Me, My book, and an Ikea Manual

June has been an amazingly busy month! I have been shooting with CLS Photography every Saturday so far and preparing for Kelly’s oh-so-stylish wedding in St. Thomas this weekend.

As I finished up my editing, a bit of laundry, equipment check and even some packing, I took some time to decorate. I moved into my apartment a few months ago and take wall covering very seriously. I’ve painted canvas, framed photos, purchased posters, and just wasn’t satisfied.

Fortunately, while at Barnes & Noble picking up Eat Love Pray (thanks to J & M), I found a book of Robert Doisneau poster-like prints. I realized I needed a way to display several things at once and have the ability to change it up when needed. I was super excited to find my solution at Ikea, but not so excited about the assembly . Ikea is a inexpensive design genius but a girl like me could use an instruction manual with words!?! After way too much time and two trips to Home Depot, I am VERY proud to say, I finished it and love it!

I finally have an ever-changing wall of inspiration. Each of the posters have an added bonus, a quote from Doisneau. This one in particular struck a cord:

“One of the great joys of my career has been to see and speak to people I don’t know. Very often these simple people are the sweetest souls and generate an atmosphere of poetry all by themselves.”
BTW, while at Ikea, I found the three foot vase and wood decor (in the background) in the “as-is” section for almost half the regular price! I will never make another trip without browsing that again.

I LOVE my new book!  Elizabeth Gilbert not only makes me want to move to Italy just to learn the language, but has so far convinced me that the search for happiness can be quite interesting and delightfully untraditional.