splurge or save: World Market

If you know me at all, you'll know that I love getting things for a steal.

Lately, while shopping around for fun little things around the house, I've noticed some great deals on designer lookalikes {NOT knockoffs, very big difference!} that are pretty darn affordable! I thought I'd share in case you were in the market for some bargain decor. {Disclaimer: World Market is NOT compensating me for this post--I just LOVE the store and could live there.}

 

Splurge: Crate & Barrel $149  //  Save: World Market $39

Splurge: Anthropologie $8 each  //  Save: World Market 4/$15.96 {$3 in-store!}

Splurge: Anthropologie $10 each // Save: World Market  4/$15.96

Splurge: Pier 1 $39.95  //  Save: World Market $19.99

Splurge: Ralph Lauren $524.99 {on sale}  //  Save: World Market $139.99

Have you seen any lookalike steals {home decor or otherwise}? Send them over for a shoutout!

showered

This weekend, after packing up the cabin and preparing it for its new owners, I got the honor of celebrating one of our good friends as she prepares to get married in September!

my card, an imitation of this printable

blurry peek at one of my gifts to Elisse! Love making these.

Elisse and Jordan are dear friends from college, and it has been a blessing to see God work in and through them throughout their relationship. They both live in Seattle as Elisse finishes medical school, and Tim and I can't WAIT until they return to Santa Barbara!

The shower was beautiful. It took place at the 7 Oaks Country Club in Bakersfield, and the weather was lovely. Hot, and most of us probably melted (Poor Elisse was in the sun almost the whole time!), but gorgeous.

The details were so perfect!

The food was delicious; mini crab cakes and spinach tarts, followed by chicken salad and a fruit tart. YUM. I officially request these items as part of my "last meal":

Since Elisse and Jordan live in Seattle, we don't get to see them that often. It was SO GREAT to have a little girl's reunion in her honor!

Ariel, Me, Natalie, Elisse (the beautiful bride!), Kasey, Bianca, and Lizzie (photo borrowed from Noelle)

Our table (photo borrowed from Noelle)

Elisse's sister Amanda hosted the shower, and organized a little version of the Newlywed game (I.e. how well do you know your soon-to-be-spouse?). Even being their dear friends, we learned a LOT about the happy couple. HAHA

One of the sweetest moments of the shower was the question "How did Jordan know you were the One". The short version of his answer: "She was an answer to prayer". Not a dry eye in the whole garden. (You did good, Jordan!)

Next up: Presents! Wedding showers always make me want to go shopping. Am I alone there?

Elisse (and Jordan!): We love you SO much, and your wedding can't get here soon enough!

packed

This weekend was a bittersweet ordeal. While we were glad that Tim's mom was finally able to sell the cabin (after trying for three years!), it was definitely difficult to think we'll never do anymore spur-of-the-moment lake retreats*.We'd come to rely on those as mental-health getaways!

*while we'll still be able to visit the lake, it will now always have to be with another cabin-owning family member, due to the rules of the community. Since Tim is no longer the son of an owner, we no longer have access alone.

The majority of our time was spent cleaning, sorting, tossing, and packing up the things we'd want at home or at any of the other family cabins. There was a LOT to sort through; they've had this place for almost 25 years!

Saturday night, we had dinner with the rest of the extended family. The theme of the dinner seemed to be "lake life goes on"; We BBQ'd, played games, drank wine, and planned the next trip up. We may have lost one cabin, but we've still got two more! Our lake days aren't over, but they'll definitely be different.

 

I left Sunday morning to go to a wedding shower, and driving out alone seemed so poignant. Both Tim and I got a chance to say "goodbye" in our own ways. It was so incredibly peaceful, and completely deserted. The hills were alternately littered with lilacs and lupines or dotted with cattle.

 

It was an emotional weekend, with lots of baggage (both literally AND figuratively!). Both of our cars were loaded down as full as we could get them, and we'll be sorting through stuff in our garage for months, it seems. 

I'm really going to miss this place, but change is good, right? Th elake is pretty much the only time we get to see Tim's family, so we're determined not to lose that. 

C'mon summer. We're ready for ya.

nostalgia

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you have probably heard about "The Lake".
Tim's mom has had a cabin on Lake Nacimiento for almost 25 years; Tim grew up there, and when I came into his life, we began making our own memories there.

It was where we got engaged, spent part of our honeymoon, and celebrated our First Anniversary.
Throughout our dating and married life, the cabin has become a fixture. Such a retreat just three hours away! Anytime we needed to "get away from it all", we'd hop on up to the lake. Memorial Days, Fourth of Julys, St-Patrick's Days, winter days, random need-to-catch-up-on-work days, backbreaking work days and lay-in-the-sun all day days. Even the drive home brings back so many memories!

This year, though, Summer will be different for us. Easter Sunday, the cabin sold. We all thought it was an April Fools joke at first, but no. We're heading up today to pack it up.

There are still two "family" cabins up there, so our days of memory-making at the lake are not necessarily over just because "our" cabin sold. But will it be the same?

Growing up sucks sometimes.

on being "crafty"

 Source

"You're so Crafty"

*shudder*

Here's the thing: I really don't like that word. When someone says crafty it brings to mind glitter glue and puff-paint and popsicle sticks and the types of projects you might do at summer camp.

My projects do occasionally use glitter glue and puff paint and popsicle sticks. But does that make me crafty? What does that even mean?

I think people call me crafty because I like doing things myself. Phrases like "You're the crafty one, what would you do?" and "I'm not as crafty as you" come to mind. Thing is, though, I tend to jump in with both feet when it comes to a project, and discover later whether or not I'm in over my head {See: pretty much any post in the "Tutorials" section for proof; most of them include a "don't do what I did" caveat}. If it takes twice or three times as long as not, and if it looks half or a third as good as if I had purchased it, why is it that I like doing things myself? It's not because I'm "crafty". It's that I get this itch to make something I can be proud of with my own two hands, so I come up with an idea and I do it. Whether or not anyone else can see my vision too.

Sometimes it's inspired by something beautiful I see in a store for which I'd rather not fork over full price. Sometimes, it's inspired by something ugly that I yearn to make beautiful. Sometimes it's this...

 

via Calalloo soup

 Sometimes it's all of the above ;)

Always, though, it's a compulsion, a part of my essence. I think I can stop being creative like I can stop being a brunette--I can hide it for awhile but the roots always come back. That's not to say that creativity isn't hard work, it IS. Again, see above paragraphs.

I buy things from the store all the time, and I'll never be one of those people who refuse to decorate with anything storebought. Honestly, storebought stuff usually looks a heckova lot better than some of the the crap I've churned out. BUT: there's no substitute for the giddiness I get when I'm able to respond to a compliment with: "Thanks, I made it myself".

I want to leave my "fingerprints" all over my space. Why not make it mine? Does that make me "crafty"? Maybe. I like to think it makes me human.

Whatever the title, I'm sure as heck going to keep doing it :)