DIY Project

I love this room from a well known home furnishings retailer...but I especially love how they displayed their travel treasures in this spread.Since you all know by now that we're macaroni-and-cheese around here, I made a DIY version of the display with some of the beach treasures we've collected from our trips. I think this would also beautifully display ticket stubs, wine corks, or little bits of ephemera from travels near and far. Seems there's always something cool in your pockets when you return from a trip that you're never quite sure what to do with.

I really wanted to use vintage jars, but since I'm 550 miles away from my favorite flea market I opted for the local version from the craft supply store. (Sigh...it'll do.) I typed up some tags with the place and date we visited, and printed them on white cardstock. Nothing fancy here, folks. :)
I didn't use an adhesive to stick them to the jar, just let the sand do the work. Then filled the jars with sand from the beach we visited, along with other things we picked up on our trip, like a spiny piece of coral or a handful of sand dollars.

(Mike thinks we'll fill the lake one with rocks since there isn't much for a beach. I actually think that would be charming next to the two jars filled with such fine, sugary sand.)

What a fun way to display your travel memories!

Road Trip Weekend - Part 3 of 3

It's the last installment of our road trip weekend!

We were able to break up our journey to Minnesota with a couple of stops to the lake on Friday evening, on our way north, and then again on Saturday evening before we made the trek back. It was great for Parker to stretch his legs, see the lake, and have some time with G&G.

Parker likes to drive the boat. (While it's in the hoist of course.)

Don't forget to wave goodbye!

Parker went for a nice boat ride. He wouldn't say if he thought it was fun or not, just "oooh, it's windy."

A peaceful view in the morning.

Having some time with Poppy on the dock.

The summer has gone so fast (with the move) that it would be nice to have one more visit to the lake before all the fall activities get underway. Football season will be here before we know it!

Road Trip Weekend - Part 2 of 3

On our way to Morris on Saturday, we made a short detour off the GPS and stopped in one of the hometowns that I had growing up.

This little town has a place very near and dear to my heart—it's where I spent most of my years as a child, and I have wonderful memories of living here. I felt blessed and lucky to be able to share another piece of my life with Mike and Parker. Mike has heard me talk a lot about living here, but until now, hadn't seen it.

This is the house where we lived.
Then we stopped at the ginormous corn statue (Ha ha, "You know you're in Minnesota when..."). After all, this little town is the Corn Capital... And a quick family pic before hitting the road again. Parker was ready to go...can you tell? :)

Road Trip Weekend - Part 1 of 3

Lucky you...watch the blog this week for stories of our adventures on the road this past weekend!

This was the view I had the most...Parker was entertained with a couple of movies on the laptop--we don't watch a lot of tv or movies at home so it was a real treat for him to watch something he really liked. And we played cars, read lots of books, and watched out the window for freight trains...

The first leg of our trip on Friday evening was to the lake. (Watch for that in installment #3) it was a short evening with Mike's family there, but it was great for Parker to have some fresh air and stretch his legs.

Got up bright and early on Saturday morning and headed north to west central MN to celebrate my grandfather's upcoming birthday. On our way up we stopped in one of the small towns I called home for many years. It meant a lot to me to see the house I grew up in and share another part of my life with Mike and Parker. We'll touch on all that in tomorrow's post.

That brings us to the purpose of our weekend--the birthday celebration! We got a giggle about the festivities being held in Morris. Moresville in Morris, we called it...

Mike, looking lost.


We started off the day with lunch and birthday cake in the park, then on to lots of yard games and laughter.
Parker had no problem with poppa feeding him birthday cake. :)

Playing bocce.

Then we moved the party inside and played a rather serious game of spoons. Bring your agility and quickness...this game moves fast.

Everyone helped to make a beautiful memory/scrapbook for my grandfather with some amazing stories and photos.
We also made stickers with our favorite sayings of his. "Burnt toast makes your teeth white." "Show me the money you saved." and many, many more. :)
My mom's family loves to laugh. And I have to admit it's one of my favorite sounds in the whole world when everyone's together. It was fun to hear so many stories, so much laughter, and see everyone having fun.
Thanks, Morris, for hosting Moresville...and the rest of the family! More to come tomorrow about our weekend adventures. Stay tuned!

"Aaah, smells like corn."

Four days.
1,100-some-odd miles.
Five movies watched (about three times each)
LOTS of quality time behind the wheel.
Oh, it's good to be back in Moresville again.

We road-tripped up I-29 this weekend for a very quick visit to the lake and then onward further north to celebrate my grandfather's upcoming 80th birthday. We got our fix of being back in the Midwest and seeing nothing for miles but corn, soybeans and blue sky (but it's still a little odd to look to the western horizon and not see mountains...)

It was lot of action--and a lot of fun--packed into a short amount of time! We felt so blessed to be part of the celebration and made the miles traveled worth every moment. A bonus—Parker got to see all of his grandparents this weekend—he loved every minute of it!

Lots of photos to post, so stay tuned...

Things I miss about 5280

Dear Fair City of 5280 (and our former home at 5342'),

I miss you.

I miss the unfriendly blue horse's scary eyes at the airport. I miss partaking of your cold 6 point malt beverages and thin, dry air. I miss your angry car horns on I-25, Tollbooth Willie on E470, and half-hour drives to get to anywhere (and by anywhere, I mean Ames-friends' house and Nordstrom). I miss playing in the thick green grass of the backyard, and putting on a sweatshirt and sitting on the patio with friends after the sun goes down. Sitting in the purple seats at Rockies games while Parker plays on the bleachers. Seeing if there's a good view of Long's Peak today and comparing it to yesterday's view. Playing with the "stroller gang" in the neighborhood.

Not that the Midwest isn't nice. It's friendly, comfortable, and good for my complexion.

One of these days I'm going to come back and we're going to find oodles of treasures at market.

Then we'll sit on the patio and watch the sun set after rain clouds roll off the mountains.

And we'll hang out in LoDo.

And we'll catch a Rocks game from the purple seats. It'll be fun. Let's do it soon.
Love,
Moresville

Happily Ever After: Heather and Brian

I had the privilege of working with Brian and Heather to create the stationery for their recent wedding. We've known the couple for several years and it was so exciting to hear that they were going to tie the knot!

Heather had an amazing vision for her wedding--summery and light yet so sophisticated at the same time. When we first talked about her save-the-date and invitations, so many great inspirations came from her bridesmaid dresses, flowers, and other details surrounding the wedding. Talk about organized!

We kept the look very light, airy, and modern for the invitations, with shimmer paper and a sheer overlay, tied up with a sophisticated monogram (that was even on their wedding cake!).


The programs came together beautifully, too:

H&B, it was a total honor to help prepare for and celebrate your special day! Thank you!

Swim Time

We joined the local country club in an effort to meet some other families and have an outlet for some fun. The pool has been a big draw for us right now--Parker loves the water and I'm hoping to get him into some lessons yet this summer. Plus, it's been fry-an-egg hot, so we went there last night and splashed around. Parker shows off how he goes "smimming" in the wading pool:

Fun with Wordle

Here's a fun website to visit: Wordle is a site that creates word maps/word clouds based on the text you enter, either copied and pasted, or from a website that has an RSS feed. For kicks, here's what Moresville looks like:
The more times a word appears on the site or in the text you provide, the bigger the word is on your word map/word cloud. Try it!

A Great Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend. Friday evening we celebrated the wedding of a couple who we've known for several years. It was an honor to share in the love and joy of their special day! I'd post some photos, but in the interest of maintaining everyone's privacy, I will hold off.

However, I had the ultimate honor of creating their wedding stationery and will be posting photos of everything this week! It turned out beautifully and set the tone for a great event.

We got a few things done around the house Saturday morning and ventured over to see our Lobsterfest partners-in-crime. (See posts from June for more details on our annual lobster extravaganza, if you're new to the blog!) We had a great time! Hit the pool, enjoyed tons of amazing food (fired up the Green Egg and smoked some awesome pork...sooooo good), and enjoyed each other's company. This morning the daddies and little ones had some together time, while the mommas hit our very favorite sale of the year--the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. Yippee!!! It was great to have some "girl time"...and we found some good bargains to boot. :)

So, not many photos, but lots of good times with good friends.

iLove iPhone

I feel like it's Christmas--I got an iPhone! Mike gets all the credit for this one--he waited patiently in line, worked out all the kinks of getting an account set up, etc. And I am SUPER excited. It's wonderful. Amazing. I'm like a kid in a candy store. :)

I did have to get a new number (it's a long story) so those of you who need an update, I'll get an email out to you in the coming days with my info. Not to worry in the meantime—I'm double-fisting with my current number, so it will remain active for a couple more weeks while I'm transitioning over. I'm not one to jump in with both feet, as you might know by now...

Chirrrp, chirrp...

Not much new to report....life is quiet around here lately. Parker is cutting his bottom eye teeth and is verrrry cranky. Poor guy, he's managing the best he can, but he's pretty uncomfortable, so we're trying to keep him happy whatever ways we can. I've been working on a few projects and arranging meetings with the best friends you'll have in a small business--accountant, lawyer, and banker--and getting things set up and organized in our new locale.

Little Lovelies

Daddy and Parker treated me to a lovely bouquet on Friday while we were out for lunch. The bright colors all lined up and at attention is so cheery in the family room. I love how I've been able to multipurpose the little bud vases for all sorts of arrangements, and mix and match them with other small vases.

I can do it myself

Aaaah, the joys of being two. Like the new State Farm tv spots – "oh yeah, we're there."

Tonight after Parker's bath he discovered some socks in his laundry basket. Mismatched ones, of course, from the move and had to put them on. At first the way he was asking, "socks on?" I thought he was asking for chicken. Sometimes toddler-speak can be its own language, and I wouldn't have been surprised if that was what he was asking for (you never know what flies out of his mouth sometimes).

Then it was too bright in the room. Then too dark. Then too bright. Dark. Bright. You get the idea.

Back in the Saddle again

This week we've been getting back (or getting into, I should say) to a more set routine again. Parker feels only lukewarm about said schedule and his new school at this point--each day has been consecutively better than the last, so progress is good. I'm getting back into the swing of working and picking a few projects up here and there, and it feels great to be productive at something. Whooppee!

p.s. I love this scarf from Little Factory. Super cute for a type nerd. :)

20-minute DIY project

I've discovered I need two things in my workspace: organization, and a quick way of displaying inspirations/clippings/random stuff I like. I found a few cork tiles and some super cute wrapping paper while I was unpacking last week and figured it would be a good way to accomplish to at least hit #2. (Organization isn't my best quality, although I'm good at the attempt.)

Supplies: Cork tiles (office supply, nothing special), wrapping paper (heavy duty, don't skimp on this--or any lightweight fabric would look great too), spray mount/Super 77, Painters tape.

Unroll a sheet of wrapping paper, make sure you have at least 1/2" around the cork tile so you have enough trim to fold the edges under. I was lucky that all three tiles fit on one sheet--hooray for leftovers!
Spray the smooth side of the cork tile and adhere to backside of paper. Trim 1/2" around the tile and fold edges under. I did also trim off the corners so that the paper wouldn't bunch underneath, then I taped the edges with painters tape. (I figure, it's on the wall, nobody's going to see it!)


Then, attach to wall! I used 1" roofing nails in each corner of each tile--their big, flat head is cool and a little bit industrial and non-prissy to contrast the flowery paper.

All done! I put the tiles 3" apart from each other so there was enough space between in case something overlaps, etc. I found some sewing pins with colored heads on them to go with the colors in the paper. Now, to work on the organization part...

Work Day

I've been so caught up in getting things organized after the move that it's been hard to focus on much design work. So today is my catch-up, get-organized and get-lots-of-things-crossed-off-my-to-do-list day. Yippee!!

p.s. Happy Birthday Gma/Momma L! Lots of hugs and kisses. xoxoxo

Container Gardening

We hit a great half-price sale at one of the nurseries around here over the weekend. It always feels so good to get my hands in the dirt and watch something grow. We potted two of my big containers with this assortment:



And of course a pot of my favorites, red gerbera daisies.

Once a Cyclone, Always a Cyclone

"Mow Grass!"

We happen to have family living in our new town - relatives on Mike's side, and it's nice to be able to see them. The other day they brought over a bubble mower for Parker to enjoy in the backyard--and he has so far loved every bubble-filled moment. Every time we went into the garage over the weekend, Parker asked to either mow grass or play basketball. Very cute.

We got a ton of stuff accomplished over the weekend--cleared out the garage and moved items into storage such that we can almost park both vehicles! We hadn't anticipated being able to do that, as we are snug on storage space inside our new digs. (And there are purposely no pictures because I'm ashamed by the amount of stuff we have that we probably don't really need, but believe me when I say it's a massive improvement.)

I digress. Back to the mower...

Evening Picnic

We enjoyed a drive-thru picnic last night at one of the parks near the ranch. It was a gorgeous day--too nice to stay inside and cook (hey, I'll take any excuse I can get) so takeout seemed to be the next best thing.

A couple of ducks came up close--really, really close, until Parker thought it would be fun to chase them off.

Mia and Cooper

The girls have taken to their new surroundings pretty well. Of course this isn't their first rodeo, so they have learned to find lots of new hiding places among the boxes and only come out to say hi when it's time to eat. Go figure.
Mia

Cooper

Mmm, Summer.

Aaaah, one of the better things about summertime in the Midwest is sweet corn. We ventured to a farmers market over the weekend and picked up a few pretty young ears, but it was deee-lish nonetheless. Parker liked eating his corn like a big boy--none of this business of having momma cut it off the cob for him. :)