DIY martha magnets.

i had a great great weekend!

i want those weekends, every time. i didn't want it to end.

but i have a small, $2.99 diy that i did on sunday

and it only took me 20 minutes.

(and most of that time was looking through an old martha magazine from the 'archives')

easy cheap crafts are my favorite.

first, buy a sheet of $2.99 adhesive magnet for another project and get sidetracked.

days later, lazily look through an old martha stewart living on a totally gorgeous day,

with all your windows open, and not a care in the world.

(that part's important!)

this martha happened to be from april, 2010.

find the spread on citrus fruits quite beautiful and think to yourself, "self, where can i use this! i just love it!"

then rip it out.

then remember your magnet sheet that you were supposed to use for something else!

then stick them on there.

making sure it is smooth and without any bubbles.

then.

cut.

keep cutting.

keep your lines straight!

admire!

throw on fridge in your pink cottage kitchen,

on a totally gorgeous and lazy day, with all the windows open.

zoom in closer:

 

i love love a covered refrigerator.

it shows people live there! and their lives are important to them.

we always had our pictures and art and A+ papers on my family's refrigerator growing up and i plan to keep that going.

and my new magnets help that along.

plus they're pretty with my pink walls.

and i love them.

and do you want to see something cute?:

that's husband jay and i, on only the second day we had ever known each other.

in mexico on senior spring break. where we met. 2002.

only 18 years old and totally smitten with each other.

and that's also friend peter.

in puka shells no less.

back to the craft at hand.

don't you ever read your martha and LOVE the way its laid out?

how thoughtful they are with placement and color?

the photography?

it's like art every month in a magazine.

this time i decided to do something about it.

thanks, martha stew.

hope you had a great weekend.

love.

JILL

flowers for friday #143

in tune with yesterday's post, i am so very, very, sincerely thankful today is friday.

more than ever before, i strongly feel.

hallelujah.

i've also come to the conclusion that i have a strong propensity to save any, and all, flowers i find on the internets (for these friday flowers posts of course) of the pink-blush-orange-coral variety.

and they especially get me when they are petally.

you know, sweet pea-peony-rose-ranunculus-full-of-petals, ruffled and petally.

i have a weakness for them in that particular combo.

and when this shade of blue is also involved,

just forget about it.

come to think of it,

i based my entire wedding around those colors, and those flowers/petals!

i told you i liked them.

and my cake was that color blue, too.

happy friday.

JILL

(these are from the 1st dibs archive. goregous)

today's musings.

you see, friends.

today started off... the worst.

i don't know why but when i woke up i could feel it was going to be just the worst. the worst worst.

just life hurdles to get over, junky thoughts, and crazy work schedules, etc etc etc.

so then i got a little sad.

and the blueness continued through my shower, on into my drive to work and well into the morning.

maybe there were tears while driving to work?

there may or may not have been.

and tears for nothing in particular means there are tears over everything, you know what i mean?

i would classify them as 'overwhelmed tears'.

just the worst.

and work? well it was just as nuts as i expected when i walked in the door.

barraged with phone calls and a to-do list before i even made my tea.

(i still haven't made that tea!)

so the morning got even dumber.

then my sweet sweet friend, joanna, sent me a photo from way back when.

for no reason. she just found it and wanted to share.

from 2006 to be exact.

when i visited her, and elle, for the very first time out of college, in nyc.

the photo is not the worst, it's the very best!

things of importance to note:

first- our baby faces. our fresh from college baby faces.

second- our beers. in sacks. for the subway ride, obviously.

third- my outfit! our happy faces.

it was exactly what my day needed to whip right back out of this funk !!

so for lunch (at my desk) (remember....the work?) 

which i'm enjoying as i type...

i'm eating this:

ridiculous office iphone photo... but delicious spinach dip!

made with greek yogurt. as in 'good for you'.

and it's so good!!!!

i had to share.

point 2 for the day.

go get yourself some.

seriously.

go to costco.

they have this one, and a spinach jalepeno dip i want to try next.

so my day by 12:30 has proven to be a little bit better.

and i firmly believe that you somewhat have power over your happiness.

that you can choose to be happy or you can choose to not.

i made the decision this morning to pout.

but i've since convinced myself to change my mind.

thanks, jo.

and also, spinach dip.

you guys are the best.

and also also.... 

mother nature is very pretty right now.

JILL

yellow...

who ever said it was mellow?

because a single solitary yellow lamp holds a whole lotta power and oomph in a room with no other yellow in it.

i guess maybe just a smidge,

but it works it's magic best with none.

it's sitting on its console or end table singing it's lovely yellow tune in the room.

like a canary? or maybe that was just a dumb.

but it's a jolt of vibrancy.

a welcomed ray of sunshine.

yellow.

it does a body room good.

JILL

(images via: amber interiors, design*sponge, flickr, nick olsen, shelter interior design, and tilton fenwick.)

one nook... 2 ways.

i pinned this first image over a year ago:

i was kinda struck by the whole thing.

the religious images and black and white stripes are what did me in... pushed me over the top into loveland.

but i couldn't ever find who did it/where it was from.

i wish i could see the whole house this nook resides in.

then, the other day, i pinned this as well.

i knew i had seen it before!

same nook!!

this time i found that it was done, at least the second time, by martyn lawrence bullard.

i love it i love it i love it.

(and still wish i could see the whole house!)

but i don't know which way i love it more.

point won for the upholstery in the second image.

i like how the stripes are now mixed in with more pattern.

another point still goes to the first image for the artwork.

and i might like the moroccan table in the first image as well.

but i think it's a tie for me.

any preferences for you?

JILL

(you can see more rooms done 2 ways:  here, here, here, and here.)

flowers for friday #142

woke up to them finding the 2 boston bombers on the news this morning.

there is alot of crazy mixed in with the good in this world.

i need to remind myself not to focus on the bad, but the good, and just keep going.

i hope you guys have a good weekend.

JILL

real beauty.

i was sent this via email from a friend i work with.

it made me tear up a little, and i couldn't not share with you.

we, as women, need to go easier on ourselves.

here are some more, behind the scenes:

i like you.

JILL

geronimo!

i love instagram, it's no lie.

nor is it a secret.

but i love watching more than participating.

i don't really feel my life is filled with that much interesting, beautiful, exciting stuff to shove into the world's face... but i know that i am! so i am trying to be better at it. seriously, life is beautiful. (cliche but true. don't roll your eyes at me.)

i feel a tangent coming on, but the other day at dinner with friends, i was discussing this very same fact: that i should/want to be taking more photos. i love photos. i love taking photos. i certainly love looking at photos. i want to document my life from here on out with tiny little square grams with innately cool filters applied. (oh the filters... they alone make ordinary life fancier.) so we implemented a one-(at least)-a-day photo challenge. of which i am not holding up my end of the bargain, but i intend to... fully.

you can follow along here: @jabarrier

back to today's post.

this lady, jihan zencirli, creator behind (my favorite) geronimo balloons,

creates the most lovely instagrams.

her life is full of craft, color, frill, ballooooons, and pretty festiveness and i can't get enough.

her instagram feed instantly makes me happier,

even in the crappiest of days or moods, and there have been a string of those lately...

her photos make me smile.

so i'm sharing a few with you today,

but you can follow her daily

@geronimoballoons

and i encourage it.

this was a sample.

there's so much more.

not only does she share her balloon/frill making, she has a cute little pup with 3 legs, and she drives the. coolest. vintage. light blue. car. ever.

love her.

love her balloons.

JILL

thankful.

i had a friend running in the marathon yesterday.

i am thankful she was unharmed.

our friends all across the country were following her bib number/chip, excited for her and this amazing opportunity to run in the boston marathon. we had an email chain going with updates, cheering her on from our desk chairs or at home with our kids. excited to hear she had finished. excited to hear she did it, just like we knew she could. she made a goal and surpassed it.

well, our friend did make it.

but she was 1/2 a mile from finishing her race when those cowardly bombs went off.

i feel bad for her, i feel bad that that one individual or group of mean people have permanently scarred this event for her and the other thousands of people she ran with. this event that she, and all the others worked so hard for.

i feel bad for the people who were injured.

i feell awful, full of heartbreak, for those that lost their lives or lost their loved ones.

what happened was just senseless.

i have only ever been to one marathon, the nyc marathon when my sister-in-law ran it in 2010. i came back from that day with love in my heart, with hope for humanity! God was all over that place that day. people were there to support and cheer and aid people they didn't know, that they will never know. it was people supporting people. i saw more signs of love and a hope for our humanity that day than any other day in my life.

and it saddens me that whoever did this, chose the same situation to show his fear and hatred. i don't like him/her/them, and they will have to answer for their cowardly, mean, selfish act someday.

i am seriously thankful my friend is ok.

i couldn't imagine losing her.

i am thankful more lives weren't lost, but it doesn't make the few that did lose their lives any better.

all we can do is keep them and their families in our prayers.

those jerks.

but i read something today...

it's from mr. rogers, who i used to watch as a kid:

"when i was a young boy and i would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'look for the helpers. you will always find people who are helping.' to this day, especially in times of disaster, i remember my mother's words and am always comforted that there are still so many helpers- so many caring people in this world."

JILL

{you can purchase this art of boston here}

spring.

i wish our spring would get here and then decide to stay here.

it gets warm and gorgeous, then laughs in our faces with cold.

then warm, then cold.

enough already! at least there was no snow. i know some of you northerners got some of that junk in the last week, and i'm not sure how i'd mentally handle it ;)

anywho...

these photos dazzle the photography lover in me.

for lots of reasons. the warmness for one, all her floral prints for two, and the scenery for three.

thought i'd share em with you.

from marie claire netherlands, april 2013.

happy monday.

JILL

flowers for friday #141

i couldn't resist.

this is last year's spring issue.

those colors are some of my favorites on God's green earth.

and then that ribbon. oh the ribbon.

happy friday.

JILL