Layne's Blog

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Home sweet home

Can you believe it? I've been a homeowner for one year! Only 29 more to go of mortgage payments...

April 17th marked my one year anniversary of being in my new home in West Seattle, and I have loved every minute of it. I'm so happy here, and love coming home everyday.

It's been fun to get settled in, work on home projects, and decorate...oh the decorating. Since I haven't really posted any photos of the place since I moved in, I thought I'd share some now.

front entrance

office and door to backyard

map wall

stairs to main floor, and the giant tv
I snagged from Clint

living, dining, kitchen

new bar!

powder room off main floor

laundry room

my room

my bath

upstairs, still need some type of
furniture to go here

guest room

guest bath

A couple weekends ago, I made a trip out to Ellensburg to visit my bff Sarah B. Once I told her I was doing Stella & Dot, she wanted to have a trunk show. She had heard of the jewelry before, and we both knew how fun a party would be. So, we decided on a day, and I planned to head out for a weekend visit.

I woke up Saturday morning and got all my things together to head out, and got a text from Sarah..."have you checked the pass?" No, it's April and the pass should be fine...nope. Apparently it was snowing pretty hard and traction tires were required. I gave her a call and we decided that I would wait it out an hour and see if it got better before deciding if we needed to cancel. An hour went by, and the photos of the webcams online looked better, so I decided to go for it. I made sure my trunk was packed with my hiking boots, a warm blanket, bottled water, and wine...just in case.

For about a ten mile stretch through the pass, the roads got a little sketchy. It was snowing, and cars had slowed down to 45 mph. I chugged along without any problems.

snowy pass in April

After getting over the pass, the weather turned amazing. Sunny skies and dry roads. Crazy to think how much difference a few miles makes.

I made it Sarah's safe and sound and got my jewels and handbags all set out. Guests started to arrive, including her three sisters and mom, so it was great to see them all and visit. The ladies loved everything (how could they not?), and I made quite the haul in orders placed.

gathering around the goods

Baby Henry in the getaway bag

After the party, some of us went out to El Caporal for dinner (mmm, tacos). Then some of the girls came back to Sarah's place so we could watch trashy tv and visit some more. The next morning, we had breakfast at IHOP, headed to Sarah's parent's house to visit some more, then I was on my way back over the pass. This time with clear skies the whole way.

It was so great to see Sarah again especially to see her growing tummy. I can't wait to visit again in June for her baby shower for little miss Emma Lee.

cookies from Sarah's mom for the ride home

Eleusinia

A few Sundays ago, I went to Chi Omega's birthday party...or what we like to call Eleusinia. Each year a luncheon is held (usually at a stuffy country club) and we eat, listen to boring speakers, and exclusively sit at our own table and ignore everyone else. This year was different. The location moved to Tyee Yacht Club on Lake Union which is a gorgeous venue, the food was actually alright, we allowed the cute little Freshman to sit with us, and the guest speaker was amazing!

right on Lake Union

Jecca was asked to speak this year, and she did such a great job! Her speech was witty, sentimental, and everyone in the room was able to relate...she's quite the public speaker. She may have told us she was nervous beforehand, but there was no sign of it once she got up there. You knew the whole room was touched by her story when she received a standing ovation. Afterwards, the active members circled around just to hear more, Chi O's newest celebrity.

She reminded me how grateful I am that I decided to rush and joined Chi Omega. I can't imagine not meeting these amazing girls and having them in my life. As my mom says, if I hadn't, I'd have no friends. True.

Jecca and I

Me and Weiner Boo

Morgan, Becca, Brenna, Jecca, Weiner and baby Nikonov

holding hands and singing

LYSICO!

More DIY home projects

I've been pretty busy around the house these days doing some more fun projects. I'm such a sucker for Pinterest!

First, I wanted to recover my dining room chairs, but was having a hard time finding a fabric I liked. I kept my eyes open every time I was at a fabric store, but no luck. Then, while shopping at Ikea, I found some cute throw pillows and got the idea to cut them up for my chairs. One pillow cover was the perfect amount to recover 2, so it turned out to be a pretty cheap option.

before and after

I also recently bought a bar for my dining room after pining for it for a couple of weeks. I would look at it online everyday, but because it was from World Market, it was pretty expensive. Eventually, it went on sale, plus I found a coupon, so I figured it wouldn't get any cheaper and just went for it (and I'm happy to see that it's back up to it's original price!). I've been having a lot of fun stocking it with the bar essentials (read: booze) and even found these cool letters on Pinterest to make. Instead of "eat," I bought paper maché letters for "bar" at JoAnn Fabric. I then spray painted them copper and bedazzled them with pennies. I think they turned out pretty fun.

love my glue gun

I also came across this cute idea to hang mason jars (on Pinterest of course), and thought they'd look good on either side of my kitchen window. My first thought was to plant herbs in them, but wasn't sure how long they'd live. I then discovered air plants while at the nursery, and thought they were pretty cool. You mist them with water, but they are good to survive on their own without being planted in dirt. Here's hoping I keep them alive, I hear they can be pretty finicky.

hanging air plants

I also got the idea to use an old (looking) crate to double as a wine rack. I found one at Michael's, stained it, and filled it with my growing collection of wine. My mom also had a gold tray that my grandma had given her sitting out at her place. I fell in love with it and snagged it. I think it looks better at my place anyways, it's a perfect fit on top of the crate.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

I love my job

I'm so thankful to have a job that I love. As much as I complain about the daily grind, my co-workers, difficult customers...I really do enjoy the work that I'm doing. I basically get to play with design programs to make pretty pictures all day, how fun is that?

I thought I'd post a few of the jobs I've done so you can see what kind of work I do. I support the sales and marketing teams for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, so I end up designing a lot of materials for customer events. I do a lot of print pieces (brochures, posters, banners) as well as digital design (websites, evites, video). Here are some of my favorites.