? Nationally, it's significant because it's where Lewis and Clark wintered when they were here. It's also the first settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. Personally, it's significant because it's where my parents met and where I was born! :) My parent's moved up to the Portland area when I was really little, but my mom's entire family still lives there, so it's not like it's been 30 years since I visited (I mean 20. Er, yeah, 20 years ;). Growing up I spent quite a bit of time there, especially in the summers. But these days I usually go for a day, and usually on National Holidays when everything is closed. Honestly, I've always taken the town for granted and never taken the time to explore.

The last couple times I've driven through town I noticed there are a lot cool hotels, restaurants and shops popping up. So Chris and I played tourists for a weekend. We spent a couple days enjoying the great restaurants, relaxing and poking around in the cute little shops. Its was lovely.

The town sits right at the mouth of where the Columbia River meets the Pacific. Historically, it's a town that grew from the fishing industry. My mom even worked in a cannery during her summers growing up. And yes, that meant I had no sympathy when it came to my summer jobs ;).

The town is charming and people are working hard to restore its historic buildings, instead of tearing them down, which I love. It makes for a town full of beautiful architecture surrounded by amazing land and water. Below are a few snapshots of our adventures I thought you'd enjoy.

We stayed in the Commodore Hotel, outside pictured above. Monday I'll share with a little more about the hotel, because it is one of the coolest hotels I've ever stayed in and the decor is AMAZING.

And with that, I hope you have an FABULOUS weekend! We're having stay-at-home work weekend. Fingers crossed that I'll have some great *after* photos to share with you next week.

{create} fabric solutions + a fun new blog feature

2011-08-24T08:55:00.000-07:00

Good morning friends! I have TWO awesome things to share with you today.

The first is that you'll find my post for the day up at The Borrowed Abode. Do you know Jane's blog? It is full of great decorating and organizational tips. And, do you remember when I teased you a with this picture?

Well, if you head over to Jane's blog now you'll see what on earth that actually is! :)

Second on the list of awesome today ... do you notice anything different about my blog? Here's a photo to help:

Look closer, because I now have a customized favicon!

Let's zoom in ...

Isn't it so cool? It's like the jewelry for an outfit ... a little extra bling that is just so much fun. My friend Lauren, from Myers Maison and LrnM Design designed them. And guess what? She can design them for you too! (And, she's not paying me to say this :) I just really like her AND my new favicon! :)She has a really awesome design business and part of that is designing custom favicons. And while you're over there digging around, make sure you check out her shop. I love her *this is only a test* print. So awesome.

So remember, there are two places you need to visit today. 1. The Borrowed Abode. 2. LrnM Design. Have fun, and make sure to report back on all the great things you discover.

**Let's not count how many times I've said awesome in this post. Clearly, I'm not having creative word day. Where's my thesaurus?? :)

a home in the making

{inspired} by my blog friends

{inspire} slow. down.

{inspired} creating your own style

{create} gallery wall, part deux

{create} double-chocolate brownies

{create} felt art

{inspired} simplicity

{inspired} Focusing on 2012

{inspired} painting interior doors

{inspire} winter color palettes

{create} a happy new year!

{create} new years resolutions

{2011} A Home in the Making

{inspired} holiday traditions

{holiday} decorations!

{inspired} new artists + a winner (!)

{holiday} tree!

{inspired} Portland Bazaar

{inspired} gift guide and a giveaway!

{holiday} mantle

{create} book *snowflakes*

{inspired} school house electric

{inspired} decorating for Christmas

{create} 10 Great Holiday Crafts

{create} a backdrop for the thanksgiving feast

{create} glam gold vases

{inspired} festive table settings

{inspired} Mood Board Monday: dinnerware

{inspired} quilts of Gee's Bend

{renovate} shanghai-d

{inspired} the anniversary getaway

{create} the writing on the mirror

{renovate} hallway lighting

{inspired} new pillows

{create} wall stripes

{renovate} stripes!

{inspired} fall color palettes

{inspired} photography class + tips

{inspired} hibernating

{inspired} the non-inspired

{ahomeinthemaking} the wedding

{the wedding} inspiration

{a home in the making} anniversary, no. 3

{two become one} house tour guest post

{inspired} roomspiration

{inspired} striped walls

{inspired} wallpaper mood board

{inspired} around the web

{inspired} quilts

{renovate} a view of the back

{create} a gallery wall + sources

{renovate} living room updates

{inspired} weekend crafts

{renovate} outdoor chair makeover

{summer of fun} south sister

{renovate} the garage ... three years later

{inspired} North Portland

{inspired} commodore hotel

{summer of fun} Astoria

{create} fabric solutions + a fun new blog feature

{create} book snowflakes