(Copyright Sarah Greenman)

I'm so excited to share that my little Tweed Cottage is on Houzz.com! I had the best experience with writer, blogger, and photographer Sarah Greenman when she came over to shoot the house a few weekends ago and I'm so pleased with the results. Check out the full article here!

In other news... it's been awhile, eh? I'm definitely not winning any blogging awards anytime soon. There's been plenty of activity over here, though, don't worry - parties, book clubs, game nights, quiet time, TV time (the most important time) and fun crafternoons. I should probably remember to start taking and sharing some pictures, huh? So that's what a blogger does! Heh.

Hope you are doing well, friends! And if you're new here, welcome!

file me away on a beautiful mess

how did i not post this yesterday, y'all?! my little ol' house was featured on a beautiful mess!! on a whim, i submitted a few photos for their 'at home with' series and was asked to share more pictures of tweed cottage and to answer a few questions.

well, i got to scrubbing (this place will never be so clean again. ever.) and snapping pictures and editing and worrying (because i worry about everything) before i said, "enough!" and turned them in. check it out.

i was a bit nervous to put so much personality out there, but i'm so happy to find that people get it. they get the jokes and the colors and the oddities and the crazy. and that's plain awesome.

if you are new here, welcome! i hope you have fun.



(p.s. fun story - that card game up there? what started as 'let's pretend to be playing cards' turned into a real-ish game of go fish, which ended in tears for one of my nieces shortly after this shot. we all went out for gelato after that, so she got over it pretty quickly. so thankful for a fun-loving family!)

around us // a video

hi guys! hope you're having a good day. it's hot here (whine, whine), so i thought i'd stay indoors and re-live a fun summer memory from when it was actually kind of cool in june.

i kept my nieces for the night and it's become a tradition to make a video of them playing and (hopefully) having a good time! enjoy!


June 29, 2013 from Megan Charters on Vimeo.

music by my love jonsi. (you can see the video from 2011 here)

the many moods of mr. jerry orbach // a recap (part one)

so, while i may not have been blogging about it, i was still dressing up my portrait of jerry orbach. priorities, right? by the end of 2012, jerry had been dudded up in 24 different looks. we saw his first six here and, without further ado, here are the next six styles of my favorite (pretend) man.

(sorry for poor quality on some of these photos - i was still snapping iPhone pics late at night for most of these!)

birthday jerry swanson wants all the bacon and eggs you've got (for my breakfast-for-dinner birthday party)

jerry orbach hopes you get lucky (for st. patrick's day)

somebunny loves you (for easter)

don't let jerry orbach fool you (for april fool's day)

jerry orbach prefers the smooth sounds of analog (for record store day)

a stellar star wars day, jedi orbach hopes you have (for may the fourth)

i have to say, jedi orbach is my favorite from this batch. i remembered at 10:00pm on may 3rd that a perfect dress-up opportunity was about to roll around. i had this made up and photographed within an hour and it still makes me laugh.

stay tuned for the next twelve looks from 2012!

currently // 07.31.13

currently, i am...

wondering how more than a year flew by. i was putting together a post on my birthday breakfast-for-dinner dinner (complete with a recipe for orange juice french toast!) and all of a sudden, it's 2013. how did this happen?

remembering how many good shows i've been to these last 18 months: radiohead, heartless bastards, 35 denton music festival (dum dum girls, thee oh sees, built to spill and more), neon indian, eisley, eleanor friedberger, burning hotels, austin psych fest (times two!) (the black angels, wooden shjips, dead meadow, brian jonestown massacre, psychic ills and more), florence + the machine, yann tiersen, m83, the octopus project, sufjan steven's christmas spectacular, bombay bicycle club, best coast, and the seriously life-changing sigur ros (see photo above).

calculating how many miles i've driven across and back and up and down texas in the last 365 days. total: approximately 3,000.

marveling at the fact that i only read 11 books last year. but i've already completed 25 this year, so that's an improvement.

realizing that maybe i should still switch out watching tv (well, netflix-on-iPad-watching) before bed with reading. (but have you seen orange is the new black??)

missing estate sales. i've had a few mornings of estate sales with my sister over the past few months, but nothing else.

disbelieving that my niece, who was born when i was 14, is starting her sophomore year in college next month.

loving that i met andrew mccarthy & alex maas and christian bland this year. and in actual real life, i've met many new and wonderful people.

accepting that i need to figure out how to de-stress. being 32 was not my thing; 2012 was not my year. 33 is so much better; 2013 is so much kinder.

laughing at the fact that i originally drafted this post on 05.17.12. ha!

understanding, after writing it all out, how months have flown by: life is busy.

hoping to be back in the swing of things soon.

vintage walk

after a pretty good estate sale score in the morning and an early afternoon movie (i saw the artist - it was great and really inventive! watch the trailer here), i decided to take lola on a vintage walk.

a vintage walk is what my friend calls a walk around an old neighborhood. it was the perfect weather for a long stroll with my iPod, camera, and favorite pug.

i love my neighborhood! there are so many interesting things to see on every street. so many amazing houses and buildings, especially. i love, love, love the pink and mint green cottage with the white picket fence (upper left) and the church (upper right) was built in 1856 - it's incredible! the victorian house (bottom left) is really stunning and it's purple (in various shades) from top to bottom.

but my favorite thing to look at every time i pass it? this amazing 1960s cadillac ambulance. swoon.

i always get a bit camera shy around this beauty - i really want to get interesting angle shots of all the little details, but i don't want to invade any personal property. i am determined to knock on the owners' door one day and ask for the ambulance's history and permission to shoot away.

i'm off to spend the night catching up on project runway all-stars (it's too much awesome with both austin scarlett and mondo) and downton abbey. yes, this is my saturday night and it's going to be great!

what are you doing?

so long, 2011

i moved from a tiny, cramped apartment to a perfect (for me) little house that i love.

i listened to so much good music with really awesome people. there really needs to be more squares for this.

i had the best thrift store and estate sale adventures.

i had the best time laughing with my family and friends.

i tried more things. making is my favorite.

i snuggled with this cutie.

and i felt thankful for my amazing family.

i hope you had a spectacular 2011 - see you next year!

tinsel + tonic

i had a holiday "tinsel + tonic" party this weekend, which is, of course, the perfect excuse for going overboard on vintage glass ornaments, kitschy santas, and crafty fun.

i made homemade christmas crackers (directions here) and yarn pom pom garlands (directions here). homemade touches were complemented with thrift store finds and fun finds from bake it pretty.

pinterest played a big part, too. make-ahead mason jar cocktails? such a good idea. also? i never want to have another drink without a festive paper straw (purchased here).

even the portraits were decked out in holiday finery (can you tell who the subject of the portrait is? a good story post coming soon).

it was so much fun to get my house ready for the season - i don't think i put a single decoration up last year. the party was a success with lots of laughing and talking into the wee hours, vintage records, good food (and so much of it, my goodness!), amazing friends, and a bit of mischievousness for good measure.

back to school

it's the first day of school around here and you know what that means: no more kids hanging out at the library all. day. long... at least, not until after school hours. woo. 

doesn't time go by crazy fast? i remember posing each year for my mom in front of my locker or classroom door and now i've been out of school for, uh, a long time. here's my favorite first-day-of-school shot. i was on my way to the third grade, where i would meet, in addition to my college freshman roommate, two of my best friends to this day. also notice the beginnings of a snarky personality and a love for black-and-white striped shirts.

so, whether you are sending off a little one to school or if the smell of school supplies just makes you happy, here are some great first-day-of-school photo memories.

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packing up

hullo! i hope you're enjoying the august break posts around here. one of the reasons i decided to participate in this project was so i could devote a bit more of my free time to getting things organized around the ol' apartment so i can begin packing. i'm moving to a rental house in another city (not too far away) in early- to mid-october and if you remember the pictures of my apartment, well... there's just a lot of stuff to sort through. *ahem*

as i clear through my things, i'm setting aside a few items to list in the shop. i'm going to try and go with a bit more of an edited look at the new place. still kitschy and kooky and colorful, but edited kitsch and kook and color, you know? of course that doesn't mean i haven't picked up a few new things for the house.

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i fell in love with rachel's idea for a vintage school desk as a table for a record player (i have the same player), so i've been on the lookout for a similar desk at thrift stores. this past week, i found not one, but two turquoise metal school desks. of course, one was $50 (insanity!) and the other was $20 (much better, but still a little high?). i picked up the less expensive one and i actually really love the shape more than the expensive one.

it's a bit difficult to convey the greatness of the turquoise - it's almost a pearlized metallic bluish-green. it's perfect. i'm not loving the front pink panel, but i think i'll have that side facing the wall.

one of the things i can't wait to do at the new place is create a paint by number wall. nothing too crazy (and definitely no paint by number clowns), but a cohesive grouping of my small, but growing, collection. i found this paint by number at the same thrift shop as my desk and i love it. i'm not too attached to the frame, but i was thinking about spray painting all the frames a matching cream to add a bit of consistency to the grouping. we'll see.

okay, back to packing. have a good weekend!

in rainbows

making rainbow cupcakes has been on my culinary to-do list since last september when i first saw a tutorial on the dainty squid. to be honest, i'm not much of a cake baker unless it's for quite a few people, so i knew the best time to make these cute cuppies would be when i had my nieces for the day.

i watched the girls this past weekend and lined up a few fun activities for saturday. in addition to baking the cupcakes, we also got rainbow manicures, took a trip to a converted opera house used book store, enjoyed homemade ice cream at an old fashioned ice cream parlor, went to the park, and had a fun movie night (fantastic mr. fox is fantastic).

i made a concerted effort to film snippets throughout the day in the hopes of making a cute video for the girls. i was completely inspired by bleubird vintage's iPhone videos this past week and i've always wanted to make a family video with she's a rainbow by the rolling stones, so...


She's A Rainbow from Megan Charters on Vimeo.

i shot everything on my iPhone and used the 8mm app to post-process the clips before editing the film in iMovie. it all came together really easily and i think it turned out pretty sweet. if you look closely, you can spot a cameo of my oldest niece (who was at work all day - boo) dressed as a pirate. classic.

i hope you had a fun weekend!