Somebody buy this

I saw this necklace today on the homepage of Etsy and was inspired to post it. It's so interesting - reminds me of my wedding necklace a bit. It would be awesome for a dressy occasion. I want somebody I know to buy it!!







Here's my wedding necklace (made by Carolyn Attal in Scottsdale, AZ) that I loved so much.



It's weird how now that I make jewelry, I am attracted to different things. A year ago, this necklace (Etsy necklace) probably would have been "too much" for me to handle, but now I have a big appreciation for intricate details.

I took a clois0nne enameling class a couple weeks ago and had a great time. Basically it involves bending thin wire to whatever design you wish (with as few separate pieces of wire as possible), and filling the design with tiny chards of glass, and then firing it in a kiln. Over and over again. It took ALL weekend to make this:



It's not without it's imperfections (the last firing made it turn yellow for some reason!) but I ended up oxidizing it to give the branches more contrast.



Enameling is fun, and it's this particular class at Danaca Design is the type of class that total beginners can take. I highly recommend it.

Painting projects

Poor Brian, he is upstairs painting our hopelessly tacky upstairs bathroom. It's a project that I started actually, about 2 months ago or maybe even more... but it's so detail oriented and ANNOYING with lots of painted cabinets, and trim work, and windows - and there's toilets in the way and the whole project just stinks. My dad is coming this Friday to stay the night, so the pressure is on.

I also started this painting project last week. I'm repainting these vintage chairs that I essentially got for free. HIGH GLOSS WHITE! If I can fix the inset caning part okay, I think they'll turn out pretty well. I need to find a nice green fabric - something that will go with our lovely drapes (that we have yet to hang)....cuz those cushions are pretty pretty nasty.







Paint paint paint. I went to a meeting this week with white paint in my hair - realized it when I got there. That was cute.

The Danish Modern Couple

I'm very skeptical of people who design their homes with only one type of style. For instance, there's The Pottery Barn Couple who only decorates in dark masculine woods and poufy couches, or the Hollywood Regency Girl who obsesses over faux bamboo, or the French Country Lady who primarily displays roosters and slightly irregular glazed bowls (oh wait, that's my mom, tee hee).

Well you guys, I am afraid that we're becoming the Newly Married Danish Modern Couple. Noooo!

Yes, we are.

We recently purchased this beautiful table from Craigslist for only $300 so I couldn't pass it up.



But seriously - we already have a Danish modern credenza and two recently recovered Danish modern arm chairs.





Then we also installed this mid century light fixture above our stairway landing.



HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

I am kind of liking these chairs that are currently on eBay..... mostly because they are simple, would match the table, and the upholstery would match the 1958 EAMES ERA dining room window panels (sheesh). But seriously, tell me to stop!




I gravitate towards more feminine pieces, whereas Brian is more modern - but we have found a safe haven, if you will, in Danish Modern. I like it because it has clean lines without sacrificing warmth.

But enough is enough! Somebody needs to put a moratorium on this!

Etsy vintage shoe finds

Oh my many subscribing readers, is this your dream day? 3 posts in a day - why yes it is!

I was online tonight and found these two pairs of amazing vintage shoes, and I had to post them in case my friends have the right size of feet!

First... I wish they were in a different color but... I just love the side. "Lincoln log" cut outs Italian wedges! That's too much for me to handle.



Second... whoa, amazing...you can't get better than vintage tapestry flats. GET IT!

Manipulating the search engines

One of the projects that I recently completed was a goodie. Good meaning, the outcome surpassed even my own expectations.

I've been working with a really nice orthopedic group, Orthopedic Specialists of Seattle, for the past year. When I met them, one of their priorities was to "optimize" their site. Essentially what they wanted was more traffic, because theoretically more traffic equals more patients, right?

As it turned out, their old site was not only outdated looking, but it was built in a way that wasn't search engine friendly. It was all Flash and image-based, unreadable by The Spiders. They were absolutely invisible to the search engines - I think the only way to find the site was to type in the company's exact name into Google. So I had to tell them that they needed a completely new website.

Then I partnered with some nice, smart people to actually build the new site. I wrote some original content with search engine optimization in mind (trying as hard as possible not to make it too noticeable) and recently launched the site.




And voila! Within one month of launch, their site was located on the first page of organic search results for almost every keyword that I identified.

It felt really great to see those kind of results. And even though I feel like I only scratched the surface, I still feel like I learned a lot about online marketing over the past year.

Thank you to Adam, a Claremont alum who I recently met and who helped this project work!

Finley update

Last night we saw Ian and Justyn and their baby (cutest baby ever?), Finley. She's 5 months old now.

I'm majorly obsessed with this baby, it's kind of ridiculous.



For more toe sucking shots (it's her new thing), check out her blog. She's so cute!!!

What a few small interior changes can do...

This weekend we took the ugly brass fireplace doors off of our fireplace. Why we hadn't done it earlier, don't ask me. It made such a difference. Lindsay was so obsessed with the difference that she inspired me to go look at the old real estate pictures -- the ones off the real estate site when we were looking to buy our house.

WOW. What a difference moving some granny furniture out, painting the walls, and taking off some ugly brass fireplace doors, can make in the feel of a room!

Before:



After:



Aahh, much better. This is why people should look past the interiors of a home when buying. :)

Lindsay -- go for the tacky hacienda!