pompompompom

If you're anything like me, you're just now wrapping all of your gifts and trying to figure out how to make the most of one roll of wrapping paper. Fortunately, my amazing friend/bff/sister Anastasia was here to save the day. Anna has always been an amazing knitter and I just adored the idea she brought of wrapping gifts tied up with yarn. But to top it off, she made a little pompom in a jiffy as the perfect piece to draw it all together. Well done, Anna, well done :)

1. wrap the yarn around your fingers in a nice little bundle.

2. take the end and loop it through the middle of your bundle a few times and tie it off in a knot.

3. snip the yarn across from the knot

4. floof the yarn and there you have it! Use the still attached end to tie around your package.

tralalalala lalalala
Merry Christmas!




Horace & Mae Photography
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Tradlands: Part I

Woah. Have I got a bunch of awesome for you. Tradlands. Tea. Kristen. River. The wonderful duo at Tradlands sent me one of their gorgeous button downs to try out, so I got my gorgeous sis-in-law to model it for me. They were a gorgeous perfect match. That's a lot of gorgeous. 

Here is Part 1 of our little shoot - a cozy, tea drinking afternoon by the river in none other than the Jones St. Blue. 

Tradlands is a clothing company based out of San Francisco specializing in lovely oxford shirts for women. The Jones St. Blue fabric is nice and heavy, even though it looks light as air.  From the pearlized buttons to the adorable tag, the details are all there and the versatility is endless. Make sure to check out all the other great styles on Tradlands.com and like Tradlands on Facebook.

p.s. Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Tradlands feature - a preppy and laid back look, perfect for the office to adventure. And don't forget to like Horace and Mae Photography on Facebook! 



Kristen is also wearing a sweater and knit hat from Lands End Canvas, a Jacket from Urban Outfitters, a knuckle ring from Miskwill, and Birkenstocks. 

Houseplants

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love houseplants. They make any room feel like the missing piece was found. No matter how small a plant, a little bit of green just fills that space. Can't get enough. Never will. I have a lot more in my house than are pictured here. My mother and sister make fun of me. 

Print

Museum of Natural History - Horace and O looking into an underwater display, reflections on their faces.


A few months ago, Horace started to learn about developing and printing from film and really fell in love with the process. He took a darkroom class for a few months and solidified his understanding of how it all works and even built his own darkroom in a shed in our backyard. I never really had an interest in learning all this (I tend to just send my film to a lab or cvs to get it developed, or have Horace do it for me:), but he finally persuaded me this past weekend. We spent an evening in the darkroom developing a few rolls of black and white 35 mm film, fitting negatives in the enlarger, printing onto photo paper, and passing the paper through different chemicals until it was all ready. We did this over and over again for this photo because of how many facets this one in particular has. The left side of the photo took a specific type of filter on the enlarger than the right side and a different time under the light, so it took a little bit of work to get it where I wanted it. Horace is a great teacher and really walked me through the process until I understood it. I'm really happy with how this one turned out and I am excited to work on another print soon.

To see some of Horace's amazing prints, check out his site: www.cargocollective.com/horace

Project

Have you seen this super cool hanging planter?!?! 

Photo via Design Sponge

Design Sponge has a full DIY guide on how to make this yourself. It looks like one of those things that would be pretty hard to mess up, but we'll see! 

I think I have the perfect spot for it:

Wouldn't that look great in that corner just to the right of the shelf? I've been looking for a plant for that corner, but I think the hanging planter will work perfectly.

Knocking on wood that this doesn't turn out to be a Pinterest fail...

Weekend Playlist

Photo and Print by Horace

We're in full on painting mode right now at our new place! Its so fun already just getting to pick out colors and ideas and see it all start to come together. Right now, we're painting a beast of a room (dark red walls and ceiling) and we're on our second coat of light paint, so we're hoping we'll be done with this one soon. 

I'm loving the new JT album, so here are some of my favorite older songs (wasn't such a fan of the N'Sync days:) and my favorite from his new album.

Have a great weekend!

Moving!

I am so excited to say that God has provided us with a new place to live! After 7 months of living in the in-laws basement, we are finally moving into our own place. Since we've been married, we have only lived in basement apartments, so I was thrilled when this above ground place became available and is perfect for our price range. Its kind of amazing how living in basements makes you extremely appreciative of features like "normal windows". So, while we are still in the stage of taking what furniture we can get for free, I'm hoping to make this place really feel like our own and spend some good time and effort making it fit our style. The one thing Horace asked me to do is to incorporate antlers:) 

Here are some inspiration photos I've been loving lately:

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You can see more of my inspiration on my Pinterest board: Make a Home from a Rented House

practice no. 2

Drawing - Billy Collins

Continuing to work on my writing with one of my favorite poems, but I seem to influenced by Tolkein's handwriting. I don't know, I guess that's ok:)

practice

I'm no good at drawing and my handwriting looks the same as it did in 5th grade. I love beautiful handwriting and would really like to learn how to make beautiful words on paper. Horace got me a beautiful calligraphy pen for Christmas and I've been playing around with it and its really easy to make anything look at least a little bit better with it. So while I was practicing with the pen, I decided to write out a poem and as I was writing, I realized that this poem would be totally different were it written in perfect script with ornate letters. I imagined Williams writing it as a quick note before he headed out the door late for work, scribbling and hurrying to go. So I wrote it out that way. And it works to my advantage that I am unpracticed, at least for this poem:) 

Any ideas for how to practice script/calligraphy? I would love some advice!

william carlos williams 

p.s. Don't forget to enter the Wayfare Magazine giveaway here!

(Linking up with Hello Hue!)

Mundane and Marvelous

I've lately been feeling like my days are quite mundane: Get dressed, get Owen dressed, change Owen's diaper right after he gets dressed, feed Owen, exercise  fix lunch, read a bit, you get the idea. It's so easy to feel like these days are boring and slow, but I was lately reminded that even this work is of immeasurable value. I love Martin Luther's sermon where he responds to people who look at married life and parenthood as drudgery: 

"What then does Christian faith say to this? It opens its eyes, looks upon all these insignificant, distasteful, and despised duties in the Spirit, and is aware that they are all adorned with divine approval as with the costliest gold and jewels."

At some point during (most of) Owen's nap time, I cannot wait until he wakes up. It is so marvelous to get to take care of this little guy and to be his mom.  I often think of Luther's quote as I'm changing Owen's diaper and am always reminded of the wonderful work God has put in front of me. You're bound to have mundane days here and there, but what a blessing it is to know that these are all part of your story as a mother. I'm sure I will look back and wish for these days once I have a little posse of mini Horaces running around my ankles:)

We've been trying to get out of the house more and we are so blessed to live near family and in a beautiful area. We are always grateful for little outings to the local coffee shops, lunches out and about, and of course plenty of family (and just mom and dad) dates with Horace. Family life is simply marvelous.

I've been working on coming up with some projects for myself while Owen sleeps and hopefully will be blogging about them soon. Also, I have some fun giveaways coming up over the next few weeks, which have little to do with babies, so every one can get in on the fun:) Make sure to come around so you don't miss out!

Siphon

Every now and again, Horace and I whip out the ol' siphon coffee pot and make up some delicious joe. Horace worked as a barista in college, so he was always looking for new methods of making coffee. The siphon pot is not too complicated and it makes a smooth, almost tea-like coffee. The best part is just how fun it is to watch it brew.  

How to: 

Start with freshly ground coffee (a bit finer than drip grounds) and some hot water. Put the hot water in the pot and the coffee in the upper container. Assemble the whole thing and put the flame beneath the pot. Watch the water come into the top and let it brew for about 2 minutes, mixing it every now and then. Pull the flame out from below and wait for the coffee to come down into the pot. Take off the top and enjoy!

You can sometimes find siphon pots at the hip coffee shops around town, but you can also get one online from the great Ceremony Coffee Roasters here. We use the Yama 5 Cup Pot.