Category Archives: etc.

Spring Break in Joshua Tree National Park

May 13, 2013

I’ve been wanting to share a little bit of Spring Break trip with you for weeks and weeks now. I put together a little video of some of our adventures in Joshua Tree National Park. It might just be my favorite National Park. I had a lot of fun making this little movie, I really should do it more often. I’ve always taken a lot of pictures, but videos have never really been my thing. I think it will be so fun to look back at this. My iphone made shooting this a breeze. It’s funny how the iphone has totally changed how I record memories. Instead of carrying my digital SLR everywhere, I found myself taking lots of instagrams and short videos.

Now as Summer is quickly approaching, I’m itching to get out and camp more with Riley. Over the next week I’ll be sharing more of our trip, some camping treats, and a little camping decor (yes, you can camp in style).

Are you a camper? Where’s your favorite spot to camp? Do you have a favorite National Park?

etc. / Find

Window Shopping – Coral Accents

May 8, 2013

I’ve been loving coral colored flowers this week, if you follow my instagram, you may have noticed. And seeing this color with all the grey and green in our home, I’m total digging it. It’s my new favorite color combo coral, grey and green. It would sure make a pretty party palette as well.

Ombre Pillow // Giraffe // Coffee Table

World Map // Bird Print

Rectangle Print // Paper Flowers // Bowl

So, I thought I’d do a little online window shopping at my favorite stores and pick out some fun coral accents that would look good in my living room. Now that I have a new chair, I’m really wanting to modernize and update our living room. I’m thinking a few splashes of coral might be nice, what do you think? Is there anything in this round up that catches your eye?

Design / DIY / etc.

My Good Looking Chair

May 6, 2013

I am beyond excited and totally in love with my new chair. He is just so handsome, I kind of want to name him. We don’t buy furniture very often and he was an investment, so this little guy is going to be part of the McConnel family for quite a while. Over a year ago I sold the green chair that used to sit in that corner of my living room on Craig’s list. And ever since, I’ve been saving my pennies to get this West Elm Sweep chair. I got it in performance velvet in the color Shadow.

I’m just itching to give this room a much more modern look and feel. This chair is the starting point. The next step will be painting the walls. Right now it’s a tan/beige color, kind of boring, but practical and neutral. It’s been this color for almost 10 years, it was the first room we painted in the house. And as boring as beige is, I think I’m going to stay boring and paint the whole room a crisp white. Our dining room is a dark charcoal grey and I think this would be a nice bright contrast. What do you think? I love color, but I think a white backdrop will be a fresh way to showcase colorful pieces like my green and gold geometric pillow.

DIY / etc.

Painting our Garage

May 2, 2013

Our home is a small California bungalow built in 1920. We have a garage in the back, which is very necessary for all of life’s junk. But, for years and years it’s really needed a paint job badly. This poor little building has weathered and chipped white paint on it’s siding. I even added this job to my 2013 New Years resolutions in hopes of making this a priority.

My very handy youngest brother is here visiting this week. He doesn’t sit still for very long, so he’s been doing all kinds of projects around my house. It’s awesome! He decided to take on the garage this week for me. He’s spent the last 2 LONG days scraping and sanding the very peeled and chipped paint. It’s a warm 92F here as well. This morning I helped with some sanding. It’s going to look so great with a fresh, crisp coat of white paint. My backyard is going to feel like a new place with this is done.

Have you got any home improvement jobs that you’ve been stalling to complete or even start for that matter? What are you going to tackle this weekend?

DIY / etc.

Watercolor Gift Tags

May 1, 2013

On Monday I shared that I’ve been playing with my watercolor paints a bit. And last week I packaged up some Vanilla Bean Lavender Salt Scrub with watercolor tags and lids. And I’m obviously having fun with this medium, so I decided to make a bunch of watercolor gift tags to just have on hand for gifts and treats I’ll wrap in the future. My Mother’s Day gifts will probably be sporting one of these fun tags.

To make these tags, I simply took a large piece of good quality watercolor paper and just painted and swirled and dripped some of my favorite colors onto the page. And then, when it was dry, I used my secret weapon – my Cricut machine, to cut out all these great tag shapes. But, if you don’t have a Cricut, you could easily just cut these by hand by making a cardboard template. Then I tied a little black and white baker’s twine to each of them. Because baker’s twine makes everything cuter, right?

If you like these, be the first one to leave a comment, and I’ll happily send them your way.

etc.

Mother’s Day Giveaway

April 30, 2013

I’m so excited to share an AMAZING Mother’s Day Giveaway with you. It’s pretty darn fabulous friends.

The winner gets A Cricut Expression 2 ($249 value) AND their CHOICE of a Canon Rebel T3 or a Kitchen Aid Artisan 5 Quart mixer. And!!! The same prize package for their mom (or whom ever you’d like to share this with)!

You can enter to win with the Rafflecopter widget below. This is a big group giveaway, so there is lots of chances for entries. This contest is open till Thursday May 9th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The participating bloggers were not compensated for this post.

No purchase is necessary to enter. Void where prohibited by law. The odds of winning are based on the number of entries received.** This promotion is no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.** To qualify to win, you must fill out the Entry. See Rafflecopter for complete rules. This giveaway is compliant with Facebook Promotions Guidelines. Must be aged 18+ to enter & win. Valid only in the United States. Void where prohibited by state or national law.

DIY / etc.

Vanilla Bean Lavender Salt Scrub

April 23, 2013

I’ve got a really simple and inexpensive DIY salt scrub. And it’s 100% natural. Use this salt scrub on your hands and feet to both exfoliate and moisturize at the same time. You’ll be left with the relaxing and sweet scent of vanilla and lavender. Treat yourself to a mini spa before bed and you’ll sleep like a baby.

Wouldn’t this be great to make for mother’s day? I’m sharing the recipe and instructions on how to make the watercolor lids, head over at Whimseybox. If you’re a regular reader of O + P, I’d appreciate you heading over there and leaving a little comment love. It would totally make my day. You guys are the best. I am so thankful for the folks that tune in to my little blog often. I am so blessed by your support.

Also if your are more of a fresh citrus scent lover, I also have an Orange Rosemary Salt Scrub recipe. And for the cooler months, you might also like my Pumpkin Spice Sugar Scrub recipe.

DIY / etc.

DIY Nautical Photo Booth

April 22, 2013

Last week I had all kinds of nautical themed party ideas for you. Today I have a super easy DIY Nautical Photo Booth.

Here’s the photo booth in action. This is my BFF and me posing, you may have seen this on my instagram.

I found this amazing ombre curtain panel at Target to use as the backdrop. I had actually considered dying fabric for an ombre effect, and then I stumbled upon this (it also comes in grey and coral). Hooray for saving time! My Dad cut out the speech bubbles for me and we attached them to paint stir sticks and painted them with black chalkboard paint. The little coral ombre flags I found at Paper Source. They were plain white and I added a little 3 toned coral paint job to them. The burlap bunting is something I made. I made my own bias tape using cute teal and white fabrics. I actually made them over a year ago and had planned to put them on my etsy shop, but just never got around to it. And the cute drift wood anchor was a Homegoods find.

I put this together for the Women’s Retreat I helped out with a couple weeks ago. This little backdrop to no time at all to assemble and the ladies had a great time taking pictures with their friends. There really is no one without a smart phone these days, so there is no need for a fancy camera set up. Just allow your party and event attendees to take their own pictures. If you want to gather all the images at a later date, just come up with a hash tag for your event. Then when they instagram or tweet their images, you can find them later.

Don’t you think it would be fun to put together a little themed photo booth for your next party? I’m going to making one for all my events from now on.

etc. / Style

Window Shopping – Sunglasses

April 18, 2013

It’s that time of year. Well, technically I can’t live without sunglasses any day of the year. Because I’m a red head, I have the freckled fair skin and sensitive eyes that go along with it. Good sunglasses, that are comfortable, ideally have polarized lenses, and are stylish is what I’m on the hunt for.

Glasses.com has an amazing selection of fabulous glasses, sunglasses and even prescription sunglasses. They have free in-home try ons and also a virtual try on function. But, they also offer a 30 day return policy and free shipping both ways. So, there really is no risk. If you don’t LOVE your new glasses, send them back and try another pair. When it comes to online shopping I appreciate this. I don’t want to feel stuck with my purchase.

1 // 2 // 3

4 // 5

6 // 7 // 8

I’ve picked out glasses with similar shapes. I’m loving the vintage style, wayfarer shape and a frame with a little color and pattern. Is there a pair in this round up that has caught your eye.

etc.

Nautical Bible Verse Prints

April 15, 2013

You may have noticed on my instagram last week, that I was in beautiful Cambria, CA. I was there on my Church’s annual Women’s Retreat. My BFF was in charge this year, so I served on her committee and put together all the print and web stuff for the event, set up a fun photobooth (which I’ll share with you later this week), taught a craft night at the event and generally got to do lot’s of creative, crafty stuff. The inspiration for the theme and color palette for the event came directly from the location. With beachy and nautical stuff so hot right now (I’ve be pinning it for quite awhile), it was an easy choice. So, we went with a pale teal blue and coral, so pretty, right? And the main symbol or icon that was repeated was the anchor.

I put together a couple printable verse prints for the event. I framed a couple and gave them away as gifts. But, I wanted to share these with all of you as well. The theme for the weekend was Truth. These are a couple of the verses from John that were used throughout the event.

You can download the file for the Anchor Print here and the Fish Print here.

For more printable bible verses, be sure to check out all my Monthly Memory Verses. They are all FREE! So print away friends.