Bleh. And meh. And pleh.

Yesterday, I woke up to El Niño at 7:30 telling me "I'm going to be in a play today and I need a wolf mask." I said "..." 7:30 is also known as the time that is less than an hour before we need to be dressed, fed and off for school or on the weekends as the time that is still a little early will you please go back to sleep.

But, I managed to get it done! And it looked pretty rocking, frankly. So, I was convinced that meant I was going to be awesome! yesterday. I was all Super Mom How Do You Like Them Apples!?

Today we woke up to snow!

Even though it was only freezing rain at that point, snow was on the ground and it was so pretty and the kids were stoked. We all got dressed and went out and played for a while and it was so fun and really I should have just stayed right there. Apparently the snow either meant that it was a good day to take a break and spend some time with the kids or it meant that I was going to super suck all day long. Maybe both. Take a break or I would super suck all day long.  I went with option B.

I think I'm just worn out. I haven't been sleeping well and I'm at two nonstop weeks of painting and packing and spackling and caulking and edging and also whining. Which is just as tiring, really. Instead of taking a break, though, I spent my day dropping paint, installing doorknobs before repainting doors and drilling holes in the wrong places. After removing screw anchors I had put in not two minutes before, I threw in the towel for the day. Because you've got to know when to hold them. And know when to fold them.

But all was not lost today.  Yesterday, I ran to the Sherwin Williams store and picked up a Premium XL Tight Spots 2″ Angle Short Handle Brush on Young House Love's recommendation. I always cut in and edge by hand with a brush. It's one of a very few practical applications where my normally annoying perfectionism and normally useless lifelong makeup and makeup brush obsession really meet and marry beautifully.

This brush makes it SO much easier. SO MUCH EASIER. Even with my day of total suckitude, I managed to turn out beautiful lines with no trouble.

Usually, I use an angled brush and then at the baseboard follow along with a baby wipe and my fingernail to make the line sharp and clean. That last step is totally unnecessary with this brush. Once I started painting, I literally said nothing but "ohmigod. ohmigod. OHMIGOD." for a good few minutes. It is an amazing edge tool. Also, I was having so much fun with it, I didn't even want to stop and eat lunch. Which means that it's even a great diet tool. I wouldn't be surprised if this little brush could save your life. I didn't need it for that today, but I'll keep it handy just in case.

Technorati tags: terms go here, terms go here, terms go here

And now I get to stop thinking about mirrors.

Another room bites the dust! I actually felt like this area pretty much was finished - I just had to hang the towel bar and mirror. The towel bar was easy peasy, whip out the level, drill a couple holes, done and done. The mirror took like a year. My math kept coming out wrong and that was just weird. I mean sure, I fuck up caulking, screw anchor removal, painting, whatever. But, math I am good at. It's a good thing I'm a compulsive checker and rechecker prior to being a driller.

I finally figured it out.

Where's the 1?!?

I guess that silver part must measure an inch somehow, but I don't like that and I wasn't paying attention to it anyway.  Once I figured that out, stopped trying to be a manly man builder and switched over to my sewing tape, I recalculated all my overly complicated calculations and promptly hung the mirror.  Too low.  It's perfectly centered vertically but The Man will probably have to duck down to see himself in it.  Unless he stands back.  Maybe I'll tape off an area on the carpet and he can view his reflection from a predetermined and height compatible distance.  Because, I am not yanking out those anchors, patching, repainting, recalculating and rehanging that stupid mirror that I now officially harbor unfavorable thoughts toward.

So, where was I?  Right...bathroom done, stupid mirror, here are pics:

Again, this is a before-ish picture.  The old light fixture is there but already halfway disconnected.  I had already stripped all the wallpaper, but I'm sure you can picture ugly, old lady wallpaper.

Oh, and I had already taken off the cabinet doors but they were brown and brown and now you're up to speed.

With the lights on, the colors are a little more true.  Also, I had to show off my sexy painting outfit.

And, through the doorway in to the actual bathroom.  I hate having the sink outside of the bathroom and inside our bedroom.  Why would anybody design that!?  One of our neighbors down the street has the exact same house layout as us and they built out the wall to their bathroom, relocated the doorway and the closet doorway and got rid of the motel feeling.  Soooo much better.

Technorati tags: bathroom, house sale, home improvement

Weekly Etsy/ Climbing The Walls

Ok, I didn't get this up yesterday. Actually, it's after midnight so I didn't get it up Monday either. However, I'm a West Coast girl and it is still Monday on the West Coast. And hell, there's probably a country somewhere where it's still Sunday. So, it's all good.

This leave from work has me all thrown off. I missed El Niño's swimming lesson last week because I forgot it was Saturday. I know, right? Best mom EVER.

The real irony is that this was written like two weeks ago and then pre-empted for the Crafting for Haiti post.

But, anyhow, here it is now. Without further ado.

I bought this to put on the wall to help with the house sale, but I adore it so completely that I'm going to have to save it for a wall we're going to live with for a while. And here are a few others I might also want to put on a wall we're going to live with for a while.

anise flower by SurfaceFlik

branches by walldecors

grass by SurfaceFlik

damask by urbanexpressions

flowers by SurfaceFlik

forest by designedDESIGNER

snowboarders by BubbaAndDoodle

birds by PopWall

poppies by byrdiegraphics

birds on a wire by SurfaceFlik

Technorati tags: etsy, wall decor, design

You guys! YOU GUYS!

OMGFINALLYITHOUGHTTHISDAYWOULDNEVERGETHERE.

Actually, I act like this process has been ongoing for-ev-ver when it's been a week. Well, a week and a half. That half makes it MUCH longer.

I had finished painting the hall bathroom last week some time, but with an issue.

I couldn't figure out how to get these screw anchors out and after spending much of the last week trying to fix the giant hole I ripped in the drywall while removing an anchor in the other bathroom, I had resigned myself to just putting the old towel bar back up and painted over the stupid anchors. I searched all over for a similarly sized towel bar and they are hard to find. Then I mentally messed around with the idea of towel rings and small shelves and arranging them artfully on the wall but the location of the holes made that impossible.

Then I said oh duh HELLO INTERNET. I love that people with a clue feel compelled to get on the Internet and school the rest of us. Now I know how to pull out screw anchors! Put the screw back in a little way and use it to yank out the anchor then patch the hole. Awesome. Possum.

Of course, yanking those out and the subsequent spackling, sanding and repainting put off this finish. But, it's done now and that makes this a life worth living. Check it out!

These pics are before-ish. We had actually already switched out the light fixture and faucet a few weeks earlier. So, imagine super 80's cheese and not in a good way.



That's a little tester patch. That color was yellow. And also a no go.



The lovely glimpse in to the evil devil spawn previous owners' insanity.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand here it is! Totally neutral and inoffensive. ADDED: Oh, that shower curtain was there before. Just didn't make it into the before-ish pictures.









I've also finished painting the master sink area that is handily located in the master bedroom just like a motel. I need to hang a mirror and something for towels and then I'm done with that too! Also, I need to buy a mirror and something for towels. Field trip!

Technorati tags: bathroom redo, home improvement, house sale

Limping along.

I haven't blogged in a few days because I've been doing bits and pieces in different areas and that makes it feel like I'm making very little headway. But, I think I am! I think.

Yesterday (or the day before...? I don't know it's all kind of blending together at this point...), I got sidetracked for a few hours of caulk stripping. (Heh heh huh huh) The bathtub in the master bathroom had three layers of bumpy, lumpy, dirty old caulking down the sides and all the way across the top. During that totally awesome process, I went from mentally cursing the previous owners and their evil devil spawn laziness to developing a sort of appreciation for it. Seeing all the half ass work they did - caulking over caulk, painting right over spackle (where they bothered to spackle at all) without sanding, using tub caulk to repair a wood cabinet door (!?!?), using the same ridiculously hairy two inch screws all over the place when the right size for each purpose would have made more sense, etc... - has completely motivated me to make sure I'm doing everything right. So, I still hate them with fire. WITH FIRE. But, when I'm sooo tempted to say ahfuckitgoodenough, I abjectly refuse to. So, there's that.

I've been a spackling fool today. You guys, I used up a tub of spackle. I didn't even know you could do that. So, we had to run out to Lowe's first thing this morning and get more. I try to shop at Lowe's and avoid Home Depot because I had a bad experience there and I hold a damn good grudge. I may not have a penis, but I'm not stupid and don't talk to me like I am or I will spend my whole $30 somewhere else yes I will. And this morning totally reinforced that for me. I had taken my wallet out of my purse last night to do something online and forgot to put it back in. OMG talk about How To Feel Like A Complete Loser in Ten Seconds Or Less. Just say the words "shit, I forgot my wallet." But, I happened to have my checkbook in my purse (I have NO idea why) and they took a check with no ID and with my estimate of my drivers license expiration date. How awesome is that!? Totally awesome that's how.

So, I got my spackle. And I used it. Pretty sure the walls in El Niño's room now carry more spackle than dry wall. As far as I can tell, a bull lived in this room previously. An ornery bull with destructive tendencies. I fixed up some of the bad spackling and covered over our nail holes but the close inspection of the walls blew my mind. There are three major patch jobs - and I mean over 6 inches in diameter - and countless 3 to 6 inch spots.

When we first moved in, there were a bizarre number of locks, latches and battery powered alarms fixed to closets, doorways, etc... I was telling a friend with a severely autistic child about it and she said hey we have those! Later, I was talking to my neighbors and mentioned that I thought there must have been an autistic child living in the home and they couldn't stop laughing. Turns out the last renter was a drug dealer who stole everybody on the street's mail. Niiice. I guess they were probably the destructive, ornery bulls, too.

I think I'm going to have some after pics tomorrow!

Technorati tags: home improvement, house sale

And on the seventh day Jen had NOT ended her work which she had made; and she rested not at all from all her work which she had made.

I didn't make a list today, and my efforts were a little scattered.  Part of that was out of my control.  (Dude of Many Talents, I'm looking at you.)  Part of it was a bit of burn out.  Seven days in to this effort and I'm starting to forget what it's like to not be covered in paint.  After the new counters get put in tomorrow morning, I need to run out and see a cabinet guy about the master bath cabinet doors and pick up a different mirror for the kids' bathroom.  I'm really looking forward to putting on some jeans (dressing up!) and getting out of the house for that little excursion.

I finished painting the kids' bathroom today and I was SO. EXCITED. about that.  And then.  And then.  And then, I asked Dude of Many Talents to take a peek at the caulking around the sink (he told me yesterday I was doing it wrong and showed me how it was supposed to look).  He said I did a FANTASTIC job (he said it just like that!), better than a lot of professional jobs he'd seen and that totally made my day.  And then.  And then.  And then he whipped out his little box cutter and sliced through my beautiful countertop caulk job.

Him: Cut off the excess caulk, touch up the paint, and then you've got a much cleaner line. See?

Me: ...

He was trying to be helpful. But, I was done! Totally done! No more painting in there! And then I wasn't. So, that didn't feel helpful. Plus, his little "hold the putty knife here as your guide" trick did not work for me even nearly as well as it worked for him and I totally fucked it all up on the backsplash. So, then I had to remove all the stupid caulk that just moments before was beautiful! and clean! and white! and redo the whole backsplash. And I'm totally not going to trim off the excess and I don't have to because it's my bathroom and as soon as Dude of Many Talents shows up and helpfully suggests something I will so totally cave and do it.

Besides, now that I look at the picture, I see what he was talking about. But, I swear the line was cleaner on the backsplash. And, there, I have the last word.

So, now I have to touch up the paint a bit in the kids bathroom, pick up that mirror and hang the cabinet doors. Then I'm done! Totally done! Wheeeeeeee!

And I'm super excited about the new countertops tomorrow. That will pretty much finish up the kitchen and without me so much as lifting a finger. Win!

And they need to be replaced. I'm pretty sure they're as old as the house. And lookee what we found when Dude of Many Talents disconnected the faucet and garbage disposal and lifted out the sink:

Ew.

Technorati tags: painting, home improvement, house sale

Rocked out with my caulk out.

I didn't even put "rock on" on my list today but I did it anyway. Check this out:

I feel like I totally rocked Chez Sushi today, you guys. I even did a bunch of stuff that wasn't on the list!

I met with Dude of Many Talents and he's all set to tackle the kinds of things I can't really handle/don't have time for like replacing some rotting wood around the bases of posts outside the house, painting the ceilings in a few rooms and blah blah blah.

I caulked the kids' bathroom. I even composed bunches of tweets with the help of the thirteen year old girl in my head while caulking.

Caulk: it's hard.

I just discovered it's better when I handle the caulk with my bare hands.

Hang on, I've gotta wash the caulk off my hands.

Ok, that last one I actually said out loud. To Dude of Many Talents. Then I'm sure I turned bright red, but thankfully he was an old dude who kept having to put his glasses on to check stuff out so maybe he didn't notice.

I did a mini grocery run, too. We've eaten lunch and dinner out pretty much every day since Monday. The kids have been digging that, but also complaining a lot between meals about how starving they are. Whiners. Now they have more options than "would you like a banana and water? or water and a banana?"

Back to the list. I've been spending a lot of time so far this week wandering around saying things like "where in the fuck is my whaddyacallit!?" Which is ineffective. I was watching Worst Cooks in America last night (which, by the way...? wow.) and suddenly it occurred to me that Anne Burrell would be all. over. myass. about my mise en place. And she would be totally right. Getting organized helped SO much! Of course, we have no dining room table anymore but we're about to have no kitchen sink for a couple of days, so whatever.

Regarding #2, I only painted one coat so far. But, one coat including all the edging not adjacent to new caulk is not too shabby. I would have done that too, but I was waiting for the caulk to get hard. (Heh heh. Huh huh.)

All in all, a very productive day. You guys! I even baked cookies. Thanks, I'll take my cape now.

Technorati tags: painting, house sale

All over the place.

Over the past few days, my efforts have been...scattered. To say the least. I think I'm feeling so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of tasks that I find myself stopping and starting, running laps around the house, losing my way en route to the kitchen, forgetting my name and address and working without any real purpose or focus.

I thought maybe a list would help pull it together today.

And then this is what happened:

Pretty much the same thing.  Part of the problem is that I get involved in a task then run into a speedbump that throws me off into an entirely different direction.  Today that speedbump popped up in the form of a seriously water damaged side panel on the kids' bathroom cabinet.  A side panel visible only when planted on the toilet or when trying to paint it.  Painting it white would have made the warping, bubbling and exposed particle board SO much more obvious.  But, I had already sanded down the cabinet doors, so painting it white was really the only option. Oh catch-22, thy name is Tuesday.

So, back to Lowe's we went after a brief detour to my cabinet guy's liquidation outlet.  I picked up a very reasonably priced cabinet complete with top and sink and the best part of all is that it's already white. I'll pull out the old cabinet tomorrow and then paint the walls.

I also picked a laminate for the floors and my friend came by and measured the area. New floors should be in early next week and - best of all - we only have to pay for the materials (which we are getting a really good deal on). Sweet!

In other good news, Alicia's prodding actually brought my camera out today. I took some before-ish pictures of both bathrooms that I'll post once they are complete. And I shot yesterday's edging. Our yard is completely dead, but everybody's is at this time of year. Even my neighbor's lusciously green Perfect Lawn ™ is dead and brown. I don't know what it is about winter and North Carolina but at the first hint of cold, all the grass keels over and dies.

And this is why my hands and arms preferred not to function today.

I'm going to put together another list for tomorrow and just to set myself up for a big fat win, I might add all the little stupid tasks to the list tomorrow.  I left off a ton of things like "go to post office", "put up little plastic circles which protect walls from doorknobs", "drop off even more junk at Goodwill", "whine on my blog", etc...

I also have another plan to hone my focus and awaken the DIY machine within tomorrow and I think it's going to make a big difference. Wish me luck, Internet

Technorati tags: terms go here, terms go here, terms go here

Well, crap, Internet. I may have been wrong.

Yesterday, I blithely babbled something along the lines of "nothing is worse than stripping wallpaper. So, it's all up from here!" Ha ha ha.

Ha.

Today, I edged most of the front walkway and driveway. If you've got the right tool for the job, I'm sure you don't have to spend an hour inside your own head debating whether the wallpaper removal or edging is truly the more horrible task - an hour you don't really have because you're trying to nap since you didn't fall asleep until 3:30 last night because you can't stop thinking about the Santa Claus sized list of tasks you have yet to do and your adorable daughter woke you up at seven o'fucking TOO DAMN EARLY all bright eyed and bushy tailed because her list for the day reads like so:

1. Be sparkly.
2. Kiss Mommy.
3. Kiss Mommy until she wakes up. She can't be mad about that.
4. Change shoes several times.
5. Nap sweetly, wearing your favorite Belle costume, while Mommy lays there waging an inane debate on the inside of her stupid, stupid head.

But, back to the edging. Pretty sucky, I say. We didn't want to invest in any actual edging tools. We're likely going to be living in a flat for the next few years, blissfully free of grass related commitments, and it seemed a waste. So, we bought these:

"EDGE WITH EASE!" the packaging said.  It lies.  It doesn't even want to cut grass.  I'm fairly certain it would cut my hand off if I looked at it wrong, but I had to use all my man strength just to edge with no ease at all and it turns out I don't have a lot of that.  I'm not sure I'll be able to use my right hand or forearm for at least a week. Or ever again.

In better news, the counter guy came by today and replacing the kitchen counters is going to be cheaper than we thought AND will be done this week. Totally stoked about that. And, I called the realtor before calling the ceiling painter guy and the plumber dude and the carpenter man and it turns out she has one dude who can do all of that. I bet Dude of Many Talents can edge too, but I'm not going to ask him about that because it would be really embarassing if I started crying.

Technorati tags: house sale, yardwork

Day Three of The Mad Dash

Or, what I've come to refer to as sheer and relentless hell. Today, I painted two brown doors white, deep cleaned the kitchen, touched up the trim in the kitchen and took down the wallpaper around the sink area in the master bedroom. I also punched a giant hole in the drywall when I accidentally yanked out a screw with a medieval looking anchor, but I'm less proud of that.

We pulled off a corner of the wallpaper in this area a little while ago and briefly danced a hallelujah dance when it peeled right off. That lasted about a third of a second, though, as we realized THERE WAS ANOTHER LAYER OF WALLPAPER UNDER THAT. WTF, Internet!? The previous owners are just fucking with our heads, now.

Today, the wallpaper was coming off about like usual - mindnumbingly slowly and messy as hell - until I hit the last wall. The top layer of wallpaper on that wall hadn't peeled off like the other two walls, so when I scored the paper, the holes hadn't reached all the way through to the under layer. I was too lazy to go back over the wall with the scoring tool, so I ended up pulling off most of the paper in agonizingly small strips. Because, you know, that's easier.

I also ran into some trouble where the sink area leads into the rest of the room. The wallpaper had been laid first, then the trim capping the corners of the walls had been nailed on. So, Internet, I ripped the trim off the walls with my bare hands. I'm certain that in some circles that would be called "doing it wrong." But, I'm going with "badass."

I was certain that I had taken some before pictures, but apparently I suck. So, I present to you, a collage of similarly hideous design elements to give you an idea of what we're talking about here. (By the way, I find it hilarious that google image searches of things like "ugly gold light fixture" turn up MORE THAN ONE fixture that we have previously removed from this house. A pox on the previous owners.)

I'm not sure what's up yet for tomorrow, but really nothing is worse than stripping wallpaper.  So, it's all up from here!

Technorati tags: bathroom, house sale, wallpaper

Weekly Etsy: Crafting for Haiti

I just got my latest etsy buy in the mail.

I'm so head over heels in love with it that I was going to share a bunch of wall decals with you this week. But, the devestation in Haiti has sparked a truly lovely response from the craft community and I want to feature their work this week, instead.

Hearts for Haiti and Craft Hope are both selling donated crafts on etsy and passing the proceeds on to Doctors Without Borders.

Hearts for Haiti has 139 sales so far and the participation of one of my favorite bloggers and vintage vendors - Bleubird Vintage.

Craft Hope has 233 sales so far and the participation of one of my constant reads - sing forever

P.S. Just in the time since I gathered these finds, both stores have put up a TON more stuff.  So, go check them out!

Technorati tags: Haiti, etsy, generosity

It should only take me another six or seven years to get the house on the market.

Today was my first day of a three week leave from work/mad dash to prep the house for sale. I think I got off to a pretty good start - knocked out that contact paper job, moved some things in to our new storage unit, purchased and installed (well, played gopher for The Man while he installed) some new fixtures and faucets and threw myself wholly in to Operation Declutter.

You guys, we've had a garage sale, gone through two - separate - major league purges in the past few months and I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE HOW MUCH CRAP WE HAVE. I packed up a few boxes of things I don't want to purge but won't miss in the next month or two.

Carrie might have had $40,000 worth of shoes, but I apparently have 4.5 cubic feet of...summer shoes.

I can't wait to unpack those. In fact, I can't wait to unpack the other box I filled up today, either. I don't usually schlep wrapping paper with us when we move - it gets crumpled and torn and those big long rolls don't really fit in most boxes anyhow. This time, instead of giving it away, I decided to use it to wrap fragile stuff. Unpacking after an overseas move and the usual 6 week delay since you've last seen your stuff feels a bit like Christmas - this time it's going to be awesome.

Even more awesome than that, though, was what we discovered behind the mirror in the guest bathroom. Before we even bought the house, we were aware that the previous owners had veeeeery different taste than us. Our kitchen walls were covered in a hideously busy and dated paper and THE OUTLET COVERS AND SWITCHPLATES WERE SPONGE PAINTED TO MATCH. Seriously.

But, check this out. All I can say is bless the lazy commercial painters who didn't bother to cover up the hidden parts of this masterpiece.

Wowza.  Can you imagine trying to pee in that melange of neon?  I think I'd find it hard to concentrate.  Not to imply that I require a significant portion of my intellect to pee.  I mean I don't think I do.

Enough about me.  What about you?  Have you turned up anything surprising in the course of home improvements?

Technorati tags: moving, house, painting

Vintage-inspired inspires me.

Ah, I am love love loving the winter collection at vintage inspired boutique ruche. I love the totally affordable pricing almost as much as I love this:

I want to sneak into this picture and make it all mine mine MINE!

I'm obsessed with fingerless gloves this winter (as is everybody it would seem) and I covet every one of these items.

sweater vest, gloves, top, rings, purse, skirt, shoes

dress, scarf, birdcage necklace, owl necklace, coat

First spotted on Sacred Lotus.

Technorati tags: ruche, fashion, vintage

Mine. Not Yours.

The Man gets up earlier than I do many days, depending on his schedule, so there are some days where he goes to bed a little before I do. I enjoy the brief solo interlude in a quiet house and he gets to sprawl across the bed in such a way that you can picture a little cartoon thought bubble over his sleeping head:

The only problem with this occasional set up is that he prefers my pillow. And it's not the pillow! I'll switch pillows with him when we're changing the sheets and then a few days later I'll find him wrapped around the pillow that was recently his. The one that wasn't good enough mere days before.

His method of head and arm wrapping involves warming both sides of the pillow and I'm completely deprived of the cool side of the pillow goodness and then I'm compelled to take the role of Big Whiny Loser Baby standing over him and hissing "you're on my pillow!" trying to get him to move but simultaneously not trying to wake him up because that would be rude and that's his role in this little charade.

(Wow, that whole paragraph was one sentence because I economize and conserve like a good citizen should. no wasting of capital letters and punctuation on this blog no sir i could even strive to conservespacestoo)

Readers, you will recognize this as the traditional moment where I finally wind up a long and seemingly aimless introduction to lead in to a very simple and only tangentially related actual point:

These here pillowcases? I like them and think they'd be functional in my home.



Available at The Bazaarium, a Victorian-inspired emporium. Seen on Creature Comforts.

P.S. I know none of us are resting our heads very easily this week.  Support The Red Cross and help a few more people find a new place to lay down their heads.

Technorati tags: pillowcase, Victorian, relationships

An Open Letter To Subway

In addition to the beautiful accuracy of this observation, a comic (actually anything, really) that manages to work a word as marvelous as tessellate into the flow makes this a life worth living.

And Lefthandedtoons.com has a whole collection of hilarious comics drawn with the left hands of right-handed people. How gloriously random is this here Internet?

Technorati tags: comic, Left Handed Toons, subway

Check Out My Drawers

I'm currently neck deep in a dillion teeny tiny home improvement projects to sell the house, nothing terribly involved but there are just. so. many.  I should probably be doing something right now.  In fact, what I should really be doing right now is laying down a little contact paper in the bathroom cabinet and drawers. They're old and while I can paint the exterior, there aren't many options other than lining the drawers and cabinet floor.

And speaking of not many options...my god, contact paper sucks. I stared disconsolately at the ugly prints and colors for a while, before saying fuck it and picking up a boring wood grain. I'm not going to live with it. And very little looks worse than worn out drawer and cabinet interiors.

I thought I'd check online and see what was out there in real towns. But, a thorough scouring of the Interwebz turned up not much more than this:

What's up with that? With all the modern, graphic wallpaper out there these days, why does the contact paper live in 1982? OH RIGHT, WALLPAPER! Duh. Just as cheap in small quantities and just as sticky. Alright, let's look at that.

All from designyourwall.com

I would love to pull open my kitchen or bathroom drawers and spot one of these fun patterns! How about you? To line or not to line? What do you do?

Technorati tags: wallpaper, home improvement

Weekly Etsy: Walking On Sunshine

Spring is coming soon, right? Right!? Oh, at least we can gaze on bright yellow sunshiny goodness on etsy.

tulip earrings by Beadwitches

pillow by joom

bird print by twohanddesign

ring by tamar

clutch by humade

earrings by wiseoldowl

Technorati tags: etsy, handmade, accessories

So soft and pink.

Two colors I absolutely adore right now are dusty rose and lilac. Ah, these pictures just make me feel like a girl.

Pictures by just.bee, rachel a.k., laurennicolelove.com, featurette, kay©, Sporlink, m e l o d y, blr60, camillestyles, all on flickr.


Technorati tags: flickr, pictures, pink

Maybe this is why I don't do resolutions.

Mere days ago I resolved to take more pictures. And, officially, as of today, this is how my camera takes pictures:

Or, maybe this started a week ago. I wouldn't know because I haven't taken any pictures because I am a shitty resolutionist. That, however, is an ongoing problem and I'd ask that we focus on the brand new serious tissues at hand.

Two Fourth of July's ago, I was busily (actually make that drunkly) taking pictures of a baked bean and apple dish I had made when I ever so smoothly tossed the camera right into the beans. I know, right? Skeelz. I haz them.

Ever since that little incident, the automatic lens cover has stuck. But, a little jiggle with the finger would pop it right open. No longer. Jiggle all you want, the lens cover stubbornly pops right back in the way.

While writing this, I googled around to find out what the heck the automatic lens cover was called and happened across this seemingly handy How to Fix a Stuck Digital Camera Lens Cover. Let's read some, shall we?

Lens cover issues are generally caused by some sort of shock to the camera.

Yes, I suppose we could call a baked bean bath a shock to the camera. Ok, what else?

The other major cause is some sort of particulate getting trapped in the lens cover mechanism, like a grain of sand.

Or bean sludge? I bet bean sludge could do the trick.

So, dude seemed like he was on the right track. But I did what he said and now the lens cover won't close. It won't stay open and it won't close. All the other solutions are invasive, require skeel and will void my warranty. According to the solution thinker upper. Way to go, dude.

I guess I need a new camera. This camera is about four years old and I've been intending to upgrade anyway. So, I've been stockpiling Amazon gift cards and I'm currently an insignificant $524 short of the camera I want so very, very badly. Dammit.

Fuck you, New Years and your stupid resolutions.

Technorati tags: camera, Nikon, resolutions

It's 2010! I guess it has been...for a while now.

I don't usually do resolutions, I tend to go with a do it or don't kind of philosophy. Yet, I find myself resolving this year. And I do love making lists!

I'm not sure how it's going to go, I mean consider this...one of my resolutions was to try to be less late with everything. Aaaand here I am blogging New Years on January 4th. But what the hell and while I'm at it...Happy New Years!!

1. Do more home work.

Ogling the beautiful ideas on design blogs like Making It Lovely, Young House Love and Decor8 has me so inspired. We're doing all kinds of painting and rearranging at Chez Sushi to prep the house for sale. It's a good outlet for the moment but I can't wait to start working on a place for us rather than for sale.

How can you look at a knob like this and not be inspired!?

2. Be more patient.

I feel like I'm a pretty patient person.  But, I find myself getting wrapped up in whatever and not granting the proper attention to El Niño's recitation of the feeding habits of the Madagascaran Aye-aye or a detailed study of the outfits Cheeseball's friends wore to school...this week. I'm resolving to try to remember just how important those kinds of things are when you're yay high and just how short a time it will be that these two hang on Mom's every opinion.

3. Take more pictures.

I find myself picturing pictures all the time, but with no camera in my hand. Which is ineffective.

4. Blog more.

And maybe in a more timely manner.

Technorati tags: New Years, resolutions, list

A little owl love. Weekly Etsy. AGAIN. On time. Bad. Ass.

I have some love for owls. Actually, I love them like I love noodles, licorice and vodka. I love them so much, in fact, that I couldn't contain myself to a mere six owl finds on Etsy.  A ninja owl?  Really?  My heart swells.  And, just as soon as we move and get settled, I am ordering me that owl address stamp.

clutch by farfallagialla

pocket mirror by leearthaus

thank you tags by susanschrock

tote by thecraftpantry

ninja by JooSweetie

wall art by styleywalls

plush owl patterns by retromama

stamp by tickledpinkpaperink

pouch by beelovelee

Technorati tags: etsy, handmade, owl