Clean Slate

Share the love.

2012-01-12T07:52:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Victoria for posting this - such lovely messages that epitomize my hopes for 2012. Wait nix that, the rest of my life.

A Great Source for More DIY and Papercrafting

2012-01-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

So my post on terrariums is blowing up thanks to Pinterest! (If you're a referral from there, let me just say HI! It's nice to meet you.) As I brainstorm loads more DIY stuff to launch in 2012 I wanted to show you another great resource for projects that I contribute to - The Colorbok Studio Blog.

The image above is a round-up of six of the crafty projects I've made over there, but trust me, there are tons more by a lot of other talented folks that I work with everyday. SERIOUSLY TALENTED WOMEN UP IN MICHIGAN! (to name a few: Maria Filar, Rebecca Bischoff, Alisa Bobzien, Jody Kirklin, Catherine Gruntman, Laura Mayes and Janet Dunn)

2011 Ornament Swap Reveal

2011-12-07T11:34:00.001-08:00

Today I shipped these little guys to 10 lucky ladies. Inspired by the wooden spools I found at a local antique store, the windmills evolved because I love Dutch folk art and the red and white of Scandinavian design. Voilà!

(I've received 4 amazing ornaments and will post photos of those soon, oh what fun!)

Weekend Project #1 - Terrariums for Pinterest Challenge

2011-11-05T12:13:00.000-07:00

I love projects and Pinterest so when Sherry over at Young House Love posed the 2nd Pinterest Challenge I had the perfect pins in mind. Dylan got me these great fish bowl bookends two birthdays ago and we've had little success keeping any kind of fish alive in them. (R.I.P Goldfish 1, Goldfish 2, Goldfish 3, Goldfish 4, Betta 1 and Betta 2 - you were doomed from the start without names.) One day it suddenly dawned on me that they could be terrariums! They don't have lids, so mossy dioramas were out of the question, but after a little searching I found that succulents would be perfect.

Pinspiration for my project:

Clover and Bee / Sweet Peach / Unknown Source (Pinterest)

Supplies - Glass fish bowl bookends, tiny succulents, Cactus/Succulent potting soil, decorative stones, and a spoon.

Completed succulent terrariums:

I think my favorite part about this project was realizing that this was the perfect place to display the stones we have brought back from Iceland, Lake Superior and Italy.

Knitting

2011-10-20T15:55:00.000-07:00

#12 from last year's list was to knit something. Well here it is - one giant, peacock blue cowl.

Who's got two thumbs and is going to be really warm this winter? THIS GIRL.

A New Workspace Place

2011-10-05T16:45:00.000-07:00

It's taken me about two weeks to get this all put together with only being able to put one coat of polyurethane on a night and waiting for the top to set completely before I start piling things on it. But it's ready for it's unveiling... my new studio/workspace/desk.

It started with a lot of DIY inspiration:

1. Manhattan Nest / 2. Young House Love / 3. Camillestyles / 4. Workalicious / 5. Katherine Martensen-Larsen / 6. Lovenordic Design Blog

And ended with one very successful, budget-friendly home project:

Inspiring, right?

Here's the breakdown:

Repurposed Kitchen Cabinets - $42
MDF for Desk Top - $80
Hardware - $18
Steel Edging - $15
A New Can of Kilz - $7

Total for gigantic addition of workspace to our home: $162
(I used left-over paint for the cabinets and surface. Also not counting the sweet jig saw I bought because I'll get to use that again. Soon hopefully!)

Check out the lake view!

Find of the week - Instagrid

2011-09-21T09:01:00.000-07:00

A little insta-access into my life (as if there isn't enough of that with Facebook and blogs). BUT, if you don't have Instagram or Facebook you probably don't see my photo postings unless I tweet them or post them here. Now there is a way to follow people without any of those outlets - Instagrid.

Click here and you can subscribe to be notified when I post new photos to my grid.

Jam

2011-09-16T06:45:00.000-07:00

Ok Mandy (and Mom), I didn't trash my lists for good. Crossing off another one today - #54 Make Jam.

observations from my 26th year.

2011-08-31T15:40:00.000-07:00

I'm still uncertain as to where the last month went, let alone the past year, and I'm wondering ten or twenty years from now what will I remember from my 26th year? All consumed by work and Dylan's new law school venture, did I miss something else I was supposed to do at this age?

Here's my re-cap, mainly to catch myself back up with the past 365 days or so.

Bought a 50lb bag of bread flower and it's almost gone
Created more designs than ever before, both for my full-time gig and other freelance projects
Traveled to Colorado, Washington D.C., North Carolina, Kentucky and I jetted off solo to Florida for Chelsea's 25th!
Downhill and cross-country skied up north, around SE Michigan and for the first time out west
Spent Christmas just the two of us at home with the biggest real tree we've ever had
Attended the Ann Arbor Folk Festival
Dylan left the hospitality world and jumped head first into a full-time law career
Started a globe collection
Camped on Lake Superior

As for the year to come, I'm taking the list down. I'm not feeling motivated by it, just downtrodden by what I didn't accomplish. I say this a lot, but "we'll see."

A Hot and Hazy Garden Update

2011-07-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

I'm crossing off #17 after harvesting my first cucumbers along with a couple zucchini and yellow squash from the garden this morning. AND the eggplant blooms are out in full force!  Who knew the eggplant blossoms would be the prettiest lavender color?

In other news, our rain barrel/beautiful garden decoration is full and I'm getting ready to hook up the hose to it so I can water the garden with it.  I've been holding out knowing that these long weeks with no rain were not far off.  The dogs days of summer are here.

Rust Belt Market

2011-07-14T09:58:00.000-07:00

FINALLY got over to the Rust Belt Market in Ferndale when Chelsea was in town last weekend and it was definitely everything I anticipated. Vintage clothing, handmade jewelry, baked goods, quirky crafts and one of kind finds.

With flavors like Strawberry Rhubarb Basil, Chocolate Blackberry and Salted Carmel Apple, Rock City Pie won us over as one of the "best of show."

Chels scored these killer cowboy boots at one of the vintage booths (damn her and her small feet) and I'll definitely be heading back to pick up a couple of things that I couldn't stop thinking about 3 days later. Maybe that woman will come down in price on that amazing engraved gold locket...

9. Go Camping

2011-07-05T16:10:00.000-07:00

Not once, but twice! Haley and I had our first overnight adventure at Bishop Lake last month. Then, Dylan and I ventured north for the 4th of July weekend and camped at our favorite spot Bayview Campground on Lake Superior/Whitefish Bay in Brimley.

Highlights with Haley: pizzas over the fire, snuggling up with Nellie in the tent and hunting for minnows. (Oh, and Chewy the pug at the next campsite over...)

Highlights of camping at Bayview with Dylan: Listening to a wood thrush from the beach, sunsets with great friends and waking up absolutely freezing to see only Dylan's hair peeking out of the sleeping bag next to me.

our movie premiere

2011-06-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

I am all agog over the 8mm app for the iPhone. We decided to document our trip last month using it and with a little music expertise from Dylan it has come together finally and is ready to debut.

A 6 minute, old fashioned short documenting our journey:

(p.s. crossing off #18! You'll get a glimpse of the Raffaldini Vineyard in the video.)

took a little trip

2011-05-26T18:18:00.000-07:00

Last week the hubby and I took a drive to the city, to the beach, along the curves of blue ridges and to the land of horses and bourbon. We're working on our first video since high school to sum up the trip - stay tuned.

Planning the Garden

2011-05-10T16:13:00.000-07:00

I do enjoy that every spring I get to clear out the vegetable garden and come up with a brand new plan of attack. It starts out so ambitious, and more often than not, ends in a garden fruitful not only zucchini, tomatoes and lettuce but a whole lot of weeds as well. I've got a couple of tomato seedlings going strong and a plan you can see below. I'm sick of rows!

2. Change the fabric in the doors of the bookcase.

2011-05-05T15:48:00.000-07:00

Happy Cinco de Mayo folks! Here are a couple of photos of the living room with the new, more neutral fabric in the bookcase doors. I like it a lot, but I do feel like it kind of floats against that wall, which is why I brought in some willow branches from the yard in that recycled glass vase to the right... it's getting there.

Baking Revelations

2011-04-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

I recently saw Leigh over at Curly Girl Design blog refer to herself as a stress-baker and I thought, "my god, that's exactly what I am!" As I pondered this crazy revelation I also came to the conclusion that I'm also an old fashion believer in showing my love or gratitude through baking. How can these two things, stress and love, exist in the same person creating a single thing you ask? Well, baking is one thing that I can do that is so soothing, but then also brings a little smidgen of happiness to others, so I think it goes hand in hand. And that's that - baking is a recipe for all kinds of positive things.

20. Switch from coffee to green tea in the morning.

2011-04-24T16:37:00.000-07:00

Ahh... simplici-tea.

This goal went a little differently than planned. After I came off Clean I felt so much better without any caffeine in my diet that I knew I definitely wasn't going back to my morning coffee regimen, and actually, I don't even have tea everyday now either. Water, water, water!

Pining for Pinterest

2011-03-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

Latest obsession...

This website/web community/resource, Pinterest, has pretty much made my year. Sad isn't it? Everyone is pretty well aware of my blog reading tendencies, magazine scouring hours and store stalking with my iPhone when it comes to home decor, fashion, dogs, art, design, travel and cooking. Well this pretty much takes all those things and the contributions of thousands of others and puts them in a place where I can scroll for hours noting my favorites and "pinning" them onto my own digital bulletin boards. Anything you could possibly be interested in can be found on this site and essentially digitally bookmarked for future reference. The image above is just a small segment of my Home Sweet Home board and it makes me giddy when I look at it as it's the most comprehensive example of my style I have every compiled. I highly recommend requesting an invitation and starting to pin away. Let me know if you do as it is fascinating to see what others are enjoying across the web.

Halfway Point: Clean Program

2011-03-10T07:59:00.000-08:00

I wish I had written down my diet for the weeks prior to starting Clean... it wasn't pretty to say the least. Ever since Dylan went back to school and I find myself rushing to get home to let Nellie out, throwing some food in my mouth, working on freelance, speeding to yoga and then again making or warming up an additional meal for Dylan when he gets home around 9:00 PM every night during the week. If I would have documented it it may have included several loaves of fresh bread, pasta, canned soup, a banana here and there, cookies, yogurt, cereal, apples, bagels, frozen peas, maybe a salad or two. Holy grains!

Anyhow, I stumbled upon Clean from reading Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop newsletters. She had presented a mini detox after the holidays that had seemed nutritious and fairly simple to abide by based on Dr. Alejandro Junger's program. I bookmarked it and continued on my new married-to-a-law-student bloated diet. Then, a couple weeks after visiting with Mandy she emailed and said she had bought a juicer, read the book and had been on Clean since I left. She said she was "reeping the benefits (great skin, great sleep, happy tummy)" and that was that. I loaded it on my Kindle and read it over a week while I contemplated whether it was do-able with our schedules.

We started last Monday. I can honestly say I wasn't the least bit hungry between the shake-meal-shake regimen until Friday. My brains says weekend = fun food. Dylan is struggling with the same mentality as well, as I haven't heard so much moaning and groaning when we pass restaurants and each time an appetizing commercial comes on t.v. Nevertheless, the physical benefits I have discovered so far include my clothes fitting just a bit better, my skin is evening out and I'm not having those up and down bursts of energy that plagued my days prior.

Things I have learned that I can adapt to my post-cleanse diet:

Foods like millet and kale that I was unfamiliar with before
I discovered that I LOVE fresh juice, especially carrot, celery and apple!
It's good to leave 12 hours between dinner and breakfast so your body has time to reset rather than just working on digesting all night long
3 liters of water a day make me feel better and snack less
How to make almond milk
About supplements like Chia Seed and Maca Powder

All in all, a great way to enter into spring. I'll update in 10 days with a full conclusion on the program.

2011-03-06T12:50:00.000-08:00

Discovered this little beauty up on a high shelf in Lost & Found Vintage in Royal Oak yesterday. Isn't it wonderful? Our living room is looking particularly nicely lit right now - maybe I'll take a few photos. T.B.D...

A lovey-dovey kind of day...

2011-02-14T15:58:00.000-08:00

Hope your day was full of sweets and smooches!

Don't forget I post little snippets of design (like the vignette from my Hallmark days above) and ongoing projects over at my other blog: http://twoifbyseastudios.blogspot.com/

19. Bake a successful loaf of bread (with a little help from my friends)

2011-02-06T17:23:00.000-08:00

Our little baking buddies Sonja and Charlotte!

My lovely braided bread - thanks for the help Mandy!!

Then after an amazing dinner we found peace with our legs "criss-cross applesauce."

Crossing Off Number Eight

2011-01-31T17:43:00.000-08:00

All sorts of skiing this year makes for peachy memories.

Copper Mountain 

Dave (sans gorilla suit, sad face), Danny, Dylan and me.  

The only actual picture of me on downhill skis so far this season... 

My favorite view from the mountain.

Cross-country skiing with Steve, Lesley and Capone

Lots more of this snow stuff coming our way so I promise there will be more ski photo opps. 

#6 - a photo book for Haley

2011-01-31T15:50:00.000-08:00

One of the things I did in December was get all my photos organized and in the process made a book for Haley about our time together as Big Sister and Little Sister.  (P.S. she has only called me Brittany maybe twice - it's always "Sister."  Too cute.)

Below is my favorite page.  I always let her play with my phone and camera in the car and sometimes I find the funniest pictures like this one where we had just spent a windy day at the Toledo Zoo.  Oh, and there was a DIY face-painting area of one of the kid exhibits.