lost & found

today's 

lost & found

features 

a set of chairs i redeemed

for a dear friend.

remember what they looked like, lost?

well, with new stuffing, fabric & paint

{and a bit of sanding & scrubbing}

 they are beauties.

and very found.

these are the three different styles

she has incorporated around her dining table.

7 chairs total. 

3 of them found on the side of the road.

in disgusting shape.

the other four weren't too bad. 

just needing some life. 

and these beauties are now catered to the style

my sweet friend wanted. 

a patina of a rustic off-white 

with gold showing through.

and the fun green paisley 

fabric combined with burlap.

perfect.

now onto the next project. 

sigh. 

i hope you enjoy your lovely & 

crisp thursday  

dear friends. 

i am. 

i get to spend time with my

dearest friend caitlyn, 

who moved out to england  

once she and her husband married.

they are not visiting too long but 

i get to see her & hug her. 

yipee!!

                          .jessnicole.

poor man's gard[en]

our garden has loved loved loved the rain.

unfortunately, the rain has made it quite impossible

to work much on our garden.

excuses excuses

but, mr. amazing did get a chance to 

transfer his seedlings 

{that are fully sprouted}

into pots. and clean up our lawn a bit.

here are some photos of our

progress. 

our very slow progress.

jonathan's amazing work.

i mean, seriously?! these were all seeds!

jonathan is truly cultivating

a mini vegetable garden. and it is so much fun

to watch the progress.

seeing the growth of these baby seedlings

makes gardening worth it. 

we have a ridiculous amount of crabgrass

growing in our front yard and neither of us

are at all excited with the fact that one day,

in order to truly get rid of it, we have to 

shovel & dig it out. entirely. 

here is a photo of our hated crab grass.

it may not look like an annoyance

but it is. it takes over the grass.

so that is our next major feat. 

and it will happen. 

our goal is the end of november.

i think we can do it.

and in order to overcome our crab grass

plague, we'll just have to

remind ourselves why we have a garden.

by eating & cooking with our fresh herbs.

perfect.  

speaking of which, we have been making

freshly homemade pesto with our fresh basil

{well, mostly mr. amazing}

 sage to sautee with, and 

our oregano and rosemary to season with.

divine. i love walking out onto this

moss covered brick path

to gather our fresh herbs.

it is so enchanting.

so although we don't have any exciting

transformations in our garden,

we are simply enjoying the beauty of having one.

even if it is always in process and a bit of work.

the joys of life. 

hope you are enjoying your gloriously crisp 

october evening, wherever you are.

love love love

                     .jessnicole.

oh, and just to get a glimpse of the joys in having a garden 

{and why you should start your own if you haven't already}

this past sunday

we made cheese fondue, butternut squash risotto, 

grilled rib eye with roquefort butter, 

fresh vegetables & almond macaroons.

from scratch.

using fresh herbs. 

it was divine.

i have convinced you it is worth it, haven't i?!

[free]day

my favorite feature is back.

[free]day

today's [free]day 

features

miss adelaide

or

addie 

for short

addie is a true friend

to all who enjoy

hosting parties 

consisting of fine beverage, food

and cards {she is an old card table}

jonathan found her on the side of the

road. a man was getting rid of her

and of course mr. amazing knows

good finds when he sees one.

addie is going to be a favorite.

i know it.

here is a photo of today's

[free]day feature, miss adelaide

i know, right?!

thank you jonathan.

she needs quite a bit of work 

but mostly in the finish and not the structure

have a great weekend

sweet friends.

cannot wait to see you tuesday!!

               .jessnicole.

a quick post....

because i miss you all.

and because i wanted to at least give

you an update and explain why i haven't

been around for almost two weeks. sad.

the wedding last weekend

was absolutely stunning.

the bride was beyond gorgeous,

decor, flowers, atmosphere, friendship,

weather, food, & music were perfect.

it was great great great.

and mr. amazing and i 

even got to head into 

san francisco on sunday.

can you say fun?

we stayed with our sweet friend, kyle

{thank you kyle} & explored the northeast

part of the city. eating great food along the way.

and it rained. sigh.

i have had quite a few inquiries about pieces

and am trying to keep up with those

as well as working the first few days 

back from northern california.

yesterday was my first day off 

{meaning i had nothing scheduled} 

in over a week...

and it was wonderful. 

and i work today. 

but tomorrow is dedicated to painting

and blogging. 

and i'm excited to work on some new

pieces this weekend.

phew. all that to say. i miss you all.

and i cannot wait be 100% back.

and back with some exciting things.

here are some photos of the last week.

i will make sure i post actual wedding photos

when they are finished...

 these first three photos are of julie's

bachelorette party. natalie {the beauty pictured}

hosted the party and did a phenomenal job. 

my favorite flower we used for the wedding.

this was taken while we were arranging them...

 san fran. 

only photo i took all day.

the rain. that's my excuse.

{it was actually the fact that i was eating

more than half the day.}

i hope you are enjoying your week.

love love love

                  .jessnicole.

[free]day

today's [free]day

is going to be a fun

project. well, actually, projects.

i am adding two pieces

to my 'merchandise'

collection. 

aka small & simply decorative 

collection.

here they are.

trudy 

{& her cousin}, 

jay

trudy is the ladder.

jay is going to be made 

up of the two small pieces on the ground.

they will both become shelves

of some sort. 

you ask 'how?'

i shall show you.

fairly simple & easy for anyone 

to do. 

with the right materials.

you don't even have

to be familiar with big tools

to do this job.

and, please forgive me dear friends.

this week has been surprisingly crazy

for me & i did not get around to 

my 'lost & found' feature 

{in case you had noticed}

i am going to have to ask for grace

in this next week as i am 

helping a sweet friend 

with decor & flowers for her wedding 

next weekend.

so you will be hearing less from

me in this next week but i promise

i will return with some fun projects 

and new ideas.

really.

and to make up for my lack of blogging

yesterday, i will share some wedding photos

of me & mr. amazing. 

since our one year anniversary 

is this sunday,

october 10th, 2010. 

and because we already spent 

last weekend in mexico celebrating

we are just going to enjoy the day locally.

flea market, relaxing 

and then going to ruth's chris 

in pasadena for dinner.

{thank you phil & debbi!!!} 

here are some great photos, courtesy of

heather armstrong.

the absolute best day of my life.

i love you jonathan david.

i am amazed when i think

of how beautiful our lives are, together.

such a gift.

though marriage & life following

our wedding has not been easy 

by any means, it has been so rewarding

and satisfying in the best ways.

happy almost one year anniversary to us!!!

and i'll be posting a wedding album 

on my facebook page

sometime in the next day or so.

you can see more of our 

wedding photos there.

have a great weekend dear friends.

i will see you scattered throughout next week.

and be back the following!!

                         .jessnicole.

poor man's gard[en]

i love mornings that follow rain.

and i love that it finally feels

like autumn.

finally.

dear weather, please stay that way.

our little garden survived

the triple digit heat.

and is, of course, loving this weather.

we did not work on our garden

this past weekend 

{since we were in

mexico celebrating our anniversary!}

but the amazing thing about gardens

is you can leave them for a few days

{obviously with someone watering while 

you are gone...}

and they do just fine.

our little garden is going to town.

i thought i'd share some photos 

of our garden with you.

please take note that mr. amazing

has done a majority of the planting

of our new seedlings.

because, well, he is amazing.

thank you jonathan.

if you haven't seen the photos

of our garden when we first planted,

you can go here and here.

it is so fun to see the transformation

and growth.

and here is where our garden is now.

she is beautiful.

 

our basil is going crazy.

we had to transplant the tiny seedlings

into bigger pots. and a lot of them.

   

 chives & mint

salvia

 our dill. 

this is our very

first plant we started from

our own seeds. meaning, our old dill

gave off seeds & we took those seeds

and planted them. 

{& by we, i mean jonathan}

our thyme. it started as seeds buried

beneath the soil. i'm so proud.

and the seedlings jonathan recently planted.

look at them sprouting!

we'll have peppers & tomatoes in no time!!

and jonathan researched natural sweeteners

and purchased this stevia.

it is actually sweet. honestly.

i might not use it for baking 

but putting in smoothies would be refreshing...

amidst the amazing growth in our little

garden, we have come across two

pests: mold & caterpillars.

the mold loves our zinnia, the caterpillars 

love our basil & mint 

{surprisingly not our tomatoes}

so we have had to cut back our zinnia to 

prevent the spreading of mold & captured

caterpillars to prevent them from eating our plants.

but don't worry. the caterpillars are being

loved by the cutest red headed children we know, who, 

are really hoping to have butterflies soon.

what was once a pest, is now a pet.

perfect.

i hope you all enjoyed your weekend.

jonathan and i had the most romantic weekend.

it felt like our honeymoon.

only a year later.

sigh.

mexico was stunning, the ocean breeze was refreshing,

the food was satisfying and our time to recap

our whole first year of marriage & set goals for

the next year was so good.

here are a few photos of our view.

i know.

have an amazing tuesday sweet friends.

it is supposed to rain this afternoon.

hopefully it will.

this weather is perfect.

                .jessnicole.