As soon as I got home from work tonight I finished up painting my new walk-in pantry (photos of that to come soon when I’m finished).  Part of the painting process included the floor…so my house now smells like paint and nothing else – very strong.  I am so excited to finally be finished painting that room though, it seemed to take forever with each little element involved (walls, ceiling, baseboards, built-in cabinets, floor).

Currently, I am hanging out on my couch watching Harry Potter (the first one) for the – gasp – very first time.  A few days ago I finished reading the first book and am now halfway through the second book.  I always said I would eventually read the books and see the movies, they just weren’t at the top of my list.  Since I recently made my co-workers read The Hunger Games series, I told them all I would start on Harry Potter next.

I am enjoying it so far and the plan is to read a book, watch the movies, etc.  So far it’s going well.

Do you like Harry Potter?  If so, don’t ruin anything for me – I know absolutely nothing about it beyond what I’ve read so far:-)

Among my current reads right now is a book on advertising by Paul Arden entitled, “It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be.”  It is a very short book with simple ideas on the creative process – simple, but extremely thought-provoking.

As I’ve mentioned before, I am a person who keeps my ideas very close to the vest.  If I haven’t followed through on an idea yet, I don’t want other people to do it before me.  I am learning this is something I need to let go of.  Honestly, that is a large reason why it took me so long to get involved with Pinterest.  The whole concept of the website is to share ideas and creativity – not an easy thing for me.

So in spite of that, I created a poster that I plan to print and hang in my house – to remind me that I need to let go and share.

I don’t particularly relish the thought of living off my reserves.  I’m like a child, learning to share.

Do you want the good news or the bad news first?  Bad?  Okay so the good news is……

I kid, I kid.  Bad news is that we won’t be posting any photos from our sister’s wedding for a few days.  We know, you all have murderous thoughts toward us right now – but sadly, I hardly took any photos this weekend because Stephanie and I were both too busy getting photos taken of us to do much ourselves.  We want to wait until the professional photos come in so we can show you some truly amazing ones – because, let’s be honest, the wedding was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.  Seriously fantastic…so much fun and the most beautiful wedding I’ve ever been to.

I’ll give you one teaser – and if you follow us on Twitter or Facebook, you’ve probably already seen it so it won’t be that exciting to you.  Admit it though, you’re a cheap date – anything thrills you. {only joking, I love you!}

{Bridesmaid dresses}

Time spent with family was like a little mini vacation and we are so sad to see everyone go home.  We were able to spend Thanksgiving as well as the rest of the weekend with our friends, family and also our now-brother-in-law’s family who are also AMAZING.  We are trying very hard {but probably not succeeding} to convince them to move here from Florida.  We’ll let you know how that goes…

And now for the good news.  You finally get to see some of my house!

I have been so horrible with posting any photos of my house besides very small bits and pieces like my kitchen nook or the chimney.  You’ve also of course seen my closet because it is my pride and joy but because I haven’t felt like anything is “finished”, I haven’t wanted to post any photos.  Today, however, you get to see a bigger section…almost an entire room.  I say almost because I didn’t really take any wide angle shots of the whole thing and I think I missed a wall completely, but there’s not really anything on it so don’t be too disappointed.

My bedroom has been the last place in the house to get anything hung on the walls.  I’ve put more of my focus on the main rooms (even though those are not “finished” either).  With company coming into town and family that hadn’t seen my house yet, I made my room a priority and finally hung some art.  And I. Love. It.

This is “in progress” because I am planning to paint the walls and strip the dark stain off of the floors soon as well as other things, but it makes it so much  more enjoyable to be in my room now that I have some of my favorite pieces hung.  So without further ado, here is my bedroom:

I apologize that the bed is barely made – and to be quite honest, this is my least favorite photo because my coat rack that usually holds all 50 million of my scarves in the corner is missing due to being used for the wedding, which leaves a huge bare spot.  The purpose of this photo is just to show you where everything is in relation to my bed.  Please don’t judge me from this photo alone.  Thanks, I knew you’d understand.

This is my favorite part of the room by far – the view from my bed.  Closet on the right, bathroom on the left.

Don’t hate on the antlers, they make me oh-so-happy.

Like I’ve said before – I prefer to think of it as more of a collection as opposed to an obsession.

*sigh* I love this wall.

So there you go.  Now when you think of me, you will be able to picture where I am.  In a totally non-weird way…

Season 2 of The Walking Dead airs on Sunday night.  I. can’t. wait.  I never thought I would be in love with a tv show about zombies, but I definitely am.  Thanks Tristan and Stormie for getting me into it – eeeeep!  If you have never seen the show, they just added the 1st season to Netflix Instant Play, so you can get all caught up before Sunday (I might have to also re-watch my favorite episodes).  I am going to try to watch the whole season premiere without covering my eyes…is it even possible?!

Hello lovelies!  This week is about to take me out and it’s not even halfway over (I’m including the upcoming Saturday and Sunday in this as well).  In the current 7 day span, Friday is the only evening I am not going to meetings, birthday parties, practices, and more meetings.  I even had something scheduled for Friday and thank goodness it was cancelled because I’m pretty sure I will be sleeping the second I walk into my house after work.

I only have 2 hours left of work today (yes!) and then have to head over to my church where I am a youth leader and we are also having our family celebration for my brother’s birthday tonight as well when I am done with that.  Phew…busy day!

What better way to relax a little and have some fun then show you my most recent Instagr.ams?

New watches. ♥

Airport reading on my way to South Dakota.  My new barista-given name, Stromy.

In SD, we stayed in an older woman’s house – she had tons of great vintage things.  The pheasant was my morning view from the couch.

Wedding fun.

The nephew winning a medal for his flag football team – so cute!

Beyond excited for the Walking Dead premiere!  I need to renew my Nylon subscription!!

Fun thrifting finds – The car was not for sale.

Signs of Fall from my bedroom window. ♥

Happy Jump Day loves!

I have been avoiding this for a few weeks:

I kind of like books.  Okay, I love them.  I couldn’t bring myself to visit the store when I first heard because let’s face it, I can’t pass up books – but my bank account also can’t handle the hit it would have taken had I given in to my book obsession.  Now that prices are 60-70% off though?

Mine.

I did give myself a limit going in on how much I could spend and you would be so proud – I was $7 under that number.  Just because I debated going back for another $3-$5 book makes no difference, I came in just under the wire.  Of all the proud moments in my life…

I currently have 2 copies of this book in my possession.  Why?  Because I borrowed it from the library and can’t get enough – so I bought it.  It has some of the most thought-provoking questions in it.

One of the best graphic novels I’ve read.  I can’t even begin to explain to you what is so magical about it, which means this is one you’ll have to check out for yourself.

Don’t worry – you didn’t miss anything, I don’t currently have a man in my life but I’ve read great reviews of this cookbook and I figured, what’s good for a man can be good for me, right?  Why should they get special treatment?  Exactly.

I don’t know much about this blogazine yet, except that by the cover alone – it was worth the purchase.

And my most exciting purchase – at least to me.  Noma, the Nordic cuisine cookbook.  Have I mentioned I have an obsession with Iceland?  This 4.8 pound/368 page cookbook is quite possibly the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.  It even has a fold-out map of the Nordic region.  Bomb.

Oh…you thought this was it?  Well, it’s not – but there are others I can’t divulge at the moment because they may or may not be Christmas gifts.  Yep, already thinking about Christmas.  Aren’t you?

Stephanie May and I will be taking a little break from the blog until Tuesday to enjoy our extended weekend.  Eisley tonight…eeeeeep!  Happiest weekend.

Love,

Stormie Dae

I am a little bit of a book person – I know, you’re shocked.  I have 20 library books at my house right now – and yes, I am reading them all.  They are not all novels though at the moment.  There are a few of those in there, but it is also books on interior design, Parisian style and graphic novels.  Yes – I am one of those too.

Last night I grew obsessed looking through the interior design books and gathering ideas for my house.  And my mind EXPLODED with plans for every room.  One of the books that I saw while browsing at the library was “Modern Vintage Style“.  To be honest, I felt like it was going to be pretty stereotypical as far as design goes and I didn’t expect to truly like much of what I saw.  I am admitting it here, and this may be the last time….sometimes, I am wrong.

I mean, seriously… how can you resist this?!  I am getting some crazy ideas people…like – painting the floors, tearing out walls crazy.  Eeeeeeep!

Happy weekend!  Hopefully I don’t do too much damage to the house this weekend…I guess I should probably finish my chimney project first, huh?

Love love,

Stormie Dae

Today was a good day.  I started my new schedule at work which means that instead of working really early and long days, I went back to an 8-hour shift 5 days a week.  It will be so nice to not have to wake up so early!

When I got home I was greeted by this:

{Pay no attention to the broken mailbox embellishment}

Yay for the September issue!!!!

And the roomie, her boyfriend and I grilled out…SO good.

Kind of a good Monday – and we may just end up playing Settlers of Catan (no idea what’s going on there but maybe I’ll learn) and I’m sure we’ll throw in some “Rookies” for good measure.  Police shows are bomb – just sayin.

Kiss kiss,

Stormie Dae

On Friday I received the September issue of Babytalk Magazine:

I was extremely excited to get it because, they featured a pair of shoes from FIBBIE in it (if you don’t know what Fibbie is, you can read about it here)!  I was so happy when I saw these photos:

The editorial is absolutely adorable!  I love how they styled the outfits and that they used my shoes on little Lola – so sweet!

In case you are wondering how this came about, I was first contacted by Babytalk back in May.  They said that they liked the shoes and wanted me to consider sending them to be possibly photographed for the magazine.  I had no idea if they would actually use them or not, so when I found out that they had used them, I was very very happy!  Babytalk kindly sent the shoes back to me, and I just relisted them, so they are ready for purchase again:)

I got a free subscription to the magazine, and even though I’m not a “new” mom, it still has really cute items and loads of helpful info – you can go here to sign up for a free subscription too!

Yay!

Love,

Stephanie May*

Tristan and I hosted a little Back To School party for the kids last night.  They start school tomorrow (!!!) – Gavin will be in 3rd grade, Guini in 1st grade, and Gemma will be in Preschool (at home).  The return to school is bittersweet for me.  The kids and I have definitely gotten a little stir-crazy over the past few weeks, so I think it will be good to have them in a busier schedule but…..I’ll MISS them.  Ugh.  Being a mom can be such an emotional roller coaster sometimes;)

My sweet 1st grader:)

Love this quote!

“3″ for 3rd grader.

Map table.

My sweet preschooler:)

Yummies!

My sweet 3rd grader:)

It was a very sweet night.  I wanted to make this new start extra-special for them.  I hope that they love this year in school!

I decorated using an old laminated map, and some vintage children’s books.  I love the colors in maps, so it made the perfect palette to be inspired by:)  I also hung some pictures out of a nursery rhyme book, and some vintage multiplication cards (that Gav will be using this year!) on the light above the table.  When I first set the table, I used my white cloth napkins, but SO wanted them to be brighter….luckily, I always have fabric dye on hand:

+

=

The napkins just matched so much better with the map – I love easy, quick DIYs!

Well, I’m off to enjoy the last official day of summer break.  Gotta make it last!

Love,

Stephanie May*