next place

I love stripes. How about stripes of tile? Its so cool. Maybe I'll try something like this in the next place. I've been drooling over this since we finished our bathrooms about 6 months ago, its from Living Etc.

break

I need a little break from all this cleaning. I wish I had little pillow like this from Anthropologie to lay my head on!

freshen up

I saw this pic on www.egreenitems.com, its cute right? Today I have a full plate! I have apile of packing AND cleaning to do. A little more than spring-cleaning must occur since we will be showing the house before long. I feel like it is terribly musty in here. Partly from all the rain I am sure, I need an adequate air-out!

My list to freshen up includes the following:

-wash the dog!

-scrub the floors

-vacuum out the couch

-wash some windows

-consolidate and go through all the papers, mail, etc around the house

-clean out all closets and reorganize

-clean out under crib, beds, furniture

-clean the fridge and scrub it out

-organize the junk on both porches so that they can be opened up and used

This weekend my husband and I are tackling the basement! We are going to have it professionally cleaned as we do get water in it from time to time and we have a stinky little kitty who sleeps down there. We will also have our vents cleaned and ducts cleaned up. That should help! Off I go to make some progress:)...wish me luck!

photoshoot

So here is a little teaser from the photo shoot I helped with last Friday. I was going to post my own photos of my inspiration but Jodi's photos are just so much more appealing. They are definitely worth the wait.

Jodi (from Jodi Miller Photography) asked me to help style some shoots and this is sort of the inspiration for the whole theme. Bride Heather totally cooperated with us coming up with an idea and seeing it to completion. We had no idea what style she was going for or what kind of dress she had. It was just a lot of flexibility on her part and a whole lot of nervous excitement on our part. All in all it turned out better than I even thought. However, Jodi and Kurt have just the right touch and a great eye, and all their photos turn out magical! Enjoy for now. I'll post more when Jodi does! In the meantime, check out Jodi's work at www.jodimillerphotography.com!

excuses, excuses

It seems like I always have an excuse for not posting all the time. There is so much I want to post and yet I haven't been able to find the time! My Mom went through and is now recovering from major surgery and I am recovering from my own craziness. Yesterday, my soon to be sister-in-law, Jodi Miller (of Jodi Miller Photography), asked me to help her style a shoot. Its tomorrow and I have just about everything assembled. I can't wait to post some pictures of it. Maybe I'll post a little inspiration a little later.

In the meantime, look at these cool treehouses. Gosh, sometimes I wish I were a kid again and had a really cool fort. That was one of my favorite things growing up. Now I have a grown up fort, except its called a Cape Cod and it requires way more upkeep than any of my forts growing up. All these pics are courtesy of MSN and Peter Nelson.

graham & brown

Since we HAVE to move I am trying to make things exciting for myself. I have never tackled wallpaper before. I remember, when I was little, my Dad hanging it in the kitchen and there was a lot of huffing and puffing and mild expletives going on in there. Since then, according to other design sources, wallpaper seems like the greatest thing. Not only is it supposedly easier to hang its also much better looking!

All the above are from Graham & Brown out of the UK. Prices seem reasonable, I need only to convince Chris:-).

packing

I should be packing, I've only done one box! With all this thinking about packing and moving, all I wanted to think about was handbags and how I need a new one. Marc Jacobs has some lovely bags right around the 500 dollar mark...I wonder if TJ Maxx has anything a tad cheaper;-).

I have a to-do list as long as my arm so I better go for now...

whoa

I am finally finished with my classes for this semester! Things are up in the air for the fall semester as I have agreed yet again to move. Every other week we are like "lets do it, no wait."

I am really not looking forward to packing up and moving, I love living in beautiful, historic Staunton, VA. Its just that I hate being apart from Chris, he can't stand it either. I'd like to have more babies so moving now as opposed to later would be ideal. Us living apart is a huge expense that could be sent towards the abyss of debt we are trying to pay down. So it makes sense. I just hate that I think I found the home I want and we are no where near listing ours. I better get busy! In the meantime, LOOK at this flippin' rug! I love it. There is more about it on Apartment Therapy's blog...check it out.

fancy

Hey, check out this $70 plate from www.dapperfrog.com, its sooooo cool! Although if I spent 70 bucks on a plate I'd probably only be able to afford to eat Cheetos off of it!

I heart this

Polaroid heart from Cookie magazine...I have a pile of 3"x3" black and white photos that Chris and I printed up to hang on the walls. I'll have to think of a place for something like this to work...its so sweet looking!

blurb

Have you ever seen or heard of Blurb? Go right now to www.blurb.com and make your own book! I can't wait to try it:-)

wedding project

First things first, all of these gorgeous photos were taken by the amazing Jodi Miller and Kurt Baier of www.jodimillerphotography.com. Kurt is my brother and is holding my little Keira below, Jodi is his wonderful fiance. They are the ones I have been collecting china for their wedding. They came over last week to set up a mock table setting.

My kitchen table looked nice in my backyard, its good I mowed a few hours before!

Old books, handmade lace flowers, mason jars, silverware, china, brass candlesticks, burlap...

The lilacs were droopy but smelled fantastic. These flowers are not an accurate representation of what will be used for the wedding, they were free though, and cut from the garden!

I made the napkin rings out of twine and vintage earrings from my mother-in-law, she had great taste! I made the napkins out of a sweet cotton print I had laying around.

I can't wait to do another one of these with the appropriate flowers and on a larger table!

PS...This is also featured today on http://brideslittlewhitebook.blogspot.com!

compelling artist

In my quest to locate some art for all the empty frames in my house I came across Daniel Egneus. He is on blogspot as http://danielegneus.blogspot.com and also the web at www.danielegneus.com. I love his use of watercolors and ink. The unfinished quality too is something I really feel, as I rarely finish projects I am working on! I also like how they look like a smattering of my own sketchbooks, combinations of doodles and masterpieces, ha! I hope you enjoy his work!

Long Time No Blog

I am sorry for not updating this thing in a while. My hubby finally moved up to his new place and started his new job and I am finishing up my classes for this semester. I feel really out of the loop after going back to school after 6 years. Studying for finals is much different this time around. Especially since I have a little one who likes to get into everything I am working on!

So hopefully I am back. I also fixed the comments on this thing. Apparently some of you wanted to comment and it was not working. Hopefully there won't be any more issues with that.

The image above was taken by Marissa Nicole DeMott. Its the wedding cake I made for my father-in-law and his new bride! Not bad for a first cake, but I definitely need to improve! So much fun! It was a vanilla/almond cake with layers of homemade lemon curd on two of the tiers and homemade strawberry jam in the middle tier. It was covered in buttercream icing and topped off with fondant, fondant roses made by me and the hubby, and lace. It took a total of 8 and a half hours to make. Now I know why wedding cakes are so expensive!