{renovate} shanghai-d

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

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

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! :)