the happiest little guy...

isn't this so happy? hope you're having a great saturday everybody!

pretty bird...

you know i've got a thing for origami birds (see here, here and here)...

found here via here.

ordinary to extraordinary...

i love every day objects that are made special with extraordinary materials...

when i was wedding planning, my friend mb gave me the most wonderful silver origami peace cranes from 10,000 villiages that we have hanging in our apt.

and today i saw this... and i might just need to find a way to get one of these bone china cranes all the way from austrailia to atlanta to go with mb's cranes.



or maybe just one of haveyoumetmissjones other fab bone china designs....

it's a trend?

but a GREAT one! who knew that today of all days two other bloggers i love would post pictures of peace cranes? and peace cranes at weddings?!?

well, great minds thing alike? or good things always come in threes?

either way i'm validated. peace cranes are lovely AND a good decoration idea.

from once wed and you are my fave

origami peace cranes as a wedding detail...

one of my favorite professors is a youth and peacebuilding activist. at her marriage ceremony, she folded hundreds of origami peace cranes and hung them from the ceiling of the church. I don't know if boone and i want to have anything hanging at our ceremony, but since we're both interested in peacebuilding and conflict transformation and love to work with children and youth i'd REALLY like to incorporate peace cranes into the decorations somehow.


right now i'm thinking of putting them in people's chairs at the ceremony and placing them in the floral arrangements (which may or may not be potted plants.. tbd) and if these ideas don't work, then we could hang them from the trees, i guess.

Probably the idea i like the most is having our guestbook be origami peace cranes made by our guests and then signed and put in a basket. wouldn't that be wonderful to have our own garland made by the people at the reception?!?
then we can include this poem with it to share our desire to work toward peace:

The paper crane
Fold the crane with love
Each crease that you stroke
Think about the world around you
Fold the crane with love
Each fold that you touch
Feel about the world around you
Fold a paper crane with love

By Michiko Pumpian

what i wonder is, would people actually make the cranes?

hmmm.... i'll let you know what we decide.

tooting my own horn (just a little)

guys, guess what?!?
i walked into anthropologie the other day and saw these...



remember way back when i made a post about them and how cool, fab, and eco-friendly they were?
i thought so.
well, apparently they really were cool, otherwise anthropologie wouldn't have had anything to do with them. let's just say i felt good about myself and leave it at that. ;)

see rock city...

when i used to drive back and forth from college i'd go through eastern tennessee and loved looking for these barns. turns out other people do too, which is why flickr has a whole group dedicated to the search!

i just think it's the folksiest, simplest, coolest ad campaign* that ever existed...and it may or may not be a secret dream of mine to live on a piece of property that has one of these barns. until then, i'll have to settle for one of the birdhouses. i'd actually forgotten how much i loved them and how i bothered boone about NEEEEDING one (or a mailbox that looked like one) until i saw one at brunch at treehouse this morning. i'm hooked again!

i even put it on my wishpot registry (is that silly?) honestly, i hope people get us things cook with before we get a birdhouse... but just in case, you know? ;)
*learn more about the history of said campaign here.

Great day, hooray!

i officially joined my church this morning...i was a little worried that they weren't going to vote me in, but somehow i eeked by (this is a joke, my church welcomes everyone). anyway, it feels so good to have a faith-home that i really really trust and of which I feel thankful to be a part.

so the deal is that all of the new members write and participate in the service in some way (praying, singing, playing an instrument, serving communion) i'm not a big "talker in public" so i offered to design the bulletin cover based on the songs and verses incorporated into the service. we chose Psalm 139 "if I rise to the heavens you are there.." and the gospel tune "I'll Fly away" and here's what I came up with...

anyway, it has been a great day.

grown up, responsible papier mache...

so i usually avoid knickknacks and clutter at all costs, or buying random things that you can't actually USE for anything... but when i ran across stray dog designs shop, i was enamored with these little papier mache versions of my favorite creatures.

i mean, one little lovebird sitting on a table might look so sweet.

not only do these critters come in lots of colors and look amazing when multiples of all white are grouped together, they also look way more awesome than my own papier mache projects from elementary school.

on top of their aesthetic appeal, i learned that their paper and glass are made from recycled materials, and that some of their proceeds go to different organizations working to help others! how cool... doing good with design!