Lavender Kay

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!  In my last post I was wishing for sunshine and guess what we got all weekend…SNOW!  I thought for sure Spokane was done with that but I guess not.  But we decided to embrace it and meet some friends at a cute cafe for hot cocoa.  We ended up having a wonderful time and I guess in some ways I am thankful for it.  I think snow reminds us to slow down.  And that is what we did!

I also wanted to share a picture of a card Jonathan made me awhile back.  He knows how much I love making cards so he made one of his own and I just LOVE it!  I am even thinking about making some to sell on Etsy.

This picture is of a street in Paris that I took on my Europe trip a few years back.  I chose this picture because lately I have been missing Europe and I have also been missing sunshine.  February tends to be a tough month for me because my inner self is ready for spring but Spokane is not.  Hopefully Spokane will see some sun this weekend.  I am crossing my fingers.  Here’s to sunshine and weekends!  I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday!

So one thing is for sure…colored jeans are taking the fashion world by storm!  It is honestly amazing.  They are everywhere!  I have known for awhile that they would be popular, but it seems like every store I walk into has colored pants.  And I love it!  Here are a few wonderful examples of colored jeans, where to find them and how they are worn.

(Just in case you are skeptical :))

1. Nordstrom 2. J Crew 3. Anthropologie

I know it has been awhile since I have posted anything on my blog but I have recently realized how important it is for me to have a creative outlet and I think this blog is that outlet.  I would like to become more disciplined in my writing as well as my creativity and I want to use this blog as a way to practice that.  For some reason taking this much time off blogging has made it even harder for me to start it up again.  It is something I love but I keep putting it off!  So this first entry is my attempt to start the process without so much pressure to make it perfect.  If you have stuck with me all this time, thank you!  I hope to be a lot more diligent this time around.

Here is an email invitation I made a few months back and thought I would share it.

We had a little end of the year get together with Holly and her roommates to celebrate the start of summer.  Just for fun, I decided to make an invitation for it.  In recent years, parties have become so informal but because of my love of cards, I deemed it necessary to make a card – and bring back the formality.  Yes, an invitation in the mail would be better but sometimes there just isn’t time for that.  But I think I would like to also start sending more letters through the mail.  I know how much I like getting mail, and I assume most everyone else does too 🙂

One of my new favorite things to do is to shop at antique stores.  Spokane has a million and they are rich with wondrous treasures!  You walk into an antique store and you feel like you have been transported into another world.  Most of the stuff I wanted was much to expensive for me right now but here are pictures of a few fun things I bought.

Kinda random I know.  But I just thought the vintage bingo card and receipts would be fun to use for my next card design.

I decided to go back to my roots and make a few homemade greeting cards on the 4th of July while Jonathan was studying.   First I pulled out my ivory matte folded cards to use for the base.  Then I cut up my new Anthropologie magazine (one of my favorite things ) and used it for the pictures in my cards.

Here are a few of them by themselves.

I realized this used to be one of my favorite things to do and it had been forever!  I am a little rusty and I want to make more in my free time.

Here is a postcard I bought at a cluttered vintage store in Stockholm, Sweden.  The store was located in a narrow, cobblestone ally and was so full of stuff you could barely walk through the aisle ways without things toppling over on you.  There were piles of old books and magazines that reached almost to the ceiling.  It was magical.  I found this postcard while I was rummaging through some stuff at our apartment the other day and I have been feeling very nostalgic about Europe ever since.  I am amazed at how easy it is to get back to your normal routine and go through your daily life while forgetting  all about such an experience as backpacking through Europe.  Oh how I miss it.

Last night Jonathan and I went to our neighbor’s house (who also happens to be our landlord) for a neighborhood BBQ.  Four houses of people attended, making the guest count about ten people in all.  And what a great time it was. My introverted nature sometimes keeps me from taking part in these types of events, but when I give in and attend, I am always surprised by how much fun I can have. We spent the night having good food, good conversation, and much laughter with the people who were strangers to us just hours before.  I also gained much insight into the act huckleberry picking and how the term, “pecking order” came to be.

I am encouraged by all the wonderful people I live next to.  Knowing your neighbors seems to be a thing of the past.  But I hope that can change.  I hope we can go back to befriending our neighbors and knowing the people we live next to.  (After all, I did end up marring my neighbor) I read somewhere that “community died when we stopped building front porches.”  Maybe a little extreme, but I believe there is some truth to this statement.  Instead of spending a sunny day on the front porch with a glass of sweet tea and a hello to the people passing by, we have built fences and garages attached to our houses, making it much harder to even come into contact with our neighbors.  I don’t think this is true for everyone, but I think it is true for me.  Ever since Jonathan and I have moved into this house, we have spent a lot of time sitting on our front porch.  The neighborhood BBQ was born in part, by sitting on the front porch and talking to our neighbors.

So here’s to front porches and wonderful neighbors!