Sunday Roundup, and Happy Halloween!

What did you do this weekend? Luckily, our weekend isn't over yet - tomorrow is All Saints Day, and since Pete and I work in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, we have a day off!

Friday evening, I enjoyed a delicious pumpkin scone and caramel apple cider from this place with Shannon, and yesterday Pete and I did some shopping and went to a Halloween party that my friends Marcy and Torgerson threw. It was great!

Today, we're planning on doing laundry, writing some more wedding thank you notes (we're about halfway finished!) and hanging out with my parent's dog.

Here are some of my favorite things from around the web this week!

I love Christmas, and this will be my first big project of the season.

A tetris bookshelf.

I love this bubble wreath tutorial from CB2. Speaking of CB2, if one opened in St. Louis I would shop there aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the time.

These spoon cookies from Orangette look delicious.

Since I'm a sucker for all things bright and colorful, these staircases did me in.

18 of the best bistros in Paris...I'll get there someday...

Pete and I will be making these for all of our co-workers come Christmastime. Any suggestions on what cookies to use? I'm thinking Christmas-themed sugar cookies...

We received a cast iron skillet for our wedding and sometimes I forget how important it is to take care of it - I'll be seasoning mine this afternoon!

I wish our teacher's lounge looked like this.

Also from curbly, boats turned garden sheds.

31 Things Learned in 31 Years. Love.

I want to copy Katie's bedroom almost exactly.

This skirt from ModCloth is calling my name.

Picture: I'm not a big Halloween person, but this is just perfect.

Have a great week, everyone!

Ming Makes Cupcakes

This is absolutely delectable.

Ming makes a new cupcake/cookie/savoury-something every week and posts a picture and the recipe for it. Love the simplicity. Also, is it bad that I want to eat every single one of those cupcakes right now?







Bonus: homemade thin mints. Looks sooooo good.

Bonjour Celine

Bonjour Celine is one of my favorite new blogs (well, "new-to-me" blogs).

I especially love these pictures of rain. We haven't had rain in St. Louis in so long. I miss it.

Claudia G. Pearson

I'm a very visual person, so these recipe posters are right up my alley.



The colors are lovely and the execution is perfect. I would love to have a wall of these in my kitchen.



Awesome job, Ms. Claudia G. Pearson. You make my heart sing.

PS: I also really love this buy local print, and the orange set of rowhouses.

DIY Necklace

I haven't spent a lot of time making jewelry, but this piece is so pretty and dainty and perfect. I wonder if my big, clumsy fingers could make it work?



I just love that turquoise.

20x200

Have you heard about 20x200? It's brilliant. Jen Bekman, the creator/owner, decided that the internet was the perfect place to unite artists and people that want to buy limited editions of art at affordable prices. So, every week, they release two new pieces - one that is a photo, and one on paper - and have three or four different sizes that you can purchase.

I want every piece. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but not much of one.

This is my newest want - I love the colors and the name of the piece. Unfortunately (for my wallet) the smallest/cheapest size is sold out, so I have to decide if I want the bigger piece or not. Thoughts?

Sunday Roundup

What did you do this weekend? RK's production of Once Upon a Mattress is officially over, but with Pete as the 'master electrician', he was there all weekend. Yesterday, we went to a pumpkin patch with Julie, a new work friend, and Steve and Mary. Then Julie, Pete and I got Black Thorn Pizza and went to the musical. This morning, Pete and I took a looooong walk around the neighborhood and fantasized about buying a house in the near(ish?) future and having kids. The weather is still unseasonably warm in St. Louis (it's October 24th and it was 75 degrees today) but I'm holding out for cooler weather.

Here are some of my favorite links from this week!

Elise is celebrating her 2000th Etsy sale! Help her reach her number.

Pomegranate farm. Yum!

I'm buying this beautiful personalized hanger for myself as soon as I finish this blog post...

This poster from 1canoe2 cracked me up.

Nichole made this huge paper lantern pendant with nothing more than coffee filters and glue.

This flower bouquet is super cute. It would look great sitting on our dining room table year-round.

S'mores are my fave - recipes for doughnuts and milkshakes.

Best Mac and Cheese in NYC - bookmarked for our March trip.

These maps are super awesome.

Amy Sedaris shares her favorite things.

My job requires me to use Photoshop and InDesign, which are both great programs. I'm slowly learning, and this site is fantastic. What fun ideas!

The Purl Bee has given me tooooons of ideas for Christmas presents this year.

Picture: love the minimalist, clean lines - and the pops of color. My place will never look like this, but it's nice to think about.

Have a wonderful work week, everyone!

Scout Plays Bananagrams...

...kind of.

Jon Hamm

If you are a woman (or really, a man, too) and you don't think that Jon Hamm is above-and-beyond attractive...well, good for you?

He was born in St. Louis, so that's awesome.

I have only watched the first season of Mad Men, and it was just as amazing as everyone says it is. We need to get Netflix going again and watch the second and third seasons. And fourth? Or is that it?



My favorite Jon Hamm, though, is 30 Rock Jon Hamm. AKA Dr. Drew Baird. He is adorable. I love the new hairstyle and the glasses.





Okay, that's all.

images - one & two; three & four

Sunday Roundup

It's a new tradition! I always love bloggers' Friday links (here, here, here, here) so I am totally going to copy them.

I spend a decent amount of time online each week, looking for fun projects, general inspiration, and beautiful things. So here is my collection of found internet items from the last week.

Interested in a swap? How about a calendar swap? Maybe we'll be partners!

Mr. Wissinger and I need to get out to the pumpkin patch so we can make these.

What a great idea for renters, or (ahem) lazy people! Anyone else want to start a petition to get a Paper Source in St. Louis? Chicago is the closest to me...

I'm a sucker for elbow patches.

Love these pops of color.

I love this whole apartment, but especially the wall with the pictures.

A new requirement for our future home.

This gender reveal party is absolutely adorable. It almost convinces me to wait to find out the sex of the baby, but when we get pregnant I'm pretty sure I'll need to find out ASAP.

These prints by Dan McCarthy are so, so pretty - I especially love the cityscapes with lights on in the windows.

I am excited to buy a house, primarily for more wall space. So I can do things like this.

I recently revisited Marta Writes (I hate when I forget about magical blogs) and the how-to series is fabulous. Especially love this, this, this, and this.

I hope you all had a happy weekend, and have a lovely work week!

picture via bippityboppityboo. How excited are you for snow?! Well, I'm excited for snow days.

Etsy Headquarters

So, so much fun! I wish I worked there.

Or I wish that at least my office was a bit more colorful and fun-looking.







Next step in life: move to Brooklyn and beg for job at Etsy.

via swissmiss

Christmas!

Ugh. I'm not sure if my excitement over Christmas is charming or annoying or a little bit of both. With this cold weather making itself at home in St. Louis, I am Christmas CRAZY. I've been doing research on what to get people for Christmas, making lists of things to do during December (Pete and I have tried to do one Christmas-ey thing a day the last two Decembers), and dreaming about our Christmas tree.

So in my researching, I've decided that everything I get for people this year will be handmade or bought from someone else who made it by hand (aka a lot of Etsy shopping, yay!). I've made this my Christmas pledge a few years in the past, and while it starts out well, I usually get behind on my shopping and end up getting people things from Target or Anthropologie (which is fine).

So. Here, I've said it. I will be getting people handmade things!

Oh, wait. I already have to go back on that pledge - I saw an AWESOME pair of mustache socks that I wanted to get for Pete. Hmmm.

I've already found some great projects I want to dive into within the next few weeks, but I can't post them here because the three projects I really, really want to do are for people that I KNOW read this blog.

Do you know of any websites that you think would aid me in my handmade Christmas quest?

Wishes (Winter Edition)

I wish...

...that there was snow on the ground.

...that our fireplace worked.

...that the hot cocoa I bought in Cambria, California, tasted better than it does.

...for a pair of fleecey Hunter socks to adorably match my Hunter boots.

...that Pete and I could laze in bed all day and watch Parks & Rec and have Scout lay with us to keep us warm, and NOT pee on the bed.

...my office wasn't as cold. My fuzzy socks + sophisticated flats are not the most classy look.

...that I could go for a brisk Central West End walk, like Mary and I did in high school to "take pictures" for media class (we did take pictures, just not always for class).

...that dinner would make itself. And that the apartment would clean itself.

...that our apartment had heated floors.

...I knew how to knit (how beautiful is this?)