Me Oh My Oh

Halloween is upon us! My inlaws are here for the weekend so we won’t be participating in the festivities. But we’re going to Sedona so I’m REALLY ok with that! I did throw together a last minute ‘Ween costume for work though…

Hot mess. Nasty hair, smeared makeup, bathrobe, smiley mug, stray hair rollers… when people asked me what I was…

“Don’t you recognize me? I’m YOUR MOM”

It was definitely a hit :] Have a great Halloween weekend everyone

This is loooong overdue! I added some blogs to my little sidebar blogroll thingie over there. Check them out, because they are FABULOUS.

Jenny is pretty much my favorite blogger ever. Even on days that I’m not delving into my Google Reader, I take a looksie at her place. Not only does she have fantastic design sense, but she’s hilarious and uncensored, which is my kind of woman!

Tara at Scoutie Girl keeps my wallet deliciously empty on the reg. Hey, less cash to carry, right? At least I have cool stuff. She seriously finds the best handmade products out there. Love

House of Turquoise is to me what Playboy is to men everyone else. This is my porn, people, MY PORN.

Kate has to be one of the most talented people in the blog-o-sphere. We have wildly different tastes but everything she does is beautiful. And I need to stress the SHE does, because she really does EVERYTHING and does it right. Serious inspiration.

I don’t know how she does it but Reichel is a master of her trade. She finds fantastic alternatives to expensive designer furniture and decor. You can even submit a request and she will find a budget-worthy counterpart! Anyone who is decorating on a budget seriously needs to check out this blog.

Our side entry seriously needs some work. Since it leads in from the garage, it’s the first thing that WE see when we walk in the door. Behold, our side entry in all its glory:

Shaf has had that white shoe… thing… since his college days. I don’t know why we keep carting it around… probably because we didn’t really have anything to put in its place. It has a huge crack in it and basically is a piece of crap. And it’s where my purse ends up 99% of the time that I walk in the door.

Also, WhyTF does the doorbell chime have to be so damn big? And in the MIDDLE of the freaking wall?! Any ideas on how to obscure that?

So it’s time for a little updating.

We found the Z Gallerie Borghese Nightstand at Home Goods for $250. OH YEAH BABY. Come to mama. I’ve been finding a lot of Z Gallerie fodder at Home Goods lately. Macy likey. I don’t care if it’s mass produced, it’s glam and damn sexy. I hope it is still there when I return for it. It has been the last few times I was there.

Also – I got a little linky-link in my email saying that all Z Gallerie mirrors are 20% off, and I decided that I want the Stratus Mirror like yesterday. But how will I work around that massive doorbell chime?

I’m thinking I want to go with a glam look a la these:

Via Jonathan Adler

Via House Beautiful

I’m really digging the hot pink wall there, especially as just an accent wall. The wall that the table and mirror would go on, which you can’t see at all from the living room, which is of course teal. I don’t think Shaf would really object either… he really trusts my design sense and can appreciate a wide variety of styles, even if to the general population it’s kind of girlie. But who knows… it may even be too much for me. Too much color? Too many mirrors? Can one HAVE too many pieces of mirrored furniture? Probably… but this is in a different part of the house than the other… or am I just trying to justify it?

Don’t those look like bubbles? Some of our friends have commented that chilling in our living room is like hangin’ out under the sea. I love it! Remember when I made this post about terrariums, and how I ordered 25 Whirly candle holders from CB2 to make them out of?

Well I decided to keep them as candle holders for now… but they can be changed quite easily! Behold:

Daytime:

Night time:

We measured that little portion of wall with the overhang, and made an upside down “L” out of boards and both screwed and glued them together.

Then we screwed it into the wall, painted it, and installed the little hooks on the back of it. We did this so that you couldn’t see the hooks unless you are right up on it.

Right up on it:

You could just as easily skip those steps (who has a weird little overhang like that in their house anyways?!) and screw the hooks right into the wall or ceiling, but this is how I chose to do it because I am partially insane and must make everything extremely difficult. It’s just what I do.

BUT! In having the little “L” piece there, as you can see three photos up, we were also able to obscure a rope light behind it to add a little MORE mood lighting. Now we can have just the rope light on, or the rope and the candles, or just the candles. It’s quite versatile! We prefer both :]

It looks so magical, someday I’ll either get a really nice camera, or have someone with a really nice camera come out and shoot it to REALLY capture the ambiance :]

The lanterns I ordered from Discount Attic arrived on Friday! I was expecting to wait a while because their site said shipping (which was only $10 for 6 lanterns in a HUGE box) would take up to 2 weeks. I am very VERY pleased with this company.

They are fantastic. They aren’t heavy, cast iron lanterns or anything but for $11, they are smashing. I don’t dig the rustic finish on the chandelier but I am going to paint it anyways.

So knock yourself out, I totally recommend this place. Now I want to get that table and mirror for our side entrance…

…for ya today! All I have is a Happy Friday and have a good weekend!

Oh and maybe a cute little sitting area. Lose the slip cover and I’d be in heaven.

Via Real Simple

Happy weekend, loves :]

Damn you Ikea, damn you. You suckered me in once again. Lured me in with your promises of pretty red pots like this Grapefrukt that ended up being cheap and chintzy looking.

NOT IN MY KITCHEN YOU DON’T! WE DO THAT OUTSIIIIDE, IKEA. OUTSIIIIDE.

FU. But naturally while I was there I walked out with other things that I probably didnt need were absolute necessities.

See those little plants there in the corner of the windows? They needed homes. In this photo they were residing in a cottage cheese container and a mashed potato container respectively.

That’s bum status, yo.

So I got these glass bowls that are meant for a gigantic bowl of cereal or a reasonably sized salad (with mixing room – and we ALLL know how important mixing room is when tossing your salad. HAR HAR HAAAR).

I figured it was ok to plant them in something that didn’t have a drainage hole, because they are bromeliads, which you water in the hole in their core, not the soil around them. Pretty nifty, eh? Problem solved! Although I did put a lid in the bottom of each one with a hole cut into it, and a layer of rocks over that so there is a bit of air and drainage beneath them. Just in case. I’m done committing plant genocide.

Cheap? Pretty? Cheap. Pretty.

Remember this post I made about the shelves I saw over at I Suwannee? Well while my parents were here we put them up! My dad helped me stain and lacquer them, and Shaf and dad hung them up. They look pretty much fantastic.

Before:

After:

And of course we are painted as well.

Now I don’t have them as full as I want them, I am picking things up here and there that I just can’t live without. To be quite honest with you, they are an excellent reason to pick up all those little things that I otherwise wouldn’t have a place for. But don’t tell Shaf that :] Hiiiii baby!

I keep rearranging and rearranging and rearranging them. I am new to this “styling” thing, but I think it’s going pretty well. I think I need to pick up some books to use as “filler”. I love the look of a nice stack of books. Here are some high (or low) lights:

My deep sea diver is named Herman. Herman is from Home Goods.  The art glass I got at an antique mall… when I got it home and put it on my shelves I thought it looked like coral. The “Thirty-Six views of Mt. Fuji” print I have had forever. I painted the frame silver years ago, and I still love it.

I adore this little deer from Fruit Fly Pie… I also got a little owl planter from her that you can see here:

Her products are of AMAZING quality and come wrapped really well. Seldom does something exceed my expectations from online to in person, but that was definitely the case with these beauties :]

Now here are two sections that I am not so sure about:

See that big metal M? I made that in a metal working class in college. The fan is from China, from a foreign exchange student that we had to stay. The Votive holder is from Dubai, I got it on a trip I made there in January. The dachshund is actually a ring holder but I love it so much I use it as a statue… my Mom got me that when I got engaged to Shaf. She also got me the little “m” at one time or another.

In this one, the wooden bird was again from a Chinese foreign exchange student, the candle from my mother, and the decanter a wedding gift.

I am not 100% sure about either of these sections… any suggestions for a novice like me?

Oh wow guys. I am practically beside myself with excitement. It’s here! I can’t even believe the awesome couch I scored this weekend on Le Craigslist Boutique. For $250. She was delivered yesterday and she’s PERFECT. Feast your eyes on this baby:

Hello, gorgeous.

Her legs match my Chinese cabinet, she’s 7.5 feet long, and her fabric is silky, shiny and soft. Aside from one teeny tear on the left side, she’s perfect. And the tear can be very easily fixed. I am SO glad to be rid of the Ikea number we had there before :] IT’S PERFECT!

And even almost as good – the guy who sold it to me is pretty fantastic, too. He and his wife go to estate sales and the like and score awesome mid-century furniture (which Phoenix is practically the USA epicenter for) and re-sell it on craigslist and ebay and in antique stores and the like. DEFINITELY a good resource to have, and a really nice guy to boot. More on them later…

Shaf had a little fun with the sun, the lantern there on the side table, and the mirrored tray from the coffee table…

I told him he looks like a Care Bear. Care Bears STARE!!!

…and these, are the days of our lives.

Holy ish I’m so excited… I was searching around on the vast interwebz for Moroccan lanterns and I stumbled upon this fabulous site Discount Attic for REALLY cheap lighting – including my  lanterns. Check this shizz out:

Amber Teardrop Lantern $13.95. It’s 2 feet tall. Amazing. AMIRIGHT OR AMIRIGHT?!

Large Moroccan Style Candler Lantern $11.60. A foot tall. Unf unf

All of the above (one two three) are $4.60 each. Can I get a Hail Mary!

Not only do they have lighting but they have other cool decor too…

This table is $46.95

This carved wood mirror is $11.46… I am thinking about buying one and panting it a really bright color and putting it on our side entryway.

The only catch is that there is a $50 minimum order, but I certainly did not have any trouble meeting that. So there a have it! I’ll let you know how the quality is when I receive my shipment in 1-2 weeks. Did I mention shipping was only $10?

Warning though – a bunch of the stuff on the site is major cheese, (I’m talkin’ carved wolf statues of the 90’s ) but there are definitely some diamonds!