Now Following

Over the last year or so, I have started a collection of blogs I follow. I no longer want to hold this information back from you, so take a look. Maybe you'll fall for some of these like I have...

The first blog I started to follow regularly was Ashley Ann Photography. During my senior year at school, my neighbors introduced me to this blog, and I fell in love. I love how she combines photography, and her DIY ideas. Nothing is too crazy, and she uses items you would most likely already find in your house, transforming them into something new and refreshing. Maybe I'll sign up for one of her photography work shops? One of these days!

Next is Green Wedding Shoes. This is probably where the addiction to blogs was solidified. A friend from school showed me this blog, and I was hooked. I love the Southern California style that is apparent in the majority of the posts. I can probably also attribute my love for wedding design to GWS. The collection of details create so many beautiful DIY weddings. The posts are sent in from various sources, so it is also an opportunity to look at the styles of different photographers and stylists.

 Jasmine Star 's photography blog is amazing. It is a mixture of photography advice, photo sessions of engagements and weddings, her travels, and weekly regulars like her Friday "Kisses&Disses". She has a very strong online presence, and her personality shines through in each of her posts. I love her point of view as a photographer.

I really can't say enough about Young House Love. We've talked about them before here, and I promise, this won't be the last time. Just think about every time you are in a store and you think "I can make that!", well they do, they show you how, and it looks amazing. Warning: after reading YHL you might suddenly have the need to tear apart your home and upgrade, paint, sand, detail, spray paint, glue, sew, trim, really the list is endless. One step at a time friends...

The last blog I have come across recently. In an attempt to combine interests, I googled "design blogs in Spanish", and there it was! Estefania Mendivil's blog is in Spanish, and all about design, photography, and fashion. I love her creative outlook, and reading in Spanish. Two birds + stone.

                                                                                                   



What's your decorating style?

When it comes to decorating, I like what I like. There are certain styles, colors and fabrics that stick out to me and it's often hard to pinpoint exactly why... I like what I like. 

So in the interest of finding a way to describe my personal style, I took to the streets internet in search of a way to describe my personal brand of style. It turns out there are a ton of online quizzes to help do just that. Sure, they're not exactly scientific, but they are a lot of fun. So feel free to join me on this trip across the interwebs while jamming to the smooth stylings of The Everyday People's 'I Like What I Like'.



Let's start over at the good old BHG site where you can take their design style quiz in a flash. You flip through sets of three pictures and indicate which one fits your style best. I tend to choose whichever one catches my eye first otherwise I'll over-think it. Hydrangeas or tulips....hydrangeas. No, tulips. No, hydrangeas. Yeah, hydrangeas.

The Home Stylist also offers a great style quiz that moves away from choosing images and operates more like a classic quiz. (AKA too much reading) The website makes a point to mention that style is more than what you want to put in your home. "It demonstrates your personality and is an extension of yourself." Maybe a little corny, but I think it's true.

On a side note, this question was classic.

Could there have been any more mom-clothes combinations? How about none of the above?

Real Simple also has their own version of the style quiz that goes back to the picture format. But instead of looking at three chairs or three types of flowers you are shown four items and simply asked which item you like best.

I found the vertical layout of the quiz oddly distracting (which maybe says a little something about my style preferences) but overall I thought the quiz pinpointed my style well. Make sure you keep track of what letter you are given for each answer because you'll need that information at the end to tally your score. I know. What is this, Cosmo?

If you aren't satisfied with the last three quizzes you are way too hard to please can head over to HGTV's site for their style quiz. But I've got to be honest, by this point I've been told I'm traditional/classic a few times. Oh well, who doesn't like to click on pretty pictures?

 This quiz operates much the same way. Click on the images that appeals to you most and discover your decorating style. They also offer decorating tips that compliment your personal style.

So whether you're looking for a way to pinpoint why you like what you like, or you're just bored at work, these little time-sucks are pretty fun.

Tourista

I have always had a love for photography, and it was actually my favorite class I took in college. In that class I learned so much, but really have so far to go. For my birthday my amazing boyfriend, friends, and family put their heads (and pockets) together, and got me my first DSLR camera! I was speechless- and so excited! I really don't know how I am sitting down to write this, because I don't want to put it down.

But down to business. I thought I should show you a little something with my new camera and give you a tour of our penthouse!

To start it off, imagine the climb through this green forest to reach the third floor, aka penthouse. Each floor is generally scented with the flavors of the world, or yesterday's catch: take from that what you will.

Notice the skylight, screams luxury.

As all humans should be, we are huge fans of Friends.

We decided the appropriate color for our sun room was this bright yellow. A huge advantage of living in the penthouse (on the third floor) is that instead of staring into other apartments, we are above and have plenty of open sky. Not to mention an awesome view for thunderstorms.

As you've read about before our black spray painted frames and our revamped dresser live in the living room.

We are still working on art in the living room, but we know we want a bigger piece of art to live above our couch.

Exiting the living room, into the entryway, into the hallway...

The great wall of frames lives down the hall...

And we can't forget our revamped dungeon...

Into the dining room. We love all of the big windows in the apartment. There are many changes that we would love to tackle, but we are restraining ourselves to one thing at a time. As you can see our bookshelf is currently overflowing...

Of course there are many alterations to come, and more rooms to share, but I hope you enjoyed this short tour to give you a glimpse into the life at sawyerthree. We'll keep you updated.

                                                   

It's Not Easy Being Green

This summer our good friends Paulina and Ross are having a reception to celebrate their marriage this last December. Both Mary and I stood up in beautiful winter wedding and now we get to celebrate the summer reception! Since we've already done the matching dress thing for the ceremony, Paulina took a page from Sex and the City and has decided that the bridesmaids should all dress in brightly colored dresses. We love this idea!

So, after "calling" green (apparently you're never too old to call dibs) I set out to find a summery green dress. I was hoping for something along the lines of these beautiful lily pads which I assumed was called kelly green. More on that later. 

I can't think of anything more summery and bright than a nice green. So how hard could it be to find a dress that color, right? Well, it's a lot harder than you'd think! Why is it that you see a color everywhere until you need it, then it's nowhere to be found. One of life's little mysteries, I guess!

I quickly decided that calling dibs on green was not my best move. Why didn't I go for pink or blue which seem to be more in season this year? But then I went to Target to pick up a few things and casually strolled through the clothing department as I often always do and I found this pretty lady

Maybe I should clarify, by "lady" I mean dress of course. Although I'm sure she's very pretty too. But this dress is great. It's a nice light linen and I love the detail by the shoulder. Here's an up close picture for you.

I'm sure you must be a little confused right now. The dress isn't green. Correction: the dress isn't green yet. Cue the fabric dye.

I've been seeing things about the brand iDye for a while now and have only heard good things. It's washing machine friendly and easy to use. I got a nice kelly green packet on Amazon for about $6. Not to shabby, right?

The process is really simple. Combine the dye packet with 1 cup of salt for 100% natural fabrics and enough hot water to dissolve it all. Then, pour it into the filling washing machine. Soak your fabric in water before putting it in the washer. If you put it in dry, the fabric won't be evenly dyed. Set the washer to run an extra rinse cycle and whala! Green dress.

Now I have to say I was expecting the green to come out a bit darker. But I suppose the color is pretty true to the picture on the front of the packet. While it's very pretty, I was envisioning something a little more rich in color. So I hopped back on Amazon and I have a packet of emerald green coming my way.

I've read that dyeing one color over another isn't a problem as long as you're going darker. Obviously it wouldn't work so well to try and take a dress from emerald to kelly green so I'm happy I made the mistake in the right order! I'll keep you posted on the dress progress as soon as I have access to another washing machine! Oh the joys of apartment living...

How's it hanging?

I love weddings. Blogs, photography, floral arrangements, dresses, you name it, I love it. This past month one of my best friends Meghan got married. It was an amazing celebration that I will never forget. I had the privilege of standing in the wedding, and not to mention helping along the way of the engagement. Last fall Meghan was browsing on Etsy, and found a wonderful handmade floral hanger for a wedding dress. Costing about $40.00, Meghan passed, and I took a mental note.

A few weeks later, the roomies and I went to check out an estate sale. Again, we are huge estate sale fans, remember when we got our dresser here? Luck was on our side, and amongst the ornaments, furniture, and silverware, there were these hangers. Fate, is that you?

Next step was fabric. I decided that cotton would be the easiest to manipulate, and create plenty of rose buds. Since this was a present, I could not ask what color Meghan wanted. I knew that she wanted a beachy-natural colored wedding, so I searched for a peachy yellow color. The subtle tone of the color wasn’t too much of a distraction from the dress, but didn’t blend with the dress either.

I cut the fabric into strips, then squares, then circles. Just think of making snowflakes in first grade: fold the square in half twice, then cut a rounded edge. Each circle had about a 3 inch diameter. Each rose bud was made out of four circles. The hanger in total had just under 40 rosebuds. Also, since I was working with cotton, the edges of the rose buds were fraying. I liked the look, but didn’t want the hanger to unravel completely. I used Fray Check to seal the edges:

And now the final product...

                                                                            

Ode to Spray Paint

As you can probably tell from this title, we're big fans of the can here at sawyer|three.

It's amazing what a coat of glossy paint can do to refresh an old piece or a thrift store find. Seriously, it's amazing. It also helps that holding that can makes me feel like an artist when in reality, anyone who has the dexterity to press the nozzle has the skill to spray paint an object. Not to crush your dreams of being an artist. You still had to choose the color and actually go buy it. So don your beret, twirl your mustache and do that thing where you stick your thumb in the air anyway. I do.

The great thing about spray paint is that it sticks to EVERYTHING; metal, wood, wicker, wrought iron, hard vinyl, plaster, ceramic, plastic, my hands when I get overzealous. Everything. Of course certain types of spray paint stick to certain surfaces better than others. But it's easy enough to see what sticks where by taking a gander at the label on the can. Easy enough, right?

Needless to say, we've used spray paint on multiple surfaces in our apartment. Multiple. Yeah, we're super artsy and talented like that.

In fact it was the paint of choice when we created our little frame collage slash sawyer|three logo. We used a can of glossy black pray paint on these bad boys a while back. We collected frames we liked at the thrift store intending to make some kind of art collage on our living room wall. It wasn't long till we realized the frames themselves could be the art. Since they're all different there's a lot of fun textures going on which we love.

I even used the remnants of a spray paint can to refresh an old pair of metal earrings. They were starting to rust but it was nothing a little hot pink spray paint couldn't handle. I wish I had a picture for you, but I must admit I forgot to take one. But trust me, the paint made a world of difference.

I also mentioned that I'm planning on taking a can to at least one of these guys. I'm still undecided on the color at this point. But I'm leaning toward a nice bright matte color. That's right, you can buy matte spray paint. Yet another reason to love it!

Have you used spray paint on anything around your house lately? We'd love to hear about it!

Christmas in July

More like a review of Christmas in July. This past winter, my friend Alex was raving about the aprons from Anthropologie, and how she wanted one. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Anthropologie, and would shop-spree there anytime. Although a $50.00 apron seems a little silly to me, so I decided to take on this challenge, I’m sure Heidi and Michael would approve...

                                             

I began to search on Etsy so see if there was any fabrics that caught my eye. What an understatement. I came across this handsome design, and the decision was made for me...

Really, who could resist? Next I found black stretchy lace, and bright red ribbon for the band and tie. I pieced the apron together in four parts. The skirt, the top (two pieces), and the tie/band.

A close up of the graphics...

The top portion is lined with the black lace. The band is layered with the fabric, the black lace, and the bright red ribbon. This provided stability to the band so it was able to tie in the back.

And the proud owner, Alex. What better way to celebrate the fourth of July, than with this apron? Everyone loves a little Christmas in July!

                                                               

Village Visions

There is nothing quite like the thrill of thrifting. I don't know what it is but there's something so exciting about a well stocked thrift store. Of course, there's a lot not to like; the over-crowded aisles, the disorganization and the general smell to name a few. But let's just focus on the positive, shall we? 

When Mary and I get the itch to thrift we like to hit up our favorite local spot, Village Discount Outlet. These bad boys are all over Chicago and Northwest Indiana so if you live in either state there's a good chance you have a Village near you.

Before you start thinking this is just an ode to Village Discount, let me just explain why I bring it up. Mary and I decided it would be fun to do a segment of sorts about our fun thrift store finds. And so "Village Visions" was born.

The thing about thrift stores is that it's really a hit or a miss when it comes to finding anything worth buying. Sometimes I find myself fooled by the low, low prices and when I get home I wonder why I ever thought I needed yet another clear glass vase. Sure, it was $.80 but I already have three just like it. It's taken a while but I've learned to go in with a plan. The plan goes as follows:

Know what you're looking for.
Know how much you'd like to spend on it.
And stick to that.

Of course from time to time I find something too good to pass up. Sure I wasn't looking for it, but that's because I didn't know it existed. So my general rule of thumb is that if it gives me sweaty palms, butterflies in my stomach and I'd sell my first born to own it then I can take it home. Ok, so maybe that's a bit dramatic but you get the idea.

So when Mary and I went to the Village a while back with a pretty simple game plan. We needed more decorative stuff for the apartment. Simple enough, right? And here's what we found.

Check out these beautiful, shiny, ladies. They are candle stick holders when you flip them right side up, but we figure we can use them for votives too. See how you could easily plop a votive or tea light into what is meant to be the underside? At $.50 a piece it was a steal. There were more there but we settled on three because we love uneven numbers for decorating.

 

Here's a gratuitous shot from above just because they're so shiny and pretty.

We also found two of these gorgeous bowls at $.80 a piece. We love the square shape and the texture on the sides. They can be used to put out candy for guests, serve chips with salsa and guacamole or even enjoy our morning cereal. And not to be a label snob, but check it out.

That's right. I even found similar ones for sale online for $15 each. Pier One is reasonably priced so we probably could have found these on clearance for $3 each but then again, we didn't even pay $3 for the two we brought home. So score one for sawyerthree.

This little guy is maybe my favorite thrift store find ever. I know it looks simple and it is but I find it so charming. It's just a scrap of fabric. It was in a ratty frame but I loved from the moment I set eyes on it. In fact, it's even awarded itself a place on our Great Wall of Frames. In a new and freshly painted frame, of course.

Here is the last find in this edition of Village Visions. Not one, but two sets of bookends. You might wonder why one would need so many book ends and it's a fair question. A question I don't have an answer to. I just love them and I'm fairly certain Mary does too. If not, she's a very good friend. I just love how intricate they are. And while they look pretty great as is, I can definitely see us whipping out a can of spray paint at some point to give them a funky makeover. Turquoise anyone? They are so cute. I found myself going all paparazi on them in our dining room but I was able to hold back and only bore you with one picture.

So there you have it! I'm sure we'll be back very soon with some more thrift store finds. In the meantime, we'd love to hear about yours!