Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Lovely Finds - Beautiful Workspace

This studio inspires me.  It's creative, calming, functional, pretty... with character to boot!  And it's done without fancy furniture or expensive wallpaper (for a pop of color, she used wrapping paper instead).  I love how this space that can be easily updated to inspire creativity.






Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Funny Lil Man Party - Invitations

The invitations for Happy Vee's 2nd birthday party are done!  I'm not a cardmaker, so picking the paper, trying to figure out a layout, then assembling them... Let's just say that it probably took me longer than it should have.


My proudest moment?--  "Comb Over".  Yes, I am a big geek.


And I never did really pick a paper.  I couldn't decide so I used 3 different papers and had a few different layouts.  Trial and error people!


So the invites are out.  Let the fun begin!


Monday, June 28, 2010

To the Birds

Inspired by a 10% off coupon and discounted shipping from Pottery Barn, I finally ordered drapes for my craft room.  They're feminine & light, have the chinoiserie look that I love, and I'm 99% sure that they'll coordinate with the craft room's sea glass green paint. 

Here are the drapes~




And here's the sea glass green paint~


The Mister is going to tease me when he sees more butterflies and birds.  It's the estrogen trying to counterbalance all the testosterone around me! 


Sunday, June 27, 2010

Lovely Finds - Mini Versailles

What a pretty way to open up a small powder room.  With the antiqued framed mirrors, it reminds me of a  modern and smaller scaled version of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.



Friday, June 25, 2010

Belated Father's Day

Oops, just a little late with my Father's Day post. We were out of town visiting my folks last weekend and I completely forgot. Scary that it took almost a week before I remembered... Brain yoga... I seriously need brain yoga!

My Inlaws were out of town over Father's Day, living it up in Vegas, so we headed south and had a nice relaxing visit with my parents. The Mister and my dad snuck in naps while the boys had a great time playing with Grandma.  They also managed to put fingerprints and shoe marks all over the newly painted walls, new windows, new doors, new window treatment and new tile & hard wood floors. I get the fingerprints, but shoe prints on the walls??  My energetic little Happy Vee was running around the house banging on the walls with his dirty little shoes... thank gawd for Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.  Luckily my parent's aren't too anal about stuff like that! They did a great job with the house... I still don't know how they did the remodel and still managed to maintain their extensive travel schedule.

The highlight of the weekend was when a swarm of bees decided to make a hive in my parent's camelia tree. We were outside playing, then went inside to wash our hands. When we came back out I thought I saw bubbles in the backyard... turns out it wasn't bubbles but a swarm of bees-- hundreds of bees.  Did you know that hundreds of bees are very noisy?   A loud buzzing drone filled the air.

This is what we saw--

My parent's garden

camelia bush

a little closer

even closer... ooh, now I'm itchy!

Luckily they were a calm bunch and didn't react to my dad's bee removal methods-- water and heat.  Yeah, I know... dangerous.  I would've just called an exterminator. I don't mess around with bees and their hives. But he didn't want them to be killed, so the water and heat just persuaded them to move somewhere else (so now another neighbor has to deal with them).  Poor bees. But my parents like to garden and spend a lot of time in their backyard, so a beehive in close proximity just won't do.

So anyhow... back to Father's Day...  The men got spoiled with some R&R and presents (this awesome travel book for my dad and 2 seasons of "24" for The Mister).  They also got gifted with their 2nd annual Daddy & Papa photos.  Here's how The Mister's photo frame turned out--



and compared to last year's photos--


My how they've grown!  (And my how my photography has improved!)

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Summer Mantel

I finally switched out our Spring Easter Egg mantel to a more appropriate Summer theme.  I wanted something clean and uncluttered so I kept it simple with white and natural elements.  The alphabet, music and twine balls were a fun project that I could easily do on our patio table while the kids played outside.




  
 
branches - $5 at Michaels


For the twine balls, I just coated each ball with modge podge then wound a cheap twine around it.  I picked up the twine at Target in their $1 bin section.  A little messy for the fingers, but modge podge is easy to clean-up.  I painted a few with antique white acrylic paint for a weathered look.

 
twine balls

alphabet  - more details and how-to here

music  - more details and how-to here

~♥♥♥~

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Funny Lil' Man Party - The Planning

I can't believe it's time to start planning Happy Vee's 2nd Birthday.  First of all, didn't we just have a birthday party?  And secondly, how in the world is my little man turning two already??  Not my little baby anymore (sniff).  Yeah, I know... both boys will always be my "babies"... Still sentimental though (sniff, sniff).

Since he's such a little character and full of life, energy and fun, I decided that a Funny Lil' Man theme would be great for his 2nd Birthday.  I like how this isn't a "real" theme and I can pick and choose what I want to include.  So his party will have balls, balloons, bubbles, mustaches and ties. The 3 B's are his favorite things... and the mustaches and ties, well those are things that I've been wanting to do.  I've seen so many weddings with the mustaches... I don't think I would've done that for my own wedding, but for a kid's party-- LOVE IT!

Here's my mustachioed Lil' Man ~


More to come!

Shopping for the Unique - Clothes

As much as I like the convenience of one stop shopping, there are times when the department and mainstream store selections are rather ho-hum-- and sometimes it's just plain easier to shop online.  I'm always on the look out for stores that carry pretty, vintage-y unique clothes that are not uber expensive.  Here are some recent discoveries~












I haven't purchased anything yet, but I've had my eye on a couple of lovelies at Ruche and ASOS... tbd.

~♥♥♥~

Monday, June 21, 2010

The Powder Room - Artwork

I finally ordered some artwork for our tiny little powder room. I couldn't find anything at Home Goods so I did the Etsy search and found these lovelies~


~♥♥♥~

The powder room is very neutral... beige with white wainscoting, so I think these birdies will add a punch of much needed color.

I briefly considered this butterfly art, but then figured that Smarty Pants would get weirded-out by the bug factor and wouldn't concentrate.  Bugs unnerve him and complete concentration is key when a little boy is taking care of business (if ya know what I mean!).



~♥♥♥~

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Lovely Finds - Japanese Food

Have you checked out La Fuji Mama's blog?  It's one of my favorite sites for food-ogling.

Learning how to make Japanese food has been on my "list" for a while.  Although I grew up with Japanese food... along with Hawaiian, Mexican, Italian and everything in-between, I've always been intimidated by it and have yet to learn how to make it-- seems so complex... yet simple too.  My mom makes the best sushi... I think I need to start by learning the ropes from her! 



La Fuji Mama breaks it all down and makes it seem so easy.  And her photos are just lovely to drool look over... In fact, I'm tempted to try making this one of these days--


Thursday, June 17, 2010

Lyrical Spherical

I know, weird title... but it sounds better than "Music Balls".

I'm working at a snail's pace, but I finally finished the alphabet spheres (okay, fine... balls) and then pulled out some vintage music sheets to cover the rest.  I don't know if it's actually vintage, but it's one of my piano books from when I was a kid and the pages are yellowed... so yes, vintage!  And don't worry, no good music was destroyed.  I purposely picked a much-hated finger exercise book that one of my dictator (ahem, really sweet) piano teachers would make me play for hours on end.  {side note} Did I ever mention that I have tendencies to overexaggerate when it comes to things I don't like?  Oh... Well, now you know.  I'm sentimental, but let's just say that I had no problem pulling pages out of that book.

To cover the balls, I used a similar technique used for japanese washi eggs... without the level of detail.  I didn't cut out a "picket fence" and make them perfect... maybe if I were selling these, but a few wrinkles and imperfections are fine for what I have planned.

And here's a peek at the lyrical sphericals...


Hopefully I will be done with this project by Friday... I'm tired of chasing balls.  Happy Vee loves balls and keeps grabbing them off the table and throwing them all over the place.  Such a little boy...

~♥♥♥~