Baby Announcements

We just received a charming baby announcement from our DOC, Katie, welcoming her new daughter, Anna. Look at this cute little detail:

How Many Is "Too Many?"

We still aren't settled or organized enough to unpack and/or hang art in our condo - but we do have some wedding photos up. My question is, do we have TOO MANY wedding photos up? I'd hate to be THAT girl. Will they look less imposing once we have other stuff on the walls?  Am I just paranoid because my friends called the fireplace display a shrine? What do you guys think? How much is TOO MUCH? Has anyone else wondered this?

{Wedding Pictures in Photos by Sarah Alair}

Any Holiday Party Food Ideas from My Chicago Friends?

(No Charming Photo Because Blogger Stinks!)

Does anyone have suggestions for a place from which to pick up or order delicious bulk** appetizers? We're having a house full for a holiday party in a few weeks and I just found out that I'll be travelling for work the week leading up to it. (OF COURSE I would be, as I travel for work once every 5 years!)

I have an e-mail out to Appetizers and Inc. to see if they're open to the public.

• Note: I don't have a Costco membership.

Our Fireplace Project

For some reason, our unit is one of the few in the building in which the developer did not put lights in the living room. I needed a quick fix for lightening up our fireplace wall until we can afford to wire the ceiling for lights. We decided that paint was the most affordable, dramatic option.

I'm not a big fan of our corner fireplace wall. The tile is so dark and the nook is awkward. In an ideal world, I'd hang some cool pendant lights there to fill the space and provide some light.

I chose to paint the wall green to play off of our couch, which sits across the room. Andy and I agreed on the color "Leapfrog" by Behr, which seemed to be just a smidge brighter than the couch.

{Image}

Oh man! HUGE MISTAKE. It was bright. I mean, like Kermit-the-Frog-dipped-in-acid-and-then-plugged-in bright.

While I do not typically shy away from bright colors, it was just too much. Not to mention that it didn't align with the rest of our house. I went to Home Depot with a swatch of our couch fabric to see if they could color match it. As I stood in line, I realized that our swatch perfectly matched the next color on the Behr card, Wild Grass.

{Image}

I wasn't wild about the color, so I had it mixed with only 45% of the color and it turned out perfect. A week later (I think that I got some bad paint because it was thick like batter and took days to dry.), the wall was finished!

Here's the final product:

The candles are the "luminere" line from CB2. I originally tried them without the side photos, but it was too bare. I love the way that they look with the green paint.

They look great when lit up at night - even if my photography skills don't show it.

Lovely Packages from My Lovely Friend

{Image}

Back in August, I signed up for the oh, hello friend lovely package swap and got an extra surprise -- a lovely partner! I was assigned to swap packages with my friend, Tara, of In This Instance. How funny! We both got a bit overwhelmed with work and life in August, so we agreed to exchange a little later. My package arrived last month (ironically, when it was waiting for me when I arrived home from having coffee with Tara) and it was adorable. Craft Paper + Twine + Orange Flowers almost always = Happy Day!

The Lovely Package

The Goodies inside...

Each package contained a charming quote:

Gift Tags:

Mailing Labels:

Adorable Letterpress Note Cards:

Tea Book:

  

And a beautiful tea towel (I love tea towels!):

{All Photos by Me; All Packaging by Tara}

My gift to Tara is in the mail and should arrive by Monday. I am crossing all of my fingers and toes that the packaging arrives in the condition that it was in at departure. Andy thinks that my note asking the postman not to jostle the contents of the package was an invitation to destroy it.

You can see my gifts to Tara (don't peek, Tara!) and all of the other participants' booty in the lovely package flickr group. Many thanks to Danni  of oh, hello friend for organizing the swap! And congratulations on her very adorable engagement.

My Hunt for House Wine Continues...

Because I am such a kick-ass wife, I've been taking one (well, many) for the team and drinking a lot of bad/mediocre wines in an attempt to fine a good House Wine. We have a lot of fancy wine, but not enough what we've dubbed "Tuesday Night Wine," cheap affordable-but-sorta-delicious wine that I can pop on a weeknight without worrying about finishing the entire bottle (like if I've been dealing with those jerks at Priceline) or if I just want to have a quick drink with a friend. We also need a good dinner party wine for the nights that we're responsible for providing 2-4 bottles of wines for our guests. Here are a few recent winners that I can recall off of the top of my head. My desired price range is less than $10, but I often cheat and go up to $15. (Don't tell.) These are all reds. Whites to follow some other day...

• Estancia  Pinot Noir - about $15ish @ Trader Joe's - This guy's review is actually pretty right on and funny. It's a good Pot Luck Wine. I'm curious to try their Reserve wines.

{Image}

• Trapiche Malbec: $6.99ish @ Trader Joe's and Binny's. My friend VP brought this over for our GermanFest party and I drank it a few weeks later. Not knowing she brought it,  I sent her an e-mail saying, "I have no idea where we got this, but it's good and cheap." That's all that I remember about it.

{Image}

• Bear's Lair Cabarnet Sauvignon: $3.99 @ Trader Joe's. We served this wine at a dinner party on Saturday and I, pleasantly, wasn't horrified when I took the first taste. It's definitely light, but still pretty satisfying. And it beats the pants off of Three Buck Chuck.

Pretty!

I love these fancy pencils from iomoi. Then again, I love most things from iomoi, especially these.

{Images}

P.S. Peach Post is having a giveaway! Entry ends on Saturday.