Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

This is one of my favorite images. You may just see it every year around this time! : ) PS I always sit on a little dock in the middle of a lake and carve pumpkins...don't you??

Hope everyone has a fun evening!

A Peek Inside

I have been avoiding posting pictures of the rooms in our house for a long time now. I think it has something to do with the fact that I want things to be perfectly put together before I put them out there for all to see. Architecturally, everything is pretty much done. But, as far as furniture and decor goes, I have a long ways to go, and I'm beginning to realize that this will be a project that is never truly done. Getting married and starting a business mixed in with a few small DIY projects have bought me a little bit of time but the truth I have come to realize, is that I just need to post. I'm starting with a room that doesn't need many "finishing touches." With the exception of one wall this room is pretty much done. So here it is, our master/one and only bathroom upstairs.

Our upstairs is pretty small. It's only three bedrooms and a small bathroom. There isn't an official Master Suite or Master Bedroom for that matter. There is only a bedroom that is slightly larger than the other two. To give you an idea of how small the bathroom is, the above picture was taken by me standing IN the shower.

The mirror below was a Home Depot Expo clearance item before they officially went out of business. It was an awful faux gold, with a little bit of antiquing, finish. I gave it a makeover with a little bit of high-gloss white paint.

The wall on the left (pictured below) is where I'm stumped. I have a few ideas, but nothing is just jumping out at me.

{A view of the ceiling}

Well there you have it. The first official room tour. This has been a scary first step but I promise to keep going!

**Many of you commented on my new header (thank you!) It was done by the incredibly talented, Caleb of this company. He completely "re-branded" my blog, and I love how it turned out! You can also check out some of his work here (it's an adorable farm in Oregon that he did the branding for.)

New Boots+Stew=I Love Fall

In an effort to keep this blog fresh, I'm bloggin' about two things I've rarely, if ever, blogged about. Fashion (which I am not!) and food (which I consume often!)

I don't know what kind of weather the rest of the world is experiencing - but around here I think we're having our very first Fall with actual season appropriate weather. RAIN! I may be one of the few that feels this way - but I love the rain.

{Target Boots - $34}

Monday was my first day off so I celebrated with an outing to Pasadena (I know - I have some strange thing with that city. But, I just love it and needed to get out of town for a bit.) Anyways, these boots are my new favorite fall item. I found them at Target for $34! And they have officially received the they-really-are-comfortable stamp of approval. I walked all over Pasadena in them, and worked all day today in them.

I came home still in the Fall mood. So, I made the mother of all Fall dinners - Stew! I had the whole fam over, lit a fire, and had a perfect Fall night at home!

My go-to stew recipe is a Mustard-Herb Beef Stew via here.

They've Arrived!

Thank you all for all of your sweet comments on Bixby & Ball. It's definitely the scariest thing I've ever done. But, if I don't try it I'll never know! On another note...we have received the first of our wedding pics!! I know I didn't share a lot of the details of the projects I did for our wedding - but you can see a lot of them here!

These are all via Stephanie William's blog. She and her husband Issac are amazing, talented, and so incredibly fun to work with! Check out her post on our wedding and the rest of her talent here.

Big Announcement & A Long Post

I'm going to apologize in advance for the length of this post...it's going to be a long one. I was going to post Part II of the honeymoon (but who wants to read about that anyways????) : ) I can't wait any longer to announce the big news. Bear with me - this may seem a little random....

I have been collecting these pictures for a while. I've always been intrigued by storefronts.

In design we always talk about first impressions and small details. A front porch, a walkway, or a small entry can set the mood for the rest of the house.

For a store, it's the first thing you see when you walk by, and usually (if you're like me) I make up my mind from the sidewalk, whether I'm going to like the inside or not.

Most of these are stores I have never been to - but would love to visit. And a few are one's I've been to.

That last picture is particularly near and dear because......it's my storefront! Or I should say OUR storefront. I have had the extreme luck, fortune, blessing of meeting my business partner, Betsy. We have both had the idea of having a retail space, stored in the back of our brains for a long time now. For me, I thought the reality of my dream coming true was pretty far into the future.

Over a glass of wine with Betsy, Bixby & Ball was born. However, it still felt like something that was going to take quite some time to actually happen.

Later that week, Betsy discovered that a little historic cottage located in the design district of Cedros Avenue in Solana Beach, was available. Unbeknownst to either of us, this was a spot that both of us had always loved and eyed for a retail space.

{A peek inside Bixby & Ball....}

We called the owner of the cottage and she told us that she already had two people interested in the space and was just deciding between the two of them. We pleaded with her to just sit and meet with us, and hear us out.

{You can see the top of our fireplace!}

We got the space a few days later. : )

We moved in August 1st. Worked our tails off everyday. I got married August 28th. Left Betsy alone for two whole weeks to honeymoon (it was planned before we started this venture - I promise!) I came home, and hit the ground running again, to open last week. Which explains the lack in blog posts!

I would have blogged about this sooner but we were waiting for our own blog to be up and running. It's still in the process of being designed and I couldn't wait any longer! We celebrated our opening with a little cocktail party with our friends and family that you can read about here.

There are so many people that have given so much support to me throughout my career and this process that I could not have done any of this without. There are too many to list - but you know who you are and I am beyond grateful.

As soon as we launch the Bixby & Ball blog, we will post all about the moving in and setting up process. Plus, as a bonus, we have our first design project up and running, and I can't WAIT to share pictures.

Well, there's the big announcement! I'm hoping now that we're open, and we have set some-what of a schedule for ourselves, I can give this little blog a little more love than it has been receiving for the last couple of months. Have a great week!