shutter inspiration/sickness.

i am obsessed with the idea of turquoise trim/shutters/doors/something. the shutters come on friday and they gots to be painted before they get hung so i need to act fast.

now i just have to talk the husband in to it.

i think turquoise shutters are my destiny because this is where we were staying when we closed on our little house:

hello turquoise soulmate shutters. nice to meet you.

picture taken by me on our lovely and amazing honeymoon.

new diy-ish projects.

1. our backyard. all we want is: curtains/drapy-ness, grass, concrete, firepit, long bench like table... is that too much to ask?

2. i want to make this shelf for... i dont know where, but i will find a spot.

3. scotty has tons of pallets stored in his wharehouse. he sells the pallets to some guys who pick them up for 50 cents a piece. since i basically own the company (ha, right), i will make the executive decision to NOT sell one pallet ( i feel comfortable taking charge on a 50 cent loss). and instead we will take one pallet home, stain it "whitewash", add wheels, and then sit and enjoy. seriously- how cute is this..?:

4. kitchen table. right now we have a round glass table. it is cute. but it prevents feasts. instead we will use this tutorial and make a table that looks like this:

or this:

or a mix in between. and then we can have more than one couple over for dinner. and all have room to use our hands when we talk. and be happy.

we are out of town this weekend. so we will see how long it takes for me to do even one of these projects.

completion.

it is a fact: having something striped in my home would complete it.

the last picture makes me want to scream.

source (clockwise): west elm, decorpad, this blog, and yuppy heaven on earth, house of mann.

and annie sent me this rug, which is available in dark brown and ivory and maybe i would forgive scott for giving me a video game for my birthday if he bought it for me.

and then i need this and then my life is complete

home. over it.

husband and i were talking on our drive up to santa barbara last weekend about how basically... we are over the house... and we wish it had already been two years so we could avoid taxes and just sell the bitch... too bad we have one year, seven months, seventeen days, and 21 hours left to go.

anywho- fence. we tore down the (rotted) picket fence that came with the house. see below.

we built a semi-contemporary redwood fence. and by we, i mean scott. last monday, i white washed it with a semi-transparent stain that in my head looked amazing but in reality** looks like this:

**as scotty pointed out: the reality is that the fence really does match what we want the house to BE- just not what it is IS. very deep stuff going on with scott and i.

i will remedy this "situation" by doing the following.

1. on each brick post sits a terra cotta pot with some sort of death defying plant in it that "came with the house". we will replace these plants with "string of pearls" succulents. if we buy them old enough we can get them to hang up to three feet, draping over the brick... like this...

hopefully it will give it a more contemporary, beachy, boho feel.

2. shutters- thanks to coastal living i have finally discovered what type of shutters to go with. this picture is my full blown wet dream of the vibe i am going for. and i think i manifested it when i painted our door tiffany blue a few months ago...

so some rustic, earthy pots (most of the terra cotta pots are super weathered and perfect)... some draping succulents, some bright shutters.... and a grey roof.... we should be close.

3. i just ordered this from crate and barrel. i think it will also help convey that I AM REALLY TRYING TO MAKE THIS DUMPY ASS 15 FOOT WIDE RED AND WHITE NASTY HOUSE LOOK CUTE AND BEACHY!

this weekend...

i am going to accomplish at least one goal of making our home look a tad closer to one of these amazing abodes. even if it means just buying tubes of rainbow finger paint.

but what will actually get done... we will complete our fence:

with a finish like this:

kind of like the james perse show room vibe??? maybe a stretch...

Well...

its been a while.

dear diary,

i am still looking for a job (but i have gotten to spend time with my other man- grayson!).

our house is still a work in progress. i still love our little house.

my hair is literally the color of dirty toilet water. not cute.

our little puppy, huntley, is still sweet and completely unmanageable.

we are joining a country club (barf).

i have gained 8 lbs since the wedding.

it is already february?

marriage is hard work, but it really is the best thing ever.

i have been working as a temp receptionist for too long (where all i do is read "modern love" and then when i am done with that, i read blogs that i love that have cool things featured. so i have a ton of wants (not a single need in the bunch). here are some:

i need this moment in my brain bank filed under "do this a lot":

i want to have a succulent garden. because they are beautiful, and more importantly, i cannot kill them:
i LOVE this. my bedroom ideas are conflicting and very different and there are a lot of them. this could be a problem because we have a one bedroom.
and this one. i think i love this one more:

i want a nook... i want this nook:

i swear i would get a lot of "work" done if i had a corner like this:
when we have our baby, i am going to make this it's habitat. or in the mean time, maybe i will make this the puppys habitat. i neeeed this. i know i said there were no needs but i really do... especially once we have a baby. hahah

and then when babu grows up... what? this could totally be a boys room:

ugh i would not get a lot done if this existed in my house. but life cant be all about work, so i want to create this too:
our backyard needs love... this screams LOVE:

other than that life is pretty good. lots to look forward to.

highlights:

grayson said i love you leesha (thats me)

scotty built us a new fence... or started to... pics to come

annie is totally showing! so fun! and i am visiting oly in march.

i have three interviews next week.

i have lost three pounds. 250049228371246147124 to go.

scotty is sending me to new orleans to see my gaycee. (!!!!)

we have a black tie affair this weekend- always a good time!

it is sunny is california!

we have gas again. not to be crass- but fuck you edison.

my family is healthy and they know that i love them!

The Evans Fam

Um, so like 15 minutes ago I mentioned allowing people to help you, and asking for it, and how one family in particular is becoming my favorites. Well, here, for example.

I asked if I could please maybe have a piece of wood for the cake stand. You know, figuring I would be so stoked if they just let me have a tiny little round... And here is what they send me.

I STILL have to pick my mouth off of the floor when I look at it. Even my hubby got all giddy when he saw it. I LOVE WOOD (thats what she said).

Oh, and if you are wondering if they added little cake toppers so I could get a feel. Yes, they did. They are the best! Thank you John and Kathy and Amy and Annie and Chris! We really love you guys so much! You are making our day SO SO special!

More of their awesomeness can be seen at: http://www.ndctimber.com/

AND amy has created a fab little boutique: check it out! bon lemon!

yes, i know that i am the only one who reads this blog, but maybe one day that will not be the case, and i get pay it forward to them!

More DIY

I dont know if I have mentioned this or not... but DIY is REALLY fun during the inception, REALLY fun the first two or so... and then pretty annoying when you have, say, 143 of the same thing to do, and do, and do...

Anywho, my beautiful Momma and I have begun work on the table runners. We only need 20- so this one should be a piece of cake. We went to JoAnn's and picked out a few different lacey fabrics, bought as many yards as they had of each. We then picked up some "sew and glue" (which is AMAZING), and have being "sewing" the 17.5" x 11' runners. They are so cute and are going to be such a nice little touch.

Here is a snippet of what they look like. Being held up by my gorgeous and very thoughtful Momma.

Loveliness...

i am going to frame these when i have a wall large enough to cover with frames. like this. one day.

images via Le Love (reading this website makes me feel 13 again. oh the turmoil and tradegy that is love...)

WOOD!

I did not think about weddings much before planning this one. My sister had a very traditional wedding and I was living out of state and I college during her planning process- so I was not very involved. The summer I graduated from UW- my two besties from Oly got hitched. These two weddings changed my idea of what a wedding was. I had previously attended traditional Jewish weddings. Formal, indoors, lots of flowers, and steak or fish for dinner. My Oly girls both threw weddings that represented them- not other weddings. I am not looking to replicate their weddings, but they raised the bar for me. People are traveling very far to come to celebrate our love- I know this sounds a little greedy- but I want to blow their minds.

Instead of paying $6.95/piece to rent the chargers that serve no purpose but to be a placeholder for the plain white plates- I have commissioned a huge pain in the butt project. I happen to know a logger (o yeah!). One of my dearest friend’s Dad is a logger in the beautiful state of Washington. He and his wife are going to help me make wood chargers with a raw edge. He will find the tree- and then we will “slice” the tree in to 1” (hopefully not thicker than that) rounds. The “tree” will then be shipped to Cali- where I will sand them and wax them and brand them. All 200 (ish) of them. I can’t tell if this is a crazy idea or not. So now we need to come up with our “brand” and order a branding iron, and then brand the slices in our front yard? Yeah… this may be crazy…

I am thinking that this can also double as our “favors”. (I personally find the whole idea of a favor absolutely ridiculous. I am very appreciative that people are coming to our wedding, I am. But weddings also happen to be a great freaking time and I feel like having a Friday night dinner with cocktails and gift bags in the rooms and then a night of celebrating, dinner, drinking, and dancing followed by a brunch on Sunday is ENOUGH. If people also need a jar of honey or a bag of those almond things- they can save it). These slivers of wood will have some sort of branding on them would be great for a stepping stone in someone’s garden, or a cool thing to put on a shelf, or a great addition to any table top- put candles on it, a vase, whatevs… and for people who don’t want to schlep a sliver of wood back home with them, I will keep them ALL.

Anyways- this is what I want them to look like… And here is what we can do with the leftovers- walkway and a wood wall...
genius ideas via apartment therapy