{Lovely Pins} Polka Dots

Image Sources (clockwise from top left): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Happy Tuesday everybody!  This week's Lovely Pins were inspired by Polka Dots.  They always remind me of spring, and now that the holidays are over that's all I can think about.  I have been seeing a lot of them in my favorite store's spring lines too, so I guess I'm not alone.

I hope you all are having a great week so far!  

{Random Things} Seeing Spots

Good afternoon blog friends!  Disclaimer: I'm not the biggest fan of animal print.  That being said, I keep seeing all these great outfits (mostly on Pinterest) paired with fur jackets, many of them leopard print.  Then I saw this lovely jacket on clearance at Banana Republic, and it fit like a dream.  

Naturally, I bought it, and now I'm warming up a bit to animal print (specifically leopard print).  I really want to find a leopard scarf that I could pair with simple outfits to give them a little zing, but I have yet to find one that doesn't look cheap or tacky.  The search continues.  I'll keep you updated.

{Lovely Pins} All That Glitters....

Image Sources (clockwise from top left): 1, 2, 3, 4

Hello everybody!  I hope you all have been having a fabulous week!  The topic of today's Lovely Pins is All That Glitters because, well, what girl doesn't love a little sparkle!

Have a great day everybody!  

{Fab Find} Valentine Round-Up

Happy Friday everybody!  For today's Fab Finds I thought I would share some of the fun Valentine's Day cards I've been seeing around.  I know that Valentine's Day is completely a greeting card holiday, but I don't think there is anything wrong with telling the ones you love that you're thinking about them. 

Photo Credits: Rifle Paper Co.

Rifle Paper Co. does it for me every time.  Their invitations are absolutely adorable.  If I would have seen them first I probably would have picked these up instead of the ones I bought. 

Photo Credits: Paper Source

Another place to pick up some great cards is Paper Source.  It also happens to be where I got mine from.  They have lots of cute options, and if you want some great decorations, they have those too.    

Well that's it for me this week!  I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

{Causes} Stop SOPA and PIPA!

Hello blog friends!  I don't normally talk about politics, nor do I plan to make a habit of it in the future.  However, today I feel like I must speak up.  On January 24th, Congress will be voting to pass a bill that will censor the internet, even though the vast majority of Americans oppose it.   It was created with the intent to end internet piracy, but the result would do so much more. 

To learn more visit Stop American Censorship or Google Information Page.  

***I have decided not to go into full blackout mode today like some websites have.  Instead, I'm joining up with other bloggers to use this time to spread the word.***

{Lovely Pins} Blush and Coral

Image Sources (clockwise from top left): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Happy Tuesday everybody!  This week's Lovely Pins were inspired by an enameled chain link bracelet I bought last week from J Crew.  The two colors that really stand out on it are a soft pink and a beautiful coral.  It makes me happy just wearing it.  

I hope you all are having a great week so far!   

{Lovely Pins} Seafoam and Mint

Image Sources (clockwise from top left): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Happy Wednesday everybody!  I was flipping through the channels the other day, and ended up watching the series finale of Sex and the City.  In this episode Carrie wears the amazing ballerina dress shown in the bottom middle pin.  It's all I could think about the rest of the day.  As the week has progressed I've been thinking about how wonderful my living room/kitchen would look in either seafoam or mint green, so as you can see they were the perfect color palette for this week's Lovely Pins.    

I hope you all have a lovely day!  

{Random Things} My Favorite Calendars

Happy Monday everybody!  New year, new calendar(s).  It's a ritual for some to at the start of a fresh year to go out and buy a fresh calendar.  I thought that today I would share with you all my favorite calendars.  I have three, and believe it or not I use them all.  I bought all of them at Paper Source (not at the same time).   

This is the calendar I bought for my wall in my studio.  It's the Rifle Paper Co Botanical Calendar.  I love wall calendars like this one because it's almost like a piece of art.  Paper Source also had several very cute calendars like this one that are their store brand.  I purchased those the past 2 years.

This planner by Moleskine is the calendar that gets the most use.  It's not the pretties planner, but it is durable and has lots of room to write.  I use it to write everything down.  Schedule, to-do lists, grocery list, you name it, it's in there.  There is an address book in the back that I put just the addresses I use on a regular basis in, and there is a pocket that I put my address labels and stamps in.  It's the perfect size to fit in my purse (without being too small to write everything down), and I don't use very large purses.  My only complaint is that I wish it didn't have the scheduled times printed on the pages (although not all pages have them?), but it's not a deal breaker for me.  

This last calendar is made by Paper Source.  I use this one entirely for my blog.  I like it because it's not dated, meaning you can start and stop whenever you want.  I've found that it's very useful when planning out my blog posts.   It also has a notebook area at the back where I write down ideas for new posts.  

I hope that I gave you all some great calendar ideas!  Have a wonderful week!  

{Lovely Pins} Grey, Lavender, and Pink

Image Sources (clockwise from top left): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 

Hello blog friends!  I hope the first week of the new year is going well for you all!  I know many of you can probably relate to my recent addiction....Pinterest.  I wanted a way to share all my pretty finds and thus Lovely Pins on Serendipitous Things is born.  

For my first Lovely Pins my theme is Grey, Lavender, and Pink.  When I think of winter for some reason I always think of Grey and Lavender.  I think the perfect pop of color to throw into the mix is a little pink.  It makes for a positively elegant combination.

I hope these lovely photos will inspire you as much as they inspire me!  Have a great weekend!      

{Fab Find} Umba Box

Happy Friday everybody!  I'm very excited about this week's Fab Find.  Umba Box is an awesome monthly subscription service that selects a new handmade surprise for you every month.  What an amazing way to treat yourself, a friend, or, for you guys out there, the lovely lady in your life.  They have several subscription lengths each at a very affordable $26 a month.  

Well that's it for this week's Fab Find.  Check back later for another lovely post.  

{My Life} Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everybody!  It's been a while, so I'm just going to dive in and catch you all up.

December started with us having our hands full with our cute little pup, Doggert.  Here is a little back story.  Last year (2010) on the Sunday we were coming home from visiting our families for Thanksgiving and he started to have some back problems.  We took him to our normal vet the next day, and they diagnosed him with Intervertebral Disk Disease.  Basically his discs deteriorate faster than normal causing the fluid inside to leak out and push on the spinal cord.  If not treated properly it can lead to them being paralyzed.  They wanted to schedule him for surgery right away, but after talking to a friend of ours who works at the University of Minnesota Veterinary school, we decided to get a second opinion.  We took him to a neurology specialist, and he recommended we wait to have surgery.  Instead he was put on 3 different medications and was on strict bed rest for 9 more weeks.  He eventually returned to his normal self.  Almost like clock work he had another flair up 4 days after Thanksgiving this year (2011).  It was a little worse this time, and they recommended he get an MRI and possibly have surgery after the holidays were over.  Over Christmas he started to do much better (such a great Christmas present), so now unless he starts to get worse we are hoping we can delay and further action for a little while longer.  We still have another 5-6 weeks left before we can return him to normal activity, but it could be a lot worse.  

A few days (and barely any sleep) later I got together with a few ladies who took also took Blogging Your Way.  It was great to meet with some fellow bloggers, and to hear about their blogging journey.  

The following weekend, we had our annual Holiday Party.  I had so much fun putting the whole thing together.  Particularly making all the decorations.  It was great, as always, to get all of our friends together, and to see all the kiddos.  

Before we knew it, it was time to head home for Christmas.  I forgot my camera, so I don't have a lot of pictures, but I got a few from my little sister.  We had and amazing time and it was hard to say goodbye, but it's always nice to get back home.  It was only a matter of days before the next event on our calendar....New Years Eve.  We went to our friend Chris's house.  It was fabulous as always, and we both had so much fun!  As you can probably see in the bottom two pictures, I decided to spruce up my hair to ring in the new year.  I decided to darken it up a little for winter and to get bangs again.  It's taking me a while to get used to it, but it's pretty fun.

Now that the holidays are over I'm ready to get back to everyday life.  The first step is getting over this cold/flu thing I have.  I have been miserable for the last few days, and today has been the worst one yet.  I have lots of stuff I want to blog about, but I think I'm going to save it all for another day and get some rest.  

I hope you all are having a wonderful start to 2012!