Lavender Kay

Hi friends!  First, I want to say thank you for your kind response to my Christmas Project!  You all were so sweet and we had such a great response!  So thank you!  Also, let me know if you have any questions about custom designs or ordering.  All the designs can be customized to your preferred wording and colors.  Can’t wait to see the designs you choose.  Anyone have a favorite?

Ok, on to other things.  Today I want to show you the pumpkin Jonathan and I carved.

We chose Harry Potter because, well, we both LOVE Harry Potter and it seemed so festive!

After we carved our HP pumpkin we watched the final Harry Potter movie and roasted pumpkin seeds.  It was magical.

One other thing I wanted to highlight, was that we used the silhouette effect where the candle light shows through the negative space instead of through the letters.  I had never done this technique before but I really liked it.  The Ruche blog has some great printable stencils for carving pumpkins that I think would be really cute for carving your pumpkins this way that you can find here.

Happy pumpkin carving friends!

Good morning friends!  I am so excited because today is the day I finally get to release to you the Christmas Project I have been working on!  For the past month I have been working hard designing some Christmas cards for you.  Awhile back I had received some requests from clients and family to design their Christmas cards so I thought it would be fun to open them up to you as well.  I have had a lot of fun working on these designs and the styles I chose are a fun alternative to the traditional Christmas card.

To view my entire collection, you can click the Christmas Card link at the top right of my blog or click here.  There you will find all my designs as well as pricing and ordering information.  You can also purchase my Christmas cards on Etsy here.

Below, I have highlighted a few of the designs you will find from my collection.  Enjoy!

To view my entire collection, click here.

*Top and bottom photo are by Ben Blood and the middle photo is by Kristen Marie.

Well, now it is actually fall in Corvallis.  The rain has come and the leaves are falling.  And I don’t think the dreariness is going to stop anytime soon.  So to make the best of the sunless days, we have been drinking lots of yummy tea and filling our apartment with bright sunflowers.  If you are experiencing a similar type of weather where you are, I highly recommend both!  They make such a difference.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Alright friends, the big Christmas Project Release is almost here and I can’t wait to show it to you!  This Monday, October 22, is the day so make sure you check in to see what I have been working on.

Also, happy Friday!  The weeks seem to be flying by these days.  I can’t believe it is almost Halloween!  What are your plans this weekend?  I hope to have a semi relaxing weekend.  Jonathan has to work through the weekend and it is predicted to rain every day so I plan to spend most of my time indoors – probably working on my Christmas Project and taking lots of bubble baths.  AND drinking hot spiced cider.  Tis the season right?!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Photo Source here

Hi friends!  I am sorry there hasn’t been as much content on my blog the last couple weeks.  My Christmas Project has been taking up a lot of my time but I CAN’T WAIT to show it to you.  I have been working really hard on it and I am so excited.  Remember, the release date is 10.22.12 which is this Monday!  So it is definitely coming up soon!

Today I have some lovely goods that I have been crushing on lately.  I am on the hunt for a cute winter coat and I just can’t seem to find exactly what I am looking for.  I really want a cape style coat that is still in the form of a warm winter coat and has full length arms.  The coat below is sooo close but I am not sure I am in love with the color.  But still, it is close!  And, I can’t wait for the day when I can put wallpaper on my walls (well, probably just one wall).  I hope you all have a fabulous Thursday!  Stay tuned on Monday for the Christmas Project Release!

1. Coat from Mod Cloth 2. Fun wallpaper by Anthropologie 3. I need this table lamp for my desk by West Elm 4. Scarf at Mod Cloth and designed by the fabulous Elsie at A Beautiful Mess

I have a fun and very easy DIY project for you.  I am introducing a new column to my blog where we will be transforming household items into new fun things.  The first item we will transform are magazine pages.  I seem to accumulate tons of magazines around my house and here is a fun way to use all those magazines.  Today we are making wrapping paper out of magazine pages.  This project only requires four materials and you will probably have it all lying around your house!

Materials: Magazine (my favorite is Anthropologie), tape, twine and gift tag

Instructions: 1. Gather your materials. 2. Choose the magazine pages you like and arrange them in a large square/rectangle shape (the size will depend on the object you would like to wrap).  Then tape them all together on the front and back.  You don’t need to tape the entire edge of each piece, just parts of them.  3.  Wrap your gift with the paper and then wrap twine around the gift with a tag.  I used a cute vintage tag for mine.  And you are done!  It is that easy!  I hope you enjoy.

Happy Monday friends!  How was your weekend?  Mine ended up being SUPER crazy.  So last week I told you I was heading to Spokane for the weekend and, well…getting there turned out to be an insane experience.  Here is a quick recap of what happened.

Jonathan had just come off the night shift and had to take a test in a different town on Friday.  I picked him up in that town right after his test with our bags packed and we left for the airport.  We were about 80 miles from the airport.  At that point we had plenty of time.

It was raining really hard so the cars were driving a little slower than usual but we still had plenty of time so far.  Then we took our exit onto the next highway leading to the airport and we were were about 30 miles away.  One minute into that drive all cars were at a complete stop.

Fast forward about an hour and we are still at a stop and we have only gone about 15 miles.  When we checked our phones 10 miles out from the airport it said we still had 1 hour and 50 minutes to go!  And our flight leaves in 30 minutes.

Fast forward another 30 minutes – we have only gone 2 miles and have completely missed our flight!  The traffic was SO insane.  I have never seen it like that.  We ended up parking our car at the airport about an hour after the flight had taken off and it took another 30 minutes to get to the terminal because all the shuttle buses were also backed up in traffic.

Once we got to the airport, we found out the next flight wasn’t unit the next day and we would have to wait until the morning to fly out.  Pretty much everyone at the airport had missed their flights and were trying to re-book so every flight through every airline was full.  So crazy!

Needless to say, we did make it to the Spokane on Saturday morning and had a wonderful 2 days there.  It went really fast but we had a great time.  We were even able to fit in a Greenbluff trip (which if you ever go to Spokane in the fall, this is a must activity).  We were so happy to see our friends and celebrate fall in Spokane.

Here are a couple instagram photos from the trip.  The above photo was at Greenbluff and we were picking out pumpkins.

(Above) Beautiful streets in my old neighborhood and (below) my sweet sister and her husband.

(Above) One of our favorite restaurants in Spokane (and the place we had our rehearsal dinner!).

Happy friday friends!  I am really looking forward to this weekend!  What about you?  Do you have any exciting weekend plans?   Jonathan and I have a flight to Spokane this weekend and I can’t wait!  It has been a few months since we have been able to visit.  We have always loved fall is Spokane and I am so glad we get to experience a little bit of it.  Bust most of all, I am really excited to see all our fabulous friends and my wonderful sister.

The above picture is a picture I took in the neighborhood near our apartment.  Corvallis has had shockingly nice weather for the past month so we have taken a lot of long walks to get to know the area (usually with a pumpkin spice latte in hand).  We have found some amazing natural trails within walking distance from our apartment that are stunningly beautiful.  The city has build bridges and trails all over Corvallis to promote nature and exercise.  And, it has been fun to take advantage of all the trails and see the sights.

Happy weekend!

Ok friends I have a yummy AND healthy smoothie recipe for you today.  I have always loved smoothies. In fact, when I was in high school my best friend and I made smoothies all the time and were quite sure we would open our own smoothie place one day.  We had a secret ingredient that we refused to tell anyone.  This smoothie is a little different than the ones we used to make but it is also healthier. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

– 1 banana (cut into 3 pieces)

– 1/2 cup of orange juice

– Vanilla yogurt (Brown Cow is what we use and it is kind of like the secret ingredient!)

– Lots of spinach (at least a cup)

– 1 to 2 spoonfuls of rolled oats

 – Carrots (Optional)

Now blend it all up in a blender and serve chilled.

Hi friends!  I am sorry for my late start today.  School is starting to get busy!  But I wanted to share a little fall tip with you.  Lately, we have been really busy and haven’t been able to decorate our house for fall.  Which is something that I really enjoy but life doesn’t always permit.  But one thing I have made sure to do is, light a fall scented candle everyday!  It makes all the difference in the world.  Even though there isn’t a lot of orange and brown in our house, it still feels like fall.  It is like setting the mood for fall.  So my busy friends, my advise to you is to buy a fall scented candle (ie. pumpkin spice, apple pie, or my favorite, almond vanilla) and light it  every day when you are at home.  It will make all the difference in the world, and bring just a bit more of joy to your life.  Cheers!