06

Aug

{shake it up – and store update!}


hi everyone!  how was your week?  i have to say i’m glad it’s friday – and the funny thing is that i had a short work week!!  i’m knee deep right now in giving information to my logo & web designer (yes…i finally have them!!)  you can read more about it today over at makeunder my life.  but let me just say that i can’t believe it’s actually happening…in less than 3 months, i’ll be opening my store!!!  can anyone say…OMG!! and i have to say, i’m so glad you guys have been with me through this process.

now the fun parts are coming up…i’d love to get your thoughts & ideas since the store is for you guys as much as it is for me!  right now i’m contacting a bunch of indie artists & designers that i’m interested in…but if you’re hoping to see someone’s stuff in the store – please let me know!

as a teaser – think of the store as fresh, modern, and occassionally playful!  part casual chic, part modern meets vintage and, of course, part “piper”!  more to come…  needless to say i’m getting excited!



and if you’re wondering about the bicycles…well, that’s this week’s shake it up adventure!

ride your bike – even better if you only use your bike that day!

this is my chance to finally get my bike out this summer – i have to do it now, right?!  here’s to good weather – nothing worse than riding your bike in the rain.


enjoy your weekend!!  and please let me know if you guys are dying to see certain products – i’ll see if it works.




[images above, from top: three bikes print from lofty mornings; enjoy the ride print from enduringarts; transplanting from laura george via supermarket; bike love print from william dohman]

1022 days ago Short URL 19 Comments

art + photography/shake it up

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02

Aug

{shake it up – the scoop}

mkt14


thank you everyone for such wonderful anniversary wishes!!  we had a wonderful weekend…dinner out, movies (we saw salt)…and we made it to the market!  (no bonus points for riding our bikes…but at least we finally went)  we went to the west side market, cleveland’s oldest market – and quite an experience to boot.  beautiful, old architecture and over 100 different vendors to ooh and ahh over – and it’s always jam packed.  you almost walk around in a daze trying to take it all in. (and i try hard not to buy all the baked goods and chocolate i can find) oh, there was even a little jazz band playing the day we went!

our first stop…grandma freda’s cupcakes (only the best cupcakes in town! mmm, red velvet…it’s to die for!)  after that we decided to grab some items to make dinner…fresh basil & black pepper pasta, roma tomatoes, and chicken.  in one word? yum!  after our trip to the market, we said what we say every single time we visit…”we should go more often”.  the best laid plans, right?

how was your weekend?  did you make it to the market?

oh and tomorrow i have an amazing “taking the leap” interview to share with you!!

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this year we got to try “piper” champagne – how fun is that?!

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1026 days ago Short URL 17 Comments

food + drink/shake it up/travel

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30

Jul

{shake it up!}

anniv1


happy friday everyone!!  it’s hard to believe july is coming to an end…the summer is going much too fast for me.  but the wonderful thing about the end of july, is the beginning of august.  because that just happens to be my favorite day of the year…the day my hubby and i got married.

so the picture above is a bit misleading…we’re not celebrating our 10th anniversary, it’ll actually be *gasp* our 12th!!!  where does the time go?? 

the story behind this picture is one of my fave traditions that my hubby and i have.  we decided on our 1st anniversary, that every anniversary we would get a bottle of champagne and use the beautiful champagne glasses we received as a gift for our wedding.  we decided that it would be fun to keep increasing the dollar value of the champagne…so when we celebrate our 25th maybe we could have some dom perignon! 

we came up with a simple solution:  add 1x how many years we had been married to our starting point of $10.  well….it quickly became obvious that we would be like 90 before we’d even get a good bottle of champagne!!  so needless to say we went back to the drawing board – and we’re now at 4x how many years we’ve been married.  finally…a nice $48 bottle of champagne!!

the sad thing…we only thought to start saving the corks on our 10th anniv.  so we only have a lonely 2 right now…but we’ll have plenty more years to add to it!  so the shake it up idea for this weekend goes along with our anniversary (and this week’s post!):

go to a farmer’s market (a bit romantic, right?!)

i hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

happy anniversary, baby….i love you more than words can say.


[image above, from top:  my own;  we heart it;  alice w photography;   erin reynolds photography;  crescent creations]

1029 days ago Short URL 27 Comments

shake it up

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19

Jul

{what a week!!}



i have to say how cool it was visiting all the blogs that participated in the alphabet walk blog hop…you guys are a seriously creative bunch!!  and i loved seeing how excited you all were about not only doing the walk, but going around and visiting all the other blogs.  i’m thinking we definitely need to do this again (grin)!!  ooh, maybe the next time with numbers?

how was your weekend?  mine was way too short, not sure i’m ready for the work week yet!  we pretty much spent all of saturday outside since we were dog-sitting and had friends in town…which was a wonderful way to spend the day!!  and the more the merrier when performing a science experiment, right?

i’ve always wanted to try out the mentos & diet coke experiment…so i was pretty excited to give it a whirl.  except i chickened out and let my hubby drop the mint into the 2 liter.  (not sure what i thought would happen…some colossal explosion?  or more likely, i didn’t want to get covered in diet coke/mint goo!)  so in he dropped the mentos…
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woo-hoo, success!!  and pretty cool to boot.  it lasted all of 3 seconds…
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but it was worth it!  (my hubby, always willing to try something, tasted the left over diet coke…surprisingly, he said it still tasted like diet coke!)

if you haven’t had a chance to check out the blog hop, here’s the list of blogs!  or you can check out our flickr group – don’t forget to add your photos. 

and if you get a chance to check it out, my dream reporter post is up at makeunder my life.   happy monday everyone!

[above image:  molecules - original drawing from pengwynne art]

1040 days ago Short URL 7 Comments

art + photography/shake it up

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16

Jul

{shake it up – week 29…& the letter z}

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what fun this week has been hopping around to everyone’s blogs!!  i have to say you guys are rocking it…love seeing your creativity and all the different ways people have of interpreting their letter.  so don’t forget to check out today’s blogs who are taking on the letters u – z…definitely not many easy letters in this group!!  at the end of this post is my take on the letter z…

so guess what?  we’re back on for some shake it up adventures!  i’m going to continue trying to do them weekly but the more i’m working on opening up my store (eek!  keep your fingers crossed for october!!) i may not have as much time (sigh).  but even if it’s 2x a month or just monthly, i hope you’ll stick with me!!

this weekend’s idea will be fun since we have friends in town!

conduct a science experiment

i think we’ll leave it at that – i definitely have one in mind – we’ll see how it goes!

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above is my “z”….can you guess what it is?
ltrz1for this letter, i decided to take a “walk” through our photo gallery.  nothing like a pooped puppy to put a smile on my face!! 

have a wonderful weekend everyone!!  any plans?

[above beakers and chemistry glassware available via three potato four]

1043 days ago Short URL 18 Comments

blogs + websites/shake it up

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21

Jun

{shake it up – week 25 scoop}

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well, i almost didn’t get this weekend’s shake it up idea done this weekend… because there were barely any clouds in the sky all weekend!!  blue skies for as far as the eye can see.  we actually had to get in our car to drive a bit closer to the few clouds that were around.  (ok, i’m being a bit dramatic…we did get in the car, but we only had to drive like 2 minutes to get to the park where the clouds were more visible!) 

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we did end up spotting a few images in the clouds too…  first photo, we saw a swan.  right?!

for this photo (above), hubby claims it’s a runner jumping a hurdle.  seems a bit weak…but i love his imagination!!

it really was a gorgeous weekend. how was your weekend?
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1068 days ago Short URL 6 Comments

shake it up

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14

Jun

{shake it up – week 24 scoop}

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morning everyone!  did you have a good weekend?  i’ve been so excited to share pictures with you from my friday night at the made in the 216 event!

made in the 216 is an annual event meant to showcase local, cleveland based designers.  it was started by the amazingly talented danielle deboe, owner of  my favorite shop in cleveland, room service.  this year they had over 60 local designers (and let me tell you, it was not easy to walk away without buying everything!

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i did end up going a bit nuts with shopping (pillows & art & cards, oh my) - but i couldn’t help it – there were so many amazing indie artist designed products to choose from.  plus, they had a dj spinning tunes, drinks and the place was decked out to the nines!  (i absolutely loved the bikes hanging from the ceiling and the cool typography sign – danielle let me know that they created the sign themselves – just some stencils and paint!!)

unfortunately my photos don’t do the event justice, but it did give me a chance to do this week’s shake it up idea of taking in my surroundings in a different light…by viewing lots of things from above or close up!!

oh, btw, as if inside wasn’t enough fun…outside there was a funnel cake stand…notice there are no pictures of that…i was too busy eating it, mmm!!
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[some of the artists represented above: stitch cleveland (pillows); squirt and skootch (cards); grey cardigan (art); terra verde (soap + candles)]

1075 days ago Short URL 13 Comments

indie design/shake it up

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11

Jun

{shake it up – week 24}

 


it’s finally friday and the weather has been sunny and warm – such bliss to me!  (although doesn’t it figure that the weekend is supposed to have scattered rain…as liz lemon would say, “blergh”)  but in between that time (and i know i keep saying this!)…i’m hoping to actually get my bike out from the garage and ride it! 


so lately with how busy i’ve been trying to get my store up & running, i realize that i’m not paying attention to my surroundings.  i have so many things running around in my head that i don’t feel very focused on the here + now (isn’t the 1st pic perfect for that feeling – i’ve been wanting to post this pic forever, i just love it!!)

so i decided that this week’s shake it up idea is to:

see your surroundings in a different light


i’m hoping this will give me a chance to take my blinders off and start getting back to the present - and give my brain a rest before it explodes!  i have the perfect place to give it a try too…the made in the 216 event is this weekend here in cleveland!  it’s an annual event that showcases local indie designers & artists plus there’s live music and yummy food.  we’re heading there tonight to check it out.  (some of the artists are people i’ll be featuring in my store!)

if only my photog skills (or should i say lack of any skills) would allow for good pix – but i’ll be giving it the ole college try!

and you know i love to find out - what are your plans for the weekend?

oh and if you have a chance, my dream reporter post for this week will be over at makeunder my life.  see you back on monday!

[images above, from top:  failed opportunities from jennipenni;  her story will never be written from six hours photography;  anna amphigorously's photostream via sfgirlbybay]

1078 days ago Short URL 9 Comments

art + photography/shake it up

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07

Jun

{shake it up – week 23 scoop}

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don’t you love daydreaming?  as a kid, i used to daydream all the time – and they were always these huge dreams like “become a famous actress” or “have a dolphin as a pet”!  and then as you get older, sometimes it feels harder to have those big dreams because good ole reality can get in the way.  but i think it’s still fun to dream big - i’ve always heard that if you write down your dream, that’s one step closer to achieving it! 

so i loved reading your comments on friday about your dreams – that’s one step closer, right? (and i’m glad i got some people to agree with my dream of eating cupcakes every day – sigh, one day!) 

my far out there dream is for my hubby and i to live near the ocean.  i can only imagine how inspiring it would feel waking up everyday to the sound and sight of the ocean…that’s my idea of pure bliss.  until then, i’ll make do with vacations by the ocean (grin)! 

[pics above are from some vacations that made us say "we want to live here"!  from top left:  palm cove, australia;  outerbanks, north carolina;  bondi beach, australia]

1082 days ago Short URL 3 Comments

shake it up/travel

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04

Jun

{shake it up – week 23}

 


happy friday everyone!  i love these 4 day work weeks, friday got here nice and fast this week…i’ve said it before but i’m telling you, 4 day work weeks are the way to go!  how do we make this happen?!

i’ve been a bit crazed the past few weeks between working (ugh), working on my store and blogging – but good news – i’ve (almost)narrowed down my product lines that i would like to carry in the store.  woo hoo!  (it’s much harder to do than i thought – so many great artists and designers, i want to carry them all!)



so in light of needing somewhat of a mental break, this week’s shake it up idea is all about dreaming…

think of a big, way out there dream of yours and find or create a picture that represents your dream!

for example, one of my dreams is to be able to eat cupcakes every day without gaining weight (and not the boring sugar-free or fat-free ones either, we’re talking full on fat).  oh, and of course, somehow they would discover that cupcakes actually are good for you (grin). 



so start daydreaming!  do you guys have any plans for the weekend?   it’s really nice to say that we have no plans – it’s a go-with-the-flow weekend, i love those!

and if you have time, check out my post over on makeunder my life today - i have other good news to share!


[image credits, from top:  dream from simply hue;  lie in the grass and daydream from susannah tucker;   beth retro's photostream (via sfgirlbybay);   daydreamer from zuppaartista;  dream from CAPow!;]

1085 days ago Short URL 11 Comments

art + photography/shake it up

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