5 on Friday!

This 5 on Friday post looks just a little bit different (and I'm not talking about the typo in the picture...oops!) but it was fun to create - I'm really loving Pic Monkey for all of my photo editing!

I'm going to start off this Friday by saying that it has been an incredible week!  Here are 5 of the things that made me smile this week.

1. In case you missed it on Wednesday - we got engaged! :)  Thanks to everyone for the congratulations, we are excited! Didn't Adam do a great job picking out the ring - I absolutely LOVE it!

2. The Grand Tetons are amazing.  I love the mountains and the goosebumps I get everything I look at them. We had a fantastic vacation out there!

3. Bam.  He makes me smile.  Here he was begging for food while I was eating outside on our front porch.

4. I bought myself some reading material for the weekend! Yep - 2 wedding magazines! "The Knot" and "Martha Stewart Weddings"

5. My home office is taking shape and since I finally got my dual monitors set up, I am feeling more comfortable.

What were the best things that happened to you this week?! Please share in the comments - I love hearing good things that happen to good people! :)

By the way, I am linking up here:

 

Vacation Shopping - Decor I loved!

Whew - we got the big news out yesterday about getting engaged! Now I am happy to share my favorite decor finds from out west with you!

So what is vacation without a little shopping?!  Instead of searching for t-shirts, shot glasses, or other trinkets (we did buy a few of all of the mentioned items) I found myself wanting to stop in every home decor type of store that was in Jackson Hole, WY.  After the first two stops, my finance (I love that word!) kindly reminded me that he was the only guy in these types of stores.  He was a trooper though and even agreed to make me some items out of antlers!

Here are a few of my favorite finds via the iPhone.  (Adam wouldn't let me haul around my big "tourist" camera.)

I love the rich color of the burnt orange combined with the pattern and texture!  See that little "pop" of green in the back?! I Love it!

I thought these framed insects were interesting.  I don't like bugs in my house, but I could handle these framed guys in my living room.  Next time I find a buy this size, I am going to put my 9th grade biology skills to work to capture and frame them.... probably not...

This framed tree bark was the first thing I was attracted to when I walked into the store.  It's so simple - I love that anything can be framed these days.  I found a tree outside of our office whose bark is peeling off - similar to this tree bark - I wonder what people would think if they saw me collecting tree bark during lunch?!

For some reason, I like this pillow.  Maybe it's the simple screen print.  It would never fit with my current decorating scheme, but I still like it!

Ok - here is the fun stuff!  Who knew you could do this cool stuff with antlers?!  These deer antlers were turned into a candle stick holder.  L-O-V-E!  Adam has plenty of deer antlers around so he agreed to try making me this.  (Probably the only way that antler will make their way into our house...)

I saved my favorite for last!  This was my absolute favorite find - a wine rack made out of antlers!  These were all over the place in Jackson Hole, the trouble is they go for $300+!  Yousa! We did a little investigating about how they were made and these too are make-able!

Be prepared to see antlers become part of our decor scheme in future posts...

Have a great Thursday - it's almost the weekend!  Yay!

Road Trip Rewind + Exciting News!

We're back from our 10-day vacation out west and it was AWESOME!  It's so hard to be back to work this week after enjoying our freedom of joy-rides through the mountains, stopping to snap pictures of animals, and having a drink in the middle of the day at a local establishment.  Ahhhh... the joys of vacation! :)

Our travels went like this... Okoboji, IA - Deadwood, SD - Cody, WY (via the Big Horns) - Yellowstone National Park - Jackson Hole, WY - Lexington, NE - Home!

I took a million pictures of our vacation with my new DSLR camera (totally worth the purchase!) Here are a few of the highlights/favorites.

Adam and I experienced Yellowstone National Park for the first time on our road trip.  It is an amazing place!  I am in awe of how many "wonders" are located in this 2.2 million acre park that sits on an active volcano - CRAZY!  My favorite stops were Old Faithful and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  Now that we've seen 95% of the "must-see" sights, it will be fun to go back do some hiking and spend more time at our favorite locations.

Once we left Yellowstone we headed south through the Grand Tetons. We both LOVE the mountains.  In fact we questioned why our families decided to settle in Iowa and Minnesota rather than continue their journey west?!

Here was my first huge highlight of the trip - I saw my first moose!  We found him in "Moose Junction" of all places - Ha! He was a big fellow...

If you ever travel to Jackson Hole, WY you must make a stop at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar to sit on a saddle.  Definitely a fun place!

Ok... now for the REALLY exciting news...

WE GOT ENGAGED!!!!!  Yep - that's right - Adam asked me to marry him in Jackson Hole!  I am one excited lady and their is nothing that anyone can say that will wipe this smile off my face! :)

There you have it - our 10-day road trip highlights in one little blog post!  And, please follow along on this wedding planning journey via Design Your Dwelling and the Design Your Dwelling Facebook page.  There will be many posts related to the planning of the upcoming nuptials. (No date is set yet... we are still in the "excited" phase!)

Have a great week!

Vacation Preparation Lists

Tomorrow we leave for vacation!  (Well not exactly, we have to go to a sales meeting at a resort first, but we leave for vacation from there.) I'm so excited to take our road trip out west to Deadwood, SD, Cody, WY, Yellowstone National Park, Jackson Hole, WY and then home through Colorado and Nebraska.  We will be gone for 10 days - yikes!  That's a lot of packing and sight-seeing but I'm up for the challenge.

Since you all know how much I love packing from this post, I thought I would try to make tonight's packing challenge a little easier by finding a "What to Pack" list.  Here is the one I found on Pinterest that I think covers all of the bases pretty well.

Via

I was also looking for a vacation photo list because I really want to use my new camera to the fullest.  Since I am a photographer in training, I thought this travel photo checklist would be beneficial.  I found this list on Pinterest also.

Via

I hope you find some use in these lists!  Any other lists that you would recommend?!  Have a great Wednesday afternoon!

West Elm Wish List

Yesterday the mail man brought me a new West Elm catalog and there were SO many items that I fell in love with. I've narrowed my favorites down to a  small  wish list.   If only I had all the money in the world to be able to afford all of these beautiful items! :)

GEMMA ORKIN ROUND BIRD SILK PILLOW COVERS

RUSTIC STORAGE COFFEE TABLE

ELTON CHAIR

IMISO TABLEWARE

GOURD TABLE LAMP

LARGE RECTANGLE HANGING CAPIZ PENDANT

ARROW PILLOW COVER - MONOGRAM

ORGANIC IKAT SCROLL DUVET

ANIMAL SCULPTURES

What are your favorites from West Elm? I would LOVE to know because I would hate to miss something good! 

5 on Friday!

Ahhhh... Friday already?!  This week flew by but I got a lot accomplished! Here are some of the great things that happened this week...

1| The Garage Is Insulated!
You're probably wondering how this could be a "great thing" that happened this week?! Well, I have a couple of reasons... First, it needed to get done before we left for vacation.  Second, I love to be able to see what I've accomplished and, most importantly I got to spend the day working with Adam.  We work well together, have fun, and can get a lot accomplished! :)

2| 4 Blog Posts and 7 New Design Your Dwelling Facebook Fans
This has been a big week for me as far writing blog posts - 4 total!  It sure pays to work ahead! :)  I also want to welcome 7 new fans to the Design Your Dwelling Facebook page.  Thanks for joining!  Can I get to 100 fans this week?  Help me out by becoming a fan! :)

3| SHINE
I joined a new women's networking group in the town I live in called SHINE!  It stands for  Success Happens through Inspired Networking Excellence.  I am looking forward to being a part of this group - it's full of business women in my community.  I can't wait to get to know them and learn from them! :)

4| Impromptu Grill-Out
I love summer nights when you get to grill out, have a couple of drinks and sit on the deck with friends.  It was a quick invite but a lot of fun!

5| Weekend Guests
My sister, Kayle, and her husband are coming tomorrow night.  I haven't seen them since my trip to Nebraska in May so it will be fun to spend some time with them. Plus, I love having guests!

Today I am linking up my 5 on Friday post here:

Front Porch Pillows

I finally found pillows to add to my outdoor furniture on the front porch!  I have searched long and hard for pillows I like and are inexpensive (I'm cheap).  Here is what I found at Burlington Coat Factory - only $6.99 for each pillow!

My original plan was to try them out and see if I liked them after a day or two knowing that I could always return them. However, the dog, "Bam," decided that one of them would make a good toy to run around the yard with so I had no choice but to like them. :)  (Thankfully the only damage that occured was a couple of holes from teeth marks - he now knows that these are not toys.  He must have known he was in trouble because he went straight to his doghouse and wouldn't come out!)

Regardless, I like them and am happy with my purchase!

They even match my little fire pot!

I love outdoor spaces and tend to spend a lot of Friday nights on the porch catching up over dinner and a few cocktails - this is one of the best parts of summer!

New Master Bedroom Art {DIY Art}

I am forever in search of art work for our home and ever since I joined Pinterest I have loved confetti art like this...

Via

And this...

 

Via

So this past week I decided to make my own confetti art!

I had a hard time finding the shiny and sparkly paper that the versions above used so instead I found some iridescent paper in gold and silver.  Since I like the look of mixed metals, I decided to use both the gold and silver.  This art is pretty simple and inexpensive to make so if I find the paper that the above versions used, I can make the update pretty easily.  

I love how simple, yet trendy, this art is and how it adds just enough of a change to our bedroom!  

P.S. Follow me on Pinterest if you want to see all of the wall decor ideas I've pinned. :)

A Pretty Planner {Washi Tape Project}

Welcome to another work week!  In an attempt to get more organized I bought myself this planner at Target.

I like how it is organized with a "to-do" list for each day.  I currently find myself jotting down "to-do's" everywhere.  The only thing I didn't like about this planner was that it was just a little dull.  I quickly fixed that problem with some Washi Tape.

Yep, pretty simple but it offers a little more of a "wow" factor for me!

What are some of your best organization tips and tricks?

5 on Friday!

Whoa - it's 8:30pm and I'm finally getting to this 5 on Friday post!  Just more time for good things to happen this week, right?! :)

1| Eric Church = AWESOME!
Last Saturday we went to the Eric Church concert which was AWESOME!  Yes, we were behind a chain-link fence the separated the "VIP" section from "general admission," and we had to wait in line for-ever for drinks, but we still had a blast!  I've been rocking out to his music all week on my way to work and during my workouts!  Here is an iPhone picture from the concert.  You can't see Eric, but the picture are still kinda cool.

2| Personal Training Session
Every Thursday I meet with a personal trainer.  I skipped last week so it felt good to be back and get a good workout in!  I really like having someone push me to be better and lift heavier and teach me how to lift weights correctly.

3| Camera Lessons
Last week I bought a Cannon EOS Rebel T3i! I had no idea how to work it but my co-worker, Tom, gave me lesson this week.  He is great with cameras and technology so I learned some really cool things to play around with.  Sorry for not including any pictures yet. The one thing I did learn is that all of my pictures will need to be edited because they are larger than an actual picture size.  (I have a lot of editing to do this week.)

4| Friends in Town
Our friends moved to town a couple of weeks ago!  This is one of Adam's new co-workers.  I stopped over to their house last nigh to say hi and get the grand tour.  It's really nice and I'm excited to have them here - there are many fun memories to be made!

5| Precious Came Back
Ok, this is a little silly... one of our barn cats, "Precious," wandered off this week.  We suspected she wasn't coming back, which made me a little sad but lone-behold, she came running across the pasture this morning! We were pretty excited to have her back so Adam had to go out to the barn and officially welcome here home.  I had a talk with her tonight about not running away again.

Remember to find joy in the little things! Happy Weekend! :)