Head Over Heels Friday: Our Guest Blogger Finale... My Lovely Sister Amber!

It's Friday. I have the day off.  Alex has the day off.  The sun is out.  It is March. It is a 70 degree day here in Minneapolis. Wow.  It's not just Friday.  It is a FANTASTIC Friday! Are you feeling it?!?  I hope so!  If not, you will after you meet today's extra special Guest Blogger.

It is my pleasure to introduce you to my lovely sister-in law Amber (pictured with hubby Ryan and their son Henri- who also moonlights as our adorably handsome nephew).

I got super lucky when I married Alex.  Yea, I knew I was marrying the perfectly goofy man for me, but I also scored a new amazing family!  I love my in-laws and I got a fabulous new sister that I love & admire!

In the past couple of years, Amber embraced Yoga.  She is now a certified instructor at the Funky Budda Yoga Hot House in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  As she grew and continued to embrace yoga, I began to admire her even more for the positive and loving outlook she has on her life and the lives of everyone around her. 

 When I asked Amber about a guest post, I had hoped she could write something about health/ wellness/ positivity... all the things she is passionate about. Sure enough, her post left me feeling better about my day and even things that have happened to me in the past. 

With that said, I hope you are Head Over Heels for Amber and her message too!  Be sure to check out her blog, http://realyogi.wordpress.com/ for more! 

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Mass Extinction

 Do you realize our world has experienced 6 mass extinctions (that we know of) over the last 400+ million years! Our world. The earth. Has been completely destroyed 6 times! Each time giving rise to a new earth, new life.

I can relate. My personal world has experienced it's own extinctions. Relationships. Careers. Interests. Etc... I trust that as my life moves forward more extinctions will occur and more rebirths will arise from the ash. The truth seems to be that there will always be rebirth or redirection. I read once that 'the universe is interested in keeping itself alive'. So whether that's through mass extinctions of apocalyptic proportion, or trying to make sense of a failed relationship, it's all for the betterment of the universe. And ultimately, for me and for you.

Rebirth doesn't come without destruction. Little death by little death we end one chapter and begin anew. Whether it's something tangible, like a home improvement project, or simply a new perspective in your life. Some things will have to end in order to let new shine through. Looking back on my own life I'm forever grateful for the death of so many things, which had to occur to bring me where I am today. They may not have been so wonderful at the time (car accident, job loss, breakup, broke...), but sitting where I am now, I see they were necessary.

Thank you Universe for turning my life flip-upside-down every now and again. Beginning again isn't always easy, but in my experience it turns out for the best. Think about it...would you really want to be cleaning up after a dinosaur...I didn't think so.

~Amber

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Well said sister :)

Guest Blogger: Sarah's "Solid" Love for all Things Vintage

DING... Another Guest Blogger coming up right up!

Get ready to meet Sarah, a gal that loves the beauty of vintage finds even more than I do!  Today she is sharing a bit about her unique business along with some amazing and inspiring wedding photos!

Take it away Sarah!

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Hello! My name is Sarah Dreher, I am a designer, thrifter, gatherer, stylist, wife and mother. I own a vintage rental and styling company in Minneapolis, MN, called On Solid Ground Vintage Rentals. Since Carla and I orginally met because of our love for one of a kind vintage items, I thought I would share a bit more about my business and how it all began. 

My obsession with anything vintage started in high school, with collections of ashtrays to hold my jewelry or neckties I made into skirts. My collections grew and grew, and were never limited to one specific thing. Just old and interesting. It started with clothing. I would shop the local thrift stores and buy pieces that weren’t even my size and store them in a closet in my basement. “I will open my own Vintage Shop one day” I would think to myself. I occasionally sold things on Etsy, or at least took pictures of items to sell, but never made it much further than that.

Then, I met a boy and ten years later we were married.

Green Wedding Shoes

While planning my wedding, I wanted it to reflect our love for anything quirky, rare and of course vintage! I collected endless amounts of tobacco tins, blue mason jars, tin cash registers and over 200 vintage plates to outfit the most magical day of my life (click here to see the video that started it all!). Following my wedding, I wasn’t sure what to do with everything! I decorated with my tins and plates, but I certainly couldn’t keep 200 dinner plates in the minute cabinets in my 1920’s home. I decided to collect more desirable pieces and rent them out for other brides or even photographers and stylists. 

Erin Johnson Photography

I try to keep my collections rare, and reflect my style. I would never buy something that I would never put in my own home or use at my own event.

Erin Johnson Photography

One of my FAVORITE things to do is find interesting and rare pieces and style them in an out of the ordinary way! Like this Arnie’s Parts Bin for example, it would be perfect for a child's circus themed birthday party.  Just line the compartments with parchment paper and fill with different flavors of popcorn. Top it off with cute little red and white striped bags and you have an adorable snack and favor at an affordable price…..popcorn is CHEAP!

I love what I do…I shop almost everyday for new stuff and new ways to use my current inventory. It’s possible that “vintage” weddings will slow down, but vintage will never die, it will evolve. My pieces are great for birthdays, engagements, showers, photo sessions, or just a Girl’s night in. I love to help pull together the right"vintage vision" style to make any event all the more special with those one of a kind touches!

Be sure to stop by our website and blog for more information (also if you'd like to oogle more beautiful wedding and event photos!) 

http://www.onsolidgroundrentals.com/

http://www.onsolidgroundvintagerentals.blogspot.com/

~ Sarah

Guest Blogger: Elisa's "Epiphany"

Ready for our next guest blogger?!?  Of course you are!

Meet Elisa (along with Kevin and their pup Finch). She and I were acquainted through work but found we have home blogs & DIY-ing in common. Kevin and Elisa are on house #2 which means their decorating and renovating is starting all over once again.  We're on house #1 still, which makes me wonder "whoa, will we really be doing this all over again?" I bet a lot of you out there are even on house 3 & 4, and perhaps each home was from a different era with a whole different style.  Anyway, Elisa is sharing a bit about their experience switching up their style and making house 2 cozy...

Ready? It's GO time Mrs. McBride!

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 Hi! I’m Elisa from McBride’s On the Go and I’m super pumped that Carla asked me share a post with you while she’s off gallivanting all over Asia :) Much like Carla, I find a lot of love and fun in turning a house into a cozy home. Trying to fit this in among dealing with my husband’s smelly socks, my pup Finch’s zany hyjinks, and all the unexpected house costs that are more about function vs finding just the right art piece to hang (on our still bare walls) = difficult.

Last year, we decided it was time to get out of our smaller bungalow in Minneapolis and  upgrade to a larger home in Minnetonka with larger yard, larger kitchen- well larger everything.  Our new home captured our heart with it's layout and flow.  Plus we love our humongous trees and new wildlife (wildlife = VERY different from Minneapolis to Minnetonka). It's really a blank canvas of a house, so we can really infuse our own style- which tends to be 'quirky'- that's the only way I can explain it.  I like decor with a history, but I also LOVE Ikea, you know? 

Since we moved last June, have been up to our eyeballs in house projects – both large and small. We've gutted and completely re-done the kitchen and master bedroom, and now we are remodeling downstairs (to make Kevin's perfect man-area complete with full sized pinball and arcade machines.  Yea, we're that cool).  

Click here to see how the kitchen turned out!

 So we've been doing lots of redo's, but I only recently had my ‘House Style Epiphany’ – I couldn’t believe it had taken me so long.  I will explain by example, so here’s what I mean:

Recently, off of Craigslist, I purchased a buffet/server/sideboard for our new dining room. Got it home, loaded into the house, set it place, and…. Here’s where I had the ‘House Style Epiphany’

It’s lovely right? Pretty details, drawers AND doors – which was what I wanted – the hardware isn’t my favorite, but that is easily remedied, and cool detailed apron that comes up the back side – it fits PERFECTLY!!..........in a different house. Our old house to be exact.

Stats:

Old House = 1923 charming, quirky Minneapolis bungalow complete with large base trim, a lovely arch separating the living room from dining room, a piano window, hard wood floors… you get the idea.

New House = 1971 flat, straight line, not-as-quirky ranch complete with the same base trim that the developer used in every house in our neighborhood, carpet…+ other non-exciting descriptive words. NOT the style of home to accommodate a large 1930’s ornate buffet.

After promptly re-selling the buffet back on Craigslist (which was another whole ordeal altogether: involving my husband reporting an Internet fraud scam to the FBI)… HERE is the new buffet that we ordered for our space.

Still had drawers AND doors like I wanted, hardware still maybe needs to be swapped out, but clean line, simple details (or lack thereof) JUST like our house.

My ‘House Style Epiphany’ in a nutshell = I need to embrace the Mid-Century Modern style of new home and get over all of the “ornate-ness” of my previous dwelling . It is what it is – but that doesn’t mean that everything inside needs to be ‘blah’ just because my house is. There is a lot of quirkiness to a Mid-Cent Mod design, and there are a lot of ways to blend my old and new little treasures in with the straight-line style. It means I can go simple with my furnishings, and still create a little delight with an unexpected little something in a fun color or from a different era.

I think it shall end up quite cozy!

~Elisa

Guest Blogger: Kara's "Collected" Nursery

Ready for our first ever guest blogger?!?  I hope so because you are going to love her post!  Meet Kara (along with husband Zach), she is an insanely creative and crafty girl. 

Amber Engfer Photography

As you can see from their "Bump" session photos, they were anticipating the arrival of their first baby which meant nursery decorating!  Kara shared a few of the photos and I was so smitten with their creation that I begged her to share it!  Get ready, you will be smitten too!  Take it away Kara....



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Hello Hammers and High Heels readers! My name is Kara and I am excited to be guest posting here today.  The lovely and talented Carla asked if I could share the nursery that my husband Zach and I created for our 1 month old daughter, Odella Delphine. When I found out that I was pregnant, I was really excited to have a reason to completely design a room! Throughout the process, we tried to incorporate furniture that we already had and DIY anything that we could to save $$$. We love vintage shopping, flea markets, and thrifting excursions so I think that the nursery has a "collected" feel. Here is where we started:

I made this color study...I knew that I wanted it to be girly, but not too pink. We already had a green lounge chair and a turquoise rocking chair that we wanted to use. I built in shades of coral and metallic accents. {love those tiny gold shoes!} All original images can be found on my pinterest boards.

The room is long, skinny, and tiny. We painted the walls the palest shade of coral blush- it has the prettiest rosy glow when the sun shines in! The fluffy white rug is from Target.

Hanging above the crib is a piece that Zach scored from a coworker's garage and spray painted rose gold {originally a brassy gold-tone} - I love all the chandelier crystals that drape down- they look really pretty in the morning sun and cast rainbows around the room!

{Quilt photo by Amber Engfer Photography}

We loved the vintage look of the Jenny Lind crib. It's a popular crib in the blog world, but really is a great value for the look-only about $150! I made the colorful pillows and plan on making a crib skirt sometime soon. I also made the quilt during my last few weeks of pregnancy- it was my first quilt! I was inspired by this quilt project- a great "cheater" quilt for non-experienced quilters! Cute felt bird mobile was a gift from my cousin!

I knew that we wanted to start an art collection for our little girl, and we have so many creative friends that it came together easily! I hope to continue to build the collection as Odella gets older and love that most of the prints would look great in the rest of our house if we want to rotate them. Special thanks to Allison Black, Emily Hendley, and 3 Fish Studio {a print studio based in San Francisco that was kind enough to let me pull the Robot print during a studio visit} for all the art wall contributions!

We found this awesome rocker at a flea market over the summer and added the sheepskin from Ikea, a sweet knitted blanket that was a gift from my cousin, and Robit the Robot, purchased from Elisa of Finch's Holiday Boutique a few years ago.

The green lounge chair is from the 1960s {and actually vibrates really loudly if you plug it in...strange} Zach found it at a yard sale when we were in college. We think that it will be great for storytime! I made the pillow and added the white furry throw from Target. Hanging above the chair is a letterpress alphabet print that I bought from a print studio connected to the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. {gotta love $10 "imperfect prints"}

The sweet round baby watercolor paintings were a gift from my great aunt- not sure how old they are, but we are thinking 1930s or 40s...pretty cute! The window covering is a cheap pull down roller blind covered with fabric. I think that it really brightens the room up and was really easy to do- I just used hot glue to stretch the fabric over the blind, but you can find a better {more permanent} DIY here.

The lamp was my grandmother's and the green frog bank was another thrift store find by Zach. {I wasn't convinced at first- the frog was a strange brick red color... Zach painted it green and now I love it! It makes me smile every time I see it!}The dresser/changing table was a labor of love- we found it on Craigslist, originally white+gold, with stickers stuck to it, and broken drawers. Zach fixed the drawers and we re-painted it a sunny coral color! We need a few more pieces of artwork for the wall next to the mirror...

And now, the cutest part of the nursery....introducing Miss Odella Delphine Kopp! Fantastic newborn photo by Amber Engfer Photography! For more adorable photos of our sweet baby, check out Amber's blog post. Thanks again for the opportunity to share Odella's room!!! Follow me on pinterest or check out some of my past projects on my blog.

xoxoxo kara