his+hers: pillows

His + Hers is a weekly series that Brooke (from Pure & Noble) and I started as a way of sharing random peeks into our daily lives. Feel free to join in on your own blog if you'd like!

Q can sew. I think it's really cute. He sewed the pillow for me that's on our entryway bench (I'm taking 50% credit though, since I did all of the boring prep work - washing, measuring, cutting, ironing, pinning :).

And last night during all of the Oscar coverage I made these two striped pillows for our living room. They're all removable covers (sans zippers), and it's so easy that I'm sure we'll be making many more.

art + happy weekend

(1: nob hill by alkeemi, 2: wedding cake by paul ferney)

We've been working hard on house projects lately, and now that things are finding a place in our home, I'm feeling a little more confident about deciding which items to acquire from my (embarrassingly long) wish list.

Kayla from Exquisite Banana wrote a great post about art collecting that got me thinking about my "art wish list". These two paintings above (prints of originals) have consistently remained on the list and I'd love to add them to our home soon (bonus: the cake prints are on sale right now).

Meanwhile, hope you have a wonderful weekend - we'll be staying in and working away. Hopefully takeout and movies will be involved too. And of course the Oscars on Sunday for me (yay).

thinking about it...

(image: instyle mag)

I have been so diligent about growing out my hair long the past couple of years (a slow process), but seeing this gives me the sudden urge to chop it all short again. (On a side note: don't you love the styling in this photo!).

a quick change

I added the $3 wall mirror to our front entry and love the coziness it adds. I decided not to paint it and am glad I left it as-is. Isn't it fun when something so simple makes a space feel complete?

(By the way, yes that is a real, live plant there on the floor within demolishing distance of the cats. Minnie chews through it so furiously that I think she believes there is a jungle on the other side just waiting to be discovered).

his+hers: wall initials

His + Hers is a weekly series that Brooke (from Pure & Noble) and I started as a way of sharing random peeks into our daily lives. Feel free to join in on your own blog if you'd like!

Our gallery wall is slowly expanding and we recently added letters for our initials. Q for Quentin and A for Alli. Next I want to add a little ampersand in between.

I feel strangely guilty that my letter is so much larger than Q's, as if I think I'm more important. I also placed mine up higher hoarding all of the attention while Q is banished to the lower left corner. Hope that's not some kind of metaphor for our relationship.

reupholstering an arm chair...

....can now be added to our accomplishments in life. Yay, us. I spotted this rattan chair during my thrift spree last week and just couldn't stop thinking about it, so we went back a few days later. I convinced Q that it was the chair of my dreams and that we could "easily" recover the thing, so it went home with us.

After hours of ripping off fabric, pulling out staples, and figuring out what the heck to do (like standing in the foam aisle at Joann's and wondering what density/thickness we're supposed to get and why it costs $40 a yard), we have finally finished covering the seat.

Now we "just" have to upholster the back (which is currently open), but for now I've draped one of our fluffy rugs over it and you'd never know - unless you sat in it of course. At least it looks pretty for now.

a surprise valentine

My sweet friend Carrie sent us this adorable Valentine's package yesterday, filled with little craft supplies and candy from Yummy Earth. It also included a card with "Alli&Q" conversation hearts on it - it is so cute! It totally made my day week.

his+hers: weekend finds

His + Hers is a weekly series that Brooke (from Pure & Noble) and I started as a way of sharing random peeks into our daily lives. Feel free to join in on your own blog if you'd like!

This weekend we found ourselves at our two favorite stores again and came home with these little goodies. Q got some new minifigures from the Lego store (the "mystery" ones that you have to open to see who you got. oh, the excitement!), and I found these pretty knobs from Anthropologie.

The knobs are for a fun project that we spent a good part of our weekend planning/working on. I forgot to take before pictures, so I'll wait until we're all finished to share what it is.

weekend & links

With Valentine's Day on Monday, this photo of our two cats inevitably made its way into this post (they're the hugging type). I was actually taking the photo because of our orchid - it's starting to bloom again! Makes spring feel just a bit closer around here. Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

PS. Five fun links to check out:
Celine's pretty business cards (see a peek above).
loving these anchor necklaces.
excited for this book release soon.
I wish this was in our area.
if 'Up' was made in 1960... (so, so cute!)

simple + sweet (pt 2)

I couldn't fit everything into last week's post, so here are a few more handmade gifts and ideas for Valentine's Day...
tiny pink frosted cake.
mini LOVE tote.*
black leaf earrings.
cream fabric bloom.

More ideas from part 1 here.

*Update: If you like the mini LOVE tote as much as I do, Pure & Noble is offering readers a 15% discount if you enter the code HOORAY15 in the shop through the end of February. (thanks Brooke!)

recent thrift finds

Thrift shopping is so hit or miss (for me it's usually miss), but recently I found a few good things and just had to share:

1) a mirror with hooks for our front entryway, $3 (I'm thinking of painting it a fun color, but also like it as-is).

2) beaded glass votive. My friend has the same one and I've always loved it. 49 cents.

3). Pride & Prejudice, $4. My favorite novel, so I collect both old and new copies. Isn't this cover awesome?


Also, I found this English tennis racket to add to my collection of vintage rackets (I now have a grand total of two :). I love the colors on this one.

john murphy prints

(images: john murphy)

Recently came across John Murphy's work (through a magazine) and have become an instant fan! Above are some of my favorite prints, from his collage collection. See more here.

winter afternoon, downtown

We recently spent a very cold (but beautiful, and sunny) afternoon at Plymouth park, the Saturday before last. The park is surrounded by little shops, apartments, and restaurants, as well as the old theater & pavilion where the farmer's market is held. It's so charming that we rarely visit without our camera in hand.

(And, just across the street is my obsession: the historic Wilcox house. Ever since we moved here it's been love at first sight. It's been for sale for awhile, for something like $4 million, but if I won the lottery I'd fix up the inside and turn it into a beautiful B&B.)

safari inspired

(1 safari notebooks, 2 giraffe hook, 3 brass top jar, 4 branches wallpaper)

Speaking of anthropologie (yesterday), decor8 had a great post this week featuring anthro's modern-safari themed spring line, and I am crazy inspired because I love this style. I've slowly been trying to bring more of this look into our house.

I especially love giraffes...I already have a giraffe statue in our living room, but would love to grab a few of those cute wall hooks!

(PS. safari/tropical is the theme for our master bedroom, and since sharing the before pics we've been making some good progress. can't wait to share:)

anthro bowls

Q's mom is such a thoughtful gift-giver, and she gave me these tiny anthropologie bowls as part of our Christmas present. Aren't they so sweet? They're one of my favorite items in the kitchen/dining room now.

Her own birthday is just days before Christmas, so I had actually picked out these same bowls to give to her (she likes anthro just as much as I do!). Luckily, I put them back last minute and gave her a single decorative one, which we wrapped up with a stack of Q's homemade sugar cookies tucked inside.

interiors: casual glam

(photo: karen bertelsen)

Have you seen Karen Bertelsen's house? I bookmarked this photo of her dining room a few weeks ago and am so inspired by her casual yet glam style. See more here.

his+hers: favorite dessert (hawaii edition)

His+Hers: our favorite dessert (besides pineapple) in Hawaii.

With the cold weather we've been having, I found myself looking through vacation photos and came across these outtakes from our trip to Hawaii last March.

I remember standing in line forever just to get a piece of this cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory one night, and I waited to eat it while we walked 1234567 miles to get Q his Coldstone before heading back to the hotel.

By the time we made it back I thought for sure I'd eat the entire thing, but I only made it halfway through before getting a headache from triple chocolate overload. I know, we had it pretty rough there.

PS. See Brooke's his+hers from yesterday, here.
PPS. Sorry if these pics of us shoving food in our mouths scared you.