The Animal Print Shop

I found the cutest collection of animal prints by Sharon Montrose. I think these would look great in a baby's room, what do you think??

Wallpaper fetish

Why am I obsessed with wallpaper? I'm not sure what it is about it - Paul is convinced it's 1970's house decor, but I'm convinced it's not. I mean, look at this new collection by Oh Joy for Hygge & West! My favorite is Petal Pusher - Cream and Blue. I can totally see it behind our stainless steel range...

Can I please splurge...

Floral Mabelle Mini suitcase
On a new Liberty of London suitcase? I'd like the mini one, please, for my toiletries, souvenirs and such. For 60 pounds, it's a splurge, but you know how I like to travel in style!

Montana: Round 2

I returned Monday afternoon from an incredible trip to Hamilton, MT for my dear friends Heather and Jeremy's wedding. The whole weekend was incredible, from the flower picking, to the dive bar dancing, to the harmonica playing and the emotional wedding ceremony. I truly don't think I've had that much fun at a wedding in a really long time!

Luckily for Heather and Jeremy, their friends Liz and Shrevan are amazing photographers, and they have already posted some of the incredible photos of the day. A few are below, but check out Liz's blog Zested for more (and for all of her great work!)






Congrats Heather and Jer!

I'm sorry....so sorry...

Needless to say, it's been a while since I've posted. As the saying goes..."better late than never, right?"

Here are the top 10 reasons why I haven't posted:

1) I got a promotion and am 10 times as busy at work. But I love it!
2) I am furiously working on our backyard to make it pretty for #6.
3) I am attending 7 weddings in 3 months. Yes, you got that right.
4) I am training 2 new staff people at work.
5) I have only had 1 weekend at home this summer.
6) I am planning a housewarming party (Sept. 11th, wahooo!)
7) All of my friends have summer birthdays.
8) I have a longer commute.
9) I don't have time to screw around on the computer (see #1)
10) I have an ear infection (this is recent, actually)

Now that the dust is starting to settle, I'll be posting more. I miss it. So watch out! Get your googlereader ready! And happy summer!!

I'm back again!

...with an AWESOME tan and lots of fun memories. Here are a few of my favorite photos from my 11 day trip to Utah (7 days on the river, 1 day at the lake). More commentary to come, I just wanted to get these up!

Crew of kids - loved them!

View from Moonshiner's cabin

the cabin

Jack Creek

Gold Hole (night of the killer mosquitos)

School section photo of Izzy and I (and Bryce's legs)

ladies G&T-ing it up at Steinaker

Livin' the Utah dream!

I'm back!

...with no photos of our new house, unfortunately! This past week has been full of red bull & coffee, take out food, lots of brown boxes, and everything MOVING related! I'm happy to report we're fully moved in and STOKED on our new diggs. Can't wait for you all to visit!

And, in true Shannon fashion, I'm heading out of town (...just as soon as I've moved in, I'm gone!) I'm teaching a junior whitewater school on the Green River in Utah. I can't wait! I haven't been to Utah in 3 years, so I'm really looking forward to floating Desolation Canyon.

Tata for now, friends. I promise to return with TONS of pics, both from the house and of my trip. Happy Summer!

It's official: We're moving!

Yay! After a last minute effort that required running-around-like-a-chicken-with-my-head-cut-off, the house is ours! Guess what we're up to this weekend??

Wedding inspiration

It's too bad I already got married...because I would have totally used this wedding as serious inspiration!



from d*s

Project complete!

Speaking of bridal showers...some of you may remember that my mom, step-mom, and I held a bridal shower for my soon-to-be-sister-in-law Dana. One of the activities that we did was have everyone write down "words of wisdom" for Dana on business-card sized notecards. I took all of these treasures and made them to a really cute accordion book. Take a look!







The accordion book and cards were from papersource, while I got all of the paper from Michaels. I'm very proud of my cute book and I hope you all enjoy seeing the final product!

Recovering from my Weekend High

It's Monday....Mondays are always really hard for me (for everyone I'm assuming!), but this Monday has been especially hard because I had an EPIC weekend. We 1)signed papers on our new house and 2)met Tom Petty! Friggin' amazing...words can't describe the past few days. While I won't bore you with all of the details, I do want to share a few things...

1) Music (live music) is an extremely spiritual thing for me. Though I'm not a religious (or really spiritual) person, there's just something about live music that hits me hard, deep down to my bones! I have rarely had as much adrenaline going through my veins than I did on Saturday night at the show (other than my wedding, of course!) I had the same experience during my 4 days at Bonnaroo in the summer of '05 as well...


2)Tom Petty still rocks the house! I don't like going to concerts in big venues, but when you have great seats you can't really complain. He played for a full 2 hours and ended with "American Girl." One of my favorite classics. He even played some of his new stuff and Paul and I both really liked it.


3)Don't lose your All Access Pass! Instead of getting backstage "necklaces", we got "Local Crew stickers". Great because we had all access, but bad because mine came off immediately and I almost started crying! Luckily it was just stuck on my purse. Whew, that was close!


4)Going backstage is all it's cracked up to be. Now, I was thinking we were going to be surrounded by groupies, photographers, and people who won backstage passes. This wasn't the case at all, in fact I may have become one of the groupies I made fun of. We were able to chill in the hospitality suite along with the band, and we even were introduced to Tom Petty himself. He was playing his guitar, cigarette in mouth, smiling from ear to ear. The image is forever in my head.


5)I want to be a rockstar.

Score!

I made a major score today at Crossroads: A brand new Banana Republic clutch and a cute polka dot summer skirt! I go there all of the time (it's right across the street from my work) and it's always hit or miss for me. I thought I'd go in today (looking for a Tom Petty concert outfit) and hit the jackpot. Not sure if I'll wear the skirt, but I'll bring the clutch for sure....

Bridal shower fun

My dear friend and co-worker Heather is getting married in August, and I was in charge of putting together her "at-work" bridal shower. We celebrate these things here at NWP (which is awesome), and I won't lie - I want my parties to be the best decorated. Is that bad?

Anyway I used the garland I made for Dana's shower as my inspiration....



banner with Martha tissue poms

Welcome!

The crew (and my garland!)

The bride - and the "love" button I made her (it's better than a tiara, right??)

Kitchen inspiration

I want my kitchen to look like this!

from Design Sponge

P.S. it's almost summer, and that means it's time to change my template. I haven't found anything I'm totally in love with, but these fun owls will do for now...

Tonight for Dinner

Asparagus, cheese, and bread? Count me in!

shaved asparagus pizza by smittenkitchen

I'll let you know how it turns out....

Snazzy switch plates

How cute are these?
Martha Stewart custom switch plates

I'm totally going to make these for our new house! They seem like a quick and easy project that will look great in any room

Etsy love....

It's a dreary Tuesday afternoon, and I'm dreaming of all things Etsy (vintage):

Vintage Cast Iron Fan by seedwingwonder

Vintage Picture Frames by SavvyLovesChic

Small Skeleton keys by SteampunkSupply

Vintage casserole dish by SleepyOwlVintage

Makerfaire 2010

I was so happy to finally attend Makerfaire 2010! I've know about Makerfaire for a while, but I always had conflicts on the weekend it was held. Anyway, it totally lived up to my expectations (and more!) Paul was even a fan - and I didn't even have to drag him there. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day:


Weird old carnival-carriage


My treasures from the day, including a vintage stopwatch necklace, beet seeds, earrings, patterned japanese masking tape, and lots of inspirational vendor cards


Block printed tea towel - love it!


my beautiful new necklace


I couldn't resist the cut-outs


Paul couldn't either, especially if Big Foot is involved

A piece of Portland

Here are a few fun photos from my trip to Portland last month. I got to hang out with my favorite family, the Chaps. Our first stop was the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden . Little M had an awesome time feeding the ducks and chasing the geese. At one point we were surrounded by about 15 Canadian Geese! It was pretty scary because they were honking really loudly, but Nate had a great time chasing them off.





Next stop was Uwajimaya, the ultimate in Asian food, drinks, and gifts! I got myself a few little treats: A new bento box, Yan Yan, some candies in a tin, and grapefruit sours. They had an awesome collection of crafts books and mags, but they were all in Japanese :(



As you may remember, I was in Portland also attending NWP's Urban Sites Conference. One of the activities I participated in was writing about the Japanese Internment in the Pacific Northwest, and we visited a museum and waterfront park in Portland dedicated to this issue. Here's my favorite quote, written on a rock in the park:

"Sure I go to school. Same as you. I'm an American."

I had such a great time visiting my friends!