{My Life} Temporarily Out of Commission

Hey everybody!  I didn't get much time to blog while in Washington DC, and I can't blog much for another week or so because I fractured my arm.  The picture above was taken minutes before I slipped on water and fell into the pool pictured behind me.  It would have been funny had I not fractured my right arm in the process.  Typing is pretty difficult with just the one hand, so I'm going on a little hiatus until it heals up a little bit.   

I hope you all are doing great!  I can't wait to get back to blogging!

{My Life} New York City: Part 2

Hey everybody!  We had a very successful day of sightseeing in the Big Apple today.  We started out the day by stopping by a few stores that I really wanted to check out.  The first was M&J Trimming.  I found a bunch of really amazing buttons for my jewelry.  Then we headed over to this other store called Tinsel Trading Co.  It was amazing.  I wish we had one.  They had an amazing mix of new and vintage items.  After we were done with all that, we headed to Grand Central Station to grab lunch and catch the subway to the Brooklyn Bridge.  I have been to NYC more times than I can count at this point, but I had never actually walked on the Brooklyn Bridge.  It's ironic because being an architecture buff, it's one of my favorite New York iconic things.  Next, we headed down to Battery Park, so that Katie could see the Statue of Liberty.  They happen to be filming Men In Black 3, so we got to see Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.  It was pretty fun to see them up close.  When we were done there, we headed to Wall Street and Ground Zero.  After all that, we came back to the hotel for a much needed break before heading to Serendipity for dinner.  It was delicious, as usual.  The Forbidden Broadway Sunday is one of the greatest things on earth.

We have another busy day planned tomorrow, before we go home on Monday morning, so it's time to get some sleep.  I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend, and Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there!     

{My Life} New York City: Part 1

Hey everybody!  Our NYC trip is going great.  We haven't done a whole lot of site seeing yet, except  passing through Times Square a few times.  We've mostly been shopping and eating.....a lot (on both accounts).  We plan to dedicate the next few days to site seeing though, since it's Katie's first time here.  

Well that's it for now.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!     

  

{My Life} Week Recap

Hey everybody!   Remember a few weeks ago when I talked about possibly redoing our laundry room?  Well I tackled that project last weekend, and I love the way it turned out.  It's so bright and organized.

  

I also squeezed some lake time in on Sunday.  It's wasn't warm enough to actually get into the water, but it was a great day anyway.  Thanks to Ben and Paula for bringing me along!    

My busy weekend was a very welcome distraction from missing this guy.

Jason left for Vegas last week.  I miss him terribly.  I don't get to see him for 3 weeks, but luckily I'll have plenty more distractions coming up.  My little sister is coming tonight, and we leave Thursday for NYC.  I can't wait!  

Talk to you Friday from NYC!  

{Fab Find} Olive Manna

Photo Credits: Olive Manna.

Happy Friday everybody!  I hope you all have a fun weekend planned. 

Today's Fab Find is a lovely textile an paper shop called Olive Manna.  They have an amazing mix of new and vintage things.  I wish I could buy everything!   

Have a great weekend!   

Stripe Mania

Photo Credits: Madewell Dress, Ruche Top, and Kate Spade iPhone Cover.

I love, love, love stripes, so when I heard that one of my favorite bloggers, Holly Becker of Decor8, was having a "blogger round-up" called Stripe Mania, I had to participate.  In order to do so, she asked that you take a picture of yourself wearing stripes.  Along with the picture of myself, I decided to include some other stripes I'm crushing on right now. 

I hope you all are having a lovely Wednesday!  

{My Life} Inspiration

Inspiration Board Photo Credits:  The Best is yet to Come via Sarah Hwang's Pinterest, June Calendar from Paper Source, Green Weekend Outfit via Mamafolie's Polyvore, Keri Russell's Gorgeous Closet via June 2011 Elle Decor, Colorful Ranunculus via Fabulous K's Blog via Jessica Nichols Flickr, Organized Entry via BHG Storage Magazine.

Happy Monday everybody!  I'm starting a new project this week, a weekly inspiration journal filled with....can you guess.....weekly inspiration boards.  I made my first "inspiration board" during a blogging class that I took this spring, and I had so much fun doing it.  Here is the one I did for my class.

Since making that first one, I make them all the time to start new projects, particularly when making a new piece of jewelry for The Copper Owl.  

I love how each inspiration board actually ends looking like a piece of art, which is why I recently purchased a large pinboard for my studio, so that I can change out my "art" as often as I feel like creating a new board.  Here are a couple shots of it in my studio.  

That leads me back to my weekly inspiration journal.  Between my blog, magazine, and Pinterest addictions, I'm constantly finding things that inspire me and things I don't want to forget.  I thought that maybe if I started putting them in a place where I can flip through them, it might just be a great place to go to time and time again when I'm in a creative slump.  I also thought it might be fun to see what I do with them when I'm traveling.  I think finding pieces for my travel inspiration boards could get pretty fun.  I haven't decided yet if I should share them on here weekly or not, so I guess we'll just see what happens.  

Have a great week everybody!      

{Random Things} I think summer is here?

I had to pop on today to just say a quick hello.  I'm enjoying the perfect little afternoon with my little family.  Jason and I went and grabbed sushi for lunch, and then came home to have a few beers on the deck (which we just got put together this week).  It's absolutely beautiful out.  I'm so happy that summer finally appears to be here.  Doggert's enjoying himself too.  

  

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!    

{Fab Find} Shop Kempt

Photo Credits: Shop Kempt

Hey everybody!  I hope you all are having a splendid Friday!  Today's Fab Find is a little online boutique called Shop Kempt.  They have some really cute stuff, and it's all very reasonably priced.  I posted a few of my favorite pieces above.  The only draw back is that they get very limited numbers of each piece, so if you like something buy it while you can.  

I hope you all enjoy Shop Kempt.  Have a great weekend!  

{My Life} Happy June!

Hey everybody!  Sorry for my little hiatus.  I went back home (Grand Forks, ND) for my little sister Katie's high school graduation.  It all turned out beautiful, but I was so busy running around that I barley got any pictures.  I'm trying to round some up of the party decor and food from some guests to do a post on the party later.  In the mean time here are a few other pictures.  In clockwise order, the first one is of her getting her diploma.  The second is her with her adorable boyfriend Ty, and the last one is her with her two best friends Britney and Brooke.  

My hubby leaves for Las Vegas next week for the 2011 World Series of Poker.  I miss him terribly when he's away especially for the WSOP because he's gone for so long.  Luckily I will have lots of distractions while he's gone.  

Photo Credits: (clockwise from top left) Beauty in Everything, Flickr, Sunsurfer, and Wikipedia.

Our graduation gift to Katie was a trip (for her and myself) to New York City.  It's one of my favorite places, and I'm looking forward to showing her around.  I have a long list of new things that I want to check out, and things that I can't believe I haven't done yet.  For instance, I've been to NYC more time than I can count at this point, but I've never walked on the Brooklyn Bridge.  I want to make sure I do it this time.  Then of course I'm going to want to show her all the usual must sees.

Photo Credits: Trees, Water, & People, Everyday Occasions, and Pinterest.

Then we're off to Washington DC for the Congressional Art Competition Ceremony (and some sight seeing of course).  As I said in a previous post my little sister won in her district.  Along with my sister and I, my parents and grandma are going too.  None of us have been to DC before, so it should be a pretty fun trip for all of us.  Here is the piece that she won with.

Photo Credits: Katie Dregseth

I will be bringing my laptop and camera with me on both trips, so that I can blog while I'm away.

Okay.  I think I've blabbed enough today.  I'll talk to you all tomorrow for this week's Fab Find.  Have a great Thursday!