Things that make me smile...

Never thought I'd be drooling over a laundry room...

YoungHouseLove

ROME!

As we flew out...I must say I'm pretty proud of this picture :)

Anyone tell me what you're seeing in this overhead shot?

Inside the Colosseum, they've taken up much of the floor to show what is underneath

What a sight!

They were working on the (outside) Pantheon while we were there...

I was kind of surprised at how small it was inside. Small, yet, impressive!

Inside St Peter's Basilica. This structure is absolutely breathtaking!

There aren't words to describe the beauty...and all the detail!

It is huge, and a 'piece of art' throughout its entirety.

The one day (on our entire 18 day European adventure!) we had rain, was in Rome!

Who would've thought...

The Spanish Steps

The Trevi Fountain

Things that make me smile...

I love the coral pop in this picture...the pillows are beautiful! And isn't that headboard glorious?!

La Dolce Vita

VENICE

Venice was my favorite Italian City

Your typical garage in Venice :)

It is so charming

And downright beautiful

Saint Mark's Basilica

Rialto Bridge

Sweet Summertime

How was your weekend? Accomplish anything? Enjoy the sunshine? Or attempt to hide from it?

unknown

I spent the first half of the weekend driving through northern Idaho with my family, saying goodbye to my grandpa. It went really well.

And the second half? Partying with my roommate before she ties the knot this weekend!

Things that make me smile...

This dining room is glam, glam, glam! I love that chandelier! And the blue walls?! Yum!! Love the contrast with dark and light in this room...what do you think?

Censational Girl

The Cap

This week has been an especially difficult one in my family. About 2 weeks ago my grandpa was diagnosed with stage 4 bladder cancer, and last Thursday the doctor told the family that we needed to come now if we wanted to see him alive. That’s less than 10 days from when we even knew he was sick! And by Friday night he was gone! It was so unbelievably fast!

My cousins and I drove up together on Friday to see him, and Saturday morning we were able to take home a few things to remember grandpa by. Well in his garage he had one wall lined at the top with nails, and each nail had 3-4 hats hanging from hit. Now, some of these hats were probably 50 years old…some of them much newer. But as grandkids we all decided that was one thing we all wanted! A cap of grandpa’s. He had so many, and as kids that’s one thing that sticks in my mind, is all the hats in grandpa’s garage J As we were picking out the ones we wanted to take home I found this on the garage wall…

Simple Pleasures

Victoria over at sfgirlbybay mentioned her simple pleasures in life and as read her list and thought about mine, I think its a fun idea to share. You never know what you love that you might think is kinda weird but someone else loves it too. So let's hear it! What are your simple pleasures?

I love having a tall glass of iced coffee walking around outside…shopping at a market, or just browsing store fronts. I love the smell of rain, and the way it leaves its drops on pretty flowers. I love a good book, especially curled up with a blanket. I love a glass of iced water with a type of fruit in it! Limes, lemons, strawberries, peaches, mangos, or cucumbers...yum! I love opening the windows during a thunderstorm & sitting in front of the fireplace listening to it rage on outside!

Things that make me smile...

Check out that bookshelf! Marvelous! I am desperately trying to figure out how I can incorporate that look into my house...hmm...you'd think I'd have enough books, but I seriously don't think I do! Guess I should go hit up some yard sales & thrift stores for the perfect books to cover in white!

That ottoman is also going on my wish list!

Censational Girl

PICTURES!

As we make our trek to Italy...

White cliffs of Dover

Landstuhl, Germany

The Swiss Alps

PICTURES!

So I must be crazy, but I just realized I never put any pictures up from my trip to Europe AFTER London! We were stranded in London thanks to the volcano in Iceland, so there was no flying to Italy like we had originally planned...well we're good ol' Northwest American girls, so what do we decide to do? We'll drive! No big deal! (the British folks we stayed with thought we were nuts, telling us they wouldn't consider driving farther than 2-3 hours in one day!) And the guy at the rental car company told us the 300 mile jaunt to Scotland (we took before we knew the volcano would be lasting awhile) would take us DAYS!! Days I tell you...they thought we were nuts! (It took us about 5 hours to make it to Edinburgh)

So rather than seeing England & Italy like planned, we got to experience England, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland and finally Italy! It was great! Thankfully we were in the middle of our vacation when the volcano blew and not at the beginning or end like a lot of people. There were many sad/tragic stories in the airport as everyone tried to figure out what to do

This is Heathrow Airport...one of the world's busiest!

And this is how the whole place looked! It was kinda eery...

I worked hard for this picture :)

Making an entrance...

I have little/zero space in my home for an entryway...however, when Emily asked her readers for some participation on this front, I realized that I may not have an "entryway", but my home still has an entrance.

I recently found some sweet lamps at Marshall's and couldn't resist bringing 2 home...one of them just happened to make it into my "entrance shot" :)

Check out Emily's blog for the rest of her reader's lovely entrances!

Etsy-Coo Koo Ri Koo

I found a new shop on etsy this weekend! And have fallen in love!

Any of you seen coo koo ri koo's shop? Her jewelry is beautiful! Gorgeous!

Her yo yo necklaces are my personal favorites, I'd love to see them all! But alas I had to settle for choosing just one! (Not exactly easy!)

I'm so excited for it to get here! Now, to find the perfect outfit for it ;)

Happy 4th!!

Happy 4th of July!!

Hope you have a great time with family & friends, celebrating our freedom!

CensationalGirl

Things that make me smile...

I don't think words are necessary...I simply NEED a book loft! And if it looked like this so much the better!

Whiteandwander