Jess’s Picks

• These Felted Bowls by Hold Handmade on poppytalk’s Sharing the Process are pretty great. I love seeing how they’re made. It’s amazing to me to see how different the crocheted bowls are before they are felted. I’d love to try the craft sometime.

• I am in love with this week’s make it yours color palette at Design*Sponge. I would wear it, live in it, totally commit to it. It’s so beautiful!

• I also want to share a few Halloween crafts. Stylist had these origami bats that are pretty cute and fun while not being too tacky. It seems like these kinds of garland projects are everywhere lately. I’m guessing that will carry over the Christmas!

• These Funky Decoupaged Pumpkins at Funkytime are really classy. I’ve seen lots of really pretty non-carved pumpkin crafts this Halloween and I can’t get enough of them. My favorite (technically carved but non-lit) pumpkin has to be those vampire pumpkins from Martha Stewart that Mary shared last week.

• These halloween doors at DiggersList have me really anxious to get around to doing the work I want to on our front yard and the exterior of our house.

Mary’s Picks

• Today, Joy of Oh Joy! posted this beautiful, fall floral arrangement. She received these from friends after the arrival of their ew sweet baby girl. I would have a floral arrangement like this year-round if I could. They’re so stunning and unique. I’m so glad Joy shared these!

• Giveaway!!! Kate at Centsational Girl is having an AWESOME giveaway today! You need to go enter. It’s for a Moroccan Pouf of your choice. I’m really loving the brown one with all it’s contrasting stitching.

• Last weekend, Grace and team of Design*Sponge were on their book tour in Austin! I totally RSVP’d for the book signing and had to wind up working last minute and couldn’t go. Talk about bummed… But her write-up is fab and for someone who was only here 48 hours, she hit so many awesome Austin highlights.

• Did you see this before and after on ReNest? It’s amazing. The couple bought their 1887 Queen Anne home ten years ago for 46k and it was even legally condemned. I have dreams of renovating a house one day (like Jess has), but this project was beyond renovation- they brought that house back from the grave. (Originally posted on This Old House)

Jess’s Picks

• I love this Halloween How-To: Make A Zombie Family Portrait. I’m a secret zombie (movie) fan. They’re basically right behind vampires on my list of favorites. One of the funnest web design projects I’ve worked on was for a webseries called Dead Wait about a zombie apocalypse. It’s a fun series and it just happens to be airing new webisodes now so check it out!

• Saturday’s article about How to fill your home with art you love — even if you aren’t a collector at Offbeat Home has lots of great tips for developing your own art collection. We’ve amassed a small collection of art and I hope to see it continue to grow.

• I maybe love Joy’s style a little too much but from the dress to the shoes to the camera I am totally caught up in her feeling emeralds in the desert sand… – Oh Joy!. The baby onesie paired with that is too cute with the set!

 Mary’s Picks

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought I’d share some of my favorite Halloween goodness from Pinterest this week. I want to make all of these and I just might!

• Um, are these not the most awesome/creepiest little things you’ve ever seen? These would be great tucked into a centerpiece for your Halloween party. From Inspired Art Junkie via Pinterest.

• Cake mix and pumpkin puree? Yes, please. This “two ingredient cake” sounds so yummy. And, honestly, I’m a sucker for anything pumpkin this time of year. Oh, and there’s an apple cider glaze! From Big Red Kitchen via Pinterest.

• Whoa! Are those not super cool? People are so creative. The download is free from Country Living and I’m loving how Dana from Made placed them in her home. These were done last year, but I’m still digging them. Also, go read Dana’s post about them because she’s got some truly great photos of the bats on Congress Ave. bridge here in Austin! (via Pinterest)

Mary’s Picks

• I know this has made it’s rounds lately but the new line of furniture at Dwell Studio is stunning. This cube bookshelf with gold accents is my favorite. (via Oh Joy!)

• Here in Austin it’s getting a tiny bit cooler and that means the scarves are coming out! I’m excited. I’ve missed them. This video, 25 Ways to Wear a Scarf, that Emily posted over at Jones Design Company has me anxious to try out different ways of wearing them.

• This Etsy Treasury just makes me happy. Seriously. I looked at it and smiled. Bright colors and unique items.

Jess’s Picks

• Parenthood is either something I’m not ready for right now (I’m not) or something that I’m never going to be very interested in. I’m not sure which yet, but that means I can love nursery designs like this one without feeling like it’s some sort of sign that maternal instincts are revving up. This nursery at Modern Country Style is SO CUTE.

• When I was little I used to “design houses” using graph paper and colored pencils or MS Paint. In a world in which Google exists, I can keep this hobby up with much better architecture by playing with re-made plans featured on 2Modern Blog.

• This Tree Branch Light Using Space-Dyed Yarn. And (Mary may remember) I happen to own a nice chunk of tree branch thanks to the time we “rioted” when Texas Tech upset Texas in 2008. That was such an awesome night! And I’d love to commemorate it by turing our riot stick into a sweet light.

nurserynotations.com via Marina on Pinterest

Jess’s Picks

• My dining room is already kind of rainbowy because Kyle and I fell in love with a rainbow plaid summer tablecloth. Now I’m looking for ways to make it a year-round look. I’m not sure it’s possble, but if it is, these Rainbow house ideas: inspirations for adding color like WHOA from Offbeat Home are going to be the inspiration that does the trick. I love those chairs!!!!

• Mary’s shared a beautiful family tree with you all in our hope chest a few months ago but this Beautiful Family Trees  roundup prepared by Poppytalk on Babble has even more great finds. It makes me really want to finish up our family genealogy to get one done.

•  Amber Interior Design had this wonderful vignette roundup this week too. Since I’m thinking about wall decorations, table-top vignettes aren’t far from my mind right now.

Mary’s Picks

I don’t have much this week, because I’ve been super busy. And for some reason never seem to get enough read. But, what I do have really stood out to me. The idea behind lively purposefully and being conscious. Enjoy!

• Jules from Pancakes and French Fries wrote a post last week called “Unstyled Life.” She shared her thoughts on “what happens when you buy to fill a hole instead of feed a passion.” I talked about these same thoughts and ideas here. It really speaks to me. Buying purposefully. I feel like we are sooo inundated with designs and products that we forget what we like and what we want in our house.

• Going along with these same ideals is a blog recommendation from a friend on Facebook (Thanks, Erica!): Kitchen Stewardship by Katie Kimball. Her faith is represented in her blog and I love what she constantly seeks to reiterate, “God gave us our health, our earth, our time and our money. For those of us who spend a lot of time in the kitchen, we are met with challenges in all four areas a daily basis.” Even if you don’t share Katie’s faith, the concepts still remain true. In our kitchen we should be conscious of our health, earth, time, and money. Thus, composting is now on the MUST DO list for our kitchen.

Jess’s Picks

• Instead of whining about Fall, which officially begins today, I’m going to try embracing it beginning with thinking this DIY: Wool Blanket Curtain on 2Modern Blog isn’t just a depressing sign of winter weather to come.

• I’m also embracing fall by getting a little excited for Halloween. These Free Halloween Party + Decor Printables! on Babble are so cute. I’m not much of a Halloween party thrower, but I do kind of like the holiday and these totally make me want to have a bash this year. Also, I want to try this mummy nail DIY that I have in my head so I’ll keep you posted if I get really adventurous. (via Poppytalk)

• Speaking of parties, I love this DIY idea to use chopstick sleeves to make place holders for dinner parties on Offbeat Home. It’s such a simple idea. I’ve been wanting to make some sushi again so maybe I need to combine the Halloween thing and the sushi party.

• I love the texture of Lucas Grogan’s murals posted in this interview at The Design Files. That shade of blue is really beautiful and they’re so intricate.  Maybe that’s not your kind of large-scale art, but this DIY could be. Check out How to Create Custom Large-Scale Artwork at manmadediy. (via Scissors+Thread)

Mary’s Picks

• Can you believe that’s a dried, carved gourd? These are stunning pieces of art. I can’t say they’re completely my taste but they are beautiful. (via Honestly…WTF)

• This isn’t design related at all, but it’s too good not to share. Paul Lukas over at Slate found report cards from the 1920s. He talks about how much they revealed about the students and the hardships the young women during that day had to overcome in order to obtain their education. This is such a cool read!

• Kit over at DIY Diva posted a PDF for spice jars. They are sooo cool and I seriously want to revamp my whole spice cabinet with her labels!

Jess’s Picks

• This fabric balloon at Saint James on Designtripper is beautiful. It makes perfect sense for an event space, but I think it would be great inspiration for an indoor a canopy. In an alternate remix of my own wedding, that might be my dream wedding venue and this might be my dream wedding dress.

• I really like this idea of Lining Lampshades with Metallic Paper on Little Green Notebook. I love the look of lamps where the light doesn’t peek through the lampshade at all and this is a great way to achieve that affect.

• I have three unmatching frames sitting around the house waiting for a project that gets them on the walls. This week was a good week for daydreaming about solutions. At IHeart Organizing Jenn painted a frame and framed this fabric to make a pretty wallhanging. And DIYdiva used a big frame to frame tiny frames hung on a wall.

Mary’s Picks

• This week I showed all of you my Paint by Number (PBN) that I bought while in Chicago. I love Paint by Numbers but I often loathe the cheesy scenery or overall blah. I do however love what’s happening in the art world with folks adding things to PBNs. Check out Bumber by Number and follow the links to their Flickr page. Awesomeness. The one above is my favorite! This is giving me loads of inspiration…

• Then, after seeing those PBNs, Making It Lovely posted today about PBN wall murals. These are awesome and I’m seriously feeling like I need a large PBN in gigantic canvas form. Don’t think my landlord would dig us doing this to one of our walls. Also, I’m pretty sure I’d have to do some serious convincing for Brendan to get on board.

• San Antonio based photographer, Mark Menjivar, had a series out called “You are what you eat”. He takes photos of the inside of people’s refrigerators. It’s really quite fascinating. (via Life in Grace)

Jess’s Picks

• Kyle and I really want a fire pit but we don’t quite have the patio for it yet. If/when we do have a patio in our backyard, I might have to consider a DIY firepit like this one in The Brick House. It’s a little labor intensive–especially compared to the purchased versions–but I really like the look of it when it’s finished. (via 2Modern Blog).

• If you’re not doing anything this weekend, how about you invite me to some kind of football-related party? I’m super excited about football returning and if I show up, I’ll definitely be toting one of these Peanut Butter “Cheese” Balls from The Girl Who Ate Everything. I discovered this on Pinterest this week and I’ve been looking for an excuse to make one ever since.

• The Fox Is Black has a winner of its latest re-covered books contest for ‘Jane Eyre’. I really like the cover. It captures a lot of the mystery and haunting of Jane Eyre but it’s also really beautiful. As I think you probably know because its all I’ve talked/thought about lately– I’m reading Harry Potter. But I think a re-read of Jane Eyre might be next in line for me.

• On a less serious note than the whole Jane Eyre – Mr. Rochester situation, check out these great bent object scenes by Terry Border, featured in Bent Objects: The Secret Life of Everyday Things on Brain Pickings. Who would have thought that a pickle could become so relatable? The humor in the scenes is really clever.

 

Mary’s Picks

• How beautiful is that photo? Those are tulip fields in Holland and I’m seriously wondering why I’ve never seen pictures like these before!? All of the land just looks so lovely and I’m amazed by the deep blues and purples in these photos. (via Daily Mail)

• Alright, I’m asking and I really want you to answer. Okay? What do you think about wreaths? Do you use them? Do you think they really add to your decor? What do you do with them when you’re done? Well, this week The Nester from Nesting Place featured a link party in which people showcased all their personal wreath goodness. And, I’ve got to say, I’m a bit of a convert after seeing The Nester’s book page leaf wreath (the second one on the page).