Dining Room Inspiration

Many, many, inspirations have been found lately, bookmarked, notebooked, and now I'm going to start sharing them.  Maybe you all can help me make decisions or locate good deals.  We are on T-minus 6 days until we get the keys to the house and begin moving stuff in.  Although we already have a good amount of furniture, we'll definitely still need more to fill our house.  The first of this that I'd like to tackle is the dining/eat-in kitchen.  Because we don't have a formal dining room, but the eat-in kitchen space is a good size, I want to find a solution that will make the space casual for every day and formal-looking enough when expanded for larger groups.

I found the image below a few weeks ago and keep coming back to it.  Maybe it's a little more on the casual side, but I love the vintage elegance that the Belgian sofa brings to the table (pun not intended). :)

Mimic:  large oak (refinished & pedestal-leg) table, sofa or bench on one side, neutral colors
Modify:  all chairs for remainder of seating (rather than including foot-stool), and a more modern finish of wood will be needed to match the cabinetry in our kitchen.

{found via Blueprint Bliss and Country Living magazine}

Reminder of what our kitchen looks like:

UPDATE:  Just when I thought it might not be possible to combine the style of our kitchen with my eclectic vision for the eat-in dining area... I found this!  Note, the awesome rustic table with modern chairs, and it all ties together well (aside from the fact that it's not a dining area).  To top it off, it is the workroom of Amy Butler, one of my fav designers:

{image found via decorology, courtesy of Country Living}

What to do?  How can I translate this?  I've searched Craigslist high and low, and just don't seem to be finding a table that fits my vision.  I might have the opportunity to check out the best Rummage Sale at the Portland Expo Center tomorrow... fingers crossed... because I'm gone ALL weekend!! Ahhh, such bad timing, as Saturday is 25% off all items and Sunday is 50% off! But don't get me wrong, I'm super excited to get away this weekend. :)

Any other ideas on where I can search for this furniture (preferably used, due to budget & style) or tips on pulling this look together?

Love, J

Countdown

Sometimes I really don't know why I do the things I do. Like why am I up at midnight writing a blog, when I can think of many other things to be doing?... packing, packing, calling friends back, working, packing. If only my friends were up at midnight on a Wednesday along with me! [update: just took a break from this to chat w/ my sister... I knew she would be up this late too :)] So, the packing... To be honest, I don't really have a lot of packing to do because the moving company will be packing our stuff for us this go-around. The things they wont touch, of which I'm working on tonight: liquor, cleaning supplies, jewelry, my undergarments(!), and my bag of stuff to tide us over through the weekend (thankfully). As of 11:30pm, I had only accomplished packing WAY TOO MANY clothes into my (already full) suitcase; of which I had to chase Oscar out of about 5 times. :)

I think we both feel like the countdown for our move finally began this morning, when we received a call from the moving company saying that they'd be here tomorrow morning (Thursday). It only took them a week and a half to finally set the date! So we'll help the movers get everything packed & loaded Thursday, clean up the apt., and then drive down to Portland on Friday morning. Yah! Wish us luck on getting the cats in their crates in under an hour, because that is almost how long it took us to do it last time! Uhgg.

Since I still don't have much news on the wedding front, location & date-wise, I will leave you with a few of my current color inspirations. I have full faith in the fact that all my little pieces of inspiration will soon be pieced together. I just have a really good feeling about it (which I should)! I can't wait to get home to my best friends, mom & sister so that they can help me get to plannin'.

I will admit, I've been eying these for awhile now. We were together over five years before the proposal! ;) But you'll be happy to know that Jeff has approved two of them, now I just need to find the right combo. I love them all! I may just pick a hue (betcha can't guess which one, hehe) and do any/all shades of it. We'll see - I'll post my inspiration boards as I put them together.
Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!
Love ~J







{all color boards found via 100 Layer Cake - one of my favs!}

Antique Me, Please!

This is what my photos have been screaming at me for some time now! Jessica sounds like she's lost her marbles, you must be thinking. I assure you that isn't the case, lol. I've mentioned before how much I find creative inspiration in my every day and this is one that I've had for some time. I love antiques... I love antique stores. I love antique gadgets. I love antique jewelry. I love antique people (hehe, this is what my Grandma calls herself). But most of all, I LOVE antique photos! I would be lying if I said I saw antique photos on a daily basis, but in my recent blog roaming craze & interest in photography, I've seen so many photographers and graphic designers that have used this technique. It brightens my day to see these photos. Since I don't have a professional camera yet, I've been wanting to experiment with my graphic design interest and experience in this realm. However, I lost Photoshop when the ol' desktop pc went kaput, and ever since then I've struggled finding a similar program that had the necessary features AND ease of use. Fastforward (or rewind, however you look at it) to a few days ago, when I found it...Picnik.

Picnik is a web-based photo editing tool that allows you to edit photos from your computer, the web or a handful of other photo storage sites like Picasa, Flickr, Facebook, etc. It has a ton of one-click & auto-fix features, exposure, color, red-eye, as well as the standard crop, re-size, rotate, etc... but then comes the good part! There is a whole section of 'Create' features with custom-made effects that really allow you to build and personalize your photos. So, tying it all together, there are two features called 1960s & cross-processed that 'antique' my photos - in one click! I LOVE IT! Seriously, I can't even explain all of the cool things that Picnik can do.

This is definitely a new favorite of mine that I think everyone should check out if they enjoy playing around with and sharing their photos. In honor of my new favorite tool & love for all things antique, I've included some recent blog-find favorites and photos from my trip to Lincoln City, OR for my girlfriend, Stef's, birthday in January. It was such a great weekend and I was reminded of how the beach is one of my favorite places to be.

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Friday favorites:

{from sadie olive's flickr}


{reposted by still dottie from tec petaja}

{from millie motts' flickr photostream}

{old post from sweet sassafras}


{photos by max wagner via a cup of joe}
**some are older post, but I couldn't help it :)