Fur & Bones
When I was a kid, and newly vegetarian, my dad would always buy me gifts that involved fur, bones or taxidermied reptiles. He thought it was soooo funny - and it kind of was. But little did he know, he was actually instilling an appreciation, an aesthetic even, for fur, bones and all things taxidermied. Thanks, Dad.
And Scooty, you better watch it - this attitude you've developed (I'm blaming it on Spring) is a one-way ticket to becoming a pillow cover. I kid, I kid.
J + K: The wedding budget
Wedding budgets can be a very personal topic but I've decided to add up the costs of our wedding for you, dear readers, because I KNOW you want to know (I'm curious too!).
Let's dive right in.
Outfits:
My dress: $140 (on sale from $400) - gifted by my mom
Fascinator hair piece: $70
Mani/Pedi: $100 (for my official unofficial bridesmaid too)
Jeremy's outfit: $170
Rings: heirloom / gifted
Photography:
Polaroid Film: $320
Kodak 400 CV 120 (for Holga): $50
Balloons - $10
Invitations:
Materials: $60
Stamps: $25
Decorations:
Paper Lanterns: $100
Lights: $75
Flowers: $100
Music: $25
Misc (vases, cupcake holder, ribbon, plates, silverware, napkins, etc): $290
Food and Drink:
Hors D'ouvres: $220
Iron Starr BBQ: $350
Food Chafers: $55
Liquor (wine, beer, liquor): $230
Cupcakes: Gifted from a dear friend. 
TOTAL WEDDING COSTS: $2,250
Jeremy and I never really set a wedding budget but were both keeping in mind that we would like to try and keep it under $3,000 - so we came in a little bit under - that helps pay for the honeymoon and appendectomymoon!
I think it is important to consider your priorities when making a wedding budget. The items we wanted to splurge on were food and alcohol, while we saved on costs by not having an actual photographer at the wedding and instead have guests take Polaroids and digital snaps.
When throwing a big party or wedding what kinds of things are you willing to splurge on? Where do you save on costs to compromise?
P.S. We'll be paying on the remodel for the venue location for another 8 months.
My perfect little Lego life.
My sister has this gift for making things out of Legos. 
Like this little Lego bodega. I want to shop there. I want little Lego flowers and little Lego cartons of milk.
And I'd take my cute little Lego bag of groceries with a little Lego baguette sticking out the top to my cute little Lego townhouse around the corner. 
Oh and the interior to my little Lego townhouse is all white on white.
Guest Bedroom: Work in Progress
This weekend Jeremy worked on the guest bedroom a little bit. 
This room is still very unfinished so this is all you get for now. I'm trying to get all the elements to work together in a way that feels put together or at least intentional.
Give us a couple more weeks and a fresh coat of paint on the wall.
Orla Kiely for Target
When the Orla Kiely for Target collection was released I was excited, but found that most of the collection didn't fit in with things I wanted or needed. 
But this last week this vase appeared in green and brown and I had to have it - not because I really really love the vase (which I do) but because I wanted to have a piece of the Orla Kiely for Target excitement.
Do you ever buy things for the experience?
Simplify Sundays
Every Sunday, we're going to take steps to simplify our lives and we'll share the experience with you all.
Today I tackled the bathroom cabinets.
I love old medicine packaging. I found this while cleaning out the medicine cabinet and can't bear to toss it even though we'll probably never use it. If I was just a little more eccentric I would have my medicine cabinet full of vintage medicine bottles, toiletries and perfumes and nothing else.
Before:
I had organized this bathroom cabinet shortly after we moved in but it was easy to let it get junked out over time.
After:
Deep down this closet was already pretty organized. Just by going through everything I was able to throw away an entire bag of empty cleaning supplies, old makeup and expired medicine.
One tip is to take everything out of the plastic or cardboard packaging (i.e. toilet paper, cotton balls, makeup sponges, tampons, etc.) and put them in permanent packaging like bowls, clear glass containers, or storage boxes.
I went through all my makeup and tossed anything that has expired (mascara has a shelf life of only 4 months, lipstick up to 4 years, creams should be thrown away after 12 months).
My sister taught me to put all my makeup on a tray - it's great for seeing everything you have at once - and it's nice and portable.
I also cleaned out the medicine cabinet but the before/after isn't quite as impressive.
While I was working on all of this Jeremy was putting together the guest bedroom. More on that tomorrow!
Antlers
I don't know where I found this photo but I saved it in my "inspiration" folder on my desktop and keep on coming back to it.
The image is strong and the colors are dreamy.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Jeremy and I will be hanging out with friends and family, going to the Norman Music Festival and I've got a couple custom wedding invitations to work on. What are your weekend plans?
Keep your eyes peeled for a Simplify Sunday post later tomorrow.
Master Bedroom - Rearranged
Jeremy recently confessed to me that when he wakes up in the middle of the night and can see down our striped hallway it creeps him out. In addition to our headboard being backed up to windows made him feel vulnerable. I told him it would scare me too if I wasn't sandwiched by two men (him and Mr. Scooty Boots aka Jaguar Paw) every night to keep me safe.
For reference, here is what our master bedroom looked like before we rearranged.
And here it is now. 
The bed is flip-flopped to mirror the position it used to be in.
The positioning of everything else in the room (as well as styling) is still a work in progress. But this gives you an idea of the current layout.
Since the room has been rearranged I have slept better than I have in weeks. It's also fun to feel like I'm in a whole new space – like moving but better.
*Sorry if these images are slow-loading. My flickr is acting up today.
20 x 200 - by Lauren DiCioccio
20 x 200 is a web site that offers affordable limited edition art. I try and swing by weekly to see what's new and found these pieces evening. 
Vogue JUL07:pg145 (Ripeness is All)
by Lauren DiCioccio
Vanity Fair MAY08:pg269 (and, incredibly, looking not a day older)
by Lauren DiCioccio
About the process:
Fashion magazines are the source materials for my series color codification dot drawings. I make each piece on a sheet of frosted mylar laid over a magazine page. After assigning a color to every letter in the alphabet (numbers are in grayscale, 0=white and 9=black), I apply tiny dots of paint over every character on the page. Each drawing I make has a different color codification, and therefore a different palette. The resulting painting is a legible blur of dots in the form of the article’s layout — like a system of Braille for the color inclined.
I'm obsessed.
Milk Bottles
I adore these ceramic milk bottles Liz got us as a wedding gift. 
They're designed with vintage New York themes. I'm pretty sure you can find them on Etsy.
Hand Made Meets Sophisticated
What excited me the most about finding yesterday's feature on Anthropologie is that their design philosophy is so clearly executed in their catalogs, store layout and clothing. The juxtaposition of something sophisticated with something hand made.
This aesthetic is something I've been trying to achieve in my own home as well as graphic design at work.
Recently I worked on a project for a cosmetic surgeon. We were a little slow around here so my creative director urged me to not just do more of the same (but better) with my extra time but to do something I haven't done before. 
That's when I got the xacto knife out.
Inspired by Real Simple, I decided to do a cut paper treatment and have my photographer actually photograph the layout. 
The photographs came out like this. Fun sidenote: I raised the cut paper off the background paper with Legos.
I took the images (in Photoshop CS4) and did some magic to create these client brand boards. 
So, I could've created all of this in Photoshop alone but I'm really proud that there is some real hand-cut elements in there.
I hope that gives you a little sneak peak into what I do and the process I go through.
Are you working on any DIY or hand made projects? Tell me about it!
Work Inspiration - Anthropologie
So, if you read this blog you probably know how much it hurts my heart that I don't work for Anthropologie. And to sink the knife in a little deeper I found this site via Decor8 where they feature Anthropologie as a Adobe Creative Suite case study.
It's a fun little interactive flash site to explore.
Does this lady look like Wanda from Big Love to anyone else?
Look at how fun their studio is!
Their main design philosophy is bringing a hand crafted element into everything they create. A juxtaposition of the sophisticated with the hand made. Something I've been trying to bring into all of my work lately. (More on this later!)
So at my job we're not cutting out fabric and paper all day - but it's really not too far off. Also, I know how shoots go for things like this and I know it's probably all staged. Ha! 
I want to stare at floral prints all day!
So I'm seeing all of this and not moments later my boss says we have an extra monitor and offers it to me so I can have a dual monitor set up. And I'm thinking "OMG! Now I can REALLY pretend like I work for Anthropologie!"
Pile some scraps of fabric on my desk and voile! So while it's in my nature to always want more than I have I feel like I've really made the best of being a designer in the middle of Oklahoma City.
Spring has sprung!
I woke up this morning to the sun shining and a fresh breeze coming in through the windows - it was enough to put me in a wonderful mood. I think Jeremy was feeling the same way because we both found ourselves wearing rainbows today.
Our plants are thriving. And some are sprouting that I didn't even know we had! 
A slight bummer - when we had a pier installed under our home I think they killed one of our bushes.
Now that everything has turned green it sticks out like a sore, dead thumb. I wanted to put a Forsythia in it's place but now I think I need something a little fuller. I'm loving the azalias in the area right now but apparently they need a lot of upkeep.
And finally - I'm really looking forward to hanging out on our deck, around the chiminea, this spring. 
A wedding present from Jeremy's uncle.
What are you looking forward to most this Spring?
Quilts
The biggest project on my plate right now is designing our guest bedroom and all the pieces are coming together quite nicely.
As a wedding gift my mom hooked us up with a vintage wrought-iron bed (that also happened to be my sister's through college), a mattress set and bedding. I told her what I really wanted were some of the quilts that have been in our family FOREVER.
My mom was a little hesitant to give them to me because they are thread-bare and tattered but that's what I love about them.
I was so excited to have them I insisted we sleep under them after bringing them home. I slept like a rock - the quilts all heavy and soft and cool - they just feel like home. Meanwhile, Jeremy had nightmares they were cursed and going to kill us. Nice.
I can't wait to show you all the guest bedroom once everything is in it's place.
Simplify Sundays
I kind of missed my Sunday deadline but I want to start a series on J+K called "Simplify Sundays". This series will document our efforts to simplify our lives - starting with our home. 
I started with my jewelry. I had a TON (okay, maybe 10 pounds) of jewelry to sort through and got rid of a third of it (donated to my nephew's treasure collection). 
I probably wasn't wearing 75 percent of my jewelry because it wasn't worth untangling and sorting through all the junk. So now not only is my bling all organized I feel like I have more to choose from.
Rad Photos
This series, Evolution is Convenient, was highlighted on the Flickr blog today. 
Love them.
Paper Cranes
I was inspired by all these paper crane photos floating around and had this idea of folding HUNDREDS of paper cranes for decoration at our wedding. 
(via Oh Joy!)
I specifically loved this paper crane mobile.
So one evening Liz, Jeremy and I sat around the breakfast nook and started folding.
This one is folded out of some Martha Stewart paper - and I love it. But the rest just didn't translate like I thought they would. And they were really time consuming and we were lazy and wanted to watch Rock of Love Bus without distraction.
I still like the idea of creating a paper crane mobile out of various papers (so it looks like a quilt) but using the cranes as wedding decoration was a bust.
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J & K started this blog project to document the remodel of their 1929 historical home in the heart of Oklahoma City. It has now turned into a documentation of life, food, fashion, freelance, inspiration, design, adventures and details around the J & K house.
Kathleen works as an award-winning brand consultant and designer specializing in small business branding at Braid Creative & Consulting. Jeremy is a software engineer and is the left-brain to Kathleen’s right.
You can contact Kathleen at
jeremyandkathleen (at) gmail (dot) com.
All photos and graphics by Kathleen unless otherwise stated. Feel free to use them with permission or credit.
Anatomy of an Outfit
Freelance Matters
Freelance Matters: A series about how I tackle freelance issues such as estimating, billing, to-do lists and how to fire a client.
Trekking to Everest
In October 2010 Jeremy and I trekked through the Himalayas to Mt. Everest Base Camp. It completely changed my life. Read about the entire adventure, day-by-day, here.
My Business
Braid is a creative & consulting business I own with my sister. We do branding and business visioning for creative entrepreneurs. On the Braid blog I share branding adventures, how-to articles and advice on the creative process. If you need a little brand therapy of your own visit Braid or subscribe to the Braid blog RSS feed here.
What We Eat
We like to eat really good food - at least 3 times a day. Sometimes I blog about it - click here for recipes and yummy ideas.
Inspired By:
ME ELSEWHERE:
- Eva Black | Spaces
- Emma Dime
- Life as an Artistpreneur
- Jane Reaction
- Ink & Letters
- Meg Biram | The Edit
- Sarah Von Bargen's Small Biz Blog
- Design Crush
- The Equals Record
- Emmarie Designs
- Rory Gordon
- Yellow Brick Home
- The Creatives Project
- Silly Grrl
- Photographers Skeen
- The Clothes Make the Girl
- Bringing Design Home
- Pip & Estella
- A Practical Wedding
- Kind of a Sideshow
- Sandra Juto
- Old Sweet Song
- Rambling Renovators
- Brooklyn Bride
- Design Crush
- Experiment in Poverty
- The Jealous Curator
- Making it Lovely
- Dressing on the Side
- Kaboodle
- The Oklahoman
- Young House Love
- Oh So Beautiful Paper
- A Cup of Jo
- Brooklyn Limestone
- Glamour Weddings
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