justem: little bits of this and that

A song for Saturday...

This made it's way around Facebook last month, but just in case you happened to miss it...it's pretty incredible.  And, the music teacher in me LOVES watching the chorus director in the background. :) Have a great weekend!

 

Our New Old WI Home: Living Room Built-ins

Happy Friday! I've decided to start sharing a few bits and pieces of our new {old} home!  I have lots of work to do before the house looks the way I want it, but here are some "along the way" photos! I am by no means an interior designer or a legitimate home blogger, so be gentle, ha!  Today I am sharing just a tiny bit of our house, but it happens to be one of my favorite parts!!  When I first saw our house on realty website, the photos of the main living spaces immediately caught my attention...especially this end of the living room with wall-to-wall built-ins!!

(listing photo)

One of the first things I did when we moved in was fill up these gorgeous book cases! I don't know that they will stay exactly the way they are - some of the shelf heights are not ideal, but when your goal is simply to empty as many boxes as possible, you don't really worry about the logistics of everything fitting perfectly! ;) The left bookcase holds all of our "regular" sized book, and the right is a random collection of books, picture frames, and piano books right now.  My good friend who helped us move in just unpacked a box of frames and put them all in the right case. I'm guessing the right case in particular will be changed when I have the time! The bench under the window opens up, and we will probably store blankets in there, however it's not finished on the inside, and I want to get some large bins to hold the blankets so they aren't up against the raw side of the house! I also would like to eventually paint this room, but it's HUGE so it will probably not be one of the first things we paint! ;)

I'm also not entirely sure about what to put on the tops of the bookcases. I'm so excited to have this space to decorate. I like the left side a lot, but the right needs a little work! I've been keeping my open for cute thigns to put up there! If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!!

(old globe that I got for $5 at a flea market, gorgeous canvas from Red Letter Words which was given to me by my closest friends for my 30th birthday, vintage music books, S sign from anthropologie)

(pillows and S from World Market, yardstick star from a friend, blue vase from City Farmer in Door County, orange vase made by my talented friend Rhonda, vintage 5 sign from Vintage Archeology, family sign from Wilco/Zulily.)

Have a great Friday and a fun weekend! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Kid Crafting: Celebrate the Olympics!

Last week we made a fun Olympic project. I'm sure you've seen it a billion time on Pinterest already, but since I'm up to my eyeballs in fun Gossamer Blue kits, and I've got nothing else to share right now, I thought this would save the blog from getting stale! ;)  Before I post the pics, I need to give a little disclaimer: These "kid craft" posts are just for fun.  They will never feature perfect photos or instructions. It is not my intent to be a famous crafty blogger...and I know it shows, ha! Most of the pictures are usually taken with my iPhone. My house will most likely be a mess in the background. My kids will probably be wearing pajamas or mismatched clothes. Let's be honest...I consider it a win when my 2.5 year old wears pants!!  I'm a pretty "realistic" mom when I share things on the blog- nothing perfect going on here!!  

Okay, disclaimer over.  So, the Olympic rings...how did I decide to do this project? The truth?  There was a stack of paper plates sitting on my counter that was leftover from a night that we had guests.  I was about to put them away when I remembered this craft.  I cut out the rings and let the kids go with the paint.  I just used the Crayola Washable Kids Paint, which is great because it is...wait for it...washable. ;)  No really, it does wash off about everything. The only downfall? There is no black!!  We just made the most of our project and had a little art lesson called "how do we make black?!" ;) 

(Today she is actually wearing the Little Red Riding Hood costume she wore for Halloween when she was two. That's how we roll...)

I have seen some Olympic ring projects where they just kind of placed them next to each other and stuck them together. Well, that was NOT good enough for us. ;) We had to connect ours together exactly the same way the real rings are connected!  I then used some bakers twine to hang it up from our window.  It's not perfect, and in spite of my attempts to cover up the cut in each plate (which I had to do to get them intertwined), ithey are still showing on a few. Oh well. It looks great and makes our hose feel very festive now that the Valentine's decorations have come down!

I hope everyone is enjoying the warmer weather, though I think my Chicagoland friends are being hit with a crazy winter storm.  They are not amused at how amused I am that the year we move to WI, Chicago got way more snow than we did! ;)  Have a great day!

The Third {Gossamer Blue Pinspired Challenge}

Happy Tuesday!!  Last week I had another "Pinspired with Gossamer Blue" post up on the GB Blog!!  This month, I was inspired by a crazy cool vintage ad:

 

(source: Paul Rand)

I pretty much love everything about this ad.  The colors, the polka dots, and the text! I decided to use the fun angle of the text as the inspiration for my layout:

I used Microsoft Publisher to do the journaling.  I'm admittedly kind of a technical dummy, but at least I was able to figure out how to use various text sizes and angles for my journaling!

 

This layout is a mix of all the different February Gossamer Blue kits. I love that there was a lot of blue included so it was possible to make a love-themed boy layout without it being overly girly! I hope everyone had a great weekend. It's above freezing here for the first time in...who knows when?!  We are headed outside to enjoy the sun!  Have a super day!

#workspacewednesday

Good Morning!  Today I decided to play along with Workspace Wednesday.  I just took a picture of my desk today...the entire room looks (if you can believe it) even worse than it did the last time I posted a photo. ;)  

My desk is covered with Pebbles Yours Truly. ;) It looks a little like Valentine's Day threw up all over my scrap space.  I must admit, I'm really looking forward to getting started with my March Gossamer Blue kit that came on Monday - I've had enough pink lately to last me awhile!! Here's a sneak at the project I created with all of this mess! It will be up on the Pebbles Blog tomorrow!

 Are you playing along with Workspace Wednesday today??  Link me up! :)  Have a great day!

Kid Crafting: Pebbles Valentine's Banner

Last month, after we took all of our Christmas decorations down, I decided we needed to spruce up the place a bit with some Valentine's Decor!  I love the Pebbles Banner kits, but, as most of you know, I'm totally NOT a home decor/banner making type of person!! ;) I thought it might be a fun project for the kids.  First, I gathered some supplies...

Yes, that is a Halloween banner kit, but I love the newsprint look...and nobody would ever be close enough to read what it says! I also included some products from the new Yours Truly line. It's such a fun line!!  I made one example for the kids to follow. Of course, mine had some nice evenly spaced decorations all facing the right direction. And, of course, theirs all ended up looking a bit like this... ;) 

But, they had fun. ;)  I had to stop for a moment and remind myself that it's not really about perfection in this instance, but more the experience. I totally get that sometimes this is hard when you are working with limited (and often expensive) product. I just took a deep breath and let them loose.  So...our banner is pretty wonky, but it was made with love! (Truly - hearts, stickers, red crayons...!) I used some bakers twine to connect it all together and hung it up in our kitchen.  I had to take a photo of it at night, because I'm not camera savvy enough to figure out how to deal with the back-lighting!!

Just for fun, here are a couple close-ups of our beautiful banner! When they started coloring on them, I was tempted to stop them, but I actually love the colored ones the best!!  It makes the banner even more fun and colorful!

 Hit me up with some of your favorite Valentine crafts!! I am still in need of a few fun things for this week! ;)  Hope you are having a great day!

Us {PageMaps + Gossamer Blue}

Hi there!  This month, a number of Gossamer Blue team members were featured on Becky Fleck's PageMaps site!  I was given an 8.5x11 sketch (thank goodness, ha!) to work with, and I created this layout:

I used my Silhouette to create the heart background. This happens to also be my Main Kit-Only layout this month, unfortunately the Main Kit is already sold out!! In fact, everything sold out in record time this month - so be sure to sign up for a subscription so you don't miss out! ;)  To see the original PageMaps sketch and all the other great layouts, check out the February PageMaps page!  Have a great day! :)

Our New Old WI Home...

Hi! I’ve been getting a lot of requests to share photos and information about our new house! Personally, I think it’s a pretty great story. ;) To give a little history on our house and our move, we knew during the summer that we would be moving to the Madison, WI at some point during the next year. My daughter will be starting school this coming fall, and we wanted her to go to Kindergarten in the district that she would remain in permanently. I had been researching towns and school districts for a few months and had decided upon the town/school district that we wanted to be in. Even though we had no plans of moving immediately, I always have loved surfing Realtor.com for homes. I'm totally a sucker for old homes, and often just go on there to see cool houses. One day last spring, I came across this beautiful 89 year old "arts and crafts style" home in the area that we were looking. It had gorgeous original woodwork, amazing built-ins, four bedrooms, an updated kitchen. It was perfect. It was calling my name. But, we weren't planning on moving yet...

Over Memorial Day weekend, I talked my husband into going to see the house – even though I knew that it would never be our home. We figured we would probably move in the Summer of 2014, right before the new school year. I knew it was a little rude to make the realtor show us a house that we would never buy, but it was so beautiful in the photos…I just had to see it in person. After we visited, I was in love. It definitely wasn’t perfect, but there were so many wonderful things about it. I looked at the online listing photos at least once a day. I constantly thought about the house. I even dreamed about it. I had plans for this house – including an entire secret Pinterest board dedicated to how I would decorate every room. ;) I knew that this house was meant for our family.

To make a very (very) long story short – the house stayed on the market, we kept in touch with the Realtor (who was AMAZING. – if you ever need a realtor in the Madison area, let me know…she was phenomenal), I went back to work, we had a baby, Justin’s job situation changed, I ended up quitting my job, and somehow, against all odds, we are now living in THE house. It is truly my dream house – although, it’s OLD and needs a lot of love and care. After our final walk through before we bought it last November, I said to my husband, “Well, I think in about 20 years it will look exactly how we want it to.” ;) But there is so much to love. For the first month we lived here, I would sometimes stop in my tracks and look around in disbelief that the house was OURS.  Since I first saw it back in May, I have scoured every real estate site looking for other homes, and I have yet to find a home that I like more - for maybe the first time ever in my life, I don't have any buyer's remorse!!  

As for the house itself, I'm kind of reluctant to show a lot of photos because, thanks to home blogs and Pinterest, I want it to be perfect before I share them. ;)  So...in 20 years you can see some photos, ha!!  No really, I plan on sharing more about it - and the ups and downs of owning an old home!!  And if you follow me on Instagram, I've created the hashtag #ournewoldwihome so you can quickly see photos with pictures of the house.  For now, here are the two listing photos of the front (which I have shared before)...

And here is the outside photo that I took once it snowed (so pretty!) and we cut down those obnoxious trees!!

Do any of you own an old home?? I'd love to hear about it. I've been looking all over for decor ideas that feature the original wood trim. It seems like most of the blogs I read have homes with white trim...which I do love, but it is not realistic that we will ever paint ours! Hopefully I'll be back soon with some indoor shots!  Have a great day!

Happy Monday!  I'm super excited to be a part of the Gossamer Blue + Elle's Studio Blog Hop today! This month, GB has teamed up with Elle's Studio to feature their fun new "Love You More" collection. I have been a huge fan of Elle's products for years!!  I was lucky to be a guest designer for her over the summer, and I was excited to work with her products again this month. The Love You More paper line is one of my favorite Elle's Studio lines EVER, and I love the new addition of the wood veneer!!  It's SO cute!  As always, Lori included a bunch of great coordinated product which all fit perfectly together to create my layout:

 These little hearts...so adorable!!

My favorite is the "LOVE" wood veneer!

  Are you ready to be inspired even more?  Hop along to these other great blogs for more projects from the Gossamer Blue and Elle's Studio teams:

 Adrienne Alvis
Anabelle O'Malley 
Becki Adams
Cindy Liebel
Emily Spahn - that's me! :) 
Evgenia Petzer
Heather Leopard 
Jenny Evans
Jessica Lohof 
Jill Cornell
Jina Jean
Juliana Michaels
Kasia Przybyt
Katie Ehmann 
Kim Moreno
Magda Mizera
Michelle Wooderson 
Michiko Kato 
Naomi Atkins 
Nicole Harper 
Patricia Roebuck
Stephanie Bryan
Valerie Bishop 
WaiSam Ho 
Yuki Shimada 

 Don't forget to stop by the Elle's Studio blog and the Gossamer Blue blog! Both companies are giving away some great prizes. To be entered, leave a comment on their blogs sharing what inspired you along the hop!