I’m a girl who’s in love with the world…

…and Brendan can’t help but follow. I’ve been slightly obsessed with Amo’s Lee especially his song “Keep it Loose, Keep it Tight”. I couldn’t figure out why I was totally head over heels for the line “I’m in love with a girl who’s in love with the world thought I can’t help but follow” until I realized it totally syncs with our relationship. See I tend to find joys in the simple subtle parts of life. Which then leads to crazy ideas like camping on a small island in the Bay of Fundy (roughly a 10 hour drive and 45 min. ferry ride from home). And poor Brendan can’t help but smile and go along with my crazy plans. Thankfully most of the time my daydream ideas manage to turn into awesome experiences.

Our vacation to Grand Manan, New Brunswick, Canada was one of the most amazing trips either of us had ever taken. We camped on the edge of a cliff face with the ocean lapping below us. We watched whales and seals swim by from our tent. And although when we arrived the entire island was encased in fog (and the camp owner said it wasn’t expected to clear until August and this was mid July) It all worked out and turned into a dream vacation.

The Bay of Fundy is known for having the biggest tide changes in the world. Thanks to this they also get amazing amounts of sea glass. We took a nice walk along the shoreline and collected some beautiful pieces. We also found what is possibly the most perfect heart shaped rock.

I kept our finds sitting for months trying to come up with the most perfect project for them. Finally the creative brain started turning and decided a shadow box was the best way to enjoy our little collection. With some sweet lyrics to round it off.

This project was seriously SO simple anyone can do it. Find a background for the frame. It can be fabric, scrap book paper, or a water color washed piece of paper (which mine was). Then add words or whatever you would like to the paper. I obviously used the Amos Lee lyrics and glued the heart rock to the paper. Then fill the frame with the sea glass and done. Hang that sucker on a wall or sit it on a shelf and remember that amazing vacation for years to come.

Floating Along

We spend a lot of time in our dining room. Probably has something to do with our kitchen being far too small to function. Most baking prep is done there, in addition to eating every meal (minus the times we want to be anti social and sit in front of the TV). Because of this the dining room is one of the furthest along design wise.

It was the first room that I had a clear direction on what I wanted to do. So far we’ve painted it from “old lady peach” (not to be confused with “Aunt Annie Key West Peach”) to “super trendy gray” (Benny Moore “Absolute White” I think). We scored a beautiful antique buffet from Craig’s List. Art wise we bought some prints off Etsy, mixed in with some of my own, threw a little Jersey pride in as well. Part of the color selections in the Kitchen/Dining room was fueled by my man. He has a borderline unhealthy obsession with Coca Cola. The obsession has acquired quite a few vintage and foreign green glass bottles. I really think they are quite sexy and has helped to fuel the glass green, robin’s egg blue, yellow color scheme in the 2 rooms.

Now for a place to put all these damn things. Not to mention we had 2 very blank walls that I had overlooked in my initial design layout in the brain. I’ve been drooling over the simple and elegant floating shelf concept. However being the cheapies that we are (and the custom design I had in mind) we decided to build them ourselves. To figure out the exact design we ordered some pizza, then went to town with the box. That’s right. To visualize how much space they were going to take up I hung used pizza box shelf models on my wall. Frankly I think it was an awesome idea. I could walk in and out of the room and see exactly how these shelves would feel in the space. (Drilling holes and hating it is frankly a pain in the ass)

Following plans from Ana White (this girl is AMAZING) we built wrap around floating shelves to hold the Coke bottle collection…well part of it at least, and some other chotchkies. Other than some communication mishaps between the future hubs and myself the shelves were easy to build. If we had the proper power tools and workshop area they would have gone MUCH faster.

None the less, they are done, super sexy and make me SO happy every time I look at them. The actual layout of stuff will definitely be changing /evolving as time goes on, the seasons change, etc. However my favorite things currently on the shelves? The metal modern “B” and “E” (Brendan and Elizabeth) acquired from Brendan’s old Fire House. Now to locate an “&”.

A Little Inspiration

Within hours of signing out lease I was probably at work researching inspiration for our future apartment. To keep myself sane (and organized) I set up a folder on my desktop called “house”. Within that folder I broke down every room. However that only brought me so far. looking at all the pictures separately didn’t bring the full feel of the room to life. It also didn’t help me narrow down my options. Seriously no one needs 5 area rugs in 1 living room.

My college schooling kicked into gear, and some inspiration boards were made. In the design world inspiration boards are usually hanging over our desks with all things we find interesting, fun, the “feeling” we’re trying to create, or simply awesome to look at. Specific room inspiration boards are a little more detailed and usually contain furniture, colors, finishes, and “looks” that will eventually end up in the room. The BIGGEST thing one needs to remember is each specific item is not expected to end up in the finished room. It’s more of a this is the feel or look we’re trying to go for. And honestly, they are SO fun to make.

Here’s The Dining Room:

And my favorite, The Bedroom:

The Living Room has no direction at this current point. Mainly because I know it’s the room that’s going to integrate a lot of Brendan’s “collections”. Need to figure out how to make it all work. Firefighting, Coca Cola, and Street Signs are not exactly my idea of a comfy inviting Living Area. Ahh the joys of engagements and the merging of the stuffs.

I would be more than happy to teach, review, or make an inspiration board for any of my adoring friends.