I Love Young House Love

On Saturday, my mom and I got to meet some of the most famous bloggers in the land: John and Sherry Petersik of Young House Love.  They were as sweet and cute as they seem online, and they signed their awesome new book for us.  I haven't had a chance to really dig in to the book yet, but I'm sure it's full of fun ideas, just like their house.  I just love reading about their sweet family having so much fun working on their house.  (I almost wrote "loving their house" - I guess their blog title has me convinced.)  Here's a pic of us all (boo to the blur) - I wore my favorite earrings (that Sherry also wears all the time), hoping she would have them on too, but she didn't wear them that day. 

Some projects from their blog that inspire me to get to work:



Paint the back of Built-ins.

Stencil a wall.

Paint my front door.

Line my dresser drawers.

Met any famous people lately?  I get really geeked out and do not act like myself when it happens, but I love it!

The List, Part 37

Sorry that all of my posts lately are random thought dumps, but...here we go again.

So in love with this house posted on Young House Love today.  Also, my mom and I get to meet John and Sherry (of YHL) on Saturday at a book signing - so excited!

I really want to make this skillet lasagna I saw on Annie's Eats.

I want to make this table. I want someone to make me this table.

Is Jessica Simpson really pregnant again?

I often eat lean cuisines for lunch (or dinner...).  This is my most favorite frozen meal - ever!  It's so good.

 

Snail Mail Your Email

We've professed our love for snail mail many, many times here, and it looks like there are some folks who took that love to a new level.  I just learned about an awesome project called "Snail Mail My Email."  Here's a quick description from the site:

"Snail Mail My Email is a worldwide collaborative art project where volunteers handwrite and artistically interpret strangers' emails and send these physical letters to the intended recipients, completely free of charge.

In 2011, 234 volunteers collectively sent 10,457 letters to over 70 countries, the content of which inspired 'Snail Mail My Email' - the book.

This project aims to reignite the lost art of letter writing, reminding us of the power of personal connection in a digital world."

Through Sunday, you can email your letter and the address of where you'd like it to go, and someone will send it, via snail mail, for free!  I just emailed mine to Nora, I think this project is so awesome.  If you visit the link, you can also see some examples of what has been sent, so fun.  I wish I'd thought of this!

Lonny, Lonny, Bo Bonny

As I posted last fall (whoa, almost exactly a year ago...I guess my mind is on an annual cycle, and the beginning of November is my favorite time to think about periodicals.  Hmmmm.) I have magazines coming out of my ears.  The time I now devote to sitting down with one is negligible at best (though I did read part of a People magazine this morning on the metro).  Because I've already got a huge stack to catch up on, I never get around to reading the awesome online magazine, Lonny.  The latest issue came out a few days ago, and though I haven't read it, I did peruse some of the photos, and found some beautiful stuff:

All images are from the November 2012 issue, found here.  If you do have time to add a magazine to your rotation, might as well check out this gorgeous (and free!) publication.

Love in the Land of Nod

We get so many dang catalogs, it drives me crazy.  There are a few that I love that I signed up to get, but the rest just go straight into the recycling bin.  I haven't looked at any catalogs or magazines for the past 5 weeks (I don't mind!), but looked through the Land of Nod catalog that came this afternoon...cool stuff.  Even though they sell kid's stuff, I found lots of inspiration for grown-up rooms too:

How cool is that ombre radiator?  Such a great way to turn a potentially unattractive room feature into something pretty!

Love the colorful ceiling pendant and the giant apple.

Liking this storage situation.

I think these would be cool in any room where you would like to watch TV.

Ok, so this is really just for a kid...specifically, my kid.  SO CUTE, right?!

She's SO GROWN UP, I can hardly stand it!  Glad she's not big enough for that chair yet.

One Chair to Rule Them All

(I wrote a few posts before Nora came along, here's one:)

Last summer, I found a cool shop on Etsy that refinished furniture using gorgeous fabrics and finishes: House of Pemberley.  (You can get more info on the shop here.)  They had some things I liked, but not EXACTLY what I wanted, so I messaged the shop owner, Kimber - she's wonderful to work with!  I picked out a chair from her inventory of furniture to "makeover" and picked the fabric and paint and she made my chair dreams come true.  Here's the chair:

Isn't it awesome?!  It makes me way more happy than a chair probably should.  The fabric is Lee Jofa Groundworks "La Fiorentina" in wine & magenta.  And shipping is free on furniture!  (They ship using Greyhound, so it did take a while, but it eventually made it, in perfect condition!)  She also makes great pillows out of any fabric (including designer fabrics that are to-the-trade only).  She made these for me (well, she made 2 of the patterned pillow - the yellows are from Crate & Barrel):

And they are so great!  They really make our Ikea couch something special.  One of my super-fav bloggers, Jenny of MFAMB had Kimber make her a headboard for her daughter's room, and it is amazing.

So...great etsy shop, I love custom furniture!  Wish I had the chops to do something like this myself.  Anyone else out there love a chair as much as I do?  Refinish any furniture on your own?

If you've never run a 5k...

And I wouldn't have said this before this past weekend, but... you're missing out. I've never understood the hype, but I just ran my first one and it was pretty fun to beat a bunch of other people and get a free t-shirt.

Plus, I look pretty legit, right?

It's probably the neon pink shirt I decided to wear. This was at the very beginning. Dac is next to me in this pic, but right about that moment he took off and left me in the dust (understandably so).

I do have to take a moment to brag though, that I ran it in under 30 minutes (exactly 1 second under). That's probably not impressive to most people, but I didn't even run a full three miles in the one week I spent trying to prepare. Wouldn't exactly say I'm a runner.

My work was a sponsor for the event, so Dac and I weren't the only crazies I know getting up at 5:30am on a Saturday to run. That was the other great thing I discovered about 5k's. Not only was my team cheering each other on, but random people cheer you on throughout. They'll yell things like "yeah, you go #144!" You feel pretty special. I put my arms up in victory as I crossed the finish line. No joke.

We missed the Color Run in KC, which I'm bummed about... but I'm sure we'll be signing up for another one soon. I want to do one at night (do they do those?) so I can sing "Run this town tonight" while I'm running. 

Here's To The Crazy Ones

Two things.

1. I love these rap lyric posters from Paper Jam Press. The first one is my theme song for the past week - from old job, to Vegas, to new job in a span of 5 days.

2. I had a blast at my first day of my new job yesterday. Someone asked me about my favorite ad ever, and it made me think about the old Apple Think Different commercial I hadn't listened to in a while. It's just the best copy ever, and an inspiring reminder to be so good (or so crazy) they can't ignore you.

Might just have to get this print from society6.

Let's do something crazy today.