LINK LOVE / 11

How was your week? I had kind of a rough one to be honest, just stressful...but it's the weekend now! Yay! Are you doing anything fun? The weather here has been great, so I hope to spend a lot of time outside, and tonight we're seeing this movie:

You really can't go wrong with a Jason Segel movie, right?
*update: that movie comes out next weekend (bummer!) so we'll probably just go out to dinner haha

Here are my favorite links of the week:

This little cutie has some serious moves. Wouldn't it be awesome if everyone kept the amount of confidence they had at that age?

One heck of a makeover - love the final, happy color scheme

I love simple, understated wedding rings so my heart skipped a beat when I saw these ten beauties.

Looking down from space - pretty amazing photos.

Are you over Facebook?

laser keyboard - what!?

I've been listening to this song on repeat all week - the video is pretty fun too.

cute little piggy planter

I want this pretty hammock! 

Have a great weekend!

(photo via blushing apples)

PROUD WIFE STUFF

Hey guys! I've mentioned before that my husband is a songwriter (it's one of the reasons we moved to Nashville), and every so often he enters songwriting competitions.

He has won a few in the past, and he just recently won first place in the American Songwriter Magazine contest! I'm so proud of him.

  Here is the interview that was featured in the magazine, and here is a video of him playing the winning song with his brand new Gibson guitar (the prize)! 

Go Hubbs! :) If you'd like to hear more of his stuff, you can subscribe to his Youtube page or visit this page.

MY FAVORITE DECORATING BOOKS

Summertime is great for catching up on reading. If you're like me, you have a huge pile of unread magazines and books waiting for you when you get more time. If you're looking for some good books on decorating, I thought I would share my favorites. 

Now, you might be thinking "Why in the world would I look at a book when I can just go on Pinterest!?" Well, I love Pinterest as much as the next girl, but I tend to find it a little overwhelming sometimes! It's just idea/information overload on that site, and while that's great, sometimes I just enjoy a good old fashioned book a lot more.

I also find it fun to get out the little sticky tabs and highlighters and mark pages of projects I like or ideas to try. I heart school supplies. :)

Here is my list of favorites:

Domino: The Book of Decorating - beautiful illustrations and pictures, helpful tips

Design*Sponge at Home - awesome home tours and DIY projects

Found, Free and Flea - vintage greatness, will make you want to collect stuff

Lowe's Complete Home Decorating - all the info (less pretty/fun stuff, but very useful)

Romantic Prairie Style - drooled over this book! perfect for someone like me, who wants a farm-y, vintagey, country chic home someday

WEST ELM INSPIRED DINNERWARE

Inspiration:

West Elm's Hand-Painted Dotted Dinnerware

West Elm's Chevron Sketch Dinnerware

Materials:

1. Various white dinnerware from Goodwill: $2.00

2. Sharpie: You probably already have one

This is such an easy (and cheap) DIY project. Just draw whatever patterns you like on some cheap, plain dinnerware with a Sharpie!

Happy doodling!

*Update: I've had a lot of people ask if the designs stay on when you wash it. I made the mistake of putting one of them in the dishwasher and it did wear off. :( But, if you gently hand wash them, they should be fine! Also, a helpful reader informed me that you can buy porcelain pens that write like a sharpie, and then you bake the dishes and it seals in the ink - definitely something to consider for this project if you want the dishes to be more durable!

MY WEEKEND IN PICTURES

Did you have a good weekend? Mine was looking like it was going to be a great one on Friday, but somehow I got sick again! I was just sick a couple weeks ago, but must have caught something else because I had a fever, headache, and sore throat all weekend. Man, sick 3 times in one season - maybe I should try for some kind of record?

Anyway, this is a very boring weekend in pictures because it was a pretty boring weekend! haha. But we did take Chester to a new park, and I discovered the wonder that is Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Almonds. Seriously. They're so good.

I hope you all have a great (and healthy) week ahead! I'm going to try to do the same. :)