I don’t normally just leave the blog empty for a whole week. We got back from a two week trip and I headed straight to my photo sessions at Rascals to Rebels. I hit it with full-force! The kids that came had tons of energy and it was a rare visit of sorts! I had 2 newborns, a set of twins and a set of triplets! The photo sessions are only 15 minutes long, all back to back, so be amazed at how much cute was squeezed out of a mere 15 minutes!!
I’m a bit vanilla. When it comes to how I dress and how I decorate my home, plain is best. I’m creative in my work, but I tire out when it comes to personal decisions. Thankfully I have stylish friends. And thankfully they help me make personal decisions.
Two of my good friends have wallpaper in their homes. The exact same pattern, in fact! So, the wheels started turning about a year ago. I wanted to wallpaper a wall in my dining room, but oh the choices! I waffled this way and that for a whole year. I pinned different patterns. I was sure about this one, until I saw that one. Finally ready to pull the trigger, I ran two options by my friends. Laura told me to go to Walnut Wallpaper by where she worked at The Grove. She met me there and we looked through all the books until we narrowed it down to this: Summer Palace Fret in Mineral by F Schumacher. Heather gave the stamp of approval and we were off!
I’m so happy with how it turned out! The mineral color nicely compliments the soft gold color on the walls. We also got these mercury pendants from West Elm a few months ago and these chairs from Crate and Barrel were what started the whole change. I used to have matching wood chairs to the table. Matching. How boring. Laura recommended a galvanized steel chair and I love how it has a vintage feel, while still being modern. And of course I love my DIY terrariums.
We also decided to wallpaper around the corner, so you could see a peek of it when you walk through the front door. Danny, our contractor, installed the wallpaper and it looks perfect. Brent agreed to wallpaper if it was professionally installed. I would have happily tried to do it myself, but weird seams and crooked patterns weren’t what Brent had in mind. If you’re in the SoCal area and looking to wallpaper, I will gladly give you Danny’s info. He’s the best!
And just so you can see the difference. Here’s a before picture. VANILLA!
I should probably tell why I’ve been absent and may continue to be for a little while. It’s best explained in photos…
Brent got me the chef’s knife of my dreams for Christmas this year. My friend Ben, the real life chef, sharpened said knife REALLY well the other day. Sharp enough to cut off a finger. Or at least the tip. Thankfully I did it the night before we were supposed to leave for 2 weeks on a trip. And I wasn’t done packing. I knew Brent wanted to spend the night in the ER anyway. It was the weekend of our 16th anniversary and perhaps I wanted to end it with a bang.
I’m on the mend, but I’m slow. I’m not my usual very efficient self. Doing life one-handed is hard. Try putting deoderant on your right armpit with your right hand. Or buttoning a shirt one-handed. Or typing. Pecking out this paragraph is taking me 30 minutes.
But, I’m putting a smile on my face and pressing on. Things could be much worse.
Even though I love my thirties, it’s not perfect. Yes, I’m wiser, stronger and more efficient than I was in my twenties. But, I have the unfortunate combination of wrinkles and the occasional break-out. Didn’t I leave that in junior high with my trapper keeper and pegged jeans?? Apparently not. So, I treat myself to a facial every now and then. Kelly is a naturalist and believes that so much of what ails us can be solved with home remedies. On her recommendation, I started doing a strawberry mask every other morning.
It’s a simple combination of greek yogurt and fresh berries. I puree a half container of single serving plain greek yogurt with 4 medium size berries in my mini-food processor. I keep that combination in my fridge for the week. Before I shower, I’ll paint it on my face with a pastry brush…or fingertips will do in a pinch. Kelly says you can leave it on for just a few minutes, but I’ve found the best results when I leave it on for about 30 minutes until it’s slightly dry. Then when I jump in the shower, it’s easy to rinse off.
Strawberries contain salicylic acid that rids the skin of dead cells, makes your skin pores smaller and your face look brighter and shinier. They gently refresh and exfoliate the skin, remove impurities, and reduce redness and swelling, which is wonderful for a cleansing and skin softening facial mask. Kelly also recommends a pumpkin mask, so when strawberries are out of season just add pureed pumpkin.
(Some people are allergic to strawberries, so test it out on a small patch of skin before applying everywhere if you have sensitive skin.)
I have to admit, after having Memorial Day off, it’s been hard to get back into a schedule this week. You mean we have to go to work and school after Monday? We don’t get to play the whole week? I made some recipes I wanted to blog about and then a few things got in the way of them actually making it on the blog! I pulled out my popsicles before they were ready. Do not do this. It’s very disheartening. Then, I was trying to photograph bread minutes before my dinner guests arrived. Again, do not do this. It stresses your family out when they can’t eat the appetizer, BECAAAAUSE I have to photograph it. SO. I will be sharing something else today. Don’t worry it’s cute.
My friend, Heather, asked me to pick up a stick for her the last time I was on a stick-collecting mission. She was going to be making a bow-holder for her girls’ hair accessories. I was looking for big straight sticks for the tent I was trying to create. I picked up a cute little stick and handed it off to her the next time I was running by her house. The last time I was there she showed me the finished product. It’s the perfect addition to her girls’ room!
Her directions are: Paint stripes on the stick with acrylic paint in various colors and widths. Leave some of the wood showing. Tie pieces of fabric or ribbon on the stick to clips the barrettes to. Lastly, tie a piece of twine to both ends and hang on a nail or the edge of a frame (as shown).
What a fun way to display hair accessories and an easy way for the girls to grab them on their own and easily put them away!
Remember when pom-poms adorned fat white roller skates and the tops of winter hats in the 80’s? Then, like neon and skinny jeans, they came back. Just like all come-backs, the modern twists makes us all a little nostalgic and eager to try them out again. I’ve never made pom-poms before, but I figured how hard could it be…and headed to Michael’s for yarn.
Because I was making the poms for a backdrop, I decided I wanted them on the smaller side so their texture would photograph well. If I made them too tight and puffy, they would read as balls, instead of the rough texture of yarn. First, I wrapped yarn around two finger widths about 20 times. After cutting off the yarn, I slipped it off my fingers and tied it tightly in the middle. I cut the loopy ends, then fluffed it up with my fingers. Remember to leave the ends a little longer on the middle tie, so you can use them to tie the pom-pom to whatever you’re using it for.
My pom-poms were used for a photo backdrop. I made A LOT of them. Don’t be intimidated. It took about an hour to make the pom-poms I tied to the backdrop.
I wanted a graphic look, so I strung the yarn back and forth haphazardly across the canvas. At first I strung wire across all four sides, but it wasn’t taut enough to hold the yarn in place. Eventually, I settled on stapling the yarn to each side. Which means the sides are ugly, but if you were using this for a headboard or a birthday party backdrop, you could simply hot glue ribbon around the edge to cover all the staples.
I completed this project on a Saturday afternoon. My kids are no strangers to piles of fabric, yarn and hot glue around the house. What I love is that they get inspired to make their own projects when they see me creating. Jillian started collecting my yarn scraps and when I was cleaning up, I found this on the table.
Oh Mondays. How do you seem to be so difficult to trudge through, yet slip through my fingers before I finish my to-do list? Today was one of those days that I started out with a fire in my belly to accomplish a lot and ended up with an empty tank. But, I was determined to blog about what I’ve been up to. Because it’s been a while!
On a personal note, we had a great week of school, a speech meet for Jillian, out of town friends, in town friends and lots of great meals. Work was wonderful and I got to see so many great clients that I now consider friends. Here’s a bit of what I photographed…
Last weekend I picked up this piece of architectural salvage at the Long Beach Flea Market. I was originally attracted to the rust and chipped paint, and the graphic pattern was an added bonus. When I got it home, I cleaned it off with a brush then added bumpers to the bottom. It sat in a middle of my table for a few days while I figured out what to do with it.
I had been wanting to make a terrarium after I read about them on The Brick House blog. After finding a few glass vessels around the house and a quick trip to Lowe’s, I set to work.
The process goes something like this…fill the vessel with rocks, it’s the drainage system. Add some soil (you can buy it for palm and cactus, which works best), then dig a little whole to transplant the succulent. Arrange more soil on top, give it a little sprinkle of water and add some moss.
I’m working on a blog post right now that will hopefully go up this evening, but in the meantime, a little housekeeping!
Quite a few of you asked about Baby Blake’s nursery. Melody has graciously offered to share all the sources for the items in her nursery:
My friend Heather is crafty. She effortlessly makes the mundane into a scene stealer. Her little girl came over one day in the cutest gold-colored flats. She told me her mom made them. I asked her to take them off this instant and let me see! What I found inside was the printed words that told me these were simple ballet slippers from Payless. Heather spray-painted the shoes gold and they were transformed. I told her I loved her idea and wanted to blog about it.
So, we set off to Payless to buy a $20 pair of ballet slippers. Jillian wanted hers to be sparkly, so I went picked up a bottle of glitter spray paint at Michaels. The can told me it was going to be deep purple with tons of glitter. Well, it was like clear nail polish with a few pieces of glitter. So, I dug through my cans of spray paint around the house and found one that would work. We ended up spraying them purple, then topping with the glitter. It’s hard to see in the photos, but there is a glittery sheen to the shoe.
I cut out a piece of parchment paper and stuffed it in the shoe so there wouldn’t be sticky spray paint on the inside. Heather tells me that the paint really does hold up well, so don’t be scared to try this! I did two coats of purple and one coat of glitter. Then we let it dry overnight.
I had Jillian try them and felt they were cute, but just a little too plain.
So, we added a fun red/orange bow! Now this is Jillian’s style!
