Look Ma! New Shoes

Monday, October 31, 2011


























Don't you love when you find an absolutely good thrift find? How about these shoes that cost me a whopping $4.00? I'm absolutely ecstatic about this find. I usually don't find great thrift shoes because they are either really worn out/ dirty or the cute ones aren't in my size! Darn you size 7 feet... don't you know that's the average size for women? Well thrift store, keep the cute shoes coming!!

The Night of Nights




Happy Halloween everyone! I hope it's a good one! It's one of the days of the year we get to act childlike again and get a way with it! I'll be handing out candy to the little one's tonight while making a Halloween feast for Drew & I. What are your plans? What are you dressing up as?

Lovely Friday!

Friday, October 28, 2011



























Friday always comes just in time, doesn't it? I'm ready for some time off from work. This weekend I will be prepping our house for the inevitable snowfall. I'll be baking some yummy Halloween treats for a Monday potluck at my work. Me & Drew will be spending some time at Halloween festivities & I'll also be meeting with the cutest bride to discuss the flowers for her wedding.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! Get one of these in if you can & enjoy your Halloween festivities.

Image Source {1}

Home Inspiration: Animals

Thursday, October 27, 2011




Is this a trend to hit or miss? Little animals knickknacks used to decorate with. I personally like the whimsical style of it. I'm just not sure if I could make it look as great as these.  My favorite is the birthday cake dinosaur & the bottle brush Christmas Ornaments. Or how about just a photo of the animals on the wall. That might be cool right?

So what do you think, yay or nay?

Image Sources {1234, 56 }

November Wishlist

Wednesday, October 26, 2011














































I learned a new trick for all you Mac users! Usually I screen print for images that won't allow me to save to my folders. But I found out you can select what you screen print. Just hit command, shift and the number 4. You will notice that your mouse will now have a cross. Select the area you want to screen print and let go. Wallah!!

I'm in love with red-orange of all hues this Autumn! Can't you tell? Now that it's cooling off I need  some new flats! I have dozens of sandals, but hardly any flats! These sparkly loafers from JCrew are to die for! I'm going to have to find a less expensive pair though! I also need some new mittens and a new wallet. Okay, and how about that grey and red-orange blanket? I'm in love! I also have the desire to start collecting something. I was thinking of vintage sheers. What do you think?

I found some of these things at Mohawk General Store and Brook Farm General Store. They have the most stunning products! Half of which will be on my Xmas list!

You can find these lovely things here: 1, 2, 3, 45

Embracing Fall

Monday, October 24, 2011

























Living in Utah, it's not very often that we get to enjoy Autumn. It usually snows before the end of October and is cold and white until April. I am counting my blessings that this year, it's been a warm and colorful fall. I am constantly surrounded by the beautiful Rocky Mountains. What a sight they are in Fall!

I think the reason I love Fall so much, and especially October, is it's my birth month. My soul is more awake during October! I feel more creative, more outgoing, more happy. Simply because I feel like the best me there is, out of the entire year! Do you feel that energy around your birthday? Or maybe around a certain time of the year?

Image Sources {1, 2 }

Paper Bowls

Friday, October 21, 2011


























Man oh man, after looking at my For the Home board on Pinterest, I love so many different styles! I guess you could call my dream home eclectic. I would FILL it to the brim with beautiful thing! Things from different places & times & styles. I could never, ever, ever narrow it down to one decor style! So, if you don't like chaos, you will not like my future home. (It's too early in my collecting phase to scare any OCD people yet!) I love clean & modern styles. I love the cleanliness of chevrons & stripes, white paint mixed with bright colors & minimalistic furniture. But on the other hand I love all things ethnic, earthy & vintage. I love ethnic patterns & vintage furniture. I'm in love with hand painted kitchenware & earthy colors. There are way too many beautiful things out  there!

Lately my obsession is with all things paper. I love all the neat crafts you can do with old books! They color of old book pages, YUM! I love the vintage & recycled look that goes along with the paper. Okay, so what do you think of the beautiful bowls by Cecilia Levy? I want one of them to put in my china hutch as decor. Unfortunately they are made of paper so they are just for show, but boy, are they pretty!

October Music

Thursday, October 20, 2011




I'm ready for raking leaves, carving pumpkins and baking cinnamon cookies. I love boots, hats, long sleeves & scarves. I'm excited for soup & hot coffee! Bring on the fall! There is nothing like music that makes you feel. Whether it's happiness, sadness or just music that makes you feel like dancing. I love music. Here is a playlist for you to enjoy the remainder of your October.

Freaky Season



I saw this awesome wreath here & I knew I had to make it. There is nothing I love more than old paper. For my wedding we wrapped our favors in old sheet music! When I saw the DIY tutorial I though about what changes I would make to it to make it my own. I thought about using sheet music, but decided against it, maybe for next time. So instead I mixed new and old book pages to show the contrast. I love how it turned out! What do you think? I hung the wreath in my kitchen for now and hung an the "Eeeeek" ornament off the book pages. I like how it instantly makes the wreath Halloween-esque.

 If you like what you see, you can find the instructions here.

I love having my own house. Especially now that it's holiday season! The best part of getting married is choosing your own home decor and building it up. I look at blogs daily looking for new ideas and I go to thrift and craft stores weekly looking for inexpensive materials to use. Right now, my home is pretty plain. But I'm so excited to continue to make it better every year!

Do you have any great Halloween or Autumn decorations you just love? I'd love to hear your ideas!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011









































































My cute hubby got me a Wacom Bamboo Tablet for my birthday. I'm still adjusting... as you can probably tell. But it's awesome. Editing photos and drawing is so much easier. I'm so excited!

Overcoming - The Past Year.

Monday, October 17, 2011





































I want to get a bit personal today. I have tried in the past not to get too personal, but on an occasion such as this, why the hell not?

Every year on my birthday, I can't help but think back on the past year of events because, lets be honest, I don't feel any different between my birthday and the day before. However, I love to look back and see how I have changed over the course of a year. And this year has undoubtedly been the biggest change I've ever seen within myself.

The change I want to focus on is the change I've made in my self-esteem. For as long as I can remember, I have always had insecurities with myself. The insecurity I've battled with is not accepting the person I am inside. I've been scared that people won't like me, that they will think I'm weird and that I will end up with out any friends. I was constantly hiding who I was. Most of the time I was trying to be who I thought people wanted me to be. I would lie about things I enjoyed, laughed at jokes I didn't think were funny and let people walk all over me, just so I didn't upset them. My life was horrible. I wasn't any where close to being happy.

There were points where I would realize this was going on and I would try to rise above it. But then as quickly as I started, one persons judgmental comment would send me back to my state of conforming robot. The hard thing is that "society" makes up so many rules about who we should be. They determine what's "nerdy" or "cool", what's "stylish" and what's not; and the sad things is we listen. Well, at least I did. I cared what all those judgmental people thought. If someone told me the song I liked was stupid, suddenly I lost my taste for it. Or when someone commented on how conservative I was, I gauged my ears just to prove them wrong. But never in these moments was I ever thinking about what I truly wanted or who I truly was.

Over the years, I have gotten better in not letting what other people think rule my decisions. But up until about six months ago, my self-esteem was still struggling. Then, I made the firm decision that I didn't want to be this way anymore and I made some changes. I want to share the steps I took because I have really felt and seen a huge impact in my life, and I know that many of you might be struggling with the same thing. (But hopefully not!)

The first thing I did was I made a list of things I enjoy and hung it on my cubicle wall to look at everyday. It helped me realize who I really am and what I really want out of life. Not what others might expect of me. I would highly suggest this to anyone who is struggling to find who they are. It's weird how clear things are once they are down on paper.

I also began to live by some new rules. Including, being genuine to others, letting myself be creative and smiling - a lot.

If you want to stop being judged, you must stop judging. We've all heard the quote from Gandhi, "We must be the change we wish to see in the world."  Everyone is different. We all live under different circumstances and who are we to decide whats "weird" or "normal". I realized that if I wanted  to stop feeling the pressure of fitting in, I had to be the one to stop supporting the people who were making me feel this way. I had to be the rule changer. I am so grateful for this decision. I have been robbing myself of some awesome friends and acquaintances. I also saw a huge change in how I see judgmental people. They are simply rude people who don't know any better or they are insecure themselves.

The last rule that I began to live by is, the people who are worth being in your life, are the ones who don't care you have quirks. So what, you miss out on a few friendships now and then, because some people can't get over your petty differences. The important thing is the friendships you can build will be meaningful and above everything else - REAL. So learn to let people go. But also, learn to forgive. This isn't a black and white situation. You need to make the call.

The most important step I took was learning to be myself. Usually this mean taking bold and difficult steps that were out of my comfort zone. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. The past six months I have done and said things I would never imagine I could. But now I feel free. It's amazing!! So, just how did I do this? I would just take a deep breath and go for it.

I hope most of you aren't going through this same thing. But if you are, I hope I helped a little. It is possible to let yourself, be yourself! Just go for it.

Door Decor

Monday, October 10, 2011

I love autumn! I love dressing for autumn; long sleeve shirts, chunky sweaters, boots, scarves & hats. I also love autumn because it's my birthday season. I'm an October baby. Any who, these past few weeks have been full of friends, home-made comfort foods and lots of crafts.

This is my first fall/ Halloween with my own house! It's super fun to start my process of collecting and creating home decor for each season. While planning out my decor, I decided my front door was a little plain and was in need of some excitement.

It all started when I found this amazing hanging basket at my local thrift store for $0.75! I knew then what I was going to do. I then went to the dollar store and bought 10 stems of silk flowers and some flower foam. I'll be honest, I was very hesitant about getting flowers from the dollar store! The trick is digging through all the cheap flowers to find ones that look fairly good. The entire project only cost me $11.75!!