She's a Lady

Whoooaa, whoooaa, she's a lady!

I constantly get the question, "is it a girl or a boy?" when I'm on a walk with Ripley P. Eyebrows. With a very androgynous name like Ripley and the mentality that "dogs are boys and cats are girls" people do not readily know what Ripley's sex is. And I'd like to fix it in an obvious and sparkly way.

Cue pink rhinestone collar! I'm on the market and I've found a few awesome ones. I like this straight forward pink sparkle collar. The thing that's annoying is I like the teal one better...buuuut that kinda defeats the purpose.

Via Dazzle Dog Delight or this cheap version on Doggie Vogue


I like that this one could potentially have her name on it.

Via Paliette


Pink on pink? Is that a clear enough message?

Via Bark Bling


Who spends $140 on a dog collar?! I saw another that was over $340K. No joke. Real diamonds on a dog collar. Insane.

via Calling All Dogs


What do you think of this resolution? I mean my own mother glued a bow to my head when I was a baby since I was bald til age three. Yes, bald.

James Deam

Sometimes I wish my husband dressed a little more like James Dean and a little less like a high school student.

He does, however, give me this look every time I take his photo. That or a big hand in my lens.

Great Grandparents Quilt

I found this amazing quilt of someone's grandparents and it made me want to make a quilt with my mother's paternal grandparents. I'm revising my list.

via ragged cloth cafe

How awesome are these photos of Dorothy Victorine and Eugene Van Horn?

Photos circa 1936. Aren't you loving Eugene's sweet mustache, Capree?

Charlie Brown Wall

I really like chevron stripes. I think they are awesome. I've been wanting to paint something in our house for a long time. I haven't painted a thing since our master bath. I think it's weird that the two painted rooms in our house are bathrooms. UNTIL NOW!

I often check in at Lowes for reject paint. Reject paint is paint mixed for people who either; don't like it once they see it in paint form or order it and never come back (rude). Usually the colors available in a gallon are various shades of beige or hot pink. And if you know me at all you know I'm not afraid of color. So when I looked at the reject shelf and saw the dark teal that goes perfectly with the color in my "decor" I knew it had to be mine, mine, MINE!

But because I cannot do anything halfway I decided to add shiny silver "chevron stripes." I think they turned out more Charlie Brown than chevron but I really love the wall anyway. I love coming downstairs to see a giant piece of art on my wall.

I used an architects square (umm...I called it a T- ruler before Sir Luke mocked me) and cut out a triange out of some think junk mail. With my laser level I marked the center line and then just traced over the triangle above and below the line. Then I used frog tape to outline the zig-zags. But then I painted the teal over the tape edges to seal it some more. I had about 5 spots to touch up on the whole design. Wah-bam! It took me about two days, three including the drying and minor touch ups. Not bad.

Please don't judge the sad thrift store chairs that might break in the next ten minutes, nor my sad shoe/magazine rack or the curling up of my IKEA rug that threatens to trip every human that walks in the door.

So could you do something this bold or am I the only crazy one who does this on a whim?

IKEA Stools: Recovered

We acquired these IKEA stools rather oddly. A friend from high school was trying to sell them before she moved. She posted some photos on Facebook and since I've been coveting these stools for ages I had to figure out a way to get them from Riverside, CA to the LV. My friend's parents picked them up from her place, took them back to our hometown, my parents picked them up from them and then brought them to Vegas on a trip up north.

They are the perfect fit for the space and have a back to them which was a Sir Luke requirement. My kitchen is all red and white and teal and my living space has no red and adds in lime green. Suffice it to say the spaces don't blend super well. I found this great Amy Butler fabric and knew it would be the perfect way to tie them both together.

Ripley likes to approve all fabric for sleeping before she allows me to make use of it. This got an A+!

So here are the chairs post makeover! What do you think of the before and after?

I "fussy cut" the fabric so that I had the main graphic ended up on centered on the back front and seat of the chair. You have to get about twice as much fabric to do something like this. We'll see if I have enough to do this on the third stool I hope to someday own.

What do you think? Success?

30 before 30

My 30th birthday is approaching faster than I'd like. I'm kind baffled at how quickly time has gone by since I graduated from college. I know there are lots of people who have done lists such as this and I figured it would be a good idea for me to put one together to help me accomplish some things I've had my mind on for a while now. I kinda cheated and used some off of this list.

via National Geographic

So... 30 things I want to do before I'm 30

1. Bake a soufflé
2. Wallpaper a room
3. Get out of the country
4. Really decorate for Christmas
5. Landscape my "yard"
6. Read all the Harry Potter books
7. Shop at the Alameda Flea Market or World's Longest Yard Sale Went to Rose Bowl Flea Market Instead
8. Become SCUBA certified
9. Wear a big hat to church
10. Refinish the kitchen cabinets and tile a backsplash
11. Photograph my Night & Day series and try to get it published or in a show or make a book
12. Sew myself a sassy dress with one of my vintage patterns
13. Get food storage in order
14. Learn to play the banjo
15. Become pregnant, blast you insurance!
16. Throw a very golden birthday party (mark your calendars, 2/28/12!) Nixed
17. Purchase real dining room chairs (gotta decide which ones...)
18. Start my layers project
19. Take ballroom dance lessons
20. Reupholster the other wingback chair, by myself...
21. Pickle cucumbers with a faboo recipe
22. Get into good habits (reading scriptures, writing in my journal, not putting my clothes at the foot of my bed, not leaving dishes in the sink, not biting my nails...again)
23. Own a gas efficient car
24. Workout 5 days a week
25. Build a piece of furniture by myself
26. Produce a diptych of my turtle photo
27. Make this into a quilt Make this photo into a quilt like this
28. Teach my dog to roll over and stay
29. Lose 30 pounds, no jokes
30. Wear some kick ace shoes on hot a date with Sir Luke

What do you want to do before you get to the next big number?