There was a slight chill in the air this morning.  It didn’t last long, but it was there … fall is coming.  It is my favorite season and with good reason.  Cool and crisp jacket-optional weather, hot coffee instead of iced, leaves crunching under my boots, snuggling instead of sweating, and the clothes – oh the clothes.  Here are a few of my favorites, and expect more soon.

The boots.  The boots.  I love these boots.  Urban Outfitters.  They also come in a maroon/navy option and will look great with just about anything – like this dress from Zara.  It looks so comfy.  I think I’d pair it with an oversized cardigan, thick tights, and boots.

How great is this cowl neck tunic from ASOS?!  Loving the plaid, loving the neck … makes a simple tunic something special.

Totally rad halter vest from Topshop.  This backless number would work great with a fitted tuxedo shirt or even a turtleneck.

And let’s not forget about the men in our lives.  I can definitely see Michael rocking these new styles from Keds at Bloomingdales.

Sorry for slacking so much on the posts lately.  I have two good excuses – getting married and looking for a new apartment!  The latter has been taking up most of my free time [which is already sparse] lately, but enough about that …. let’s talk WEDDING!

Michael and I finally tied the knot on August 14th!  The ceremony and reception were held at my parent’s home in rural Ohio, which made for an intimate and idyllic setting.  I did all of the planning myself and with a little help from my mom warning everyone to just leave me alone, it all went off without a hitch.

All week the weather was beautiful and around 1pm on the day of the wedding, it started pouring rain!  We had to scramble to move some things around so they wouldn’t get soaked or blow away and the rain was tapering off by the start time of 4pm.  There were still a few sprinkles during the ceremony, but then the sun came out and made for a perfect evening.  Over the next week or so I will be posting little details of the ceremony and reception … maybe you can get some inspiration for your own country wedding.

The wedding is less than two weeks away and I’ve started packing for our trip to Ohio.  This is just a very small portion of the vintage glassware I’ve been collecting from thrift stores to use on the tables at the reception.

I love vintage glass.  I’m drawn to it … and I don’t care about rarity or worth, I just like it to be aesthetically pleasing.  It’s pretty and you can just set it out to look at it or actually use it.  I’ve started spray painting vintage bottles [the yellow bottle on the left was my first].

Apparently there are lots of people who love this look because I found tons of great glass on Etsy.

(from left to right)

TOP ROW:  Bluebell, Myra Melinda, Monichelle’s, Joe Vintage

MIDDLE ROW:  iWunder Vintage, Garden 22 Vintage, 2 Bored Bunnies, Snu2 Vintage

BOTTOM ROW:  Vintage Indiana, Corr Nucopia, fernswoodpixie, Satisfind

I have to give the credit to Michael for finding this.  Adele, a mom in Helsinki, waits until her baby is napping and sets up the cutest little scenes and posts them in a blog titled, “Mila’s Daydreams“.  So cute that it made me feel a little better [awful summer cold].  Also so cute that I almost want another baby just so I can do this.  Almost.

Ava never would have slept through this.

Lately I have been seeing some pretty cool chandeliers that [if I had time and were the least bit crafty] I could make myself.  Since I’m probably not going to, I thought you might.  If you do, send me some pics!

Here are my faves:

This Bubble Yarn Lampshade by Pickles was featured on re-nest and is actually something I might try to make.  It’s kind of like doing paper-mache and kids do that, so I should be able to do this, right?

These DIY Bubble Chandeliers have been popping up everywhere.  I like this gold version from Jean Pelle.

The picture above is of Pottery Barn’s Edison Chandelier and there is a similar DIY version hack on Instructables using Hemma lights from Ikea..  It doesn’t look like a beginner project, but it could save you $300.

These Paperclip [yes paperclip] Chandeliers are from Resdesign Technologies.  You can purchase one custom made, get a downloadable PDF tutorial, or a semi-assembled kit.

This unique piece from Lindsey Adleman Studio is highly customizable.  She also has some bubble chandelier options on her blog.

This Birdcage Chandelier [via Kitschy Galore] doesn’t come with a tutorial, but looks pretty easy to make.  I’ve sent her a message to see if I can get the DIY from her and if I do, I will post it!

The detailed tutorial for this Horchow drum shade knock-off [original on the right] can be found on A Penny Saved.

If you have a DIY Chandelier Tutorial you would like to share, just send me an email or Tweet me!  XO

Things are coming together for the wedding plans [less than one month away!!!].  We are having a country picnic reception and we’ll be serving up cute little gable boxes filled with all kinds of grub for our guests.  I found these striped candy bags [harder to find than you might think] at Fort and Field.  And I just couldn’t resist ordering the paper straws  – they will look really slick in the mix of vintage glasses I’m using or stuck straight into a glass soda bottle.

This picture [via Project Wedding] was the inspiration for our picnic boxes, but we are using kraft paper colored boxes and the colorful striped bags pictured above.  We are also going to have little containers of salads stuffed inside and all of our packaging is eco-friendly.  Please pray it doesn’t rain!  XO

The other day I took Ava to the beach.  She loves the water and especially the sand.  We splashed around, dug holes in the sand, and smiled – a lot!

On our way back to the Jeep, we stopped at the playground so Ava could run around and swing [and hopefully dry off and ditch some of the sand].  When it was time to go, she didn’t want to leave [big surprise] and started to throw quite the tantrum.  She did that thing where she arched her back and let her legs go limp when I tried to pick her up, and I dropped one of the bags I was hauling.  When I put her down to pick up the tote, she took off running for the slide.  I caught her and started walking to the car.  She was sobbing and kept trying to say something, but I couldn’t understand.  I thought she was having a worse than normal reaction to leaving, but maybe she was just tired.  I still couldn’t figure out what it was she was yelling, and then she took a deep breath, looked at me through her teary eyes and said, “shoe, mommy”.  I looked down at her feet and saw one of her shoes was missing.  It must have fallen off when she went for the slide.  As soon as I acknowledged it and headed back to pick it up, the tears stopped and she was all happy-go-lucky again.  Baby loves her shoes.

The Shoes.

I have decided to go back to my original format for Furious Shirley.  This simpler style makes it easier for me to mix in some personal posts and to actually write more.  The ‘glitzier’ version made it difficult for me to put up quick posts about ‘what I made for dinner’ or about ‘what cute thing ava did’ and I felt the blog was losing some of its personality.  I’ll still be posting all the normal stuff too, but now I am hoping to connect a little more … hope you like it!  XO

I have always loved wallpaper [despite my mother's love for floral print walls] and I totally flipped when I saw the designs at trove!

They also do custom prints and all of their wallpaper designs can also be purchased as window film.  And be sure to check out their printed wood veneers – gorgeous!

In case you haven’t heard, Payless now carries a line of eco-friendly footwear [all styles under $30].  The line is made by zoe & zac and are packaged in recycled boxes printed with soy-based inks.  The styles are fashioned out of organic cotton, hemp, nickel-free hardware, etc. … and most importantly, they look pretty good.  Here are a few of my favorite summer looks:

Learn more about these green shoes by clicking here. XO!