it's the most wonderful (cold) time of the year

happy december (again) everyone!

we're getting in the seasonal spirit these days!  steve and i both LOVE christmas, and our place is as festive as our budget and tree-toppling cat will allow.  we are still busy bees these days, no less in honor of holiday time, but it seems like we're chugging toward a pretty awesome year the closer we get to 2014.

our landlords are offering a prize for the best decorated porch.  it's on neighbors.

we've hit a few wedding planning milestones this weekend, and we headed back to portage to celebrate steve's mom's birthday, and to get my childhood bedroom emptied out enough so my parents can work on converting it into something else.  i stumbled across enough old evidence from my creative high school days, i'm hoping to share some of it as soon as i get a chance.

for now, we're operating in future-tense mode: planning is the key word for the next couple weeks.  with any luck, we might know where we'll be moving soonISH, and then the world might start blurring from spinning a little too fast.  hope everyone is having as much fun as we are getting in the holiday spirit!

word count: 36, 443

summer is over and the cat is wet

let me tell you, there's nothing like having a mantle to get me jazzed up about seasonal decorating.  i am in no way emotionally prepared to let go of summer, but whether i like it or not the cold weather is on its way (spoiler alert: i don't like it at all).

on the bright side of all of this, jeff the cow, our resident dead animal and living room focal point extraordinaire, now has some cute little gourds and pumpkins to help me get on board with the upcoming fall.  all this has made me realize that i am completely behind the ball trying to come up with what steve and i should be for halloween this year.  i doubt we'll ever manage to top 2011's calvin and hobbes, but i've got a few ideas rolling around in my brain.  wesley and buttercup?  pinky and the brain?  decisions decisions....

don't mind the cleavage... it was college, after all...

and just to add an extra bit of fun to today's blog post here is the only picture i got of bert after we gave him a bath on monday night.  he now smells significantly less poopy and he appears to have forgiven me.  if you're considering bathing your cat, i highly recommend it.  it really is fun for the whole family.

happy hump day!

word count:  24,710

decorating sneak peek

i actually DID blog yesterday, i swear.  i posted a creative writing piece that i immediately reverted to a draft when i decided i liked it enough to submit to a short prose competition.  as blogging counts as "self-publication" i decided i would take it down until i hear from the editor.  if you are a writer interested in entering check it out here.

in other news:

yesterday my cow skull arrived in a giant box stuffed full of shredded paper.  his name is jeff and he's already family.  if you have been following me on instagram, you're probably aware that life lately has been about decorating, decorating, and more decorating.  when moving, the options at hand include organizing, cleaning, unpacking, and decorating, so i obviously picked my favorite and am allowing the mess to slowly kill me inside.

side note:  the images in the bottom right picture were pages from old project portfolios that were being thrown away at my office.  i saved a couple more of these portfolios from being thrown away featuring sketches, floor plans, and elevations of other buildings.  after the interest i received when i posted the picture to instagram, i'm considering framing a few more for a giveaway on this blog.  good idea, bad idea?

also, this saturday we are touring wedding venues.  it's pretty mind-blowing having all this getting married stuff evolve into reality.

word count: 21,046

decor addict

we officially move in to our new place one week from today!!!

i'm happy to say we don't need to shell out big money to furnish it (been there done that last year thanks) but since we have a clean slate i'm getting completely psyched to add a few decorating details that will really make the apartment "us."

or at very least, a bit more unisex.  after hemming and hawing / weighing the pros and cons, we've decided to take the plunge and paint at least one room in the apartment.  chances are we will regret it when it comes time to move, but we're too excited to make the place our own to pass it up.  best case scenario it will be totally worth it, worst case scenario i'll throw a temper tantrum and we'll learn from experience that painting is a terrible idea.  since i already throw temper tantrums as often as i get hungry, we might as well risk it.

i am a very lucky lady to be receiving a gorgeous hand-me-down oriental rug from my grandmother (assuming it fits the dimensions of our living room).  we decided to go with yellow walls to match the marigold accents in the rug.  and isn't yellow the ultimate gender neutral cliche anyway?

maybe it was all the taxidermy we saw at the field museum last month, but i have my heart set on a cow skull to put over our new mantle.  so excited to get decorating!

pantone swatch in mimosa // cow skull // cafe lights // compass pillow // great lakes map pillow

happy hump day everybody!
word count: 16,704

cool alert: david parise's vintage barbie and ken photography

now that steve and i are officially going to be moving in together, it is difficult for me to describe the immensity of my decorating urges.  for now i have been able to resist buying every jamie young lamp and caitlin wilson throw pillow, but once we actually get used to the space all bets are off.

a few of my more loyal readers might remember when i walked you through my little baby collection of fine art.  well yesterday i found an artist whose work i cannot wait to add to my collection.  david parise is a photographer whose vintage barbie and ken prints are adorably humorous and wonderfully creative.

i think i'll have the willpower to wait until we actually move (we will definitely have less wall space than my current place, which means i may not have the room for additional wall art) but if we have the room for barbie and ken i am going to have some tough decision making to do. look at how many amazing shots he has:

check out david parise's portfolio and shop here!

have a lovely hump day!

seeing green!

{image from ohhappyday.com}

{image from abeautifulmess.com}

one of my self-indulgent goals to work on this spring is getting a little practice with my (not so) green thumb!  fresh, growing plants are one of my favorite ways to see a room come to life.  many of my favorite design bloggers have been giving me spring fever with their amazing posts filled with beautiful indoor plants!  Oh Happy Day has an adorable DIY post today for planting wheatgrass in painted terra cotta pots, and A Beautiful Mess featured their homemade honeycomb shelves decked out in fresh cut flowers and assorted succulents.  I mean what's not to love?

I decided that it's high time i stopped dreaming and started looking into what kind of plants to start keeping around the house this spring!  here are a few of my picks!

{image from asoftplace.net}

1.  fresh herbs.  i love decor that serves a purpose, and i think there is no better way to get the most out of plants than picking ones you can eat! my sister and i had fresh herbs planted on our porch last year and it was such a great idea!  we both used them all the time in our cooking!  this year i'll be planting fresh basil, thyme, and cilantro!

{image from wikipedia}

2.  the snake plant.  as a true beginner to keeping up house plants (well other than our herb garden, but we kept that on the porch) the snake plant sounds perfect.  house plant care websites describe it as "one of the hardest to kill."  sounds right up my alley!  it only needs moderate light and watering once a week! i think the ombre blade-like leaves make it a very attractive plant, and best of all, the snake plant cleans the air in your home by reducing co2 at an accelerated rate.  it also rids the air of formaldehyde and benzene. win win!

{image from dpfwiw.com}

3.  catnip.  assuming i can keep bert away from it, i think i'm going to try growing him some fresh catnip.  he is pretty amusing to watch when he's had a little and it's so overpriced to buy in the store.  the plant also blooms with pretty little purple flowers and acts as a powerful insect repellent!

add a vase of fresh cut daffodils to start out and i'll graduate to tulips when they're more seasonal!  how are you going to freshen up for spring?

vintage etsy style finds

antique moroccan brass camel // antique french copper cookware // 

antique brass mirror with accordian arm // antique silver teapot necklace// 1920's starlight floor globe 

a look at my collection

i was off the grid this weekend up north with steve and his roommates, and since i didn't manage to post on friday last week before we left, i'll make it up to you with a double post monday.  a little over a year ago i purchased a signed triptych from shepard fairey's website after watching and rewatching and rewatching banksy's exit through the gift shop.  

since, i have decided to branch in to the extremely silly since i am not independently wealthy even a little bit world of art collecting.  i think wall art is an awesome way to really put your personal style into the space where you live.  i really love the pieces i've found so far and can't wait to find more to suit my collection.  more information on the artists is provided in the links at the bottom. (excuse crappy iphone photo quality).

obey andre the giant triptych (hand signed lithograph) - shepard fairy // a quiet place (hand signed print) - kai samuels-davis // nudes, multiple (original oil painting on hardboard) - jake vogds // two men and a guitar (hand signed limited edition giclee) - peter doig // precious time (hand signed limited edition serigraph) - zamy steynovitz

etsy style finds

  

tear drop statement ring // antique tibetan tiger rug // antique phrenology bust sculpture // 

handmade wooden sunglasses // 1896 original lithograph - celestial bodies

i heart seasonal decor

winter has really been getting to me this year.  i am pretty sure i could eliminate snow from the rest of my life and feel no remorse.  the other morning when heading to work my car had a frozen lock.  after busting through the passenger side door and shimmying my way over to the driver's seat i opened my driver's side door from the inside.  this ended up being a big mistake as the latch became frozen inside the door and i had to drive about halfway to work holding the door shut until the car had warmed up enough to loosen the latch.

*frown*

so, in an effort to cheer myself up yesterday, i decided to pack away the big wooden glitter snowflakes i had hanging in the front window and make something cute for valentine's day.  heart garlands seem to be all the rage on pinterest so i thought i'd make one of my own.  it definitely makes the front room cuter, but i'm still waiting for it to melt the ice outside.

(cardstock hearts painted red with acrylic.   smaller cardstock hearts hot glued in the middle with sharpie letters.  strung together with white thread.)