Lazy Saturdays

I'm not usually one to toot my own horn, but I won an academic award this week :)

Turns out while I was searching for a frame for said award, I came across a box full of goodies hidden away in my parents' basement.

I pulled out a couple old books and magazines.

The first was a really, really in depth interior design book.

Austin browsed through it and said something along the lines of,

 "I never knew there was so much to interior design..."

It's a pretty intense book and should be a fun read.

The rest were full of cool furniture projects - perfect for a crafty couple like Austin and I :)

These two magazines were really quite old and full of funny retro projects. 

We probably won't use them, but they were fun to look through.

In Handmade Modern we found several sweet projects.

I'm going to attempt to make some paper lanterns for the living room 

and Austin found some inspiration to redo the floors in his studio. 

Pretty awesome find. Who knew my parents/mom were into that stuff back in the day?

Aaaand I finally found some wedding shoes!!

So excited! I've been looking for some non-traditional flats, but I had such a hard time trying to find ivory ones.

So, I gave up - and just in time to find these!

 I fell in love at first sight :)

Also, my parents' 25th anniversary in on May 10th!

They took a trip to Sedona, AZ this weekend to celebrate and left me with the kids.

My sisters and I are having a lazy weekend - partying it up without the rents ;)

While my parents are enjoying this:

Devil's Bridge

Cute cactus :)

And they took a private helicopter ride. So jealous.

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

turn that frown upside down,

Jess

In the elevator

I know I've blogged about my friend Dave a couple times already, but a few weekends ago he performed at Loyola University in Chicago for Earth Day.

A rather talented guy named Jason Araujo wandered by and recorded Dave playing one of his songs in an elevator.

He then set the music to a video.

It turned out pretty awesome.

Down from jason araujo on Vimeo.

You can find more of his music here or here.

Have a happy Thursday!

turn that frown upside down,

Jess

More Wedding Inspiration

Thanks to a lovely blogger, Gabbi, I found another great wedding blog.

She posted several of their pictures here with a link to the site and I couldn't resist.

It's called Ruffled.

Here are a couple of things I found.

I've been planning to use lots of bunting at the wedding.

One of the things I wanted to do was make a banner that says "just hitched" to go on our car when Austin and I leave.

Well, I found this - printable alphabet bunting!

This is going to save me sooo much time.

I also found this post.

I can't imagine how much work this must have been!

They covered an entire wall with paper cranes - yikes!

I also found these cute paper flowers.

They were handmade from sheet music.

I may steal this idea....

And lastly, I found this post!!

They made little pinwheel pins for boutonnieres! I love it!

What an awesome idea! I can't get over how great these are.

Well, that's all for now.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

turn that frown upside down,

Jess

Lovelies

Here's a little sneak peek of some goodies I've been working on for my friend Dave Black of Anchors. 

He needs some merch for the band and this is what we came up with.

I'm thinking about making a few smaller ones to use as magnets.

I blogged about Dave a while ago. You can find that post here.

Nesting

I have several things to share today.

First, Austin and his brother, Billy, put new floors into the bathroom this weekend!

They worked all night long on Saturday and it turned out great!

I don't have any pictures of the finished product yet because I need to clean first - yikes.

We're planning to put in a new vanity soon as well.

Its going to be so pretty.



Second, we also did some more decorating in the kitchen.

I finished the curtains and placemats, we brought over the gorgeous table we've had in storage all winter, and we picked up a few new things as well.

I apologize for the awful picture quality.

Since the back room is under construction some of the lights in the kitchen are out.

And finally, I mailed all the wedding invitations this week!! So excited.

Today is a beautiful day - I hope you enjoy it!

turn that frown upside down,

Jess

P.S. 45 days :)

New Obsession: Tights

I've become obsessed with tights.

And unfortunately, all but two of the pairs I own have gotten runs in them over the last two weeks.

So, the majority of my day has been spent looking for a couple cute new pairs.

But...I can't stop myself. I've found about 50 pairs.

Anyone have around $100 so I could buy some new tights...?

I also found a few pairs of knee socks that are adorable.

Here are my favorites:

I found them at Urban Outfitters, ModCloth, and Amazon.

Pretty Gardens

Austin and I have started making some plans to plant a garden and some flowers around the house. 

I promised that I would do some research to find out when was the best time to plant certain vegetables, but I got a bit distracted looking at pretty pictures for inspiration.

All images from we heart it.

Unfortunately, this year has been a little colder than usual. Last year around this time I was already wearing dresses every day. But today it's rainy and about 38 degrees :(

However, today is going to be lovely because it is the one year anniversary of our first date!

Usually I don't get too excited about anniversaries, but this is the last time I'll get to celebrate a dating anniversary :) So, we're going on a date tonight.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

turn that frown upside down,

Jess

P.S. 47 days til the wedding! Time flies...

Shower Gifts

As promised here are all of my shower gifts. Well almost all of them.

Disclaimer: I am not a photographer. Don't judge me :)

 

We got the awesome supplies for the message board from Austin's mom, washboard / magnet board, and on the left is a decorative coffee grinder.

We also got an awesome crock pot, huge cast iron skillet, and an omelet pan.

If you've never seen an omelet pan - its the greatest thing ever made. There is a hinge in the middle of the pan so you can just flip it over to make the omelet. Awesome.

Aaand of course some awesome coffee cups - some of the biggest ones I've ever seen. Along with a few cookbooks, measuring cups, and utensils that were badly needed. 

Hope you have a wonderful Friday!

turn that frown upside down,

Jess

New Projects

I've started several new projects during the last few days. I think I may have gotten a little ahead of myself.

Project #1 is the chair that I mentioned in my last post.

I'm planning to sand it down and paint it white. 

(In the upper right corner of the picture is one of my shower gifts.

My cousin gave me a vintage wash board. The top part is a cork board, the metal area came with magnets so that we can...well hang things on it with them, and there are cute little hooks on the bottom.

We're planning to hang it near the front door so we can hang keys, to-do lists, mail, etc.)

I'm also going to make a new cushion with this cutesy fabric.

Project #2 is a new set of curtains and place mats for our kitchen.

I found these lovely prints for them.

The one of the left is for the place mats and the other is for the curtains.

Project #3 is a few wedding decorations.

I found several pieces of fabric for the pennant banners.

I also made my pattern and cut out a piece. I can't wait to put it all together!

I also found several flats of pretty candles that should fit perfectly inside my baby food jars. 

And they were 70% off!

Hopefully I'll be able to finish these up quickly.

turn that frown upside down,

Jess

Tunes

I thought I'd share some of the music I've been listening to lately.

I'm planning to share a new project that I started yesterday as soon as I'm finished.

My first attempt at reupholstering a chair - kind of.

And I'll share my shower gifts soon as well. Pinky promise :)

turn that frown upside down,

Jess

Shower Time

Today was my bridal shower! My aunts did an awesome job planning.

But, because it was so awesome I'm completely exhausted. So I'm going to make this post pretty short.

We got lots of really cool gifts, but I didn't take pictures of them quite yet so I'll post them later.

However, Austin's mom, Beth, gave us a great gift. 

Recently I posted this Design Sponge project that I wanted to do and she got me all of the supplies!

I was so excited that I decided to work on it today and got a bunch of help from Austin and his brother, Billy.

Sorry about the somewhat awful picture quality :/

It turned out really well. I think we might use it at the wedding.

Well, I'm off to watch too many episodes of Scrubs with Austin and Billy.

Happy weekend!

turn that frown upside down,

Jess