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The Container Store. It's like meth. Or what I would assume meth would be like because I can't seem to get enough. Now that we have a store nearby I seem to find myself there a few times a month picking up new shelving, boxes, organizers, gift cards, etc. Also, did I mention this is a calligrapher's paradise?! There's a container for everything. Basically.
Right now, The Container store is offering a 30% discount on all
Elfa® shelving until February 11th.
We love to take advantage of this sale, and now that we don't have to pay for shipping it's hands-down my favorite sale of the year! Since we moved in over 2 1/2 years ago, we've been slowly working on transitioning all of our closets over to the Elfa® system. If you're not familiar with it, you screw a top track into the wall near the ceiling, insert the hang standards and click everything in from there. You don't have to mess up your walls in order to have amazing storage and you can change it up as your heart desires. No need to go into construction mode after hanging the top track. If you're not sure where to start?
Get in touch with a designer to help you plan your space!
If you've been in my house, it's likely I've shown you my closet with my eyes glossed over with hearts. I'm that much in love with all things Elfa®.
AAAAnyway. . . My studio has been a complete disaster. If you follow me on instagram, I gave you a
sneak peek at how awful it's been lately. I can't be productive when my space is that disastrous.
When we first moved in, I spent a weekend transforming the
yellow room into a blank white canvas. It was alright, but the furniture I used to store all of my supplies was bulky and I didn't have nearly the desk space I needed, either. Oh, and I hated that wobbly old desk. Chris bought it in his bachelor days, so it had seen a fair amount of use. And it had been moved about 9 times.
Two Christmases ago, Chris bought me a new desk, with slightly smaller real-estate, but a much more stable surface. He got it on super-duper-uper sale at Copenhagen Furniture while visiting Phoenix. Mega win, but I was collecting more and more calligraphy supplies so the desk was feeling cramped and less than effective.
Turns out Chris and I were both experiencing the same crowded ineffective space. So we upgraded in a major way with help from The container store!
The minimalist in me would have bought white opaque boxes to store everything, but I've learned that I need to see all of my supplies so I'll be able to quickly find them and put them away. I went for a white and acrylic scheme here and it works amazingly.
The utility board keeps the scissors at hand, but off the precious desktop. The
acrylic drawers keep my glitter glue on hand and I can see the lovely rainbow collection from my chair. Without much effort I can grab for my favorite brush markers and switch up colors and keep tidy as I work.
The boxes on the pegboard hold extra tape, glitter, gum (an essential resource for late-night calligraphy work) and iphoneography equipment.
I have the pliers easily accessible so I can change out nibs quickly. My favorite inks are safe in their own shelf above so I won't tip them over. And Felix won't get tempted by them when he sits at my desk with me.
I originally had a pegboard behind my computer screen (which is wall-mounted now, thus saving even more desktop space!), but it was wobbly and cluttered. I switched that out for a
metal magnet strip. It was advertised to be mounted horizontally, but it fits perfectly in the space between my shelves and the door.
Did you know that
toothbrush holders make for amazing pen holders? Which reminds me, I could probably get rid of a few of those old plastic pens.
Now the only things that stay on my desk top are my bare essentials (water jar, keyboard, mouse, graphics pen). My goal in 2015 is to maintain this level of cleanliness!
Let's keep it real: with all this vertical storage, I've opened up 8 square feet of space in my office (that's a lot considering my room is 10x10). Which has opened the floor up to more ink stains. :( The one pictured below my desk happened last night. Still left on my things to do in this room:
- Switch up the art
- Tame those cables (aka: another trip to the container store)
- Get new flooring
*This post is sponsored but all opinions and thoughts are my own. I love the container store
this much!
This is my neighbor Sam. She's got the raddest style. She's had such an independent style since I started working with the youth when she was 14. A month or so ago, she approached me to see if I could help her sew a variation of this dress she spied on Urban Outfitters.
The inspiration dress was made out of a knit. She had in mind using this cotton woven she picked up from Hawaii recently. The print is amazing. Ultimately she wanted a bold version with sleeves and the tunic-style slits.
We had just about a yard of fabric to work with, so getting the prints to match up was nothing short of magical. They don't match up exactly, but there's great horizontal continuity with the seam matching.
I loved doing the color blocked sleeves. It was a happy accident, really. She had mentioned she wanted a longer sleeve, but I forgot when we were cutting out the sleeve. OOPS! After realizing this, we brain stormed a little and decided to color block instead of cut out new sleeves. I love happy accidents like those.
I love how this turned out. The best part was that she really owned the project. I helped her pick out the pattern (Scout tee), size the pattern, make slight adjustments, but then it was all her. I made her do all the sewing, and she rocked it! I did the neckline for her, since that's a little difficult dealing with biased tape, but other than that, she did it all.
I'm so proud.
Last Saturday (our weekly cheat day) I was in the mood for some good junk food, but we hadn't bought anything the night before. So I went to the pantry and decided to make something. We were limited as we didn't have chocolate chips, but that didn't stop me!
After recently acquiring a cream whipper, we've amassed some awesome Torani flavorings so I thought I would experiment with my favorite of the bunch: Salted Caramel.
After sifting through my mom's cookbook, I found a snickerdoodle recipe and a lightbulb went on. We just bought Swedish pearl sugar for our liege waffles, why not roll the cookies in that?
At first glance, the white granules look like oversized salt, the kind that you coat your pretzels in. But it's the exact opposite. When biting into one of these cookies you get a blend of opposites, the crunchy exterior and a soft, pillowy interior and a splash of sweet with a hint of savory.
I cooked up a dozen cookies Saturday night, thinking that would be enough for our little binge treat, but they disappeared so fast! I had to make up a second batch this morning because Chris ate all the cookies and Penelope didn't get a chance to eat any. Poor girl, missing out on the deliciousness.
Instead of having 6 parts that need to be assembled, I made it into 3 parts (including googly eyes) with a pocket for a special treat.
This one I made for my sister-in-law who is heading out to Spain soon as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I included some stickers, postage ('cause I want mail from her!) and a temporary tattoo.
I didn't do any calligraphy for Penelope's handouts. I wanted Penelope to have artistic control over assembling. She ran with it! She decided to give the kittens winky faces. Then she grabbed spare hearts from the kittens to use for eyes. She had fun. And she owned the project!
I used Illustrator, my 
The 
Mother Nature has a funny sense of humor this year. We have absolutely NO SNOW in our mountain (we should have 4-5' of snow drifts this time of year). I've even seen a couple of tulip sprigs pup up between the mounds of dirt in our front yard. We need snow! I need more winter!
It's still fairly chilly, so between that and my desperation for more snow I sewed up a sweater tunic variation of the Marianne. Printing and taping the PDF took longer than cutting and sewing the pattern. The instructions are very straight forward and the fit is true to size. Even with hemming and finishing edges (I like lots of topstitching), this still took me about an hour to make.
Here's what I did differently from the pattern:
I've been kind of in a little bit of a dark grunge zone lately. The black nail polish, monochromatic clothing and acid wash jeans are all things I'm totally crushing on lately. Now all I need is the right leather jacket and I'm set! I found one this weekend that's close, but the fit wasn't quite there. Any suggestions on places to hit up for a leather jacket?
Outfit details:
So how to write a love letter? When it comes to the actual writing, refrain from using "I" first. Is the letter about you? No. Start with "You". Example:
To hear all my knowledge bombs, lessons learned and how Chris and I have grown 
After seeing the images of what I'll be able to enjoy, I'm all "hearts for eyes" about it. That waterfall? Takes me back to Havasupai when I was in high school. Paradise.
Can't attend? Try my online class. We have a ton of fun online as well (minus the tasty food, though ;)). 