Life Archives - Page 7 of 22 - Caitlin Wallace-Rowland Art & Design

San Juan, Puerto Rico

June 28, 2013March 27, 2018

A few weeks ago (right after I got back from Portland) I headed on a trip to Puerto Rico with my sisters and nieces! It was such a fun and relaxing trip hanging out with family!

Get ready for a super photo-heavy post about it all! (Sorry for the varying degree of quality on these pics — some were taken with my iPhone, some with my small point and shoot, and some with a DSLR)

The resort we stayed at was really nice. Right on the beach (although, unfortunately there was a really bad undertow in the water right outside our hotel, so you could really only wade into the water a little bit), our rooms had pretty ocean views, there were four different pools, hot tubs, restaurants on site, free towel and beach chair service, the whole works. (Although, I don’t think I got any pictures of the rest of it)

Most of our days we spent relaxing by the pool or the beach, but most evenings we ventured into Old San Juan to try out various restaurants there. All the food we had was really good! It seemed like the most abundant “island food” were plantains. (sorry, didn’t get any pictures of food either!)

We enjoyed walking around Old San Juan in the evenings. It was really pretty there. It reminded me a little of the French Quarter of New Orleans, but it was much cleaner and the buildings (which I think are actually older than those in New Orleans) looked much nicer, newer and better kept. They were all painted really pretty colors. (I wish I had gotten some good pictures of them in the daylight!)

One day we ventured down to El Morro (also in Old San Juan) a 16th century citadel/castle. (read this if you want to learn more about it)

Georgiana and I ended up wearing matching shorts that day!

My and Jill’s shadows in the grass.

And BEHOLD! this might be one of my most favorite pictures of all time:

It makes me laugh every time. There was this stray cat laying there (we saw a lot of stray cats there actually) and we somehow managed to get this crazy, not really planned picture of it. They were all sitting there and I just kind-of maybe said smile and this is what became of it. Captured that moment well.

The grounds and all the old walls and stuff were really pretty and we walked around there for a while. Unfortunately, it was ridiculously hot outside and there were these swarms of really irritating little flies everywhere. They were all over and inside our hair and clothes. It was gross.

The inside of the fort was really neat as well. There were lots of little nooks and crannies and hidden-ish passageways to explore. It was huge!

A different day, the bigger kids (Bob, me, Kelsey, Jill and Evie — Blair stayed behind with Gigi and Jack during naptime) took a little trip to Laquillo Beach so that we could see a little more of Puerto Rico and swim a little farther into the water than we could outside the hotel. The mountain views on the drive were really pretty.

The beach that we stumbled upon was really pretty! It was more wild and natural than any other beach I’d ever been to. It was really cool.

We had fun checking out the coconut palms, swimming, and exploring a little river/lagoon-y thing that we found. The water was really clear and the view was picturesque.

Another day, while exploring, we walked across this bridge over a lagoon, where the water was really clear and you could see different fish swimming around. My favorite find of the day was this really awesome starfish! We were really high above it, but it had to have been around 15 inches wide.

On our last evening there, we dressed up in coordinating outfits and took pictures on the beach. Here we are in the elevator on our way down.

Love my sisters!

Apparently we were there towards the end of the rainy season, and the forecast showed rain everyday, but luckily we missed out on a lot of it. It was mostly clear and sunny everyday. Something interesting about there — it gets completely dark by 7pm every night. In the US, the sun sets much later in the summer, but it doesn’t in Puerto Rico.

Such a fun trip and great time with family! I miss relaxing by the beach/pools at the resort! We had a great time, but since there were 8 of us and we were only there a few days, we only got to see a little bit of Puerto Rico. I’m sure there are tons of other great things there to explore!

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The Real-life List

June 13, 2013

During the past school year, my time was pretty much 100% devoted to schoolwork. I literally came home every day from school to simply sit on my couch and read books or write papers for school. If I wasn’t doing that, then I was in the painting studio trying to finish paintings for my art exhibition. It was tiring and exhausting. My house was constantly a mess, I rarely had time to cook dinner anymore, I didn’t do my hair or wear make-up to school a single day the entire year. It was definitely a year with a lack of any sort of “me” time. I think life should have a healthier balance than that. I didn’t have a choice however, so over the past year, whenever Drew and his friends would go play Frisbee at the park or I saw others making time for movies and other fun events, I would jot down in a notebook things that I wanted to make a priority in my life once my college years were behind me, when I had a “real life.”

Thank goodness that day has come. I’m a listy person and I loved the challenge of my 20 before 20 list I did a couple years ago, so I thought it would be fun to do something similar again. This list however is much more general and doesn’t have any particular end date the things have to be accomplished by. It is a list of self improvement, things I want to make a bigger priority in life, things I want to do for “me” time, things that need to get done around the house, things I haven’t had time to do in the last year, etc. Let’s get started, shall we? Introducing the now-that-I-have-a-real-life list:

Listed in no particular order:

1. Try to read at least one book a month (of MY choosing!)

2. Make time to actually read the magazines I subscribe to.

3. Make time for more DIY/home projects. (fabric roman shades for the kitchen, refinish Drew’s dresser, paint/stain Drew’s desk, makeover our coffee table, makeover white cabinet in foyer, style office built-ins, hang art in the rest of the hallway, etc.)

4. Re-arrange and organize my home office/studio. (Set up a spot for painting, work on storage solutions, fabric storage, etc.)

5. Make a list of goals for what I want to accomplish next in life. (Keep the school momentum going!)

6. Plan a vacation that doesn’t fall on a typical school break.

7. Make an entryway area in our foyer. (mirror on wall, bench seat, baskets for shoes, coat hooks, etc.)

8. Update resume, figure out how to write a cover letter, start looking for jobs. (already started!)

9. Research potential grad school programs?

10. Spend time reading through the cookbooks I have and try more recipes outside my typical taste.

11. Have a picnic in the park, play frisbee, relax.

12. Develop a better exercise routine in addition to my Pilates classes. Take a yoga class, evening bike rides, morning jogs, more time at the gym.

13. Garden!

14. Journal/write/blog more. (Poetry image notebook)

15. Visit more flea markets and estate sales! Can’t beat great vintage finds!

16. Plan weekend trips to explore Louisiana and the surrounding areas. (Monroe, Shreveport, etc.)

17. Plan a trip to Texas! (Other than a layover on a flight to Cali, I’ve never been to Texas and it is super close to Louisiana!)

18. Work on keeping our marriage healthy. (more date nights, time for each other away from the computer!, etc.)

19. Frame and hang more of my own artwork.

20. Add more interest and pattern to our bedroom decor. (It is still a little “blah” right now! Bring in some pattern/color/texture! Hang art, find nightstands, get new lamps.)

21. Make nightly Bible studies more in depth and find a home church in New Orleans.

22. Sign Drew and I up for a ceramics workshop class!

23. Work with gazelle-like intensity on our budget/debt pay off! (Dave Ramsey plan)

24. Learn Adobe Illustrator to the max! (I know how to do a lot in it, but I’m mostly self-taught and there is much more I want to know how to do!)

25. Start on surface pattern design self-education! (Illustrator, Start sketching patterns, finding inspiration, designing repeatable patterns, coming up with color schemes, working with my Wacom tablet, etc.)

26. Make a quilt!

27. Plan a trip back to Europe (hopefully sometime in the next few years). I want to visit Kristine in Denmark and Jacky in Germany/Switzerland, would also love to go to Italy, Greece, Ireland/Scotland (where my Wallace ancestors came from forever ago), and a million other places. Drew wants to check out the craft beer selections in Belgium.

28. Spend more time watercolor painting, series of sketches, finished works, etc. (It was my first love!)

29. Redesign Icing on the Cake blog (already started on this too!)

30. Work on putting together P.S. Designs Portfolio (graphic design, logo/branding work, print products)

31. Take classes in calligraphy and letterpress.

32. Open an Etsy shop?

33. Get better at gluten-free baking.

34. Design stationary for myself.

35. Continue to paint, exploring more fabric paintings.

36. Watch Downton Abbey. (and other shows I haven’t had time for in the last few years!)

37. Read my Papaw’s book. (I’ve read most of the stories in it, and went around with him reading them at book signings when the book first came out, but I’ve never taken the time to sit down and read it cover to cover, plus its been a while since it was published, so I should read them all again anyway!)

38. Next 5 years– hopefully buy and start remodeling a house!

I’m sure these will continually be updated and added to, but it is a start for now!

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Tulane University Bachelor of Arts Art Exhibition

June 12, 2013March 27, 2018

Much of my time over the last few months of this past semester were spent here:

This was my studio space in the Advanced Painting room at Tulane. I shared this room with several other pretty cool people (and pretty awesome artists). Our end goal was to produce a body of work for our end-of-the-year, Bachelor of Arts Exhibition. Our exhibition was up in the Carroll Gallery at Tulane from May 9th-May 17th.

It was a really awesome experience to have my work shown in a gallery. Here is my final exhibition, a quilt series of twenty-four (I actually did more, these were just the ones I ended up showing) abstract landscape paintings, painted on cotton quilting fabric, some fabrics sewn together, and some including machine and hand embroidery.

My artist statement:

I grew up in rural Southern Illinois on land that has been passed down through my family for generations. Before I started school, I spent every day with my grandmother, who encouraged my love of watercolor painting and being creative and who established the foundation for my personality and moral beliefs. My grandpa wrote stories, fished everyday, and grew a huge garden that I helped him harvest. I loved snapping off the ripe asparagus, helping my grandma cook, and laying in the hammock in their backyard. Just down the road was my own house, where I climbed trees and ran through the creek with my sisters and brother, helped my dad work in the yard and feed our chickens, and helped my mom plant flowers and herbs, cook and bake. Throughout my childhood, my mom imparted to me her creative knowledge – sewing, hand embroidery, cross-stitch, smocking, machine embroidery, knitting, crocheting, and basket weaving.

After moving to New Orleans for college, I started thinking more about my own childhood and the different backgrounds of those around me. I began to really question the idea around our sense of place—how people live, where they live, why they live there—the spaces people create for themselves. How do these places impact our personalities and our interests? During this time, I also developed a love for interior design—a way to carve out a space for myself that felt comfortable and familiar, a place where I could mix my former and current worlds in a way that was also beautiful and intriguing.

My art aims to capture a sense of personal history, exploring both the past and the present, questioning the differences in the city and the country, and highlighting domestic pursuits and interior spaces and exploring their connection with the natural world. I’m interested in the juxtaposition of interior and exterior spaces—nature and domesticity, home and homestead, city and country—but also interested in how they work together and are innately connected. Because of my upbringing, I’m very interested in the use of sewing, embroidery, quilting, fabric and pattern and how those elements can intertwine with paint to create images. I’m also interested in the elements that make up interiors—paint, fabric and textiles, wood textures, natural elements, metal finishes—and how many of those elements find their roots in the natural—cotton, linen, wood, and minerals. One of my aesthetic and conceptual goals is to somehow marry interior and natural elements into a single image, developing a quilt of sorts, that evokes a feeling of comfort, sentiment, and history that an interior of a home or a familiar natural setting provides.

If you want to check out more of my artwork, you can visit my portfolio website, here.

To check out work from the other artists showing with me, visit our exhibition website, here.

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Tulane University Graduation 2013

May 21, 2013March 27, 2018

Haven’t seen much of me on here this last semester, huh? Well that should be changing soon.

Last weekend, this happened:

My freshman roommate and first friend at Tulane, Sarah.

The graduation was held downtown at the Superdome.

My little sister, Kelsey, graduated from High School on the same day as me, so our family split up for the graduation ceremonies. My brother-in-law, Bob, niece, Georgiana, and mom came to mine.

Drew’s mom and dad, Susie and Bob, also came down for graduation.

I graduated cum laude from Tulane University with a B.A. in English and Studio Art (concentration in painting). After four tough years, I’m so happy to have those college days behind me. This past semester in particular was just so insanely hectic that I feel like I haven’t had a real life in forever. I’m happy to be getting back to the real world. The world of friends, cooking, sewing, gardening, house projects, travel, job searching, and not thinking about French classes or studying until late into the night. I’m excited to get back to blogging! I’ve got lots of things to share with you!

P.S. The Dalai Lama spoke at my graduation ceremony. How awesome is that? 🙂

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Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013!

January 10, 2013March 27, 2018

I hope you all enjoyed your holiday season! Mine was great! However, just like the rest of 2012, it was so hectic and went by so fast! Drew and I visited our families in our hometown over the holidays and it was so nice to see them. We also got over 16 inches of snow while we were there! It was so fun and so pretty! I really miss that about winter when I’m in New Orleans!

Check out my Instagram to see more photos of our holiday vacation, including the snow, the scarves I crocheted, and our quick getaway trip to Saint Louis while we were home as well.

I know it is after Christmas now and I should have posted this sooner, but I wanted to share with you our first ever Rowland family Christmas card!

It was extra special this year being our first Christmas as a married couple! Drew’s birthday is also on Christmas, so it is always a special holiday around here.

I’m naturally a really self-reflective person, always re-evaluating my goals and how I’m meeting them, but I love how the holiday season gets everyone in a reflective mood — focusing on family and what is important, thinking over the past year and then making goals they want to meet in the upcoming one.

2012 was a really crazy year for me/us. A whole lot of wedding planning, Drew graduating from college, Drew starting work in a salary position, expanding our business, getting married, going on our honeymoon (to Boston, New Hampshire and Maine — I still need to blog about that!), working on making our apartment our home, and me getting closer and closer to graduating as well. It was a great year, but a really busy/crazy/hectic one, and I’m happy it is now over. School has gotten more and more intense as I’m getting closer to graduating and this past semester really seemed to take over my life. I was at school from early in the morning to really late at night (some of my classes didn’t get out until 9:30 at night!) and didn’t have time for a whole lot else (including blogging — that’s why I’ve been so MIA). I’ve really been stretched thin lately, and I don’t see it getting too much better (actually probably much worse) until this upcoming semester is over and I graduate.

However, even though 2013 will probably be a hectic year as well, I’ve got a lot to look forward to! I graduate this year! I could not be more excited for that day to come! I’m so over the whole college lifestyle and everything that comes with it. I’m also excited to see what job opportunities lie ahead and what I end up doing once I get out of school. So many exciting things to pursue!

I also have a lot of big changes in my life for 2013. As of the new year, Drew and I are now on Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. This is such an important change for me this year. As a single woman, I had a older, used car paid for by my parents when I turned 16 and a scholarship that covered pretty much all my college expenses. I knew people lived in debt, but never really knew what that felt like. When I got married, I inherited from my husband a car that has monthly payments, a lot of money in student loans, and a small amount of credit card debt. Debt sucks, y’all. A couple months of that stress and I decided that is all I could take. Dave Ramsey’s book really is life-changing. It makes you think about money, spending and debt in a whole new way. We have re-evaluated our budget and are doing all we can to diminish our debts as quickly as possible. Our goal for 2013 is to pay off all credit card debt and Drew’s car by the end of the year. Hopefully in the two years following that we can get all of Drew’s student loans paid off. Those payments are not something I want to live with for any longer than humanly possible. Even if that means sacrificing a lot of other things along the way (like eating out, spending money on things for our house we don’t need, extra television stations, extras on phone plans and bigger things like waiting to buy a house or start a family). So hopefully we can get that over with and get on with our lives! Really, I know we are just starting this, but if you have any debt or need tips on managing your money, saving for retirement, saving for college for your kids, or just want to live in financial peace, read Dave’s books. I really think everyone needs to read them. Your life will be changed. I’m warning you.

If that wasn’t a big enough goal to start out 2013 with, I also have big lifestyle changes in the health department. Over this past summer I found out that I have hypothyroidism. That basically means that my thyroid doesn’t produce enough thyroid hormone and in turn causes a whole slew of other problems — exhaustion/tiredness, lack of concentration, impaired memory, depression, headaches, acne, digestive problems, problems being able to stand cold temperatures, problems with metabolism, weakness, muscle aches, etc. I’ve been experiencing different levels of these problems for the past several years and didn’t know what was wrong with me. Being in college and therefore working late nights, being stressed out and not getting enough sleep also tended to exaggerate these problems. I was so thankful to finally figure out what was causing the symptoms though. Hypothyroidism can be treated — but that means I have to take thyroid hormone supplements every day and likely will have to for the rest of my life. After I started taking the thyroid supplements and got my levels in the right place, I was feeling much better, but still not perfect. So I didn’t stop there.

After the endocrinologist didn’t say much different, I headed to my dad’s nutritionist to see what was the cause of the hypothyroidism and how to better combat it. I never believe that medication is the only right and final answer to anything! I want to get to the source of these problems and treat that. So I met with this nutritionist and although we are still working through my hair analysis to figure out what nutrient deficiencies I have and what vitamin supplements I need to take, I’m as of 2013 on a much stricter diet to maintain optimal health. I found out that I have sensitivities to wheat and milk (I had suspected this before), so although I’m not necessary “allergic” and I’m not going to break out in hives when I eat/drink them, I can’t digest them as well as I should be able to and they are therefore not helping me or adding any needed nutrients to my diet. I also have sensitivities to soy as well, so I’m staying away from that. Soy has a lot of hormones, and my levels of estrogen are already really high, so soy isn’t good for me because of that. In addition, my diet suggests I cut out corn products, they are so genetically modified these days that there isn’t much good left in them and white rice as well (starchy, carbohydrate-rich foods aren’t really so great for anyone). So this year (and for likely the rest of my life), I will be doing my best to not eat wheat, white rice, corn, soy or milk. Yikes! I also need to up my meat intake and my vegetable intake. I can still have other less-genetically modified and more nutrient rich carbs like red and white potatoes, beans, peas, lentils, quinoa, oats, sprouted grains, wild rice and limited amounts of brown rice. I also need to limit my sugar intake (as does everyone) to practically zero, so I’m trying to use only honey, agave nectar, and very limited amounts of turbinado sugar as a sweetener and limiting my fruit intake (again most fruits today have been so genetically modified that they contain so much sugar and not as many nutrients anymore — but I can still have it all, just a limit on my daily intake). I also am limiting my salt intake and only using Celtic sea salt (pure salt, no additives). The diet only lets you drink water as well (along with herbal teas), but I already only drink water, so that really isn’t a change. There are some other rules as well about what to eat with what (eat meat and veggies together and then eat starches like potatoes, peas, beans, lentils with vegetables, but don’t eat meat with potatoes/beans/lentils, etc. One is acidic, one is alkaline, so eating them together limits nutrient absorption) and the doctor also told me a lot of really great health information, but I’ll leave it at that. I would recommend everyone see a good nutritionist and start eating right for themselves!

I’ve been at it for the last week or so, and really so far, it isn’t that hard. You just have to change your mindset from eating for comfort to eating for health. There are also a lot of really great recipes out there that are gluten/rice/corn/soy free. I really didn’t eat that much corn or soy before anyway, and not enough white rice to make it that hard to cut out (plus it is easy enough to sub for brown rice or wild rice). Wheat is the big one (pasta, bread, baked goods, etc.) but there are lots of gluten-free options and lots of other flours to bake with (almond flour, coconut flour, quinoa flour, oat flour, etc.), so it really isn’t that difficult either. I haven’t missed milk yet, but I can always sub that with almond milk or small amounts of raw milk if it becomes a problem. I’m excited to start feeling better and being healthier!

So here’s to a healthier year this 2013 in many ways!

Do you have any goals for the new year?

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Reindeer Run (I ran a 5K!)

December 2, 2012March 27, 2018

Hey y’all. Long time, no post. School has been pretty serious this semester and therefore has left very little time in which to blog. But I have lots of wedding pictures, house posts, and all kinds of stuff to share with you whenever things settle down! Trying to finish two majors is no joke!

Anyway, I wanted to share this little tidbit with you. This past weekend I crossed something off my bucket list! I ran a 5K! If you know me personally, then you know that running is not something I do. Side stitches, aching muscles, bouncing boobs, panting out of breath, what is fun about that!? Well, a few weeks ago, my friend, Sarah, asked if I would run in the Reindeer Run with her. My immediate response was, “Me? Run a 5K? You must be kidding!” But she reassured me that it was a fun thing and wasn’t too serious and that my super slow self wouldn’t be left behind. So I did the crazy thing and signed up for it!

I didn’t practice at all before this run. But I figured that if worse came to worse, I would walk the whole thing and at least be able to say that I put myself out there and did it. I didn’t have enough notice for training beforehand. I did do some research on running though — (how to breathe while running, how to keep your pace, tips for non-runners running 5Ks, what to eat beforehand, how to not get side stitches, etc) — which I definitely think helped.

I was still pretty nervous on my way to the race though.

But once I got there and saw that my race packet came with reindeer antlers to wear and jingle bells to tie on my shoes, I felt a little better.

The race itself was really fun and actually way easier than I thought! 3.2 miles goes by pretty quickly when you are chatting with friends! I can’t say that I really ran much, I pretty much speed walked/jogged the whole thing, but I was pretty happy with the pace I went and I kept it up the whole time with no side stitches and no out-of-breath-ness. It felt really good! I also did a good 30 minutes of pre-race yoga/pilates though, which I think really helped.

It was a really fun environment too. Everyone with their jingle bells and antlers, the Christmas lights all lit up at night, and the track we ran through downtown Baton Rouge was really neat! We looped around the Louisiana state capitol building!

It was such a great time and I’m so happy that I actually did it! (I think Drew was convinced for a while that I was going to chicken out at the last minute!) I definitely will be jogging and hopefully one day running more 5K’s in the future!

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Estate Sale Finds

September 26, 2012March 27, 2018

I love houses. I love houses like most men love sports. I’m obsessed with them. The architecture, the styling, the character, the colors, the decor, the layout, I love it all. I am obsessed with home blogs, books and magazines. People renovating their homes, people decorating their homes, how people live in their homes, make the most of their spaces and how people bring their own style and sentiment to their homes.

We live in houses, we share moments and memories in houses. They are safe havens, spaces to relax, spaces to craft, cook, work, sleep, play and live. The spaces inside them bring people together. Growing up in them, they help build us and shape us into who we are. We attach memories and times of our lives to them. There is such a complex network of things that houses allow.

Anyway, lately I’ve discovered something that is like dessert to my love of houses & my love of decorating my own — estate sales. For the past few weeks, Drew and I have been spending our Saturday mornings going to tagged estate sales. I love adding things that have history and character into our home, and I also love vintage things and pretty, old, well-made things. Since estate sales are generally for homes of older people that have passed away or are downsizing to a living facility or something, estate sales really offer unique and vintage finds and more often than not, they have real wooden furniture and things that are older and much more well made than some newer things today.

I do like going to them to look and see if I can score any good home finds, but I also love going to them to see the homes as well. It is so interesting to me to see how people live in their houses, how they decorate and furnish them, and to imagine what lovely memories took place inside those walls. I think it is neat to see how much a person’s home tells about their character and what they were like. You can imply a lot about a person by the things that they own. I love walking through and trying to figure out what the person was like that lived there and what these items meant to their lives.

Although, I always get kind-of sad walking through a house and seeing the remnants of a person’s life. It always makes me wonder what happened to the person and why their family doesn’t want to keep more of their belongings. If I do buy something, I feel like I’m providing a good home for something that used to be meaningful to someone else. I love feeling like I rescued some well-loved possession of theirs that is now going to live in my home and add to my life story. I love beautiful things that have a history.

At one sale, I got most of the items in this post. I immediately fell in love with this vintage crewelwork embroidery and the beautiful frame that it is in. I wonder if the lady that lived in the house stitched it herself? I added the glass to it, to keep moths from continuing to destroy it. You can see they they had started to eat away at some of the stitching. It was $5.

I also immediately fell in love with this adorable little tulip-shaped, white, floral plant pot. I need to figure out where in my house I want to put it so I can check the lighting conditions and find a plant for it.

We don’t have any napkin rings, so when I saw these beautiful wooden ones, I had to get them. Aren’t they so pretty next to our white dinner plates and our brightly colored napkins?

These pink, purple and green floral cloth napkins were a dollar or something, so I bought them (a set of six). I thought they would be cute with our white plates for a springtime brunch.

I love this cute little lace pillow I found there as well!

These vintage sheets were a dollar or two, so I picked them up as well. I thought the pattern was cute and I could use them as fabric to make something. Pretty cheap for the amount of fabric.

Between two different sales we went to that day, I amassed this collection of vintage Reader’s Digest books. I’ve always loved them and I’m so happy to have some in my home. Aren’t the covers just gorgeous? I love those patterns and colors! The spines look so pretty on a shelf as well. I think they were maybe 50 cents or a dollar a piece. The dates on them range from the 1950s through the 1980s.

One of the sales we went to was the estate of an old watchmaker. His house was so interesting. The office where the man used to work was just full of neat tools and watch parts and lots of really cool things. He had also fought in WWII and there were piles and piles of love letters that he and (his wife I’m guessing) wrote back and forth to each other. How sweet! There was also a Nazi flag, some huge bullets from some kind of crazy tank/gun or something, and lots of other war history memorabilia. Much of it belonged in a museum. It was so neat. We ended up buying a couple of the Reader’s Digest books there and also this beaker and Erlenmeyer flask. Drew bought them to use in his homebrewing, but how cool and unexpected would it be to use the Erlenmeyer flask as a vase to hold flowers? It totally brings back memories of high school Chemistry class.

I think we spent maybe $30 total on all the items that we bought in this post. Pretty good for all those lovelies, huh?

We didn’t end up buying anything at a few of the other sales we’ve been to lately, but the houses have been just as neat. The last one we went to was the home of a former interior designer and her house was so awesome and eclectic and had so much character! I fell in love with it and wanted to buy it so bad! (except for the fact that it was already sold and had sold for almost $400,000!) But it was a really neat one to go and see and I ended up with some old magazines and wallpaper samples that were free. Another one we went to had an awesome ornate mirror that I fell in love with, but someone else got to it before I did. It was sad. It would have looked awesome in the little welcome/entryway area I’m trying to create in our foyer. Another house was right off St. Charles and had the most awesome rooms with 13 foot ceilings and amazing high-end wallpaper. It was gorgeous.

I can’t wait to visit some more next weekend and to figure out where I’m going to hang my crewelwork embroidery! How about you, score any great vintage finds lately?

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***Rhoda from Southern Hospitality does Thrifty Treasures posts with great vintage/thrift finds from different people. I’m linking up there, you should check them out, here! There are always such neat treasures!

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2 years of Icing on the Cake Blog

September 14, 2012

Hello all!

The last several weeks have been crazy around here! If you were watching the news lately, you saw that Hurricane Isaac made its path straight for New Orleans the last week of August/first week of September. Even though it hit New Orleans, only minor flooding and damage occurred (mostly just power outages and a few trees down). For most, it wasn’t bad at all. School was cancelled for me and work for Drew, so we decided to make a trip up to see our families in Southern Illinois. We thought that sounded better than sitting in our apartment that was bound to lose power during the storm! (August in New Orleans = HOT with no AC!) It was a good thing we did leave because our apartment didn’t have power for 4 or 5 days. We had lots of food in our fridge, freezer, and deep freeze to throw away when we got home. 🙁

Anyway, we had a nice week-long hurrication that allowed us some much needed relaxation and family time. Once we got back from that, things have been going along here at super speed! My schoolwork has jumped in double time to make up for time lost from the storm and so I have been busy non-stop! Lots of abstract painting, ceramics, digital media, impressionist art history, and 19th century literature by American women writers for me! I’ll be so happy to finish up this last year of school!

Anyway, other than catching you up with the happenings of my life, this post is really to celebrate 2 years of Icing on the Cake Blog! September 4th was my 2 year blogging anniversary (so you can see this post is a week or so late!). You can check out what I had to say last year about my 1 year blogging anniversary, here.

In the last two years, it has been so nice to be able to document the happenings of my life. It is a great resource for me to look back on things that I’ve done, house projects completed, to look up recipes and just re-live those memories. I love blogging for that very reason.

Over the last two years, I’ve posted 245 blog posts, with 750 tags (that is a lot of topics!), and had 458 comments. I’ve also had over 25,000 visitors to my blog.

My first year of blogging, I averaged about 3 1/2 blog posts per week, but this year I’ve only averaged 1 1/2 posts per week. I do feel that my blog content has gotten much better in the last year though. I started posting on all sorts of topics and in the last year feel like I have better narrowed down my blog focus — mostly to things related to the home — decorating, crafting, and cooking.

I feel like blogging might take somewhat of a backseat in the next year, since this school year is going to be a pretty tough one. I want blogging to stay as something that I enjoy and lately it has become somewhat stressful in my already busy life. Another thing demanding my attention. Don’t think that I’m going to disappear though, I just might not be posting as frequently! I still have tons of house projects, wedding photos, recipes, and all kinds of stuff that I’ve completed this summer that are just waiting to be featured! I simply haven’t had the time to do so lately!

A big thank all of you lovely readers that stop by to see what is going on over here! Here’s to another great year! 🙂

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Fabric Shopping * Hancock’s of Paducah

August 1, 2012March 27, 2018

The last week or so I’ve been in Southern Illinois visiting my family. Every time I’m back home, I try to squeeze in a trip to my favorite fabric store in the area — Hancock’s of Paducah (in Paducah, KY). I absolutely love fabric and could spend all day in a fabric store. I love all the prints, patterns and possibilities of things to make out of all the prettiness! I had several house projects in mind that I needed fabric for, so I was definitely in need of a trip to the fabric store while I was home! (New Orleans doesn’t have any great fabric stores.)

Hancock’s of Paducah is a completely different store than the Hancock’s chain of fabric stores that are found around the country. This one is so much bigger and better! They have a wonderful selection of cotton and home decor fabrics (I believe their main market is for quilters in the area). This isn’t your place to go for silk or apparel fabrics.

I love that they carry higher quality cotton fabrics, especially many by well-known fabric designers.

Here are some of Sandi Henderson‘s newest “Secret Garden” fabrics:

And by Amy Butler:

So many pretty fabrics to choose from!

I’m especially loving large-scale floral prints right now. I love this blue one below. I actually ended up buying some of the pink version of this fabric! Stay tuned to see where it ends up in my house! I’ve actually already been working with my mom on several fabric projects while I’m here!

Here is what my cart looked like once I had made several trips through the store:

Isn’t that champagne metallic dot fabric neat? I ended up buying some of several of these fabrics in my cart. I can’t wait to get back to New Orleans and get them incorporated into my home!

Speaking of the home, they have a great selection of heavier weight home decor fabrics as well. I would love to buy some of these for my home! It is so hard to choose between them though! I kept envisioning beautiful curtains made out of many of these:

Love this green quatrefoil pattern:

I am really, really in love with the combination of this warm grey floral and this rasperry ikat dot fabric. I think they would be lovely to make into layered curtain panels like in this picture here.

So many great options! I just made new curtains for my office (I still need to share pictures), but seeing all these gorgeous fabrics is making me regret choosing the fabric I did!

They also have a few great bargain bin areas where they have fabric remnants for discounted prices. I found a great white and cream check fabric in that pile, enough to make a throw pillow out of for $2.50. Can’t beat a pretty couch pillow for $2.50!

Of all the wonderful options, this is what I left the store with:

Can’t wait to show you what I end up doing with these!

If you live in the Southern Illinois (IN-KY-MO) area, you should definitely check out Hancock’s of Paducah! I’m always a little sad if I make a trip home and don’t get a chance to go! They even sell a lot of fabrics and quilt kits online as well.

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Date Night Idea Jars

July 23, 2012March 27, 2018

We received lots of lovely wedding gifts. I thought this gift, made by my brother and his girlfriend, was too cute an idea not to share with you all.

They gave us two glass jars filled with Popsicle sticks. On the sticks in one of the jars, they had written out different date night ideas and the other was full of blank sticks for us to come up with our own ideas and write them down.

I love the things they put on them. Most are cute, simple, inexpensive (or even free) date night ideas. Things like “Go on a picnic!,” “Go get ice cream,” “Cook together,” & “Drive out into the country and stargaze.” I love that they even personalized some specifically to New Orleans, like “Take a cemetery tour,” “Visit The Chart Room,” & “Do something touristy.” I love that we can set aside specific date nights and then just pull out one of the sticks to figure out what to do!

I’m not sure if it was planned or not, but the color they painted the jar lids and the ribbons even matched my wedding color scheme. How sweet!

Such a sweet gift and a cute project to do for a friend, give as an engagement or wedding gift, or even a gift to someone already married. It is always important, especially after being in a relationship for a while, to still remember to have date nights. It would be a fun bridal shower activity, having each of the guests write down date night ideas for the couple. It would even be fun to do this project with kids for family trip ideas. There are lots of fun activities to do with kids and I’m sure they would love helping to color on the Popsicle sticks!

Thank you guys for our sweet gift! 🙂

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