good read [knock off wood]

knock off wood makes me want to buy tools. pink ones. ana sees furniture she likes (a lot of pottery barn and crate and barrel) then explains how to build a knock off and shares her plans with all of blogland to see. not only does she make plans, but she tells you what to buy, what tools to use, and what to get cut. it's amazing how much you save by building it yourself!

and just when you think you can't pull something like this off, ana set up a flickr page where readers can post their knock offs from the site and encourage others that it can be done.

currently, i'm eyeing this console table for our kitchen that costs a whopping $20-30 in materials. love it.




with a finish like this table (b-e-a-u-tiful!). it also definitely helps that the previous owners of our house left all their stain and cream paint. :)


i predict somehow joel will get suckered into helping me...he just doesn't know it yet. :)

flickr favorite

how cool is this series?? i absolutely LOVE glimpses into the past. if you know me fairly well, you know that i can't watch a historic movie or show without running to the computer and finding out all that i can about it. joel always makes fun of me for this, but i just find it so interesting.

the photographer here, jason powell, takes old pictures of washington d.c. from the library of congress and then finds the current spot to compare. some are really sad because so much history was lost and replaced with skyscrapers, but overall it is so cool how he lines it up perfectly and you can quickly see how things were back in the day.

here are a couple of my favs:



looking into the past

30 before 30

i saw one of my favorite FRIENDS episodes the other day when rachel turns 30 and it got me thinking. why don't i have anything to look forward to when i turn 30 in 5 years?? so, in honor of my favorite TV show of all time, i decided to make a “things to do before I turn 30” list, phoebe buffay style. let’s just hope that when i complete it, i won’t then find out i’m really 31...poor phoebe. :)


1. get back to my wedding day weight (it’s only 10 lb.; that should be easy right??)
2. throw a party
3. watch a sunrise at the beach
4. bring all my decorating ideas for our house to life
5. buy a camera and learn how to use it
6. watch AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies list (a professor in one of my design classes in college urged us to do this...i think it's time to take his advice :))
7. finish reading Pride and Prejudice
8. make our garden pretty again
9. get a web site for jen&ink
10. get my wisdom teeth out
11. join a Pilates class
12. stop biting my nails
13. send out a Christmas card (I design one every year, but then never follow through)
14. take a cooking class
15. become a mom
16. clean out my e-mail (3000 and counting)
17. go hiking in the mountains again
18. travel more (Austin, New York, and Chicago are on the top of my list)
19. get to know my neighbors
20. go on a fun road trip
21. go without TV for a week
22. pay off my student loan
23. buy a new car
24. cook an entire Thanksgiving meal by myself
25. learn how to Cajun dance (I feel as if I’m living a lie not knowing how)
26. pay for a stranger somewhere anonymously
27. see Michael Buble in concert
28. visit a winery
29. see a Broadway show
30. learn to drive a stick shift

baby got bike

last saturday joel came in the living room and said, "ya know what? i have a surprise for you." i got real excited because i love, love surprises. then he went, "and next saturday you'll get it." ahhhhhhh...the torture! so all week i spent racking my brain on what it could possibly be. he specified that it was small because he knows how my mind can run. throughout the week he continued to egg me on. "it's supposed to sunny this saturday...the surprise is better for a sunny day." or "you might want to wear tennis shoes...doesn't matter though...your choice."

so you can imagine my excitement when saturday finally came around. as i was getting ready, i saw he was cleaning out his truck. his truck??? why would we need his truck? i was so confused. my best guess was that we were going antiquing. i had absolutely no clue.

so FINALLY he let me in on what he'd been planning once we were closer. it was something that we'd been wanting to get and do ever since we started dating but just never have.

bikes!!!

i was sooooo excited! riding bikes is one of my best memories as a little girl. my dad would always take me and my brother on the best bike rides ever. we had woods and trails behind our house that were lots of fun, but mainly just bike rides around the neighborhood were some of the greatest times.

so we pulled up to academy and checked out the selection. we opted for some that would be good enough for casual riding...i'm so not hardcore in case you couldn't tell. my bike even has argyle...fun and preppy :) and it's no surprise that joel went for the black and gray one...his go-to colors.


it was such an amazing surprise to finally get bikes! we couldn't wait, so after joel got them aired up, we went for a bike ride around our neighborhood when we got home. i quickly learned how wind affects my ability to ride a bike. ouch...the thigh muscles were working. big time. it's been so long since i've even gotten on a bike, and joel assured me that even though i used to be able to ride with no hands on the grips that i should definitely not attempt to do so now. haha, he knows me way too well. we had so much fun, and i can not wait for all the bike rides that await.

now all i have to do is figure out a name for my brand-new bike. :) suggestions??

good read [simple mom]

now i know i'm not a mom, but simple mom is one of my favorite blogs ever! i'm ALL about making life more simple and thinking of ways to better manage the house. Her posts are full of resources, tips, and inside experiences for families of all shapes and sizes. She also has some really great downloads for the super-organizer inside you. If you like practical ideas on how to declutter your house and home (and sometimes life), she's your girl!

must have [love for your neighbors]

i saw this amazing printable from joy ever after and knew i had to share it. i'm ashamed to say that we've been in our house since june and have only met 3 of our neighbors. either we're never home or just hanging out inside, but i hate it. i planned to make goodies for our neighbors on valentine's day, but i totally chickened out. i really want to get to know those people who live nearby, so this seems like a much less awkward way than just knocking on their door and introducing ourselves. now all i have to figure out is what to bake! and of course then muster up the courage to distribute them :)

happy monday!

color my career

so this career color test has been sweeping the blogosphere for the last few weeks, and i finally decided to give it a try. all i can say is how the heck do they know so much just by me picking a few colors i like or dislike??? wow. kinda creepy. here are my results (creator and researcher); just click on each one to see it better:




this makes me laugh. not only do i love being creative (see hobby), but my current job title is editor/technical writer at a local research center. how did they know???

life is good [dating anniversary]

today is me and joel's 4-year dating anniversary! yes, you're probably thinking, "and??" but while it is just a dating anniversary that is supposed to get wiped away once you get married, i still enjoy recognizing when it all began. getting ready in antipication of what's to come, hearing him drive up and wondering if you made the right outfit choice, one last look in the mirror trying to look "put together, but not that you tried too hard," and the list goes on. when we first started dating, joel would always show up with flowers (sometimes roots and all from flowers that parkview church so carefully planted) and would never tell me where we were going. it was always a surprise. it was such a special time in our relationship that i loved so much. but as much as i loved it, i love the dates we go on now even more. thinking of new things to do and places to go is just part of the fun.

so while it is just a dating anniversary and our real anniversary is coming up in august, it's a special date to me because it marks when so much of my life changed. i let my walls down, i learned what it meant to be selfless, and i entertained the thought of "the one" for the first time.

joel is so very precious to me and today is just a reminder of how lucky i feel that God led me to him. so in honor of our dating anniversary, here are a few of our past and favorite dates.

first birthday celebration together



picnic dates



study dates



more birthday dates



beach dates



bonefish dates (joel's fav!)



wedding dates



first date after marriage



double dates


wedding anniversary dates

how could you not love dating?? it makes me happy that i see and talk to couples of all ages, kids or no kids, that still date each other after many, many years of marriage. hopefully, we'll never fall into the mundane aspects of life and forget how lucky we are and how special time together really is.

must have [leonard necklace]

it's no secret how much i LOVE lisa leonard designs. i really don't know what it is that is so appealing, but i love monograms and when they're stamped that makes them even better! as a kid, i was obsessed with those penny machines that would press the coin and leave a design of whatever city we were visiting--i just thought it was the coolest thing ever. i still kinda do actually. :)

i've been eyeing the first one necklace with the monogram for a while now and might just have to break down and buy one for myself. i can only resist for so long! now all i have to do is think of an occasion/reason to justify spending $60 on one necklace. does the first day of the month count for something? :)

happy monday!