announcement: new job!

I am so excited to announce that I have been hired by Holly L. Robbins Photography as her set and photo shoot designer!

  

I couldn't be more excited about this new venture.

  

I look forward to working with Holly and creating beautiful places for people to capture unique images that they are proud of.

If you are interested in booking a shoot designed by me and photographed by the incredibly talented Holly here are the upcoming sessions.

Fall Minis - October 20th + 21st

Santa Minis - November 10th + 11th
Valentine's Day Minis- January 19th

send her an email:

info@hollylrobbins.com

if you have specific design needs/questions feel free to contact me as well.

tunesandspoons@gmail.com

thanks shanna...

All of this began yesterday with my new Shanna Murray wall decal.  This beautiful gold sparkly decal. I fell in love with her work about a month ago. I've been waiting for the absolute perfect place to put it and I think I found it!  
So today I went to Goodwill and bought all of these tiny mirrors for 50 cents each! I got the wall candle holders for $1.50 each. I also purchased the drapes from a thrift store for $2.00! So add all of that up and I've got a whole new master bedroom look for under $10. (plus the cost of Shanna's decal) 

Pillow Shams: Anthropologie

Comforter: Target

Headboard: The Iron Bed

Lamp Shade: World Market

Wall Decal: Shanna Murray 

DIY Budget Board

Is it some unspoken rule that you must be poor to be a newlywed?
Seriously.
Also, every time you feel like you might finally be saving some money the Universe must get news of it and then it tells your windshield wipers to run over each other while its raining thus impeding normal wiping capability and resulting in expensive repairs and bad driving visibility.
Thanks Universe for trying, but we are going to make it any way.
You know why?
Because we budget.


A few weeks ago I made this budget board for us to start getting a better handle on our finances.  Its empowering when you know where your money is going and how much of it is going there.


What you'll need:
string
nails to tie string around
tiny clothes pins
envelopes
a large picture frame
and some discipline and will power (this is the hardest of all of the supplies to find)

This idea came to me one Monday while I was driving to work and I was thinking about how we could budget better.  It works well because:

1. Spending cash is harder than swiping a credit card.  

-When you are holding your hard earned money in your hands you are less likely to be impulsive with it.

2.  What you see is what you get.  

-When an envelope runs out of money, its out and thats it.

-Sure you can pull from other places, but it is a bit of a sacrifice to have to take the money from somewhere else.

3.  Everything has its place.

-When you place cash in to each envelope there is no room for careless impulsive spending.

-When you go grocery shopping take only the "groceries" envelope and it will limit your spending.

(I like to slip an extra $20 in here every once in a while)

We can dream right?

By no stretch of the imagination do we have this all under control, but we are on the way.

Let's just hope no robbers read our blog.

So, if you are a robber, the envelopes are just a decoy and the money is really somewhere else....

DIY Pillows

(sorry for the horrible grainy iphonephotos)

Of course you do!  

Because for the price of one table-runner at that magical place called Target, you can make 5 pillows!  FIVE! That comes out to $3.59 per pillow!!

I originally got this fantastic money saving idea from my cuz on (her blog.)

We have two kinds of fabric on the table-runner: the embroidered yellow and orange and the solid tan color.  This is nice because it will give you a variety.

Here are the directions for the embroidered fabric:

(when previewing this blog John stayed on this GIF for one minute solid making ironing noises...oh how i love that boy)

Easy right?

For the tan solid fabric I followed the same directions until number 5.  Once I got there I used an iron on transfer sheet and ironed on my design to the fabric. 

This part is where you can really get creative because you can make it pretty much anything you can think of!

I searched on the internet and found some pictures of some old letters that were sent to America from Hermosillo, Mexico (where my John served his mission for two years).

The date on one of the letters was particularly special.  It was sent on our wedding date, only 126 years earlier!!  (well actually on the 25th of May but I edited it slightly...)

Ta daaaaaaaa.

My Male loves the Mail

One of my favorite times of the day used to be checking the mail.  Now that I am a married woman I have a husband who also really likes to do that too so I have lovingly given up my affection for checking the mail.  But I must confess...I miss it.

I love the feeling of going in to the mailbox and seeing a handwritten envelope. We should all write hand written letters more often.

OH IT MUST BE SOMETHING GREAT!  Junk mail makes sad and hand written letters and boxes make me oh so so happy.  Don't get me wrong, I still check it every now and then but I have left that joy to the Mr.

Yesterday I received some lingering birthday cards and gifts.  My sweet step  mother-in-law sent me the handmade angel.  It is from an old quilt!  So CUTE! She said we could use it as one of our Christmas ornaments but I am going to see about what I can do to make her the topper on our tree.

(I love the pearls in her hair.)

On Saturday I received my package from (this girl). I entered one of her giveaways several weeks ago and won something that I am sure every girl in this world would want, an Anthropologie gift card.  Yep, thats right.  Free money to one of the most whimsical, magical, and expensive places on earth.  I was determined to make this gift card stretch as far as I could.  So, I did.  With the help of my %15 off birthday coupon I only paid $13 bucks for all of this...

and...

but wait thats not it...

4 beautiful latte bowls

Who has a photo shoot with their new latte bowls?  Oh, that's right, we do.

(Dear bowls, I am going to make pumpkin soup in you on Wednesday)

thats still not it...

We got a pack of three lovely kitchen towels that I used on the table for a centerpiece instead.  Eeek!  $13 bucks!  I walked out of that store BEAMING yesterday.  I must say I did pretty good except I did almost throw up when I saw a candle holder for $138 bucks.  I'm sorry thats a little ridics don't you think!?!

Anyhow, as we were admiring our new finds there was a knock on the door.  Some latinos were selling Mexican sweet bread door to door in our apartment complex.  Have I mentioned yet that I am only 1 of 2 American women in our complex?  I love it, I never feel unsafe and there are precious latino babies running around all of the time!  I had never had the sweet bread before so John went down to their van and bought it out of the back of their trunk like it was a fake Fendi purse.

We got...

Yummy!  Hearing John speak the Espanol to them was a special treat.  I love to hear him speak in spanish. RAWR!

We LOVE our new finds and we ended the evening learning a special new song on the guitar and uke.  Stay tuned to hear something lovely.  Here is a hint: We want to get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France.

Thanks Ashleeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!