Nuts about Kuz.

One of my favorite people is getting married in a couple of weeks. To celebrate her upcoming nuptials, some friends and I threw a bridal shower in her honor. Erin is a big fan of small woodland animals so it only seemed fitting to have a squirrel-themed party. 

I commissioned an artist on Etsy to make the invite using the image above (an original image of the artist's). We also had squirrel cupcake flags, acorn-shaped cookies for dessert and gave her a squirrel candleholder from Jonathan Adler. 

Here are some photos from that day. Links to all things linkable are at the bottom of this post. 

Food

 

 

Decor

 

Friends

Links:

Grilled flank steak with Gorgonzola & tomato salsa 

Crostinis, blueberry & apple

Mango jalapeno margaritas

Patio furniture: Before & After

As a wedding gift, we received a patio set from World Market. It looked great when we first set it up, but after three years in the lovely Pacific Northwest climate, it had seen better days (although I admit some of this damage was probably caused by user error). 

I had been lusting after more all-weather patio furniture from Ballard Designs and Pottery Barn. I love the idea of weather-resistant aluminum instead of wood like our current set. But I don't love the idea of spending $2,000 on something I can only really enjoy three months out of the year. 

So I decided a fresh coat of stain and some new pillows would be good enough to get the look I was going for without the huge price tag and bought a can of the darkest wood stain I could find at Home Depot and a new brush for about $50. 

Here are some before shots. This stuff was a mess. 

And the after shots. It's amazing what a difference a can of stain and some pillows can make. 

 

P.S. Brent gets all the credit for the manual labor involved with this project. Not only did he do all of the staining, he also did it over a weekend I was out of town and surprised me when I came home (with flowers, too). He got major points. Major.

Family photos.

We recently took professional photos as a Mothers' Day gift for my mom. I thought it would be nice since we didn't have any professional photos of our extended growing family and my brother and his fiancé were moving to San Francisco for a year. Plus, the last professional photos we took as a group were from our wedding three years ago.

I'm kind of a sucker for professional photos. This was the sixth shoot we've done with Carson (if we're counting maternity photos) and total of eight shoots in the last three years. That is an average of one almost every four months. Luckily, I have an understanding and cooperative husband.

Here are a few of my favorites from that day.

Photos taken by the lovely Sara Maletis.