Tag Archives: travel

A Gorge-ous Vacation

Hi there friends! I have some exciting news: Two Purple Couches is undergoing a makeover! As the finishing touches get worked out, I’ll be sharing a 3-part travel series this week. Call it the last hurrah of summer 🙂 I’ll keep you posted on when you can expect the new look to go live!

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Last month, Tom & I packed up our bags, declared “Westward, Ho!”, and boarded a flight bound for Oregon. I won’t go into the detail of our full itinerary, not because I think you’ll be bored, but because this post would become an epic novel. Instead, I’m going to hit the highlights this week in a series I’m cleverly calling “Our Week Out West.” So clever, right? I mean, how did I ever come up with that?

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Summer Entryway

Our entryway table needed a bit of sprucing up for the summer. So I gathered up some knick-knackery and some prints I’ve been meaning to frame and got to work. I thought a loose travel theme might be nice, given that it’s “vacation season.”

The postcard is of the Grand Floridian Resort in Walt Disney World. We stayed there in January (and it was amaze-balls!); these postcards were free in our room! Score! The owl is also from our Disney trip, from a shop in Mexico at Epcot. I wish I could tell you that I purchased this set of Matryoshka dolls during my trip to Moscow a few years ago. But I can’t. I didn’t have time to shop. Or sightsee. I was there for work. My parents were traveling Alaska later that year, though, and my mom picked these up in a Russian boutique. To make up for my lack of authentic Matryoshka purchasing whilst in the real Russia.

The “Bon Voyage” postcard was in an Umbabox I received a few months ago. It seemed fitting for the theme. The wooden ball, the terrarium/cloche thing, and the thing inside the terrarium/cloche thing are from Kohls.

So, there you have it! An entryway with some summertime flair. What’s in your entryway? Do you have an authentic set of Matryoshka dolls? Have you ever been to Moscow?

Easy DIY Earring Holder

I was traveling recently for work and needed an easy way to pack my earrings. Normally, I’d just throw my jewelry in a spare coin purse or even a plastic snack baggie, but then everything gets all jumbled together. I needed a better solution. That’s when I spotted a piece of junk mail that was printed on heavier paper, and it hit me…

Now they’re neat and secure! A win-win!

Home Sweet Cincinnati

As much as a long drive home can be boring, tedious, and literally painful, I always love when you get the first glimpse of “home.” Whether it’s a familiar highway exit, a “Welcome to ___” sign or, in our case, a view of the city skyline, there’s always something special that signifies what’s near and dear. Tom and I even went out of our way (kind of) to make sure we crossed the Ohio River to catch this glimpse of the skyline – we both agreed it was more eventful than taking the back-roads route home.

When we got home, I was excited to find that my veggie garden seems to be picking up. It’s the end of August and I’ve only harvested 2 cucumbers and 1 lonely little strawberry!But I was able to pick this assortment this week:

Yep, that’s a cantaloupe! I don’t think it’s quite ripe yet, but I’ll give it a couple of days on my kitchen counter and hopefully it will be ripe enough to eat! I can’t remember what type of tomatoes those are. I thought the smaller two were Romas, but they might just be some kind of salad tomato. I think the larger two are Brandywines. My notes got all jumbled when I transferred my seedlings into the ground. I’ll have to do a better job of tagging my plants next year!

What do you have planned for your weekend? I think I’ll be making some kind of tomato salad. And hopefully enjoying some fresh cantaloupe!

(You can follow me on Instagram @onuwriter06)

Owl Obsession, Continued!

Discovered these cute owl pillows in a gift shop last night. The price tag was about $15, but I think I can make one for less once we get back home.

The shop had some other owl accents, like carved wooden candle holders and iron wall accents, but I forgot to snag pics.