Yup.

For ...those who want to give up on their business idea/etsy/blog/ or if they think their hobby is lame. Or if that nagging voice in your head keeps telling you that no one will like what you are doing. I liked this. And yeah, I am insecure sometimes.

Lace Lovin'

Tomorrow Josh and I are getting our pictures done! Josh's sister Jen of Kreatid Photography is kind of a rock star photog so I am excited:)

I've been kind of into lace dresses lately so that's what I am wearing. I wish I could say mine was all cool and vintage but it's not. Totally from JC Penney (I had a coupon).

Here are some other pretty lace dress pictures I am loving lately!

Gotta love T. Swift...

Chictopia

Pinterest

Urban Outfitters

Elle.com

All This Happiness (cool fashion blog btw)

Holiday Shoppe recap

Whew. It's been a crazy few weeks! Two boutiques means I have been super busy. Anyways. I wanted to post a few pics of an awesome Holiday Shoppe I was a part of a few weeks ago. Liz, from the Blue Eyed Owl got together a bunch of crafty ladies for a co-op vintage market. There were so many handmade and vintage items. And yummy food. AND santa. Yeah - it was awesome. Here are just a few snapshots from the day.

This should have said "scalding hot cocoa" it was a wee bit warm.

Just a little peak at my booth:)

New sparkle headbands!

Some lovely vintage ice cream bowls:) I do love these. A lot.

Blue Eyed Owl (love these bows).

Vintage ornaments from Blue Eyed Owl - love it.

Beautiful bows from Ashley @ The Pink Ruffle

More Pink Ruffle goodness...

Paper straws from Domestic Charm - I was next to Katelyn that day and she had such fun stuff and I love her super creative blog!

Lovely felt headbands from Miss Hotcakes

More Miss Hotcakes...

Junk in the Trunk girls representin! They had some beautiful items as usual:)

Ashley from the Shine Project!

And the lovely Bonnie Inc.!

There were some other great vendors there but my camera stopped working halfway thru the day so I didn't get around to everyone:(

Ode to Emily Henderson

So lately I have developed a little design crush on Emily Henderson. I don't know what the girl version of bromance is but that is what I feel for Emily. I want to be her BFF. I want to go to flea markets with her and pick out little ceramic animals and tufted chairs together.

She's adorable no? And I love a good belted dress.

If you are not familiar with the awesomeness that is her blog - she was also the winner of HGTV's Design Star and has an amazing TV show called "secrets of a stylist".

Here is what I like about her.

* she is a cute dresser - which helps my theory that there is a direct relationship between people's fashion and people's home decor. If you take risks in fashion - you will take risks in decorating.

* she is a good writer. Sometimes I read blogs for the pictures..and sometimes I read, well to read. And her blog I read for both. Love her witty style.

* she likes vintage and weird things.

* her design tends to be more cluttery than sparse. I love me some cluttery goodness.

* she likes floral (wallpaper, fabric, whatevsies)

* we have the same tufted wingback chair.

* she likes color. Sometimes I feel like my style is lame and kid like because I like color. But Emily (yes, we are on a first name basis) likes color so I feel totally validated.

Ok, enough of that. Here are some of my fave Emily inspirations. All pictures are from her blog.

A teal tufted couch....yes, please.

You may have pinned this already. I cannot imagine living in such a cozy grey and yellow nook.

Christmas carols on a map? I don't think home decor gets much better.

That is her desk chair. I love it. I have a similar one. I wonder if hers came with as much cat hair as mine did?

This is her living room. Shut the front door. It's awesome.

The rug. The brass lamp. The awesome gallery wall on golden wallpaper. I love it all.

I never met a pop of pink I didn't like.

Her winning room on Design Star. The blue and green is so so so lovely. And I will take two of those wood stools please.

Another map I love. On a navy blue wall? Too much awesome.

That isn't a ceramic peacock is it?! And those yellow shelves are kind of ridiculous.

I heart this rug. And the pops of pink. And the kooky dog painting.

Kinda trendy - but cute. And I love the print.

I need her to take me to the awesome teal couch store and then to the yellow velvet chair store.

See? Risks.

And thus concludes my blog of all things Emily Henderson. Thanks for stopping by:)

Two years:)

This past weekend Josh and I celebrated two years of marriage... and I crossed an important milestone of being with Josh for longer than I liked Josh:)

Some of you know our story. How I cold have sworn God was writing a pretty lame and long book about friendship and then BAM out of nowhere the next chapter turned into a love story and made all the previous chapters make complete sense.

I'll never forget going for a long drive and asking God if I should talk to Josh about....US. What were we? I was confused. I was 25 and I didn't need a guy BFF. Stopped at a red light, I look over and there was JOSH. At the same red light. Totally random. He rolled down his window and asked if I wanted to talk because I looked upset. Seriously?!

So thankful for the story God writes. Even though some chapters seem long and uneventful and you're like "Um God...did you have to add that part in - the one where I gave Josh a hug when he was just lifting his arm to block the sun? Or the part where I give him a high five the first time he tried to hold my hand? Did you have to make me so completely awkward?!"

But then you're reminded to relax. Not every detail is perfect. But God is ...and he is doing the writing.

2009

2010

2011

Life lately...

So, I have been a little MIA as of late. It's just a busy season so that's all I got:) This weekend I was able to do a second Vintage Market with Junkrestore. This market was literally just across the street and felt very much like the one I did in September - but about 30 degrees cooler.

I shared a booth with my friend Jessie from ThirtyOne24 and we had a grand old time talking to other vendors and drooling over the merchandise.

I did come home with an awesome yellow velvet couch for my sister in law Jen of Kreatid Photography and Design. Jen you can totally store this in my home if you have to;) I also impulsively bought a rusty, heavy antique washing machine. So, needless to say Josh did a lot of furniture moving this weekend.

Exhibit A: Yellow couch - Isn't that amazing?



/>Exhibit B: rusty washing machine - Oh gosh. Did I really need that?! No. not even a little bit. But I kinda love it.

Can I just tell you the story of that yellow bookcase? We happened upon it in the ALLEY while we were bike riding and I was shopping for treasures because it was bulk trash week. Don't judge.

And I saw it. It was black and gross but the legs. Oy vey if you put little adorable legs on anything I will pretty much buy it. So josh boldy picked it up and walked down the block with it and across the street till it was safely in our garage. It still needs another coat of spray paint and those stapled on ghetto maps aren't doing it any favors ...but I was in a hurry to use it in my booth for the Vintage Market.

Alright I will leave you with a little plug for this event! A few fellow bloggers and crafters are doing this and it is sure to be an awesome time! If you like paper straws, headbands, vintage clothing, barnwood signs with adorable sayings and pretty much if you like cool things - you will want to be here!! No seriously, it will be great!

Living room re do

You know when you look at pictures of yourself from junior high and you're like what was I thinking wearing those skorts (yes, skorts) paired with a winnie the pooh shirt? Yes, I wore winnie the pooh in junior high. It was sad.

Or maybe you had a pair of cutoff shorts that you wore with a giant tee shirt of Michel W. Smith and on the back it said "Friends are friends forever." Maybe.

Anyways - it is the same thing with my living room. We moved in and I made some poor furniture decisions. Here's a little peek at what we were dealing with.

Now, hey certainly there is much worse out there. And I am super grateful for a house and furniture to put in it....but this was just not my style. I felt like these couches were a little bachelor pad - and in fact, we did sell them on craigslist to a bachelor...big surprise. The couch came with a chair that took up so much room in our little house and it only fit one medium sized booty. If you had a particularly small booty maybe it could fit two of you. But, that was not happenin in this house. If something is going to take up half my living room I feel like it should fit more than one person.

So here's where we are at today.
Much more seating and a little more color - which I love. I am in the process of recovering that coffee table/trunk...but for now - it's a bit unfinished. I am ok with that. Welcome to 90 percent of my house - unfinished projects.

Here is my blue velvet wingback I literally secured with packing tape in my trunk to get her home from Goodwill. And the vacuumed cat hair off of it for the next hour. Gross, I know - but I really do love blue velvet chairs, and the nailhead trim with tufting??? I die. I am actually blogging from this very chair right now. I love it.

Here is our new dining room table, I got it a garage sale and it was already painted and distressed - score. Plus it has a leaf, two more chairs and awesome claw feet you can't see from this picture. Sad. Don't judge our dinky light fixture hung way to high and dirty carpet. Man, I am an insecure blogger.

So yeah - just a little tour of what I've been working on lately. There has been more - like some dramatic fabric goodness hung on the walls but I couldn't get a good picture of it...here is a sneak peek of what is going on on the other side of the room....

Those are vintage curtains found in an abandoned house in Nebraska. True story. I nearly left my clothing in Nebraska so I could fit these home in my luggage.

So - just a few fun little things going on in our living room. It's far from perfect - but I think that's part of the fun:)