Wall to Wall Fun

This past weekend I finally took the hammer to the wall and got up the frames that have been covering our dining room table for quite some time now. It was one of those things I kept putting off, just because I could, and when I finally got around to it I felt they had to go up NOW. Ever have projects like that? So, I was too impatient to really try to measure things out or plan the layout in advance. I just went for it. Basically I'm preparing you for the fact that it's far from perfect. And there is always room to add more.

Here are a couple shots of it:

Dac has a couple Bowie (his favorite)-inspired prints up there, and we also have both of our home states, as well as the heart art we created for our first anniversary. It makes me happy!

For fun, here are a handful of my favorite gallery walls:

All images found via my Pinterest.

xoxo,

(Oh, speaking of xoxo... GOSSIP GIRL!!! Will Chuck and Blair ever just BE together?! What will it TAKE?? I love it and hate it at the same time.)

Hotsy - Totsy

Recently I ordered these awesome prints from Etsy shop "The Black Apple":

Me-ow: Listing on Etsy

Bzzzz: Listing on Etsy

Aren't they cute? I love the messages and the graphics.  And for $16 a pop, a great deal too.  I put them in two black Ribba Frames from Ikea ($9.99 each) and hung them in our guest room, where the prints could greet our friends and family, who really are the coolest.

Here they are, hanging in the guest room.

Also, late last week I received my grab-bag prize from the lovely blogger Lauren over at "Aspiring Kennedy." She put together the prize with a bunch of cool stuff she collected during her extensive travels and had a random drawing - and I won!  It was really fun to get a package full of random goodies in the mail...

My prize!

I (of course) love the Kate Spade sparkly coin purse and the scarf and ash tray are so cool (will be great to hold rings and other trinkets).  I'm also very excited to use the bun-maker (dark brown thing in the upper left corner of the photo) in my hair once I grow it back.  I've always loved buns like this, I even wore this bun on our wedding day:

Photo by our amazing friends, bobbi+mike

Photo by our amazing friends, bobbi+mike

My hair stylist came up with the CD idea when I explained the bun I wanted - awesome, right?  And I think this new bun-maker will be even better!  Thank you so much Lauren!

IHWSH - Rooms

We're mixing things up a little bit this week and posting pictures of entire rooms we would each love to call home for "I'll Have What She's Having."

Katie's Picks:

1.  From Lonny (an amazing online magazine):

 

2.  By Emily Henderson, from Secrets From A Stylist:

 

3.  By Bailey from Peppermint Bliss:

4.  The kitchen of designer Kirsten Buckingham, found on Amber Interiors:

Jayne's Picks:

1. Bright and sunny, via Little Green Notebook:

2. Chic bedroom with Cocoa & Hearts art, via Made by Girl:

3. A blue ribbon kitchen found on Amber Interiors (which she originally found from Lonny) - I think Katie picked one from this same post (go figure)... but it's just so AMAZING:

4. Ethereal bedroom spotted on the blog of a fellow Kansas Cityzen (I just made that up - it's pretty good though, right?) - Because It's Awesome:

A Little Desk Decor

Because I've been working remotely recently, you would think I would have really done some stuff to my desk area so I had something fun to look at every day. But it wasn't until a couple of days ago that I finally put a little something on that plain 'ole apartment wall. I found these 5x7 greeting cards at Anthro that I think make the perfect desk decor for obvious reasons (apparently they are only sold in-store), and put them in gold frames:

Actually, that second frame was originally silver. I spray painted it with this stuff that I got recently at Michael's... it goes on really well and I think looks great!

So now, with the frames and my Paper Source calendar, my desk has a little added happy:

Apartment decorating can be hard since you don't want to paint a lot... especially since we know we won't be here long. I'll take any ideas you have to make my desk even cozier! 

Broccoli Braid

A few days ago, Henry and I tried a new recipe (found on Pinterest) for dinner: the Broccoli Cheddar Chicken Braid (recipe found here).  It was delicious and very easy.  I'm sure we'll make it again, though Henry said he would prefer to have a side dish to eat with it (this time we just had it by itself, which I thought was a great meal).

Photos and recipe from here.

We just used a couple of chicken breasts and we didn't have rosemary, so we didn't add that on top.  I was also a bit confused about how to lay out the crescent rolls at first, but to make ours, the dough basically covered the whole baking sheet before we braided it up.  The braiding was fun, and seems like it would be a great way to involve kids in the dinner prep.  Ours didn't turn out quite as beautiful as the example above, but I thought it looked pretty cool (sorry for the iphone pic, my point and shoot was damaged on the way home from Japan. DANG!)

This made about 3 dinners for the two of us (well, maybe just 2 for Henry...).  I recommend this dinner to anyone looking for something quick, easy, and delicious!  Here are a few more recipes I'm hoping to try soon - let me know if you make any of these!

Spinoccoli Pizza (like from Mother Bear's in Bloomington, IN!)

Parmesan Crusted Goat Cheese with Basil Oil

Garlic Parmesan Edamame

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Makeshift Prints

I'm planning a gallery wall for one of the walls in our living room, and we have quite a few frames lying around that I didn't yet have art for. I wanted to find prints for them but just couldn't seem to find any that were the right size that I liked. So rather than scouring Etsy and waiting for prints to arrive in the mail, I took a trip to Paper Source and bought some wrapping paper...

This one (which I have loved for a long time):

And then another one I can't find on their website. But I also like this paper:

PS really has endless great paper patterns, so it wasn't an easy choice. 

So this is what I did with the paper I bought:

I ended up liking it even more than I thought I would, and it seriously took me like 5 minutes to cut the paper and get it in the frames. The best part was that the paper cost me $7.50! I have a lot left over I will use for other purposes, or maybe more frames. 

Once we get the gallery wall hung I will post about that. I also bought some greeting cards that I will be framing for above my desk... can't wait to show you that either!

The Long and Short of It

I can't wait to blog about our amazing trip to Japan, I just need to get my act together and organize the pictures.  Until then, I thought I'd share a self-portrait I took while we were there and "introduce" my new hair-cut...aka "the regret-cut".  I'd been thinking about getting my super long hair cut off for a few months - when I finally did in December, it was the longest it had ever been.  Here's a good long-hair pic, though it was quite a bit longer when I finally got it cut:

Henry and I at Jayne and Dac's wedding rehearsal dinner, September 2010

So one day in December, I called the Aveda Institute (yes, I let someone who isn't even licensed to cut hair on her own yet cut over 14" of hair off...) and got a last-minute appointment for that afternoon.  I spent about 38 seconds googling "long bobs" or "lobs" and decided I wanted this hair:

 

Pretty and cool, right?  Pretty cool?  Yeah, I think she kept going shorter and shorter to even out the sides and it ended up at my chin.  It's ok, I like it maybe 20% of the time.  I learned my lesson though, 14" of hair is not something to be impulsive about!  Good bye ponytails.

I do LOVE my new sunglasses - Kate Spade's "Shawna"

Oh well, it'll grow!

IHWSH - Candles

We wish you a weekend full of relaxing and lighting your favorite candle. Here are some of our favorites for this week's I'll Have What She's Having:

Katie's Picks:
1. Diptyque - Baies Candle
2. Target Mandarin Woods Candle
3. Voluspa Crisp Champagne Candle

Our shared all-time fave:
4. Capri Blue candle from Anthro in Mercury

Jayne's Picks:
5. Furbish Ceramic Candle
6. Voluspa Baltic Amber Candle
7. Lollia Luminary Candle

If I Had One Wish...

Ok, I don't know what I would wish for if I had one wish. That's too hard (although Ray J seems to have it figured out). But speaking of wishes, the wishbone seems to be a popular little icon as of late, and I dig it.

This decorative wishbone is on my current home wish list:

via Jayson Home

As is the Wegner Wishbone chair. The best part is that you can get it in just about any color. This purple option is part of the "Energy Series":

via Danish Design Store (you can find it a bunch of different places)

I also just saw this beautiful Jennifer Meyer necklace in Lucky Mag - it was listed as one of Elizabeth Bank's favorite things. Did you know she will be playing Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games movie? Man, I can't WAIT for that to come out!! So this necklace is way out of my price range (at $1,200), but still pretty to look at.

via Barneys

I wish you a happy day!