cousin kristen's wedding

On Saturday, I got to be my mom's date to my cousin Kristen's wedding.  Yes, she has the same name as me.  Actually, I have the same name as her, because she's older.  But guess what else?  Her brother's name is also David (that's DJ's real first name).  Hmm.  Way to be original, Parents.

Because she has my name and is older than me, I always really looked up to Kristen and thought she was the coolest ever.  While I haven't seen her in quite awhile, it was pretty exciting for me to go to her wedding.   Here's a few pictures of the pretty decor from the reception:

We got these apples to help us find our table.  The color our names were written in told the waiters what meal option we had selected.  Pretttty tricky.  Oh and our gifts were saplings.

I guess Kyle, whoever that is, got a little hungry.

The reception was held at the Lucerne Inn.  It was a really beautiful venue.  We were outside and in a tent that was attached to the building. Early on, one end of the tent was still left open to the outside, so people could go out and walk around on the Inn's grounds.

The pretty bouquets all consist of flowers found locally around the lake.  In the vases were river rocks found by the groomsmen at the bachelor party and sea glass!

Congratulations to the bride and groom! 

The Brook Farm General Store

The Brook Farm General Store is filled with beautiful, organic looking products.  I want them.  They totally fit in with my current crush on Scandinavian and farmhouse style design.

I know the blocks could be deemed childish...and they are.  But I am enamored with the idea of having books in a bookshelf and then using alphabet blocks to spell something out.  Like mystery or a favorite line from a book. Wouldn't that be cute? 

Mmm. This blanket looks so comfortable.  I love blankets that have a heavy drape to them.  They really fell like they're working to warm you up.  Love them.  This reminds me that I need to do a blanket post.

 

These dish towels and napkins might be my favorite things on the site.  I love linen and I love plaid. LOVE plaid. Like can't get enough of it and wish I owned everything plaid. For real.

This shower curtain is pretty cool too.  Not too frilly, not too boring.  And very nautical. Mmm. I'll take two.  Seriously though, you need two for the claw-foot tubs at the Good House.

Not much to say here.  Other than that it's simple and pretty.  And I could use it to heat up butter. Haha, of course my first thought of what I could use this for is butter.  I mean really, other than cheese, what else is there?

If this lamp were in a Disney Pixar movie it would come to life.  It would be a very friendly lamp, and perhaps a bit modest, don't you think?

I'm sure I've told you this a million times before, but I am a sucker for blue glass. And these tumblers made from recycled wine bottles are no exception.  I once read a blog post about how to make your own tumblers from wine bottles.  It looked pretty difficult, but perhaps I should try someday.  The only thing that would make these tumblers better?  These straws:

Aren't they great!? I happen to already own one.  They're perfect for the habitual straw user, like myself. Re-usable and super cool.  Plastic straws seem to be one of those things that you always think you have, but can never find when you need it...like a pastry brush or in Dan's case matching socks.  Despite a regular straw's disappearing act, I somehow have yet to misplace my stainless steel straw.  If only I had a set of 6 like this.  Then I could share with my friends.  You see, the problem with having only one cool straw is that you feel kind of guilty when you break it out, because it's not really fair to your guests. But at the same time, you don't really want to share and end up having to use one of those plastic straws that works perfectly fine but suddenly seems so lame.   Ah the dilemmas of life.

p.s. I also found this website through Leah Dent's Pinterest site!

yup. obsessed with pinterest.

So Pinterest has the potential to be amazing.  But you know what I don't like about it?  The only thing I don't like about it? But it's a pretty big thing?  That you have to be invited.  I applied (insert snobby, Harvard voice here) and am on the waiting list.  I'm not applying to college. I just want to use their website.  Instead, I only get what could be referred to as a "sneak peak."

Now, the website is so cool that I am still dying to be able to use it.  And since I want so badly to not have to dislike any aspect of Pinterest, I'm sincerely hoping that they have some real reason for the wait. Like they can't handle that many users because they're new or something.  We'll see.  For now, I'm still going to shamelessly rave about things I've found.  Please excuse the picture overload here.  I can't control my excitement.

Ok, disclaimer, this is just the beginning of what I've found from ONE user. Her name is Leah Dent and I love what she's pinned! These images are from various sources, like etsy and apartment therapy, but she has compiled them all into her Home and Hearth folder. Ready for some more?  Me too.

How cool is this chair?  I have seen "dipped" chairs before, but this is definitely a new take on it that I love! So creative! Also, I was eyeing some needlepoint botanicals at the antique shop I mentioned in my last post.  And how cool are those book shelves? And that book wheel?  It makes me want to push whoever made it and say "get out!" 

Those are repurposed "orphan" drawers.  Isn't that such a neat idea? And I am currently obsessed with pendant lights, breakfast nooks, and chesterfield sofas.  What am I not obsessed with these days? Well, I'll tell you one thing, it's not birds.  Those rank #1 on my obsession list.  Closely followed by anything hobnail or milk glass...

That brass bird is so phenom.  And hobnail milk glass with an owl?  Come on. Did she compile these images for me? I need to apologize for my lack of a filter here.  I just can't pick and choose which images to leave out.  There are so many that I love.  I feel like there are sooo many beautiful things out there and I want them all to be mine.  Somehow, posting about them on my blog makes me feel like they belong to me just a little bit.  At least I have documentation of them somewhere. And that, thank goodness, is much healthier for my bank account.  Here are the final few images from Leah's Hearth and Home that I just couldn't not share:

Look at those tea cups! I wish I had that many amazing tea cups.  And what a cool way to display them. I am loving more and more Scandinavian style interiors with quirky little details, like rows of mismatched teacups.  Every thing's a little more fun when it's mismatched. 

stalking: size too small

I admit it. I was doing an unhealthy amount of blog stalking before we left for NYC.  I can't help it!  The blog world is so vast and there are so many good ones and I just don't want to miss anything spectacular, but it's so hard to keep up! And then one good blog references another and the list of blogs I want to read each day keeps growing and growing seemingly exponentially and then I'm literally drowning in blogs.  I don't know what I'm going to do when I have a real job again.  Ugh.  It's a tough life, I know.

Anyway, one of my latest blog obsessions is size too small. Mariah posts a great variety of things and they always appeal to me.  No matter if they're fashion, home decor, or even just pretty pictures, I love them.  And so I'm going to post some of my favorite finds from her blog as of late.  First up are these awesome south-western American Indian feeling pillows from Etsy:

Aren't they so cool?  I'm really into that western feel right now.  Perhaps because I'm getting excited for my imminent (or not so imminent) move back to Colorado.  But yesterday, I went to this antique store in Camden that displays all sorts of different dealers pieces and I really loved this "booth" of the store that featured a south-western theme.  Cowboy boots, a chair in buffalo red plaid (which I am obsessed with btdubs), and old paintings/photographs of horses and cowboys. All so cool.  So, I love these pillows too. If you love them as much as I do and can afford to buy them (they're actually very reasonably priced), you can do so at Chakrapennywhistle's Etsy shop.

Alright, next up in my adoration of size too small is this piece of artwork:

I just love it!  How true is that? Well, it's true for me anyway.  I love believing in impossible things.  I also love when people can vocalize sentiments I never even realized I had until somebody else put them into words.  My friend Jessie does this for me a lot on her blog.  She writes exactly what I've been feeling but haven't even noticed I've been feeling it.  Like about when she listens to music and wants to post lyrics on Facebook, but is worried that out of context it will seem creepy.  Or like her recent post about not understanding how light bulbs work or who decided it would be a good idea to eat lobsters.  SO true. I have actually found myself thinking BOTH of those things many times this summer as I have examined insanely old electrical configurations (and not understood them one bit) and pondered why people thought something as ugly and spidery-ish as a lobster could possibly be good to eat.  It'sobviously the people who act on these "impossible" beliefs who make them become reality.  So maybe we shouldn't discard those impossible thoughts at breakfast time after all.

Mariah's next coveted post/item is this jewelry: 

Two things here.  First of all, in her post on size too small, Mariah talks about how she loves the thought of using found objects to make beautiful jewelry.  I love that thought too.  While it's obviously been done before, I've been seriously thinking about turning some of my sea glass into a necklace or other piece of jewelry.  I just have to figure out how.  Second thing, I always like to give credit where credit is due in my blog.  And when I tried to trace this picture back to whoever took it and/or made these necklaces, I couldn't figure it out.  However, I did find another super cool website that is going to be a new obsession (uh-oh) Pinterest.  It's very similar to Polyvore, in that you seem to be able to collect or "pin" things you want into your own profile/space.  I mean I have only spent 5 seconds on this site so far, so I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I'm VERY excited to start exploring. 

Final piece of beautifulness from size too small:

....I don't even know what to say. My jaw drops when I look at this picture. How beautiful is it?  I mean this is like other-worldy beauty. I love those colors!  And it's from this blog called The Killing Moon, which I had never known before, but am now loving, AND which is a French blog. Ta-da! French things make me so happy.

The blog world is a dangerous place my friends.  It's too easy to get sucked in and too hard to look away! Hope you enjoyed these images as much as I did and are inspired to check out some new blogs too! (Sometimes addictions are more fun when your friends share them with you... :) ) 

jo ellen designs

My favorite shop in Camden has a Facebook page! If you've visited me, I've undoubtedly dragged you into this store whether you wanted to go or not.  If you haven't been to Camden, I'm so excited to be able to share images of this store with you.

Seriously. I would love to buy so  many of these things. SO many.  I like to just walk through this store and touch all of the pretty things and dream about how they would look in my house.  (I read that some study was done that people who touch are more likely to buy than those who just look...uhoh.) Too bad I'm downsizing to literally a room of a condo in Vail in a month.  Haha, eeek! What am I going to do with all of my stuff?? It's crazy how quickly you can expand to fill a HOUSE.