Mapping Your Travels

My friend Kacee and her hubby, Bobby, are big travelers. This summer they were in Yellowstone. Next summer they have travel plans that take them overseas. Not like I live there or anything, but I think they need some kind of map/record thingy of where they've been together! I'm loving these ideas:


                                                   Image ohdeedoh
                                Personally, I'd add the month and year they went.



                                     

                                                                image life blessons
                                          Not sure about the cork...maybe a painted board with the world map?

                                                            

                                                                      image Design Love Fest
                                               Kinda like this guy, but the world?

                                    
                                                     image Pinterest
 Kacee might go for this one! Maps as mats for pictures of her and Bobby different places. Really cute and she LOVES pictures.

A Brooklyn Limestone Shower Idea

I spotted this sooo cute idea for a bridal shower over at A Brooklyn Limestone. The "perfect blend" coffee theme is precious-especially if you have two coffee-lovers. Think of all the possibilities!  
                    

For favors you could give Starbucks Via instant coffees and coffee mugs with the "perfect blend" label.
                                        

It could be a brunch where you serve some delicious coffee cake!
                                               

You could incorporate newspaper into the decorations. People read the newspaper with their morning coffee!  Okay, I know I'm overly excited about this. I don't even drink coffee!

G2G: Jimmy's Food Store

This is absolutely the coolest grocery store in Dallas. It's Italian! We went, enjoyed some sandwiches, did some shopping, and grabbed fresh made cannoli to go. 

Here's the website to check it out: http://www.jimmysfoodstore.com/.

Go there!

After our trip we were ready to make a scrumptious Italian pasta: Bucatini Amitriciana.

I use this recipe: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/05/bucatini-allamatriciana.

Enjoy!

Hopscotch

For my birthday this summer, my family gifted me this lovely light for the dining room:

It's the "Firefly" pendant from CB2. *Love the name.*

Erik and Dad installed it pronto. I was left with some long sheets of bubble wrap. My little sister and I (like all little kids I'm sure) loved jumping on that stuff growing up. I used the bubble wrap to make hopscotch for another pair of sisters I know.

First, I cut them into even sized squares (10).

Next, I used electrical tape to put some not so glamorous numbers on the squares.

Here are the girls jumping:

I didn't stick all mine together. As you can see, it got a little wonky. The good news is the girls were able just to set up the squares, hop on random ones, and tally points based on which number they got to pop (good adding practice).

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom is a super talented a creative lady. All of the houses we lived in were decorated beautifully. She sews, draws, paints, gardens, and crafts. Plus she is an awesome mom, wife, daughter, sister, and dog grandma. :)

I just thought I'd share a couple photos of her home and some of her art.

This is her antique oyster plate display in the kitchen:

                                       I love this "private" sign on her bathroom door:

                                         This is the vignette on her side of the bed (please ignore my reflection in the nightstand):

Here is another vignette in the living room: 

                               Now for her artwork! She is still learning and doesn't want any of it credited to her. I may be biased, but I think it's pretty incredible.
                                              This painting is from a pic she took in Italy a few years ago:

                                                             Love the clouds:

                                Erik is particularly fond of this one of some kids playing a pick up game of soccer in the park:

  My personal favorite is from a pic of me on the beach as a little girl. It may be hard to tell in the photo here, but the waves look incredible.

 That is just a tiny bit of my mom's creativity. Her kitchen wasn't staged when I was there ( she was making us dinner), so I didn't post a picture of it. I'll have to get it another time. It is beautiful!

Dining Room Progress

We have a pretty little dining room. It only has room for a table really. We NEEDED to do something with this boring room without adding any furniture. So, we decided to paint. My kitchen backsplash *love* has little greenish/turquoise tiles in it. After getting over my fear of putting a real color in there, we went and got "green trance" from Sherwin Williams.

Erik getting his paint on. I do the details and he's in charge of the roller.

Thankfully, it's pretty subtle. In the morning light, it is nearly invisible (not sure how I feel about that). I'm not too overwhelmed!

 Charlie didn't try helping by walking through the paint this time. You can still see tiny blue paw prints in our bedroom....

 Once the paint was dry, I started working on what kind of display I could put up on the only complete wall. I decided on a mix of things.

I framed this postcard from Madison, Wisconsin. Print of a goofy little painting called "Cows on the Concourse."

                                            Anthro plate from back in my apartment. Perfect for adding a pop of coral.

                                         The cameoes my great grandmother gave to me. Gosh I miss her.

                                           A watercolor called "Spring's Promise" by a student's dad.

                                                     More of grandma's cameoes:

                                               Another coral Anthro plate:

                                              A pastel of a gingko leaf done by my oh-so-talented mommy. :)

                                                         Here it is all together:

Next job: fix that table. We're thinking "tricorn black" legs and a darker stain on top. Ooh..and I have a chandelier picked out on my pinterest. Eventually I'll change the seating around the table.



The Yard

Well, so far we've only put in plants that will make up the "wall" of our garden in the back.

The bigger tree is a Shumard Oak. To the right of it, you can kinda see a baby tree with purple leaves. That one is our second attempt at a Forest Pansy Redbud.

We've also added some shrubs. Starting on the left: Saucer Magnolia,Knockout Roses (3) Possumhaw Holly, Yaupon Holly, another Possumhaw Holly (you can't really see it in the pic) and a Dwarf Crape Myrtle.

 

On the side of the yard that is up against the house, we have a Japanese Maple and a Nikko Blue Hydrangea. The hydrangea is my favorite. Look at that color! The trees and shrubs show more color in the fall/winter. These blooms can be clipped and put inside already!

It seems like it is taking forever and we don't have much. This is the left side of the backyard. We also added two butterfly bushes over there, but I don't have pics. On the right side of the backyard, we have a Lacebark Elm. It's growing pretty nicely (all by its lonesome).