Shop Ruche.

Thank you, Sarahlee Sommerfeld. We are in LOVE with this website she introduced us to... great pieces of clothing and accessories, and even greater price points. For all you cupcake lovers: be sure to click on the 'decadent ruffles' tab... so clever.

Happy 1st day of Fall!

It is our absolute FAVORITE time of year here in Minnesota. Here is to the crisp autumn air, vibrant colored leaves, pumpkin spice lattes, candy corn, pumpkin patches, and of course, all the cute fall clothes!

Window Treats.

Here are a couple more DIY idea's for your home:

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. 

These IZZE sparkling juice bottles  were too adorable to throw away after our lunch. Hosta leaves were cut fresh outside our apartment (easier for us to keep alive), but I imagine a single gerbera daisy in each bottle would be adorable as well, or maybe even some Japanese Lantern plants the fall...

This scarf that my Grandma made for me has not been shown off enough... My mom came up with this idea so I can display it all the time. What a great way to add color & pattern to an otherwise boring curtain.

Pattern for this scarf can be found here

Couch to 5K

Mission Complete. Despite our hesitations, bum knee, and slight intimidation, Jess and I, along with our friend Kellyn, completed our first 5k! I know this may not seem like something worth bragging about to all of you dedicated marathon-runners out there, but the Couch-to-5k program is what we used to help us train for the People for Parks Bandshell 5k around Lake Harriet this past Sunday! What a BEAUTIFUL day for a run and afternoon in Linden Hills. Such a picturesque morning, it was only appropriate we captured some proof that we pushed through and actually did this thing. Turkey Trot and Reindeer run... here we come!

Must love dogs...

if you want to live in our neighborhood. It's official... we live in the cutest neighborhood EVER (in our opinion). While on a walk to the local Great Harvest Bread Co. for a fresh loaf of bread (and a free slice!), we came across the "Woofstock" fall festival here in Linden Hills. Activities included: Dog Trick contests, dog wash-a-thon/coffee tasting outside of Sebastian Joe's, live music at the Linden Hill's House of Music, "Zen Pooch Doga" (you. your dog. yoga.), a photo booth for you and your pup to snap some cute pics... and, of course, free dog biscuits everywhere! So glad we were around for this fun neighborhood activity. Gotta love hundreds of dogs/dog-lovers all in one place.

doggie photo booth!

Dog trick show outside of Famous Dave's

An Iowa Tradition

Today is a big day in Iowa City. The Iowa vs. Iowa State rivalry football game is here! I was supposed to be missing this game because of work, however I unfortunately think I triggered a case of knee tendonitis while training for our 5k around Lake Harriet tomorrow afternoon. On the bright side, Jess and I will be cheering on our Cyclones at our place this afternoon with some fellow Iowa State friends, while I lay low and elevate/ice my knee. Although Hawkeye vodka will NOT be served here, I think Jess and I agree in that we would rather drink it than be one.

out and about.

Hope you all enjoyed the long holiday weekend...unfortunately some of us had to work, but hopefully it was still overall a relaxing weekend and a great end to your summer [hopefully you all wore your white pants/dresses/shorts of choice for the last time until memorial day 2011]. Anyone have any fun labor day traditions you would like to share with us all?
Jessica and I spent our weekend here in the Minne, and were finally able to check out the uptown cafeteria and support group. Our advice to anyone who has wanted to check it out:
* make sure you're hungry. The portions are generous, and quite rich (I got the tomato/bacon mac & cheese, and Jess got the pad thai)
* Have someone along with you that is good at making decisions (or who is willing to share). For indecisive people like myself, their menu makes it hard to pick just one entree to get... it ALL looked/tasted fantastic. Our next time back will be for brunch. All you can eat cereal, loaf of homemade banana bread, sausage pancake corndogs... need we say more?
* Make sure you're hungry, but bring your own water bottle or beverage of choice. The wait staff here is fairly new, and at times we questioned whether or not they knew they were in the restaurant/customer service business... so, be ready to hunt them down when you want a re-fill on your water or are ready to order or get your bill. The service here was less than impressive. Definitely don't come here if you want to grab a quick bite to eat... you may have to allow some extra time to do the servers job for them.
* Check out their happy hour specials (it's all day on Sunday!) and be sure to grab a drink on the rooftop "Sky bar." The view of the city is the best there is. Hands downs.

Jess' cousin Kendra and her friend from ISU were in town for the weekend!

Definitely comfort food

View from our table at the sky bar

Eat, Drink & Découpage

DIY projects #2, 3 & 4

Eat & Drink:
Introducing Jessica to the art of decoupaging was quite entertaining. Attention all neat-freaks: this process is not a clean one. Make sure your fingers are ready to get a little sticky. If you know how to cut and paste, this project is for you. This idea came to us after seeing this kitchen wall décor in the Vivaterra magazine. We didn't feel like spending the $$ on the entire set, so we got creative and decided to make our own version.

Supplies:
* Wood letters from your local art supply store (we purchased ours at Hobby Lobby... which also happened to be the only place we could find the ampersand symbol... that's an "&" for all of you who are clueless as to what that is ;) )
* Bottle of Mod Podge (we used the glossy kind)
* Sponge paint brushes
* Magazines galore!

We kept with the "eat & drink" theme of this and used lots of Bon Appetit and other foodie magazines. We découpaged the word "eat" in all different food cutouts, and the "drink" the same way, with cutouts of different drinks.  This process works better if you apply a thin layer of glue to the back of each piece, and then apply a thin coat over the entire letter once completed. Google it if you're still confused with how to découpage... this is the best explanation I can give for now :)

Project #2: Initial door décor:

Oversized paper mache letters were used for this project (23.5'' letters, purchased at Jo-Anne fabrics), and it was done the same way as our "Eat & Drink". Jess used scrapbooking paper for hers, and I painted mine first, then cut out different flowers, etc. from a magazine. Can't really mess this project up, and is a easy project for kids and adults to add a little pizazz to your walls! These were attached to our doors with velcro, but 3M command strips would work, too.

Project #3: Homage to "Friends"
Unfortunately we do not have a peephole on our door like our dear friends, but we pretended, and bought an old frame at Hunt & Gather, along with a small wooden #2 (for apartment #2 :) ) and hung this on our door in place of our peephole... and of course, it was découpaged with leftover paper which matched our living room!

Inspiration

our re-creation

From trash to treasure

DIY project #1: Medicine cabinet jewelry case.

Supplies:
* Medicine cabinet of your liking
* 1 yd. of fabric of your choice (depending on size of cabinet)
* 1-2 rolls of cork (at least 1/4'' thick)
* paint color of your choice for exterior of cabinet
* Stapler
* 1 sheet of foam poster board
* exacto knife
* fabric cording 
* Hooks and pushpins of your choice
* Glue gun

I purchased my old medicine cabinet at Hunt & Gather down the street, but you could probably find one at a local garage sale, flea market, or your favorite antique store.

Step 1: Remove any shelving that you want to free up space for the earring or necklace hooks you will be using. In my case (no pun intended), I wanted to keep some of the character (and function) of this  cabinet, so I left the bottom shelves as it was. I now use these for my perfum, deodorant, bracelets, rings, etc.

Step 2: Pick out a fun paint color, and give it a fresh coat of paint (if needed). I wanted to keep the "antique-look" of mine, so I went with a similar almond color as a good neutral.

Step 3: Go to your nearest craft/fabric store and pick out a fabric you would like to use on the interior of the cabinet. To keep with the look of a jewelry box, I went with an olive green crushed velvet. 1 yd (depending on how large your cabinet is) should be plenty... I think I even had almost a half a yd. left over! Keep in mind this fabric stretches, so you don't need as much as you think! I also bought a roll of cork board and a sheet of foam poster board to wrap the fabric around. The cork will allow you to insert the push-pins and earring studs easier.

Step 4: Measure the dimensions of the interior of the cabinet, and cut a pieces of poster board to match those dimensions. This is what you will be gluing your cork board to, and what you will be wrapping your fabric around. Mistake #1 that I made with this is that I cut the poster board to the exact dimensions of the interior, and did not allow enough room for the door to be able to shut all the way, so you may need to subtract about a 1/4'' when you are doing the sides of the cabinet so that the door can shut all the way. (I hope I didn't lose you yet... this part was kinda tricky)

Step 5: After you have glued the cork board to the poster board, and wrapped the fabric around (I used a regular stapler to attach the fabric... since I was using the foam poster board, it was easy to staple the fabric into this)

Step 6: Use hot glue, super glue, whatever kind of glue you'd like to insert the pieces of poster board inside your cabinet. I did the very back one first, then inserted the sides. After these are secure, use cording that matches your fabric to wrap around the border of the cabinet (to hide any glue that may have leaked, and to make it look a little more neat and pretty :) )

Step 7: Add any pushpins, cording, hooks, etc. to hang your necklaces and earrings. This part is pretty self-explanatory after you see my pictures... I found a key hook at Anthropologie to use to hang all my necklaces, and found push-pins laying around my house that just happened to match the fabric I chose. I also had to go to my neighborhood hardware store to get some chain to attach to my door. Since it is an old cabinet, the lead mirror was a little heavy, so I used chain to prevent the door from swinging open too much.

My Inspiration: Thanks Mr. Judd & Natalie :)

Final product from the outside- I found my own knob to use instead of the one that came with it.

Interior of finished jewelry case

Gettin' Wild

Hello all!
It's Allie here... Jess is out of town for the day in Arkansas for a work trip, and I have the day off so I was able to invite some of my family over a fun afternoon in my neighborhood. Today was the first time I've been back to the Wild Rumpus bookstore since I was a little girl (most likely, this is where I purchased my first Beverly Cleary or Nancy Drew book). For more history on this magical children's bookstore, check out the book that built the bookstore.

We made a quick stop at my apartment first to show Susan and the kids around, as well as my cousins Carlyn and Margaux who hadn't been here yet. Enjoy the pictures & video's from our playful afternoon in Linden Hills...

After getting some built-up energy out playing on Al's bed, we were off to Wild Rumpus!

After crouching down to the size of a toddler to enter through the tiny purple door and play with the animals (I don't think we looked at one book, sadly), we had a very enjoyable lunch outside at Cafe 28 next door. Luckily they were very child-accommodating :)

Last Stop: Sebastian Joe's... duh.

Lauren just loves her baby brother :)

She also loves making friends with strangers while "riding" on sculptures of turtles.