Making Friendships Work

We've chatted about friendship on YLIN before so I thought it was time for more girl talk on the matter. With most of my closet friends from college living all over the county (literally - Los Angeles, Austin, Chicago, Boston, Nashville and Atlanta to name a few) it takes a lot more work to stay close and feel close. Because let's be honest, much of friendship is about how you feel... or maybe that's just much of being a woman...anyways.

Here are my top 4 simple tips for keepin' the friendship alive!

Art + Soul: Copper & Torch

Over the past month I've tried to do a better job of keeping flowers and plants in our home. I especially love terrariums and what better way to display them than in a pretty hand-crafted glass planter from Copper & Torch. Lindsay Troutman is a talented artist with pieces ranging from vases to jewelry (even her necklaces can hold a terrarium!). I originally stumbled upon her work through Mattie who helped her with branding and they both did an incredible job with the logo and website design.

Visit Lindsay's shop to see more pretty pieces that would be darling in a windowsill. Also, if you're as inspired by independent artists as I am, Indie South Fair is May 3rd & 4th if you're in the Athens area!

// All images from Copper & Torch //

Bathroom Revisted

If you haven't been able to tell already, I'm a big fan of home projects. My problem is I start them and then my "15 minute break" turns into 3 weeks (or months) of half-finished projects. My goal for our bathroom was to start and finish in a week and let's just say I barely made the deadline.

Way back when we first moved into our house, the bathroom had aqua walls and a brown ceiling, which I quickly changed to all white. I have loved the simplicity but I was itching to add some color. When I saw these prints at Ikea the other week, I decided to use them as my inspiration for a little bathroom re-do.

To begin, I purchased some frames for $3 each at Goodwill with great shape and easy to spray paint. Even though the Ikea poster set came with 3 prints, I opted to just hang 2 in the bathroom as wall space is pretty limited. With the help of my dear friend Maggie, we wiped down and spray painted the frames using Rust-Oleum's Aged Copper. Next I had to cut down the posters to fit the size of the frame, but with their fake matting you could hardly tell and I think they came out really sharp!

Next came painting the lower half of the bathroom walls.The paint was on sale at Home Depot as a pre-mixed gallon of Behr's Premium Plus Ultra (a brand I trust and have used in almost every room of our house) for only $9.

The color isn't perfect, but you can't beat that price on a gallon of quality paint. Two coats later and the bathroom only needed a thorough cleaning and some art on the walls. Including all painting supplies, this whole project came out to less than $40.

It's funny how my original nautical inspiration has come full circle, but in an unexpected way through the Ikea prints. Here's to hoping this is the smallest bathroom we ever have after T is done with grad school!

Have a Lovely Weekend

This was a great week! Despite the frigid temps I felt good about work that gone, and some that didn't. I'm getting better at accepting days for their progress, not perfection. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend with sunshine, good food, and great conversation!

Can you imagine these gems as your "something blue"?

And I thought I tipped generously.

The most gorgeous plywood project I have EVER seen.

An interesting new app to tell you when you've had too much caffeine.

I love Courtney's ideas for tone one tone!

// Image from Emerson Frye. I bought this exact pair of pretties thanks to Joanna's sale! //