airstream living
When we visited Austin for SXSW we decided to do something a little different in terms of lodging. By the time we looked for a place to stay, all the hotels were booked and we had to search for other options. I started perusing Airbnb, looking for anything in town, when I came across this airstream. Just looking at the photos, I was sold.
It was remodeled on the inside in a modest modern style. There was a small kitchen and a desk in the front, while the bed was tucked away cozily in the back. It was a really nice place to spend the rainy mornings of our trip.
While it isn’t someplace I’d want to live, it inspired both Shawn and I for a potential office space, or maybe a guest room. We absolutely spent a few hours researching vintage airstreams to put in the backyard of our future fantasy home.
Would you ever put an airstream in your driveway or backyard even?
dress dying
I bought this lovely vintage dress a few months back but have never had the occasion to wear it. It was so pretty but also kind of a drab white. Finally with a special event to go to, I decided to dye it. Originally I thought green would be best but I got nervous and went with brown. I sort of wish I’d stuck with green since I’m by no means an expert dress dyer, and the brown wasn’t so rich as I’d hoped. It turned out nice though overall and helped me blend in the natural setting.
Dining Room
The fact that our apartment actually has a dining room still amazes me. I think back to our old apartment and how cramped it was despite our best efforts, and I feel like our new home is a huge breath of fresh air. Being able to cook for other people and actually have the space to entertain is such a dream come true. I feel so lucky that we found this apartment. Anyway….
We searched and searched for a dining room table and Shawn finally found this whole set on craigslist. It was in beautiful condition and surprisingly more affordable than many of the other tables out there. It came with chairs as well, which we’re not in such good shape. I just realized that we only have 3 chairs at the table in this photo. I swear we have more! I probably should have taken the table cloth off too, but I am so glad that I finally have a tablecloth.
Obviously the highlight of room is finally being able to display our Victrola. You know you’ve found a winner for a husband when you meet a guy who collects all these fantastic vintage things. This lovely thing had been in our dreaded storage unit forever. For the record (no pun intended) it still plays and sounds beautiful. It does need a little dusting though.
That’s it for our home tour at the moment. There are still 3 rooms and one terribly long hallway to share, but that will come all in good time dear readers.
In case you missed it, we started with the bedroom.
collections
Not quite ready to show a full tour of our home yet, but I couldn’t help but share just a little. It seems we’ve become quite the collectors. Or rather, so many of the little creatures and knick knacks hiding in our closets have come out into the light.
Busy busy days ahead. More to come.
Handmade wedding invitations
One of the biggest projects I undertook for our wedding was making the invitations. I had a crazy idea that this would somehow be simple, despite a multi-step binding process, even though I’d never actually bound a book before. I just knew I could do it. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
Every book started as a sheet of board precisely measured and cut.
Then each piece was placed and glued to an assortment of colored papers.
At this point I got some help from my friend’s Jannatha and Kyle.
For the inside pages, Shawn and I bought a few vintage book plates with images of animals, which we scanned and laid out in our book. We chose a lot of owls and birds. I wrote small stories about us and wove it into the information about the actual wedding.
We had them printed at a local print shop and then I sewed the insides into the books.
Mochi also helped.
Shawn helped me stamp return envelopes for our reply cards. We were able to use the same envelopes from our save the dates.
I made about 90 of these books. All told it was probably 60 hours of work, but then again I wasn’t exactly keeping track.
Are you ready to see inside?
While it was quite a long and arduous process, the responses that we received from guests made it all worth it. That being said, I would never do anything like it on that scale again. I wouldn’t have been able to complete them all in time without help from my friends, Shawn and my mom who helped me stamp and seal all the envelopes.
p.s. Of course I left out a few pages, so you all don’t show up at the wedding, since it hasn’t happened yet, but I’ll be sure to show them off in the end.
