...And Succulents!

Not only did I order terrarium plants online, but I also ordered succulents! I was looking for an excuse to buy a ton of succulents and I thought my birthday would be a great opportunity. :) I found a great family nursery on etsy called SANPEDROCACTUS. I decided to buy their package of 20 succulents and they arrived in perfect condition!

They arrived in little 2 inch pots and I transferred them to cute containers I found on clearance at Target. (They were in the $1 section but on clearance for 70% off so they were 30 cents each!)

I picked up some pebbles to fill in at the bottom to help with drainage then planted them with cactus soil. I took them to my little birthday get-together and decorated the space with them and then encouraged people to take them home at the end of the night.

I loved the way they looked arranged in a grid!

I did keep some for our house and any that had little growths, I cut them off and planted them in some of the little 2 inch pots. I hope to grow some of them into full plants!

If you're looking for bang for your buck, I would recommend buying them in bulk on etsy or ebay. They are so much cheaper than buying them individually at Home Depot or a nursery.

They make me so happy! I think I'm in danger of becoming a crazy plant lady!!

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Making Terrariums!

Still following up on my thirty before 30 list, I vowed to "get and keep alive more plants." I had been wanting to make a terrarium for awhile, so I picked up a cute glass container thanks to the Hobby Lobby card I won from my good friend Danavee. I began scheming what to put in the terrarium, but realized that although bloggers put succulents in closed terrariums, they will not stay alive in that environment.

(Can we talk real quick about how fake blog photoshoots can be? Sure, succulents look really cute in closed terrariums but everything I read said they will die with that kind of moisture.)

I visited our local nursery and asked what plants would work in a closed terrarium and they only suggested moss and ferns. I wasn't loving that idea, so I kept researching. I discovered that "baby tears" (pilea) worked well. I found TerrariumHouse on Etsy, a shop that had both really cute moss AND baby tears in her shop. I ordered one of each!

They arrived the following week in really great shape. I hoped to fit them both in my small glass jar but I definitely underestimated their size! Only the baby tears would fit in my glass jar so I went hunting for another container. In January, I tried making my own laundry detergent and bought a big "fancy" jar (from Wal-mart) to hold it. When I ran out, I decided I didn't really want to continue making my own (plus, we got Lucy and I didn't really feel like the homemade stuff was getting dog-ness out of our laundry) so I then put her treats in the jar. That wasn't actually efficient, so the jar went upstairs to my "craft" room to await its next purpose.... It is now a terrarium!

Because I was slightly obsessed with making terrariums, I had been collecting both terrarium accessories (deer, toadstool, etc) and terrarium tutorials on Pinterest.

I layered pebbles/gravel, then activated charcoal, then potting soil. I spritzed them with water then put the lid on. They developed condensation on the glass, so I removed the lids for a little while and then put them back on. I think they are so fun!

The bigger one (with the cupcake moss and the deer) lives on our stairs. I think sometime in the 90s whoever owned this house finished the attic and built a staircase in front of the living room window. Strange, right? The stairs partially block the window... but the stairs also make a great plant stand and the window gets great light. The smaller terrarium lives on my "new" shelf that I will post about soon! Gotta get all my 30 updates in!

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Thirty Before 30: Decorating the Living Room Wall

My birthday was so great - I am so thankful for all the amazing people in our lives! I will write more soon about it - stay tuned!

Meanwhile, do you remember when I posted a hilarious photo of a flower drawing Andy hung on the wall? I had hammered SO many nails in the wall and hung a lot of frames filled with various things but then took them down once we were married and he moved in because the arrangement felt VERY girly. I took down his flower drawing and hung it on our fridge which left the wall above our couch empty for months and months and months.

Recently, I decided to no longer use nails and instead use 3m Command Strips. I love these things! They are so versatile and work SO well.

It took me awhile to figure out the configuration I wanted and which prints/drawings/print-outs/etc to hang. I went with the below arrangement which is all subject to change since it's so easy to swap out with the strips! (No, I'm not getting paid to promote them, I just love them!)

PS, it's really hard to take photos of frames with glass! How do people do that? Is there a trick I'm missing? Do professionals remove the glass for photo shoots?

The arrangement is a little small for the wall but it works for now. (It might also be too high, or that might be an optical illusion.) Someday, I'd love to get larger artwork or something but for now, this is what we have - a mixture of original art from an estate sale, old family photos of my mom and her cousins, a cute globe postcard from "France" in Epcot, my Rebekka Seale sparrow print, a few ACEOS from etsy, and the birdcage print is an old school flashcard.

Someday I really want a new couch - a more streamlined, mid-century couch. I got this one on Craigslist years ago when my style was very shabby chic/pottery barn-esque and unfortunately I haven't been able to find an appropriate couch and then we got Lucy and want to wait to make sure she wouldn't tear a new couch up. 

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Honeymoon Roadtrip Video

I have officially run out of time to complete my thirty before 30 list! Although, we are celebrating my birthday on Friday so does that buy me a little more time? :)

I did get a lot done and like I mentioned in the last post about this, it has definitely encouraged me to live life more intentionally. I am in a major creative streak right now which is SO fun and unpredictable.

I finally finished editing together the little video clips from our honeymoon roadtrip last year. We drove to Chattanooga to visit Rock City, the Tennessee Aquarium, and the Chattanooga Choo Choo. The next day, we took a ride on a historic train then headed to Atlanta for the Coke museum, dinner at Houston's, Ikea, and a private tour of CNN thanks to someone I met through work. Most of the video comes from Rock City because it was so gorgeous and the aquarium because some of the critters were so intriguing!

Here is my simple little video!

I have a few more thirty before 30 updates that I will post later!

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Thirty Before 30 Update #4

With less than 3 weeks until my 30th birthday, I am checking in on my Thirty Before 30 list! Somehow, when I originally created this list, I mis-numbered items and therefore there are not actually 30 items - woops!

Also, lots of my priorities shifted over the year and it's interesting to see that! The items that are in red are the ones that are no longer an option or priority.

You'll also notice the theme of "I need to blog about it!" below. I guess I better start taking photos so I can blog about these projects before May 29!

House:

1. Buy a new couch - This has moved to a lower priority until Lucy is out of her puppy stage, although she has not tried to destroy our current couch yet, so maybe she would be okay with a new one... but, better safe than sorry.
2. Get the attic (craft space & guest room) organized - The attic gets organized, then gets trashed again, then gets organized. It is almost always "in progress" but it is fairly organized, I just need to put things away! And then I'll take photos and blog about it!
3. Change up dining room wall decor - I have done 2 of the 3 walls and I still don't know what to do where the mirror and sconces are. It's a little fancy for my current taste but the mirror was a gift so I don't want to get rid of it or anything... still figuring this out.
4. Redecorate above the couch - I did it! I just need to blog about it!
5. Get shelves for living room and redecorate the inside the door space - I did it! And it looks GOOD! I just need to blog about it!! :)
6. Hang the "Y"s I've been collecting - Added the yellow Y to the kitchen and the cream one to the dining room. Just need to blog about it! :)
7. Get (and keep alive) more plants - I love all my plants! I need to blog about them! :)
8. Go through my old CDs and figure out what to keep/import/sell/etc
9. Get a canvas print of the "Believe" sign at the church where we were married  
10. Organize garage - We still really need to do this!

Life:

1. Get our wedding photo booth photos printed for our guestbook  
2. Finish wedding thank you notes
3. Be more intentional in my friendships - this one is hard to quantify, so I'm leaving it up here as a reminder to initiate hanging out with friends!
4. (woops)
5. Get our wedding featured on a wedding blog - Thank you Ashley's Bride Guide!
6. Make a meal plan/menu with Andy - After talking about it, we're not really going to do this.
7. Learn how to arrange flowers properly - I am hoping to get over to the big flower shop to pick out some individual flowers and try my hand at arranging. I have read books and blogs on arranging, now I just need to put what I've learned into practice!
8. (woops)
9. Edit a video of our honeymoon roadtrip - sheesh, I need to do this!
10. Watch all the seasons of Mad Men - We finished the first 4 seasons finally! Now we just need to catch up on Season 5 so far!
11. Take a trip with Andy - Seattle!
12. See a play/musical - We saw our friend Jason in The Complete Works of Shakespeare, we saw Mary Poppins on stage, and we saw an adaptation of CS Lewis' The Screwtape Letters!
13. Ride our bikes this fall and next spring - we have been really really bad about this!

Business:

1. Put an item on consignment in a local vintage shop - not going to do this now that I have a booth
2. Succeed with booth at TN Antique Mall - The booth has gone really well and while April was a bad month, I think overall, my booth is doing well!
3. Go to an auction
4. Make postcards for my business to leave at the booth
5. Do a fabric bouquet tutorial on my blog 
6. Grow my blog to 75 followers and 75 subscribers - Oh my goodness, you guys. Thank you so much for subscribing! I have 170 GFC followers and 255 Feedburner subscribers!!
7. Do another flea market (maybe even organize one?) - This one is also not going to happen since I don't have the inventory to set up at a flea market AND have my booth.


All in all, it was really nice to have a list to work through and goals to attain. I'm not sure if I'll do a list of "31 before 31" because these were all pretty mundane items...and I can't really think of what I want to accomplish in the next year.

I have big goals and dreams but I don't want to place time constraints on them and I also want to keep myself open to spontaneity and honestly, God's plan for me. I think this list helped me be more intentional in what I do and I think I would just like to live more intentionally, rather than by a list.

Are you working through a list of goals? I would love to read about it- leave a comment with your link if you're blogging about it!

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Thirty Before 30 - Update 3

I was going to do a post wrapping up 2011 but it was difficult since I only started seriously blogging in June. So instead, here is my Thirty Before 30: update 3! I only have about 5 months to complete this list, ruh roh! :)

EDIT: I am a hot mess. I just realized that there are items missing - I looked at my original list and I skipped #4 and #8 under Life. I honestly don't know if I accidentally deleted them before publishing the post or if I just totally and absolutely mis-numbered and never had those items. I am adding in a spot for #4 and #8 and will think about what to make them. Maybe "learn to embroider" since I've been wanting to and am in the process of teaching myself? Maybe "buy a new dining table" since I'm on the hunt for a 60s danish-style set?

I also just realized that the spacing was completely off. I must have been asleep when I wrote this post!

House:

1. Buy a new couch - SO CLOSE. I found a $40 couch I loved at a thrift shop, researched upholsterers, but I can't find affordable fabric! I might have found some yesterday but I am waiting on a few swatches. Who knows if the couch is still at the thrift store, though! Sigh!
2. Get the attic (craft space & guest room) organized - this is a constant work in progress, but coming along pretty well right now
3. Change up dining room wall decor - halfway there - did 2 of the 3 walls!
4. Redecorate above the couch - still need to make this happen!
5. Get shelves for living room and redecorate the inside the door space - I have some temporary shelves there now, we'll see if they stay! I'm looking for vintage metal cosco shelves that are 33 inches in length. most are 36, 33 is really hard to find!
6. Hang the "Y"s I've been collecting
7. Get (and keep alive) more plants
8. Go through my old CDs and figure out what to keep/import/sell/etc - CHECK! Just sold a huge bag of CDs. Only made $37, but at least they're out of my life. And, thanks to Spotify, I'm not worried about not ever hearing a particular song again!
9. Get a canvas print of the "Believe" sign at the church where we were married - CHECK! And it was free thanks to a uPrinting giveaway!
10. Organize garage

Life:

1. Get our wedding photo booth photos printed for our guestbook - even put them in the photo album! woo!
2. Finish wedding thank you notes
3. Be more intentional in my friendships - this one is hard to quantify, so I'm leaving it up here as a reminder to initiate hanging out with friends!
4.
5. Get our wedding featured on a wedding blog - Thank you Ashley's Bride Guide!
6. Make a meal plan/menu with Andy
7. Learn how to arrange flowers properly
8.
9. Edit a video of our honeymoon roadtrip
10. Watch all the seasons of Mad Men - we are almost done!
11. Take a trip with Andy - Seattle!
12. See a play/musical - We saw our friend Jason in The Complete Works of Shakespeare! And Andy gave me tickets to see Mary Poppins for Christmas!
13. Ride our bikes this fall and next spring

Business:

1. Put an item on consignment in a local vintage shop
2. Succeed with booth at TN Antique Mall - This is also hard to quantify, what is "success" really? It's going well and growing!
3. Go to an auction
4. Make postcards for my business to leave at the booth
5. Do a fabric bouquet tutorial on my blog - COMING THIS WEEK!!!
6. Grow my blog to 75 followers and 75 subscribers - 131 subscribers, 101 followers! Thank you to everyone for supporting Owl Really!!
7. Do another flea market (maybe even organize one?) - I regret this one - since I opened my booth, I don't have the inventory to set up at another flea market.

There you have it! I need to get busy. :)

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Vintage Planters + Succulents

In my 30 Before Thirty list, I wrote that I wanted to get and keep alive more plants. I have one small houseplant that Emily gave me awhile back and our house doesn't get much sun, so it hasn't grown very much. I had potted succulents left over from our wedding but I can't keep them alive, for some reason. They're not the thick, dessert kind of succulent, they're more like a plant than a cactus... and I just can't keep them alive!

I bought some cute vintage planters from my friend Valerie and was inspired by the cute terrariums and succulent gardens I've seen all over online. I bought the thick, dessert kind of succulent and gravel and cactus soil.



I first put down a thin layer of gravel, then cactus soil, then tried to carefully plant the various plants and then covered it in gravel.

I really don't know what I'm doing, but I've read up on succulents and this seems to be the right thing to do! There's only one area in our house that gets good sunlight, so they're all crammed in near the kitchen sink! Hopefully they'll stay alive!

If they do, I'm going to find more vintage planters and plant more in cute arrangements with small woodland creatures (notice the squirrel?) or army men (by Andy's request) and then try to sell them!

Do you think people would buy them? They buy terarriums... how about little planters? :)

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Thirty Before 30: Update 2

I am trying to power through my Thirty Before 30 list! November 29 will be my "half birthday" so that means I have 7 months left in my challenge. Below, I am bolding the ones that are in progress.

House:

1. Buy a new couch
2. Get the attic (craft space & guest room) organized - working on this right now, since we'll have guests staying November 5!
3. Change up dining room wall decor - halfway there - did 2 of the 3 walls!
4. Redecorate above the couch - working on this! I have too many art pieces that are close in size - I need to find some variations.
5. Get shelves for living room and redecorate the inside the door space
6. Hang the "Y"s I've been collecting
7. Get (and keep alive) more plants
8. Go through my old CDs and figure out what to keep/import/sell/etc
9. Get a canvas print of the "Believe" sign at the church where we were married
10. Organize garage

Life:

1. Get our wedding photo booth photos printed for our guestbook - even put them in the photo album! woo!
2. Finish wedding thank you notes - SO close
3. Be more intentional in my friendships - this one is hard to quantify, so I'm leaving it up here as a reminder to initiate hanging out with friends! Lately I have been ok with it!
5. Get our wedding featured on a wedding blog - Thank you Ashley's Bride Guide!
6. Make a meal plan/menu with Andy
7. Learn how to arrange flowers properly
9. Edit a video of our honeymoon roadtrip
10. Watch all the seasons of Mad Men - we are almost to season 3!
11. Take a trip with Andy - Seattle!
12. See a play/musical - We saw our friend Jason in The Complete Works of Shakespeare!
13. Ride our bikes this fall and next spring

Business:

1. Put an item on consignment in a local vintage shop
2. Succeed with booth at TN Antique Mall - This is also hard to quantify, what is "success" really? It's going well and growing!
3. Go to an auction
4. Make postcards for my business to leave at the booth - Accomplished!
5. Do a fabric bouquet tutorial on my blog
6. Grow my blog to 75 followers and 75 subscribers - over 100 in subscribers, 70 followers!
7. Do another flea market (maybe even organize one?) - I regret this one - since I opened my booth, I don't have the inventory to set up at another flea market.

So, all in all, I feel pretty ok about the list! Have you set any goals or made any lists recently??

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Thirty before 30: Update 1

I posted my Thirty Before 30 list a little over 2 weeks ago and here I am with some updates! I'm really going to need to power through these in order to accomplish them all in 11 months!

House:

1. Buy a new couch
2. Get the attic (craft space & guest room) organized
3. Change up dining room wall decor
4. Redecorate above the couch
5. Get shelves for living room and redecorate the inside the door space - SO CLOSE! My mom found the perfect shelves in Louisville (for CHEAP!) and when we brought them back, they are about 2 inches too big for the space.
6. Hang the "Y"s I've been collecting
7. Get (and keep alive) more plants
8. Go through my old CDs and figure out what to keep/import/sell/etc
9. Get a canvas print of the "Believe" sign at the church where we were married
10. Organize garage

Life:

1. Get our wedding photo booth photos printed for our guestbook - even put them in the photo album! woo!
2. Finish wedding thank you notes
3. Be more intentional in my friendships
5. Get our wedding featured on a wedding blog - coming soon!
6. Make a meal plan/menu with Andy
7. Learn how to arrange flowers properly
9. Edit a video of our honeymoon roadtrip
10. Watch all the seasons of Mad Men
11. Take a trip with Andy - we have booked a trip to Seattle in September!
12. See a play/musical
13. Ride our bikes this fall and next spring

Business:

1. Put an item on consignment in a local vintage shop
2. Succeed with booth at TN Antique Mall - first month was successful! here's to more hopefully!
3. Go to an auction
4. Make postcards for my business to leave at the booth
5. Do a fabric bouquet tutorial on my blog
6. Grow my blog to 75 followers and 75 subscribers
7. Do another flea market (maybe even organize one?)

So... not bad - some are in progress and some of our priorities have shifted. The couch has fallen in priority since we got a new garage roof and will probably need a dishwasher soon.

The thing I didn't imagine happening? Getting a promotion. I have a new title and added responsibilities at work which are keeping me pretty busy (which is why I've been so quiet lately!) but hopefully it will all even out and I'll be back to blogging regularly soon!

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

Thirty Before 30

I think I finally have my 30 before 30 list done! I broke it up into 3 categories: house, business, and life! I was tempted to put things on here that I know I am doing already (like white water rafting or going to Disneyworld) but I stayed away from confirmed plans and only added goals!

I will be updating on my progress throughout the next year - I have until May 29, 2012 to complete this list!

House:

1. Buy a new couch
2. Get the attic (craft space & guest room) organized
3. Change up dining room wall decor
4. Redecorate above the couch
5. Get shelves for living room and redecorate the inside the door space
6. Hang the "Y"s I've been collecting
7. Get (and keep alive) more plants
8. Go through my old CDs and figure out what to keep/import/sell/etc
9. Get a canvas print of the "Believe" sign at the church where we were married
10. Organize garage

Life:

1. Get our wedding photo booth photos printed for our guestbook
2. Finish wedding thank you notes
3. Be more intentional in my friendships
5. Get our wedding featured on a wedding blog
6. Make a meal plan/menu with Andy
7. Learn how to arrange flowers properly
9. Edit a video of our honeymoon roadtrip
10. Watch all the seasons of Mad Men
11. Take a trip with Andy
12. See a play/musical
13. Ride our bikes this fall and next spring

Business:

1. Put an item on consignment in a local vintage shop
2. Succeed with booth at TN Antique Mall
3. Go to an auction
4. Make postcards for my business to leave at the booth
5. Do a fabric bouquet tutorial on my blog
6. Grow my blog to 75 followers and 75 subscribers
7. Do another flea market (maybe even organize one?)


Have you ever made a list like this? Did you accomplish everything? I'd love to hear about your experiences!