Young House BOOK Love!

On Friday I took half the day off to head down south for the Home & Garden show at the Tacoma Dome. I’ve never been to this event before, and I probably wouldn’t have gone this year either, except John and Sherry Petersik from Young House Love were making a stop to promote their book!

I have been a devoted reader of the YHL blog for, oh, like 4 years now – I first stumbled upon their site in 2009 when I was searching for DIY Backyard Wedding inspiration. Sherry and John have a great recap of their homemade wedding, and it also lead me to their daily blog posts. I’ve been hooked ever since!
Their open, honest approach to blogging about their home improvement journeys, as well as their goofy humor and real-people personalities had me from the get-go.

And guess what? They’re just as fun, adorable, and hilarious in person!

John & Sherry Petersik at the Tacoma Home & Garden Show

When I found out they were writing a book, I pre-ordered my copy from Amazon right away. Not only was I confident I’d love it, but I also wanted to show my support for these young’uns who entertain me every single weekday for free through their blog.
And when I found out they’d be making a book-tour stop close enough to attend, I was way too excited (M will vouch for this).

So my mom was a great sport, and she came along with me. It was really nice to spend a good few hours with her, and there were plenty of home & garden inspiration for her new business project (I’ll have to expand on that sometime soon here!).

Sherry and John gave a fun and concise presentation for a good-sized crowd, and then we all waited in line to get our books signed. 🙂

Now, because I am a huge nerd, I wanted to give them some kind of gift, to say “thank you” for sharing themselves the way they do. It’s totally corny, but because of their blog, they feel like friends, even though we’ve never really met. So, I made them a little ceramic plate, very similar to this guy in my Etsy shop. Except the woodgrain plate I made for John & Sherry has a heart in the middle with “yhl” carved out. Somehow I totally forgot to take a picture of it before I gave it to them – of course.

When I got to the front of the line, and presented my little gift, it was a little intimidating (yes, I’m a nerd!) but Sherry was so enthusiastic and so genuine when she saw it!

Sherry’s mind – BLOWN

She was like “Oh my god! You made this!? That looks just like our LOGO!”
And I laughed and said, “Yeah, that was the idea!”

Meeting Sherry & John at the Tacoma Dome

My mom was so great and snapped all these photos while I talked to them – Thanks, Mom!
So then Sherry insisted that I sign the back of the plate and she handed me her red sharpie, so heck, I couldn’t refuse! I signed the plate while Sherry signed my book!

everyone, sign something!

And then we got a little group photo 🙂

Young House Love book signing – BFFs! lol

Anyways! So much fun. I love those guys! In a totally non-creepy kind of way, I swear.

Now my book is signed!

“Thanks for the love!”

Thank YOU, Sherry & John. 🙂

Young House Love by Sherry & John Petersik

a brunch for four

In the last year, my group of girlfriends and I have made a “pact” of sorts, to actually schedule getting together at least once a month. We alternate between having a “girls-only” meet-up and a girls-plus-guys dinner party that rotates from each of our houses. It has been such a fun, and really essential, way we’ve kept better in touch. I’m sure everyone who’s on this side of twenty has experienced the fact that when you start to grow up, everyone gets busy with their own lives. It can get hard to get a hold of those people who mean so much to you!

brunch time via Design*Sponge

So I LOVE this post Design*Sponge put up today –  inspiration boards for a beautiful brunch! How much fun are these?

brunch inspiration via Design*Sponge

If weekend brunch was something I did all the time, I’d love to create a collection of beautiful, fun, and functional pieces to my kitchen line-up!
The girls and I are meeting up at K’s house for brunch on Sunday this weekend, potluck style. No bloody Marys, but there will be mimosas ^_^ Have a great weekend, all!

Currently Reading…

A book that I happened to hear about through Design*Sponge (I’m always looking for good reads, and this one sounded particularly good!) called The Bucolic Plague:How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers: An Unconventional Memoir.

That’s quite a title, right?

The synopsis had me totally intrigued – the idea of two utter urbanites on a whim buying a country mansion and farm and becoming weekend farmers. The book finally came in at the library for me, and I’ve been reading it for the last couple of days – it’s such a fast read I’m already half way through it, and I’m really enjoying it!

Not only did the basic premise of the book have me hooked – I often find myself fantasizing over the idea of just picking up and moving to “the country” and being self-sufficient; having some chickens, a huge vegetable garden, fruit trees (and of course a big ceramic studio!), but these guys actually did it. But it’s not just the story, but the way it is written that is so entertaining. Mr. Kilmer-Purcel has a great way with anecdotes and can really create a visual scene with words. And he’s funny! So many times already I have just bust out laughing. M has to poke his head in to make sure I haven’t lost my marbles, laughing alone in our silent livingroom – nope, just reading! 🙂

So half through the book, I am loving following this couple’s adventures and where it is headed, and I find myself just itching to get to what happens next.
And who knows, maybe someday I’ll find my dream farm too. 🙂

A Myriad of Mushrooms

What? Another post about mushrooms? Well, a week ago, Design*Sponge featured an article about mushrooms, wild mushroom gathering, and a super cute mushroom-focused centerpiece project!

I was so inspired!

via Design*Sponge

via Design*Sponge

via Design*Sponge

That last photo there had me especially enamored! I love the silky purity of the white mushrooms, and the way they grow clustered together like that!

So that very afternoon I went into the studio and did some experimenting with mushroom shapes, and here’s one of the results:

Cluster of Mushrooms from Jadeflower

What do you think?? I am very pleased with the way they turned out 🙂 Very fun and so simple, but they just make me smile! I think I’ll be making more, and of course, they’ll be posted in my Shop.

I don’t know why I have such a thing for mushrooms! Oh well! Happy Friday!

a greatest showdown

Have you heard about this project called “GREAT SHOWDOWNS”? Artist and comic writer ScottC has a site called greatshowdowns.com where he creates an original watercolor painting daily. The subject: the great “showdowns” from movies, which include the classic and iconic to the weird and unexpected.

I’ve enjoyed checking in every couple of days to see what fun new additions have shown up. Today, I absolutely sqeeeee’d with glee!

{kermit vs doc hopper in the muppet movie}

There are countless other fantastic little paintings that are to be found on ScottC’s site. It’s so much fun to try to figure out the more obscure references. (And you gotta love the funny little smiles he puts on everyone’s face, regardless)

 

At my deskside – a lovely calendar from Creature Comforts

One of my favorite blogs to peruse is Creature Comforts – so much inspiration is to be found here!

So when I saw this beautifully sweet mini calendar (and free to download, no less!) I did not hesitate to warm up my printer!

You can do the same, and head over to check out her FREE PRINTABLE 2011 CALENDAR and be just as charmed as I was! I love how each illustration is simple, but completely conveys the essence of the month!
I can now look to the side of my computer, and I’ve got that cute little yellow bird perched on the wall above January. Happy new year, all!

After-Christmas Finds

Almost as much as I love shopping for Christmas presents (or a lot of the time, crafting said presents), I have a great love of those after-Christmas bargains you can find. But I’m not talking about all the “stuff” I wish I’d received as gifts that I’ll go out and buy myself (I don’t do this). I love all the Christmas and holiday decorations and such that stores are trying to get rid of as quickly as possible. 75% off? yes please ^_^

And I’m totally outing myself as a Goodwill junkie, but I definitely went there today and perused the two aisles of random holiday junk and loved every second. Found a few gems too!

old school red apple ornaments

 

cute lil apple!

Do you remember these? I know my parents have about 3 or 4 of these apple ornaments in varying sizes with my name on them. Not to mention the ones with my brothers’ names. These, of course, are blank, and it makes me grin just thinking about writing people’s names and the year with a metallic Sharpie, for cute little gifts next year! (Oh, and those teeny multi-colored glass baubles above are from Urban Outfitters – only $4 for 50 of those little guys!!!)

Another find I was way too excited about were these:

pop-up silver snowflake decoration

I dug around in a bin and found three of these awesome retro pop-up snowflakes (still new in their packaging!). They’re big and shiny, and totally a throw-back to an age of silver tinsel and aluminum Christmas trees. I’ll store them away till next year, though, because even though I like to leave holiday decorations up well into January…I can’t bring myself to do more decorating after the day.

I found a few other nifty things – a set of nine vintage glass ball ornaments in gold. And a baggie of those great satin thread-covered balls

vintage ornaments

The glass balls are exactly like the kind my parents have had forever (Bradford’s of Boston), so I was understandably nostalgic. 🙂
And I have more craft ideas in mind for those great satin-y styrofoam balls – like doing something like this with them:

image from AllYou.com

How fun are those? Love that all you need is some fun rick rack, straight pins, and an assortment of beads to turn an uninteresting ball into something stunning.
All in all, I spent about $9 on all my new treasures. HA love it.

Anyone else indulge in after-Christmas decoration hunting? 🙂

 

Misty-eyed over…

It’s the week of Christmas! Do you have all your weekend plans in place? This will be M and my first Christmas as a married couple, yay! But that still means figuring out how we will split our time, since both of our families live in the area. No quiet, just-the-two-of-us holiday this year. We will be driving all over the western half of the state. But it will be good to see lots of family! (and my youngest bro just flew back for the holiday break from Boston, so I can’t wait to see him!)

Our apartment is all decked out in holiday cheer, but I am totally tempted by a few last-minute decor crafts! Check out these adorable and colorful trees I stumbled across in my blog-wanderings:

{from Thompson Family-Life, via Paper*Cakes Finds}

I love those gorgeously unexpected colors, and all those cute trimmings…lace, buttons, velvet ribbon, dainty straight pins, jingle bells! How adorable would these look on a mantle place, a book shelf, or as a dining table centerpiece!?

*Sigh* but I never seem to have styrofoam cones on hand! But what a fun project, and they look easy to make, too. Maybe if I go crazy at the craft store…there’s still time, right? haha

Anyone else have last-minute holiday projects on their plate? 🙂

Planning on a DIY Christmas?

One of my favorite blogs – a daily read, for sure – Twig & Thistle posted a link to an online holiday mag called Gifted Magazine, and I am totally smitten! It is chock full of fun diy projects and links to lots of awesome crafty vendors for gift ideas. I definitely recommend checking it out if you’re ready for Christmas-y  content already.

One of the vendor links was to RiflePaperCo.com – a totally cute stationery & art print store that I’ve noticed around the wedding blogs for amazingly creative invitations and programs. Looks like they also have a beautiful holiday line too! I am in love with their personalized cards:

How adorable! I love their illustration style. Now, if only I had the money to splurge on such awesome cards with M and my little faces drawn on them! But it gets my mind whirring on drawing up my own self-illustrated Christmas cards. Heck, if we could DIY our wedding save-the-dates and invitations, why not Christmas cards?

Deux the Dishes

Oh the Internets…I am continually reminded of what an incredible invention it is that allows us to find so much information (often trivial and obscure) just with the typing of a few words and a click here and there.

Case in point, I just returned from my ONE shopping Achilles heal – that glorious store Anthropologie. I know I am not alone when I admit the mere thought of the store makes me go all dreamy-eyed. I know of no other retail store that has this effect on me.

But I digress…most of the time I don’t buy anything when I go into Anthropologie (and I go there quite often, being that I can walk there from my house!), and I am strictly a Sale-Rack shopper when I do make a purchase. But that doesn’t mean I can’t wander the floor and imagine, and be inspired by all the creativity wafting about.

Hidden in the back corner nook where lots of their on-sale housewares/knicknacks reside, I found two of these gems at a screamin’ deal:

Isn’t this the cutest dishtowel ever? I was immediately drawn to the sharp and delicious contrast between the deep teal color and the crisp white fabric. And marked down 80%?? Yes, please!

And so proud was I of my bargain purchase, I wanted to post it here on my blog; so in trying to find a photo, I discovered since it was such a sale item, the towel isn’t even on Anthro’s website any more. So I did a general Google search for “‘do the dishes’ Anthropologie towel”
…and I discovered that the designer/creator of these super cute tea towels is actually an Etsy seller from Glasgow! Her shop is called showpony and she has lots of other cool and cute screen-printed items for sale!

I don’t know, I was just struck by the fact that our world really has become so small – so connected! I had just bought something made by another Etsy seller! (Clearly a very successful seller). Anyways, it may seem silly to some people (go ahead, you can roll your eyes at me) but all I could think was, “Whoa! COOL!!”
Not only did I get two awesomely cute tea towels for a ridiculously good deal, but they were handmade by a real person from one of my favorite places on earth (the UK). And I give so much props to Anthropologie for supporting real artists and craftspeople. Makes me feel even better about my one secret shopping addiction 🙂