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.

Merry Merry Merry!

Have a wonderful Christmas (and Happy Hanukkah too!) :) Creepy Santa and Exorcist Angel say, "Merry Christmas" as well!

This is My Winter Song to You

I should be wrapping more prezzies, but I can't stop watching this. So lovely. It's making me a little choked up! It's called Winter Song by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson, and my hip mother warmed me to it. She says the whole CD is great.

Hope you are staying warm where you are, friends. xo

Last Minute Gift

Just in case you need one, I just picked these up the other day (ahem, for myself). Aren't they adorable???? The tiny pink polka-dotted envelopes kill me.

I love Etsy, but it's hard to do last-minute online unless you want to pay for rush shipping. These were either $4.99 or $5.99 (a steal) at...........guess where..........TARGET. Too cute!!!!

IS IT HERE YET???

UGH. I'm getting sick of Christmas crafting. I can't wait until Wednesday when I can just relax. In the past two days I have:

1. Made Christmas strawberries for my cousin and two daycare ladies.

2. Made two Peapod Viv ornaments from a drawing that Q made of her sis. I love it! She said, "Look, it's Viv, and she's in a peapod". I threw one out. I was so irritated with it. Even the one I'm keeping looks pretty Frankenstitch-ish, but oh well. I have two more to make for the grandparents.

3. Made reindeer food with Q (oatmeal with glitter) for her daycare buds. We stuck them in snack size baggies with a chocolate Santa into a mini felt stocking for each kid.

4. Colored stockings and glued cotton balls to the top with Q.

5. Made 3 of Danielle's Woodland Stuffie Ornaments. Yeahhhh, they were all so bad that I threw them out. After I took this picture (the stitching was horrendous but was well hidden here), I tried to iron them down again and burnt the muslin. I was/am so pissed. I'm starting over though.

6. Made Hello Dollies and sugar cookies for our neighbors (only 2 of them-- should have done one more, but I ran out of cookies because I burnt 1/2 a batch of the latter). There's a reason why the word "haphazard" is on my blog banner. It's true. Hello Dollies are the easiest and best bar cookie ever!

Hello Dolllies

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup chocolate, peanut butter, or butterscotch chips (I like 1/2 cup ea. of choc and butterscotch!)

1 cup flaked coconut

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

Spray 9"x9" pan with cooking spray. Mix crumbs and butter together and press into bottom of pan. Layer the coconut, chips, and nuts over crumbs and pour condensed milk over all. Bake at 325 degrees for 25ish minutes. Cool before cutting into squares. I like to put them in Xmas cupcake liners for giving! :)

7. Bleached/dyed bottle brush trees to make Quinn a waterless snow globe (thanks, Sarah!!!). I added a little vintage repro deer in the mix. He looks so cozy! I bought 10 of these in a pack from the DOLLAR STORE a few years back, and I cannot for the life of me find them again. I love them so!

8. Made a package topper for Danneel on Etsy. My first graphic design gig! I'm getting the hang of this Photoshop a little. I did have to scam on Heather's mailing label tutorial, and I use it as a reference all the time. I don't understand why things are not more simple on Photoshop. It should NOT be that hard to add a dotted border around some text. Maybe it's just me.

9. Made another set of squirrelly notecards for my friend/neighbor. I love her because she's really sweet, she always thinks of the girls and gets them the nicest toys, and she works in child development, so she always talks about how advanced my kids are. I don't really believe her, but it's awesome she says it anyway! Ha.

10. And last, but not least, wrapped gifts and printed up a bunch of The Black Apple's super cute gift tags to go on them. I had fun wrapping/tagging whilst watching Love, Actually.

Twerd Update: Are you all Team Taylor or Team Michael??? I'm curious to see how this pans out. I sort of feel bad for Taylor Lautner, but damn, Michael Copon is a hottie. Also, have you seen? Robert cut his hair!!!!

Alright. I think I'm done for tonight. Time to go Irish up some hot cocoa. xo

Vintage Xmas Finds

Sorry so late. Here are the items I found on my latest excursion to my hometown:

First the super cool yule log (works great!) with its original box:

Creepy angel topper. We bought a white tree from KMart for Quinn's room, and it was on top. Q yelled down to Ryan after he put her to bed that her bed was shaking. Ryan freaked out (picturing The Exorcist) and thought it was attributed to the angel. The next day Q told me she was faking Daddy out (of course).

Kitschy cool tree. My grandma used to have a multi-colored one of these. Are you supposed to put a light underneath? I tried it, but it didn't light up too well.

Retro plastic Santa for $5!

And my Goodwill Santas! I also got a super cool tiny paint-by-number winter scene painted on black velvet!!!!! I gave it to my friend, Dave, as a belated bday gift (his bday is the same as Ryan's). Wish I would have taken a pic of it.

That's all for now. Hope you all who are in Michigan are doing ok-- Death Storm 2008!!! :)

I have some WIP pics I hope to share with you in the next day or so. I downloaded Danielle's Kitschy Woodlands ornament/stuffie kit. Kinda cool!