January is Over & the Five One Six Shop is Live!

January has been a month of full speed ahead for me.  I've been working my butt off on the blog, the shops, connections, etc & I'm so excited to have a lot of things accomplished this month.  Half of me wants to be thankful that January is over but the other half of me knows I have to keep the momentum going!  The biggest goal this month was to get the Five One Six shop open.  

I was struggling with finding somewhere to photograph, a good way to stage pictures, & procrastination.  We are having a bit of success with all of our shops so I was focusing on keeping that up & sort of let the Five One Six shop fall off.  But since I wanted to get it open before the end of the month I busted my butt this week to get it up & running.  Below you'll find the start of an awesome collection:

In the coming month I can't wait to get wall art, knitwear, and more notions like notebooks & supplies added!  I love making physical things...designing is fun but actual things are my thing.  So this store is an outlet for all of that.  It runs on Storenvy which is really different from Etsy.  I've been getting used to the shipping classes & the listing process but back in the summer I had a grand time learning the platform for coding my own store.  Pretty neat!  Here in the near future I want to do a little simple run down of using Storenvy.  It's probably been done somewhere, but there are a lot of things that are different that an Etsian would need to be familiar with.

Well now I'm off to eat a late lunch & dream of the weekend when the flooring is finally installed!  Happy Thursday!

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Wednesday Decor // Alphanumeric Decor

Our living room, office, spare bedroom & spare bath are sooooo closed to being finished.  Can you believe we've been working on this since October? I totally cant.  We've been living in a quarter of our house for over 4 months. Crazy!  This weekend we get the flooring installed & hopefully we'll put down the base boards.  Then, guess what? We can move the couch down from the dining room & actually start settling in!

We have a massive book case being built as well as working on building our desks (btw if you have any desk solutions for building your own, shoot them too me...I can't find any I like!).  Our desks are both going to be over 7 feet long.  That means tons of work space for both of us!  Mine is under a wonderful window & Zach's is along the wall next to the stairs.

Long story short, I've been really loving seeing letters, numbers, & words in decor so.  Here's some alphanumeric inspiration:

one // two // three // four

To make my workspace a bit more, well I'm gonna say professional but I really mean more five sixteenths related...I picked up a cardboard 5, a 1, & a 6 at Meijer the other day for a dollar each.  I also got gray paint (to match the blog background) for under a dollar.  I've seen somewhere before a little online shop selling your blog name printed & framed.....I wish I knew where I saw this but it was ages ago!  It was supposed to go on your office door as a fun little piece to give you more cred. You know, just all in good fun.

This struck me when I saw it & fell in love.  My desk area & studio are going to be an extension of Five Sixteenths so why wouldn't I make it the most five sixteenths I can?  So these little numbers will get painted & propped up or hung above my desk.

I can't wait to sort out all my things & get to making.  I've been very limited in my making abilities these past few months but have been able to start stocking the Five One Six shop.  These past few months I've had time to organize some ideas & think about some new products.  I can't wait to add more & more!  In fact, today you should look for an update to the pottery section.  I'll be adding a bunch of bowl collections....keep a look out!

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Make it Monday // DIY Photo Booth Inspired Valentine Wallpaper

I may have fallen head over heals with the free photo editor PicMonkey.  I've been so happy with the simple edits, filters, & clip art that PicMonkey offers since I first discovered it.  When I got an email with all the fun stuff you'd be able to do with PicMonkey for Valentine's Day I instantly thought of a sweet gadget wallpaper to make involving pictures of my love!

A lot has happened to us over this past year & I love taking photos to document what we do.  We don't get a lot of photos together so it's a lovely day when I can snatch a picture or two of us enjoying ourselves.  I used photos from different trips we've taken over the past year to create a photo strip under the collage feature of PicMonkey:

First find four (or more) pictures of you & your love for your film strip.  Got to PicMonkey & select the Collage option.  Use the Ducks in a Row collage option & rotated it by clicking on the rotate button (either left or right) at the bottom of the screen before inserting the pictures.  Click the picture icon to the left & upload your photos to fill in your film strip.  Save your film strip.

 Navigate back to the PicMonkey home screen & select Edit a Photo & upload you photo strip.  You can skip this step if you'd like it to be in color, but now you'll turn it black & white under the Effects tab.  Play around with the filter until the strip is to your liking.  You may want to adjust the brightness, shadows, etc.  Once again, save the film strip to your computer.

 I opened a patterned background I created with bgpatterns (there's some at the bottom of this post for you), but you could also create a collage with the Sweethearts Swatches (much like we did in the Holiday Card tutorial).  Navigate to Overlays & select Your Own to upload your film strip.

Move your film strip around, size it, rotate it, etc.  If you have more that 4 photos, you can create two film strips.  I only had 4 photos I liked so to duplicate my film strip I right clicked on the strip & selected Duplicate Overlay.  This added a second film strip.  Position your second one where ever you'd like it.

Part of the Valentine's Day collection are a fun set of new fonts & a few new overlays.  If you haven't signed up for Royale, don't worry....you can still use a lot of cool stuff: the banners, some doodle hearts, a cool cut out feature, & a few new fonts are free.  You'll be able to create a cool wallpaper with the free features (I did!)

I then proceeded to set all my gadgets with this background! In action:

TEMPLATES FOR YOU:

(click the images to make them bigger!)

 Pink Medallion Background

 Green Medallion Background

Pink Heart Background

Happy Valentine's Day!

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Sum up Sunday #65

Apparently it's been quite a while since I did a Sum up Sunday post.  I like doing these little posts because it's more of a journal entry for me.  It's the little things that aren't really exciting but add up to a lot at the end of the week.  I like to keep the blog a bit personal too, so I can look back on my journey as a whole.  Sum up Sundays also keep me on track with what I should have done this week & what I actually did!  I also just kinda brainstorm what I'll be up to over the next week (or month even!)

This week was filled with painting & photographing.  We've got quite a few vintage items that are heading into the shop today...I just need to measure them, & then into the shop they will go!  Yesterday I discovered that Zach is the master of spread sheets as we created a spreadsheet for the vintage shop with prices, fees, profits, etc.  It was nice to finally have it all in one place!  I also need to photograph things for the Five One Six shop (which still isn't officially open!) but I'm having a hard time doing so.  I'm not sure what the best way to photograph the blankets is.....all the images just look dumb!  I think I'm going to bring a chair downstairs to photograph with.  I'd really like to get some things in that shop today too.

Working on adding some great little things to the Stationery Shop too!  I was delighted to see someone picked up a sheet of the Lovely Mail Stickers.  They come in circles & rectangles.  I'm working on adding more designs, too!  You'll soon be able to purchase them as stamps & little postcards to include in packages as thank you notes.  Snail mail never looked so good!

I also finished up an upgraded blog design, I don't believe the client has installed it yet, but I'll share when she does!  I'm going to go through a bit of a design process post on the STUDIO blog so you can get a better idea of how working with me...well....works.  I'm also going to be working on adding some fun personalizing elements to the design shop like social network icons & sidebar titles, some fonts, and maybe some clip art.  I love the little rotation I get on when working on the shops.  I'll probably have some more blog designs in the shop by March.

It's been freezing here & every morning there is a fresh little bit of snow on the ground.  It was nice the first time....now I'm just grumpy when it's cold.  One of my good friends from college is getting married in July (hello warm weather!) & this week I need to locate a shop that has the dress so I can go try it on.  It's really pretty & mine is in orange.

I'll also be working on the February Newsletter this week.  It will go out either this week or next, so you should sign up here if you haven't yet!  In this one you'll receive a lovely Valentine's Day inspired printable....but it will be perfect for all year round.

And finally, Rachele of the Nearsighted Owl shared with me the drawing app she uses on her iPad.  Turns out I had the express version but went ahead & purchased the pro version.  The app is Sketchbook Pro.  I tested out my drawing capabilities & created a little illustrated Moe for the blog.  I don't think it's perfect but I'm going to keep practicing.  I alos love the little vintage drawing I did (available as a post card) & am currently working on a drawing of our house!

Happy Sunday!

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Create Photo Book Gift Perfect for Valentine's Day

This past year has been pretty awesome and, as you know, I take quite a few pictures & post them to Instagram.  I've been thinking about some way to document the little over a year that Zach & I have been together.  We've done so much in such a short time - from traveling around, to moving, to renovating a house.  It's a lot to be recorded!

It's also crazy to think that photo albums have sort of gone by the wayside.  I'd spend hours flipping through albums at my parents & grandparent's houses just seeing how life was before I was around.  It was fun to look back on baby pictures, too and fun to remember Christmas & Summers at the lake.  Now a days, photos are reserved for our Facebook albums & Instagram feeds.  I want to turn our memories into a tangible object.

Enter Blurb!  With Blurb you can create an awesome photo book filled with special moments!  Especially for Valentine's Day, a Blurb photo book would make a great gift!  You can take those Facebook photos & Instagram feeds & create a lovely little memoir of your life.  I'm so excited that importing from these feeds is possible! Makes it super easy to choose photos & turn something digital into something tangible.

Oh, guess what? Through Valentine's Day (2/14/13) you can save 20% on your entire book order with the code MYBOOKLOVE! So head over to Blurb & show me what you'll create.

Happy Saturday!

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Fan Friday #86

This week was spent painting the downstairs & guess what.....it's all done.  The painting that is.  The laminate flooring will be delivered today & has to sit in the house for a week to get acclimated.  How picky is this laminate flooring?!?!  Also, Zach heard back that our custom bookshelf is on it's way to being built.  I can't wait to get the couch out of the dinning room & all the crap out of the upstairs!  I've found a lot that I love this week:

I found my favorite mustache mug, gifted to me from a friend online the other day.  So if you need some interesting mustaches in your life I can now direct you where to find it!

This cool tote bag DIY from Oh the Lovely Things with free downloads to make your own!

Love this pencil holder DIY from 11 Eureka.  I can't wait to have a desk of my own!  I'm gonna decorate it with so much stuff!

Link Love

++ This house tour on the Plumed Nest.  I love house tours!  Little peaks at little corners & colorful details get me every time! I am also in love with the blog design. ++

++ Free Shipping until Sunday (world wide, woot woot!) in the print shop! ++

++ Um WHAT!?!?! ARM KNITTING!??!?! you should go learn how right now! ++

++ Surprisingly I've discovered I love wine! What a grown up right? Ever since I was offered a glass at Katie's over the holidays, suddenly it's awesome!  Our wine rack is full but I think we need some wine stoppers, this one & this one are perfect! ++

++ These Calypso Wood Bangles have me dreaming of Summer weather.  It's snowed all week & I really just want it to be warm already!  Back home we'd be coming out of winter not going into it by now now! ++

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Editing your Mobile Photos through Flickr & Aviary // An Introduction

I predominately use flickr to host my photos for the blog, newsletter, & other online sorts of things.  I've had a pro account for like 4 years.....I think it's the longest relationship I've been in!  When picnik was still around, I loved the ability to edit photos in picnik & save them directly to my flickr photo stream.  It was easier that way & I could access my photos wherever I was writing a blog post.

Since picnik has gone by the wayside, I've been using PicMonkey for my on the fly photo editing & small projects.  However, PicMonkey only allows you to save to your computer. Sometimes (well, all the time) I'm too lazy to plug in my phone to my computer & download the photos to edit.  To solve this I found some awesome iphone apps to adjust the photos taken by my phone.  I'd edit the photos, save them to my camera roll, then upload them through the flickr app, & stick them in a blog post.  It's not that much of a hassle but I feel I'm gaining bad posture hunched over the tiny screen on my phone.  Imagine my surprise when I checked Flickr to see if I could edit photos straight from the site & found that Aviary has replaced the edit in picnik option.

I love that this alternate to downloading my iPhone photos exists.  It cuts out the the upload them again step because I'm too lazy to plug in my phone.  Usually I would upload to flickr, locate & download the image, edit, then upload either to flickr or to the blog. It also saves harddrive space since I don't really need all those random pictures taking up space.

Simple Edits with Aviary:

Crop your photos to edit out any background that may be distracting.  You can see these photos were from the yummy Baked Salmon recipe posted this week.  Did you know all those pictures were taking with my phone?  Some of the background-ness featuring our kitchen counter, paper towels, & spices needed to be cropped out of the picture which I did through Aviary.

There is also an auto enhance with a few different options if you're looking to make a good picture slightly better or they need just a little adjusting.

Taking it further you have control over specific enhancements & edits like sharpness.  Simply click the diamond icon to be taken to the sharpness tool.  Drag the white dot left or right until you are satisfies.  Don't forget to hit apply to save your edits.

Applying Filters, Text, Stickers, & Fixes

There are also several different filters you can apply to your photos to get desired effects such as soft focus, black & white, or sepia.  You can also apply different colored filters for fun.

 Apply text in different colors & fonts by selecting the Aa icon.  Choose fonts from the drop down menu & colors from the slider.  Set text border colors as well.  If you click the rainbow option on the left hand side you can drag to set a custom color however you can not input hex codes for accuracy.

Other options include Blemish Fix, Whiten, Draw, & Stickers.  Make sure you click apply to save your changes.

Saving Your Image to Your Photo Stream:

When you have finished applying all the edits you wish, select SAVE. You'll be directed to a dialog box to name & describe your photo.  Additionally, you can save a new copy or replace the existing copy.  Unless I've added overlays or text, I usually replace the old photo.  You may want to create a new copy of the photo is you've added text or any other filters, etc so you will have the original copy available to you.  Select save changes.

Once you've finished you're directed back to your photo stream where you can find & share your image.

This editing with in the site feature has helped me out so much since I discovered it!  Happy editing!

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February Sponsor Call

I can't believe there's only a week & a half left in this month.  Wow!  Next month Five Sixteenths has some more awesomeness planned & I'd love for you to be a part of it.

The feature sponsor (only $15 - plus there is a coupon code!) is open this month and includes a feature interview & guest post!  As always, I promote the awesome people who are a part of Five Sixteenths during the month through twitter & often include your awesomeness in Fan Friday posts!

If you'd like more info, head over to the Advertise page & use coupon code HELLO50 for 50% off your ad!

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I'm Sharing Cabin Fever

It's been around 20 degrees or lower outside this whole week & yesterday I woke up to snow on the ground.  I'm pretty sure I've seen more snow this year than in my entire lifetime.  I nearly froze to death bringing the trashcan around!  It's supposed to be below freezing the rest of the week & the little snow icons are showing up all over the forecast app on my phone.

I checked out the ModCloth Cabin Fever Sale (perfectly named for what I'm feeling! It's just too cold to go outside!) to see if any fun winter items like tights & jackets were included.  Guess what: they totally are!  The sale is 70% off too, what a score!

Look how awesome these Wildflower Mix Tights are!

And what about these Once & Floral tights? Love 'em!

This Tapes-tres Chic Blazer makes me melt.

Check out the way it was styled on the product page, 

I'd totally rock this with gray tights!

This Literary Strip Blazer makes me happy too!

Am I the only one that need color all through the year? When others go to blacks, browns, & grays I'm trying to transition my summer dresses into fall & winter looks!  It's a challenge to find happy colors durring winter time & I've noticed its even harder to find happy colors up north because you never want to go outside! I kid, I kid.  I'm going to continue to snuggle up under my heated blanket & peruse this 70% off sale.   I might get lost in the shoe section as well!

Keep warm friends!

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Incorporate Vintage into your Home - Guest Post on Lost & Fawned

Today I'm over on Lost & Fawned sharing three simple ways to add vintage into your home!

Head on over to Lost & Fawned to check it out!

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Trend Tuesday // Heart on Your Sleeve

I love Valentine's Day mainly because of the hearts.  They are cute, I love seeing them everywhere, & they make me smile.  I especially love seeing them in untraditional ways like mixed with mint or in mustard yellow!  I know it's not Valentine's day yet, but I'm preparing!

While looking around on Etsy the other day I found some heart shaped things I love:

Heart on Your Sleeve by fivesixteenthsblog on Polyvore

ONE - fun mint & red heart print washi tape from the Washi Shop// TWO - knit mint & coral heart motif headband from Three Bird Nest // THREE - crocheted heart motif leg warmers in white & red from EmofoFashion // FOUR - mustard yellow applique heart pillow cover from Pillow Factory

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Make it Monday // Get in the Kitchen - Baked Salmon Recipe

I think that title is a bit misogynistic, but I'm just encouraging you to experiment!  One of the qualities that I admire in Zach is his creativity in the kitchen.  One night I asked him to make me a sandwich & he came back with a wonderful beef, noodle, peanut sauce concoction that I died over...it wasn't a sandwich at all!  He simply looked in the fridge, saw that we had deli sliced roast beef, Bangkok Panang Peanut Sauce (that I love to put on everything!), & left over fettuccine noodles and used that as a base to put together a wonderful little dinner.  We always have a bunch of different sauces, mixes, & random, obscure ingredients on hand & Zach is a master of mixing them.

One of my favorite dinners from last week, besides that amazing peanut sauced deliciousness, was a baked salmon that he put together.   We found a skinless salmon filet at the grocery store & decided to try something out for a Sunday night dinner.  Before he got started, Zach perused some salmon recipes for inspiration then headed to the kitchen.  Below I will attempt to give you the amazing recipe, but Mr. Cook here sorta just goes by feeling.  It's an art I tell you.  Hopefully the pictures with help out with an idea of the measurements!

Ingredients

Skinless Salmon Filet

Olive Oil

Mrs. Dash Lemon Pepper Seasoning (you might be able to omit it, Zach said he doesn't think it did added anything to the dish)

Minced Garlic (we have a jar of it, you'll need enough to cover your salmon filet)

Dill Weed

1 Lemon, Sliced

Baking Pan

Aluminum Foil

Directions

On a sheet of foil long enough to hold & wrap up your filet, drizzle enough Olive Oil to cover where the fish will lay.  Zach added the Lemon Pepper seasoning on the Olive Oil layer, then placed the fish on top.

(Zach did this first step on the pan, then covered the pan in tin foil to marinade...

looking back, it would have been better to do it on foil)

Spread enough minced garlic for a good (yet thin) layer on top of the fish. Sprinkle on the dill weed covering the top of the fish.  Slice your lemon & place slices on top, drizzle with more olive oil.

Fold up your foil & place in the fridge to marinade for about 3 hours.

After 3 hours, heat your oven to 450 degrees.  Place the foil on the baking pan & unwrap your fish.  Flatten out the foil enough on the pan.  (now you don't have to wash your pan!)  Place in the oven & bake for 10 minutes.

Remove it from the oven after 10 minutes then be prepared to melt because the fish is so delicious.  I had my first bite & died it was so yummy.  This has to be one of the top 10 things Zach's ever cooke for me.  I think the peanut sauced deliciousness & the ravioli we made last Valentine's Day make the list as well!

If you have any questions, I'll be sure to ask Zach & see if we can get it sorted out.  But man oh man this was the most delicious thing ever!  We had it with brussels sprouts & mashed potatoes.  I was so happy to have some left over for lunch the next day.

Happy Cooking!

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Shop Updates // New & Awesome

I've been working hard to fill up all the shops with lovely goodies this January.  I've got a little bit more up my sleeve to get done before the end of January but hopefully I'll have all my ducks in a row before the end of the month to start the New Year off right.  Next is to work on a few more blog designs for the design shop!

NEW IN VINTAGE:

Set of two wide red bowls for $25

Pair of fun speckled ceramic mushroom Salt & Pepper Shakers for $12

We've got other mushroom goodies in the shop too here & here

Aged Brass Shell Desk Accessory Curiosity for $35

NEW STATIONERY

Gingham Wedding Suite in Mint

Invitation, RSVP card, Envelope, Enclosure Card, & Wedding Website Card

Fun Semi-Encouraging Notebooks under $15

NEW ART PRINTS

Semi-Encouraging Art Prints at Society6

It's been a productive month!  And currently my design queue is open, so if you're interested pick out something sweet for your blog in the design shop!

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A New App I Love // WANELO

So, I've found a totally addicting site called WANELO.  Zach over heard someone talking about it when he was getting a hair cut this week & came home to tell me about it.  I looked it up, downloaded the app, & haven't turned back.  I'm still playing with it, but so far I'm in love:

Short for Want Need Love, WANELO is a sharing site where members post items they love that are also for sale.  Most everything you see on WANELO you can purchase.  From handmade goodies & art to shoes, accessories, & clothes, to cool gadgets & cookware, it's like a one stop shop for everything nifty.  This site is advertised as dangerously addicting & I agree with them.  The interface is super simple, it's laid out well, & posting from the app is fun.  I haven't found anything I've disliked about the site yet!

The site is focused on products & laid out in a true grid pattern, something I love.  I don't like that some sites tend to be moving into a staggered gallery type of look.  The home page is full of all things trending where you can browse new posts or search through popular hashtags.  If you see something you love, hover over it then save it to one of your collections.  Default collections include Things I Want as Gifts & Epic Wishlist but you can add your own.  You can also follow friends & fill in your profile to let other users know who you are.  It's a great marketing tool as well since you can link to your Facebook & Twitter accounts and add a WANELO Save Button to your online store.  You can also tag friends to show them cool product that you know they'd love.

Under their Downloads Section there's even a bookmarklet to add to your browser so you can post to WANELO from any website.  You can also find an app for iPad, iPhone, & Android.  I've been playing around with WANELO mostly on my iPad & love the in app browser.  

You can surf the web, find cool things, & post to WANELO for later.  If you click the post button you'll see an image (or many if there are a few on the page) pop up to post.  Click the image, choose your collection, & then post it to share with the masses.  WANELO imports the information & price of the product automatically then posts your comments under the product.

I love the mix of art & handmade with gadgets & other mainstream things.  It's the best of both worlds & very concise.  One thing I love looking for are iPhone cases.  There are millions & some of them are just plain awesome.  Also, a guilty pleasure I have is searching for things relating to Harry Potter.  Under the hashtag #hallows you'll find everything HP!

So I'll keep posting & saving into next year, the app is so fun.  You can follow me here!

p.s. I'm just posting this review because I love this little site.  I'm not affiliated with them at all, I just wanted to feed your sharing addiction by introducing you to this awesome app!

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