I don’t know about you but while I love travelling, I don’t think my jewelry does. Why else would it protest and ball itself up into a labrynth of chains never to release the one necklace that I want? And if I do ‘win’ and wrestle the necklace I want to wear out of the ‘great ball of jewelry’ it undoubtedly has a knot or TWO in it as reward for my victory. How is that even possible?

Something had to be done. I could no longer take the jewelry carnage.

So I did what any woman who loves jewelry does… I went straight to the “fish n’ tackle” section of my local hardware store. Naturally.

And now my jewelry can no longer fight in long car and plane rides.

I simply took a standard ‘fish bait’ case…

I can’t even begin to tell you how much easier this made getting ready on our recent vacation. To find what I wanted to wear quickly and without ‘world war jewelry’ was awesome.

I put my larger bangles and headbands etc. in another small toiletry bag which was fine as they were never the problem pieces. But for now, I’ve got this jewelry all wrangled up and now all I have to worry about on vacation is whether I should order dessert or not (and by the way, the answer to that is always ‘YES’).

What about you? Any fun tips for travelling? Any recent jewelry arm wrestles? Any recent episodes of “earrings gone wild”? Only the censored version please – this is a rated G blog. 😉

Serenity Now
The Life of Faith
i heart naptime
Lil’ Mrs. Tori
Cherished Bliss

If you see a 5’3″ girl out there with brown curly hair and a goofy perma-grin it’s probably me. Why am I smiling? Because it is almost FALL! I love Autumn. My absolute favourite season of the year. As a westcoastie rain lover who is allergic to the sun (seriously – I get a major rash) I am so over summer by about June 22.

But alas – September is here! Yay! And with that, cooler weather, raindrops and time to decorate my mantel for FALL!

 Pulling back a bit…

After painting the mantel black last summer, decorating for Fall has had a fun new spin on it. I did a  slightly more rustic look last year so wanted something fresh and crisp this time ’round.

First I pulled out anything I thought may work and lined ‘er up on the couch.

Then I began by hanging the wreath that I made last year. I’ve never been a fan of the ‘traditional’ fake leaf and poppuri type fall wreaths so decided to make my own simpler version.

Then I focussed on the two ‘anchors’ – the white tree trunk vases which I filled with some funky things that looked like pussy willows on steroids who had gotten their hair dyed. I found them for $6 at Pier One! Score.

To make the steroid willows stand up straight (versus splaying out and flopping to the vase edges) I did a simple scotch tape grid – like I did here and here.

Then I layered in the other elements…

My large orange glass pumpkin (which has an opening in back for a candle)…

Serenity Now
The Life of Faith

Lil’ Mrs. Tori
Cherished Bliss
Centsational Girl

Ah, September is here! I love Autumn and lucky for me it is now just around the corner! Whether you are holding on to the last few moments of summer or eagerly anticipating the crispness of Fall with me, I hope you love these picks for my September calendar roundup.

To download, simply click on the link below and follow the prompts.

Jennifer Squires

Kriegs

Red Stamp

Pepper and Buttons

Basic Grey

The Look

the pretty blog

Oana Befort

Caroline Johansson

Paper Leaf

TGIF!

I came across this today and loved it so much that I had to share.

So true. So true.

Being in a creative profession (I’m a Graphic Designer) I believe this to my core. I work hard to foster Chace’s (my three year old) creativity and keep him inspired. There is nothing better then seeing the uninhibited creations of a toddler.

Have a great weekend everyone!

I’ve started a little feature that will be only on my Facebook page where I, well, feature one great blog every Friday!

The blogs I will be showcasing are just some of my personal faves that I feel have a lot to offer. I thought it was a fun way to introduce blogs that have amazing content to new readers. Kind of like a virtual blind date set-up if you will.

But don’t worry, you don’t have to pick up the tab for dinner.

If this little exclusive to my Facebook Fans interests you, please click on over and like me (and see who I’m featuring today).

Who knows, you could find your blog soul mate.

Similarly to how I added new art to our living room (in the form of the painting I did of Chace), I decided to update the art that hung over our leather chair in the family room off the kitchen – and was able to do it for free!

Here is what it looked like before. This is an old picture – I’ve since redone that tray table – which has since moved to a different location. And Chace’s high chair (in the background) is now in storage (sniff) but you get the idea…

Now this same corner looks like this…

Nothing drastic – but still nice.

As mentioned, it was a free makeover as I already owned the frames (but had nothing in them) and took the photos myself. I actually took them the day after I got my current camera as I was eager to test it out (so that would make it Boxing Day 2009). The photos were taken in the forest behind our home. Can’t beat that for location and price!

Here is a closer image of them both.

I simply printed each photo out on our home colour printer and trimmed off the white margin.Then I mounted each on a piece of black paper to creat a matt. I then mounted that on the matt that came with the frame.

And since it’s really hard to take a clear photo of a photo, here are the two shots that I have in the frames.