floating white shelves

last week lou installed some new floating shelves in my office (I helped too, and for once we didn’t want to kill eachother halfway through!). i finally have the perfect place to show off this amazing painting of the bean that our friend matt stallings painted. isn’t it great how he captured her sass?! i smile every time i look at it. check out matt’s work here, i just want to live in his imagination. *shelves from here, and they were easy to install {says the girl whose biggest responsibility was passing along the tape measure}

felt ball wreath

last winter i saw this amazing felt ball wreath and was totally overcome with envy. so this year i busted out my hot glue gun and made my own! lou thought i was a bit crazy, (and it’s possible he’s right) but i loved every second of making this. doing anything creative with my hands that requires a little focus puts my mind at ease and calms down that inner chatter. and it’s the perfect colorful addition to our doorway, i’m so in love with it that i don’t know if i’ll be able to tuck it away after the holidays! do you think it works as every-day decor or is it better as a holiday treat? * buy your own wreath, or the balls to make one here! 

mini christmas trees!

the holidays can be stressful, and i swear people become 40% less kind whilst driving this time of year. but you know what makes it all better for me? a solid 9 hours of back breaking crafting. if you ever receive an email invite from me entitled “craft city usa, my place” and an invite to “craft until your fingers bleed” you best believe i’m not joking around. and poor unsuspecting annie got roped into making 20 mini christmas trees with me the other day. (totally inspired by emily’s holiday decorating show!) but they’re so worth the hot glue gun burns and aching fingers, they transformed our bookcase into a magical christmas forest! if you’re doing crafty things this holiday season i want to see!

our stockings are hung!

each year we add a little bit to our christmas decor collection, and this year our big splurge was these stockings from west elm and these cute little stocking holders from pottery barn. {if we ever have a baby it will have to be named eleanor or ruca, so as to not waste these amazing stockings. i’ve made peace with it.}  i can’t wait to fill them with tiny gifts to open on christmas morning! i’m giddy just thinking of it!!! and today, after editing these photos i went  back and steamed the wrinkles out of them. i’m pretty certain lou thinks i’m a nutbag! *i’m sorry, but both items have sold out of the online stores already. i know, such a tease! but i bet you could get crafty and make these stockings yourself {plus save a pretty penny doing so}. and the beautiful print above the fireplace is by sanna annukka, who i ADORE! merry merry everyone!

holiday ingredients pt 3: gold flatware!

i’ve been hunting gold flatware like a tiger hunts a well-fed gazelle in kenya, relentlessly and with killer focus! i wanted modern, clean pieces without all the ornate detailing that gold flatware tends to have. SO hard to find! and then i found these. they’re perfect! (i do wish they came with a salad fork and maybe a desert fork (spoon?) so i could make fancypants table settings every once in awhile. but when i’m being honest with myself i know that our guests are lucky if they get a home-cooked meal rather than indian takeout, nevermind multiple courses! so here it is, the next ingredient to my holiday party! my girls will be eating their yummies with these shiny gold lovelies. (they can be purchased here, and just a heads up: they’re on major sale!) HO HO HO!

holiday party ingredients pt 2: the invite!

i have no formal design training, so don’t judge me if you think this is lame. but here’s the invite i made for my girls holiday party. i got lots of compliments on it! i sent out a digital invite because i’m so green {read: cheap and lazy}. no shame! if you have photoshop and want to use this for your own holiday party, birthday celebration, or whatever, you can download the larger/editable psd file here!

*names and details have been changed to protect me from interweb weirdos, my party is not tonight and if you googlemap 5555 avenue of sarah yates you will be sorely disappointed.