Day Trip

This is for my LA area friends and/or people that have been to LA and can give me some suggestions. I am headed over to LA for the day (tomorrow) with a few friends fom the SF area. While we have a few must-see things on our list to do, I was wondering if you all have some must-stop eateries for us to go to. Because food is obviously the most important part of any trip. OBVIOUSLY!

So please, give me some ideas! I am most likely looking for cheapish places, and definitely places that are only in LA.

Annnddd, GO! Thank you so much :)

New Look

Since I have been changing things around on my blog a bit, I created a widget for both my blog and my Etsy shop. If you would like to add one or both to your blogs, please feel free to grab them off of my site!

Also, I have added some of my favorite reads to my sidebar, if you have a badge for your blog and I am missing yours please email me at alyssadawn3(at)gmail(dot)com and I will happily add you to my list :)

Weekend

I have so much to do this {long} weekend! Luckily, I have today off work so I can start to tackle things. Wish me luck:







What are your weekend plans?



PS, little blog makeover been going on here this week (a little bit at a time), sorry if it's all funky right now!

Guest Room

One of my very good friends is coming to visit in less than two weeks and I have to get our guest room finished. Currently, the room has a bed, a random dresser and a BUNCH OF CRAP. You know, that room you throw all your random stuff in when you have people come over because you want to hide it all? Yep, that's the room. The room is also an ugly shade of yellow - which is a bummer, because I am a fan of yellow, but this yellow is fugs.


Here are some photos of inspiration that I have for this room...

Usually this busy print wouldn't be my thing for a bed, but I really love this and think it would work well! Plus it's on sale at Potterybarn.com :)

I purchased this print along with another coordinating print from Green Nest on Etsy, while I haven't received them yet, I adore them!

I adore this birch tree wallpaper!!! I want to cover just one wall with it. In fact, I have been thinking about it nonstop for a week. Because of it's steep price, I am looking for other options, possibly wall decals?

Chris suggested we paint the room green, and I really like the green paint in this photo!

This room will also be a place for me to store some of my growing deer collection :)



Wish me luck!!! And, you are very welcome to give me suggestions if you know of some cute decor that will go with what I dub my "woodland" theme. :)

Biiiiicycle

I have been dying for a bicycle for a long time now. We didn't have room to store bikes in our apartment so that never happend, and now that we have a house we obviously do, but it seems like we always have house stuff to spend our money on.

Well, I want a bike! With spring arriving it is the perfect time for us to get bikes, I think. There are some very cute bikes that I would love to have, but they can be pricey. So I have been browsing for semi-budget friendly bikes for us. Especially since Chris and I both need one.

Schwinn Crest Urban Hybrid Bike = Love. It's $289 on Amazon. A tad bit more than I'd want to spend but I love the color, the fact that it's a hybrid bike (it's good for anything I'd want to use it for) and that it has a men's bike to go with it that isn't girly :) I haven't found anything that is around or less than the price that has as good reviews and is as AWESOME. Whatcha think?

Do you have a bike? What kind do you have? Any bike buying tips? I'd like to get any info from you all on what you have so I can do some better research :) Thanks!!!

oh, love

a small conversation while driving yesterday....

(beatles song comes on the radio)
me: do you love me 8 days a week?
him: thats not even possible.
me: but would you if there was?
him: *rolls eyes*

Etsy Giveaway

Want to win one of my hair pins and a headband? Head on over to Blair's website, Wild & Precious, and check it out!

She gives you EIGHT (!!!!) chances to win, and you have until next Friday to enter! So go do it, pretty please!

Enter here!

DIY Save the Date - Viewfinder

I am so excited to share this DIY with you! I just finished up our Save-the-Date cards and I am pretty excited about how they turned out. Since I am pretty sure all of my guests have received them, I want to share it with you all.

I got the idea for this in a book I purchased a few months ago called The DIY Bride. Their card was ultra simple and a lot smaller than I wanted to so I had to basically design the whole thing. So here goes! Enjoy!

Viewfinder Save-the-Date

{Click photos to enlarge}

Materials:

Cardstock (colors of your choice!)
Colored brads (I purchased mine at a scrapbook store)
Fiskars Circle Cutter

Cutting mat
Paper cutter
Scrapbooking tape
Avery Sticker Project Paper

I'm too lazy to add any extra tips/information right now, so I think I will make a Part II here pretty soon! Hope you like them! :)

**Edit: For some reason my pictures won't enlarge in a new window...will try to fix asap, sorry :(

Cute Finds - Ring Pillows

It starts with one cute thing...then you find yourself browsing the internet for hours trying to find more....

Via yandebridal

Via GiggleRoom

Via DearLillie

Via palomasnest

Via jencarres

What do you guys think? Have you seen any other cute/unique ring "pillow" ideas?

PS, sorry for the slackage lately - work has been leaving me tired and grumpalicious :-/

Change

Every once in a while I get these urges for change. What about you guys? Life seems so monotonous sometimes and I like to mix it up at bit, but I usually don't go all out and go for it. I have been feeling the need for change a lot lately, wondering what I want to change and how that's possible. I think about the times that I actually made the necessary decisions and just went for it, not sitting around wondering "what if." I was thinking about it again last night after an 8pm grande toffeenut latte (ps, thanks Starbucks for keeping me awake late on a work night), and it got me thinking about something that has changed my life more than most anything.

Image credit.

I was preparing for an extra long Memorial Day weekend. I had taken a couple extra days off of work to spend the weekend flying across the country and back. At 20 years old, I was still pretty shy and no way had I ever dreamed I'd just get up and do this. I had a 6:30 am flight to catch and I couldn't hardly sleep at all the night, I got maybe a couple hours of rest - then my alarm went off at 4:30 am. I actually still lived with my parents, but was doing this completely on my own. I'd only flown in a plane once, with my parents. Never had gone anywhere alone, not even an hour away from home.

I got ready, made sure I had all the necessary items, and headed out into the dark, crisp early morning. I made the short drive to the airport, parked in the long-term parking area, and hauled my things inside. After I checked in, I remember sitting in the waiting area and staring out the window as the sun came up. I wondered where all these people were going, if someone could possibly be making the same kind of trip I was.

I had a long, sort of lonely trip. The only thing keeping me entertained was my iPod - I vividly remember listening to Death Cab for Cutie's album "Transatlanticism" on repeat (5 years later, listening to those songs still brings me those memories). Finally, after what seemed to be the longest journey ever, I arrived in Michigan. When I got off the plane I called my mom to let them know I had made it safely and I stayed on the phone until I started walking down those steps to baggage claim. I hung up and scanned the crowd as I continued down the ever-long flight of stairs.

And then, finally, after what seemed like eternity, our eyes met for the first time. You know when you had to do your first speech in school and you were absolutely dying with a million different emotions? Or the first day of high school maybe? That's what it was, times a million, as I finally reach him and there were no words needed. We hugged and stayed that way for a while and I knew that this was the best leap for change I could ever make.

I am glad I went for it that time.