Before we get to that though, we CANNOT believe it’s already and only (at the same time) been a year since we met. We just realized that we are a few weeks out from the first time we were introduced by our good friend Margie and we are just SO excited about everything that has happened since then and everything that is in store for the future. Margie – we owe you girl!

Ha! Isn’t this great?! Who would have known

Alright – now onto the Lab Event. The video and pictures below really tell the story, but we must say it was one heck of a time. Each and every vendor involved was absolutely amazing and we were so honored to be a part of it all.

The Lab Event 2013 – Cline Cellars in Sonoma, CA from Paperweight Films on Vimeo.

Our pop up shop was also featured over at Engaged & Inspired (wohoo!) here. Big thanks to Megan Clouse Photography  for the lovely pictures and to all the vendors for having such great items to style (Hiip SF, Everly Lane, Lovely Ever After, Bonobos, Le Petite Fest and Bird of Virtue)! We can’t wait for the next Lab Event!

You can check out the full details along with the other amazing designs over on Green Wedding Shoes here.

Today our project was also featured on West Elm’s blog Front & Main (which is full of wonderful West Elm inspiration btw – highly recommend you bookmark that one). Get the full scoop here.

We had so much fun with this DIY and hope you enjoy it as much as we do! Big thanks to Kirsten Julia for the amazing pictures. Spoiler alert – we got some real action with this bad boy in a wedding we styled and designed last weekend at the amazing Barn Diva in Healdsburg. Stay tuned for the pics from the talented  Kirsten Julia!

We’ve been super busy here at Going Lovely and can’t wait to share our work with you in the near future. Today, we’ve got a fun DIY driftwood candelabra to share with you that was recently featured on Green Wedding Shoes! Head on over to see the full feature! Big thanks to the talented Kirsten Julia for the amazing pictures!

Happy new year everyone! We had an amazing 2012 and could not be more thankful for all the exciting things that 2013 has in store for us. Thanks for all the love and support and we can’t wait to take part in your celebrations this year!

We’ve also been added as one of their newest preferred vendors. Wohoo! Check out their shout-out today here.

We’re working on our first DIY project this weekend which will be featured on GWS by the end of the month. We’ll be sure to link to it once it’s up so you can check it out. For now, here’s a little sneak peek of what we’ll be making.

Any guesses what we’ll be DIYing?!?

My husband Andrew and I had a little getaway in Monterey the weekend after Thanksgiving thanks to a great b-day Groupon gift given to me by my sis (thanks Crystal!). It was  full of relaxation, beautiful weather,  delicious food, and of course some wonderful window shopping. On our way home, we  fulfilled one of my life long dreams, and not only got our first Christmas tree since getting married, but also go to pick it out and chop it down ourselves. So. Much. Fun!

The tree farm had a little wooden shack where they served hot cider & cocoa and sold fresh fruits from their farm. Yummmm.

I kinda wanted to take all the trees, but that might make our apartment  a little weird, so we had to narrow it down, which was much tricker than I thought. They were all so pretty and smelled amazing. Nothing beats the smell of a real Christmas tree. After about 30 minutes of walking around the farm, we chose this guy. Isn’t he great?

I wanted to make sure I decorated our home for the holidays this year.  I got so busy last year and didn’t get around to it  which I vow to never do again. Decorating of course involved a few fun DIY projects that I think turned out pretty good and were fun to do.  I made a DIY tree skirt following this tutorial on Design Sponge and changed things up a bit by choosing non traditional colors and adding a felt pom pom trim.

I’m a big fan of round cafe string lights, so I made sure to get those for our tree. I added some fun and special ornaments and have already gotten some gift wrapping done. Spoiler alert – someone is getting something from Anthropologie! They really make things easy with their cute packaging.

These are my favorite ornaments on the tree this year. The one on the left is made by an artist named Wendy Addison and the one on the right is an ornament I made with our wedding invitation! Check out this tutorial to make your own.

And last but not least, here is a fresh wreath I made in flower class using 4 different kinds of fresh greens and mini pinecones. It smells SO good and makes me happy every time I walk by! So rustic and festive.

Stay tuned for a post on Christie’s holiday decor. Hope you’ve been enjoying the holiday season and are inspired to make some DIY decor of your own!

{PJ}

Materials:

1. Muslin bags
2. RIT dye
3. Salt
4. Hot water
5. Dowels
6. String
7. Change

How we did it: 

First, we soaked the bags in hot water. We made sure they were completely wet to help the dye look more organic and painterly (is that a word or did we just make that up?). Then we put change in the bags to make sure they didn’t float on top of the dye bath once we soaked them in our lovely dye.

To make the dye bath, we added a whole bottle of RIT Dye to one side of the sink and filled it with hot water. To dye a bunch of bags at a time we strung the wet bags across two dowels and then lowered them into the sink so that they dye covered 75% of the bag. If you don’t have a double sink, you can also use buckets and fill them with hot water.

After letting them soak in the dye bath for 4 minutes, we added plates on each side of the dowel to raise the bags.We then let the bottom soak for 4 more minutes to create the gradient or ‘ombre’ effect. We found that putting plates on the dowels also really helped them from moving around. You could use books or any other semi-flat and heavy object for this.

After soaking the bottom for 4 minutes, we carefully lifted the dowel, slid off the bags and strung them onto a drying line we created by tying twine to the stove and a chair. Gotta work with the space you got, right?! Wise tip for ya: don’t forget to put plastic bags on the floor while the bags drip-dry or you’ll end up with a big mess!

Annnndddd….voila! Pink ombre bags!

We are so happy with them and love how they turned out! We’ve got more up our sleeves for these bad boys (or girls?) — so this isn’t the last you ‘ll see of them.

Stay tuned…

TV wall before. Don’t mind the mess (or the football).

I love love love the rustic and industrial look of reclaimed wood walls, but I thought there was no way I could manage to pull one off in our little rental. That is, until I stumbled upon this Apartment Therapy post and got the idea to use reclaimed wood on a small portion of our wall instead of the entire thing.

After stumbling upon the article, I immediately turned to Craigslist and was lucky to find someone giving away old hardwood for free that was weathered and mis-colored and all – perfect for my project. I was planning to follow the instructions to a T, but then thought twice about all the holes that would result from drilling each board individually. After doing a little bit of brainstorming with PJ, I came up with plan B.

The Supplies

• Old wood flooring
• Small pieces of wood for the backbone (cut to size at Home Depot)
• Wood screws
• Drill
• French Cleat picture hanger (we used this one)

Other than the cleaning, we did the entire project in our living room. We put down some garbage bags to keep things clean and then laid out the boards in the pattern we wanted them. We then flipped each one over so that the backside was facing up bc we planned to drill the support beams from the back. Unfortuantely, we started off with the wrong size screws, so it ended up being a two-day process. Guess that’s what happens when you start in the evening –whoops. Before we put the back outside for the night, we drew lines where the support boards were to go and numbered the pieces of wood based on their order.

Once we were ready to finish our project, we placed the wood support beams in their place.

We wanted to hang the french cleat (which is how we hung the piece on the wall) to be as centered as possible, so we made sure to measure where to place the middle support and the smaller piece of wood at the top to allow us to drill in the cleat in the right place.

We (well, my husband) drilled in the wood screws at an angle to make sure that they didn’t accidentally go through to the front. He made holes with a drill bit before screwing them in to prevent the wood from splitting.

We lifted it up to see our work and… Ta Da! All one piece and ready to be hung with minimal gaps and no screws poking through. Success!

Then it was time to attach half the cleat to the wood and the other to the wall. It took a bit of finagling to get things perfectly level since we made the installation non symmetrical. Once we got it just right, we took it down, hammered a nail in and put our rhino (who we named Rhonald) onto his new home.

I must say, we’re pretty happy with how it turned out. It definitely adds to that boring wall and is the perfect mix of color + texture + rustic + quirky.

Here’s a little closeup for you. Isn’t he fun?!

{Christie}

We are thankful that our good friend Margie, who introduced us and blessed us with the opportunity to work together, doing what we love. Two is better than one and nothing is better than working with a great friend!

We are thankful that we have found our passion and truly love what we do. We realize it’s not all that common and we do not take it for granted.

We are thankful that we get the chance to work with some pretty awesome people and get to be a part of so many special and memorable moments. Our clients and partners rock.

We are thankful for our amazing and supportive husbands, family, and friends. We wouldn’t be following our dream if it weren’t for their endless love and encouragement. We are pretty lucky gals.

We are thankful for all of YOU! We are constantly encouraged by all our ‘fans’, supporters and readers.

We hope everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving!