Birthday Lilies

[When your place smells like a bouquet of lilies that you can literally hear blooming (I swear I could hear these babies open up), there's no reason not to be happy.]

(Psst, I'm obsessed with on Instagram > on_the_lookout)

Decorate Your Space // DIY Paper Pennant

Life in my new apartment is finally running smoothly with all of the needed (read: boring) items purchased: Light bulbs, cleaning stuffs, paper towels, utensils, etc.  Now, it's time to get a jump on the FUN decorations and cheer up the place!  I'm only planning on staying in this space for the next year, so easy-to-make decorations that are inexpensive, that can be moved easily and that don't require much planning are key.  And since I always want my life to feel like a good party, I decided that stringing up a few garlands would be the way to get it did.

This paper, pennant garland was SO easy to make and I tacked it up with just a bit of tape and I was good to go!  Plus, you gotta admit, it looks like a giant, toothy grin and how can that not put a smile on your lovely face?

You will need:

• Colored card stock or construction paper
• Glue (Tacky or wood)
• A pencil
• Scissors or an exacto knife
• String (I used a neon pink shoelace) 
• Ruler

(Neatly assemble your supplies.)

(Measure out an isosceles or equilateral triangle on a piece of paper and cut it out.  Use that as a template to trace out 10-15 triangles on the rest of your paper.  Then, cut them bad boys out.)

(Squeeze out a bead of glue at the top of your triangles and stick them onto the string.  Use your ruler to space them equally - mine are 2 inches apart.  Both tacky glue and wood glue dry super fast, which means your triangles shouldn't fall off when you try to hang this without letting the glue dry completely. #impatient)

(Hang, admire and SMILE.)

Collection: Wood You Rather?

[...a collection of wooden finds.  And a terrible, nonsensical pun, but yeah, I went there.]

As soon as I saw Alicia's pictures from her kitchen renovation, I instantly fell in love with their expansive, butcher-block counter. Dang, it looks so warm and pretty!

That got me thinking about one of my favorite materials to work with: wood.  Wood, people.  With all of its antiquated charm, wonderful scents, general abundance and raw unwillingness to be anything other than what it is -- Ever try to stain something exactly the color you want it, to only get a better (or worse) turn out?  You know what I mean.  

So, I put together a few of my favorite wooden finds right here for you!

one - Handcrafted, reclaimed wood headboard by Ariele Alasko, recently featured on The Makers Project.
two - Hand carved, oak rope swing.
three - DIY painted wooden platter.
four - Pretty, painted wooden bowl set.
five - Wooden handled bread spoons (Each spoon measures out the exact amount of each ingredient to make homemade bread.  Awesome.)
six - A handy guide for the practical folks.
seven - Mora tree branch wooden sling shot (I may or may not have climbed trees in my youth and shot acorns and rocks out of a device such as this. #dennisthemenacewannabe)
eight - Handcrafted, natural wood chest.
nine - Wooden nugget necklace.
ten - The stacked wedges of my dreams.

(Someday, I will have a wood shop in my studio/home - right across from the metal fabrication area and laser cutter.  And I'll play with the likes of power tools and hammers, tool belt slug around my waist and nails in hangin' out of my mouth.  I'll bang around, measure twice, cut once, get lots of splinters and rescue wooden pieces and parts to turn what was once waterlogged and damp/ dry and brittle/ trashed and forgotten into pretty pieces to be loved again.  #dreamvivid)

Friday Five - On a Wednesday

[Fun internet finds for your Friday -- on a Wednesday.  Because patience is a virtue I have yet to master.]

1// Got berries in your fridge that are just on the cusp of going bad?  No worries, turn those babies into some homemade, all-natural fabric dye.  (Hey, blueberries, hiding waaay in the back of the fridge, you're gonna make a lovely purple hue this weekend!)

2// Pompoms are the cutest, little, decorative knick-knacks and are are super easy to make.  I love this pompom garland by Jenny of Wiksten.

3// I stumbled upon Andrew Tomayko's photography randomly through Instagram and I've been enamored ever since - free-spirited and wanderlusty moments in time.

4// Earlier this week, the pinterest gods lead me to Refinery29's Holiday 2011 DIY Gift Guide, with three awesome crafts to make on a budget.  Considering I'm a sucker for pink/neon/flowers/plants/everything in between, this DIY Neon Hanging Planter definitely caught my eye as a must-do!  Now, to find the time...

5// This is probably the most beautiful, world map I've ever laid eyes on.  You can purchase it with a magnetic layer underneath, which would be perfect to put little magnetic markers on of all of the places you've been and all of the places you'll go.

I hope the sun is shining as brightly where you are as it is here.  Happy Wednesday!

Dream Space: Bright & Light!

[One of my "resolutions" pertaining to this blog was to make an effort to post more about onthelookout happenings/processes as well as super original finds not found on other blogs.  But I just couldn't resist sharing this lovely living space, via For Me, For You's Friday Bits.]

See the full makeover here!

The Selby: Jeff Halmos and Sam Shipley

Whenever I'm feeling the like the decor, layout and general feng shui-ness of our house just isn't up to par, I jaunt on over to The Selby to reaffirm that, then provide enough beautiful inspiration to forget it.

The playful studio of Jeff Halmos and Sam Shipley (the guys behind Shipley & Halmos) is speaking very loudly and excitedly to my inner child.  There's so much open, airy, bright space in that loft!

(Love the tree, painted brick wall, geometric duvet and that essential-info-only calendar)

See the rest of their fun place here.

Dream Space: White Kitchen

We have an awesome, custom built and designed (by us) kitchen, but this renovation has me

... expansive and airy, crisp white walls.

... butcher block counterspace flanking BOTH sides of that awesome stove.

... AQUA, subway-tile back splash.

.. a wall full of windows.  

... sub-window storage space display area?  Genius.

What a beaut!  See the full kitchen renovation before and after here.

White Walls?

[interior space crisis...]

This fireplace is perfection.

 above images via A Merry Mishap.

 above images via the DwellStudio Blog.

 image from fellow fellow.

images via design*sponge.

swiped from oh joy! -- image by unison home.

For someone who demanded that they be the final judge in wall colors for our new house, I'm awfully surprised that I'm even thinking what I'm thinking right now...

I kind of hate dislike our walls.  They were colorfully painted less than two years ago, all of them laboriously scrapped, mudded, primed and painted by Z and I am already sick of them.  I think it's the failed attempts at daily photography (all I want is a SIMPLE backdrop, people!) or the abundance of grey cloud coverage in Ohio.  Or maybe it's the fab interior inspiration I've been seeing everywhere.  But, I love how light, airy, bright and new a space with white walls looks.  And it seems as though colorful decor, prints and dark wooden floors then become more of the spotlight, no?  Either way, white walls seem to be calling and I have a bedroom that I'm allowed to re-decorate soon, so I might take the jump with that.  What do you think?  Or maybe something a bit less drastic, like a super-pale, mint-grey hue?    I'm going to go ahead and say if you're going to make anything white, it might as well be the walls.  The thought of having to (successfully) clean white furniture will forever give me the creeps...