LIVE: Phoenix, AZ

Last Thursday I traveled to Phoenix, AZ to visit some friends.  I was in desperate need of some R&R and this trip definitely gave me what I needed.  Even though I chose the absolute worst time of year to go to the desert, I still had a blast and was able to deal with the 107 degrees that smacked me in the face every time we went outside.  And despite the scorching temps, we spent a ton of time poolside!  (My pale white skin was definitely a blatant indicator that I'm from the east coast.) 

I haven't been to the desert since I was 11 years old, so I really took a lot of photos and time to appreciate the natural surroundings that are SO different from what we have here in Pennsylvania.  I wouldn't want to live in the desert, but it was definitely a fun visit. 

The flight there was less than awesome.  It was direct, which was great, but I was seated next to a 3 year old named Pason that insisted on digging in his nose for hours and showing me everything he found up there.  The flight back... was even less awesome because the woman behind me decided to take her shoes off and place them strategically next to my head on the plane wall... and let me tell you... they did not smell pleasant.

Friday, Lauren had to work so I spent the day dog sitting her pug puppy, Penny, and a friend's labradoodle, Lucy.  So much fun!  How stinking cute is she??

I introduced Lauren to the wonderful world of dine-in theaters!  We saw The Conjuring (holy scary, people).  The theater was in this pretty ritzy part of Scottsdale that had some amazing modern architecture.  Of course, I was snapping away. 

More pool time! 

Sunday we had brunch at this amazing place called Richardson's New Mexican Cuisine.  Sooooo delicious!  The atmosphere was to die for! 

  

The one thing I absolutely loved about the city were the stark mountains that surrounded it on all sides. 

And this is Lauren... love this girl to death and I hate that she lives so far away from me!!

Hope you all have an absolutely awesome weekend!  What kind of fun little trips are you guys planning?  There's so much of the world to see out there!

LIVE: An Outfit & Some Shopping!

Let me first start by saying that I spent a good 20 minutes putting this post together before blogger had a brain fart and deleted the entire thing. So now I'm writing this again and I'm annoyed!  But, I'll get over it quickly. No biggie! 

Last weekend it was sooooo warm.  Pittsburgh's had a cold cold winter (not much snow, but lots of cold).  The sunshine and warmth was so welcomed.  We decided to take full advantage of it by waking up early, hitting an estate sale, our favorite antique mall and then onto lunch at our favorite french cafe and some small local shopping.  We ended the day with a movie and then pretty much passing out.  It was so exhausting!  We had a blast, though.  And of course, like any good blogger, I was snapping photos like a crazy tourist so I could share them all with you!  I'm hoping that you all see how awesome Pittsburgh is so you will want to come visit!  (is it working??)

outfit details:
top: Everlane
jacket: XXI
pants: Calvin Klein
scarf: I have no idea who made it, I bought it at a farm. Seriously!
crossbody & sunnies: Marc by Marc Jacobs
We're going out saling again this weekend and I can't wait!  It's the best way to get me out of bed on a Saturday and keep me productive.  I usually come back from saling with so much inspiration and lots of projects in mind!  So stay tuned!



LIVE: My Faux Trophy Wall

So the wall above my couch has been an on going source of torment for me.  I could never quite decide what to put on it... so I just didn't put anything on it.  Then my obsession with faux taxidermy started forming and the answer revealed itself to me... A TROPHY WALL.  Now I love this wall, but I never get to see it because it's behind my head.  You will occassionally find me standing in the doorway to the dining room just gazing at my trophy wall.  No, not really, but I do love it.  We're currently working on redecorating the living room.  At the moment there are lots of bright colors in it and I'm toning it down, going for a more natural look.  The trophy wall is step 1 to accomplishing this look.  Step 2 is shopping for a rug!  (which is a nightmare to me).

Anyway... here's my trophy wall and a little portion of my living room.

The 2 paper mache heads (rhino and zebra) I got on super clearance from Anthro!  The 3 small ones on black plaques were an estate sale find.  They were originally very tacky and colorful, but a little bit of paint went a long way!  I added the fun golden masks to spruce things up a little.  The big porcelain deer head is from a local decor shop that I frequent.  And of course, the dinos tutorial can be found here.

At first the deer and zebra weren't framed, but I felt the wall lacked some cohesion and adding those seemed to pull everything together.

This is just a bonus because they're too cute and were prancing in front of my photo shoot.  I thought they deserved some attention!

I'm so pleased with how this turned out!  And the best part is that there's still room for more!  My husband laughs every time I buy another animal head, but, oh well.  I kinda love them.

I'll be sharing parts of my house sporadically.  Jen has been bugging me to share my closet with you.. it's actually more of a "dressing room" since I took over our spare bedroom to use as my closet.  So, that may be next!



     
Check out our link party page to see where we link up each week!

Nail Polish Shopping, Nike Fuelbands and Lots of Cute Animals!

 Happy Friday everyone!  We are so excited that it's the weekend!  Check out some photos from our week.  It was a fun one!

A Lot of Everything in Photos!

To say the last month has been busy is an understatement.  It's been insane.  And to make it all just a little more crazy, I had to go and crack a tooth in half on New Year's Day at dinner.  It resulted in majorly painful surgery and might lead to even more surgery.  Happy 2013 to me! 

But, that's okay.  I'm focused on finished my sketchbook for the Art House Coop's Sketchbook Project by January 15th... (eek!), getting back to the gym, and attempting to get ahead on DIY projects.  So there is definitely more than enough going on to keep my mind from focusing on the pain in my face.

We also celebrated Jen's birthday this week!  I'll leave it up to her to decide whether or not she share's her age.

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!



LIVE: Weekly Photo Wrap-Up

So last weekend we hit a rather unique estate sale.  While most would have probably found this house to be somewhat repulsive, we found it to be... fascinating.  The things these people had collected over the years told such an eccentric story.  I snapped a ton of photos to share with you.  This is one of the things I love most about estate saling... seeing people's histories.  It's really quite amazing.

Clockwise from top left: 1 - This photo doesn't do it justice, but this was an incredibly creepy crawl space in the basement.  Obviously, I watch too many horror movies because I immediately assumed there were cadavers hidden back there. 2 - The outside of the house.  3 - An old rusty bike in the basement. 4 - A plethora of paintings. 

Clockwise from top left:  1 - This house had an absurd amount of stuffed creatures everywhere! 2 - Nook of books. 3 - My loot: A vintage Medical Anatomy book from 1882, vintage spice jars, mini loaf pans, a wooden tray and some John Lennon glasses.. 4 - More art.

Clockwise from top left:  1 - A very Anthro-esque wall of empty frames. 2 - A crazy plant and a stuffed squirrel. 3 - A stuffed fox chilling on a leather ottoman. 4 - Mold. Gross.

Clockwise from top left:  1 - A rack of deer feet. 2 - My favorite little space of the house.. so romantic feeling. 3 - I love that crazy violinist painting! Why did I not buy it?? 4 - The beautiful staircase

Clockwise from top left:  1 - An accidentally perfectly styled credenza. 2 - More beautiful antique frames. 3 - An amazingly old and awesome Bible (there were about 25 different antique Bibles scattered all throughout the house). 4 - More stuffed creatures.

This was by far the coolest house of all the estate sales we hit.  I felt like I had been transported to the early 1900's.  It's houses like these that make me want to have met the people who lived there.. to have just one conversation with them. 

We hope you all have an amazing weekend!  We will be spending our time getting ready for the Rosewood Preview Holiday event next Friday! We are so excited that Kathryn asked us to be a part of her fun night!



LIVE: Weekly Photo Wrap-Up

Seriously, it has been a CRAZY two weeks!
Last weekend the husband and I decided to play tourists in our own city.  We like to do this once a year or so just to force ourselves to do and see things we wouldn't normally do or see.  We stayed down at the Renaissance Hotel downtown (which was AMAZING) and frolicked all over!  We ended up doing things we do all the time, but we had so much fun... shopping in Shadyside, Bakery Scare festival at Bakery Square (including wiener dog races!), a visit to Construction Junction, it was a blast to say the least!

(That last photo is Jen and I shopping... we're rarely very serious when together.)

We went to the grand opening of Dick's Sporting Goods at South Hills Village mall.  Let me tell you, that place is HUGE!  My niece, Lena, seemed to love huge balloons, too. 

My black kitty, Sparta, got a bath, too.  If you have ever tried to bathe a cat, you know it's not the easiest thing to do.  This little guy was such a trooper.. he didn't try to escape once!  Skilo was a different story.  His paws just barely touched the water and I almost lost an eye.  He then ran to the corner of the bathroom staring at me and let out a blood curdling meow that lasted about 30 seconds.  Talk about kitty rage!

I am looking forward to an exceptionally relaxing weekend while Jen goes off on a weekend getaway without the kiddos. 

Hope your weekend is awesome, too!

LIVE: Weekly Photo Wrap-Up

1. Pumpkins 2. Tasty pumpkin cookies

3. Falling leaves. 4. Playing in the leaves

5. Homemade Amish donuts 6. Connor and the gourd

7. Chicken at the farm 8. Arr, matey!

It has been a very eventful past 2 weeks! I've been enjoying the many fall festivals in the area (which is where most of the pictures above are from) and preparing for Halloween soon. As Shannon mentioned last week, the best part of the past 2 weeks is when we welcomed a new little nephew, Flynn, into the world (you might remember the Welcome Little Deer Baby Shower we threw him recently.)

My week got even better though when, the very next day, I welcomed my second nephew, Trystan (my brother's first,) into the world! What lucky aunt I am to have 2 new nephews in 2 days! Sadly, my brother lives in Virginia so I haven't gotten to meet Trystan yet, but I'm on my way this weekend to do just that! I'm sure I'll be sharing lots more snuggly baby pictures very soon :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

LIVE: Weekly Photo Wrap-Up

We've all been either sick or getting over being sick so there hasn't been much exciting stuff happening lately.  Last weekend we all went to Soergel's Orchards for the harvest festival. It was freezing, but we had a blast!

But the MOST EXCITING thing that happened this week is that our nephew, Flynn J., was born yesterday!  He's absolute perfection!

Thanks for joining us this week for our Fall Felt Series!  We had such a blast putting together these easy felt projects.  I'm kinda bummed that it's over!  We hope you all have an absolutely amazing weekend!