The Lonely Bouquet Project

When my sister got married down in LA we used the fabulous florist, Twig and Twine, for her bouquet. I've followed the shop on Instagram since then and noticed a wonderful little idea she posted about a few week back. It's called the "Lonely Bouquet Project" and involves simply creating a bouquet and leaving it in a public place with a note for a stranger to find and take home. Then you can hit their website and track the bouquets that are being left and received. How sweet, simple and lovely.

Hydrangea Season

This is our first summer living in our little rental house in Wallingford and I'm totally in love with the giant hydrangea bush in our front yard. I've been clipping the gorgeous bundles and making bouquets to give to friends and neighbors and place all over my house. My neighbor also brought me over some lavender yesterday to "calm the nerves" as I wait for baby to make his debut. Between the sunshine, flowers and fresh seasonal food, this is a great time of year to be waiting for baby.

31 Weeks and Peonies

I had Patrick take a snap a quick picture of me standing next to my pretty peonies before our midwife appointment last night. 31 weeks has flown by! Really looking forward to meeting our baby boy. :)

Winter Flowers: Hyacinth

Over the weekend my mom dropped off a fun treat at my house, hyacinth bulbs in adorable glass vases. Seattle has been in the midst of a torrential downpour all week so it's wonderful to have these quick-growing, gorgeous-smelling flowers waiting for me at home. Have you ever grown them before? I think this is going to have to be a new January tradition for me. The only downside is Rafa thinks they are his new play toy. :)

PS. I had wanted to take photos of my own plants but it is like nighttime all day here so the lighting just isn't working out. Sunshine please come back to Seattle!

(first Image, second image)

Mums the Word

Yes, I'm on a lame pun kick this week, give me a break. Are you into fall Mums? It's fun to see them around town and get in the autumnal mood, plus they aren't too pricey. I'm trying to fill an arsenal of fun fall thoughts to fight against the impending winter blues. Here's some mum-spiration from around the web. Happy Fall!

(top, house, pumpkins, pins, steps)

Project Pinterest: Wine Bottle Vase

After months of Jenny's Project Pinterest experiments I finally joined in the fun this week! We saved a couple of our especially cute wine bottles from last week's vacation and transformed them into cute vases. Jenny had pinned the "Breaking the Bottle" tutorial a while back and we finally got out our nail polish remover and matches last night and gave it a shot. 

Don't we look awesome after our jog? ;)

It was actually quite simple to but I think we need to perfect our methods next time. All you do is dip some cotton string in nail polish remover, tie it around the bottle, set it on fire (!!), and then plunge it into cold water. Our first bottle is the one seen in the above photo and worked very well. We only wished we'd had some sand paper to smooth off the edges on the top of the bottle.

Unfortunately, the second bottle wasn't quite as successful. Maybe the water got too warm and we should have added more ice? Or perhaps the flames weren't big enough.

What do you think of the final product? This was an easy experiment I'd do again.

Peonies Are Here!

Peonies are finally here, which means the start of summer to me! Peonies were my wedding flower when P and I tied the knot almost four years ago. Paula from Paisley Petals did a great job.

PS. 5 way to arrange peonies. 

Top photo from Pinterest, bottom JKOE Photography

Lovely Lilacs

Every spring I look forward to lilacs. One of my favorite things about our house is the giant lilac bush, that's really more of a lilac tree, in our backyard. I wake up to it every morning out my bedroom window. It smells wonderful. I like to put little bunches of it in to mason jars and fill my house with them and gift them to friends and often times moms as it conveniently times it's blooming right around Mother's Day!

Cherry Blossoms

Did you know that Jenny and I went to the most beautiful college in the world?! That would be the University of Washington here in Seattle. On Saturday we swung by our alma mater during a brief sun break to take in the blooming cherry blossoms in the quad.

Spring is in the air...

Although we've seen nothing but rain, rain, rain here in Seattle these past few weeks it is clear that spring is upon us! Everything seems to be growing and shades of vibrant green are everywhere. Here are somethings that have us excited about SPRING.

Fresh farmers market salads

Wearing flats instead of boots

Peonies - My favorite flower

Cute Baby Animals

Bright Technical Prints

Attempting to Garden - even if it's just the patio!

Spending more time outside (photo slingyourhook)

Happy First Day of Spring!!

Spring Has Sprung!

I can't even describe how happy I am to see some blossoms and tiny buds appearing around town. After many long months of cold, dark and wet, spring is finally here! On my lunch break I strolled through the Seattle University campus and took these flower shots on my iPhone. I used Camera+ to give them a little edit and love how they turned out. Thanks J&J for all your great tips on taking photos with the iPhone!