Coming Up

I spent the majority of my weekend with 100+ high school teens at church for a retreat, and loved every single second of it. Yesterday, in an attempt to recover, Dan and I ran a couple of quick errands and took a walk to the dog park with Louie before spending a solid 3 hours on the couch catching up on our DVR and eating cereal and Zoku pops. My only complaint is that I have a sore throat that as of this morning I'm pretty sure is going to turn into more. Rats.

I am excited, though, that I'm just about ready to kick off some of the new blog ideas that I mentioned last week - hopefully as soon as tomorrow! I promise whatever it is I post will involve plenty of pictures, seeing as I've had a bit of a lull with that recently.

Happy Monday friends! I hope you're enjoying the gorgeous weather as much as I'm hoping to.

Thrown Off

I have a conference to attend for work today that got me out of bed a solid hour earlier than usual. Thankfully, there is supposed to be a 75 degree day waiting for me outside, so I'm trying my hardest to get moving.

I'll be spending breaks daydreaming about some new ideas I have for my blog! Can't wait to start posting some different types of content in the coming weeks.

Happy Wednesday!

Pops

With warmer weather teasing us into a potential Chicago spring, I'm already looking forward to short sleeves, sandals and maybe a pair of shorts or two. Around our house, I've been trying to bring in a little plant life and plan on buying a bright bunch of fresh flowers in the next couple of days to celebrate the temperature pushing 70. Buddy Louie and I hung out on the front porch on Sunday with the windows open and a breeze coming in - talk about necessary.

We're also rejoicing in the warmer weather by making popsicles with Dan's new favorite toy - the Zoku! This awesome little quick-pop maker freezes pretty much whatever you put in it in 7 minutes flat, for ridiculously simple and quick desserts anytime. So long sugary store-bought popsicles! Goodbye to the days of me getting mad that Dan stole the last cherry one! Bring on healthier dessert with endless possibilities.

I was thrilled yesterday when I found the Zoku blog full of recipes, and obviously excited when I immediately spotted a concoction for mimosa pops. I have a feeling our Zoku is going to become a regularly-used little gadget in our house.

Berry mojito pops

Mimosa pops

Strawberry lime pops

Cantaloupe mint pops

All images from Zoku | The Blog

Does anyone else have a Zoku? Do you love it as much as I think we're going to?

Almost Perfect

Given that we had nearly 40 people coming over bright and early Saturday morning for breakfast, I naturally decided that Friday night would be the perfect time to get a new couch and sort of "makeover" the living room. (Insert Dan - and Bridget - groaning here). Seeing as I have been unhappy with our old couch for quite some time, it's not like this was a brand new idea, but the timing was certainly not ideal. Thankfully, despite me being just a little bit crazy about the entire situation, Dan and Bridget humored me and we took a late night trip out to Ikea where after some debate and sitting on all the showroom couches 10 times we settled on the Kivik Sofa with a Teno light gray cover. It's super comfy, the cover is completely removable for easy cleaning, it passed Dan's "cuddle test" (can we both lay down together without someone falling off?), and the price was great.

I am in love.

As you can see, we also finished up our craigslist coffee table on Friday and between that and the couch I'm downright giddy in our updated living room. Thanks to Dan sanding the heck out of the top, we decided to go ahead and go with the original plan of a white base with a stained top like Centsational Girl, and I'm so glad we did. I genuinely like it so much that I think I may be over my infatuation with the $500 West Elm table I mentioned last week!

The entire room looks 100 times better (in my opinion at least) thanks to the neutral table and the lower-profile couch. Next up is figuring out something else to put in our nonworking fireplace since I'm over the candle thing you can see in the background of the image above, and getting a thin piece of plywood that I can paint an orangey-red and staple-gun to the back of the bookshelf for some easy cord hiding. And then, I can consider the living room "done" and move on to another space in the house ;).

Buns, hun

 all above via Pinterest

I'm sporting the increasingly popular top knot at work today, and considering my hair is a lot shorter than it was when I first tried out this style, I'm hoping it holds up throughout the day. I originally learned how to do this fabulous statement-style from one of my favorite bloggers - Sydney over at The Daybook.

Sydney has an awesome video tutorial on her site that teaches you how to turn sorta gross unwashed hair into this cute kind of "knot" smack on top of your head with a ponytail holder, a brush, and a bunch of bobby pins. Perfection.

Light it up

Does anyone else love the mason jar "chandelier" trend as much as I do?

via

via, although it looks like it's originally Pottery Barn

via

via

Pretty, huh? But, generally pricey. The Pottery Barn option in the first image above retails for $149!! These are MASON JARS attached to CORDS. No reason in my mind that should cost so much. And while I love me some Etsy, even those options are really getting up there in price given what they are.

So, I've always wanted to make my own little mason jar light, but wasn't exactly sure how. Enter Ikea, my second heaven on earth (next to Target, of course). Bridget and I headed out there last night for a quick trip to grab a couch cover, and while perusing the "as-is" section I was giddy with excitement when I found a bin full of individual bulb cords for $1 each. That's right - a dollar!! I grabbed 5 and immediately started gathering the images above for inspiration on how to make my own. Seeing as I have kind of a busy week and weekend, this will not be an immediate project, but I'm looking forward to tackling it sometime soon. We've been kicking around the idea of having some work done in our kitchen, which would then require new lighting... so that's one thought for placement, but we'll see.

Has anyone else been randomly inspired to create something this week?

For now

While on the hunt for a new coffee table over the weekend, I made the mistake of going into West Elm, where I KNEW I would likely find something I loved, and then not be able to afford it. Well, I was right, and I fell head over heels for a new table that I've decided is the table for us, but at $500 is a little out of reach.

Behold, the new "Rustic Storage Coffee Table" - which combines the style I'm going for plus concealed storage (awesome) AND a lift-top for snacking while watching TV (more awesome). It's also the perfect size for our tiny little living room - bigger than an end table but still not huge and won't take up the entire floor in front of the couch. 

Isn't it gorgeous? 

So, while I wait for the day this baby goes on sale (I assure you I am checking no less than 3 times a day, and it's brand new so I know I've got awhile), I decided to do the smart thing and find a cheap stand-in on craigslist that I can have a little fun with. Luckily, I scored an awesome little table for $20 last night from a couple in the city, and it is also a great size for our space, so I'm happy. It definitely does need a little love though, so I'm currently trying to decide exactly what it is I want to do with it.

My original plan was to paint the base white and stain the top nice and dark a la Centsational Girl...

...but I'm not sure if that would be a good idea since there are some dark marks on the top of the table I got that may or may not sand off. If they don't sand off, I'll have to figure out a color to paint the entire table, and I'm not sure I want it to be white. I've noticed lately that there is an abundance of blue throughout our house, so any shade of that is out of the question. And, I already have a bunch of other fun colors on various craigslist finds throughout the house - such as my yellow dining room cabinet, navy kitchen cart and kelly green console table in the entryway. Clearly, there is no lack of color in my home :). 

We have about 30 people coming to our house for breakfast bright and early Saturday morning, so this project will definitely be a quick one. I'll be sure to post photos of the final product!

Manic Monday

One of the best 80's sing-along songs ever (in my humble opinion) - The Bangles' Manic Monday - came on this morning in the car and while I think Dan was both embarrassed and amused by my rocking out, I found it to be just what I needed for a Monday morning. Paired with a whole wheat english muffin with an egg and avocado, I think the week is off to a good start.

I spent the weekend in a bit of a blur thanks to a headache that has come and gone for about a week now. Besides laying low Friday night, I did a pretty good job of not letting it hold me down, and spent Saturday running errands with the husband. Sunday morning was my first Everygirl photoshoot with Danielle, and it was a blast! It was so awesome to see her in her element, and I was sure to pay close attention to the different angles she was shooting at in an effort to learn a little something.

Bridget and I made use of an open afternoon with some lunch and a little shopping where I proudly picked up a slew of bright colors to add to my spring wardrobe. Everything I bought was on clearance at Old Navy and we had additional 30% off coupons, making my little shopping spree easy on the wallet.

Did you do anything fun this weekend? Have you ever danced and sang along to Manic Monday in the car? I hope nobody else saw me...

The Little Things

It's been a busy week, friends. When I'm not at work, I'm working on The Everygirl, and I am loving every single second of it. I feel bad for anyone I talk to and anyone reading this that I talk about my little gig pretty much constantly these days, but thanks to me having some wonderful supportive people in my life, so far I don't think I'm driving anyone too crazy.

Here's a few random things that caught my eye this week -

- Articles about the legality of Pinterest are making the rounds on the web. I get it, but that doesn't mean I like it.

- It's a little embarrassing to admit, but I find some of these Willy Wonka memes absolutely hysterical, and I don't know why. It probably has something to do with the fact that the original Willy Wonka used to scare the crap out of me, and now teens with too much time on their hands are making him funny.

- This is a super awkward photo, but I love the idea of covering up the TV with art that easily slides out of the way when you want to catch up on the DVR.

via

- Yet another mention of The Everygirl - I have two more little blog posts up today! "This or that" with fun budget-friendly sequined items, and a "Budget Find" with Hunter Wellies on clearance! I'm sort of glad my size is out of stock already, because we all know I don't need a second pair of Hunters, but I definitely still want them.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend! I'll be spending mine hanging out with Dan, hopefully seeing our new niece, and helping Danielle with an Everygirl photoshoot. Happy Friday!

Beginnings

The first piece I worked on for The Everygirl is posted today! It's a "blogwatch" on Siubhan of Simple Village Girl, a site I found my very favorite way - just clicking around from one blog to another and seeing what other girls are reading. Although I didn't have to do a whole lot of actual writing for the blogwatch, I'm excited that something I worked on is live on the site and looks amazing (thanks to Siubhan's gorgeous photography). So, head on over and check it out!

The Everygirl Blogwatch: Simple Village Girl

In other news, I bought these adorable super-cheap leopard print flats at Target last night, and I am in love. Look at me go, being all girly and buying cute shoes.

I also bought a 2-pack of wooden Dwell Studio place mats for $3 on clearance that I promptly dropped directly on my foot leaving an instant bruise. Good thing I now have fun new patterned flats to distract from the black and blue mark I'll likely be sporting for a solid week or so.