Christmas-fied!

Now that I've given you a few snapshots of my interior decoration (trees, curtains), its time to share with you what else I've got going on.

 Mistletoe Mickey and Minnie

 My favorite Christmas card

 My curtains (again)

Matching Mantle (and menorah)

 Coffee Table Decor

 A festive wreath on a festive door

 Tabletop decoration in my entryway

Old family Christmas photos from 30ish years ago.  The one on the right is my brother, me (I'm the crying baby in Santa's lap) and distant cousins.  The Santa in both photos is my grandfather

Real vs Fake trees

If you've seen my facebook page you already know it...

I purchased a pink (PINK!) Christmas tree. 

(the happy couple)

here it is at home with my other trees (yes, its true, I have 3 indoors and one more outdoors)

I struggled this year because I've always been a 'fake' Christmas tree kinda girl (yes, I know many of us are on opposite sides of this argument but for the sake of Christmas and peace on earth, let's not argue!)... 



(pardon the phone pic)



Now that I'm a big girl and live in a big girl house, I actually need a big (er... larger) tree.  And being the frugal girl I am, I am waiting for the after Christmas sales before I get one.  So... in the mean time... I delayed and delayed and delayed getting a real (as in real life - not fake an real sized) tree.  

Turns out my eyes were bigger than my living room and I purchased a behemoth and here it is, crammed into my living room corner with a permanant seat on my sofa. 

(Again, pardon the phone pic)

So... as for my big girl / big tree purchase next week.. I'm leaning towards a traditionally non-traditional tree (meaning: anything but evergreen).  Some may argue down the road I may want to go more traditional... and I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it... but for now, I just want all of my Christmases to be like this: 

via

Christmas Prank

Not too long ago, I was out downtown with my siblings and cousin on a warm summer night.  In the window of a candy store, teenage girls were fawning all over a famous teenage idol cardboard cut out, taking pictures with it and being... well, teenage girls. . 

Scott decided to join in the fun and luckily I had my camera handy

 (I don't know what's up with his hand placement - weird!)

Fast forward three or four months....  I got a little bored (at work) and decided to have some fun.  With help from a little elf, I was able to snag his BFF's home addresses, and this year, Scott's friends and family received this in the mail:

Christmas Curtains

I love love love my living room drapes.

And when I came across a bright green Christmas print,

I figured I had to make Christmas drapes!

 

Now I love love love my Christmas drapes!!

Drink Champagne!

I'm that girl.  The girl that orders champagne at a dive bar.   Yes, it is true, and no, I'm not making any excuses. 

On Pinterest, I came across this lovely print and thought it was fitting for my still unfinished dining room... 

via

Um... Champagne?  Dancing on tables?  Yes Please! 

The DIY in me decided to tackle this on my own (with my own colors) instead of going the easy way (ordering it).  I hit a few snafus with bleeding paint and letters that weren't so keen on coming off once the paint was on,

but overall, I'm kinda digging it... its like the letters with sloppy paint had a bit too much bubbly and wanted to dance on the table too... no?

Happy Halloween!!

I recently received the award for fewest blog posts in a month...  To get this award, you need to do a few very specific things...

First... Grab a tub of popcorn...

Make sure it is home-made, BUTTERED

 (Grade A) popcorn

Drink your milk (and line up your ghosts)

And you just might get lucky with a pot of gold

Under the Rainbow!

Happy Halloween!!

Super Cape

My first attempt at a superman cape was apparently a success as I received an order for a girly (pink) cape for his little sister. 

With my cousin's daughter's second birthday party on the calendar, I made super cape part deux pink.

It was such a hit, she went as supergirl for Halloween!

Opening things up

Just to give you a little update my mee ole entryway...

Towards the end of last month, I finally had the hardwood floors repaired, replaced and refinished throughout my living room, entryway and hallway (Looks sooooo!!  good!!). Last weekend I took down the retro brown slats separating the entryway from the living room and painted the remaining brown wood.

I had a beautiful custom made latice made to put in place of the slats, but I think I am going to leave it open.  Much brighter and more inviting. 


 What a difference it makes! 

(you like my Halloween decorations too?)

Bling Bling ChaChing

My friends Amy and Phil got married over the weekend...  In an attempt to celebrate (embarrass) her on our last semi social outing before the big 'I Do'...  I decided to make her an engagement ring tiara

Here is a list of supplies:
- a headband
- gold spray paint
- an acrylic bathroom sink knob
- tulle
- LED light
- glue gun

Spray paint the headband gold, replace the hardware in the knob with an LED light, glue gun the heck out of it, and there, my friends is how you make a glowing engagement ring headband for a beautiful bride to be!

Pardon the iphone picture. 

Congratulations to the happy couple!

(that's not their real wedding attire btw)

Red dress made from a liberated flag

I came across a story yesterday that I'm still thinking about today. 

91 year old Beatrice Jackman was a Danish spy during World War II.  Her fiance stole a Nazi flag from the balcony of the Reichstag building in Berlin.  Also in a stolen Mercedes  he delivered the flag to Beatrice as a gesture of his love (or as a gesture of the resistance). 

She removed the swastika and then took the red cotton (a rarity at the time) to a dressmaker.  When the war ended, she wore the dress to celebrate. 



credit

 Not only is it a gorgeous dress, but it has so much history; representing so many things! 

The dress recently was auctioned for more than 2100 pounds. 

Read the story HERE

Field Sweater

Last winter, Anthropologie had a cute cardi on their racks. With a pricetag upwards of $100, it certainly wasn't going to be making it home to my wardrobe anytime soon. 

I knew it would be simple enough to copy, so I always kept an eye open for striped cardis.  Last week at Target, I snagged a Mossimo brand striped cardi for $15.  With some lace I already had on hand I recreated the look.

Voila!

Come & knock on our door...

We've been Waiting for you.... (cue Three's Company opening credits)

While I was slaving away on the bathroom, my sister/tenent/housewife was working hard on the front door. 

Before

After

The neighbors love it.  I do too!!

Need your help!

Forgive me if you've already received an email, but I'm looking for your help! 

Some of you may or may not know that I have been brewing a website idea for several months now. It will primarily be a fashion/style related site with potential spin-offs down the road. I have 6+ months of content and ideas ITCHING to go live, but I am stumped on a name. Each one I've come up with (and have fallen completely in love with) appears to already be taken (boo!).


So... to help me out a little, I've created a small survey (6 questions!) that will hopefully help me settle on name and get things a-rollin'!

CLICK HERE!

Thanks so much!

My new favorite room

Back in July, we tore out the tile in my entryway and front bathroom and then we (meaning not necessarily me) retiled the bathroom. And there it has sat for 60ish days.


Last week I started on the rest of the bathroom. In my mind it would take two days. One day to remove the wallpaper and prep the walls and one day to paint. WRONG. We are looking at a 10 day project here including the occasional evening after work. Once the wallpaper was off, the two layers of paint underneath was chipped (ugly) and in no position to be sanded, painted over or even removed for that matter - even with the help of my superhero love that I fell for so long ago. Add a repetitive stress injury to my right shoulder and let’s just say it’s been a challenge.


By the second Sunday, I was finally ready for the fun part. Painting. I had a blast. Here’s the before (taken when I moved in)

Here are a bunch of the afters (the sink isn't installed yet, so all pictures are looking upwards - and yes I have some touch up painting to do, but please ignore that) 

With the ceilng sloping down and then meeting the wall, I opted for stripes. A formally trained designer would say that the stripes elongate the room and brighten / break up the dark-color-in-a-small-space, but really I just love yellow and wanted something fun, different, and somewhat classy.

I kept the yellow shelf and the yellow mirror and used those for the flavor foundation of the room (my inspiration for the stripes). The deep blue paint is ironically not color I intended on purchasing/painting – again another lesson in trying out a paint swatch before buying.  The original intent with was to purchase a sample and do a test swatch (like a good homeowner). They gave me a quart instead and while I didn’t do the recommended test swatch, the color combo is better than I imagined AND the room took the entire quart for the sample price!

Even the interior bathroom doors got a few coats of paint for high contrast. 


Stay tuned for a post on the sink! I know, you’re thinking ‘Sink?! What can be so exciting about a sink?’ Not too much other than a little dance with Serrendipity :)

Is anyone there...?

So sorry (again!)  for the absenses. 
 Now that I'm thirty (cough-cough-two), I decided I needed more balance.  Work, Health, Friend-time, Me-time...  So I've decided to ground myself like an insubordinate teenager.  Work less, go out less and spend more time on the things that matter - eating better, exercise, making curtains for my sister's room, all of the things I should be doing, but haven't had the time to.  Also like an insubordinate teenager, I'm finding loopholes and reasons/excuses to get out of being grounded. 

Owell. 

My most recent house project is an *AWESOME* bathroom make-over, complete with long sought after sink that literally (well almost literally) jumped out at me while on my saturday morning run.  Pictures coming soon (once I get my sink installed!)

I also have  a newly painted front door (that the neighbors are raving about) and a couple other projects up my sleeve to share with you.  One involves a sweater remake from my dealer. 

Since I am writing this at 10pm and its too dark for photos, and no blog post is a good blog post without photos, let me share with you pictures from my birthday. 


Disneyland!!   The Anniest Place on Earth!  I spent my birthday two years ago in Disneyland and this year, I wanted to repeat the feat!  My sister, Castle and his wife decided to join!  Notice my blue bow on my Minnie Ears?  I made it!

My Mickey birthday cake (see my last Toontown birthday picture here)

See the cups we're holding?  Those are Margaritas from California Adventure.  There is a sign at the register stating the maximum any adult can purchase in any transation is two.   So I ordered one for myself and one for my older-than-21-sister.  They wouldn't give me the one for my sister unless she was present (she wasn't), so I pointed to the sign and said 'fine, I'll take two for me'.   They gave me the evil eye and poured my two margaritas.  Halfway to Sully, I met up with my sister and gave her my second half-melted and otherwise untouched margarita.  I just finished recounting the story to her when the out-of-breath margarita attendant nearly tackled me to confirm I lied about both being for me but more importantly to check my sister's ID.  On one hand it was funny.  On the other hand it was annoying, but on the third hand, at least they're doing their job to keep alcohol off the hands and breath of America's youth. 
 

Everybody say "HI CASTLE!"

Who- Who is this?  (I don't remember but I thought he was adorable!)

Naptime

Don't you hate it when

you fall out of bed

in the middle of a nap?

You're My Boy, Blue!

When Mom and I went to the consignment-store-mecca a couple weeks ago (where i got the frame turned earring screen), I non chalantly mentioned I was looking for a living room chair.  No sooner had I said that, I turned the corner and stumbled upon a beautiful blue bundle of goodness.  I sat down in it, I petted it, I cooed all over it, I hugged it.  It sure was pretty and pretty darn close to what I was looking for and I couldn't beat the price either.  

I brought it home and named it Blue (so I can sit in it after a long tired day and say "You're My Boy, Blue!" --10 points to Gryffindor if you can name that movie).  I also did some research.  Turns out it was from Crate and Barrel circa 2008.  The Savoir chair...(My isn't it purty in pink?!) 

Now that the curtains are up across the room, Me thinks this chair needs some accessorizing, perhaps a throw pillow?  I mean, look at the colors, how much better matched could I get?

Hm... another project on the todo list.