Leaving the City!

I'm taking the day off to go and enjoy the early summer like weather we've been blessed with this week! Joe and I are packing a picnic and heading to Lake Geneva, a quaint little town about 1-1/2 hour drive from the city!  I'll post photos of our day and share with you next week!  Enjoy your weekend peeps!!

Happy Friday!

Hooray!  We made it till Friday!  Did this seem like the  l o n g e s t  week to anyone else?  It was worth it to be able to see these guys perform tonight at the Allstate Arena with some of the gals from work!  I'm SO looking forward to hearing them.  I saw them last year for the first time and they are so great live.  They really get the crowd going and they sound just as good or even better live on stage!  Thanks for joining me this week...wishing you a joyful weekend!!

Summer Loving and Happenings

  Hello blogland!  I bet your wondering where I've been for so long?!  I've been throughly delighting and basking in the warm summer air.  I really can't get enough of it.  I've been spending time with my loves in my life, doing away with cable television, devouring one library book after another, packing picnics to view movies in the park, experiencing my first country music concert, camping and hiking through Starved Rock,  taking neighborly strolls to the local dog park, keeping my cool with frozen treats, joining my brave sis for Sunday morning long runs along the lakefront (she's training for the Chicago Marathon). And last but not least,  I've been working tirelessly on our place and was super excited to have our home featured on Apartment Therapy last month too!  It was fun working towards getting our place to feel more lived in (with the help of countless DIY's) as well as adding a jolt of color happiness on the surrounding kitchen walls. Joe and I loved how everything came together and we just renewed our lease for a second year!!  Yay :) We are here to stay!!  How's your summer been?  I hope you've been getting the most out of it and enjoying as many experiences as well as creating new memories along the way.

  Below and above are a few snapshots of our flourishing succulent garden display in our front bay window.  These babies are thriving like you wouldn't believe!  And with so little effort on my part, once a week watering is all they need!  I highly recommend all variety of succulents for the green thumb impaired :)  I found mine at my local Home Depot, all under $6 a piece.  And the wood containers I found at a local Goodwill store for a $1 each! I covered some books with brown craft paper and splurged on some fun wrapping paper from the Container Store to give the display some height and pops of color.

Keep the Summer loving coming.....

Photos by EV Photography

Birthday Wishes

This weekend, this handsome boy turns 8!!  I can hardly believe what an awesome little person he is turning out to be.  He's developing athletic skills like it's second nature and is creative to boot( he constructed wallets out of multi-colored duct tape for all the guys in the family for Christmas gifts). That'a boy!! But the thing that melts my heart the most about my special nephew Sam, is the way he cuddles up next to me on the couch. There's almost nothing like it, I'm telling you!  Happy Birthday Sam, may you continue to nurture you talents and spread your fun loving energy.

Current State of Mind

Tonight as I was powering through my treadmill run at the gym, I got to thinking about all the positive reinforcements I have in place to motivate me to get to the gym after a long day of work.  To start, I created an ipod playlist called WORK FOR IT (yes, I'm screaming to myself by putting it in caps :)  Here are just a few motivating lines from some of the songs that are on this playlist and here is where I go to be inspired by another fellow runner and all around awesomely creative talent.  What songs get you off the couch and  motivate you to move during these cold winter days? I'd love to know!

                                                                 

Telepopmusik- Breathe

"Another day.........just breathe".

Seal-Crazy

"But we're never gonna survive unless we get a

little crazy".

 Joy Williams- New Day

" Another chance, another try

open your eyes, cause the sun is

about to shine, it's a new day!"

Happiness Is....

* creating a DIY holiday
* spending Christmas with my best friend
* taking a week off to unwind and nest
* hosting dinner/cocktails for friends and family
* creating new memories
* thigh high socks
* creating photo calenders as gifts
* being so blessed to have a home, health, and family
* getting a great Groupon deal
* waking up to sunshine
* seeing where a little creative inspiration can take you
* growing out my hair
* paid time off
* making gingerbread cookies and royal icing from scratch
* decorating my first REAL Christmas tree
* comfy cozy nights on our new couch
* year end bonuses!
* ice skating on my Birthday (I'm turning 29, eek!)

EV Photography

What is happiness for you this holiday season? It's fun to look back on the years, here is my post on happiness from 2008 :)

I am taking a staycation for the next week and a half.  So I will be back to blogging next year :)
Thanks for tuning in this year,  and thank you for all your positive words. Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to you!

xoxo,

~Liz

Home Happenings

Happy Monday to you all. It felt great this morning to stretch my legs after spending a much needed weekend mostly at home. And for great reason too, our couch that we've been much anticipating has finally arrived!! Joe and I love it and after being without a comfy place to unwind at the end of the day for weeks now, it's a much needed piece of furniture especially around this time of year. The only changes I made in the solid pillows was a switch in color. I traded in the turquoise for a chartreuse pair. I love the pop of color against the charcoal gray couch.

I also treated myself to a sheepskin throw I've had my eye on for a while. I love the soft comfy texture against the Herman Miller chair.

Oh and a little greenery on my kitchen window sill is well on it's way to sprouting. I planted these paper whites a few weeks ago and am enjoying watching them grow a little more each day.

Cookie Exchange

Every year (for the past 8 years) the women in my family get together around the holidays to share in one another's favorite baked goodies. For my cookie of choice this year I decided to tackle the gingerbread variety. In part because I love anything with ginger in it and my favorite part is the decorating. I used this recipe from Martha Stewart, because one it calls for fresh and ground ginger and because I loved the photo as a source for decorating inspiration. You can find more if you pick up this months issue of Good Housekeeping too :) I decided to make and bake the cookies at my place so that we could relax and really enjoy decorating them the next day together. Today I have for you some of the cookie exchange highlights.

Scalloped graphics provided by Pugly Pixel.

Orchard weekend

Happy Monday everyone! How was your weekend?My family and I took advantage of the beautiful fall weather this weekend and enjoyed some time apple picking, corn a-mazing, cider drinking, and pumpkin picking, phew! Here are a few of my favorite picks from this weekend.

Hello lovely readers!

Hello! I'm back after a week of getting my life in order. You know when life & work seem to not want to be on the same page with each other, yeah that's where I've been this last week and a half. But I'm happy to announce that after only 2 days of scouring for the perfect Chicago apartment, Joe and I have at last found a new place to call home! I am almost certain that luck was on our side this weekend when we found this place. The current tenants were actually moving out when we asked very nicely if we could get a quick tour of the apartment. As soon as I stepped in, it felt like home! Our new place is a 900 sq foot coach house with lofted bedroom. It has really high cathedral ceilings, which helps the space feel even bigger than it really is. It also has a roomy kitchen with french doors that open to a small back deck. We even have a little patio in the front and a patch of lawn to call our own in the backyard :) Our landlords are super nice and artsy (a nice plus, for sure!) I can't wait to start painting, decorating and transforming our new cozy nest :) I'm taking a few days off at the end of this month to begin the nesting process and I promise to take photos of the progress along the way. Until then I am in and out of the photo studio this month, so posting will be limited. Lots more to stay tuned :)

Illustration

Loving: Happy Poster

Are You Happy?

Happy Weekend

As I run out the door for some weekend fun, here are some goodies for you first. I was unable to post free font friday because I was at a friends house crafting up one of these for craft night! I have yet to finish, but a group of us gals had a great time drinking wine and gossiping :) Thank you Jill for hosting the evening! Enjoy my font pick for this week, best enjoyed for large prints! Happy Weekend.

Oh Happy Day...

What makes me even more happy that its Friday? To have placed my order for a few of these pretty little rolls, Happy tape! These rolls won't just be sitting pretty once I get them, I've got big plans for them for an upcoming paper project. Can't you tell which colors I am partial to? I know, i know but I can't help it. Which colors are you instantly drawn to or which are instantly drawn to you??

{ Happiness is..... }

* sharing a warm spot next to the fire

* creating lasting memories with family
* A Christmas Story movie 24hrs.
* singing out loud to Christmas tunes in the car
* sorting through the years worth of photographs
* taking time out to reconnect with sisters
* warm holiday glow
* finding a comfortable yet chic holiday outfit
* snuggling with the family pups
* stocking up on leggings
* new magazine subcriptions
* making it safely through another wintery commute
* automated post office machines

May you delight in your own Happiness this season ;)

{EV Photography}