We’re headed to the Dolly Sods Wilderness in West Virginia for a weekend back packing trip.  Hopefully it will be a somewhat relaxing memorial day excursion and will re-energize me to push through.  I’ll be back Monday nig

Hope you all have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend!

Postcard via Heritage Post Cards.

Last weekend I made my quickest trip home to Portland ever.  My little brother (if you could call him “little”, he’s over 6 feet tall now!) was graduating from Pacific Northwest College of Art.  With a BFA myself, I know firsthand what an achievement that is.  I couldn’t be prouder!

5 AM flight out of Akron.  By the time I reached Denver I was feeling that 3 hours of sleep I snuck in.  Iced coffee and a blueberry muffin have never tasted so good.

I love flying west.  It’s seriously like time travel.  Being in Portland by 10:30 in the morning is an amazing feeling.

They don’t wear gowns for graduation, so in true Drew fashion, he managed to find a tux that fit the day before commencement.  I am so proud of him!  And I’m so glad was I was able to be there to see him walk across that stage.

As a parting gift PNCA brought in a drumline for the graduates that marched right into the theater as they were declared graduates.  The whole city could probably hear us.

I also did a little shopping on Saturday and for my birthday my mom got me a brand new pair of Nike Free Runs in beautiful “Hot Punch” neon coral.  I was hesitant about the color, but something was drawing me to them and my mom finally convinced me in the end.  It’s the first step in achieving the fitness aspect of my Before 30 list.  Time to get running!

Happy to be home.  Our garden sprouted while I was gone.  Jared also brought home an early birthday present for me while I was out of town.  Details on that soon.  I’ve been thrown a couple of curve-balls this spring and it’s going to be an interesting couple of months.  I’ve been slacking around here lately and I apologize.

With warmer weather comes adventure!  I hope your spring/summer is kicking off well.

My dear friend and former roommate, Christa, is an amazing photographer.  Her specialty is weddings, but she also shoots for Cotton & Brass and is a fine artist.  Recently she updated her etsy shop and has a beautiful selection photos for your home.  I’m in love with her new feather collection.  They look so pretty in a collection.

Visit Christa Kimble on etsy for more!

All photos property of Christa Kimble.  Please link with love.

Hope all the moms out there have a lovely day.  Wish I could be with my mom but I’ll be out in Portland next weekend to give her a belated Mother’s Day hug.  This is one of my favorite photos of us.

Thanks for everything Mom!  You’ve supported me through thick and thin (and I probably didn’t always make that easy).  Can’t wait to see you in less than a week!

By no means am I a master at mixing playlists.  I just pick whatever songs I feel for the occasion and go with it.  This weekend is a weekend built for cleaning.  I’m getting ready for a little house feature on another blog and have a busy spring to summer transition coming.  The house is in desperate need of some freshening up.

So I threw together a little playlist of some songs to blast while I open the windows and clean.  It’s pretty random.  It’s certainly not a masterpiece in mixing music cohesively.  But it should get your feet moving.

Featured art // The Cleanup by Catwalk

Spring is a great time to freshen up your branding and packaging.  And a great way to do it is with PrintRunner.  They allow you to print online with a huge collection of great products including business cards, postcards and custom sticker printing.

PrintRunner is offering one lucky Lost & Fawned reader a set of 250 custom stickers for free!  An amazing prize that would be a great addition to packaging, as a creative business card or in a pretty dish on your summer craft show table.

Prize includes the following…

Regina of Oh, Albatross has such a way with fabric.  Her little plush animals are so enchanting.  And the way she photographs them gives them personality and life.  All of these and more are currently available in her shop.

All photos property of Oh, Albatross.

CUT COPY // TAKE ME OVER from RYAN PATRICK on Vimeo.

 
Jared just sent me this beautiful music video from Cut Copy  directed by Ryan Patrick.  I like to imagine our little ones will be just as imaginative.

Hope you are starting your week out right.  I’m having a pretty stressful start.  Spring cleaning tonight and leftover pizza.  Looking forward to finally putting my feet up and having a glass of iced tea with fresh mint.

Don’t worry!  We’re not going far!  My entire Chroma Society collection will just be moving over to my good old Lost & Fawned shop.  I’m trying to streamline my online life and I’ll be able to better manage both collections from one shop.

In order to clean house a little I’m having a big sale.  Take 30% off everything and anything at The Chroma Society with the coupon code MOVING30.  I’ll be running this sale at least until the weekend and after that things will start moving over to Lost & Fawned.

Winter and spring seem to be fighting each other here in Ohio.  One day we’ll have sunshine and the next light snow.  Sun seems to be winning more often the past couple of weeks, but we still have a ways to go.  With all the rain of have had plenty of opportunity to wear my new yellow wellies around while we start to tackle house projects.

I finally got my new roses in huge pots and on the back patio.  Allison of Monkey’s Always Look was sweet enough to custom make these garden markers for me with the rose name and year planted.  I’m a little obsessed with categorizing things and naming things.  Yesterday the roses seemed to really be settling in and enjoying the morning sunshine.

We still have not been able to get our edible garden planted.  With the threat of frost the past few weeks it’s been too risky.  I’m hoping next weekend if we have time, but this growing season will probably be somewhat disappointing because the weather is so weird this year.

I have been opening the blinds to let some light in the living room and Logan has a new favorite spot.  He would sit there all day and watch the world go by if we would let him.

I feel like this week was the quiet before the storm.  May is going to be very hectic.  I’ll be flying out to Oregon for a whirlwind weekend to see my brother walk at his college graduation.  We have a backpacking trip planned for the dog and us Memorial weekend. We have a family wedding and the start of the local farmers market next weekend.

In between we have lots of planning and preparing to do.  What started as a large project has recently snowballed into something MUCH larger.  I don’t want to delve into details yet, but hopefully within the next week or so I can.  I am ready to get moving on this one, but there is a lot of prep to get done before we dive in.  I’m excited but also a little anxious.  This will be the biggest project we have tackled yet.  I can’t wait to share it with you.