Hello!

Hello strangers! Sorry I've been so silent at the blog, it has been pretty crazy around here! Nick & I have been exploring the sights & beautiful scenery of Seattle and we're currently in Portland now for Crafty Wonderland! I absolutely love Portland & Seattle so it wasn't too hard to decide to spend some time up here ;)  We're also so very fortunate to have amazing employees that can run the shop while we're away. We stayed in a Treehouse the other night which I've wanted to do for quite some time. Today we're off to eat at all the many places Portland has to offer. (Pok Pok, Voodoo, Screen Door here we come!)

Anyway, be sure to check back tomorrow for a very special giveaway - excited to be a part of 24 Merry Days. and Monday we're having a 24-hour sale on our new masking tape! Have a wonderful weekend friends.

Happy Friday:

Happy Friday friends! Yesterday was really productive - I spent the day redesigning our logo and branding and I designed a new layout for the blog. I've posted my work file from Illustrator above, I'm a messy worker - layouts and elements all over the place ;)

Anyway, it's kind of similar to the current layout - I can't seem to get away from PEACH/PINK, YELLOW, and MINT!! it's kind of a sickness, I'm just drawn toward those colors. I've tried to change the blog layout every year and am running behind this year but I'm thinking it can still get done before 2013 is up. You can see past blog layouts here if you're curious what oh, hello friend looked like 5 years ago.

Well this weekend is full of workshops! We are having 3 calligraphy workshops with Jenna Rainey and a book of notes workshop on Sunday! There is still room in the book of notes workshop - we're also doing a string art class + floral arranging workshop next week so you can still sign up for those too! Hope you have a fun weekend friends, thanks for reading this week.

Happy Friday:

Happy Friday! Wow, this month is flying by. I think it's actually pretty crazy that next month will actually mark a year since we signed our lease for our retail shop! It does not seem like we've had the shop for a year... it seems like a couple months. Time flies! Well, we technically opened in February so I guess it hasn't been a full year. It took us a while to get going from when we signed to actually opening!
Anyway. Speaking of time flying - tonight is our 5th year anniversary party for oh, hello friend! I started OHF 5 years ago and it's been such a fun journey. It has definitely been a labor of love... a ton of hard work. learning a lot of new things. good times and arguments too with Nick. I'm really excited to see where the next 5 years go with oh, hello friend.
Thanks for all your support over the years you guys! I haven't forgotten about our online friends - we'll be having some fun online celebrations to follow. May not be until early next year because the holidays are coming up and those are crazy for us. But we have some plans to celebrate online! Have a great weekend!!
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If you are coming to the party tonight, please click below to read all the details!

The party is from 6:00-9:30pm. Please bring your eventbrite ticket and check in at 122 N Harbor Blvd, Suite 110. Fullerton, 92832. Our shop is Suite 103. The party is being held at Suite 110! It is free to attend but we are accepting donations and 100% of proceeds will go to Zoe International. 
Swag-Bag's for all! There's been some talk about the swag-bags and people lining up to make sure to get a bag. We want to try to avoid lines so you can all enjoy and we've actually been able to put together about 200 bags! We have just about 200 rsvp's so there should be enough bags for everyone! 
In effort to keep the line down and so everyone can enjoy the festivities, when you check in, you'll receive a swag-bag ticket that will guarantee you a swag-bag so you can hang out at your leisure and not have to worry about the swag-bag madness. Your swag-bag will be safe and sound! The bags will be at the shop so you'll have to head there to claim your bag but be sure to check in first with us at Suite 110 to get your swag-bag ticket!
Come later for some amazing music! We're also having our amazing friends, Me & Mr Cassidy come and play. But they aren't getting there until around 7:00-7:30 though so you should definitely come around then to hear some amazing live music! OHF at wholesale prices! We are having a table set up at the party with OHF items, and we're making our prices down to wholesale! So be sure to take advantage & get your favorite OHF goods!
Free fun! We have a lot of fun festivities planned: Calligraphy station, where you can get a custom 8x10 print to take home with whatever you want it to say (10 word limit) so think about what you might want to get said! We're having a Cotton Candy stand and a silhouette artist that will cut out your silhouette (like at Disneyland!) Photo booth and tattoo station. All these are free for our attendees, but feel free to consider leaving a tip for all these wonderful vendors that are providing their talents for us! Thanks!

Happy Friday + warehouse sale:

A few weeks ago, we drove up to Stockton for a quick overnight trip to celebrate a special someone's 60th birthday. My mom was on a baking/cooking frenzy and was so sweet to make us all these treats.
She cooked us fresh chicken pot pie and made a fruit pizza. My aunt makes this amazing Kalhua cake every Christmas and we were able to get the recipe from her a few months ago so my mom tried making it  herself. It was soooo good.. and it looks pretty ;) Then I mentioned to my mom that I love her blueberry cobbler so she went to the grocery store and got blueberries and made that too! haha, it was so crazy. We went home with so many sweets. But I guess we weren't thinking and Nick & I realized that we were leaving for Chicago 2 days later so we stuffed ourselves with food. I'll always remember my mom making all this good stuff for us, there is nothing like mom's cooking! I hope I can pick up some skills and cook for our kids one day.
Don't forget! i'll be at the Warehouse Sale tomorrow with Found Rentals! We're blowing out extra  inventory from the shop and we'll have other fun stuff. Jeni is selling some beautiful pieces from her collection. The preview from her instagram looks so fun. I'll be posting some photos today of the stuff we have for sale while we set up. It's only a 3 hour sale from 9:00am - 12:00pm so don't miss it! :) 
Have a great weekend friends!

Happy Friday:

Well the other Friday was not so happy for me ... I was happily working on my computer the other night when it randomly and suddenly froze on me. I tried to force quit but it was not responsive at all. So I just restarted it.. I left my office and came back 10 minutes later to find it was stuck on the white apple logo screen, and it was frozen again. I knew this wasn't good. Tried restarting again but the same thing happened. So I went to sleep hoping it'd magically work in the morning. Unfortunately the next day, it still wasn't working so I took it to the apple store. The diagnosis was the motherboard and it would be about $700 to fix. I mean, at that price you can almost buy a new computer. What a bummer!! 

I hadn't backed up my files in a while so I was most concerned about getting all my data! (remember I told you about my phone last year? me + technology just aren't friends sometimes) Fortunately they gave me a recommendation for a repair shop in La Habra.. Took my poor imac there and for $150, they was able to get my files onto my external. I was still bummed that my computer was totally broken but really glad I could at least get my files!

So I guess that meant it was time for a new computer. Not sure if you knew this but I used to work at the apple store in college, it was a lot of fun! I bought that imac with my employee discount and felt like it was the best deal ever. But I'm not a huge techie or anything... Nick keeps really up to date with technology. My imac was 5 years old but I was perfectly content still using it! I just use illustrator and photoshop so nothing too fancy and it was fine for what I needed it for. I guess it's kind of sentimental, I created all my oh, hello friend stuff on it and blogged hundreds of posts, edited thousands of photos on it. But technology doesn't last (especially these days, i feel like things are built to break in 3-5 years so you're forced to spend money and buy something new!) so i guess i'll be creating a lots of new designs on my new computer.. i am pretty excited to get it!

but all that to say - back up your computer right now! especially if you haven't in a while .. or ever ;) you never know when it may be your computer's time to just go out on you.. I was just minding my own business and the motherboard breaks suddenly??! crazy. and random. 

Anyway, has anyone ever had their computer break on them? If you haven't, I hope you never have to experience it!  Well, have a great weekend friends!

Happy Friday:

Sometimes I take photos of the sky. Though I don't think photos can really capture the complete and full effect of it unless you're there in person. I love sunrise and sunsets, to me it's like seeing glimpses of heaven and our Creator. Such beauty we can't even behold or comprehend. 
Maybe this weekend you can catch a sunset or wake up early for the sunrise. We're out and about this weekend, surprising a loved one for his 60th birthday. He doesn't know he's seeing us this weekend but I think it'll be fun to celebrate with him and show him he is loved.
Hope you've been able to find beauty this week even if you've been down, discouraged or feel like you can't catch a break. See you next week dear friends.

Happy Friday:

Wow, lots of announcement posts today! Okay, I know I talk about instagram a lot but I seriously love it. How cool is it to photo journal and document your life? I was looking through my feed from way back and I am so grateful for this app and bringing back memories from past trips. I was able to find our photos from Renegade Chicago when we went this time last year. It's crazy it's been a year already.
But we're off again this weekend with our suitcases fully packed + an extra one (5 suitcases total!) This time last year Nick looked crazy, lol. He hasn't had his beard look in a while. I always like him either way but I do prefer not the look above ;) I posted the information about Renegade Chicago this weekend below so hope you can stop by!
Have a lovely weekend friends! If you're in California or somewhere where it's hot, hope you stay cool. The heat has been intense here!

Happy Friday:

Hello, happy friday! Have you had a nice week? Hope so. This week we got a lot done and it feels really good to get work done! (especially things I've been putting off) One thing we did was get out of a storage unit we were in. We were sharing it and the people we shared it with moved our stuff without telling us and broke some of our things in the process. It also looked like they went through our boxes and everything! So I really like this phrase. I was initially upset but at the end of the day, it is what it is. and now we're out of there and it's like a heavy weight lifted off :)

Anyway, these are some new home wall decals we have in our shop! Any big plans for the long  holiday weekend? Hopefully some of you get Monday off. When Nick was still at his old job, it was the best when he got work off, it was like a freebie day! Have a great weekend and thanks for reading this week friends. xo.

Life Lately:

Time is crazy. It's passing so quickly, can't believe we've had the shop over half a year now. Can't believe summer is over. Can't believe we bought our house over a year and a half ago! Life right now is just working (a lot) but also trying to find balance and enjoy life, enjoy our house, and work toward new goals. I was looking at our upcoming calendar and we have so much going on so I thought I'd make a list of the things I'm looking forward to :) 
currently looking forward to:
A lovely weekend getaway with some dear friends. My cousin's wedding in Seattle! Getting to test drive a Nissan Versa for a week! Renegade Chicago! Re:Make conference in San Francisco. Purging with vintage/garage sales in September & October (sign up for our shop mailing list to get updated about dates!)
What sort of things are you looking forward to? It's always fun to have things to look forward to, don't you agree? If you don't have anything on your calendar, maybe you can find something to put on there. It doesn't have to be anything grand. Maybe just a simple night of going out to eat your favorite dinner. or try a new restaurant. or go to the park and watch the sunset (or sunrise). or see an improv comedy show. (nick and i haven't done this in a while but it's a lot of fun!)  well, hope you all have a great weekend! :) 

happy friday:

We're always getting new stuff in the shop, we probably get new things weekly! It's hard to post updates of all the new things we get but here are some of my recent faves. A lot of it is stationery, because I love stationery!
This weekend I am getting some solo time in because Nick is away on a "guy week" aka LAN party for those of you who have gamer significant others and know what that is ;) Heading to LA with a friend on Sunday so I am excited for this weekend! Nick and I are pretty much together 24/7 these days, so it's kind of nice to have some time apart. Although we were both saying how we still miss each other so that's nice too! 
Thanks for reading the blog this week friends. I have been trying to think of some better and more quality content for the blog lately so hopefully those posts will be coming soon. But I am a bad blogger and it takes me forever to post things, so who knows. See you Monday, have a fun weekend!

Happy Friday:

Friday is here! Here are some mail-related treasures in my collection.. I really love mail. The parcel post mailing labels are my favorite. and have you guys seen this vintage seed packet postage stamps at the post office? I think it's the most amazing design I've seen! I am sure fellow stationery lovers and writers have stocked up on these beauties ;) I'd buy some ASAP and stock up before the design is gone. I stocked up quite a bit.  

Anyway, this weekend we are in San Francisco for Renegade Craft Fair! This is my favorite show -cool location and amazing sellers. We are so fortunate to be able to keep most of our usual craft shows going thanks to some wonderful employees that watch the shop while we are gone!

Do you have any weekend plans for this last weekend in July? Hope it's nice where you are to be able to go out and enjoy the summer! Thanks for reading this week friends. 

ps: Happy birthday to my Aunt Linda who reads my blog :) Both my aunts read my blog which I think is pretty neat! and it was my Aunt Irene's birthday too so happy birthday AL + AI!

Happy Friday:

I love dried flowers. They last forever! I went down to the flower district and bought some flowers but totally forgot about them and found them in our storage closest several weeks later. They had dried so nicely and in the state they had been all wrapped up. I was immediately hooked on dried flowers. I guess you can say it was a lovely accident. This site sells them and they'll arrive fresh to you so you can dry them yourself. They're also available on etsy from various sellers :) We sell the scissors & basket pictured above in our shop.
Any exciting weekend plans? This is craft show month for us, this weekend is Renegade LA! Hope you can stop by! The shop will be open too, 11-6 on Saturday and 12-5 on Sunday. We have a new summer sale section, so you can come get some goods at 50% off! Happy weekend friends, thanks for reading this week!

happy friday:

Thought I'd post a few shots of what's going on in my office - a mess! ;) Still need to do a lot of organizing and possibly a lot of purging. We went to a cute shop the other day and my mom commented, "I don't need any dust collectors" hehe. As I was unpacking some of these things, I thought, "man, all this stuff are dust collector items like mom said!" but it's so hard - I guess I love dust collectors! My weakness is vintage office supplies. Old papers, cards, notepads, labels, stamps. Pretty much any vintage office supplies I come across are an immediate buy. Do you have any weaknesses like that? :)

How was your week? This weekend Nick and I will be at Unique Santa Monica. Hope you can stop by if you're local. Have a happy weekend friends!

happy friday:

Just got some photos back from a little shoot we signed up for with i art u and geronimo balloons. i saw it posted on jen's instagram and signed up immediately - confetti and balloons?! totally in. photos were taken by i art u and geronimo styled it. i think they're actually doing a world tour so be sure to follow them and get in on a shoot if they're in your area.

Okay, so I know I say this pretty much every week but where is the time going??! Can you believe it's July already? Which means we're over half way through the year! UM, crazy. If anyone has any secrets on slowing life down, please share :) Have a great weekend friends!

happy friday:

Does anyone have an instax camera? Aren't they the best? it's so fun to be able to capture instant memories, I am glad fujifilm is still around and keeping instant film alive! We've been using our instax a lot lately, on our trips and also to document "firsts" at the house. so we have photos from our first piece of furniture we moved in, our first meal cooked in our kitchen, first load of groceries - things like that :)

Well, i'm slowly getting back into blogging around here! What do you guys have planned for your weekend? We are coming home from our trip in Washington and going to get back into the routine of things.. which i'm pretty excited about. June has been crazy! but it's been fun and i'll never forget this month. Enjoy your weekend friends!

ps: in response to Alli's comment below, i have an instax mini 7 but it looks like they have the 8 out now which can be purchased at urban or photo jojo (comes in pastel colors now too!)  they all work great! i buy the film in 10 packs (100 photos) for about $70 at ebay. so that's around 70 cents a photo.. They also have fun photo frames like polka dots you may have seen around, here's a listing for that :) hope that helps!

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.

happy friday:

Photos from instagram :) See more at #ohfhouse

Almost a month ago, we finally moved in to our new house! It's been surreal and so fun! We've been slowly getting furniture here and there - it's a lot to fill a house... and it's so hard to keep it clean! haha. but we love it. We're super fortunate and so blessed to have found an amazing house & been able to actually get it.. I think we went up again 5 offers since it was a foreclosure. Anyway, can't wait to share a full home tour with you soon!

Well we're heading home from New York tomorrow. Thanks for all your great suggestion, we headed to brooklyn and got to see the etsy headquarters! We're going to save some things to do for next time, we'll be in NY again soon. We're actually in Albany right now and got to see my cousin graduate from medical school yesterday, we're all so proud. The first doctor in the family ;)

On Sunday, we'll be at Patchwork craft show in Santa Ana! I think I mention this every time but it is the very first show we ever did so it has a very special place in my heart ;) Hope you can stop by.

Have a wonderful memorial weekend friends. So nice to be back in this space again! xo.