4

There are 4 things I'm crazy about right now:

1.  Mumford and Sons.

Please don't give me that look.  I've been hearing about them for a while but didn't pay it any attention because I thought they were a country group.  And Meaghan no like country!! 

Ahem.  Anyway, there's this song I've been hearing on the radio lately called 'Little Lion Man' and finally learned who performed it last Friday while Mom and I were driving to see a play.

Bought their album.  Got up the next morning and almost immediately messaged Dad about it.

Could this group replace Coldplay in my heart?  Maybe.  And it pains my heart to say that.

2.  LORAC gloss or just makeup in general

After the unusually craptastic day I had at work last week, I went to the mall to buy myself some new earphones and I made a trip to Ulta.  I came out with minimal damage done money-wise and with some fabulous new gloss.  The beauty blogging community has long been all about LORAC Couture Shine in Haute.  Their assessment that it was the greatest color ever was in fact correct.

In other beauty news, Meaghan has finally found the best highlighter (Benefit's High Beam) and has developed the motor skills necessary to use a lash curler.

3.  Leopard Print

It's a well-known fact that I love animal print, be it zebra, tiger, or crocodile.  The one print I have been searching high and low for was leopard.  In the form of a scarf, if possible.  Finally settled on a non-budget breaking one from Target.  It's been worn 3 out of the past 3 days.  And I can guarantee that you could potentially see me about town wearing it tomorrow.

4.  Sandy Skoglund

I am very fortunate to work with some of the sweetest people in the world.  The majority of my coworkers are my age of younger and I enjoy being with them during work.  What I've found amazing is everyone's genuine interest in everyone else.  Most of my coworkers know I am an art major, but of course I haven't showed them any of the pieces I've worked on.  At least not yet.  Before we closed up for the day, I had a good conversation with another employee about art.  He said he enjoyed Picasso and asked who my favorite artist was.  I answered without hesitation "Sandy Skoglund" and ended up doing a search for some of her work. 

Of course I love Van Gogh and very much feel an emotional connection to his works.  So in that respect, he is my favorite.  But if we're talking about what artist I admire and get inspiration from, it's totally Sandy.  And to think this love affair all began with a simple photograph of 'Fox Games' in a textbook.

Hope everyone had a good weekend and be looking for a new post sometime this week!

No Fashionista

I hadn't forgotten about you bloggy world.  I've been cooking up ideas for posts for about a week now and have had simply no time to actually write out anything.  I guess that's what happens when you're a student and work a job.  

Student?  Yes, it's whatever.  I love my studio class, but all my other classes are meh.  And honestly, I'll be glad when I get this basic studio out of the way.  Next semester I can focus on areas of art that I am actually interested in.

Job?  Yes, it's going quite well.  I enjoy my coworkers, the actual work isn't too bad, and I come home at night in a decent mood.  It's a nice change from my last job, that's for sure.

Other than that, nothing much else has been going on.  The home is barely being kept up, but yesterday I focused on deep-cleaning our bathroom.  It looks all nice and sparkly now.  Went to Target and picked up a shower caddy and a new toilet brush.  Big purchases, right?

In my last post, I had mentioned the shower curtain I had recently bought.  Today I had Jarred kill two birds with one stone and photograph the curtain and... me.  Because I was loving on my outfit, though fashionista I am not.  

Jarred and I went to our church's Christmas bazaar today to have lunch.  I wanted to wear my new menswear button-up shirt and leopard scarf.  I cuffed my jeans over my Minnetonkas, looked at myself in the mirror and became concerned.  I asked Jarred if I looked too hipster.

He answered, "No, you don't look too Occupy Wall Street-y."

I love my husband.

Anyway, don't you love the shower curtain?  It's so nice and clean looking and so is the bathmat and counter tops.  Ignore the mismatched towels.  I wanted to put out 2 plain white towels but we apparently lost the second somewhere.  

I am on a major minimalist kick and am finding everything white with a dab of color to be very appealing.  And besides for that, if something in the bathroom gets dirty, whatever!  Bleach it!

Alright, now this next picture is a little bit weird for me to post because it's not meant to be a portrait but rather a close-up of my skin.  I unfortunately don't have a before shot of my face, as in 'before I began using my Clarisonic'.  But this is the after shot of using it for about a month and a half:

 

My skin is much smoother and makeup goes on much better.  I will always have a tiny bit of scarring on my cheeks from when I had acne.  But the tone and texture of my face is much better than it was before.  Clarisonic, you win.

I've been a bit more careful with my makeup application and nail polish.  Maybe it's because I'm working at a place where the uniform is less than feminine. 

Speaking of nail polish, I think I've found my one true love:

butter LONDON's All Hail the Queen.  My new favorite color. 

I'm going to remain pretty busy until the end of the semester of course, but I hope that I can keep up the blog by making one post a week.  Maybe? 

Though I'm probably the last person people would take beauty advice from, I'd like to do a post that goes through my makeup routine from start to finish.  With pictures included.  Which could be scary.  But then, it's just a thought.

I hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend.  I'll be busy busy!

Redecorate

So tired.
Life just got super hectic with school and work and everything in between.  

I took this past weekend and began purging our home of more junk.  Could I possibly be addicted to that?  I love love love throwing stuff out.  You just wouldn't be able to tell from the state of our home right now.  Read: messy.

Jarred and I have yet to begin working on our computer desk.  I'm sure it's something we'll be able to slowly work on soon, but I want to make sure the computer room is all spick and span before we begin sanding and painting.

While we are redoing our computer room, I also wanted to begin work on our bathroom.  I have a vision, but I just can't really describe it and can't even draw it really.  I just see it in my mind.  And love the ideas I have.  Along with the extra money to pay credit cards and student loans, my paycheck will go towards buying new home items.  We figure taking it room by room would be best in the end.  We won't lose focus as easily!

I bought a new shower curtain last week and it finally arrived, though I had it delivered to my parents' house.  I greatly recommend West Elm for anyone looking for some nice home items.  With much contemplation, Jarred and I originally decided on this curtain:

...and then I saw the backorder date of November 15.  No thank you.  So I bought us this one:

Happy happy.  I have dreams of glass canisters and a cute gray striped dish for jewelery/etc.  And a cheap white bathmat.  Can't wait for it all to come together!

This will probably be it for the rest of the week.  Mom and I have some fun planned to begin the weekend and I'll be back here to report!

Beginning of the Inspiration

Alright, so as I wrote about around this time last week, Jarred took some vacation days that coincided with my fall break.  While we went to fun places like the distillery, we also hung out around town.  Meaning, we went to the mall and Barnes and Noble.  Favorite. 

Though we like going to the bookstore, we never actually buy anything.  First, we don't have enough room, and second, we don't have enough room.  Get it?

This trip was different.  I had a plan of action.  If you'll see in my sidebar, I'm a pretty huge fan of Design*Sponge.  Huge.  And thank goodness Grace Bonney, in all her glory, came out with a book.  When I heard about it, I nearly peed myself.  But only nearly.  I had been eyeing the book since it came out in September, but wasn't sure whether I wanted to buy it justyet.  But then I thought about it before we went out that afternoon and was all "Heck yeah I'll buy it!".  And I never looked back.  Best purchase ever.  I spent the rest of the afternoon rifling through the book and having my child-like vivaciousness moment of "Wows!". 

Then I started walking around our home looking at what I could do.  And thus I began costing Jarred money.  Sorry Sweets!  We promptly went to Lowe's and bough the supplies needed for my redesign project.  I was giddy with excitement. 

Too bad I had to wait a week to actually begin...

Yesterday while over at my parents' house, I finally got to finish the first project:  filing cabinet redo.  My parents bought me a little metal one right before I went off to college.  It proved very useful, especially in storing valuables away from questionable roommates.  I spent one evening drawing all over the filing cabinet with Sharpies and pasted wallpaper cutouts of cats on it. 

Fast forward to rightnow and the cabinet was still in the exact same state.  I figured the metal cabinet could be something easy to repaint and update.  How right I was.

Just for reference, we went to Lowe's and bought Valspar Premium Enamel spray paint in Primer White (65054), Gloss Exotic Sea (65201), and Gloss Clear topcoat (65058). 

Jarred and I buff off some of the Sharpie marks I had made and peeled off the wallpaper cats.  After sanding, I took some wet paper towels and wiped clean.  Just yesterday, I sprayed the cabinet.  The primer wasn't as great as I thought, but the color and sealant were tops.

I think it turned out great, don't you?

Soon, our computer room will be looking as updated as the cabinet.  I have some other projects to start soon.  The desk you can barely see in the second photo?  Yeah, that's getting painted.  Major.  I spilled polish remover all over the top a few weeks ago, so I'll be glad to cover that spot.  This project may take longer, but I hope to have photos up within the next month. 

Have a happy next week!

Planes and Plans

 Jarred informed me last night that a week ago he was taking some vacation days and we would have been heading to the distillery.  I hate it when he does that!  Just like on August 15th (the day after our anniversary) when he told me "Remember back this time last year?  We were at Hilton Head Island on our honeymoon!" 

Yes.  And we're not at the beach this year.  Thanks for reminding me dude.

Ever since last Friday when I posted pictures of our bourbon trip, Jarred's been bugging me to post photos of our side trip to our town's aviation park.  I had no real interest in the airplanes, but Jarred on the other hand... let's just say that I'm glad I married a man that never lost that child-like vivacity when it comes to everything.  Everything is "Cool!" or "Wow!" or "Look at this!"  So you can only guess that old war planes got extra "Whoas!"  Totes presh.  Yes.  I said totes presh.

I'm not really sure what to say about them.  Maybe I should have gotten Jarred to write this post....

 Super happy to be there.

This weekend will be spent relaxing a bit and doing some DIY projects.  My plans are to spray paint our metal filing cabinet and paint our computer desk as well as make some table cloths.  I won't get done all in one weekend, but I wasn't expecting to anyway.  I don't want to share too many details about what I'm doing because I just want everyone to be impressed at the end result.  Yup.

I've got to get this stuff done quick however because I am starting a new job!  I didn't mention anything during the interview process because I didn't want to jinx it.  I'm pretty excited to be working again, at least part time.  Considering I am still in school, I won't be getting a ton of hours, but whatever extra money we can get will help us out immensely.  

I just might be posting photos of my DIY projects as they're coming along, so be on the look out for a post of two this weekend!

BourbonTown

Day trips are the best. While they still cost money, day trips seem to be just enough for both our wallets and our minds. We're able to get away for a few hours and have fun. Just what the doctor ordered.

Okay, so Jarred and I aren't too unconventional, but we don't make a huge deal out of things like anniversaries or birthdays/holidays. The reason I say this is because for our 1 year wedding anniversary, we had originally planned to take a day trip to some bourbon distilleries. 

Yeah...

But that trip never actually happened.  Of course, Jarred took me to a botanical garden and art museum and the best friggin' restaurant ever in Nashville.  Germantowne Cafe, if you're interested...

Ahem.  Anyway, we finally took the trip to the Bourbon capital of the world, Bardstown, today.  How marvelous it was.  Aside from the fact that the tour was free, the plant wasn't busy and we got our very own private tour. 

Behold, Barton 1792 Distillery!  I wasn't aware at the beginning of the tour that we could use our cameras and I am not displaying photos of the actual distillery or bottling plant.  We went into those too, but I dunno, I just feel weird about showing them.

Outside one of the rickhouses.  Huge!  And there were so many scattered along the property.

 

Inside the rickhouse looking up the elevator shaft.  No one can use it -- gotta climb the stairs to the top!

Huge barrels full of bourbon! Some are aged for 10 years!

Inside the rickhouse was so cool. I think Jarred wanted to skip through it touching all the barrels!

This huge barrel was made by a local high school shop class as a monument to be placed at the welcome sign to Bardstown.  Officials thought it was politically incorrect.  How?  I dunno.  So Barton got it.  Pretty neat!

Jarred was happy!

Yes, of course I had to get a shirt.  Duh.



Totally recommend Barton's or just Bardstown in general.  Very cool and informative tour.  Did you know that there are more barrels of bourbon in Kentucky than there are residents?  Yes.  Be blown away.

Font:  Western Swagger

Pugly Pixel:  Staples and Tape

Sun Tricks

Welcome welcome welcome to our updated home!  It's quite cozy isn't it?  Fall weather has me in such a good creative mood that I just got the itch yesterday to change things up.

Aside from the pretty exterior of this blog, there are going to be a few format changes.  I'm not going to be blogging everyday (or more like, feeling guilty for not blogging everyday... ahem) and I will instead be focusing on giving this blog some depth.  Expect more photos to be added and more craftiness.  I hope I've got it in me!

Some quick details -- my new navigation bar under my header will be changing frequently.  My 'About' tab gives more detail about where you can find cool clip art, fonts, and tutorials.  My 'Contact' tab contains a link to e-mail me.  My 'Art' tab is still under construction, and I am currently working on creating an in-depth catalog for my 'Archives' tab. 

Now then, let's get back to it!

This weekend pretty much summed up why I love fall.  Saturday morning was spent lounging at home.  We used our patio for the first time while Jarred smoked a cigar and drank some coffee. I was just bundled up tight in a hoodie and coat.  The sun was out, but our patio was in the shade and the wind was a bit strong.  Still, I could smell fall and hear the neighborhood high school band warming up before a competition.  I'm sure Jarred would say it simply feels like football weather.  Oh boys :-)

Sunday was spent at my parents' house and whatdoyouknow, I remembered to bring my camera along.  And tripod.  I was on a roll.

I don't take too many pictures of the two of us together.  But then again, maybe I do and my Facebook-addled brain is getting the best of me.  In this age of social networking, I feel like I need to always keep up by taking photos.  While some momtographers (synonymous with this) have their cameras surgically implanted to their hand, I only get mildly concerned when my profile picture gets to be over 3 months old.  Is that too long to go without taking a picture of myself?  Will bloggies forget what I look like?

Outside we went for about 15 minutes.  It was windy and cold and my Dumbo ears were throbbing.  But it looked beautiful outside.  Perfect view for photos.

Except, we took most of our photos with our sunglasses on.  Jarred pointed out that quite a few of our recent photos together have been with glasses.  Whoops.

Jarred is very patient with my camera experimentation.  I took one photo of him where the sun rays were hitting him juuust right.  And that was that.  I was hooked and we spent the rest of our time shooting ourselves wearing the sun as a hat.

Can I just say, Jarred takes beautiful photos.  Without any real guidance.  He's just a natural.

He's pretty cute too.

We wanted to make another attempt at a photo, so we made the decision to take some without our sunglasses on.  It was difficult.

It just didn't feel right.

I'll be back Thursday or Friday!