April 2012 – emerald city diaries

my weekend in pictures: moving edition.

{boxes ready to move!}

{the desk at the escrow office where we signed our names about 67,888 times, approximately.}

{the key to our house!}

{sadie pretty much wants to be near someone (me) all the time. and preferably also touching.}

{uhaul for the move.}

{our rhodie is bloomin’ in the backyard. it is so gorgeous!}

{sadie staking out her yard.}

{happy, happy birthday to my dear friend sascha! sorry we couldn’t stay for karaoke & dancing.}

{thanks dave for expertly packing our uhaul!}

{first dinner at the new house was chicken mole at the local mexican restaurant.}

{we lost some of the bed hardware during the move & “camped out” on the living room floor with the mattress. aaron & i hated it. sadie LOVED it!}

{one of may boxes we unpacked this weekend!}

{i couldn’t find the coffeemaker, so made coffee with the french press. also, a sneak peak at our awesome kitchen tile.}

{we took our first of many, many trips to lowe’s.}

{unpacked the cookies to put in the cookie jar. you can see where my priorities were when unpacking the kitchen!}

well, after a few trips back & forth to the new house & lots of help from our local family & friends, we are officially in our new house (as of saturday evening!) we want to give a big (huge) shout-out to everyone who stopped by to help: ben & sarah, dave, marcus, andy & hailey, nick & jerry!

the house is still a mess (that’s an understatement, for sure), but i am hoping to post pictures of the (pre-moved into) house sometime this week for all of you that are hankering to finally see it.

how was your weekend?

and we’re homeowners.

we are closing on the house today! hooray!

lots & lots of paperwork, time (and money!) goes into transferring a house from the seller to the buyer. {sidenote: i can’t figure out why we would need so many papers with our signatures!}

but, here we are on the flipside & are starting our journey as homeowners!

{our 1908 craftsman house}

we are moving today & tomorrow (yuck!) but will be posting more pictures soon (in posts & on the blog page aptly named house tour). we have lots of ideas (big & small) for future house projects that we can’t wait to share, but for now, we are still getting used to being homeowners!

any advice on homeownership?

M & A

diy baby shower project: paper flags.

i wanted to add some extras to the baby shower dessert table & thought cupcake toppers & stripey straws would be perfect accessories! {sidenote: we didn’t actually use the straws during the shower, but they were very festive!}

not surprising that i found some pinspiration!

{ribbon flags on drink stirrers: oh joy! blog}

{paper flags on stripey straws: etsy}

amanda (the mama-to-be) loved dalmations as a child – the dog breed, not the movie! – & so i incorporated a bit of animal print into the shower theme.

i couldn’t find any dalmation printed paper at my local craft stores, so i scoured the interwebs & found this pdf of dalmation spots. i simply printed a few pages on my home laser jet printer.

supplies:

paper for flags
glue stick
ruler
pencil
something to glue flag onto (straw, lollipop stick, bamboo skewer)

{stripey straws from amazon//lollipop sticks i picked up at michael’s}

i turned the paper so the printed side was down (this way you can see your pencil marks!) & began measuring. i wanted pretty small flags & ended up cutting paper strips that were 3/4” by 3 1/2”.

then i ran a glue stick along the entire back of the paper strip & wrapped it around the straw/stick about an inch or so from the top (this is totally a personal preference). i also pinched the paper closed right near the edge of the straw/stick in order to make sure it was well adhered (see last picture below).

finally, i cut a small triangle from the outside edge of the paper strip. you could use a pencil & ruler to mark this, but i did it just with scissors since it was such a small cut.

VOILA!

{sorry this isn’t a better picture of the cupcake toppers, but you get the gist!}

what do you think of paper flags to decorate cupcakes & straws?

my weekend in pictures.

{i made “homemade” cinnamon rolls for breakfast on saturday.}

{we are living in a sea of boxes! the big move is next saturday.}

{tapas & sangria party – delish!}

{i found a picture of my grandparents’ house in seattle taken in 1944.}

{a starbucks made out of old shipping containers. sadly it is closed on the weekend.}

{we spent sunday afternoon at the museum of flight taking a photo class.}

{his (work) & hers cameras.}

{sadie just can’t get enough of sticking her head out the car window. luckily the weather this weekend was perfect for driving around with the windows down.}

{ann taylor was having a big sale & i scored a new summer suit. i am still in disbelief that i don’t need the pants altered – thank you petite sizing & heels!}

{the flowers at whole foods are so gorgeous. one of each please!}

{i made chocolate chip cookies to take to friends!}

we had the most beautiful weather this weekend in the emerald city & it is continuing into the beginning of this week! how was your weekend?

diy baby shower project: paper pinwheel board.

i had a few requests for the projects that were part of amanda’s baby shower. as i mentioned in the original post, i looked to pinterest for inspiration and ideas, so these are all definitely pinspiration projects (this will be a series of project posts).

…

i was fortunate because very early on in the shower planning process i found the ultimate inspiration on pinterest & pretty much ran with that idea. i loved the look of white serving dishes & stands & i knew that i wanted to create a paper pinwheel board that would be the focal point for the dessert table.

{original post here: vintage themed dessert table.}

gorgeous, huh? i hadn’t made pinwheels before, but just a few days later i was catching up on blogs and found this tutorial on making paper pinwheels. it was definitely a sign that i had to at least attempt this project. {sidenote: this was a bit of a time-intensive project that spanned over about five evenings spent in front of the TV.}

supplies:

paper or colored cardstock (i used three different scrapbook papers, plain white computer paper & two different cardstocks; the paper is definitely easier to fold!)
doilies (optional)
hot glue gun & lots of glue sticks
thick cardboard (i cut apart two boxes i had from amazon.com)
thick poster board with a foam core
scissors
medium-sized circle punch (optional)
ruler
pencil

i don’t have any pictures of the process & i apologize. i really didn’t think i would be doing a tutorial of this project, plus my fingers were covered in hot glue which is not conducive to taking photos.

i followed the tutorial from the lovely cupboard: cut strips of paper, fold & glue. the paper strips i used were between two and five inches. i also learned that the bigger the pinwheel, the more strips of paper that you need to glue together before making it into a circle.

perhaps it was because my folds were not always perfectly the same, but my pinwheels didn’t want to lay flat on their own. i remedied this by gluing a small (about one inch by one inch, or so) piece of cardboard to the back of the pinwheel in the center. this kept most of them together & lying flat on their own, & also gave me a good flat surface to attach it to the poster board.

i am not sure how the pinwheel board in the inspiration picture was constructed, but once i started laying out my pinwheels on the poster board, i figured out that i would need to elevate some of them in order to get the right effect (i.e., no white poster showing thru) & to get the pinwheels to overlap. i made about a quarter of the pinwheels before i glued any of them to the poster board, just so i could make changes in the positions of the pinwheels to get the right look. only a few of the pinwheels are actually glued directly to the poster board; most of them are raised up by cardboard. in order to get the pinwheels up off the board, but still attached, i cut lots of little cardboard squares (like the ones i talked about for the back of the pinwheels) & stacked & glued them together into little cardboard towers until i had the right height. {sidenote: if you are interested in seeing more pictures, let me know and i will update the post.}

some of the larger pinwheels also have doilies & smaller pinwheels on top of them; i liked the look of this layering, but you could skip this part. also, i added a paper circle in the middle of each pinwheel in a contrasting paper to give it a more finished look (but also to hide the imperfect folding!). i just cut out circles by hand so they aren’t perfect, but if you had a circle punch that was big enough, you could use that too.

{the pinwheel board right after i finished it. the colors in this picture are really close to what they are in real life.}

{the pinwheel board on the dessert table}

in order to make it stand (it was quite heavy considering it was made out of paper!) i had aaron add cardboard triangles to the back to prop it up; you could also hang it from a wall with poster hangers (like the ones made by 3M) which is probably how it will be displayed at the new house once i find a place for it {anyone have ideas as to where it should go?}.

if you end up making a paper pinwheel board, i would love to see it, so please share pictures!

would you make a pinwheel board for a shower, party or just a fun house decoration?

a baby shower.

last weekend i was lucky enough to co-host a baby shower for one of my dear friends amanda. amanda & her husband are expecting their baby girl this summer!

i was in charge of decorations & dessert which was so much fun! i had lots of ideas at first but really used pinterest to help me organize the details. {you can see the baby shower pinboard here.} the other co-hosts (sam & denaye) and i decided that we would keep the shower theme simple, so we went with a theme of purple (the mom-to-be’s favorite color!).

{the dessert table: mini cupcakes from trophy, cupcake flags (diy), paper pinwheel board (diy), tablecloth (diy), flowers from pike place market, tall glass cake stand from tj maxx, white cake stands and platter from crate & barrel, stripey straws from amazon & diy flags, “cupcake” sign (diy).}

{the book check-in. denaye had the idea that guests could bring a book in lieu of a card to help the baby’s library grow. i thought it would be fun to include a card inside each book that had a note to the baby, so we used old school library cards.}

{i gave the baby my very favorite book the very hungry caterpillar.}

{sam made a cute little diaper cake.}

{sam, denaye, me & amanda.}

{the food table: homemade mexican enchiladas & fajitas by sam & her husband, sangria by sam, lavender lemonade by denaye, tablecloth (diy).}

{baby shower games: name that baby food which entailed guests tasting (or smelling) baby food & writing down their best guess. wishes for baby allowed each guest to fill-in-the-blank. fill-in-the-nursery-rhyme (sorry there isn’t a picture) which had guests fill in the missing words to the nursery rhymes we all grew up with. sidenote: i totally rocked this game & walked away as the winner with a set of bubbles! on the other hand, i failed miserably at the baby food game.}

{amanda isn’t big on really girly stuff for the baby, but this outfit was insanely cute!}

thanks to sam & denaye for being fantastic co-hosts! {the food was so delish (thanks sam!) & denaye brought the cutest (and tastiest) macaroons from chicago as party favors.} thanks also to amanda for letting us throw a shower in your honor & letting us surprise you with all of the details! i can’t wait to meet your baby girl.

i am planning on posting later in the week about all the diy projects!

also visit amanda’s blog for scenes from the baby shower & a shower game.

have you attended or thrown any showers lately?

my weekend in pictures.

{macaroon ice cream sandwiches at pomegranate bistro. delish!}

{beautiful flowers blooming at my grandmother’s house.}

{friday afternoon pick-me-up: giant m&m cookie!}

{birthday dinner at john howie steak with the fam.}

{happy birthday to my uncle bill!}

{cupcake pick-up for amanda’s baby shower.}

{sneak peek at amanda’s shower décor. more baby shower posts to come this week.}

{charcoals warming up for dinner bbq.}

{wore my first mullet dress to the baby shower.}

{love those fun quotes inside kate spade cards. thanks amanda for the fun wristlet!}

{sadie enjoyed some car rides around town.}

{after seeing blair on gossip girl sport her engagement ring & wedding band, i decided i would give it a try. i am loving it & highly recommend for other ladies that don’t have a traditional wedding set.}

{one of many new evolution fresh shops – the newest starbucks venture in fruit drinks & smoothies.}

{be whatever you want. found a good life lesson while shopping at the gap but no fashion lessons. does anyone else know what happened to the gap? years ago i loved everything there; now i don’t see a single thing i would wear.}

{enjoyed some yummy korean food in the sunshine on saturday!}

{stopped at the audi dealership & admired the R8.}

{sadie decided to go for a swim during our walk in redmond on saturday.}

{leather seats + wet dog = sitting in the back of my mom’s car.}

we had such a beautiful weekend full of sunshine & warm(ish) weather – perfect for the family that was visiting from out of town! how was your weekend?

some big news to share…

{we bought a HOUSE!}

we weren’t planning on buying a house, at least this soon, but i guess that is what happens when start looking at houses…

we are still shocked that we got the house, but so, so excited! we close at the end of the month & have 96,987 things to do before then. wish us luck!

we will be posting lots more on the house once we are in, including a house tour & projects {expect to see a lot of pinspiration projects}, so stay tuned.

have you recently bought a house? do any of you homeowners have any advice to share?

M & A

my weekend in pictures.

{i “talked to chuck” & got mints!}

{hit a milestone with jez (the jetta) this weekend. not bad for a 2003.}

{friday night dinner at spazzo. clams are hard work, but so worth it!}

{aaron makes sadie work hard for her treats. she is such a good dog!}

{kate spade is coming to bellevue square! so much more convenient than the downtown location.}

{yep, that is indeed the air conditioning button. yay for the sunny spring weather!}

{we headed down to pike place market on saturday to enjoy the sun & sights.}

{sadie loved being at the market with us.}

{grabbed drinks at comet tavern before a show. those are dollar bills pinned to the ceiling; an interesting investment idea.}

{a few new bands played at a thriftshop on capitol hill. an interesting mix of hipsters & a need for earplugs, but great shopping!}

{the beginnings of a move. the lowers are moving at the end of the month. anyone want to come help me pack?}

{we enjoyed a little bit of easter candy this weekend.}

{mount rainier was out way in the distance.}

{easter dinner at my grandmother’s house. she always has the best table decorations.}

we couldn’t get enough of the sun this weekend & enjoyed shedding some extra winter layers, finally! we only hit the low 60s in seattle, but it was glorious. how was your weekend?