Spring Inspiration

March 1, 2013

Happy March!!

I've been crafting, designing, carving, stenciling, {you name it}...

Spring serves as one of our top inspirations and we can't wait to show you our newest projects!

We decided to do a little revamping to our blog, as we wanted to welcome March with brighter colors and a fresher design. We'll be sharing a few of our design tips next week.

How are you welcoming the new season?

Flower Arrangements 101 with JL Designs

February 26, 2013

Did you see this lovely rustic photo on your Instagram feed last week?

No? Well then, you can follow us here.

;)

And guess what? I didn't buy that arrangement... I put it together with my own hands along with a few of these wonderful ladies, all thanks to JL Designs!

Me, Mom, Lauren (cousin), Aunt Sonya, Meredith (cousin)

The night offered a delightful time filled with laughter, catching up with old friends and hanging out with our sweet family.

Mom and me

Our friend Jeff, owner of JL Designs, taught an amazing flower arrangement class! If you live in Walton County (Georgia), you MUST take one of his classes.

Before I show you our photos from the class, you have to see some of his work. He was the florist for our wedding...

Read more about our wedding day here.

Is this not the loveliest and most whimsical of bouquets you've ever seen?? I love those hydrangeas, feathers and the use of my great-grandmother's broach.

Jeff helped us carry out our theme of nature, birds and nests. He was such an integral part in making our wedding day special.

Kike Morales Photography

Back to the class...

Jeff taught us how to arrange two bouquets in glass vases - all from a freshly-cut bouquet of long-stem flowers and greenery like you would get from a florist or in a grocery store.

I don't want to give away a lot of the details Jeff shared with us (out of respect for him and his business), but I'll share a few key points of basic flower arranging that everyone should know:

(1) Don't just toss that beautiful, aromatic bundle into the vase!! Trim your stems in a way that will add height and dimension to an arrangement. The shortest flowers should line up right above the lip of the vase.

(2) Put the greenery in first and fill in accordingly.

(3) Carry a color theme throughout the bouquet from top to the lip of the vase. Our pop of color was purple.

The second arrangement Jeff taught was this {sigh} absolutely stunning hydrangea and white rose arrangement.

This was honestly the coolest technique I've ever seen for arranging flowers. I will be using it any and every time we have friends over for dinner!!

It's rare to see a business willing to teach details about their profession to their customers. Jeff encouraged us all to make our own arrangements at home (even though most of the class will still run to him for all florist needs - there's no comparison to his work). All that to say, JL Designs is a fantastic company with an awesome willingness and loyalty to go above and beyond for their customers.

Thank you Jeff, Amber and Andrea at JL Designs for hosting this fantastic class!

Check out their Facebook page here and see more photos from the class.

What Does Love Look Like to You?...

February 25, 2013

Happy Monday!

Lindsy at LMR Photos shared Kid President's Pep Talk on Valentine's Day. To say that I was super encouraged and inspired, would be a dramatic understatement. So I browsed through the Favorites on the SoulPancake YouTube channel and found this gem. If you have time, I highly encourage you to watch a few more videos on SoulPancake's Favorites. They're awesome.

So, we want to know... What does love look like to you?

Perfume Pickin'

February 19, 2013

Blog Post Update:

In November, I asked for suggestions on perfume here.

Two sweet friends responded with Woman in Yellow, by Oiseau at Anthro.

So we made a trip to Anthropologie. I told JD to search around to see if he could find a perfume he liked. When I walked over to him, he had this delightfully smelling fragrance in hand:

Lollia Eau De Parfum : In Love

the delicate aromas of apple blossom, jasmine and rose

Then we picked up this lovely candle.

{swoon}

Capri Blue Mercury Glass Jar Candle : Volcano

tropical fruits, sugared oranges, lemons, and limes, redolent with lightly exotic mountain greens

Finally, we found Woman in Yellow and fell in love with the perfume! I may have snatched up a bottle of that too. ;)

Oiseau Eau De Toilette : Woman in Yellow

subtle florals melded with musk, mimosa and ylang-ylang

I feel so womanly now that I actually feel compelled to wear lipstick on a daily basis too.

What is your signature scent?

That's Amore : A Todd Nest Valentine's Day Tradition

February 14, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Is that an ironing board... with chicken and candles?

Why, yes, it most certainly is.

Valentine's Day is a super sweet day for couples, but let's be honest here -

Restaurants are always packed and overpriced,

heels are nice but house shoes are comfier,

floral arrangements are expensive and

candles sure smell sweeter in your own home.

{can you tell we're homebodies?}

So we celebrate Valentine's Day by cooking dinner together,

in our own home, and setting it all up on our ironing board by candlelight,

just like we did in 2009 in my ole' apartment at Auburn University.

Oh - and lots of chocolate. We eat lots of chocolate. :)

As cliche as it sounds, every day is Valentine's Day for us. We love marriage, we love each other and we love celebrating those things every single day. I can't imagine our marriage being any other way.

JD and I love creating new traditions and celebrating old traditions as Mr. & Mrs.

As quirky and simple as it is, we wanted to give you a little sneak peek into the way we have celebrated love on Valentine's Day.

Do you have any special Valentine's Day traditions?

Twenty-five...

February 12, 2013

At least that's what I'm hoping for...

Have you signed up for the Anthropologie card? I was super excited when we first moved up to Huntsville and saw that the nearest Anthropologie was only a few miles away.

Oh, who am I kidding..?

I'm STILL super excited that Anthro is that close to us!

I turned 25 last Tuesday. Maybe you can believe that, but 25 is kind of a big age to wrap my head around. It's certainly not old, but it makes you feel like you're at least getting old.

Kids call you ma'am.

Your body gets a little love-handlier.

Ambition drives you more because

you realize this is really the time to make of yourself who you want to become.

Big decisions are bigger than ever.

You're an adult and you should probably dress like it.

Health seems to become a trillion times more important.

Moments become sweeter by the day.

Then you realize that 25 is halfway to 50.

As JD says, this can be a half glass full or half glass empty mentality.

Obviously, it must be the half glass full mentality. There is so much more I can't wait to achieve and embark upon before I'm 50 years old. More traveling, more creating, more loving.

And I can't wait to start it all full-force in this year of my life with my sweet husband by my side.

What was turning 25 like for you?

What has been your favorite age?

AND We're Back...

February 4, 2013

Back from what, you ask?

Life.

I wish I could say we have been so busy exploring the world that we haven't had much time to write, but it's certainly not the case. On the contrary, we spent an amazing few weeks visiting with family scattered throughout the South. The roadtrips were awesome - filled with deep theological conversations and always ending with the sweet sound of laughter. The time we spent with family was precious and will forever be engrained in our hearts.

We then returned home mid-January with a heap of things to catch up on. This, of course, includes redecorating and repurposing some really cool antiques we were given and some other ones we stumbled upon during our family vacations. I'll be blogging about those special things in the very near future.

My mind has been RACING with an overflow of ideas for Jitney's Journeys - both our blog and our Etsy shop. Do you ever feel like your mind is pouring out ideas so rapidly that you can't get it down on paper fast enough?? That's been me for about five weeks now. It's a pretty bittersweet feeling. While I'm super excited about all of the ideas, I realize that I just don't have enough hands to produce them all in the quick timely manner I'd like - and even less resources to hire people to help. Fortunately, I'll have some wonderful creative hands-on-deck for about a month soon so that will be a HUGE help! In the meantime, we're in the midst of creating a solid business plan (thanks to JD's business classes and my public relations training in college) that will hopefully carry us through in the long haul. It's tough to have a long-term mindset when you have so much excitement stirring to get things done in the moment, but that's how the tortoise won. And we must have the mindset of the tortoise if we want to be successful.

Starting February 11, we will have all of our burlap products up and ready for production in the Etsy shop. Until then, we have these super cute pillows up for sale...

This one was created specifically with Valentine's Day in mind but you can set this lovely thing out any day of the year!!

Oh yeah... And I turn 25 tomorrow.

Thus, the biggest reason for me to start back in a steady routine of blogging, but more on that later.

Have a happy Monday!!

DIY : Exhilarating Bath Salt Soak

December 24, 2012

Need a quick last-minute gift idea?

This bath salt recipe is easier than spreading peanut butter on crackers.

Grab a carton of Epsom Salt, some food coloring and your favorite essential oils (use the ones from your sugar scrub or try a new scent).

I'll be using my go-to essential oils: Lavender and Eucalyptus.

These gel food colors from Wilton have lovely colors. I used the green (left box), and teal and purple (right box). You can use whichever colors you'd like though! Get creative. :)

Step 1: Measure out how much Epsom salt you will need in correlation to the jar you will be putting the bath salts into. I used these half pint jelly jars, so I filled one up to the lid and poured it into a big bowl. (I used three jars for the green food coloring, so I did this three times.)

Step 2: Add the food coloring. I started out with a few drops but thought it was too light green.... so then I added ~~a few~~ many more drops.

Step 3: Add a few drops of the essential oil...

Step 4: Mix the salts, food coloring and essential oil together.

Step 5: I decided the eucalyptus smelled too "VapoRubbish" for my liking, so I added some lavender to even out the aroma.

Step 6: Smellin' awesome and lookin' good... but still too light green. So then I added some teal food coloring to the lime green salts to add depth.

Step 7: Wipe out your bowl and repeat the steps with the lavender and purple food coloring.

Step 8: Perfection. :) Put a lid on it and tie a pretty bow around the lid.

Sprinkle a tablespoon of bath salts in a warm bath. Inhale. Exhale. Soak. :)

Turquoise and Bison Hide : Moleskine Leather Journal Cover

December 21, 2012

Over the last few years, I have wanted so badly to make my own leather journal.

Fortunately, my brother's brother-in-law taught him how to make one. Ergo, for our Christmas present, Chase (my brother) helped us make my first leather journal.

We're all spending Christmas at my parents' this year. Chase and Jackie flew in from Las Vegas Wednesday and we drove in from Huntsville that night.

Mom, Jackie and I had glitter and cardstock scattered everywhere with our projects while Chase and JD took up the other side of the basement with bison hide and leather-working tools.

Very few moments are as special as seeing family gathered together, especially when it's your husband and brother (dad joined in later after he came home early from work to be with us).

In all fairness to JD, he made 98% of my journal while I was working on other Christmas presents and drinking coffee.

Have I mentioned that my husband is rockin'??

Look at this beautiful bison hide journal they put together for me:

front on the right, back on the left

It took us a while to figure out what kind of clasp we wanted to do in the front. My only non-negotiable was the turquoise closure. Brown and turquoise are the Jitney signature colors.

Instead of making an actual journal with the super rugged and gorgeous paper, we ended up making a leather journal cover so that I can interchange all of my Moleskine journals.

I stitched the flap for decorative purposes and styled the closure. Besides that, my sweet husband worked for several hours on making it perfect.

There was so much selflessness poured into this creation (JD was pages-deep into a new zombie novel when I asked him to help me).

I am deeply thankful for priceless moments spent with my amazingly creative family. I could not ask for more this Christmas.

What do you think of the journal cover?

Ornamental Favorites...

December 18, 2012

Prepare yourself for an ornamental overload, as we are about to reveal to you our first Todd Nest Christmas Tree. Last year, we had a one-foot live Christmas tree set up in our Germany hotel. Our first year looked a little something like this. Now that we've settled into our Alabama home, we decided it was time to buy our first large Christmas tree and decorate our home in true Christmas fashion.

Friends always ask us what we bring home as souvenirs from our travelling: (1) we send a postcard home from each location and (2) buy a Christmas ornament.

Our favorite is this handpainted globe from Rothenburg, Germany.

And, yes, the town looks

just

like

this ornament! It's lovely.

JD's sister, Theresa, and her husband brought us this stunning ornament from their honeymoon in Gatlinburg.

(1) Paris, France: Christmas 2011
(2) Tel Aviv, Israel: 2011
(3) Oahu, Hawaii: 2012
(4) Oahu, Hawaii: 2011
(5) Milan, Italy: 2012
(6) Chattanooga, Tennessee: 2-year anniversary 2012
(7) Bahamas: 2011

My mom made the amazing ornaments and sent us one. It fits perfectly with our tree!

And the NOEL banner? Her creation too. I told JD earlier that morning that our tree was missing that special something, but I had no idea what it was. I put this banner up and the tree felt so much more complete.