Inspiration Kit

These days it seems $13 will buy you inspiration. At least lilacandlinen thinks so. Beautiful box of supplies will hopefully inspire the inspirationless. I think this is lovely, especially the colorway, but after the intial awe I don't think I would know what to do with these goodies. But this does hit home with me as my favorite part of Christmas presents are the cute little dodads to rummage through than the big expensive gifts.

Have you seen this?

Wow, wow, wow. Right?

 via The Hotness

Tuesday

On Tuesday I took off work to go with Jon's parents to watch Jon get sworn in to the courts to practice law. Hooray, he did it! Afterwards we went to one of Oakland's favorite restaurants, Flora. It is in a beautiful art deco building and serves lots of in-season, local, organic produce. I got the grilled persimmon, Explorateur brie, arugula, honey and walnut vinaigrette sandwich. I wish all Tuesdays were like this!

Spun Sugar: Cupcake Fever!

Today was spend slaving away in the classroom/kitchen with Cindy as we baked and decorated many cupcakes! Our teacher was Dante of Fire and Icing.

Christmas Cheat Sheet

Download your cheat sheet to fill out and give to your significant other, or if you are super greedy, to hand out to everyone you know. Free for download (seperate cards for boys + girls) at
Made in Englad.

Thanksgiving Table

I opted for the persimmons instead of the pears at the last minute! And as you can see, ran out of time to make actual name cards. Once food hit the table and people arrived, the pictures were blurry and 99% of my nephew. But I sure am proud of how the table turned out! Have a great weekend everyone.

Table stuff

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We picked up one of these baby pears for each Thanksgiving attendee last night at Whole Foods.  I plan to place each one in the middle of the plate with a tag attached to the stem by string. Hopefully I will have time to stamp out the names on the tags, or maybe just initials, depending on how big the tags are. It will be a cute placeholder and then of course, a sweet treat to munch on.

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I also asked my Dad to save me the Birch wood branches he recently trimmed back from his yard in hopes of creating a centerpiece.  Turns out they are much thinner than I thought. I had hoped to cut out rounds of varying heights to stack pillar candles on top of, but now I think only votives will fit on top. I may hack them up a bit and circle them around a pillar inside a hurricane.

No goofy cornucopias to be seen anywhere. Anyone have any tips for a more organic modern approach to Thanksgiving decor?

Gym

Our forth bedroom funtions as our gym, but until this weekend, that just meant a room with FLOR tiles and some hand weights. On Saturday I made a grand purchase of a Precor EFX Elliptical Machine! Since I realized I would be spending a lot more time in there, I made a little inspiration board for the gym where I can tack up exerices or just some celebs with killer bods.

BIG NEWS

Jon passed the Cal Bar!!! Sorry for the lack of posts around here (read: none!), but we have been waiting on bated breath all week. It is going to be a GREAT weekend!!

Great Day at the Flea

With our friends, Jon and I hit up the local flea market Sunday morning. It was successful for both of us.

This vintage desk phone is the perfect little prop for a guestroom table or our built-in shelf. We don't have a landline, but if we do, maybe it will one day serve a better purpose than looking cute. On ebay these go for 50 bucks, I got mine for $10!

 Next up was this vintage Chinese tea tin that made me think of this popular blog photo. And with the right price (free) it was an easy choice.

I also got a couple things for the kitchen, some cookie cutters, rolling pin and two vintage French pitchers (2 for $3!!!). I envision the slim pitchers on the Thanksgiving table filled with water so guests don't have to get up to refill their glass.