District Devin: Art for your Home

I'd like to introduce a new series to the blog! I'm calling it District Devin because...ALLITERATION IS ALL THE RAGE! Anyway, enjoy. This will be an end-of-the-month segment for you all to look forward to. 

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Hi all! My name is Devin and I run OooohShiny over on Etsy. I’m one of those people who love to write and chat and all that good stuff but have tried and failed approximately twelve times to keep a blog of my own, so Kristi has graciously offered me a monthly spot on her blog to do what I want. Within reason.

Since you’re a reader of Kristi’s blog, I assume you either like art / photography or just like Kristi. All of those things are awesome, but I want to focus on the art side of things today.

I’ve recently been on an art spree over in Etsyland, collecting items for the new house that is going to happen one day in the hopefully near future and wanted to share with you some of the amazing things I’ve found.

source: Sometimes I Swirl

Sarah is the genius behind Sometimes I Swirl and I’m in love with just about everything in her shop. She has turned doodles into beautiful works of art, ranging from embroidery pieces to vases. We share a love of all things black and white (and gray) but there are some pieces in her shop that are so vibrant and full of color that they’re hard to resist. I’ve picked up five items from Sarah recently and imagine I’ll be back soon.

 source: Sometimes I Swirl

Little Bean Prints is named for Marie’s daughter. Her shops boasts “Art prints for nursery, child or adult,” and it’s true. There’s a sort of whimsical quality in all of her artwork. Her nature-inspired drawings are nothing extravagant, but there is definite beauty in her simple lines and subtle colors.

source: Little Bean Prints

On the opposite side of the spectrum is Lisa from Ellemoss. Hers was one of the first photo shops I ever found on Etsy and I’ve been absolutely infatuated ever since. Her photos are absolutely incredible - dreamy and dark and surreal. There’s a bit of mystery in her art and I believe her images mean something different to each person. 

source: Ellemoss

And lastly, we have Trafalgar's Square. My best friend had a daughter earlier this month and I went a bit crazy in Kit’s shop. I mean, seriously - one look at her sweet paintings and you can’t help but smile. And want to hug the nearest fluffy thing in sight (in my case, it’s my dog, who returns the favor with tons of kisses). No nursery would be complete without a piece from this shop.

source: Trafalgar's Square

That’s it for me for now! I hope you enjoyed a peek into some of my favorite things. Go forth and be creative!

xo
Devin

John and Mallory

I recently had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of John and Mallory. I've sort of known Mallory for a while. I worked with one of her friends when I was in college, and then I lived with one of her other friends a few years ago. Since we had a couple of connections, she asked if I would photograph her wedding. Of course I said yes, and I was so excited! The wedding was at a lodge in Natchez Trace State Park...in the Fall. Perfection.

I love the groom's cake. He's a drummer for a band called Ruacamole, so the cake had drum sticks and music notes...it was pretty great. I love how the groom's cake is always an expression of who they are. 

When he saw her coming down the aisle, he started fiddling with his cuff links. It was the cutest thing EVER! I love it when grooms get choked up when they see their bride. That makes the moment even more special.

Mallory was a beautiful bride. She wanted to feel like a classic movie star (I can't remember which one...Rita Hayworth maybe?), and she certainly fit the role that day.  Instead of a unity candle, they poured different color sands into one container to symbolize their unity. Mallory, like me, is not very traditional, so I loved this spin on the ceremony.

It was pretty sunny that day, but luckily I was able to find plenty of shade for pictures with all the trees around. During the ceremony there was a stream of sunlight coming right down to the middle, so it was difficult to get good even pictures. BUT they both moved into that sunlight for the kiss, so it turned out great! It's probably one of my favorite pictures from the day. 

John and Mallory have a little boy, Evan, and he is so adorable, I can't even handle it. He's at that squirmy age, so getting him to do pictures was hard, but we ended up with some good ones. He looked precious in his little man outfit.

It was such a great day. The colors were just starting to show on the trees, and it was that perfect temperature right in between hot and cold. It really was a perfect day for a wedding!

Congratulations, John and Mallory!

Arguing Color

You all know there are 3 primary colors of light: blue, red, and yellow. From these colors we get the whole color spectrum...which is VAST. I very frequently find myself arguing with people over what color something is...too often to be normal, I'm sure.

"This is blue, no it's green...blah blah blah."

Today I am wearing a shirt that I consider yellow, but my coworkers say is more green. Now... I realize that it's probably just a mix of yellow and green, thus making us all partially right, but I set out to prove myself right...to myself.

Here's the shirt, with the CMYK numbers taken from the PICTURE (not the color I actually see when I look down at it).

It does have quite a bit of cyan in it when it's on screen, but it's actually much darker in person. STILL a large amount of yellow and not much cyan (which is what would make it green). I held up the Pantone swatches until I found a match, and I ended up with 111 PC. The Pantone that matches the picture and the Pantone that matches what I see are pretty close, so I think I did a pretty decent job of pinpointing it.

The picture closely matches 103 PC, but to my eye it's 111 PC. Why does any of this matter? I don't know..., but guess what? NOWHERE NEAR THE GREEN SWATCHES! I may still be wrong, but I've convinced myself that I'm right...this shirt is yellow...and that's all that matters.

Does anybody else argue about colors? I really hope I'm not the only one.

Gift Ideas for Mom, Dad, and Friends

I've been the worst blogger this week! I was kind of on a roll for a while, but I guess things have slowed down...I haven't done anything exciting lately. Since I don't have any tidbits of my life to share, I thought I would give you guys some great gift ideas since the holidays are fast approaching (2 months as of yesterday!)

Mom:

source

My mom isn't much of a decorator...bless her heart, she tries though. She has some really pretty pottery, antiques, etc., she just doesn't really know where to start in arranging them. Anyway, if your mom is anything like mine, a great gift would be to help her decorate! I'm planning to help my mom with the wall above the couch. My plan is to do some shelving and framing in a cluster like the one pictured. Her living room is more dark and cozy, but I think the concept will still work.

Dad:

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My dad loves a good steak! Men, especially my dad, are so difficult to buy for, but I've found that they're almost always happy with food. Omaha Steaks has some wonderful options, and are always running specials. One warning though is that once you buy from them they will BLOW UP YOUR PHONE. They were still calling me a year after I ordered from them. My advice, add their number to your phone so you can just ignore it.

Close Friends:

source

I've discovered that throw pillows make a HUGE difference in a room. They are a cheap-ish way to completely change the look of a room if you get bored with your decor. My friends are at the age now that they are decorating their apartments or houses, so throw pillows are a great gift for them! Of course you have to be pretty close friends with someone to know what they would like. There are TONS of great places to buy throw pillows, but I highly recommend buying handmade from Etsy. One shop I've bought from is pillowhappy...and she offers tons of options! Just be aware that these are covers only, so you'll have to get your own inserts.

I'm not even going to attempt boyfriend...in fact, if any of you have ideas for a boyfriend gift, help a girl out! My honey is so hard to buy for. Unless he tells me EXACTLY what he wants, I'm clueless. Embarrassing fact: For the first (or maybe second) birthday he had after we started dating, I got him a Wal-Mart card. My logic was that he could use it to get gas for his massive truck. Of course looking back, I realize that was a terrible gift, and he will never let me live it down.

Blake and Morgan

Sorry I left you guys hanging for a couple of days. I was hoping you wouldn't get tired of seeing my cardigan post since it serves as a reminder that it's CARDIGAN WEATHER! Anyway, since I've been taking and editing photos all weekend (and more today) I thought I would share some recent photos from a wedding! My friend Heather shot this wedding, and hired me to second shoot for a few hours. I always enjoy second shooting because it's basically pressure-free.

This was the first weekend of October, so the bouquets were perfect! I love Fall colors so of course I loved these. I don't think I'll use Fall colors in my own wedding, but I think the rich yellows, oranges and reds look so beautiful for weddings this time of year.

I don't think I have ever heard the penny in the shoe tradition, but they did it. I guess it's for good luck? I'm definitely not into traditions, so I don't know a lot about them. I have a feeling I'm going to learn a whole lot about them when I get married...

I've never thought about getting a photo of the mom while the bride was walking down the aisle. Since Heather was photographing Morgan, I thought I might as well try it out. She looks so thoughtful here. She's probably thinking about how proud she is of her daughter :) Ok, sappy moment is over.

I enjoyed tagging along with Heather to this wedding. I'm almost positive that I went to elementary school with Morgan, but I was too shy to say anything.

I hope you all are having a great weekend! I'm doing another set of portraits today and working on editing the ones I did yesterday. Then tonight we're having ribs to celebrate my step-dad's big accomplishment... he was named Tennessee Science Teachers Association educator of the year for grades 9-12! We're all pretty proud of him :)

Cardigans Make Winter Tolerable

One of the ONLY things I like about cold weather is that it is cardigan weather. I only have a handful of cardigans, but I wear the mess out of them...let me tell ya. Today I wore one of my favorites...it's a Vera Wang for Kohl's purple boyfriend cardigan (at least I think that's what this style is called). I still remember that I got it for Christmas one year from my dad and step-mom! Funny how I can remember that, but I can't remember if I took my vitamins this morning...hmmmm

details:

 cardigan- Vera Wang for Kohls

 tank tops, flats, scarf- Express

 pants- Target

Try to look past how ridiculous I look and see how AWESOME that light is!!! It only lasts for like 5 minutes, but boy it is great. I love the evening sun. You'll also see that I busted out the scarf today. It warmed up slightly from earlier in the week, but I still thought the 50 degree weather called for a loose scarf. My neck will see a lot of this b/w striped scarf this winter.

So, cardigans make winter tolerable for me. What about you guys? What helps you get through this inevitable CRAP season? (examples: Christmas, hot chocolate, all the scary snakes are hibernating...)

Pumpkins and Pictures

I took my camera with me to the boyfriend's house the other day to take some pictures of his niece. She is 9 months old already! It seems like she was just born yesterday. Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took. She got fed up with our harassment pretty quickly, so we only got a few. I love the ones with the pumpkins, so I wanted to share them here!

You all have permission to gush about how adorable she is. I don't think I can accurately express how much I love babies...especially this baby! She's like...the perfect child. Of course I don't live there, but every time I'm over she is seriously just an angel! She is always such a happy baby.

I hope you guys are enjoying some nice Fall weather! It's gotten chilly and rainy here, but I'm hoping it will warm back up a little soon. I'm not ready for winter yet!

On the hunt: Curtains

Well guys, I recently rearranged my room, got a new desk and started painting (started...not finished). I am keeping my blue accent wall, but the other walls needed a fresh coat. I really want to post pictures, but I need to get some curtains first! I've been looking around and here is some curtain inspiration that I've found... enjoy!

West Elm

Antropologie

Urban Outfitters

Overstock.com

That's just a few that I like...I'm definitely not set on anything yet. I might just go shopping for fabric and make my own in the end. Of course, I need to magically know how to sew to do that...or know someone who will sew them for me. Either way, when I finally get some, I'll post pictures of my room!

Running Inspiration

A friend of mine shared a quote with me once: "No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch." I try to remember this when I run, because I'm not a fast runner. I still keep up with my time, even though it doesn't really matter...because it's nice to see improvement here and there.

Anyway, the aforementioned friend (Malarie) had a birthday coming up, so I set out to design her a poster as a gift. She had mentioned that this was one of her favorite weight-loss inspirational quotes, so I thought it was perfect.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! I don't do much design anymore, so I like to practice every now and then. I don't want to lose everything. Designing posters as gifts is a great way to keep myself from stopping completely.

I hope you all are inspired by this quote as well. It's great to get moving and get your blood stirring, no matter how you do it. Running, walking, going on a picnic, or even jumping on the trampoline (that is actually an excellent way to burn calories from what I've heard). I'll be doing either a 6 or 7 mile run tomorrow...and I'll be repeating this to myself when I feel like I can't pick up my feet anymore!

Batik Pattern Clutch

A week or two ago, I entered a giveaway on the Branchbound blog for a store credit to BailyBelle's Etsy shop. Well...I won! I was so excited because I just love Vanessa's shop, as evidenced in this post and this post. So I picked out this awesome clutch with a gorgeous Batik fabric, since I already have a ton of her jewelry. It arrived the other day, packed up so nicely as usual.

The colors in the pattern are so fantastic! I haven't decided what to put in it, but I'm thinking I might use it to keep up with my car payment stubs/checks. Hopefully the bright colors will catch my eye and remind me to pay every month! Do you guys have any other ideas for what I could use it for? It's a little small to carry the contents of my purse, so it'll have to be for something special :)

Skating is Great!

Since I've been posting about birthdays a lot this past week, I figured I would continue the tradition with a post about my sister's birthday party. Her party with her friends was at Magic Wheels, a skating rink that has been in this town since I was turning 8...and who knows how long before. Seriously, this place is ancient. (also, the title "Skating is Great!" is what is on the outside of the building...this place preaches truth, y'all)

I didn't really know what to expect, but I walked in and it was like a blast from the past...NOTHING HAS CHANGED. I half expected to run into the guy that worked there when I was kid. I remember him well...he looked like the love child of Danny Zuko and The Fonz (if that were even possible). He even had the Danny Zuko walk down...it was impressive. I may have had a small crush.

Sister and her friends skated for a while...but there really wasn't much of a crowd. It was kind of depressing how few people were there, but I guess it was good for the party. At least Sister and her friends had a safe, empty floor to skate on.

They also did a little party in one of the side rooms (which also happen to look the same). It was pizza, ice cream and cake. I still remember how hard it was to move around in those rooms with your skates on. You'd try to get up and just plop right back down because you couldn't get going....ahh good times.

 They did rearrange some stuff in this area, so I guess they did change SOMETHING

I'll be honest, I was dying to get out there and skate with them, but I didn't bring socks. It would be fun to get a group together and have a flashback skating party here...I'll work on this. In the meantime, maybe I'll throw on my skates and skate around the neighborhood.

I hope you all have a great Wednesday! This is my Friday this week because we get off for Fall Break. That's one of the huge perks of working at a University...you get to take some of the breaks with the students!