homemade art.

With all the fun vintage toy cameras and photography apps out there, pretty much everyone feels like a mini photog these days (sorry to those pros out there, i know you're cringing!). Why not turn your family snapshots - yes, even the iPhone ones - into meaningful decor and art around your home? I think the traditional posed family portrait above the mantle is becomming a thing of the past.

Apartment Therapy recently featured ideas to display your hipstamatic prints. Neat idea. I love homes filled with familiar faces and memories. More ideas for your hipstamatic, holga, instagram, etc. prints here.

Here's another fun idea. Why not turn a fond memory into large canvas art? This just goes to show they don't have to be professional looking, but rather fun family photos. Idea first seen here.

While we're talking about wall art, in our next home I really want to do a wall of frames. I saw this particular one on my friend Ashley's design blog, Orchard11. I'll finally have a use for the old wooden frames I've picked up at vintage & antique stores over the years.

p.s. you can follow my Instagram photos via @teribockting

other photography apps i love...

Camera+

Hipstamatic

Polarize

Phonto

PS Express

Photosynth

what about you? what am i missing?

weekend recap.

1. friday date night. pre-dinner drinks at The Roosevelt Tavern downtown, a little renovated historic home. my only goal of the night was to end up at a new restaurant for dinner (new to us) well,  that didn't happen... but in our defense we tried. The holiday weekend plus the PF Changs Rock & Roll Marathon visitors made wait times a tad ridiculous. We'll try again next week - I still have my list of four new places.

2. we made a pact to spend the weekend crossing tasks off our ever-dwindling to-do list - and we did it! danny admitted that he's a bit of an electronics hoarder, but we worked through it. we took a big carload to the goodwill, emptied boxes of junk we've been storing waaaay too long, and danny listed a bunch of new items for sale on craigslist. it. feels. so. good. i love empty tubs & boxes. we're so close to being done - like 2.5 things on the list. and, at one point danny over-heated the shredder (um, buckets of college documents).

3. loving all the leafs on the ground. so pretty. cool tool belt, danny.

4. working. working. working. danny finished the guest house. i caulked the remaining baseboards & chair rail.

It's time for turkey burgers, beer, The Golden Globes and season premier of one of my fave shows, Big Love. We deserve it. Hope you enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend.

the rouge goes downtown.

Last night a group of us went to The Duce in downtown Phoenix. It. Was. Fantastic. An old 1928 brick warehouse, the space is all indoor/outdoor, the food is roach coach style, the speciality "vintage cocktails" are served in mason jars and the overall vibe is uber hip & comfortable. We bought some vintage Love Button jewelery, ate Chicago style hot dogs, meatball sliders and waffles while mingling with a magician and singing along to 60's tunes. What more could you ask for? Oh, bottomless fresh squeezed grapefruit mimosas for a dog friendly Sunday brunch? Yes please.

first lunch of october.

Just one more thing to add to my "TG" list this week... an impromptu lunch with my husband at a cool downtown spot - The Main Ingredient Ale House. It's an old home turned restaurant with lots of traditional charm and tasty food. As I mentioned here, we don't do lunch together often (in fact, that was the last time we did) so it's always a treat. Now if only the weather would cool off so we can start sitting on the patio...