I’m in love with this skirt. It will fit her for probably a year, too! And Laelia has so been into my necklaces lately, which is adorable. She particularly likes this one, which is good because it’s short and sturdy, even though it’s very, very old…
Puff Sleeve Keyhole Top: Janie and Jack
Embroidered Skirt: Frieda Skirt by Peek (from Nordstrom Rack)
Ruffle Trim Boots: Target
Necklace: My Great Grandmother’s
I know I haven’t revealed my new living + workspace yet (because it’s not done!), but along the way, I’ve decided to give my hallway a lift too. I always had vague plans for it; I want to put up wedding and family photos with a little artwork and a nice mirror, and I thought about getting a small flush mount chandelier, but as I still have yet to go through all of my family + wedding photos, I have never really been terribly motivated to do anything about our completely drab and increasingly neglected hallway. That was until a few months ago and I kept seeing all of these beautiful dark walls all over the place… suddenly I knew exactly what I was going to do.
1) Dark walls + “low” chair rail – I realized that my hallway is the perfect place to have the drama of dark walls. You can see the hallway from all the other rooms in the house, and it would bring a lot of life to such a small space. What’s even more exciting is that my dad had some extra moulding lying around that was leftover from a friend’s project, and he offered it to us when I mentioned that we needed some moulding to make a frame for our projector screen. When we had the frame for the projector screen cut (more on that another day), there was enough left over for the breakfast nook (more on this another day too!), AND there was enough left over for the hallway! So, I get to make an ancient dream of mine happen, and that is to live in a house with moulding! Also, I’m really excited that it was free and we get to learn about installing moulding which will be a valuable experience for us, I’m sure. We are also installing it lower to the ground than you usually see chair rails, but my gut was telling me I should install it lower. After I read this article, I had the assurance I needed to move forward with this idea. Essentially, higher chair rails tend to make a room look squat and short, and since I long for–but don’t have–14 foot ceilings, I don’t want to make my rooms look any shorter than they already do…
(image source: This was perhaps the single most inspiring thing I saw in regards to my hallway, and it is frustrating that I can’t find the original source. I found it via pinterest, and it has been pinned via various blogs. The closest I found to the actual source was this blog, which says it was found via livingetc but it just links to the website not the actual page the image was found. :( Pillow-mint also posted it, but doesn’t have the original source either. If anyone has more info, please let me know! )… Continue Reading
My baby turned one-and-three-quarters on Tuesday! To celebrate, we decided to finally walk over and try out nothing bundt cakes which opened down the street from us a while ago. We tried their flavor of the month, lemon raspberry and it was delish; very moist, not too sweet (I hate that. I won’t even bother eating it if it is devoid of all flavor but sugar). And ALL of their frosting is butter cream cheese frosting! I’m happy we finally tried it, I’m sure we’ll go over there for a treat every now and again.
My new friend Irene joined us with her baby girl Sonora in the Ergo. She snapped this photo for us! Thanks! (And darn it, I wish I snapped a photo of them, Sonora has the cutest little face). I met her when she and her hubby were scoping out our apartment building before they moved out here from NYC. We ended up chatting for like 45 minutes or so! I have a lot of info on natural parenting resources in the area and I’m always happy to share it, so I can get chatty… We got coffee and just shopped around the second-hand stores and the handmade boutiques near my house. I scored a cute new dress from Buffalo Exchange, and Laelia finished her bundt cake in the stroller and was covered in crumbs…
Anyway, development!
– repeats pretty much every word you say. And her vocabulary has exploded.
– requests us to draw Foofa, Mickey or Toodee on her magna doodle daily. I’m a total pro at Foofa!
– says “mim-mi-ki!”–which I have finally figured out is just “mimmy, kitty”, or “Where’s Minnie? Where’s Hello Kitty”.
– TANTRUM! Oh boy. Hysterics over tiny things, but we are still managing to talk through them all, and I haven’t lost my cool yet, though I have been short with her, and let out loud sighs… Waiting for that moment when I break down in tears with her, but maybe I’ll be lucky and it won’t ever come?
– identifies some of her extended family; “pop-pop” & “gi-gi”. And can somehow name all the dogs in all the family! Still having trouble w/ “aunt” and “uncle”, much to their chagrin. When we arrive at my parents house, she will even start saying “pop! pop!”.
I don’t think there is much more to note here… I expect that she’ll just develop her language more until about 2. I plan on doing these posts until she is 24 months! Then maybe half-yearly. I do wish I started them earlier…
Today I’m blogging to spread the word about green your air, where you can buy plants that naturally filter the air we breathe.
I’ve lived and worked in Los Angeles most of my life. (I went to high school in Thousand Oaks—still the greater Los Angeles area). When I was a kid, we didn’t have snow days we had smog days; we couldn’t go outside on the playground and play because we would be inhaling too much smog. But it is not just our outside air that is full of pollution, the air inside our home is just as subject to pollution, if not more. The EPA lists indoor air quality among the top five health risks to the American public. This is where green your air can come in to help! Co-founder Maryam has this to say of green your air:
Each of our plants have been proven by NASA scientists to filter at least one chemical from the indoor air. Little do people know that the indoor air can be as much as 10 times more polluted than the outdoors. Gross, right? And this is an even bigger problem during the colder seasons because of tightly sealed homes and the constant use of heaters. This is what we want to change ladies and gents.… Continue Reading
I wanted to post another inspiration board today, but I feel like they all need a little more work to be perfect, so I’m posting about Instagram instead. :)
I’ve been on instagram for a long while now, but I didn’t post regularly until now. It has everything to do with us upgrading our phones (we got the new iPhone 4s for Christmas), and we went with the 4s because of the camera. My old iPhone was an almost 3 year old 3G; it took at least 5 minutes to post something to instagram (and over 20 minutes to load the maps app! ugh, it was practically bricked…), so, needless to say, I had to really want to share something if I wanted to post. I also didn’t really use instagram as a social network; instead I just thought of it as a way to share cool photos on FB. Admittedly, when I first heard of instagram I thought it was something much more similar to hipstamatic — just another photo app with neat filters. I didn’t even really realize you could comment on photos! However, now I find myself really getting into the community on instagram! I’m loving the photo a day challenge! It might be a little obvious, but I love to make and look at beautiful imagery, and you get a lot of that on instagram. I love the way it can transform the everyday! I also love the way you can meet new people and follow anyone the way you can on twitter. It is the social network based solely on photography, and I feel less like I might be annoying someone by posting too many photos of Laelia since the app is about photos! (I love finding new mom friends on twitter and instagram… It’s like sharing my day with coworkers!). I’m definitely starting to go to instagram more than I check on my other accounts…
A Saturday at Travel Town (Griffith Park).
If you don’t know what instagram is, it is a photo sharing app. Instagram’s website says “It’s a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures. Snap a photo with your iPhone, choose a filter to transform the look and feel, send to Facebook, Twitter or Flickr – it’s all as easy as pie. It’s photo sharing, reinvented“. And it’s free! I think it is important to mention that, currently, instagram is iPhone only. An Android app is on its way, although all the information out there about the timing of its release simply says “soon”! I’m looking forward the release of the android app; the more the merrier!
Some photos I took for the January photo a day challenge; where you sleep. We get some very dreamy light that pours into the room in the early afternoon during the winter. :)
Instagram is probably best experienced from the app itself. However, there are a couple of sites that allow you to view from the web! On webstagram, you can view instagram on the web, but you cannot interact (comment, like, etc) with any content. Statigram however, allows you to comment and like photographs with out an instagram account! It also displays all your stats, and allows you to repost! (As far as I can tell, you can’t repost from instagram directly.)
If you are on instagram come and follow me! You’ll definitely see a bit more of my home before I get around to my full room tours, and photos of projects that are in progress. My user name is jditrimares (just like twitter). If you aren’t on instagram, you can still check out and even comment on my photos here, on statigram.
And, just for fun, here is a tutorial on how to turn your instagram photos into photo booth strips! :)
All photos have gone through instagram filters; the top photo I made the collage with diptic (another photo app); the other collages I compiled in Photoshop. I adjusted the train photos slightly in Photoshop because they were slightly tilted (by 1.5°—yes, a tiny amount, but for such a cool architectural shot, I really wanted it to be aligned!) You can check out the specific filters I used on statigram. I’m starting to get into other filter photo apps too, I’ll probably write more on that later!
Welcome to Visual Vocabularie! My name is Jesyka, and I am a designer, artist, mom to Laelia and Luca, wife to software engineer and UX designer Tyler, coffee lover, and all around enthused person. This is my blog; here I share my personal projects, whether it's a furniture makeover, a new painting, a birthday party, an invitation I designed, or a favorite outfit for my little. You’ll also catch a glimpse into our family life in Los Angeles.
Pinwheel Tutorial
Tissue Tassel Garland
Triple Pinch Pleat Curtains
Ikea Mini Kitchen Makeover
You are free to pin to pinterest, or post my photos on your blog, but please give proper credit to my full name Jesyka D’Itri Marés (I know, I know, it's not the easiest name!), and you link back either the home page of this website, or the permalink of the original post (although, I'm sure your followers will thank you for the permalink!). I would LOVE to know if you enjoy my work enough to share it, so please don’t be shy and drop me an email!