home tour {spring 2012}

If you haven't heard the scuttle-butt, we are moving...crazy...sad...exciting. I will post more on this soon & where we are headed, but first I thought I'd give a little update on our home since it is on the market and we soon will have a new home to fix up. Well...we hope to at least. 

Here is the front of our little 1960's split-level that we have grown to love. 

 View from the backyard.

...Finally finished the dining room. Here are the deets...
 Window frames are from Country Boy in Norfolk.
 B is from Hobby Lobby - I spray painted it teal.
 Burlap table runner - just stitched along the edges.
 Lampshade from target, rug from tjmaxx.

 Made the chalkboard from a thrift store framed picture with some chalkboard paint...

Window seat pillows: I made the burlap and chevron ones. The others were purchased on etsy and tjmaxx. 

Our master bedroom...

Necklace storage by the mirror - hooks from Hobby Lobby

IKEA bed & baskets & nightstands

 Guest Bedroom...

Mm love our kitchen. It is no longer the big bird kitchen (that I painted two shades too yellow and in semi-gloss paint). We went with a much classier tan - that matches the rest of the house. The stools are red now. too.

A little subway print I made for the kitchen - more on that soon. 

Crate and Barrel glass jars for flour & other sundry items. 

Our darling porch. I have loved this porch. It was one of the things that most drew me to this house in the first place. Virginia is a great place to have some outdoor living space because we sometimes have long spring & summers. For a little refresher on how terrible this place was when we first bought it. We have come a long way.

We got some steals on the porch.
Lights - target
Coffee table - found on the side of the road - painted it white and sanded it down to give it a rustic look
Dining Table - $10 craiglist
Chairs and bench - hand-me-downs from our parents
Chairs for the table - $10 for the set from the DAV thrift store (fav thrift store in town!)
Pillows - End of season Home depot outdoor pillows
Planter - Marshall's - $5

We'v come a long way from the pink prison (or what my mom called the bathroom designed while on drugs). And what can I say about it? I just love white subway tile. 

And our sweet baby boy's room...

thanks for touring our home! If you have any questions on what we did or where we got things, let me know. 

engagement photos :: ashley + tyler

so now i've shared ashley & tyler's engagement party pictures i thought i would also share their engagement photos. i am hardly totally an amateur photographer. i don't know that i can even claim amateur - because an amateur by definition is someone that does something for the love of it. i do love taking pictures, but i really don't do it that often. two falls ago, i got to take pictures of my friends, stephanie + andrew. this spring i got to do it again. if you didn't catch my previous post - we had some serious fun on a rope swing during the shots.

my disclaimer again....i am totally unqualified to do this.

they met in high school. so that seemed like a good place to start.

they are easy subjects as you can tell. we then moved down to seashore state park. 

the sunset was awesome. i am not sure i have figured out how to really work the sunset pics yet, but i like it nonetheless. 

the woods in seashore state park are majestic. 

Engagement Partay

This past weekend I got to help throw an engagement party for some of my husband and I's dear friends, Ashley and Tyler. They are Young life leaders with us in Virginia Beach and they are awesome. They have been dating for six years and Ashley is not even 21 yet...crazy. That means they have been together longer than me and Philip.

I made the invite on photoshop using my basic skills from my photography class in high school (at least I am using something from my education!)

The fonts were all downloaded on dafont.com - a great free site for fonts!

Ashley's mom made homemade BBQ...yum. I did the decor, which was very fun for me. Here are a few snap shots...

from 6 years of dating (high school dances, football games, etc...they have a lot of pictures!) so we decorated the house with pictures hanging on baker's twine or just regular twine. 

 

i loved the cups...i think i maybe saw this on pinterest, but i painted a strip of chalkboard paint on the cup so people could write their names on their cup. 

little station at the door. "i do" spelled out on scrabble tiles. could have spelled a lot of other cute things too. 

luminaries with ashley's new initial (sponge painted an "S" with acrylic paint)

mini tissue poms! 

and last picture...me and the bride to be!

Congrats Ashley + Tyler!

We love you guys and are excited for you all!

what if i don't sell anything?

I always ask myself that question before a craft show. A few weeks ago I asked myself that question before we had a little family yard sale. I guess that our natural inclination is to doubt ourselves...or it is my inclination. And it is always possible, yes, that you won't sell anything. But I guess it's worth the risk because I keep doing craft shows.

Because I always have these doubts, I thought I would share a few things I have learned from craft shows. I feel like I have come a long way. Not that I have gotten this down or anything. I have done roughly 10 or more shows that I can remember off the top of my head. I couldn't find the picture of my first craft booth, but here is one of the earliest ones...

....here's a little more recent (a year ago)

present...most recent show...

But back to the task at hand...I may talk more about what I have learned about displays at another time...

• Dress for the look you are trying to present to buyers. In a sense, they are buying you. That sounds strange, but I think it's true. I try to wear a product or two of mine and put thought into what I am wearing that day. 

in this instance, i wore a baby. this is not what i was trying to sell........har har....

• Don't be too pushy. This is my personal opinion. Be friendly, but a craft show is sort of a strange experience where you are watching them look through your shop. Don't make them feel like you are just sitting there watching them. 

• Have everything that you need to make a sale happen. Bring some $10s, $5s, $1s and change. And try to have a way to accept credit cards. I just started to accept credit and I feel like it has added to my number of sales. This allows there to be no excuse for someone not to buy something if they want to.

• Have low/no expectations. This sounds harsh. #sorrynotsorry - I a lot of times flip flop in my mind before shows between hoping I am going to make some money and thinking I am going to sell nothing. I have never actually not sold anything (so thank you Lord!), but I having really high a lot of times is not realistic. You don't know who is going to shop and sometimes the right person comes along and spend $100. You just don't know. 

• Have a variety of priced items. I recently added hair-ties to my show items. They are something small that people can pick up and put in their hands without making a big financial commitment. I also have items up to $25 (still not too expensive, but a lot more than $1). 

• Try new items. I have found shows as a great way to experiment with new items and see what are appropriate prices for them. I couldn't believe I sold out of my headbands at my last show, but I guess those are an item I should continue to make. 

To answer my question in the title. What if I don't sell anything? That is okay. A lot of times that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with what you are selling perhaps the right crowd did not shop that day. Maybe prices are a little too high or something is selling something comparative for a lot cheaper. But there is no way to grow your business better than taking risks.

If you do craft shows do you have any tips?

xo. 

links

Since I changed my site to one delightful - I have not figured out how to change some of my links to my new site. Sorry for any confusion....I will try to update it soon.

Enjoy your Sunday!

xo.

april highlights.

thank you spring for making yourself known to us. what a gift really. (philip & i say that "what a gift" joking a lot, but seriously, so grateful for spring and the impending summer) here's the fam on easter. our first family easter. 

it's cool jude don't look at the camera. 

we had a low-key easter. we went to church with friends & came home & ate homemade chocolate croissants & a quiche on our porch. i was feeling pretty proud of myself. here's jude again with his special bunny from bebe (my mom) & his fancy feltman brother's outfit (mom scored this at a yard sale for $1) which confirms my suspicion that i should only shop at yard sales as this one happened to have the pins in it still, unworn. 

moving on to more highlights. 

jude's first trip to the beach. 

not a lot to report, but look at those feetsies. yum. 

onto more fun. my friends, ashley & tyler, are getting married. i had the privilege of taking some engagement photos of them. i may share a few soon. but we discovered this awesome rope swing in seashore state park. the guys were doing the swing over and over again. we had andrew photo bomb their picture...

and then i decided i needed to try....

and then i decided i needed a picture of me trying...

however, i didn't swing out as far as the guys and it looks like i'm jumping on the sand. 

victory! 

busy around the shop too. 

new headbands in the hizzouse. i love them. they are reversible & have super cute fabrics on both sides. 

happy weekend!

i'll be at b.original in town center on sunday from 12-5 for a little mini show.

xo.
k

necklace love

I have been working some on my site if you haven't popped over to www.onedelightfulbutton.com lately. I have changed my picture background, the font, added some social media links, but most importantly have added some new products. 

introducing...

the rose necklace

starting in melon + white. ask me if interested in other colors...

big button earrings

now carrying 7/8 inch earrings...yay

and it's spring break! and jude just discovered the computer & how much he likes pressing keys....so must go..

\\\\\
(that was him, seriously it was. he's a genius.)

thanks for stopping by

six months!

it's hard to believe that little jude has been in our lives for 6 whole months. it has been a crazy, awesome 6 months, let me tell you. he does grow fast. i do know that now. but what can you do about that? not much. well not anything, except enjoy the present with him.

it's funny how parenthood shifts. challenges change. at first it was so hard to get the hang of everything. he slept a TON, but i was wiped out, exhausted from not sleeping through the night and recovering from a c-section. i just would look forward to when he would sleep through the night and when i would finally get a handle on his needs.

now he is sleeping through the night (praise God!), but he game has changed. i usually can figure out why he is crying. we just started real big boy food.

it's so fun to watch him get excited about eating. he loves to eat just like his mom & dad. no big surprise there. now we're just on rice cereal;  i guess we'll see what the doctor recommends on wednesday. 

big boy food means more dishes and big boy poops (gross).

another development too is that this little boy is on the move. 

he's not quite crawling yet, but he is a great scootcher. he can pretty much get wherever he wants to go and that's scary. today i found him holding a dog bone. i freaked out, but fortunately he had still had the pacifier in his mouth and had not chewed on the dog bone.....

and the bumbo maybe in retirement now that he has figured out how to take off the tray and get his legs free. 

although this allows for much free time for me, especially since he does not love the daytime naps so much anymore, it is wonderful. we can't believe God has given us such a great gift in this little boy. 

all this movement from little j bird has made it much harder for me to get work done...both around the house and with one delightful button. more on that soon. how i try to balance the two. try is the key word. 

happy tuesday