Reality Check

I realize I've had a major lack of real content in the last week, and while I'm bummed about that, it's simply all I have the time or energy for right now. The good news is that Pinterest is chock full of inspiring quotes displayed all pretty in a graphic, and sometimes on a rough day a phrase that really hits home is just what I need.

Here's one for today. It's a bit harsh, but I love it. I'll be back to my chipper self soon. Promise.

Quarter Life Crisis

via

I'm in a rut this week friends. I'm exhausted, overwhelmed and feeling totally uninspired. On the flip side, I have some really great things ahead of me in the coming weeks, starting with an incredible event with the advisory board I'm on tomorrow evening that my awesome father in law and a good friend are joining me for. The event is at the Signature Room, where I've never been, and I'm looking forward to feeling fancy and doing some friendly networking for the foundation. I'm struggling to stay afloat, but I'm working on it!

Until I'm back with something more substantial, feel free to check out Paper & Honey's "Make Your Mark" series, where the image above came from. This chick is Talented with a capital T, and her hand lettered go-get-em phrases make me happy.

If you're having as rough of a week as I am - hang in there! We can do it.

Almost Heaven

There is nothing quite like spending a weekend at the lake with family and friends, sitting by a bonfire every night with hoodies, marshmallows and drinks, paddling (sometimes in circles) around the lake in a canoe, grilling almost every meal, chopping wood and driving a four-wheeler around the yard. Even raking leaves is more enjoyable when you're at the lake. Everything is just better. More relaxing. Slower. More cherished.

Thanks to spending the last 4 days doing just that, I'm struggling a little to get back into the swing of things this morning. The rain we're having here isn't helping, but regardless, it's already Tuesday and based on my emails it looks like I'm walking into a crazy busy week at work so it's time to get back in gear.

I hope you enjoyed the long weekend as much as I did. If you're interested, check out lots more photos of our little mini-vaca over on Instagram!

Blessings in Disguise

This past weekend when I was moping around bummed that I wasn't packing for Mexico, my good friend Amy who lives in Seattle was packing for Chicago. I of course didn't know that because I am the WORST friend ever when it comes to keeping in touch (For real - how do I get over the fact that I hate talking on the phone?? Who's got tips for me?), but the good news is that Amy is awesome and she sent me a text when she got here saying that we should get together and catch up. I haven't seen Amy since my wedding, and haven't met either of her little ones, so you can imagine how much I freaked out about her being in town. We promptly made dinner plans for last night, and I was actually a little nervous to pick her up to come over thinking it was going to be weird because we haven't really talked and now I'm married and now she has two kids and now we both have careers... you know, adult stuff. Gone are the days of us babysitting for approximately 15 kids between us and taking group trips with them to the pool. No more shopping for the heck of it on a Wednesday and then wearing our cute new outfit to the bars that evening. Forget about swooning over cute guys that we see while we're out - we're both (happily) taken! Things are different now.

But I was so so wrong for thinking for even a second that anything would be awkward. It was perfect. I loved every second of catching up and it was like we'd never been apart. Amy is a natural-born mother and it was so incredible to see her doting on the kids. And her daughter?!? Dear God that child is amazing. Not an ounce of shy in her and a total chatterbox... so basically, me as a child only with a mess of blonde curls I'm super jealous of. She was giggling with me before we even got to our house, and was totally smitten with Dan within minutes. At one point towards the end of the evening I came downstairs from the bathroom and she stood up on a chair, held up her arms and said "Kelly!! Cuddle with me!!!" MELT. MY. HEART. Seriously. I almost cried.

So besides gushing about Amy and her amazing little family, the point of this post is to serve as a reminder - mostly to myself since I have a real hard time looking on the bright side sometimes - look for the positive. Remember the little things. Realize that if I were actually in Mexico this week I would have missed the chance to see one of my oldest friends that is only in town every couple of years.

I never thought I would say this, but I am SO glad I'm not laying on a beach right now. There is nowhere else I would have rather been for dinner last night than at home with Dan, Amy, Aoife and Collin.

The 4 C's

As I gather inspiration for this year's Summer Projects List, I'm realizing more and more that I'm leaning towards simple little projects that can still have a big impact. As with the entire time we've had our house, we've made a TON of improvements in the last year, and now I'm trying hard to keep true to my promise to the hubs that I will work towards just relaxing and enjoying our home instead of constantly trying to change things. With as much as I love crafty DIY projects, I know I will never stop making tweaks here and there, so this summer I plan to focus on just that - the little things.

The projects list is in the works, but for now, here's a few things I'm drawing inspiration from.

Cooking: One of our favorite summer meals is a pizza on the grill. My cousin taught me this little trick last year, and once we found a 99 cent pre-made dough at the grocery store that we loved, grilled pizza quickly became a dinner staple. I'm pretty sure Dan wouldn't go for this one with grilled peach and prosciutto, but it'll be perfect for an evening at home with Manda during one of his many trips in the coming months.

Crafting: With the farmer's market open, it's time to grab my yearly starter herb plants, which I will inevitably kill long before summer ends. Or maybe this will finally be the year that I have the flourishing, successful herb garden that I dream of. Fingers crossed. These cinder block planters would be super fun and simple, not to mention easily modified to fit whatever space you have.

Clarity: Positivity. A simple (and pretty painted) reminder.

Cleaning: Oh, the never-ending battle for an organized and decluttered bathroom. Absolutely at the top of my list this year. Thankfully, we have a linen closet outside of the bathroom where towels and things go, but there's still toiletries galore piled up on the sink at all times, and it drives us both insane. I'm determined to finally figure out a way to defeat the clutter!

Scenes from the Weekend

It is officially summer in Chicago, at least in my book. It was gorgeous out all weekend, the Farmer's Market is finally open for the season, and Memorial Day weekend (which will be spent in Wisconsin with friends and my awesome dad!) is just a few work days away. Despite going to bed WAY too late last night I managed to get up early enough to make myself a lunch and a smoothie to go for breakfast, and I'm crossing my fingers I get out of the office in time to make it to a class at the gym this evening. I have a feeling it's going to be a good week. Here's a little recap of my weekend on Instagram -

treated myself to some spinach and asparagus at the opening weekend of the Farmer's Market  //  Dan and Mayah taking a Sunday afternoon nap  //  a little Sunday evening DIY (will be on the blog this week!)  //  snowing flower petals //  FINALLY got a pedicure (and some new gold sandals)  //  my masterpiece from the afternoon painting class portion of Bridget's bachelorette party!

Happy Monday, friends!

Home Tour: Front Porch

It's front porch "tour" time folks! Our DIY pallet couch was the perfect kickoff to a full space makeover, and I'm thrilled with the outcome. Scroll through for more photos than you could ever want to see of my new favorite room in our house!

Obviously, the pallet couch is the main piece in the room, and I love how the pattern really livens up the entire space. The throw pillows are all ones I already had - I'm planning to add a few more over time, and would love a long lumbar pillow to act as sort of a "back" to the long side of the couch.

Thanks to the huge windows, there isn't a whole ton of actual wall space, but the far corner of the room was perfect to hang up handmade pinwheels from our wedding. The paper lanterns are also from the wedding, but I'm thinking I might take them down (or spray paint them?) eventually seeing as there is a LOT of blue in the room overall. You can also catch a glimpse of the faux bamboo side table in the corner that I scored at Dan's work community garage sale last year for $8. I'm thinking that will get a fresh coat of a different color very soon since it is ALSO blue.

We needed somewhere to sort mail, so the awesome little $5 metal cart that I found at Goodwill during the Young House Love Unofficial Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge got added in with some fun acrylic wine glasses and a small white tray on top for mail. The Missoni for Target crate fits underneath the cart perfectly for some of my hundreds of magazines, and the big basket is perfect storage for a couple extra floor pillows.

The main table in the space is an awesomely affordable Ikea Lack table that will be perfect for all those game nights I'm dreaming about.

A couple of vases on top of the table house the air plants my very best friend in the world surprised me with - she claims they're nearly impossible to kill. We'll see. ;)



I really hope I don't kill them, because they're super cute.



The opposite side of the room is more functional than pretty and fun like the area with the pallet couch, but I still wanted to make it look good. Right next to the door is another magazine holder (I seriously have a problem) and a vintage printing block tray I fell in love with on a thrifting day with the hubs last summer.

Like I said - this is the "not pretty" side of the room, and there's a lot packed in there but I love the $5 garage sale score storage cabinet that holds extra shoes and all of our board games. On top of the cabinet is a basket for the dustbuster and a few other little things and a few vases of tissue paper flowers from our wedding. Next to that, the coat rack also holds Buddy Louie's leashes and a small basket up top of some other random dog necessities. 

Opposite the door into the house (which is in the right side of the image above next to the coat rack) is my very very very favorite craigslist find ever - my first piece of campaign furniture! I found this little guy for $20 in Bolingbrook on a search for an end table with storage for the porch, and it is absolutely perfect. It could use a fresh coat of paint but I'm kind of loving the dings and imperfections so for now all I'm planning to do is line the drawers with some patterned paper.



Campaign hardware makes me giddy.

My terrarium, a favorite engagement photo and a couple of little knick-knacks from West Elm sit on top of the campaign piece.
 

To finish up the tour, one last shot of the pallet couch! I am so glad this project worked out as planned and kicked off a weekend of extreme cleaning and organizing in a space that I've been wanting to makeover for years.

I always knew the porch would be a super low-budget area, and am happy to say that if you add up the pallet couch at about $150 and every single other item in the room including the rug, tables and accessories the whole space still cost around $250 total. Considering a couch alone would generally cost at least that much, I'm incredibly proud of the fact that the entire room was so affordable overall. It took a few years to get there, but I'm thrilled to finally say it's perfect!

What do you think?? Hope you love it as much as I do!

Stacked

With short sleeves becoming a regular occurrence (finally!) it's time to get some new arm candy. I've been more and more into gold jewelry lately, and love how a few bracelets look stacked together. Here's a little roundup of some bracelets I've got my eye on for the warmer weather!

1  /  2  /  3  /  4  /  5  /  6  /  7  /  8

Which ones do you like best?

I'm a Blog Trends Featured Blogger!

In the last couple of months, I've worked really hard to make Cakes & Louie more of a priority for myself, and let me tell you - I am loving it! I'm (virtually) meeting new friends, gaining some incredible opportunities, networking and most importantly - writing more - which was the whole point of this blog to begin with! I have always loved writing, and having this outlet has been such an awesome experience for me, so thank YOU, whoever you are, for stopping by daily or weekly or randomly or whatever to read my little blog. I am so excited to see where this site can take me, and genuinely hope you'll continue to read along.

And speaking of things I'm excited about, I am thrilled to announce that I am the current Featured Blogger over at Blog Trends! I posted a link to our pallet couch late last week, asked my friends and family on Facebook to vote for me, and thanks to all the super cool people in my life, I got the most votes within a few days! Next thing I knew, I was spending my Sunday evening filling out a questionnaire about my blog and begging the hubs to get up early this morning to take a new photo outside for me to submit with my write-up. I'm not 100% crazy about the picture, but I look giddy happy (I was) and the morning sun made my hair look all shiny so that's fun, right? ;)

My writeup went up on the Blog Trends site this afternoon, and this evening I participated in the weekly #BlogTrends Twitter chat where I connected with a bunch of bloggers and snagged a TON of great tips from others on balancing your blog with everything else in life. Needless to say, the Blog Trends community is incredible, and I am so looking forward to getting more involved with it moving forward!

DIY: Terrarium

I grabbed a terrarium on clearance at West Elm last year with hopes that it would be a foolproof way for me and my lack of a green thumb to have some plant life around the house. Thanks to a sale on succulents at Home Depot a couple weeks ago and a little patience, I am officially testing out the theory that cacti are nearly impossible to kill. We'll see. They are super cute though, aren't they?

I started with a layer of pea gravel at the bottom of the terrarium, and layered regular old top soil over that. Then I just arranged the little succulents in there however I liked and made sure they were "secure" with a little more soil. This was tough given that I apparently have fat hands and could barely get them through the little hole at the front of my terrarium, but I managed. I think I may need to redo the whole thing at some point since the aloe plant is already squished in there and has no room to grow, but we'll see how bold I get. I'm not even entirely sure this qualifies as a DIY exactly, but I'm gonna go with it. If you would like a more defined tutorial, check out this one from Making it Lovely! The fine folks over at West Elm themselves suggested it to me via Twitter (does anyone else freak out when brands tweet at them or is it just me?), and since I've been a fan of Making it Lovely's for years I knew it would be good.



Here's my final product sitting pretty on the front porch!

Happy Monday all! Hope you showered your mom with lots of love yesterday!

DIY: Heart Print Jeans

Well I'm getting all kinds of acquainted with little foam paint brushes and fun paint colors this week aren't I? Tonight, with the help of the kid sister, I decided to tackle something I've been wanting to try for quite some time - DIY "printed" jeans. And, thanks to my obsession with buying the $10.50 jeans at Forever 21 in bulk, I had 3 pairs of the exact same pants which meant one of them clearly needed a makeover. This project was so easy and fun that the other two pairs may be getting changed up in the near future as well.

Fair warning - this is one of those posts where you're just going to have to deal with every single picture having different coloring. I swear I will learn to use my camera properly someday.

Step 1: Grab yourself a pair of $10.50 Forever 21 jeans, lay them out on a flat surface and shove some thin cardboard in the legs.

Step 2: Fold a piece of heavy paper in half and cut out a cute little heart. Or cut out 4 cute little hearts before you get one you're happy with like I did.

Step 3: Hold the stencil down good and flat on your jeans and use a little round sponge brush to dab on some paint. I went with gold since I thought white was boring but gold was still acceptable (well, as acceptable as gold hearts on jeans can be for an almost-31-year-old). Don't use too much paint or there's a better chance of the stencil bleeding!

I used the little card my stencil was on as a general guide for how far apart to space the hearts, but for the most part I eyed it and just tried to keep them generally lined up.

Step 4: Make your sister carefully put the jeans on well before they're dry so you can take pictures for your blog because a work pal requested it (Hi Jackie!). Promise the sister you won't have her face in the pictures.

Step 5: Wish your sister wore the same size shoes as you, since your booties do look extra cute on her.

You can see there's a couple of spots where I got paint and it didn't belong, but that doesn't bother me a whole lot. Truth be told, I haven't stenciled the back of the pant legs yet, but am planning to do so tomorrow because I'm reeeeeeally excited to wear these over the weekend! If I'm feeling bold, I may even take a picture of myself in them instead of making my much skinnier little sister do it for me ;).

Happy Friday, friends! I'll be back Monday with another DIY, and also have the full porch tour scheduled for a post next week!

DIY: Quick Canvas Art

I promised a DIY-a-day for the next several days, and this first one is super simple and barely took a half hour to complete. That's my kind of project!

I've had this wall decal from Urban Outfitters pinned for awhile now, and love the quote, but I'm not a fan of decals and knew I could swipe the quote for something more fitting instead.

I grabbed a small canvas I already had laying around, a foam brush, some letter stickers and a little bottle of neon pink paint that I picked up at Michael's on a recent trip and got to work.

After laying the stickers out on the canvas and making sure they were good and pressed down, I went over the entire thing with a couple quick coats of the neon pink paint.

Once the paint dried some, I peeled the stickers off... and then learned that my stickers were a little too old and not as sticky as I needed them to be, so the paint bled a bit. I touched the entire thing up with a tiny brush and some white paint, and while it was a pain, it helped it all look a little more polished in the end. 

I didn't want to get a hammer out, so I just stuck a couple thumbtacks in the wall on the porch and hung the canvas. The horseshoe is from an antique shop we went to on a weekend away in Wisconsin a few years ago, and it was looking a little lonely so I'm loving the bright pop of color underneath it from the canvas!

Spring Pinterest Challenge: Pallet Couch

Hello Pinterest Challenge friends! I am so glad you're here to see my latest project! I hope you'll stick around for awhile - I'm planning to post a DIY-a-day for the next several days in honor of all of YOU here checking out my little corner of the blogosphere and would love for you to follow along. First up though, of course... the challenge!

When my faves over at Young House Love and Bower Power posted the latest challenge last week I screeched, and then immediately IM'd the hubs to let him know that it was time to do something I'd been talking about for months. No more stalling. No more excuses. I was going to build a pallet couch for the front porch, and the poor guy was going to be stuck helping me whether he liked it or not. Thankfully, he was (sort of) on board, and I managed to sucker my crafty mom into helping me as well. High fives for teamwork!

There is an endless supply of inspiration on Pinterest for pallet couches, but my very favorite - and first one I ever saw - is from a blogger I truly admire, Ashley Ann of Under the Sycamore.

I wrote a few weeks ago about how our porch has been a revolving mess of craigslist and garage sale furniture since we bought our house. As the weather has warmed up I've become obsessed with the idea of having game nights with drinks and snacks out there, so figuring out a way to affordably furnish the space for real became a major priority for me. I knew it would be way more affordable, way more "us" and way more fun to tackle a DIY couch instead of just buying something... and thanks to lots of help and this latest Pinterest Challenge giving me a bit of a self-imposed deadline, that's exactly what happened!

I'll post a full "tour" of the porch next week because I am genuinely in love with it, but for now let's just focus on the couch shall we?!? I realized that most of the couches on Pinterest don't offer much of a real tutorial, so I've made an attempt at that here. Enjoy!

Step 1: Get your hands on some pallets. I posted a facebook status asking if anyone knew where I could get some and got super lucky that my pal Tim's cousin works somewhere sorta local with pallets and was willing to pass a few my way for a mere $2 each. Thanks John! If you don't have a John in your life, check craigslist for pallets.

Step 2: Cut the pallets in half. This is only necessary if your space is skinny like ours - many of the inspiration images I've seen use the pallets at their full depth, but we don't have that kind of room.

The pallets we had were 40"x48". Dan cut 3 in half to 40"x24", and cut one down even further to 20"x24" to make a little corner section. Here's a layout for reference -

Step 3: Stack the pallets in your space. Here's half of ours on the porch, which we did to get an idea of how it was all going to look. Don't mind the awful rug, it's on it's way to the dumpster as we speak.

Step 4: Gather supplies for your cushions. We decided on 2 big bench-type cushions instead of several smaller ones. Here's what you need:

- Ridiculously expensive foam. Seriously, why on earth does the stuff cost so much?!? The good news here was that big giant slabs of foam just happen to be 24" wide, which was exactly the size I needed. The slabs were also 72" long, which meant I only needed two, and thanks to 40% off Hancock Fabrics coupons weren't too pricey. 

- A roll of batting. This was my mom's suggestion, and I'm glad I listened as it helped keep the fabric all nice and smooth.

- Fabric. I found a great pattern I loved at Ikea for $6.99 a yard. 5 yards did the trick!

- Plywood cut to size. Dan bought one sheet and had Home Depot cut it down for us, which kept the whole thing simple!

- Staple gun. And a hammer for when you inevitably don't get the staples in all the way the first time.

Step 5: Build your cushions!
First, we used a little spray mount to attach the foam to the plywood. Then flipped the whole thing over, laid the batting out on the table, wrapped it around to the back and put a few quick staples in to secure it all together.

Next up was the fabric, which we trimmed to size and laid out nice and smooth over the batting to make sure we liked how the pattern lined up.

Then we flipped it all over again, folded under the edges and stapled the heck out of it. We did the long sides first, then the short sides, and finally the corners.

Here's Dan and my mom demonstrating some awesome teamwork. I'm sure they'll both be thrilled to see themselves on the blog. Love you guys! (PS - check out my mom's ombre sweatshirt. STY-L-IN!)

Step 6: Put the cushions on top of your pallets and squeal at your awesome new couch! Drumroll please...

I mean for real... I'm in love.

Full shot of the couch and sneak peek at more of the porch:

Full disclosure: the kid sister and I are already planning sleepovers out on the porch this summer. I get the longer side of the couch since I've still got about a half inch on her height-wise ;).

Isn't it just great?

All in, this project cost under $150 (the foam alone was nearly $100 of that). While this is admittedly a bit more than I would have liked to spend, it's definitely much less than a sectional couch the same size would have run us, so I'll take it!

If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking with me! I'm linked up with lots of other crafty people over on Young House Love and Bower Power, and also on both guest host blogs - Sparkle Meets Pop and Red Bird Blue, so be sure to click over and check out a ton of other fun challenge projects. And please do stop back here for more DIY's in the next few days!

The Bigger Picture

I was sitting in the hospital waiting room yesterday morning - waiting for Dan's surgery to start, waiting for my father in law to get there to keep me company, and waiting for my brother to call and let me know if I'm getting a new niece or nephew in September. I was also stewing about the whole idea of not going to Mexico in two weeks. Overall, I was kind of an anxious mess. Then a surgeon came out to chat with the family next to me and I could tell they weren't getting great news. A few minutes later one of the women with the family walked over next to me to take a phone call and told the person on the other end of the line that whoever it was in surgery that morning had officially been diagnosed with lymphoma.

When I heard that other family talking, I instantly felt guilty and much better all at once. Dan was in surgery to get his tonsils out and have his insanely long uvula shortened. The procedure was barely an hour and a half and he was done, and while he'll have a rough couple of weeks with a very sore throat, he is healthy and well. Don't get me wrong - there's a piece of me that's good and livid about Mexico not happening, but there's a much bigger piece of me that is grateful that a change in vacation plans is the biggest of our worries right now.

image from here

Setbacks

The hubby is being wheeled into the OR for a fairly minor surgery as I write this from a hospital lounge. The surgeon - who I trust immensely - pretty much just told me there is no way he can get on a plane to go to Mexico in two weeks. So, please forgive the lack of a fun post today... I had plans to write one since I've got a pretty boring several  hours ahead of me, but the chance of our trip being cancelled has me good and bummed.

Does anyone else have AWFUL luck with traveling? Or is it just me?

Lay it all out there: Things that make me uncomfortable

I’ve decided to sort of half participate in Jenni from Storyof my Life’s “Blog Everyday in May” challenge… get ready for more rambling and randomness from me than you could probably ever want!

The reason I say I’m half participating is because while I do plan to try and blog almost everyday in May, I already have some things that are going to make that challenging – like a vacation – so I don’t want to say I’m 100% going to succeed. And, Jenni was extra awesome and came up with topics for all of us bloggers to write about every day if we were experiencing a bit of writer’s block, but I don’t plan on using those prompts every single day since I already have some other posts planned – like my DIY pallet couch for next week!

But bottom line, I was excited to stumble on Jenni’s blog, add her super cute button to my sidebar, and linkup with a ton of other bloggers on the days that I do follow the prompts. Today’s “things that make me uncomfortable” topic is insanely simple for me considering I am generally a very squrmish, prude and awkward person :). So, here ya go, a list of 4 things that make me incredibly uncomfortable. There are obviously a million more, but I decided to keep this short and sweet.

1. Close talkers. I am a big fan of personal space, and will never understand why some people feel the need to stand *this* close to someone they are talking to. I hate the feeling of trying to inch away without being rude, only to have the person follow your lead and continue to inch closer.

2. Full-grown people that are smaller than me. I KNOW, I’m a horrible person. People cannot help their size. But I’m pretty small, so when someone is a lot smaller than me, I get really thrown off and don’t know what to do. I would like to think this is mostly because I have spent my entire life looking UP to people because I’ve always been short, so looking down at someone is just unnatural… but in all honesty it’s really just a bratty thing about me that I’d love to change.

3. When sex is talked about in a vulgar fashion. Take for instance the movie “Friends With Kids,” which Dan and I watched together a couple weeks ago. I loved it and was cracking up half the time because they did such a great job (I think) of showcasing real life. But then the last line of the movie was (spoiler alert) “Let me f*** the s*** out of you”… um, what? This was a guy that was professing his love to a girl. Really? It made me squirm, and sort of honestly ruined the rest of the movie for me. Given this explanation, it's probably no surprise to anyone that knows me that I have never seen a porn. Ever. Just the thought of it creeps me out.

4. When people ask me how much I make, or what I paid for my house, car, wedding, etc. Interestingly enough, I'm pretty willing to spill all the details on most of those things and more without much thought, but I like to do it on my own accord. If someone asks me flat out about finances, I think it's super awkward and rude, but if I decide to do it myself, no biggie.

In case anyone is wondering, just leaving this list at 4 (and not 3 or 5) was uncomfortable to me. I feel like lists are never in 4's, but I couldn't think of a 5th thing I was dying to share to anyone that wanted to read. :)

What makes you uncomfortable? Any fun plans for the weekend in store?