I Like to Amuse Myself

I need a change. I'm currently in the process of replacing this line o' vintage hankies...

...with some new art/photography in vintage frames. Still accumulating both the art and the frames. This pretty picture just came in the mail today. It looks super delish in my existing kitschy cute frame up on the wall! It came in a series by James Spicer who is my new hero.

I also hit an estate sale today. I Facebooked that I was rifling through dead people's things on my lunch hour. Several high school classmates were like WTF? I ended up explaining, however, I did enjoy imagining their take on it-- me pillaging the pockets of a corpse that I happened upon, perhaps. Great insight on what they must think of me!!!

I picked up this adorable HG Toys puzzle-- all 50 pieces intact and included! Methinks it's going into the shop. Also snatched up a box o' plastic deer. How could I resist? My co-workers think I'm a nut.

Happy Hump Day! xo

Viv's Nursery

Deanna from The Baby Gardner has perfect timing. I was literally *just* going through V's baby book making a mental note of all the pictures I had to add (including pics of her room). Then I read Deanna's call for pics of vintage spaces for her Eye Candy Giveaway. I emailed her off some pics, and V's nursery was featured today. And for participating, look at what I received in the mail Saturday! What a lovely surprise.

If you haven't seen The Baby Gardner blog or shop, click around. Such adorable stuff!!! Thanks, Deanna! We're honored. Mwah.

C'Mon Spring!

Even though we're currently getting snow dumped on us here in Michigan, I still feel hopeful that Spring is on her way.

Some indications:

Apps for Handmade Detroit's Craft Revival (to which I will be applying) are now up. I love the Springy artwork:

This beautiful clementine kitchen from Apartment Therapy:

This sweet birdie clock on eBay. Someone PLEASE buy this. If it doesn't have any bids on it, I may be forced ot buy it, and I have nowhere to put it. Plus, my husband would kill me.

This lovely resin pendant from A Resin Revival on Etsy:

These lovely Springy items are making me try to forget that I have an eye infection (lovely), that Q just scratched the SCREEN of our new flatscreen TV in the basement, and that we had to reschedule dinner plans with my cousin due to snow and the fact that Baby Ronin is not feeling well. Win some, lose some!

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! xo

Ikea Love

I love my new Karlstad couch! The hubby-- not so happy with the quality of the hardware provided. Should be ok if nobody jumps on it (nice, eh?). :) Found this lovely little time waster-- find out what your line of Swedish furniture would be called! Here's mine:

Cute, Fun, Scary Cute, Scary...

On this fine Friday afternoon, I am enjoying the following:

♥Whistling Bird vase at Urban Outfitters:

I always think UO stuff is going to be bigger. Like this vase is pretty tiny, but still REALLY lovely.

♥Apartment Therapy. I am a complete addict. They totally need a AT: Detroit!!!!!!

♥I found this at Loved to Death's Etsy Shop a few months ago and forgot to mention it. I love it SO MUCH. It's been sold, but they do have a lovely pigeon shadow box currently.

♥It would have looked splendid in my craft room with this BEAUTIFUL print from Madelaine's Etsy Shop.

I think between this and the mouse taxidermy, I may have been a goth girl in a former life. I would love to put this in my craft room, but methinks it may disturb the kiddos. I dunno-- I still may get it.

And I thought my basement was going to be done today-- it's not. Carpet dudes couldn't carpet. Should be done Monday. Are you sick of basement talk yet? I am!!!

Oh My Aching Basement

...As Amanda so eloquently put it. I'm almost done. Allllllmost there. Just a fewwwwww more days. Here is a sneaky peek. Click to enlarge.


Yes, I'm trying to be like Nicole with my mockup thing-a-majig. Falling a tad short.

We've modified the look a bit from my initial thought, but it still has that mid-century thang going on. Lots of repro stuff, but that's all we can justify in the basement. The clock was my grandparent's. I love it!

I'm even going nutball with the laundry room. That sneaky peek is coming soon to a computer near you.

More Basement & A Cheshire Kat Giftie!

So here's another Polyvore amalgam I have created. This is more piece-specific. What do you think? Too much?? Too many themes? I think the curtains may push it over the edge, and I would only use them to give the illusion of larger windows, but I still may need to nix.


Basement 2 by Girl Land

Look at the lovely care package I got from my friend, Kat!!!! I am a bad bloggy friend. I didn't send any gifties out this year. I'll get'cha back, Kat. I love how she packages her magnets and pins in these cassette cases. Too cute! Thank you soooooo much! Big smooches.

I'm Dreaming of a New Basement

Our Christmas was nice. Wrap-up to come in the next day or so. However, a cruddy finale-- the hubby and I were hit with the stomach flu Saturday necessitating an extra day's stay at the in-laws which was completely fortunate because I don't know how we would have managed without them. Q puked in the car on the way home yesterday. LOVELY! Besides that, it was good. Just hard to remember at this point...ugh.

My latest obsession is........our basement. "Huh," you ask? Our basement has been the bane of my existence for about a year now. It is chocked full of crapola-- most of which we actually need to keep. We still need to whittle that load down. However, we have actually SAVED up (what's that?) the moolah to have it finished. I designed a little floor plan which is merely one big living area sectioned off into an adult's area with gas fireplace, sofa sleeper, and TV and a second area for the girls with Q's new mini trampoline (from Santa), blackboard, and beanbag chairs, a closet, and a laundry area. How heavenly!!!!!!!!!!

Here is my dilemma. I have no idea how to make it appropriate for guests AND the kids in terms of decor and practicality (read: no velvet and no white anything). We are on an Ikea/Macy's/JCPenney's/Urban Outfitters kinda budget here too.

Man, could I use Nicole Balch's skills (of Making It Lovely/Pink Loves Brown) right about now. Have you seen her creations???? Love, love, lu-huv!!! Yes, I used her name in the hope that she may get a Google alert, visit my blog, take pity on me and throw me some ideas. Heh.

Here is my sad attempt at the *feel* I'm going for (not necessarily the actual items):

Ooh, although I do have my heart set on a chandelier decal of some sort. I just like the irony of a chandelier in the basement. Especially OUR grody basement.

I'm going for the woodsy, part mod, part grandma, hip-but-cozy feel. Does that read in my pic? I need to insert some sort of brighter color, and I don't know what. Thinking a paprika-type color but don't know where or how. Anyone out there with ideas and/or skills in the realm of interior design, PLEASE HELP...I MEAN, SHARE! :) I would be forever indebted.

Here are the items I need: a (sleek) sofa sleeper, floor and table lamps (at least 2-3 of each), TV stand, shelves for adult and kid area, possible sofa table, 1-2 possible rugs (we're going to have berber down), and lotsa accessories!

Are you still awake??? Sorry to bend your ear about something so YAWNY. You know when you get obsessed about something, and it's all you can think about? It's pretty sad when that thing is...your basement.

Our estimate's coming Thursday...to be continued...

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I have been catching up on my blog reading. If you haven't heard from me in awhile, I'm still there, just no stinkin' time to comment. I'm there in spirit! In fact, I have just Facebook friended a few of you girls cuz I miss ya! MWAHHHH.

Minty + Chocolatey

Anyone remember that Bubblicious Chocolate Mint gum? Ryan and I were talking about it today. I don't think they make it anymore, and I couldn't even find a picture. I did, however, just buy some mojito flavored Orbit gum. Yummay!

I have been living in squalor lately, and finally feel a little better because I cleaned up my craft room a bit. It is still messy, just not tornado-hit-it messy. I found this shadow box I'd bought about a year ago, and threw some vintage fabric scraps and deer in there. Voila! I like this.

A little in the way of chocolate mint colors. Here are some more Etsy finds in the same vein:

Amandamonkey's Chocolate Bunnies cards:

Pink Owl Paperie's Chocolate Mint Layered Trim:

Frosting Couture's Bella Frosting Mod Mint Chocolate Booties:

Mixbaby's Mint Chocolate Tea Party Headband:

Hope everyone is getting over their candy hangover. I was pretty good-- I only ate 2 pieces of candy and somehow had the willpower to pass on Amy's cupcakes! I finished up my swap. Holly, let me know when you get it, so then I'll post pics. My first swap and SO FUN! :)

Twerd Alert: I bought my movie tickets last night for opening day. I talked three of my friends into taking 1/2 day off on the 21st. I'm recruiting legions of Twerds to form a Twerd Army. Got a call from my friend, Shelly, today that she is hooked. Yay! Also trying to bribe my husband to read it. That one's a long shot, but I'm all for a challenge!

Growing a Deer Family

So I've picked up some of these guys lately. Some are for sale in my shop!

Nothing like this collection of lovelies that belong to Something's Hiding in Here. UGH! I just love their loft. It kills me.

You can see some of the other treasures I've picked up lately on my Flickr page. I'll be listing them throughout the week. Wanna be updated when Girl Land lists a new item? Subscribe to my shop feed!

Happy Columbus Day. I had the day off (government holiday), so I tried to make some headway with making stuff for DUCF. Instead of keeping my nose to the grindstone for DUCF, I've been reading Breaking Dawn, signing up for Apron Thrift Girl's Red and Aqua Swap (my first swap!), and trying to come up with ideas as gifts for Quinn's daycare buddies for her birthday next month.

I can't believe my little girl is almost 3. Today she said, "Mama, look at Mary's ghoulish ghost!" (her daycare provider has a ghost decoration in her front yard). Where did she learn "ghoulish"? Love the things that fly out of her mouth on a daily basis.

She loves looking at birthday cakes with her dad while they grocery shop on Saturday mornings. They have ornately decorated Dora and Diego cakes. I've been non-committal. She doesn't even LIKE Dora or Diego. Well, today she asked me for a "Res-lick Eric" cake (you know, the singer of her favorite song). So it may end up looking something like this (ha!):

Christmas in July!

Merry Xmas to me! I've been going crazy with internet shopping. Every day is Christmas as I get a package ALMOST every day. The hub has been none too pleased. Unfortunately, our mail comes really late in the day, otherwise, I could get the mail and hide it (just kidding, Ryan....sort of...) :)

I bought some pink pom pom trim from Ebay to make another pom trimmed lampshade for V's Jack & Jill lamp. Don't know why I didn't think to check Joann's since I was just there. Duh. Anywho, I received it and it was like NEON pink, not the nice medium pink as shown in the listing (the seller blamed my monitor). Urgly. So I stuck it in a bowl with some bleach and went to meet my friend, Babs, for lunch. Came back, and it was much better. Was a little on the raspberry pink side (as opposed to peach pink), but still a vast improvement. Here is the before and after.

Also, received all my supplies to make this lovey!!!!!!!!!!!

I got the keyfob instructions here. So easy to make. I didn't stitch them because my ribbon (isn't it so cute!??) was a bit thinner than the instructions showed, but I got the heavy duty Heat N Bond, and it's not going anywhere. Another stocking stuffer idea in case I get into DUCF, but this one's MINE!!!!!

Next up is this mushroom ribbon (which matches V's blankie!!!) on white webbing. I really REALLY love these fobs! I didn't know I needed one till I saw that ribbon.

On the boob tube front, Jessica injured herself on SYTYCD I read, so Comfort's back. Yayyyy...well yay for Comfort back and Jessica gone but not yay that she hurt herself. Haven't watched the show yet tonight because I'm craftin', and I have to have all my attention on it.

I have also decided to boycott Ghost Hunters International. No Jay or Grant, no Steve Gonsalves??? No Tango???? Only that annoying Brian, Andy Andrews who drives me slowly insane, and Robb. Anybody named Rob who spells is name with two B's is by default a d-bag. No joke.

Scenes from Mom's Sewing Room

Can you tell where my love of strawberries comes from???

A-Ha! & Another Obsession

Alli was so kind to remind me that I had seen the cute rice pack with preppy whale fabric on her blog!!!! Isn't it adorable???

So yes, another obsession. Add vinyl wall decals to the list. In addition to Quinn's nifty tree, I purchased three more from Elephannie. I've had these Magic Jelly plates for like a year, but I couldn't figure out how to hang them. Finally, I just got those sticky hanger that you pull to release, but they looked too plain and bare, so I custom ordered these "antique" frames in a smaller 5x7 size. They are now up in my craft room!

The third one is in our bedroom...

Worst Embroiderer Ever

I have been meaning to complete this Gnome Embroidery that Andrea offered on her site for for awhile now. I think he will look splended nestled in amongst the Black Apple prints on her bedroom wall.


I was going to get a transfer pencil from Joann's, but just ended up using a quilt pen that I had laying around. I stuck my fabric on top of the image on my light table and traced it.

I do like the linen-y fabric I used so that the white showed up. The gnome has light blue around him (looks white). I did the whole thing split stitch and it just looks super messy. It also ended up as an abbreviated version because I got lazy AND then rationalized by thinking I didn't want to use any bigger of a hoop than my work hoop on Q's wall. I have to get a wooden one from Joann's and paint it black. Can you get painted hoops anywhere? I want a black one but I don't want plastic. Also, I googled this, but it doesn't look like it exists-- can you embroiderers tell me if there is a paper for ink jet printers that you can print the design on then iron it on to your fabric? It HAS to be out there somewhere, right?

I pulled out my Sublime Stitching book FINALLY and had forgotten how much I loved the backstitch. I should have done that for the whole thing. Oh well. I did the "Q" with it, and of course, that looks best. Now I know for next time. Not very Gnome-tastic, but Q said, "Oohhhhhh, it's byoo-i-full, thank you, Mommy," so that's all that matters to me.

I don't know what's gotten into me, but I also baked up a storm yesterday! Not so good for my diet, but I felt pretty accomplished even though I just made simple stuff. Banana bread from 4 funky bananas I'd been collecting, and Ryan came home with 3 containers of strawberries yesterday, so I made shortcake to go with. Just the Bisquick box recipe, but man it was good!


Q and Ryan are at the zoo, V is napping, and I need to shower. Adios, amigos!

I'm Here!

Sorry for the hiatus in posting! I have to say I've been a pretty miserable person lately, and I get tired of hearing myself whining-- so I can't imagine that YOU all want to hear it. Now I have a cold too. Dagnabit. But enough about that...

So I took a few pics of Q's room. I'm so lazy that I haven't really finished it up. I need more stuff for the shelves, but only a handful of her books will fit in the built-ins. I also want to buy her a carrying case for her records. Haven't found anything great yet.

I like this area. Still need to add details. I have a gnome embroidery I want to do on linen, and my dad gave me a skeleton key from my grandma's house that I want to hang up too...

Here's her kitchen. I'm a tad bummed about the clock. It's really hard to see the hands from more than like a foot away. I even painted the hands black (instead of gold). No difference really...

And I don't know what to do with the curtains. Right now, they are just the heavy brown ones we had when it was our bedroom. I bought white swiss dot, but I'll need to get darkening shades for them. Don't quite know what to do.

Just a few more...

That's about it. We rented Sweeney Todd and After the Wedding. We are about 3/4 done with Sweeney Todd (tried to get it in at naptime), and it's good! Ryan and I saw the play about 11 years ago. One of our first official dates!

Happy weekending, all!!! xo