Little Winter in Portland

Pretty sure I could NOT be more excited for Saturday to come. I'm going to a cute little art fair in Portland called Little Winter.

It involves two of my all time favorite bloggers: Chelsea of Frolic! and Jordan of Oh Happy Day. To think I may actually meet them makes me stop breathing for a second. Second only to my love for these ladies is my love for Justin Bieber. So. That should tell you something.

Chelsea is doing the styling for the market and using this photo as inspiration.  It's giving me chills already! Brrrr...

Love and Little Winter,

Martha

Pioneer Woman's Lodge Kitchen

The Lodge is an ongoing renovation project that has its very own tab in The Pioneer Woman's home and garden section. Here is the kitchen. I like the wide openness of it.

Love that church bench on the left.

She's still working on the bar area.

Pleeeenty of counter space for major cooking with and for guests.

I would like to see more pops of color in the kitchen, like on this wall.

Nice use of stone and wood. And I love open shelving. Again, an excuse to buy beautiful dishes and display them.

This is her vegetable sink. Hello. Somebody uses lots of vegetables. I like when people fully understand the way they use their kitchens and build it into the design. Design is nothing without function, in my opinion.

Love and lovely lodges,

Martha

Pioneer Woman's Home Kitchen

I bop on over to The Pioneer Woman when I need a dose of country in my life. Have you SEEN that site lately? She can advise you on just about any part of your countrified life. Including home and garden! Who knew?  Since I've followed her cooking blog more closely, I have come to love the functionality and simplicity of her kitchen. 

I think I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for white cabinets. They are clean and classic. I also really like how the top cabinets are windowed. It gives you a chance to buy and display dishes you love (and forces you to stay organized at least in that part of the kitchen). She didn't white it out too much, she pulled in natural woods and tan tile flooring to warm it up just right.

 Her built-in flour/sugar drawers are just genius. More about those here.

She mixed up the countertops, which I love. Granite for the perimeter and stainless steel for the island. More on her countertop choices here. And tomorrow a post on the kitchen in their lodge.

Love and love songs,

Martha

VOTE TODAY!

Let's be honest, voting seems like a burden most of the time, especially when it's "just" midterm elections. Researching the issues and the candidates can be laborious. Plus, it cuts into my Facebook time! I mean COME ON! However, as a woman, I can't help but think every voting day about the women before me who fought to give me the right to voice my opinion about local, state and national government. Even when the issues are straight up boring and the candidates are straight up annoying. I love those women. I want to honor them. If you need a little extra inspiration, read this story. It's one of my favorites about how the suffrage vote was finally passed. It was thanks to the influence of a wonderful mother. Happy voting day!

Love and little know facts,

Martha

Fireplaces ... What To Do?

Are you feeling festive these days? Because here come the holidays! It's got me thinking about fireplaces. Love them or hate them, one thing is for sure: they produce a big question mark in many a head when it comes to decorating with and around them. Here are some cool ideas I've been bookmarking.

Surprise! There is a phone inside this cute fireplace in the home of the couple from Oh Darling. The yellow and orange banner is a nice way to break up the elongated brick wall. And I pretty much die over vintage fans like the one on their mantle.

Old world charm from Oh Happy Day. I like how she let the pure beauty of the fireplace itself alone and just added a few knick knacks and pictures to make it interesting.

I've had this fireplace from Caitlin Wilson Design on my mind for at least a year. When the fireplace itself doesn't function, stick it full of wood. Done and done! And that glam beaded tile all the way up?!?! Hello! That's Caitlin and her daughter in front of it. Cute, cute, cute.

You can't see the entire picture of this fireplace from Rockstar Diaries but you can tell that it is a rockstar fireplace. I love the layered positioning of the old and new photos on the mantle. The green paint around it shouts, "this is NOT a tired, old fireplace!"

Love and liverwurst, 

Martha

Nursery and Kids Rooms

I am working on helping my mom ORGANIZE and re-DECORATE her play room (I will show the progress later in November), and I was searching for inspirational images and came across this AMAZING website with BEAUTIFUL nurseries and kid rooms.

 

Oh my goodness...all these rooms are so inspirational! It makes me want to have 50 more kids ;) Or you all could hire me to decorate your kids rooms so I don't have to pop out that many babies ;)

I hope these pictures inspire happy thoughts! Check out this LINK to see some more pictures of these rooms and some ADDITIONAL rooms that are also amazing.

Peace OUT!
Cyndi

Nie & Halloween Flashback

Halloween is Sunday! Have you decorated yet? I've only JUST gotten excited about it. The air is chilly, the leaves are falling down, I finally got my daughter's costume all situated. It'll be her first trick or treating experience! I can't wait. I am terrible at decorating for holidays, but you know who isn't? In fact she may as well OWN the holidays. You know who I'm talking about: NieNie from NieNie Dialogues. I eagerly anticipate her Halloween home decor every single year. It's never contrived or plastic-y ... just stylishly spooky. These photos are from 2007. To get this look you could literally walk out your front door, grab some branches and you're halfway there. 

Adding little extras like the birds and spiders would be a cinch. Dollar store!

And you could grab tiny pumpkins as part of your grocery shopping trip, they are overflowing in the produce section.

And I could see that rusty cake plate coming from your local Goodwill.

Fabulously frightening!

Love and looking forward to this weekend of fun!

Martha

LOC Gift Shop

If you love historical or old fashion art that has a story behind it, a fun place to browse is the Library of Congress online gift shop. Many of the prints or posters have a side bar that contains some background information on the piece and its historical significance.

I went to Arches National Park in Utah about a thousand times growing up. I think this old travel poster would be cute in a little boy's room or an office.

This is an obvious choice for a laundry room. We can dream about the day when men do laundry while we sit idly by, can't we?

My interest in zoos is renewed after getting a zoo pass this week! I saw some amazing birds there. This poster reminds me of them.

Here's a Depression era poster. But what really caught my eye is that vibrant yellow and the old fashioned signage. I love old buildings and love them even more when they are captured nicely in photography.

Did you love the Little Miss Muffet story growing up? It was definitely a weird one. Curds and whey? What? Anyway, still a cute story and I like how it is portrayed here (now we can see what that tuffet looked like!). This would make a cute little addition to a girl's room. Especially if you were blatantly pushing reading and terror of spiders on her.

Love and loopholes (do you like election season rhetoric? me neither),

Martha

Poster Cabaret

I like to bookmark places online that have cool, affordable art. I just found Poster Cabaret that has a good variety of posters from a variety of different artists. I love these sweet animal prints by Marisa Haedike. They would be adorable in either a girl or boy nursery.

Love and Laramie, Wyoming,

Martha

Parenthood Set Design

I really like the show Parenthood and part of it is because of the beautiful set design. It's set in Berkeley, which gives it a woodsy, hippie vibe. But only one house fits that bill. Another is a traditional, comfortable home. Another is a boat. Another is this one below. It's my favorite. It's open, sleek, modern and kid friendly.

Love and Little Bo Peep (I've got Halloween costumes on the brain),

Martha