Summertime

Summer is officially here, and boy did we celebrate!

with fields of wild flowers

and waterfall hikes

and the best photo ever

and strawberry rhubarb pie

and sun
and sand

and squealing

and dirty toes

Happy Summer!

Xo,
K

Home In Progress: Gallery Wall

Friends, I just moved. Well, it's been about a month and though we've been long unpacked, I haven't put anything up on the walls, until today....

Here's the thing, there's so much more wall space in this little townhouse than we've ever had before. Just looking at the blank spaces overwhelmed me. Putting holes in the walls feels like a really big commitment...especially when you know you'll have to fill them all in eventually. So, I wanted to be really intentional about placing each piece.

I found some inspiration this morning after a delicious cup of cold brew coffee at Burien Press over a good book and decided to just dive in.  Coffee = courage? 

My husband and I have an interesting style. We have to carefully balance a voracious love of cinema (especially of the 80's/horror variety -- think lots of black.) and a bright, vintage, eclectic feel.

I started with Mr. P.'s "The Breakfast Club" (his all time favorite movie!) poster as an anchor and built around it with my collection.

Some of my favorite pieces are hanging here. What do you think? This is certainly a work in progress, and I hope to continue to adding to our little dining room gallery. 

xo, Val

Style Love: New Glasses!

Getting my first pair of glasses was a dream come true, of sorts...no, really. Long before I ever needed a prescription I kept a collection of frames to play with. Tortoise shell, cat eye. Black, nerdy. My favorites were hot pink frames from Hot Topic!

Since graduating to the real deal, getting a new pair of specs is a highlight of my year. And guess what! They just came in!

Aren't they beautiful? TOMS Nairobi. They feature a dark brown vintage style frame with a hint of orange. These babies were made for me! I've only had them for a couple of days, and I'm pleased to see that these are sturdy frames with good quality hinges. 

TOMS has the same philosophy for their glasses as with their shoes. Buy 1 pair, and then give a pair away to someone who needs them. 

They came with a pretty canvas case and a sturdy TOMS flag cleaning cloth. 

Ahhhh! In love! 

Ok, that's all. :)  Back to catching up on the latest season of Bob's Burgers.

xo, Val

{Self Love}

want to know something I'm bad at? taking care of myself

and since becoming a mom I've been even worse at it.

so for sixteen months I've been
-not sleeping enough
-not eating well enough
-not drinking enough water
-not sweating enough
-not relaxing enough. 

and there's been a lot of guilt
-when I spend too much time working
-when I don't get enough work done
-when I forget to relax
-when I stay up too late
-when I skip a workout
-when I don't blog

that last one is silly, isn't it?

this isn't my first blog, this isn't even my third blog
and every time I seem to get overwhelmed,
or distracted,
and the posts become less frequent
and eventually they stop all together
and then I chug half a bottle of red wine and delete the entire thing

but I don't want that to happen again,
so I've been fighting a losing battle,
where I stay up too late,
trying to post something interesting
to engage what little audience may be there

but isn't this suppose to be fun?
and satisfying?
and enjoyable?
and feel like me
or like Val?

A Collaborative Effort is not going anywhere
but I am changing my attitude towards it
no apologies
no guilt
just posting what I want
when I want
and taking care of myself
and, of course, miss boo.

Xo,
K

Take A Hike: Franklin Falls

I have this goal for the summer. It's simple, but has the potential to really impact my day to day life. Seriously, I just want to be outside more. That's all. Does anyone else have a desk job preventing them from enjoying the summer sun? And then do you promptly go home and hole up with your tv? Well, even if I'm all alone in this (and I know I'm not!) I'm putting this challenge out there. In the words of my loving father, "Go play outside!"

This week I just barely squeezed in a hike with my dear friend, Mel. After a long Saturday, we stopped for coffee and a Washington State Park parking pass, then with an 1/8 of a tank of gas and fading sunlight we headed up Snoqualmie Pass. That's how we roll!

Full disclosure here: We're not hikers. So, we started with easy. Franklin Falls is a 2 mile hike that takes you along the South Fork Snoqualmie River, up a palatable incline, and down again with a 700 foot waterfall finish. Beautiful.  And just as the words "are we there yet?" started to fall from my mouth the falls came into view. We inched down the rock to get as close as we could to the river and could feel the spray from the water fall! It was awesome to be that close! 

Here we are! Smiles all around!

I'm newly inspired to see more of the beautiful PNW this way. 

xo, V