Happy Friday. I’m planning to try some new recipes this weekend, found via my crack dealer Pinterest. If you see something you like on my pinterest “Yum Yums” board, holler atcha homie and I’ll cook that puppy up goooood. Or at least I’ll try. I’ll be picking up the “Fat Tuesday” posts again next week, promise. In the meantime, go forth and enjoy the weekend. Like so:
Monthly Archives: July 2011
Not your baby’s bib
I saw this bib necklace over at Kiki’sList and I HAD TO HAVE IT! Which started me on a desperate search for Bib- style necklaces. I love them. I am gonna rock this puppy like Countess Luanne. But without the superiority complex.
Zad is seriously rad, right? Here are some other necklaces (found on Amazon, believe it or not) I am really diggin’.
Family Style
Just sharing some of my “Pins”. I’m dreaming of a new and improved family room. Calm soothing colors, clean and clear surfaces. NOT a cramped family room with alphabet letters all over the rug, a stroller in the corner and laundry waiting to be folded. A girl can dream, right?
Ahhh. Just looking at these rooms makes me calmer. Now where did I put my blinders?
My favorite Maven
Hey everyone! Happy Tuesday to you all- we haven’t gotten off to a very auspicious start over here (3:30am wake up scream, er, call, the dog may or may not have peed on the floor, where Colin was sitting in his diaper, and the cat may or may not have decided to get in on the action, but my girl Shelli over at A la Mode fixed that right up for me by featuring my bedroom in her Tuesday’s Turndown feature. Thanks Shelli! Go check it out if you have time. Me? I’ll be scrubbing and sanitizing my floors and child in the meantime. Oh, and I should make the bed so it resembles the photos. 
My weekend [Time-Suck Edition]
I hope your weekend was a good one- ours was busy, straight from Friday night on. And not in the “Oh, I’m so popular, my schedule is packed” kinda way, but in the birthday invitation making, etsy-stalking, and pinterest-ing way. Yes, I like to spend time on my computer.
So yeah, I hopped on the pinterest wagon. I hopped on HARD. (I’m “pinning” under Kate Hannan if you’re interested.) I’m pinning mostly party ideas for little dudes. I’ve gotta one track mind these days. People are freakin’ clever and crafty out there.
Anyway, starting on Friday afternoon, the time-suck began. I stalked Etsy for a bit. You know what Etsy is I’m sure, but that little site is a dangerous place for people like me. I had created my own (wonky-looking) invite for Colin’s first birthday party, but then I happened upon this Etsy shop. Completely customizeable invitations which you can print yourself at home. Um, that sounds nice. And budget-friendly. And look how pretty! Yes, please. Katie, the owner, is amazing to work with and created a completely custom invite- custom colors, fonts, background, wording. Everything. To say I love it is an understatement.
Then I happened upon this amazing shop, and Holly, its owner, is also incredible. Incredibly patient, too. In the span of time it took me to place my order, I happened upon some cupcake toppers shopping with my mother-in-law, and asked if I could change the colors to match. She agreed and was completely sweet to do so.
I’ll plan to do a full on birthday bash post, but just in case you were in the market for fun party things, thought I would pass these ladies’ links on to you.
Another time suck? Check out these two blogs if you haven’t already: P is for Party and Kara’s Party Ideas. I spent approximately (and this is just me hazarding a guess) 8325 hours on those sites this weekend. That was followed by approximately 4987 hours on pinterest pinning all the details I liked from those sites . Which then led me to checking out other people’s pins and then led me to silly things like other websites with very crafty bloggers. With cute downloads like this. Which I had to print out STAT. Like I said, TIME SUCK.
But I got-er done. Er, did. What? The invitations are in the mail, and I’m so happy with them. Family- check your mail!
Pioneer Woman and the Food Network!
Oooh, I am sure I am late to this bandwagon, but I just saw that The Pioneer Woman is getting her own show on the Food Network. YAY! I will definitely be tuning in. Will you?
Sweet Baby Jesus, er, Lulu
I was searching for stripey straws (what? you don’t google stripey straws?), and came across quite an amazing little online party supply mecca. For seriously stylish party people. Like myself. Er, I mean, like I wish I could be.
The site is called Sweet Lulu. Their motto is “Make your party pretty”. Um, how did you know, Sweet Lulu? I want a pretty party! And you are going to help me. You are too sweet. No pun intended. Well, maybe just a little.
I found a couple of things I need. Like stripey straws.
And stripey twine.
Big round balloons!!
Tiny little milk bottles!! In which to put stripey straws!
Can’t forget the cupcakes to go with my tiny milk bottles. I’ll put them in these:
And of course, fancy tape! To….tape things! What? I don’t need a reason. Look how cute it is. And you can always use tape. For stuff.
Obviously, I need to start throwing parties. Or start a gift wrapping business. Whatever. I’m not picky.
PS- Happy Birthday Mom! If I were to throw you a party, I would buy you big round balloons, serve you cupcakes with (a little bit of) milk and give you a present wrapped with beautiful tape. 
ABC+MAP= LOVE
We all know I have a little obsession with world maps. And that I am forcing this appreciation onto my son. I can’t help it. Using maps and globes is such a simple way to decorate. So when I saw these over at Urban Outfitters, I knew I had to have one. Perhaps the letter C? Yes, please!
I also love the “You might also like” feature down below there. Yes, I do like! Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll take three of those globes, please. Rut ro. Trolling the interwebs is always trouble. Trouble I tell ya.
Birthday party inspiration
One of my favorite things to look at on Ohdeedoh is the amazing and creative birthday parties readers create for their children. I wish I had an ounce of their creativity, but the pictures are seriously inspiring. I won’t be doing anything even close to this for Colin’s birthday (I know my limits), but check some of these out:
How great is this for a little dude? I love robots and little boys. Colin? Not so much. Hasn’t taken a shine to them as of yet. But I will continue to force the issue. I mean, cmon! Robots are so fun!
I love the simplicity of this party. And I doubly love that sweet little flag banner. I do want to make a flag banner that we could use every year. It’s sweet and simple. Love it.
O.M.G. Stop it right now. Look at those tiny little mustaches! The theme of this party was “Little Man”. ADORBS. Is it too late to decide on a theme for the party? And to figure out how I can copy those invitations? Obviously, my other favorite part of this is the Cafe Du Monde canisters they placed the mustaches and ties in. Too cute. That Beckett’s got great style.
This theme is simple and genius! And we all know I love an orange party.
Going to the Source
I stopped into one of my favorite stores the other day- Paper Source- in order to pick up some elements for somebody’s first birthday party invitations. I’ll get to those later, but in the meantime, I spotted these:
Sorry for the poor quality of this iphone photo. Apparently, the despot is not a fan of paper stores. He’ll learn it’s futile to resist.
Anyway, you all know how much I love a vintage inspired calendar, not only to use as a calendar, but also as wall art. Remember this project? Before the bird calendar, I used a $20 vintage travel ad calendar I got on sale for $10 and created about 10 different pieces of wall art using the cities which we had visited together, which I framed in gallery frames picked up from Michael’s and Ikea. Then when we moved to our condo, we chose one that we liked best to display in our kitchen area. You can *kind of* see it in the background here. Pretty ironic considering not even two years later, we were off to Boston:
These are on sale on the website for about $20 each. Super affordable art if you are in the market. I personally love the botanicals (great for a dressing room or bathroom) and the vintage scooters (perfect for a bachelor pad- but not in a liquor ad kinda way). So get on over to the Paper Source and make some cheap art!
I want.
Trolling the interwebs is always dangerous around these parts. Good thing my apartment is too darn small to actually truly consider any of these purchases, but hey, I’m a giver. So maybe I could live vicariously through you. Here ya go.
Oooh-wee! I spotted this sofa table in this month’s Lonny. I thought for sure it was one of those majorly expensive pieces, so imagine my surprise when the sources showed it came from Target! Oh hot damn. This could make a great desk area behind a floating couch in a living room. Love it. And at $279, it’s not a bad deal.
What I’m loving in Lonny
It’s always hard to choose, because Lonny, next to Better Homes and Gardens, is one of my favoritest inspiration magazines ever. I just love to flip through and take it all in. I love how they mix high and low- modern and classic and traditional, neutral and colorful and monotone. Here’s what I am loving in Lonny this month:
We got our hairs did.
What do you do when you are at the beach, have a husband around to watch the kid and it’s not such a great day, weather-wise? You get your hair did! And so that is what I did.
You may recall, last October I decided to treat myself, you know, for giving birth and all, and got the Brazilian Blowout. Five days after I did that, some silly report came out that said that stuff had formaldyhyde or some such cancer causing agent. Whatever. I loved my hair all straight and not frizzy like a clown. And it stayed that way, until maybe about two months ago. Not too shabby when you think about it. But then I started to notice I was using my straightening iron a lot more, and having to blow dry my hair while the despot screamed at me from whatever restraining device I had placed him in. So I made an appointment to have it touched up. And then I had to cancel that appointment. And then I never rescheduled. Because, you know, the kid makes it hard to sit around a salon for 4 hours getting pampered.
But then we were on vacation. And Kase was around to play with the kidlet. And so I jumped in the car as fast as I could to go to the salon near our beach house. And the great thing about getting it done in Maine, mid-week? I had the salon all to myself and the owner did my hair using the Keratin Complex by Peter Coppola. The owner was Jim, and he was awesome. So awesome, I may consider the two hour drive to get my hair done by him next time I need it cut again. But anyway, my hair is nice and straight now, like so:
Oh, you see my pal there? He gets his wavy/straight hair from me. You’re welcome, little man. Oh and that wasn’t my salon. That was the salon, called Snip-Its, we took Colin to get his hair did. It’s a kids salon with great stylists who in my opinion, should make more than celebrity stylists for how quickly they work and how well they avoid snipping off baby ears. Colin has been a sporting hair that is a mix between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Either way? Not a good look. For a boy anyway. I’m not raising a miniature Tom Brady. Or worse, David Beckham. There will be no headbands on boys in my house. Awww, no. So I’ve been lobbying Kase to agree to take Colin to get his haircut since I have been told now three times how beautiful my daughter is. SAY WHAT?!! OH NO YOU DI’INT! So we took our little despot to get his hair did. And he had a pretty good time.
They started with bribes:
I love the certificate they gave him at the end- he really was brave, considering the amount of around-the-ear-work the stylist had to do. He’s a real handsome devil now- though, he was one before too. I’m just glad I don’t have to put his hair in barettes now. Tom Brady could learn a thing or two.
Those sneaky little elves…..
Oh sure, Old Man Ernie Keebler wants you to think he is all innocent, just toiling away away in his tree making delicious cookies for the masses. But I sense some trouble ahead. The Girl Scout Mafia ain’t gonna be happy. But I sure as heck am. Check it!
In my day, we called those puppies “Samoas” and we sold them door to door to make money for…..why did we sell those? I don’t recall winning any prizes. But maybe that was because my parents actually made me sell girl scout cookies on my own. Nobody brought my order sheet into work and bullied their colleagues into buying delicious treats which would arrive in promptly 6-8 weeks. What a business model.
But those scheming little elves. They are so sneaky. They went ahead and made their own Samoas Coconut Dreams, which are readily available at your grocery store. I’ll just throw away the scale now, cuz I am screwed. I have no self control around these things. Ah well. I’m on vacation, what do I care?
You can wear sweats to the beach right?
A Fabulous Fourth
We’re still kicking it in Maine and having a great time. I hope your Fourth of July holiday was a good one. Ours sure was- although *someone* wasn’t feeling very cooperative to rock his Bret Michaels costume for the parade- something about how it doesn’t make sense to wear both a bandana and a cowboy hat, I don’t know- we watched it from the sidelines and had a great time. We’ve had great weather and have been able to really enjoy the beach. Now, anyone who has ever prepared to bring a baby to the beach knows- the payoff while great, is short-lived. So you better snap some photos while you can. Which is exactly what I did. Anyway, here are some photos of our vacation so far:
