The hubs and drove from SLC to San Francisco yesterday for the holiday. It’s so great to be back in the Bay Area! We’ll be having turkey with friends in Sausalito and I made them this pumpkin cheesecake, yum! Mine looks nothing like this beauty from Bon Appetit but I hope it will taste as good as this one looks! Have a fantastic Thanksgiving everyone!

Happy Monday! Look what I spotted on the Bright Side Project today, the delicate designs of Laura Su and her design biz Prismera Design.  Laura creates lovely jewelry and fun fashion illustrations.  I’m loving the splash effect of the molten metal used in her “moment” jewelry series, all for under $100.

Wow, you ladies made it really difficult to choose a winner for this weeks Dari bag giveaway. Your trips were imaginative and unique and there wasn’t one that I wouldn’t like to join you on.  The winner this week is Tia! I could taste the sangria and salty tapas of Spain in your description and I’ve been wanting to go to Morocco for years to stock up on their gorgeous pottery.

If you weren’t a winner this week have no fear Karen Park (the talent behind Dari) is offering $15 off all of her bags just for you readers! That means you can own one of her bags for $20 instead of $35.  Please enter “Little Willow” in the message to seller section for the discount.

I am visiting my sister Britt in Annapolis, MD this week so I had her pick the winner for me. Smart girl she registered for VIETRI when she got married, so she actually chose the winner out of a VIETRI bowl!  She mixed and matched colors for her dinnerware from their vibrant Cucina Fresca collection.  So without further ado the winner is:

Thank you to all who participated in this fun giveaway and congratulations to Miss Eeva Valentine (love your name too).

It’s after Mother’s Day, have you planted your veggies yet? If not, then here are some posters to inspire you from Brainstorm Print & Design. Brainstorm is fueled by New Jersey graphic designers Jason Snyder and Briana Feola and their big brains.  They produce “limited edition, handmade prints that mostly revolve around themes of nature, science, and humor.” Quantities are limited so if you like one buy it here, now!

The former editors of Domino magazine, which closed in January, are having a tag sale to sell off remnants from Domino photo shoots.  This saddens me because somehow this makes the closing of my all time favorite design magazine seem official now and I’m sad because I don’t live in NYC!!  If you are lucky enough to go, this article has all of the details.

Thankfully there is at least one independent theater in Salt Lake showing off-beat films, so yesterday the hubs and I randomly picked the movie “Gigantic” starring Zooey Deschanel and Paul Dano, and we LOVED it! Just watch the trailer and you’ll see why. Zooey absolutely shines and the styling for her character is smashing. John Goodman steals every scene he’s in and Paul Dano is perfect as the lost soul.  Go see it!

I have written about Purple Bird Designs in the past but now that founder and creator MaryMar is a new mom to baby boy Keenan I thought it was time for a re-post. These plates and bowls are the absolute best gift idea for a new baby. The plates look adorable hanging in the baby room and the bowls can be used daily or kept as a keepsake. The idea of a silver rattle or silver spoon is precious but a customized hand-crafted gift is so much better don’t you think? See more from Mary Mar here.

It felt like opening a beautiful gift this morning when I woke at 6am to find the new and improved version of Little Willow. I couldn’t be happier with this new version thanks to Shoshanna at Aeolidia Designs.  There are a few new features that I hope will make reading Little Willow easier for you.  For starters the new left sidebar has a couple of new ways to keep track of Little Willow through Twitter and Facebook.  There is also a nifty new contact form so you can submit ideas for posts or just say Hi!  But the biggest addition to this new version is the “frillows” aka “Friends of Little Willow” sidebar for sponsors and link exchanges.  I welcome your feedback and I hope you enjoy this new version as much as I do!

Lastly a special welcome to my first “frillows”, thanks for joining me ladies!

We Heart This: Stef and Tyna two smart, funny, creative women rave about things they adore from make-up to cocktails. It’s a fun website and online community so check it out!

Treasuring: I’ve been reading Jessica’s blog for a couple of years now and she has a knack for finding innovative artists and illustrators plus she’s a pretty amazing artist and designer herself. Check out her Etsy shop.

Dona Ducharme: I’m a big fan of Dona’s playful and eclectic handmade jewelry.  I love my dangly rose quartz earrings, thanks Dona!

(image via dkimages)

Hi Frillows aka Friends of Little Willow, I am back from my unplanned hiatus and ready to share more lovely things with you.   Life took over for awhile and I needed a break.   The hubs and I went on vacation to Jackson Hole, then I started a new job which I promptly realized was completely the wrong job for me and then we went on vacation to Palm Springs. My ship has been righted and I’m ready to get back to LilWill bizness.

Speaking of birthdays, how sweet are these cake stands from Let Them Eat Cake? Made from mismatched vintage china these cake stands are too pretty to stash away in your cupboard until the next celebration. Some clever alternatives to keep them out of hiding are using them keep your jewelry organized, filling the tea cup with flowers or toothpicks and the ever practical keys and cell phone stand. Of course nothing would look better than a pile of cupcakes displayed for your viewing and eating pleasure. The price range is from $60-$100 depending on the size.

Things are crazy or maybe I’m crazy? The house hasn’t sold yet, I have no income, the hubs is in Utah, I’m packing – enough said, it’s hot as balls, I’ve got a sinus infection, I’m obsessing over this election, and the world is going haywire!!
Maybe I should consult an astrologer? I’m sure it’s in the stars why all of this is happening and hopefully they can tell me it will all be over soon, like maybe starting on November 5th

Sadly with the house not selling I will need to find work pronto while we try to find someone to rent the house to cover a portion of our mortgage.   I’ve already started looking for a job and I’ve decided I’m going to apply to any and all jobs that sound fun and see what happens, I’ve got nothing to lose, oh wait just my savings account! Thankfully the cost of living will be less in Utah and with not as many social activities we’re hoping we can start being more fiscally responsible, which seems to be the way the tide is turning for everyone.

But now on to the good stuff: We are off to Tahoe this weekend for one last hurrah with friends and then Monday the movers show up and Tuesday we pack up George and head to the Great Salt Lake. Honestly, I can’t wait! This has been the longest move in the making ever! We’ve rented a huge 3 bedroom Victorian in SLC in a great neighborhood, walking distance to our friends. And by great, I mean diverse, and by that I mean that there are Obama signs everywhere! I am confident I will be able to find some cool folks in the most conservative state in the nation and this neighborhood seems like a good place to start. Also the hubs has been working hard for the money and he LOVES his job which is good considering that is why we are moving there. In the end I’ve got to think that not selling the house might be a blessing. We get to hold onto a piece of California which will make it much easier to come back here someday. I feel very lucky that we get to make this change and I hope we can soon start a family. What better place than Family City, Utah!

I will get back to blogging very soon I promise. You can add my blog to your RSS feed if you scroll down on the right hand side and as soon as I start writing consistently again you’ll be notified first! I miss all of you bloggers who have commented and think of you often. I hope everything is stable as can be in your worlds. Very Truly Yours, Larkyn

PS: This picture was taken last week from the Princeville overlooking Hanalei Bay in Kauai – on our much deserved and appreciated vacation from this madness.

I am so sorry I have been absent for the past month. There has been so much going on with our move to Utah; we’re trying to sell our house, I’m leaving my job of 5 years, training my replacement and trying to squeeze in time with friends. Some days I just don’t feel like I can accomplish anything simply because there is so much to do. Isn’t there some saying about divorce, death and moving being the most stressful things in life? On a positive note, as of this Friday I won’t be working, at least for the foreseeable future, and therefore will have lots of time on my hands to spend on Lil Will. Oh and then there’s a little thing called our six year anniversary and a long awaited trip to Kauai happening in 3 weeks! I’m looking forward to some much needed relaxation and to things slowing down for a bit. So keep checking back for some fun stuff I want to share with you!

The skies have parted and I can finally see the light! This selling your house business is no joke!

With a long to-do list from our agent these last few weeks have been a little nuts. While the hubs has been working in Utah, I’ve been managing a very sweet and sincere contractor through an interpreter, one stubborn know-it-all Italian tile guy and one stoney landscaper. This past weekend with the hubs home for a few days we painted and de-cluttered the house and cleaned out our frighteningly messy garage. Our savior Haley was coerced into painting both bathrooms which gave us the freedom to get tons of stuff done and ultimately saved our marriage I am happy to report the work is almost complete and so far the house looks AMAZING!

I would like to publicly thank my Mom and Dad who sold all of our houses while we were still living in them. They prepared for open houses while cleaning up after five kids and then packed up a house full of all of our crap with hardly any help from us as far as I can remember. You guys are my hero’s.

I haven’t been posting much lately due to a new development in our life…we’re moving….to Utah! The hubs got an exciting job opportunity with a company called Omniture that just happens to be out there and we’ve decided to just go for it. I will be living here while he commutes back and forth for the next couple of months and then we plan to pack up and move in September.

It will be an exciting new chapter in our lives and we’ll get to check out a whole new part of the country, not to mention some world class skiing. The good news is the hubs’ BFF from childhood moved to Salt Lake City about four years ago with his wife. They are like family to us so we’ll have close friends from the moment we land. The best part for me is that I finally get to leave my crappy real estate job. We’ll be able to afford for me to take some time to figure out my next step and I’ll have lots of free time to spend on my blogging here at Little Willow and with Ecosalon.

That said, this decision was not an easy one and I am terrified to leave the Bay Area and our life out here. We moved to San Francisco right after college to start our adult lives and so much has happened in the past 12 years. I could spend days reminiscing over all we have done and the friends we have made out here but then I might drown in a puddle of tears. Our friends here have made this time in our lives unforgettable and I will miss them immensely.

In December 2007 I wrote that 2008 would be The Year of Yes, so just as we said to yes to San Francisco 12 years ago and what has led to a life I feel enormously blessed to have lived so far, it feels like the time is right to say yes again. I’ll keep you updated on our happenings but in the meantime please wish us well!

Love, Larkyn