It’s official!!! DownShannonLane will soon, aka in 3 weeks, be operating down Stanford Street 300 miles away instead. However, due to the fact that my name will remain Shannon a blog name change is not in order. More details to come soon!
Isn’t the new place sooooooooo cute?!
Last weekend we packed up the car and headed toward my favorite place in the world thus far, my family river cabin. There is no internet, no phone reception, no traffic, no neighbors, and, especially, no worries. In place of all these annoying everyday distractions is quality time with friends, delicious food making, time to relax and read a book, compelling conversations, and, most importantly, wonderful memories in the making.
If you didn’t tune in on Monday, I am in the midst of making a custom serving tray! Check out Custom Serving Tray – Part 1 to catch up where I left off.
I completed the frame and moved on to the pretty part – the glass tiles! I love cool colors and I love shopping on a budget so I checked out the clearance tiles at Home Depot and found this beautiful tile on sale.
So last year for Christmas I was inspired, as it seems most were, to do a semi-homemade gift exchange. My mother is very hard to shop for so I knew that things I made with love would mean so much more to her.
One of my gifts was inspired by a tutorial on Design Sponge. The map etched tray, shown below, is absolutely gorgeous but not exactly what I wanted to do. 
I decided to use this as inspiration to make my own beautiful serving tray. It turned out gorgeous and my Mom and family loved it. Since Christmas I have been dying to make one for myself though. So last week I did just that and I’m going to share all the steps with my lovely readers!
So where do I jump in? I graduated college a year and a half ago with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication with an emphasis in Journalism. May 2010 was a whirlwind for me, as I’m sure it is for most college graduates. My lease ended the day after graduation, I had no place to move, my first huge job interview was a few days away, I had another one a few days later, and I had plane tickets to Athens, Greece for July.
Fast forward to 2012.
I didn’t get the first job. I landed the second one (a journalism internship that I ended up hating). I moved three times within a two-mile radius. I studied abroad in Greece and had the time of life. I stayed in my college town for my boyfriend’s job. I got a job that I wasn’t excited about. I fell in love with the with the job (I take care of two awesome young men with developmental disabilities). I got the promotion that I didn’t think I wanted. I am good at the job I didn’t think I wanted. I signed another lease (this time the boyfriend signed because of my job). And now I’m stuck in a town I hate.
To make the best of being stuck in my college town I have been attempting to make my small two bedroom duplex into a home. The furniture all came from my parent’s or grandparent’s basement which means I ended up with a myriad of mismatched furniture. Luckily mismatched suits our style fairly well (except for one very ugly couch in the living room).
My style is comfy and understated. I decorate with books and memorable photos. My color palette is cool colors. My clean obsession means that everything I own has its own perfect place (the boyfriend has problems with this concept). My budget is small unless I’m in love with something. My goal: to make my house beautiful, to be happy, and to live the life I’ve dreamed of with the boyfriend and puppy along for the ride.
