from drab to fab: the craft hutch

 Ta-da!  Would you believe this gem was once a curb call!? You're witnessing the before & after of my favorite side-of-the-road FREE furniture piece yet!  I am SO happy I was in the right place at the right time to adopt this lovely piece.  After some serious sanding, primer, and a quart of plain white decorator paint, it has become the best thing that ever happened to my craft room.  Perfection.  Of course I couldn't show it off without snapping a few extra pics of its contents, some of my most beloved supplies:

How about you? What is your favorite freebie?  Have you ever found something on the side of the road and transformed it into a treasure?  I'd love to hear...

G at 3.

 Truth: I have all but abandoned scrapbooking and photo albums.  Kinda like how the carpenter's house never gets fixed.  The photographer's kid never gets photo albums. :)  Maybe someday I'll make a deadline for myself and get my act together.  But this summer, while we're working so hard on everyone else's images, I really want to take a little time to remember G, just as he is, at the sweet age of 3, because seriously, he is such a gift:
: He has been known to eat condiments and only condiments for meals.  On multiple occasions. (Of course, healthy items of sustenance were also offered on his plate.)
: There is nothing on earth I love more than hearing him giggle.
: Considering he can only recognize the letter G, he is an amazingly proficient iPad user.
: He can count to FIVE-teen. (:
: He loves other kids so much and always wants to hold hands with his friends. I cannot find the willpower to discourage this. It is the sweetest thing.
: He is in a hard-core pirate phase, and speaks pirate fluently.  Considering a pirate Halloween costume.
: Fav toys: Legos, Thomas trains, puzzles, and anything with wheels.
: Every single morning, he requests sugar toast (cinnamon-sugar toast) for breakfast.  He insists that he (f)rinkle it himself.

I adore that he has entered the pre-school stage. He is bursting with curiosity and cute conversation. I just dearly miss that there is absolutely nothing babyish left in his life. Except that he will always be my baby...

more thoughts on creating & clicking.

On Friday, I spilled a whole bunch of my thoughts on iphones, pinterest, instagram and the like.  I adored your comments--it is so good to hear that I am not the only one who has these feelings of inadequacy, and suffers from the paralysis of analysis.  I wanted to mention that I hope the post did not come off as sounding too poor me or like I was somehow fishing for your praise and admiration.  The fact that anyone even takes the time to read this little blog is amazing and fulfilling in its own right. And I know I am capable of doing creative things. There. I said it.

When you stop to think about it, it is utterly terrifying to put ourselves out there, subject to the cruelest judgment with every word and image.  It's no wonder that we all get so caught up in comparison and competition. Plus insensitive stuff happens.  I know that for a fact. It's amazing that we don't all cast our computers into the sea and live under rocks.

And yet, 99.9% of the feedback I've ever encountered has been nothing but the kindest of kindness. Sometimes I need reminders to just be myself (however cool or uncool I may be), to seek beauty, and to love others. To gather inspiration where I feel most inspired, and to have the self-awareness to know when my sources of inspiration are tearing me down instead of building me up. I think that is the key to every creative pursuit. (As I write this, I am chuckling at the thought of this turning into a Pinterest addict's serenity prayer.) So thanks, just for saying such sweet things. You are the reason I love to blog.

P.S. Dear Jessica: Instagramming 4 times on Sunday/family day is far from unplugging. It's cool that you're not too legalistic, but seriously. Better luck next time.

xo.

"mama. i love to make piles."

If I've learned anything in my 3 short years as a mother, it's that messes are inevitable. Little boys are everywhere. And for these two key reasons, it takes 100 times longer to do everything. Now that I've figured this out, I can relax, take time to accept the disarray without allowing myself to become completely unraveled...Then photograph his antics before taking corrective action. Someday, when I have no one around to unwind my shoebox of neatly wrapped notions, I will miss these surprises in my craft room.

inspiration overload.

Illustration by Lindsay Letters : via

I have been struggling a lot lately with feelings of inadequacy, lost in the abysmal blogosphere of the most talented designers, photographers, crafters, and writers on the planet.  Perhaps it's just par for the course, having taken so much time away from regularly scheduled blogging. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed by all the loveliness of Pinterest, my google reader and beyond, that I feel completely bogged down and well, just plain down.  When I measure my creativity against the whole entire world's I feel completely paralyzed--like an original idea could never possibly cross my mind ever again. Sometimes I spend so much time pinning together my little dream life, and jonesing for everyone else's life via Instagram, that I forget to actually live my real life...Does this sound at all familiar?  Do you ever feel like everything has already been created, so what's even the point?

Since becoming an iPhone owner, I've become acutely aware of just how much it owns me.  I adore the perks of having a smart phone and can't imagine life without it--it's so good in so many ways.  But I cringe at the thought of all the missed moments with those around me, because I've been glued to the screen, fueling the lie that I am somehow creatively inferior.

One thing that's been helpful to me in kicking the rut, is to spend one day a week UNplugged. At our house this summer, we're trying to be more intentional about observing the Sabbath. For us, that means taking a day away from our business, to do family things, to take R&R seriously, to tackle projects around the house, to go to church, and to stay sane during our busy wedding season.  Adding my phone, email, and all things social media to the list, I find it AMAZING; truly remarkable just how much time there is in the day, and how much we can accomplish, when our only goal is to take a break from accomplishing things...

Do you ever get bogged down in the blogosphere?  And if so, what are your tricks for recharging? I'd love to hear...

minnehaha falls on my holga

This summer I have been having so much fun playing with my Holga!  It is so ultra simple that it feels kinda like the 24 exposure disposable cameras my mom used to send with me to summer camp.  I mean, we're talking primitive.  You have to manually wind your film. No flashy flash, no auto focus, no batteries.  PLUS a crappy viewfinder so you're never quite sure what you're composing.  (Hello chopped heads!)  It may sound like a pointless nightmare to you, but to a girl who spends her summers lugging lenses and shooting fancy weddings, it is a dreamy vacation.  Such a tactile experience.  Everything from the underwhelming little click of the shutter to rolling the film between exposures.  It leaks light in crazy ways so you never have a clue what you're gonna get.  No fake actions necessary. The imprecision of it all is so real and so wonderful!  So here you are...a few shots of our summer in Minneapolis, straight out of camera:

a dollhouse pillow!

This morning, I dusted off my sewing machine and got to work creating a pretty dollhouse pillow for a friend's baby girl!  I had been wanting to make one for forever--and let me tell you, I had SO much fun putting this together. I honestly didn't use any sort of pattern, I just started cutting and piecing and experimenting.  Things don't always line up perfectly, but it is my favorite way to sew!  If you can sew a straight line, you can make one too. (: Without a doubt, this project was the best thing to ever happen to my pile of scrap fabrics. It makes me wish I had twice as much time to make it even more imaginative and interactive.  Next time...

june.

JUNE INSTAGRAMS: 1. Pico de Pineapple is my fave. 2. This potted garden at Anthropologie inspired my garden makeover. 3. Watercolors for the new blog banner!  4. Farmers' market fresh. 5. Last night's kabob party. 6. The bucket list in chalkboard form.

Holy guac, during these sweet summer days, is tough to keep up the blogging routine!  Even though it's not super realistic for me to shout hellos here every day, I promise to chime in every once in awhile.  It just feels too good to be back!  Thank you, lovely friends, for the warmest of welcomes.  It makes my heart happy to read your kind comments!

Also, you can still catch glimpses of the swell life daily on Instagram: @jefflovesjessica.  I will go out on a limb and say that it is the best social media site to date.  I am so in love! Yup, better than Pinterest.  Even if you don't have an iPhone, you can still follow my feed here!

clean happy : shower gift

Full disclosure: when it comes to cleaning, I am terribly, hopelessly unmotivated.  Pre-G, my household tidy factor was at least okay, but in the last 3 years it has steadily fallen.  So often, when perusing the shelves at Target, I lust for pretty cleaning products with fancy colors, wonderful smells, and exceptionally-designed labels...Of course they also are all eco-friendly, locally made and horribly expensive.  If I bought them all, I wonder if my house would be a significantly better place.  And then I pass, because common sense gets the better of me, and after all, baking soda and vinegar are awesome.

But I'd always wanted to put such fun things in a gift basket, because perhaps I'm not the only one who needs beautiful things with which to clean her home.  So I did.  And here is the finished product:

I gifted this little bucket-o-goodies together to my co-worker and friend, Lindsay, who is getting married next weekend.  Sometimes I am naughty and get tired of digging through registries to find something to give that still feels personal. Since Linds and her fiance also just closed on their first house, I thought it would be fun to bundle a shower + housewarming gift all into one.

summer bucket list . 2012

When temperatures soared last weekend and our AC went kaput, it finally hit me that summer IS here and will go oh-so-fast, because it always does.  Enter the summer bucket list, a reminder for me to slow down, enjoy, and not miss all the season has to offer:

: make homemade lemonade
: twins game
: go camping
: make s'mores
: let G stay up late to watch fireworks
: family dates/day trips, once a week
: landscape our front lawn. seriously, this is so needed!
: remember to water flowers
: play at the pool
: play at the park
: visit a pizza farm
: sidewalk chalk
: take G fishing
: clean the garage
: garage sale?
: clean the basement
: re-finish my new antique hutch
(can't wait to share that one. my best side-of-the-road find YET!)
: vacation in cali
: visit the farmer's market weekly
: ride our bikes
: eat waffle cones
: walk around the lakes
: play at the beach
: invite our neighbors over for a backyard BBQ

I'd love to hear it--what is on your summer bucket list?