Ray and Day

"I'll stop the world and melt with you" ~Modern English

Harrisburg, PA 2010

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The Living Room/Dining Room

Today I will once again take you through a part of the home Damon, Charlie, and I share together. I hate to say this, but I don't think we will be in this house many months longer. We will DEFINITELY live here until the wedding-there is no way I am dealing with selling/renting our house on top of everything else going on. As much as I loved-and still love this house-it's not practical, especially when you own a 100-pound dog and she has more energy than you would believe. I thought running up and down the three floors, and the small patch of grass in the back would be enough for Charlie, but every time we take her to the "country" we are reminded of how cruel city living is for her. We have our eyes set on a  farmhouse with A LOT of land, but we unfortunately need to convince the current homeowner it's time to move. Anyway, enjoy taking a look around-maybe you even want to make us an offer... ;) 

If you have never dried hydrangeas, you should try it. They typically dry nicely and add a little something-something through the winter months. The secret is when you put together an arrangement of hydrangea bunches that you keep the original water and let it evaporate. Don't refill or replenish the water in hopes of keeping the flowers longer because, at that point, they will die before they can dry.

I have quite the thing for mid-century modern furniture; maybe it started with from obsession with Mad Men, or maybe it's just...those "lines."  I have two matching Heywood Wakefield end tables that I got at Atomic Warehouse.  Atomic Warehouse has a ton of mid-century modern furniture but the prices are a bit steep, especially for someone like me who knows with time and patience I can find the exact same items for a fraction of the price. The throw and pillows were all scooped up from IKEA, and the huge AWESOMENESS of a painting was done by Kevin Catlin. We have a few other pieces he has done, but we will save that blog post for another day!

I bought this Drexel credenza and a matching cabinet for $150 dollars off of craigslist.  It was such the steal since the same credenza sells for $1,000 online. There is my footstool turned Plant Stand, and that bowl on the left was picked up at a yard sale across the street before I moved in. 

I scooped this Heywood Wakefield table up from my neighbor's yard sale for free. 

I have yet to sand and re-stain it, but that project will come soon. I am in the process of trying to convince Damon to do it.

The Danish-modern dining room table and wooden chairs were purchased from Atomic Warehouse. 

The black chairs are from Pier One-boring. 

The Drexel cabinet was the other half of that $150 steal.

The framed picture above the cabinet is just fabric from IKEA thrown in a frame (ironed first, of course).

The white cabinet was handmade in my dad's wood shop. My mom and I took a trip to Vegas a few years back and saw a similar cabinet for a hefty price tag, a price we were not willing to pay. With a piece of paper and a pencil we took the design home with us, and after a few hours spent in the shop...our homemade version was created. The artwork, is the embroidery hoop and the framed button heart was another one of my d.i.y. projects.  

.ray.

LOOKY LOOKY

 Here is what I am still looking for:


Vintage Floral Dishes (dinner plate, salad plate, dessert plate, tea cups, saucers)
Buttons
Milk Vases (only large and small bowls)
Blue Mason Jars  
Pint Size Mason Jars
Platters, Pie Plates, Cake Stands
Fabric
Skeleton Keys
Antique Books (anything wedding/love related in the title)
Pitchers (all glass/all different sizes)
Vintage Brooches for the Bouquets
Mirrors (neat frame)
Suitcases
Vintage Baking Utensils (Sifter, Whisk, Scale, rolling pin, cookie cutters)
Hankies
Scrabble Game 
Shepherd hooks
2 Old Wooden Doors


.ray.

Mason Jars

It has become quite the task, collecting pint size mason jars. I have gone from flea markets, to yard sales, to auctions, and to craigslist to find old mason jars. Yeah, I could have gone to Walmart and got their latest design of canning jars, but that just wouldn't seem right, and not fun at all. 

I spent the last few weekends washing every single jar to make sure it was completely clean and free of any canning remains. The task is finally finished, and the jars are packed up nicely and ready to be used. 

Here is how it relates to the wedding, as you can see from the picture taken in my "staging room"-also known as the wedding room. 

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Lace-Covered Mason Jars, AGAIN

When the lace-covered mason jars were all said and done, I felt like something was still missing. 

After a few changes, I think I am finally happy with the jars, and I have finally figured out another use for those skeleton keys. 

.ray.

Where should we go on our honeymoon?

I think a little European excursion would be nice...

Maybe Venice again...?? 

..and Switzerland...Austria...and Slovenia??...I think we could swing it. 

I better get to Orbitz and start searching for those cheap airfares that don't exist anymore.

Here I am in Venice in 2006 with two of my future bridesmaids.
If I remember correctly, we were already a few bottles of red wine deep by this point...?

.ray.

The Dress

Finding "the dress" hasn't been top on my priority list. Little girls are supposed to dream about what they will one day look like in their wedding dress...I wasn't one of those girls. Maybe it is for the fact that I was the middle child, between two boys, and being "girly-girl" was never an option. Well this past weekend,  I got to be "girly-girl". I went with my friend Megan to her wedding dress fitting. She looked amazing! Megan is getting married in June, a month before me, and I can't wait to be apart of her big day. Megan has been a long-time friend, and she convinced me to bring my mom along to her fitting-just in case I wanted to look at some dresses when she was done. Before I knew it, I had pulled about 10 dresses and into the fitting room I went. I tried on dress number two, and by golly, there she was...a little lace number.

.ray.