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

Cat People & Family People

Let me lay it out for you... to be a 'Cat Person', one must have at least 3 cats! As you may remember, we only have 2 - so HAH! Okay, I'm done trying to prove my point. :) However, this is what inspired our creative solution to dressing as 'our worst nightmare'. It was even more appropriate because our friends Stef & Trey (who invited us out on Friday night) always tease us about being cat people. We had a lot of fun Friday night at the party; the decorations were awesome - the entire house was decorated, and we almost won a scavenger hunt - almost. I didn't do the best job photographing the night, as I would've loved to post a pic of our friends, they had awesome costumes too (Red Fire-hydrant being peed on by a dog, lol). We were too exhausted to go out and do something on Halloween night; even too tired to go out and see a movie, but we did have a good evening relaxing at home.


{sorry, not sure why these are coming out blury}


{stupid pic, but had to add so that you could see the cat hair Jeff rubbed on his hat - so gross!}


{big-time rockers, jammin'}

My 'Family People', well, I just love them! It's been awhile since we ventured over to my hometown, Camas, and I got an invite to do my little bro's girlfriend's hair for Homecoming... so I drove on over Saturday afternoon and had a really good day! My family has spent time with her family over the last few months and rave about what awesome ppl they are, so it was great to finally meet them; and they have a beautiful house that overlooks the Columbia River towards Portland. Although I'm biased, I'd like to say Andi's hair looked the best! :) hehe I really enjoy doing hair, and have been so fortunate to have been asked many times over the last 10 years to do it for friends/family on the side (even my girlfriend Jessie's wedding up-do, which I felt really lucky to do). I'm documenting them more now, so if you'd like to see others and/or interested in my side-services, drop me an email. ;) Here are some shots of the day...


{sister, brother, and me}


{mother & brother}


{the happy homecoming duo}

Sneak Preview

Just thought I would share a sneak preview of our costumes... we are heading to a themed Halloween party, where we're supposed to come as our 'worst nightmare'. I think our approach, as well as our friends', was for creativity. I'm kind of apposed to gory stuff. We were originally aiming for Bridezilla/Beaten-up Groom, but Goodwill didn't come through for us (I can't believe how much they try to sell bridal gowns for!!!?!?) So, maybe you can guess what we are going to be, maybe not... lol... I'll post after pics within a few days. Tomorrow I get to do some more Homecoming hair :), this time for my brother's girlfriend. And I really should start packing boxes... ugh. We've got a big 2 weeks ahead of us, but at least I get to take a lil' break and head to Coeur d'Alene to visit a girlfriend! I'm so excited!

(Sorry this ones a little blurry, but I had to show Oscar checking out the the competition)


(This is the first time we've ever done this, and I felt so bad! We are using it for the costumes & couldn't resist, Oscar was not so happy and we couldn't even get near Lilly with it. It's supposed to be a ladybug and it didn't even fit on his head, lol)


Hope everyone has a great Halloween and a fun weekend!

Love, J

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil

I definitely have not seen or heard any evil lately, as our lives are just full of events and fortunately, a lot of good news. However, it's definitely been a long time since I have spoken of anything on this blog, and I'm feeling the need to start things up again. Want a recap on the majors since May? Here it is:

Summer 2009
We were so excited to move back into the Portland area, and realized right away, what a good decision it was. Our summer was full of friends, family, wedding planning, wild b-day celebrations, others' weddings, the 80's, superheros, a rodeo, and more...



Wedding Updates
{ We chose a venue! }
{ We have an awesome wedding party! }
{ I bought my dress!!!! }

At the end of June, we started searching, and finally when things were looking down, we (re)discovered the Historic Octagonal Barn at McMenamin's Cornelius Pass Roadhouse and . The name still makes me laugh every time I say it, because I think of Roadhouse, the movie. Anyways, they say that you feel it... and that's pretty much been our motto this summer. I think we knew right away, or at least I did. It had everything we were looking for; top of that being the vibe (warm, charming, open & not overwhelming), and closely behind was $$ (they provide almost every item you'd normally have to rent, including all food/beverage & if you're familiar w/ McMenamin's you know the beverages are great). We've been back multiple times since, to have dinner & show others, and we've never doubted that we found the right location for us. I can't wait!





One of our visits back out there was to show our friends the location and ask them to be in our wedding party, which luckily they accepted. ;) We've had such a great summer with our friends & family and couldn't think of any better people to support us through this process.... BM: Jess' brother, Taylor; MOH(s): Jess' sisters Lindsay & Lacey (friend); and our great friends Jesse, Trey, Geoffrey, Stefanie, Ashley & Lisa.

And the most recent update..... my DRESS! Whoohoo! My first time trying on dresses occurred last week and it was such a great experience. I went in very skeptical and nervous, due to budget and the original idea I wanted to redesign/wear my Mom's dress; but it was an entirely different experience. My two mothers (own & future MIL) and my two MOH's joined me, and surprised me with wine & snacks. I will provide more details later on the experience and maybe dress designer... But, by the end of the night, I was in tears and so certain that I had found the dress that I wanted to wear on my wedding day. Again, back to the 'you'll feel when it's right' scenario. I am so lucky & excited! To end this little story, I will remind all why I want to marry this man.... a few hours before I went to the dress store Jeff called me to see how I was doing (he knew I was nervous), and immediately started giving me all these words of encouragement about how it was going to go; reminding me that I should have fun, not to worry, and find something that 'I' really love. He then made me promise that I would send him a picture of me in a dress (not 'the' dress, but any one, just so he could see). I just LOVE that guy! :)

Fall 2009
Excitement thus far.... we're buying a HOUSE!! We finally made the plunge in early September to start looking for a house, with the hope that we could take advantage of the first-time home buyer tax credit. All I can say is, eye-opening! It looked really grim for awhile; anything really new was way outside our budget, and anything older (which we would've loved) needed WAY way way too much work for what we could do/afford in the near future. And then a month later, while driving around with Gail one afternoon, we found this:


{don't worry about the pink, it will be repainted this week to the blue below}

{courtesy of Behr paint}












{love the last pic of Jeff and his Grandma!}

Well, that's all I can squeeze in for now. You should be hearing more from me now.

Love ~J

For a friend... support the search for a miracle!

It's been a long time, I know. We have a lot to catch up on, but this post will not be for that, as I find nothing I would have to say could be as important to delay posting about this first... I promise I will post more about our move and our new life back in Portland soon, but for now...

Through my dear friend Michelle, I have learned of the hard times her brother, Scott and his wife, Megan have had getting pregnant through the long, hard road of fertility meds to artificial insemination to in-vitro fertilization and unsuccessful adoption prospects, nothing has worked. Hearing their story in the past had broken my heart, and always made me fear one day being in that position. Fact is, it still breaks my heart, and I was just brought to tears with the reminder that these two amazing people have not yet been blessed with the miracle they've been searching for.

For anyone that is interested, has been in this position, or has a child and can only imagine what they have gone through, please visit this event site representing the huge effort to help Megan and Scott! You can learn more about their story and how you can help, as well as an awesome event that is being hosted this Saturday, 8/29.



They are in my thoughts, and I wish we could be there to attend the event. If you are in the Orem, Utah area, I urge you to find out more about the events that day and the incredible silent auction that will also be involved.

Much love ~J

Ready for the *bling*?

I have a tiny bit of down-time while I'm watching the movers pack the last few boxes of our stuff. Wow, I feel spoiled just saying that! It's been pretty nice, although I am still so tired from being stupid and staying up so late last night. I thought it was much overdue and some peeps may want to see my *bling*..... So here are a few of the best pics I could get a shot of. I LOVE IT! What I love even more about it, is that Jeffery picked it out on his own! He had a pretty good idea of what I liked, but to know he spent (from what I hear) countless hours in a few locations trying to pick the right one, means even more. We've both had a good understanding from the beginning of our marriage-talk days, that our commitment to each other had nothing to do with the ring and everything to do with our love, dreams, devotion and passion to built a great future together. So, don't get me wrong, I am not a material bride that put the meaning of this decision into whether he got me that outstanding ring.... although, my biased opinion thinks he did! The funny thing is that now that I have it, every time I look at it I still get butterflies in my stomach. I am also SO protective of it! I don't really know why I have this strong fear of something happening to it; but the other day I unconsciously took it off to put lotion on my hands and when my eyes looked down and caught that it wasn't on my finger I almost had a heartattack! It took me a good 10 minutes to calm myself down, after realizing I had just set it in front of me on the desk. Now I've learned it's okay to wash my hands with it on, okay to sleep without it on; and Jeff keeps reminding me that it's bound to get scratched, so I shouldn't worry if I think it has already. lol. He keeps me grounded.

Anyway... without further ado...

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!}