Saddlerock Ranch:

A couple weekends ago, we attended a good friend's wedding at Saddlerock Ranch. I actually met Lillian through blogging about 3 years ago, and we were instant friends. Shortly after we got to know Mardy too and they both are just the sweetest couple around. It was so special to be able to attend their wedding!

Saddlerock Ranch was incredible, I felt like I had entered a fairytale/dream land - upon driving in we were greeting by buffalo and zebras and camels and beautiful vineyard hills. Anyway, we got some shots that I thought I'd post to share. Not posting any shots of the actual wedding because I figured the wedding photographer will be posting all the beautiful photos he took once they're edited :)

four favorites:

fabulous: shopkeeper scrapbook papers from saturday morning vintage, $12
font: nelma from lost type, free
free: springtime notes from creature comforts
fun: tiny wooden apple sparker from white zine
note: not for sale at the site anymore but can be found at ebay,  they also have a cute little dog one too, $48.99!

Local / Daiso:

 

Thought I'd start sharing some fun local places as we explore our city and surrounding cities. I came across Daiso from Yelp and was so excited to visit, how did I not know about this place sooner?? ;) Anyway, I am sure many of you already know about this shop but in case you don't, it's a Japanese dollar store. Everything is $1.50. 

you are ... business cards:

I wanted to come up with some fun cards for the stationery show last week - these were quick & simple, but I snapped a few shots to share them with you!

The supplies on this card were very simple - I just used blank business cards, rubber stamp, labels, message tape, and dried flowers (picked up at the los angeles flower mart)

  I used a couple different kinds of ink jet labels - brown kraft round & gold triangles.

On one side, I placed the gold label and stamped with our today stamp.



On the other side, I cut a couple of the dried flowers and taped it with our message tape.

All done! Super simple & easy. The only thing about this type of card is that it's more novelty, it doesn't provide a ton of info. Actually, I only put my .com address. No email address, no other information... Email probably would have been good to add.

Happy Friday:

 

I know peach is really in for the summer colors right now. I am loving peach! I am so attracted to anything this color - so we've been getting a few fun peach things in the shop!

So do you have anything planned for the weekend?? Nick & I are doing a little birthday celebrating.. Both of our birthday's are in June! Which makes it nice because we get to celebrate his birthday and then a week after, we celebrate mine :) Anyone else have a birthday in June? I used to not know anyone with a June birthday but then I met a ton of people in college with June birthday's... go June!

Thanks for your sweet comments about our shop and also joining in on the discussion about contentment from the other day. Seriously you guys, it was so encouraging to read your thoughts on being content (or discontent) and comparing/being grateful/etc.  You guys reminded me it's all about keeping things in perspective. A couple things that really hit home was something Lauren said, "When I play the comparison game, I'm holding myself to standards that aren't attainable." so true. and also Vicki noting that we all tend to put the best of our lives forward, but there may be a lot of other stuff going on too. It reminded me of this instagram comic strip, which is kind of true sometimes ;) and even a couple of you ladies who cut out certain blogs and social media that you realized were possibly causing some discontentment, very admirable. Even my 2 aunts who read the blog emailed me a sweet note about what I wrote about, it was so encouraging!

Hope you have a wonderful and lovely weekend  friends :) see you next week. xo.

four favorites:

love today's collection, especially the stamps. pretty postage stamp designs are so rare these days, i definitely stocked up on these seed packet stamps!
fabulous: milan clogs from sandgrens clogs
font: Dubtronic from fontsquirrel.com / photo via creature comforts
free: printable chalkboard tags from elli.com
fun: vintage seed packet stamps from usps.com

Contentment:

photo via stay positive.

photo via Whitney CPBG.

Lately I've been struggling with contentment and just being a grateful person. I always want more.  I want to achieve more, I want to do more. Not necessarily make a ton of money, though that would be nice. I just want recognition. I feel like a big greedy ingrate! Anyway, this realization came to me the other day when an opportunity for the shop was presented to us but it ended up not working out in our favor. Like a little child, I threw a tantrum and was so upset. I wanted to blame Nick (well, I did blame him) for not acting fast enough and missing out on the opportunity. It totally wasn't his fault, but it lead to a big fight which even affected our evening with some good friends. I realized then that I needed a heart check.  What does contentment look like in my life? I need to allow myself to enjoy what I've been blessed with and what we've achieved. I don't know what it is in me that feels I need to always be doing more and can never find peace or contentment. Maybe it's some deeper issues with parents, approval, etc. But that's a discussion for another time ;)

Please don't get me wrong - I know we have so much to be thankful for. Our beautiful house that we are now living in and our sweet little shop - we are blessed and give thanks to the Lord daily. But I think this blog community we find ourselves in, when we read all the blogs out there and see all the fabulous things other bloggers are doing - it can be easy to fall into this feeling of "wanting more" and it never being enough. Feelings of comparing. discontentment. jealousy - all these are so so dangerous. Or maybe it's just me ;)

Hope you don't mind me sharing some of these personal things that have been on my mind ... But I am curious to get your thoughts on the subject. Do you struggle with being content? Being thankful? If not,  please tell us your secrets! How do you remind yourself to be thankful or keep yourself in check when you start to compare? Thanks for reading today friends.

oh hello friend shop opening:

  Wow, i really can't believe it's been 3 months since we opened our first retail shop! Sorry I haven't posted photos of the shop sooner. These photos were taken by the lovely Kimberly Genevieve. It's so crazy to look through these now and think about how the shop has already changed so much in a couple short months. I did post some instagram photos taken throughout the night and a thank you note - seriously you guys, I'll always remember the crazy outrageous amazing wonderful support you showed at our grand opening - I'll look back and tell my grandkids about you guys coming, lining up, waiting, buying and being awesome. Thank you!  












  Anyway, we have some tentative ideas/classes in the works like lunch break craft/discounts, swap parties, craft classes, & lots more! I'm also planning on having a couple warehouse sales ASAP. Sign up for the exclusive retail shop mailing list so you don't miss out on these happenings! :)