hey, its a house.

We bought a house. A neat one-story, u-shaped, brick ranch that backs to the ninth hole of a golf course. It's 2200 square feet of . . . well, it's ours anyway! We settled in August and even though I should blog about it, I'm going to take the year off and focus on working on it. Here's what you should know:

1. We love it. (Obviously)
2. It needs a lot of work.
3. Over the next year we're going to be doing as much of that work as we can.

I began tapping away at this blog mainly for myself to track inspiration and write about things that were important to me in the moment. Now that we've got the house, it's what's important to me for this season, so I've decided to focus on it.

Eventually, our hope is to have some great before & after pictures! Mostly because we want to live in the afters.

turning 25

it's here . . . i've been on this earth for one-quarter of a century.


25 Things I Want to Do Before I'm 30
1. photograph one thing, every single day, for a year
2. plant a vegetable garden, or maybe just a small herb garden
3. learn to menu plan on a weekly basis
4. take a pottery class and brush up on my wheel throwing
5. write, illustrate, & design a children's book, even if it never gets published
6. read The Bible every single day
7. go a whole month without sugar
8. buy a video camera, make home videos
9. organize all of our photos into bound books
10. install a porch swing or hammock
11. spend more quality time with my sweetheart
12. throw themed dinner parties
13. find a friend who likes to exercise
14. go through my artwork from college and pitch at least half of it
15. find a place for everything. put everything in it's place
16. keep a sketchbook
17. go sailing
18. re-establish mexican monday
19. design a stationery line and sell it
20. create art for our house
21. take photos of just the two of us frequently
22. create a book that describes our special Christmas ornaments
23. lose fifteen pounds
24. (I'm not telling)
25. (this one's a secret too)

woody.

everyone seems to be into the woods lately, I'm diggin' 'em too.
check out these:

1. wood deck
2. palo samko bird
3. laser-cut alphabet

on/off

I've been on and off, out and about, and not really up to posting in the last few weeks, which explains the gigantic lapse.

but I'm back.

with these neat-o switchplates!

Bucket Bicycle!

Ever since Tim and I snagged our sweet tandem bike on craigslist last year, I've been searching for an awesome one-seater bike for myself, only thing is I'd really like it to be able to tote stuff so it's useful - I keep seeing sweet vintage bicycles with side bags and baskets, but I just saw this and now I so want one of these:

Because I would so do this:

and I'm not the slightest bit embarrassed to let you know I entered the contest by posting this!

another post about egg chairs!

Remember this post from awhile back? Now Pottery Barn has a super cute hanging egg chair and it's on sale- too bad the sale price is still about $700 more then I want to spend! from pottery barn

urban outfitter love

on my shopping list.

1. pleated shirt
2. ruffle suit
3. tap pant
4. ruffle shirt

long dresses

1. blue skywriter
2. graphite chiffon

3. honey-dripped

4. blue ash convertile skirt/dress

today.

poster from studio mela

opinions please

For the past few weeks Tim and I have been using spare moments, brief though they may be, to work on two small sailboats that we recently acquired through the wonderfulness that is craigslist. (Search for "Sunfish" or "small sailboat" if you're looking for your own) Tim's boat is an AMF Aquafinn, the big brother to a sunfish and my sweet little boat is the smaller version called a Minifish (also made by AMF in the 1970's).

Now that we've put in some elbow grease (mostly Tim's) we're almost ready to set sail - one more thing, these boats need names! We've pretty much settled on TimFinn for Tim's blue and yellow striped sailer. Help me pick one for mine! (poll on the right)

i love orla.

www.orlakiely.com

stop-motion morning

i just saw this amazing stop-action photography piece here:

stone's throw

i think these are really soothing to look at.

woodsy picnic

1. yellow floral napkins
2. bamboo triple-tier pail
3. bamboo plates
4. bamboo flatware

don't go far

Stay in your own backyard and picnic- but create a bug-free zone by hanging an oversized mosquito net then cozy up your space with a blanket and some throw pillows!

1. Print Plates
2. Oversized Outdoor Net
3. Print Blanket
4. Ice Bucket
5. Ground Pillows

handy helpers

These might make picnic just a little bit easier, now isn't that handy?

1. Paring Knives
2. Salt / Pepper
3. Salad Keeper
4. Table in a Bag

tin bins

What could be more fun for a picnic than these ? 1. bucket grill
2. picnic tin
3. plastic pail

fresh picnic

1. Sweet Grass Pillow
2. Green Plastic Glasses
3. Square Bamboo Plates
4. Neato Wire Basket
5. Sushi Plate
6. Outline Tablecloth

picnic week

I admit it, I can't stop thinking about summer, that's the reason for the swimsuit post yesterday.

and consequently also why I've decided to dedicate this entire week to Picnic Planning. I'm going to check out all the outdoor eating supplies available at my favorite vendors. Hope you're looking forward to summer as much as I am.

For starters:

Flatware
Basket
Blanket
Umbrella
Square Plates

thinking ahead to summer . . .

1. Arabian Nights Swimsuit
2. Knit Swing Dress
3. Hideaway Hat

portland

dear wonderful husband tim,

can we move here and live in these?

k, thanks,

your devoted wife

I WANT this table.

This is the dining room table my husband wants. he says "Now THAT's a table I'd pay full price for!" For a guy who despises over-priced, pretentious furniture, I'm shocked. THIS is the table you like . . . don't get me wrong, I love this table - it's thick, rough-hewn, reclaimed timbers from a Brittish distillery. I LOVE this table. I'm just surprised that my sweetheart, (we're talking ramen noodle 'because it's soooo cheap' eating TIM, here) would drop over 3K for this.

COOL! Except that's a huge chunk of down-payment money. . . which means - yea, we're not doing that, but I'm still in awe.

And . . . because he wants this table, it makes ME want this table, and NOW my desire is totally justified.

misty morning

It was so foggy this morning I could barely see the cars in front of me - I grabbed these shots with my iPhone. On the corner where I sit and wait for (the longest light in history) to turn green, I can usually see the 7-11 and Shell station very clearly as they are both less then hundred feet from my window - but this morning it looked like this:
I think this means its getting warmer!

tim's day

March 12 is Tim's birthday. . . he worked a really long day - I had to say 'Happy Birthday' to him at midnight because otherwise I wouldn't have seen him on his birthday!

Me: Happy Birthday!!!!

Tim: Thanks, what tie should I wear tomorrow? (holds up decrepit tie hanger weighed down with ties and a striped one already in his hand.)

Me: That one! (choosing the one already in his hand) How come you have to work for 22 out of 24 hours that make up your birthday?

Tim: Because we have 5 events today, and the President will be at one of them . . . . and there's a lot of extra things that need to be done when the President is attending something.

Me: President Obama?

Tim: No the other President? Yeah, President Obama is coming to my birthday party.

Me: I always knew you were important.

While he was off doing a little bread winning I thought it would be sweet (in a first grade kind of way) to make him a batch of cupcakes that he could take to work today since he'll actually be in his office for part of today.

The only problem was that I couldn't decide what kind to make - so I made two kinds

Butter Pecan and Lemon. I made regular sized cupcakes and mini ones, by the time I was finished I had enough cupcakes on the kitchen table to fill my cupcake carrier times FOUR!!!

But I only have one cupcake carrier not four, sadly - so I'll be transporting the rest to my office to share with my co-workers via a very uncool baking sheet.

I'm not sure exactly why (probably has something to do with my obsession for all things candy) but I like to try and work in favorite candies when I'm making a batch of cupcakes for someone special - Last year I made a Nerd/Smarties Cake for Tim and it was pretty darn cute though I say it myself:

So this year, I incorporated peeps - Tim really loves peeps - in fact he actually enjoys them in all stages - Stage 1 being the freshly opened soft and sandy deliciousness, Stage 2 is the day old slightly firmed version and then there's Stage 3 - the several day old, been sitting with the plastic open, freely exposed to the air and now completely stale and hard stage. He claims he likes them best in Stage 3 when they've "matured." Gross, I know. but in any event I put peeps ontop of the lemon cupcakes, I think they've now got a better chance of being devoured before we reach stage 3, don't you?

Apple Tart

Easy Apple Tart:
I made this tart this past weekend for a bunch of friends and it was pretty quick - I generally use shortcuts like puff pastry or pre-made crusts to speed up the process, especially if I'm not making a recipe ahead of time, but I wasn't planning on making this until it was begged of me - and who am I to deny a good friend some apple tart? Actually I couldn't resist the excuse to bake - we talked about a few apple tarts I had made last fall as we were sitting down to eat dinner and I got so excited thinking about baking this that I barely ate any dinner and jumped up to find a crust recipe. I didn't have much flour so it was tricky finding one that I had all the ingredients on hand for but this was it. There was more of this tart to begin with then in the picture above but by the time I got out my camera this was all that was left. The crust is really easy and tastes a lot like shortbread due to the excessive amount of butter.

What You need:
2 sticks of butter, cold, cut into slices
2 1/4 cups of flour
dash of salt
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of ice water (it does have to be cold)

cinnamon
honey
sugar

3 apples
butter for drizzling while its baking

What to do:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Toss the butter, flour, sugar, and salt into your mixer (or food processor) and mix until it just begins to form a crumbly clump then add the cold water just a little at a time until it looks more like dough but watch out that it doesn't get too sticky, if this does happen just add a bit more flour. Turn out onto a floured surface and pat it together, then knead it for a quick second roll it out flat. Place the rolled sheet of dough on the parchment lined baking sheet. Form a rectangular slab and cut off any excess. Then form a rim by folding over the edge about a 1/2 inch and pinch it together.

Drizzle honey, sprinkle cinnamon and sugar onto the dough and peirce with a fork in two or three places. Place in the oven for about ten minutes - check it to be sure it isn't rising or getting too brown.

While the crust is in the oven lice the apples thinly - I used a variety (one yellow, one gala, and one pink lady) to give the tart some extra color. Then pull the crust out of the oven and arrange the apple slices in neat rows - or if you could just throw them on there and spread them around until you like the random arrangement - though the apples tend to cook more evenly if you take the extra minute to arrange them. drizzle more honey, sugar and cinnamon on top and place the tray back into the oven - to be honest I don't really remember how long it took to bake because I was making brownies at the same time but I'd guess about 25-30 minutes. Check it now and then and if it looks like it might be getting dried out drizzle some butter over the tops of the apples, I ended up using another 1/4 of a stick!

Pink Shower

Holly's having a girl so naturally the shower details were all pink (paired with chocolate brown), all the caregroup ladies have been wanting a tea party for so long that this seemed like the perfect excuse to bring out the teacups! We dressed up the dining room with streamers and hung these cute pink lanterns from the chandelier.

Each lady got to take home a white teacup with a few nice teabags and a bit of chocolate wrapped up in brown organza and finished up with ribbon. We used these at the place settings so they doubled as place cards!

We hung these girly Pom Poms along with streamers and ribbon above the buffet. We snacked on

cucumber, chicken, and gluten-free varieties of tea sandwiches. There were all kinds of Tea as well as scones, tea cookies, fruit, and pink lemonade!

Pink candies were festively displayed in small dishes, some tied with ribbon to create a mini candy-bar and floral arrangements placed in teapots graced the table. I so enjoyed doing a little decor for this girl get-together.

streaming

One of the things Tim and I most enjoy about the area where we live is that there are so many parks and historic properties. One of our favorite things to to is explore these places. About a year ago we found a gorgeous an overgrown area that though completely coverd in vines and weeds, we could tell must have once been a beautifully landscaped garden. There were brick walls and paths and raised beds, even a little bench tucked into an alcove. It reminded us so much of the Secret Garden that we now call it that.

We took one of our exploring driving/walking trips a few days ago to am old brick bridge and as we were leaving we saw these beautiful rays of sun shining through the clouds.

We stopped to take the above picture and admire God's beautiful creation, after a moment we turned to go but just then an enormous flock of birds flew over our heads and I had barely enough time to whip the camera out again. We were so glad we stopped!

singing in the rain

I would definitely sing in the rain if I had one of these umbrellas, and these will surely cheer up any dreary,drizzly day!

1. spectrum stipes
2. cooper men's umbrella
3. cloud cover

number punching

i'm doing something really fun today, tell you all about it next week!

sneak peak

prepping for an event this weekend, so here's a little preview of pictures coming next week!

is it spring yet?

. . .because I'm ready for some green.

1. stained glass necklace
2. measuring spoons
3. rollerskate doorstop
4. granny smith jar
5. kiddie set

across the map.

1. stitachable postcard
2. DC plate
3. here mat
4. NY in a bag

make a statement.

I'd love to throw a a wine & cheese party with these conversation pieces:

1. incense holder
2. chat plates
3. chandelier
4. wine within

chair love.

i've admired egg chairs (hanging, stationary floor, and outdoor models alike) for years. i want one for my house or a set for my porch when we get a house. but when it comes down to it my wallets looking sadly empty. pottery barn's outdoor version just went on sale - still a bit out of my price range, tempting as it is.

these are inspired by the 1950's originals:

1. hanging wicker chair

2. leather egg chair

perhaps one day I'll have the perfect spot for an egg chair but in the meantime i'll stare dreamily at this image which just completely appeals to all that my heart desires in an egg chair: