A lovely wedding- and a good Business Idea!

I wanted to share some picture of a lovely place where two good friends got married last week! This place is in a town called Stillwater, MN. If you are from MN, you have probably heard of Stillwater. It sits on the river, and is one of the most beautiful, picturesque little towns you can imagine.

The venue for the wedding was an outdoor space- it was so beautiful! I loved how the owners just set up a huge white tent and decorated the surrounding area with truly unique personal touches.


The tent itself had 3 gorgeous, mismatched chandeliers to brighten up the space. The white chairs were simple but the perfect accompaniment.



I was also drooling over several pieces of furniture that had been painted and were used as lovely places to hold the guestbook, little favors, and other necessities.


What a fun business! It was owned by a family, and they did a wonderful job of making everything run smoothly for the rehearsal and ceremony. I'm not being compensated for mentioning them or anything of the sort, but I wanted to share the pictures and just let anyone in the MN area know of this great place! Their website can be found right here for more pictures and information.

Fall

Fall is a pretty wondrous time of year. Leaves are turning, and the air is turning cool and crisp. I can pull out all my cozy sweaters and start wearing them again...

When I was growing up, one of the biggest signals of Fall's arrival was my mother. Seriously, before one leaflet fell off the big oak tree in our yard, she was bundling us kiddos up and dragging us to the Apple Orchard. We would fill up our bellies with warm apple cider, apple donuts, and apple turnovers, then take a hayride through the orchard to see the trees dripping with ripe fruit.

During the Fall, my family's home became a shrine to the season. Bright orange, yellow and red accessories vaporized from seemingly nowhere. Leaves, real and fake, graced every available surface of the house. We even had a cornucopia.

The most magnificent smells would waft through the air: pumpkin bread, spiced cider, apple pie, everything signaled the arrival of Fall.

Now that I have my own home to take care of, I can see why my Mom chose Fall as her favorite season. I love pulling out accessories that give off a Fall-ish vibe, and baking yummy things that fill the house with the scent of Fall. I love having family and friends over to sip hot coffee and chat over good food, and visiting the Apple Orchard. Fall reminds me that no matter how hectic life gets, there is always a place to call Home.

I Heart Vintage

I just adore pretty much anything "vintage." I'm sure you can probably tell from the way I write here, but I just had to say it officially. I was born in the wrong century.

The problem is- I can't decide what century it is that I should have been born. Perhaps the roaring twenties? The flapper era seemed so glamorous and fun.

Or maybe the fifties? Many times over I have bemoaned the fact that I can't stay home and cook in the kitchen all day. Don't get me wrong, it's great having rights for women, but sometimes it would be nice to *not* be expected to work 40+ hours a week, keep a house clean, feed my husband, and somehow keep myself looking decent as well.

How about the seventies? Does anyone else look at those ridiculously amazing "Gunne Sax" dresses and just pray for the right opportunity to wear one? Seriously, any decade that combines the pioneer era with platform shoes has got to be amazing.

Just for the record though- any era that I happened to be around for is pretty much struck off the list. The 80's and 90's can keep their hairspray, stirrup pants, onesies (seriously, who wants a shirt that you have to wash as often as your undies? With metal snaps down in the nether regions?!), and florescent colors. I am happy with skipping those decades.

Just to show you that I am really not kidding about this in the slightest, I am including this picture. It's me, dressed as a Bavarian milkmaid. In a field. Next to a Real Haystack. In Germany.


What about you? If you could choose a decade, what would you turn the clock back to?

My Husband, the Pirate

Last night, around 2:00 am, I was rudely awakened by a jolting noise. The noise emanated from my normally peaceful husband, and sounded like a cross between a dying hyena and a drunken pirate. Something like, “GBLARGH!” But honestly, it’s hard to remember because my brain was not fully functioning at that hour.

After jolting awake at the sound, I looked at Josh and said, “Honey, are you ok?”

He calmly stared at me, then swung his feet off the bed, went to the bathroom, came back to bed, and then promptly fell asleep.

I, however, was left laying there wondering what had prompted that sudden outburst. I don’t think I will ever know, because he had absolutely no recollection of the occurrence this morning. I do know that I will be keeping one eye open at night from now on, just in case I need to fight off any drunken pirates.

A new project!

Usually I wait to show pictures of projects until I am actually finished with them, but I am so excited about this one that I just couldn't wait!

I found this a-dorable little desk on Craigslist a couple of weeks ago and I've been hard at work refinishing it this past week!


Here's some evidence of the fact that I do actually work sometimes instead of just delegating projects to my hubby:

So, that's just a little peek at what's to come! What projects have you been up to lately?

Look who's finally joining the chalkboard bandwagon!

Well, I must admit that it took me a while. I thought the chalkboard phase would just come and go. But I was wrong.

Chalkboard paint is showing up everywhere these days! I love all the creative uses I am seeing! So, I finally caved and bought a jar of chalkboard paint for myself.

I used it to transform this:

Into this:


I found the wooden plaque at Jo-Anne's for about $7.00. The chalkboard paint is a little more spendy at $10, but I frequently get coupons for 40-50 % off items at Jo-Anne's so that was the perfect thing to buy! After painting 3 coats of the chalkboard paint on, I attached some strong magnets to the back and now it is happily perched on our refrigerator. It's the perfect place to write down grocery items needed, or fun little notes!


I think it goes pretty well with my "Gone With the Wind" magnet set. Teehee.


What do you think about chalkboard paint/the whole chalkboard obsession these days? Are you getting fonder of it, or are you waiting for the fad to pass? I would love to hear your thoughts!



P.S. I'm linking up to Show and Share Day over at Just A Girl's blog! Hop on over to check out some more fun projects like this one!

Mikalah Vs. Photoshop- The Harrowing Tale

After this week, I have come to a few conclusions. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. I love to make things look pretty.
2. I love blogging about making things look pretty.
3. I would love for my blog to look pretty.
4. I am not a graphic designer.
5. Photoshop was created for graphic designers.
6. Photoshop is like a special club for graphic designers, who like to taunt us regular people who know absolutely nothing about their crazy languages and mad computer skillz.
7. I abhor Photoshop. Even more than I abhor green shag carpet (which is a saying a LOT).

So here’s the background story that has led me to these painful yet true conclusions. I decided to create a new blog header for myself this week. I was so excited and filled to the brim with imaginative ideas that were itching to flow from my mind onto the canvas of my blog. I was sure I could create a banner that would simultaneously make people gasp in awe and cry from the sheer beauty of it. Did I ever mention that I’m an over-achiever?

To start with, I have absolutely no training whatsoever in graphic design. What I know, I learned from a good friend named Mr. Google. I can see a picture of what I want in my mind’s eye, but I have no way of getting that vision into reality. Enter Photoshop 7.0 (downloaded for free from the internets by my bargain-loving self, I might add).

Here’s what my brain thought: Using Mr. Google’s vast knowledge and the creativity stored in my little grey cells, I will bend Photoshop to my will and force it to comply with my demands. I will prevail!!!

Here’s what actually happened:

I spent 2 hours of my life trying to re-size an image.

An image! ONE image! Do you know what happened? First, I could not for the life of me figure out how to make the image smaller without cropping it. I wanted the whole thing, just smaller! Is that really too difficult?

Finally, I figured out (through my own trial and error, I might add- Mr. Google really failed me on this one) how to make the image smaller. But when I finally got it to the correct size, I found that instead of being clear and lovely like it was supposed to be, the image was all distorted and pixellated. I googled and fussed and deleted and undid and redid and resized for what seemed like an immeasurable amount of time. I was so focused, I didn’t even stop to eat a snack or go pee. All natural human instincts were completely forgotten in the light of this harrowing quest.

After about 2 hours, my husband finally approached me and asked it everything was ok. Apparently, he noticed that I was hunched over the computer seething like a deranged woman, with my hand slowly forming into a claw around the mouse. I’m sure I had a wild look in my eyes to go with the whole persona as well. Poor, poor Josh. With that one sweet, innocent question he released the verbal barrage of sheer frustration that had been slowly building up in my mind over the past 2 hours.

And that, my friends, is the story of how I came to the conclusion that Photoshop is pure, unadulterated evil. I know you might be wondering why I’m being so melodramatic about something like this, but after you spend 2 hours of your life trying to measure up to a computer program things get a little, shall we say, muddled. So I don’t have a lovely new blog banner to show you, and I probably won’t until I pay someone else to make one for me. The End.