Road Trips and Driving

The past month and a half had been built up of three things: work, packing, and driving. I've never liked road trips much before, but now that I'm a driver, I'm becoming more and more of a fan.
To be fair, the first flush of excitement still clings to me when I drive since I'm only a few months in.

Still, I've learned to really enjoy the little things about driving; being in charge of the vehicle (which I've officially named Suzy, ps), rolling down the windows, blasting music. I've become quite adept a car dancing as well; I'm a regular Car-yshnikov (dance-pun-high-five).

Trust me, that was a really funny joke.

The point is, I love me a car trip.

It's amazing how a change of scenery can make all the difference.

Quilting for Funzies

So I'm making a quilt.

Yup- I started a big project. My goal is to, well... actually finish this one.

I have a habit of starting things like scarfs and hats, etc and never finishing them. But not this time.

See, this one is compact, adorable, and has a no-pressure time frame. And it can be done whenever I fell it is done (or I run out of fabric- whichever comes first).


So here's the process:

I tack small squares of fabric to my amazing tiny hexagons.

Then, I stitch the hexagons together making flowers.

When I have enough of those, I sew them all together.

To finish it off, I undo the tack stitched and remove the papers.

TaDa!!! I have a quilt top.

It's coming along fairly well so far, I think. I'm just at the flower making phase, but I think its going well. I'll keep you updated on how its going!

CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!

It's officially Christmas time. Which means I am allowed to sing the songs I love far too much, watch the movies that make me feel warm inside, and decorate the bajesus out of everything.

SO naturally we've put up a tree, and we found some glitter-covered friends to go with.
Take a peek:

pizmas tree

clive, bixby and larry

christmas hippo

What about you guys? Do you decorate for the holidays?

Little Bits: Shoes

Hi all!
It's been a busy two weeks- now back to real life!

I should be posting more regularly from now on- (or at least till Christmas)

Anyways, here's a glimpse of what I've been wearing lately as I've been bustling about.

Happy Friday!

It's Friday! Go out and get yourself a well-deserved drink and something fried; I know I will be!

Here's a pic of my grandma's happy dogdog to get you going.

Have a good weekend!

Wish List: City Prints

Theres a blank space on my wall.

It's so sad, like a duckling that just cant catch up with her siblings or the dog that legitimately can't understand why he can't catch his tail.

Naturally, I wandered over to etsy to find a little something to make my wall feel a little less sad. And I found something. A few somethings, actually:

I love them so much. I want to get one for each city I've lived in (plus Paris). Now the only question is... do I get all the same series OR do I do all different?

Quandaries...

Apartment Update!

my picture wall in my room

So it's been about a week in the new place, and we are settling in quite nicely. Here's some of the updates we've made:

bits form the living room- our theta wall, our wall of pictures, and our amazing bookcase complete with tea set AND joan holloway barbie 

from this...

to this! dining room table- we found an awesome little grocery stores that has a great flower section

sad bar...

happy bar!!- those are our royalty/ LU shot glasses

empty bathroom...

cute bathroom! my babushka glasses, my side of the sink, and our bathroom post cards

my amazing bed and nigh stand- not over how much i love the lamp

first bedside table...

bedroom details- my bedside table, my jewelry and a purple tray (i made it!)

What do you guys think?

Makin' It Happen: Ikea Honeycomb Mirror

We went to Ikea the other day.

the project

sad nook :(

The best part of any Ikea trip (besides the meatballs) is finding the little bits that brighten up a space. On our harrowing Labour Day trip to Ikea, my roommate, Schroer, and I found a few choice bits. One of my favorites is the honeycomb mirror we found.

See, we have this nook right when you walk in and it needed a mirror. Badly. So when we came across this one, it seemed like a no-brainer.

Naturally, the moment we got home and had put together the furniture we'd gotten, I pulled out the pieces and began arranging them. The mirror isn't just one piece, but ten smaller octagons that you can arrange to your liking.
My favorite part of the mirror is that it's half silver mirror, half bronze mirror. When I first saw this, I didn't like it one bit, but as I arranged the pieces and put the bronze ones in at random, I grew to love them. The warmth of the bronze is so welcoming, especially in our front hall.

Remember when I said my roommate is a master crafter? Well, she came up with the genius idea to put papers behind the mirrors to frame them.

the piece in progress with it's creator, the magnificent Schro

We immediately pulled out paper and started arranging them.

We went with different papers for each piece- it gives almost a quilted effect.

So after deciding on the final arrangement of the mirrors and papers, Schroer traced the octagons and measured out about an inch. Then she carefully cut out the strips and placed them around the corresponding octagon. After it was all laid out, the dangerous part began: sticking it together.

Schroer stuck the paper to the mirrors using her handy dandy double sided tape tool. Then, I volunteered to help out.


Not my brightest idea.

I was in charge of sticking the final pieces to the wall. Well, the adhesive squares for the mirrors are a one-shot deal. So, naturally, I stuck the first one on slaunchy. And then panicked.

But it turned out ok; Schroer fixed it.

It turned out amazingly. The nook is now cheerful and welcoming when you walk in.

final product, with Schoer as a disney princess. 

And, we all learned an important lesson:
Schroer really is the master.

And I should not be in charge of the hard-to-fix steps. 

The Apartment

It's happening: I'm moving in to my new place. This can only mean one thing: it's decorating time. Remember all that planning I've been doing? Well now I get to put it all into action! So let's take a look at the blank slate:

So I have a nice big space to work with and an awesome roommate who is a master crafter (words I never thought I'd say). So with a little bit of time, a few Target and Ikea runs and a LOT of picture frames, this place will soon feel like home!

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When Things Go Wrong (But Turn Out Ok)

As you might have heard, I'm moving. As you also might have heard, I was supposed to fly into Wisconsin Tuesday. But things don't always go as they're supposed to, do they?
On Tuesday, the United Airline network crashed nationwide. All this really did was delay a specific window of flights, including my first flight to Denver. I ended up missing the second leg of my journey.

Now, I respond poorly when travel plans go awry. By 'poorly' I mean that I follow standard Cravi procedures:
1. Panic internally
2. Decide it will be fine
3. Call parental person
4. Speak in an urgent and exasperated voice for a solid minute to three minutes then insist I'm just tired.
5. Calm down and decide to be a grown up about it.
6. Put some food in me to subdue the Hanger beast
7. Make sure I'm as nice and understanding and sweet to the poor airline people as possible

Boom- Problem solved.

This is my usual course of action.

This time, the solution to my no-airplane problem was to be put up in a hotel overnight and jump on a plant the next day. At first, I was cranky. Then the clouds parted and I realized: Hotel= jammies. Hotel = room service.
HOTEL= JAMMIES + ROOM SERVICE.
Finally, the transitive property is working for me.



See kids? We really do use math after the SATs.

So what started out as a stressful, cranky, sweaty day turned into reveling in two food vouchers worth of cheesecake, wine, and french onion soup while watching Chopped and Dance Moms.

Basically, I lived the dream.

BearBear agrees.

Inspiration: Posters and Wall Art

That's right sports fans.

My big move is THIS WEEK!!!


I know, I'm excited too.
But calm down, kids- theres still a plane to ride, several boxes to send, and quite a bit of unpacking to do before this girl lives in Milwaukee.
Before then, there's still a little time to daydream, this time about posters and pieces to put on my walls. My favorite part of moving in is putting all my keepsakes and pictures up. or me, thats what makes a room into my room. So here's a taste to wet your appetite:

What do you think? Any winners in the bunch?

Wish List: Wall Decals and Papers

I love a pop of pattern on a wall.

So I've been investigating wallpapers and decals for a possible decorating idea in the new apartment. Looking at all them together, I clearly have colors and patterns I'm drawn to... mostly trees and geometric patterns. Anywho, here are my inspirations and ideals for a splash of fun in my new room: