Friday, October 26, 2012

Four Calling Birds...and a Kate Spade OObseessionnn

Today I just wanted to share with you some of my current favorite Kate Spade items. I adore the Kate Spade brand. It's all very girly and pretty and that frankly, is right up my alley! How could you look down at this IPhone case and not smile! It's called "Four Calling Birds"...LOVE. 





skinny mini long bow necklace
I have a little pair of bow earings that I wear constantly and at $78.00 this necklace may just end up on my Christmas list! So pretty and does not break the bank! Although.... both of these idiom pendants are completely charming and I could almost see them as a daily piece. 


paint the town red idiom pendant

Creme de la Creme Pendant

Maybe even wear both at the same time or at least 2 pendants on the chain.

One the Dot ring...simple, cute, and chic, I could see it working with a bright summer dress or a warm navy winter outfit. Hmmm my winter coat is navy, can I get away without gloves this winter? 


Thursday, October 25, 2012

Lucky #13

Halloween is just around the corner and I thought I would share with you some photos of the most spooky, creepy, cool car I've ever seen. OK maybe not the coolest car ever, that would no doubt be something James Bond drives... preferably by Daniel Craig and not a skeleton, but this is pretty good! If you're ever in Louisville Kentucky there is a great novelty/costume store called Caufields's that's open year round. This bad boy is parked out front!






Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Recipe Wednesday: Caprese Sandwich

The weather has been so amazing the last two days, I know all the leaves are changing and it's getting dark so fast but it feels like spring outside! I've moved my orange tree inside for the winter, but my tropical hibiscus is still soaking up some sun. It felt like a light lunch sort of day. This is a summer staple for me, a caprese sandwich. Once you start eating these you crave them! I buy whole grain sandwich rounds, toast them then brush with a little olive oil. Next layer on on a nice slice of fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced grape tomatoes, and basil. Top it off is sea salt, cracked black pepper, and maybe another swirl of olive oil. Easy and delicious! 


Tuesday, October 23, 2012

CTBB Tuesday: Peel & Stick Tiles

This week for Champagne Taste/Beer Budget Tuesday I've been looking for alternatives in tile. Specifically for the kitchen back splash. I love the look of subway tile and though it is relatively inexpensive, the whole idea of cutting tile with a SAW and grout just seems to be a little more than I think I can do. I understand everyone says how easy it is, but I feel like I would want to hire it out. If it involves more than a paint brush I really want the professionals to handle it! My sister over at The High Heeled Hippie used some in her bathroom and had great things to say. The reviews seem to be pretty good as well as long as your wall is in good condition. So while searching for alternatives I found there are some pretty convincing peel and stick tile options out there.







http://www.thesmarttiles.com/p-139-murano-cosmo.aspx



http://www.theredpin.com/blog/interior-design/innovative-backsplash-solution-self-adhesive-tiles/attachment/135_2_




I am curious how they look in person...will it look like those puffy stickers we collected as kids? Will it really look like tile?



Monday, October 22, 2012

Monday Makeover: Little Miss Muffet Getting A Spooky Makeover!


Last year I did a painting of Little Miss Muffet and she hangs between the dining room and living room. I'm hear to inform everyone that Little Miss Muffet or as we call her "Muffy", will not be taking any guff off of that pesky spider this year. He'll have to exercise his intimidation tactics elsewhere. You see, Muffy will be sporting a spooky mask that's shaped like a bat. I got the idea from this photo on where else, Pinterest. I just loved the witches hat on this portrait, but wanted to give it my own twist!



Here is Muffy's before shot...

And now with her mask!



I used a glittery black card stock from Martha Stewart Crafts. I just put a piece of printer paper over Muffy's face and drew a shape that I thought would be good and work around her large eyes. A little low adhesive tape for the back and that's it. I'm thinking about doing a witch hat for her next year! What a fun way to put a little Halloween spirit in your home. I only wish I had more framed portraits to decorate, now that I'm thinking about it, this girl would look good with some bolts on her neck too! Oh boy, stop me before I get carried away!

Friday, October 19, 2012

Sucking On An Invisible Straw...

"Sucking On An Invisible Straw" is what a fellow artist friend of mine suggested I name this painting. I laughed at first but then thought "heeeeyyyyy". Haha oh well. Let me just say that painting is hard. Maybe not for some people, but for me it is. Why do I do it? I really enjoy it and I feel like I've accomplished something once I've completed a painting. The other really amazing thing that happens is that I see progress. I can't wait to do the next painting because I know it will be better than the last.     

No, her name is not Sucking on an invisible straw...it's "Cassandra".
 If you're interested, she is my most recent Etsy edition and can be found here.


Ira Glass really summed up the way I feel best...

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through."

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Orla Kiely Wish List

I'm just going to say it, even though you're not supposed to say it. It's total garbage that I'm not rich! If you have great taste (like I think I do...wink) you should be rich to! It really bugs me that Honey Boo Boo and her belching clan are going to be rich. Listen people...they call a dumpster the "department store"! I'm not above a dumpster, as I did once fish out an amazing chair. But, I think....wait....I just lost my train of thought.... I'm not really making a good point am I? I also think I just gave away that I watch Honey Boo Boo. OK fine let them spend their money on ATV's and bulk toilet paper. It's my own fault I'm not willing to fart on TV. Alright, I'm getting off track and muddying up a beautiful post about Orla Kiely goods with Honey Boo Boo. Let me share some of this beauty...this is my "if I were rich I would buy this Orla Kiely stuff " post.

1. The Textured Vinyl Winter Wallflower Print Large Jeanie Bag for $350.00

2. This Flower Abacus Kitchen Apron for $68.00


3. The Berry Bubble Cardigan for $360.00


4. These awesomesauce Ditsy Clover Print Sunglasses in Black & Cream for $235.00


5. Something I actually did buy with a $1.00 off coupon from Target.

One day I'll get the bag, but for now this little bit of Orla is making me happy! Here are all the pretty patterns you can buy the Method soaps in...I may have to buy a few more...after all we do have 3 sinks in the house!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Recipe Wednesday: The Best Salsa You Will Ever Eat.

My husband won't eat vegetables or anything green, except for green beans and peas. That's it...just green beans or peas. No salads of any kind, no avocado, no cucumbers, no green onions, or any onions for that matter. Green peppers are a no go, and not even so much as a sweet pickle.  He says he's allergic. He's not really allergic, but when the wait staff look at him like he just landed from mars because he wants his burger plain it's his way of joking. He's getting better, since we've been married I've gotten him to expand his diet of Coca Cola, multi vitamins and Arbys. He now eats raw spinach, a little lettuce on a sandwich, and hummus with peapods. He even told me that last week he ordered a club sandwich at a business lunch that had the usual fixings and he really liked it. That means he ate a tomato and lettuce! YAY! Oh, but he did say no to mayonnaise. He hates mayonnaise! Anyway, he is really trying to broaden his horizons and I'm very proud of him. I know for most people it doesn't seem like much but for a guy who was raised by his single dad that cooked a steady diet of meat and potato's these are big steps. (His dad hates Italian food...who hates Italian food!) Well, with this progress a really big one for him is this SALSA! He loves it!

The recipe comes from a friend of mine that I went to high school with. Her father had a vacation home in Scottsdale Arizona so she spent a lot of times out there and has taste for Southwestern food. I'm not really sure where she got the recipe, maybe she made it up, but it honestly is the most perfect salsa I've ever eaten. It's not really hot, so if you like a hot salsa you certainly could add jalapenos or green chilies, but it's just a very good basic recipe. 

3 Large tomatoes 
1 small green pepper
1 small sweet onion
2-3 cloves of garlic minced
2 limes (just the juice)
salt & pepper to taste

Finely dice the tomatoes, pepper, and onion. Mince your garlic, juice limes over veggies and add salt and pepper to taste. This keeps for a few days in the fridge and makes a lot. I usually make this when I do chicken enchiladas and use some of the salsa inside the enchilada.


One of my husbands co-workers brought us these beautiful yellow tomatoes from her farm.









Tuesday, October 16, 2012

CTBB Tuesday: Womb Chair Inspiration

After my post last week about coveting a Eero Saarinen Womb Chair (despite the awful name "womb") I thought I would try and find a more affordable alternative for CTBB, that's Champagne Taste on a Beer Budget Tuesday. If you have a few thousand you should be able to get an original. If that's not in the budget around $800 will get you a nice replica. Unfortunately I've only seen one that was less expensive and it was in the $400 range but the colors and fabric were bad...really bad. I don't think this is the chair to cheap out on fabric with!
Origianl Womb Chair designed by Eero Saarinen for Knoll



This Ero Saarinen Style Womb chair and ottoman in white is from LexMod and on SALE for $798 (reg $1600)



Monday, October 15, 2012

Monday Makeover: Halloween Lampshade

To give a spooky edge to a lampshade black cardstock is your best friend. It's amazing how many strange things you can find on google images! I just googled mice silhouette and bam...there you have these little guys just begging to make a lampshade their home. I printed them on regular printer paper, cut them out and traced them onto black card stock then cut that out. A little tape and that's it! You can see them when the lights off but at night they really light up well! I think bats would be great too!

Friday, October 12, 2012

It's friday and I'm going to assault your senses...

This may be one of the greatest video's of all time...not in a Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean" kind of way, more in a "what did I just see, did she just say don't slap me?" kind of way. By the way... you're welcome.

Have a great weekend and I hope you don't have to have a meetin in the ladies room!
-Shelly

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Hot Mess to White Hot, Dining Room Table Makeover!


This is my inherited dining room table. She's very traditional, she's old, she's seen children grow up, and many grandchildren, she's been the place for pancakes and birthday cakes. She was even set on fire once at a party my grandparents had. Apparently a candle that was under a ceiling vent burned down a little too quickly only to catch the table cloth on fire. A helpful guest dumped the punch bowl on her! She has a small blemish from the fire...OK, it's really a medium blemish but a dinner plate covers it. She was also once like Michael Jackson, much darker in her youth. Solid cherry but my aunt lightened her up in the 80's. She was passed to another aunt and eventually to me. Only the bench and one chair survived. To say she's been road hard is an understatement! But I think there is new life in the old gal yet. I have big plans for her, starting with a paint job.

Nevermind all the "decor". I'm ridding myself of a rustic adventure I took when I lived in Arizona. Some things will get makeovers, some thing will be given away or Craigslisted. The Windsor chairs will be replaced with something clean and modern eventually. Of course I would love these, or these, or these!
 Oh yes, and this is Pippa the Poodle.

I first primed the old girls legs.

Then the top. I used a small fine roller that you would use on doors and kitchen cabinets. She got a couple coats of semi-gloss paint.

I plan to paint the bench and make a cushion with a few pillows. I really doubt the bench will stay with the table. I'd like to get 6 chairs and possibly move the bench over by the front door.

For now the bench needed a little padding as it's very uncomfortable. I'm still looking for a fabric I like. The quilt and pillow will be returned to their rightfull space after I get that figured out.

It just feels so much fresher in here. The dining room was a bit of a project dumping ground before.

The dreaded light fixture that's hanging way to high thanks to the previous owner. I hung these shell stars off it so I hate it a little less until we can replace it.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Recipe Wednesday: Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes


There are so many recipes for stuffed cherry tomatoes out there, but this is one of my favorite and it does not involved dealing with a piping bag! I'm not so good with the piping bag.

Slice off the tops of your cherry tomatoes, scoop out the guts with a teaspoon and add your filling. There are a million variations on this type of filling, but for the above tomatoes I choose thin sliced honey ham and thin sliced baby Swiss cheese. Any meat/cheese combo you like will do, just make sure to ask the deli dude to slice it thin! Mix a little yellow mustard and mayo together, I like a little more mayo than mustard but you can adjust to your tastes and spread between the meat and cheese. Roll and slice a little taller than the tomato. Than just cram your roll into the mater! Top with a sprig of dill or some other green....they need a little green...we all need a little green in our lives! One more tip, I put these on a grooved plate so they don't roll around, but if you don't have a plate that will work they will stay still by just slicing a tiny bit off the bottom of the tomato. Easy Peasy!     

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

CTBB Tuesday!

It's Champagne Taste on a Beer Budget Tuesday and Aunt Peaches has given a whole new meaning to "beer budget" with a little tutorial on recreating a modern masterpiece.

While I'm putting the dining room back together and trying to decide what to put on the table and maybe re-hang some artwork it got me thinking about my current chandelier. In a word, it's dated, in two words, it's ugly and dated, and in a full sentence, I can't wait to get rid of this THANG that is hanging WAY to high, and screams I live in the middle of America where if you want anything good you have to travel to a big city or order it on the internet...OR, make it yourself? YUP I'm seriously thinking about making a chandelier myself. It's not that the Tord Boontje Garland shade is so expensive, but if there is one that you can DIY yourself for under $5 it may be worth a try! Maybe it will look like a $5 shade, but maybe it will be awesome...lets face it, it can't get much worse. Ok, it could get a lot worse, but my current light fixture is just not my style.

First here is the beautiful Tord Boontje shade. Say that three times fast. I love that it's modern, yet feminine, and certainly very interesting. Plus it would look pretty sweet over my new white dining table!


Next I will show you my light...or the best photo I have of it...you don't really need to see more than this, and I also covered it with Halloween decorations last year....anything to deflect.


Hope to say goodbye to this thing in the near future! If you want to try your own Garland Shade go visit Aunt Peaches for the tutorial. I'm not sure if I'll try my own version of this, because honestly the real deal is not that expensive, but it is tempting!

Not bad for just a few bucks!

Monday, October 8, 2012

The Womb Chair

Wow, what a day. I had a job interview that lasted for hours and I'm still not sure if I got it. I know this company wants to hire me, but I think it's a matter of them not really needing me, but not wanting to pass me by. It's a nice feeling, but honestly I need a paycheck! So, due to this busy day I didn't get to put together the post I wanted to...that being my re-vamped dining room table!!!! I love it so much. I will share it with you this week. Until then, I'm obsessed with these womb chairs. I know they seem to be popping up a lot lately, but I still want one. It just looks like a great place to read a book...or even better, work on my blog with the laptop!!! Unfortunately they are way out of my price range, but I shall still admire them. I may start hunting for an affordable alternative for CTBB Tuesday
 
Photo from  http://amberinteriordesign.blogspot.com/

Friday, October 5, 2012

De-Fug the Medicine Cabinet...a story.

Our story begins in a little house that was built in the 1950's. She is a cute little house with many of her original features still in tact. Her bathrooms still have the original scary lighting with 1 little 2 prong plug in the light fixture, but some of her better features are clean line little medicine cabinets. From the outside they are simple mirrors and in good shape. The inside however...uhhh. After some scrubbing and cruising for ideas on Pinterest I decided to give one of our cabinets a little face lift. Here are her dirty guts pre cleaning.     


This little sticker is on the inside of the door. Kinda cool so I left it

I don't know what this is all about, but there is a hole above an old razor blades sticker. Do you drop the old blades in the hole and let them accumulate in the wall? I guess one never knows when their going to need to cut a bitch.  

Some of her "flaws" could not be removed from the bottom shelf, but it was well scrubbed. Anyway, I did this as el cheapo as possible. A trip to JoAnn Fabric and Craft and 2 sheets of .59 cent scrapbook paper became my "wall paper". I used ATG to affix it to the back wall. It worked like a charm! 

I really wanted something with a nice graphic pattern, but it all seemed a bit to fussy so I went with this orange for a pop of color and it has a nice faux linen texture to it.


TADA! Much better! Sorry the photo's aren't better, there is no natural light in the bathroom so some photos I even used the flash...I really hate the flash!

I walked around the house looking for a couple items to hold hair pins and q-tips. I just love this little bowl that was given to me a few years ago by a co-worker. We had a joke about diet food and and would pretend tea was soup so seemed more satisfying. This was a "tea soup" bowl (that sounds like an eating disorder waiting to happen in retrospect). Now my tea soup bowl is my hair pins bowl.   

This is a small Pyrex refrigerator dish that I never use. It's a little to small for leftovers, but works well for q-tips. I have the lid as well, but it doesn't really work for this. I guess I could use it, but I'd probably end up dropping it in the sink and breaking it.


As for the rest of the items, the top shelf is where I keep 3 of my 4 pairs of glasses...I don't do contacts so a girl must have options. Along with the q-tips there is a bar of French milled soap in Shea Butter. It smells up the entire cabinet, I love it! The second shelf is a bottle of  Estee Lauder Beyond Paradise Blue. It smells very clean and sort of soapy, I like my perfume to smell soapy instead of spicy or to floral. There is a little tin of Burts Bees Res-Q Ointment, great for bumps and bruises. And some goop from Suave that is supposed to de-frizz but I won't link it because I don't think it works. And lastly the bottom shelf. As mentioned I have frizz issues so here is my straightening brush and a wide tooth comb for my super curly hair, yes I'm a curly girl and if you're a curly girl read this book...it's AMAZING!

My cabinet and I shall live happily ever after.  I may tackle the one in the big bathroom with the "man stuff" in it soon.

 THE END

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