simply designed and etsy finds.

Pop of Turquoise.

2011-08-05T11:33:00.003-05:00

I think turquoise will always be one of my favorite colors. I love that it can feel retro and modern at the same time. All of these pieces would add a nice pop of color to a space, don't you think?

[Can you believe the vintage suitcases and fan are actually paintings by Christopher Stott?! They are so realistic I thought they were photos until I read about them. Amazing!]

1. mirror by Stella Dallas via Knight Moves Blog | 2. pitchers by Russel Wright via Sundance catalog | 3. luggage painting by Christopher Stott via poppytalk | 4. fan painting by Christopher Stott

White + Texture

2011-08-03T13:26:00.005-05:00

Zoe.

2011-07-31T19:39:00.002-05:00

Our newest family member, miss Zoe.

She is sweet and playful, and I think she will be BFF with Riley in no time. [Or, as soon as she stops hogging his food and he stops accidentally squishing her.]

♥

Candid.

2011-07-28T21:27:00.003-05:00

My mom got this shot from a distance as we were walking up a hill to take our bridal party portraits before the ceremony. So sneaky with her telephoto lens. Love it.

Hitched.

2011-07-25T20:58:00.005-05:00

We had the most amazing wedding weekend. It was so much better than I ever imagined.

Here is a little sneak peek of pictures I stole from my mom, aunt, and friends on Facebook. I can't wait to share the professional photos when we get them from Alec, but these should give a nice glimpse of the weekend.

We had a very relaxed rehearsal dinner on Friday at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, Ted's Cafe Escondido. Most of our guests were from out of town, so we had a big crowd, almost as many as the wedding itself. It was so great for our families and friends to get a chance to meet each other before the wedding. My aunt took tons of pictures, so I will save the rest of the rehearsal dinner photos for a separate post. Here is one of me and Randy that night.

I was surprised how calm I was the day of the wedding. I am laid back by nature, but usually get nervous being the center of attention. I think we were so busy beforehand, I didn't even have time to overthink everything and get anxious. That, and my mom was doing a lot of the worrying for me. [Thanks Mom! I hope you can relax now too.]

I did my best to be the anti-bridezilla, but nothing even went wrong. Our vendors were seriously the best. The worst that happened was my own fault. I completely forgot about signing the marriage license! We still got it filled out the next day and my sister-in-law took it back to Kansas with her to give to our officiant, who had already driven back home by the time I remembered. Problem solved. We're still married. =D

The morning of the wedding, Randy, Bobby [our best man], my mom and I took the last of our decor over to our venue. I ended up rushing around afterward to make it to my hair appointment, but once I got to the salon I knew I could sit back and enjoy the day. The rest of the setup was out of my hands and our awesome vendors brought my vision together perfectly. It was all so much more beautiful than I expected. We even got lucky with the weather and no one had a heat stroke at our short outdoor ceremony. Hooray for that!

Friends and strangers had warned me beforehand to enjoy every minute of the day because it would fly by. I now know what they meant. Everything was so perfect we didn't want it to end! I wish we had more time to talk to everyone, more time to eat and drink, and more time to dance. We are waiting to take our honeymoon in the fall, so we did have a chance to hang out with our families on Sunday before they all left town. I'm glad we didn't have to rush off on a trip right after. At this point we are so exhausted from the weekend I don't even know how we would enjoy a vacation. All we wanted to do today was sleep! It's fun to have that trip to still look forward to now that all the wedding craziness is over.

Alright, on to the pictures...

waiting in the bridal suite at Five Oaks before the ceremony

with my little sister and maid of honor, Kathryn

in the bridal suite with my [new!] niece / junior bridesmaid Lindsey and my sweet flower girl Ella

girls in the wedding party: Lindsey, Katherine, Kathryn, me, Ella, Francine, and Megan

me and Ella // walking down the aisle as Mr. and Mrs. Fankhauser!

my family: dad, mom, me, Randy, Kathryn, and Matthew

Randy's family: Corey, Bryan, Maggie, Jeff, Luke, me, Randy, Lindsey, Gary, and Patricia

dancing with my ring bearer and flower girl

Luke and Ella were dancing together all night! cutest thing I've ever seen.

a tiny preview of what's to come from Alec. so excited to see his photos!

2011-06-06T01:15:00.003-05:00

Welcome to my future office. As you can see, it has been Riley inspected and approved.*

I can't tell you how happy I am that this room is empty. This means that it is no longer our roommate's bedroom. Because we no longer have a roommate. He is all moved into his own little house. This one is officially all ours. And that feels pretty amazing.

We didn't waste any time getting started cleaning as soon as he had the last boxes moved out. The mess in our house was definitely not all his, but we had been waiting for his exit to start deep cleaning the place before we tackle any big projects. As renters with a roommate, we apparently ignored a lot of dusty corners that we are suddenly aware of now as homeowners. Randy and I are both determined to improve this house and keep it that way. I think it will be much easier to accomplish between the two of us and a shared goal. [Please tell me I'm not the only one out there who has to force myself to do housework most days!]

Our house was built in 1993. And its interior color scheme is an unfortunate reflection of its age. The teal carpet goes throughout the house [in all 3 bedrooms plus living and dining room]. It was splotchy, stained and gross before we ever moved in, and it is incredibly frustrating to try to decorate around, because no matter what we do, the rooms with that carpet just look icky.

Our plan is to replace the flooring in the great room first [hopefully with hardwoods] and save the bedrooms for later, when our budget allows us to upgrade the carpet in there.

Also on our to-do list: paint the entire exterior this summer, finish cleaning up the yard and plant more grass, build a large wood deck on the back, paint most of the interior, buy and/or build furniture for the living and dining rooms, replace the pink tile on the fireplace with natural stone, and re-do the kitchen cabinets and countertops.

No big deal, right?

Kidding! We know these projects will take time, and we won't be rushing to finish everything by any deadlines. We do want to get the house looking a bit more presentable before all of our family and friends come to visit for our wedding, but most have already seen the house in its current [mildly disastrous] state and they still love us, so we aren't too worried.

*The grody carpet barely passed inspection, but I promised it would not be staying much longer and he let it slide for now. ; )

2011-06-03T13:09:00.003-05:00

Our roommate has found a new place and should be moving out this weekend, so we can finally get to work on our house. Hooray!! Updates and pictures coming soon.

Until then, I'll just be doing a little daydreaming over here...

room designed by Tracery Interiors . photo by Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles via greige

Home

2011-05-20T00:04:00.003-05:00

Tonight, we are sleeping for the first time in OUR first home. We closed this afternoon after only a minor bump this morning when we didn't get our final total from the bank on time. Better late than never. We ended up having plenty of time to transfer money, and the actual closing process [basically just signing a fat stack of papers] was surprisingly quick and painless.

And then we drove home. To our new house. That we already live in.

I hate to be so anti-climactic, but the house we bought is the same house we have been living in as renters for the past 3 years. Yes, we have slept here many nights before, but for the first time, it's all ours.

That's why I have a picture of it covered in snow.

And another with green grass and sunshine from last summer.

We have seen this house through every season, a few times now. After hunting for months for our perfect first house, we realized it was right in front of us. Honestly, the house itself is far from perfect, but it is exactly right for us. And we can't wait to get our hands on it. Finally!

For the past 3 years I have been cursing the dated teal carpet, loathing the pink tile on the fireplace, dying to rip out the hideous vertical blinds blocking the awesome windows in our great room. And finally this place is all ours, to change as we please. It's almost overwhelming when you've had so much time to get to know a place and imagine every detail you wish you could change. Our to-do list is huge.

First on the list is saying goodbye to our roommate. I don't think I've mentioned him much here on the blog, but when we moved into this house, Randy's previous roommate came along too. It's been great sharing the bills with a third person, but now that we are getting married soon, we are both very ready to start making this house our home, just the two of us [and Riley, of course]. We probably won't make any big changes until we have the house to ourselves. Hopefully soon!

If you're wondering why we would buy this not-so-pretty place, the answer is 100% location. We absolutely love where we live. We have so much space [2.5 acres!]. I have never even walked all the way to the back of the property line in all the time we've been here. Right now a lot of the acreage is covered in forest and weeds, but Randy has already started clearing away the brush to open up our backyard and eventually plant more grass. He's made such an improvement in just a week. I love that he is so motivated to make our house and yard look great. It has so much potential! It will be fun to see how it evolves once we really get to work on it.

Even though we feel like we are in a rural area [our neighbors have cows and horses, all of which have shown up in our yard at some point], we are only 10 minutes from downtown Tulsa and Randy is less than 5 minutes from work. I don't think a better place for us exists.

For some reason I don't have many pictures of this house. I'm sure that will change as we start working on it and I can now take Before pictures while anticipating the Afters. The photos above were really the only ones I could find. And this one:

[our friend Ryan, mid-snowball-fight]

I am only posting this picture to showcase the lovely color choices our landlord made for the exterior. She's a big fan of teal...

All of that to say, I'm really excited to be a homeowner! Even if I don't feel like one quite yet.

We have big plans for this place, and I can't wait to share our adventures in decorating, renovating, and home-ownership as we go.

2011-04-28T14:56:00.003-05:00

We had a lovely surprise waiting for us in the mailbox when we got home from Kansas on Sunday -- our disc of engagement photos from Alec! And of course, we love them. [Even though I am making weird ridiculous faces in at least half of them. Luckily he took a lot.] Alec's use of light is just brilliant. I am so happy to have him as our photographer. Randy and I have so few photos together, and most are arm's length self portraits from my point and shoot, I know we will really treasure these forever.

Thank you, Alec!

2011-04-27T15:23:00.003-05:00

Here's a little sneak peek at our wedding invitations! They just came in the mail from the printer today. I am so happy with how they turned out.

I've been working on the rest of the pieces and have a few more things to figure out before I can start assembling everything and stuffing envelopes. They will be in the mail in less than a month!

I also snapped a few pictures of my growing jar collection for our centerpieces. I hit the jackpot last weekend in Kansas with my future-mother-in-law, the thrifting queen. She took me to a small town antique shop with shelves full of vintage jars, for as little as a dollar! After stalking them down on Etsy and eBay for $5 a piece or more, I couldn't believe it. I grabbed as many as I could carry home in the car and will probably go back at least one more time before July.

Hair and Other Things.

2011-04-19T12:46:00.004-05:00

[all image sources can be found here]

I was about to post another update sans photo, but thought you would prefer some eye candy. I know I do when I'm reading blogs. So here is my little wedding hair inspiration board. I have been hoarding pictures on Pinterest to eventually narrow down, print out, and take to my stylist for my wedding hair trial. I have already commissioned my talented Etsy friend Sara to make a fabulous fabric flower to pin to the soft updo with low bun and loose curls that I'm envisioning for my hair. Who knows if it will actually look half as good on me as it does in any of these pictures, but I guess that's what the trial is for, yes? I am praying I can get my hair color the way I want it by then as well. No matter what I do to it these days, it looks red. Nothing against redheads, it's just not what I'm going for, and it's super frustrating to get unwanted haircolor results when spending lots of money to have it professionally done. Maybe next time?

You all must have sent some seriously positive thoughts my way after my last post, because we have accomplished so much since then! Immediately after writing that post, Randy sent me an email from work with a weekend to-do list, which consisted mostly of wedding-related activities. This, from my fiance who honestly does not care about every little detail and thinks a lot of this stuff is just a bit crazy and unnecessary. But he was initiating the plan of attack, and thanks to his help, we crossed off so many items from our huge list of things to do. Including some very important ones, like finding an officiant and booking our rehearsal dinner. Check and check!

We also ordered Randy's wedding band this weekend.

And made some progress in the menswear department.

And found flatware that we could finally agree on for our registry.

It's the little things that do it for me.

I thanked him a million times, and I should probably thank him a million more.

On Friday I ordered our invitations from the printer. I designed them myself and we are using Letterpress Chicago for printing. Gary has been so helpful and sent me many gorgeous samples of their work, so I can't wait to see how ours turn out! Letterpress invitations have always been my dream, but I didn't think they would fit in my budget. Letterpress Chicago's quote was unbelievably good compared to the other printers I looked into, so they really are a dream come true. [I would have spent more printing them on cardstock at Kinko's.] Of course the price depends on what kind of paper you choose, how many ink colors, etc. and we are keeping the cost down with one color and printing on chipboard, which fits perfectly with our wedding vibe. I am so excited to finalize the other pieces of our invitation suite and put everything together over the next month. Designing for myself is always a challenge for me, but this has actually been such a fun process.

One last wedding accomplishment this weekend consisted of a mini Sunday road trip to Branson, MO for engagement pictures with our fantastic photographer, Alec Vanderboom. I have been looking forward to this session since the moment we booked Alec back in the fall. I am IN LOVE with his photos. Have you seen them? So good.

We drove the 3.5 hour trip on Sunday afternoon to meet Alec around 4pm in Branson [where he lives]. He led us to one of the spots he had picked out for our shoot, some secluded woods behind the neighborhood he grew up in. There was a large snake and some funky bamboo-like plants, and we brought home a few ticks as souvenirs [so gross!], but it was great to get to know each other before he photographs our wedding in July.

Alec made us feel at ease, despite our inherent awkwardness in front of the camera, and he gave us great direction while still letting us be fairly candid and natural. I am always nervous about seeing myself in candid shots, because obviously there isn't much control over looking "picture perfect," but Alec's photos always look beautiful so I am confident ours will be great as well. We spent most of our time at the first woodsy location, then did a quick outfit change and a few more shots in an open field and abandoned concrete amphitheater. I loved everything about the experience and cannot wait to see the photos.

In non-wedding news...

Last night we had another big house-related meeting. Today we are exactly one month from our scheduled closing date. I am so very grateful to have Randy by my side through all of this, and to be working with such awesome, competent people who have helped us every step of the way in a somewhat overwhelming process.

So far, so good. Everything is falling into place.

100 Days.

2011-04-15T10:41:00.005-05:00

Aside from a few little tornado warnings, yesterday was pretty awesome.

For starters, it marked 100 days until our wedding. I can't believe we are really that close. I also can't imagine how I'm ever going get everything on my to-do list crossed off before then. Please send many productive wedding planning thoughts my way.

Yesterday also marked a very exciting point in our house-buying adventure! We are getting so so close. I am still afraid to jinx the whole thing, so I will wait until it is a 100% done deal to share all the details, but I am insanely excited. Both to finally have a house of our own, and especially to be finished with the hunt so I can stop stressing out about it every. single. day. Today I am breathing easier and keeping my fingers crossed for smooth sailing until we close in May. YAY!

On a whim, I decided to check in on the status of both my wedding dress [ordered in Houston] and my bridesmaids' dresses [ordered in Tulsa]. Both were scheduled to come in late April, so I wasn't expecting them to have arrived yet. I guess it was my lucky day, because I got good news from both stores and all the dresses are in! I scheduled my first fitting for my dress when I will be in Houston in May. I am dying to put it on. The store sample was pretty amazing, but this one will be mine. Cannot wait.

I was so nervous about the bridesmaid dresses when we ordered them. The store didn't seem all that organized, but they were the only place in town that carried the dresses I wanted. So I ordered them and hoped for the best. As soon as I heard they were in, I went to go pick them up, so they would be safe with me and nothing would happen to them at the crazy store. Yes, I might be a little paranoid.

When I was a block away from the store, my bridesmaid Francine called me out of the blue. To tell me she was at the dress store. Picking up her dress. What?! So funny that we both randomly ended up at the store at the exact same time without any prior discussion of picking up dresses. So I got to see her try on her dress, which looks beautiful on her, and I picked up the other 3. Then we grabbed sushi at 4pm and discussed bachelorette plans and the other 3 weddings she is in this year in addition to mine. She might as well be a professional bridesmaid.

Then I drove home in Tulsa rush hour traffic listening to weather warnings on the radio and tornado sirens blaring. The rain started about halfway home, nixing my plan to drop off Megan's bridesmaid dress at her house along the way. When I was 2 miles from home, my car was being pelted with hail and I could not see the road in front of me.

And when I got home, the sun was shining.

Yes Please.

2011-03-30T11:49:00.004-05:00

1. Collage Cushion Bench from Anthropologie
2. iPhone cases from Cath Kidston

yes, please.

Dream House.

2011-02-24T19:13:00.004-06:00

one . two

three . four

five . six

seven . eight

...mine has tall ceilings and giant windows, overflowing with natural light...

I wouldn't mind some flowy white curtains, dark wood floors, and a pretty chandelier while we're at it.

What does your dream house look like?

Feathers.

2011-02-24T00:29:00.001-06:00

1. Fanciful Feather Collection by Golly Bard
2. Feathers by groundwork

Stripes in Space[s].

2011-02-24T00:02:00.002-06:00

Yep, officially obsessed over here.

clockwise from top left: one . two . three . four

2011-02-21T11:30:00.002-06:00

These turquoise treasures from Boden have me aching for spring.

Mother Nature teased us with a gorgeous weekend here in Tulsa, but this chilly Monday morning says winter is not quite ready to leave.

Moccasins & Satchel available at Boden

Stripes.

2011-02-19T21:12:00.005-06:00

I don't actually own many stripes, but according to my style crushes,
I may just have a subconscious addiction.

one . two . three

four . five

six . seven . eight . nine . ten

eleven . twelve . thirteen

2011-02-18T10:37:00.002-06:00

A few cute cameras I wouldn't mind adding to my collection...

1. lomography diana + dreamer camera from urban outfitters
2. diana mini with flash from urban outfitters
3. pink leica camera via a beautiful mess
4. holga camera from urban outfitters

2011-02-16T13:13:00.003-06:00

I originally thought we'd skip formal china on our wedding registry, but after seeing those napkin rings [still my favorite piece of the set], I had to click over to see the rest of the Lenox Chirp collection. I am head over heels. It is exactly what I didn't know I was looking for.

I love that these dishes are nice enough for a fancy party or holiday dinner, but not so stuffy that they couldn't be used for everyday meals too. The artsy watercolor print and bright colors are right up my alley. They will mix perfectly with the classic white serving pieces we picked and also coordinate with the aqua and red Martha Stewart kitchen gadgets I love.

Oh, how I can't wait to have a kitchen of my own. With a real table to eat on. And chairs instead of a couch! A girl can dream...

2011-02-15T09:00:00.003-06:00

I bought myself a little Valentine's Day present this year.

[not really, they just happened to arrive on V-day. thank you, speedy Zappos shipping!]

I'm already in love.

The deep aubergine color is perfection.

Now, bring on the next ~~blizzard~~ slightly rainy day, so I have an excuse to wear them.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T17:55:00.003-06:00

Here's are a little peek at what I've been up to this afternoon. : )

I hope you are all feeling loved today!

Mistletoe

2011-02-09T17:11:00.000-06:00

So what if you are a parasitic plant that survives through winter, and not actually a sign of spring as I had originally hoped?

So what if you were kicked out of your role as Oklahoma's state flower a few years ago, replaced by the more desirable Oklahoma rose?

Dear little mistletoe, I still think you are lovely.

Photo by me. More snowy photos over here.

*Thank you, Mom, for the botanical research. [Even if it did ruin my hopes and dreams that spring is ready to bust through this crazy snow any day now. But hey, I learned something new!]

Collected

2011-02-09T16:09:00.006-06:00

...a few pretty collections found on pinterest...

I especially love those tea cups.

Do you have a favorite? What do you collect?

1. rainbow glass via designalicious
2. globe collection via ♥ paper pastries
3. heart rock collection via pinkshirtsandcarwrecks
4. tea cups via turquoisetulipsandbliss

Giveaway Winner

2011-02-05T16:06:00.002-06:00

Congratulations Nichole! Enjoy the gift certificate. I know you will put it to great use.

Thanks again to CSN Stores for hosting another great giveaway. They are letting me do one more on {this pretty space} next week, so check over there Monday for the post and entry details.