Z Gallerie Eye Candy...

The next store we hit on our shopping outing was Z Gallerie. Um, I've NEVER been to this store as they don't have any in our lovely state.

WOW was this place cool. First off, the pillows were so chic and got my fingers twitching to sew:





Guess which one is my fave? Which one is YOUR fave?

Next up, the mirrors caught my eye:



Mostly because they were reflecting a 3 yr old boy with a mischievous grin on his face.

While I was rolling my eyes at Bubbalu I spotted a bunch of cool light fixtures:



LOVE that industrial pendant lamp. Would you put any of these in your home?

I could spot plenty more eye candy from just inside the entrance but honestly was too afraid of Bubbalu's exuberance that we high tailed it outta there.

I need to go back, there was SO much to look at...

A

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Uber-Neutrals...

While on our recent trip to Arizona I cajoled my husband into going shopping (read: window gawking) at some of my favorite and most inspiring stores...with two kids...one of whom is slightly on the energetic side.

OK, both of them are slightly on the energetic side.

Anywho, first store we hit was Restoration Hardware. The nearest RH to our home is a good 2 hours away so this was definitely a treat. We walked in and I was surprised to find not a stitch of color.

Unless you consider shades of brown colorful stitches:



The rustic french inspiration decorative era has arrived. Lots of aged woods, wide weave linen or canvas and old world charm:



Gray-white washed walls, iron fixtures and accents and large Roman numeral clocks:



Tall mirrors everywhere:





with large antique maps gracing the walls and bundled antique books adorning the shelves:



As someone who loves color, this uber neutral palate is not my first choice. I most definitely will be using elements of this classy style but I'm going to be pairing it with color.

I'm curious what you all think of Restoration Hardware's new look. Think you could go all neutral in your home?

A

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Rolled Fabric Flower Autumn Wreath...(with a lazy tutorial!)

Why yes, yes I did make a new Autumn wreath last year.

And yes, yes I did discover another Autumn wreath I'd made the year before and had forgotten about.

And yes, rather than find a ladder to retrieve either one of those Autumn wreaths from the tippy top shelf in the garage, I went ahead and made another.

Because I'm lazy like that. And I'll take any excuse to craft instead of wash dishes.

Yep, that makes THREE.

Three Autumn wreaths because one is not enough and two is boring. That makes ZERO sense so just go with me here and let me try to rationalize my crafting mkay?

I had a plain grapevine wreath on my door and it needed some sassy fallification.

Enter glue gun, rolled fabric flowers and a woman on a craftin' (dishes avoiding) mission:



Ahhhhh, MUCH better!

Wanna make your own? OK, I'm not going to go ahead and redo a long rolled fabric flower tutorial because there may be eleventy hundred great ones out in crafty blogland as this very moment.

Sweetened Condensed Rolled Fabric Flower Tutorial:

A long strip of fabric, knot at one end, twist and roll fabric around knot gluing periodically. Thereyougo.

Sweetened Condensed Rolled Flower Autumn Wreath Directions:

Um, take your many coordinating (or not, just wing it like I did) rolled fabric flowers in varying sizes and glue them to a grapevine wreath. Hang it wherever you want it. Take pictures and blog about it and my ultra-fab super explanation tutorial (optional).

Happy Autumn!

A

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Linking up to these fab crafty parties:


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Pumpkin Chocolate Chips Cookies...

The mornings are starting to be crisp and we're pulling out our scarves and hoodies from the back of the closet.

Don'tcha just love fall?

I particularly love the scents and tastes of fall.

Sipping on a Pumpkin Spice Latte,

munching a (few) Gingerbread cookies,

smelling my Harvest Yankee Candle,

brewing up a batch of apple cider,

and that crisp morning smell promising frosty mornings arriving soon.

Are you in a fall mood yet?

NO?

OK, for all of you still mourning the loss of Summer, here is my never-fail fall mood inducer:



Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
2. Add vanilla and chocolate chips and lightly stir until combined.
3. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown.
4. Eat liberally with extra large iced glass of milk.

There, that should help you get your AUTUMN on...

A

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No Longer Pasty Hasty Cabelas Shopping...

Many people asked if I had a major meltdown/hissy fit/freak out session when we found out we missed our flight by one minute.

Nope, not me.

Why? Because I knew that this was in my near future:



So with an uncharacteristically calm manner we waited our seven extra hours in the airport.

My selfless husband recognized his wife's need for a sanity break and watched movies in the condo room while the kids rested/napped while I got to spend a good two to three hours every afternoon by the pool.

Or maybe he was sick of seeing me so pasty and pale. Either way, this woman feels muchly rested and rejuvenated.

Selfless husband also knew we would be paying a visit to the hunter's mecca, Cabelas:



The kidlets and I decided to have a snack (nope, NOT an ostrich burger) while waiting for daddy to finish trying on eighteen pairs of hiking boots. A snack for Mommy mean a nice huge glass bottle of starbucks mocha frapp thankyouverymuch.

If anyone wants to do their early Christmas shopping for me at Cabelas (Hint, MOM AND DAD) here is my short list of approved merchandise:

THIS, with THIS installed in it and THIS attached to it.

See? I'm such a nice daughter I provide easy peasy Christmas shopping lists. Hurry up, if you order now you can get FREE SHIPPING!!!

Yeehaw...

A

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NIKE Travel Rule and Airportin It...

Wonder where I was? Yeah, I know I shoulda set up some posts but I decided to instead pack our bags, do laundry and not leave our house in shambles.

Yup, we are freshly back from a family vacation.

And I cannot, CANNOT leave my house for a vacation with dirty dishes in the sink, junk on the counters and dirty laundry. Just can't do it. It's my opposite NIKE Travel rule.

Just Can't Do It!

I know how yucky I'll feel coming home from vacation with tons of luggage spewing forth their dirty contents all over my already dirty house.

Then the producers of Hoarders start leaving me messages.

Not good.

So, in an effort to avoid being on a reality television show highlighting my extremely messy ways, I decided to clean, do laundry, wash dishes and pack instead of blog.

Forgive me?

OK, let's do some quick vacay recap posts.

First day: We woke up our lil firecrackers before the crack of dawn, force fed them some breakfast and got to our local airport by seven AM.

We hauled everything in and got in line to check in. And by "we" I DO mean Lance. He's such a great hubby:



Yes, that would be TWO Britax car seats (Oh my GOODNESS they are heavy) one medium size suitcase and a stuffed to the brim backpack with Bubbalu's pillow strapped to it. And he didn't even break a sweat.

I chose to help by filling out eleventy hundred of those little name tag thingys that make me slap myself silly for not taking address labels along. Or for having permanent tags. I purchased a new set of luggage a week before this trip so I didn't have a chance to do that at home. Hmm, future craft project idea brewing...

COULD NOT BELIEVE how zany this child was at SEVEN in the morning:



I was slightly concerned how this whole trip was going to work out.

Bubbalu wore his adorable froggy backback stuffed to the, well, what USED to be gils when he was a baby tadpole backpack,with match box cars, stickers, crayons and other random kid diversionary items.

Being that this was the kiddos first time flying they were super excited to watch airplanes take off and land:



However instead of boarding our flight....they canceled it. Excellent.

We frantically called my Dad to last minute drive us the 2.5 hours to SeaTac and recollected our substantial luggage which we threw into Lola the second Dad rolled up and tore outta there trying to make it on our connecting flight.

Which we missed boarding by one minute.

Yep, ONE MINUTE.

They will not allow check-in within 30 minutes of the flight's scheduled departure. We arrived 29 minutes til flight departure.

The next flight was only SEVEN hours later....so we booked that one then settled in to spend the day in SeaTac.

SO thankful for the childrens play area they have at SeaTac! Bubbalu ran around and played for a good three and a half hours making tons of friends:



I also walked Lil Chick to sleep in the stroller touring the entire airport...three times. Good think I burned some good calories speed walking because I had a delish seafood fettuccine alfredo lunch at Anthony's that isn't exactly diet food.

Funny thing is, you ask Bubbalu the best memories of the trip and he includes playing on the airplane with the kids at the airport in the top three.

Enough for today. That's right, we haven't even left our state and I've already finished one recap. This could take longer than I originally thought...

A

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Replacement JACKPOT...

Yesterday I (once again) popped into our local thrift store to see what treasures I could find that I didn't know I needed.

Hoooo boy, did I hit the JACKPOT.

OK, you already know of the beautiful vintage vanity mirror that I destroyed last week. I'm STILL sad about it.

I brought the empty frame to a local shop to get a quote on a mirror replacement. Unfortunately it would have to be custom cut and they quoted me a base of $125.

Eek!

Yesterday, tucked into a back corner of my thrift store, I found this:



Pardon the shoddy picture. I was perched precariously on a trundle bed spring frame and was bouncing up and down while trying to get a good shot. See my blurry reflection in the yellow mirror?

Yes Ma'am, that lonesome vanity frame with nice thick curved mirror will very nicely replace the one I smashed.

I.WAS.SO.EXCITED!

Guess how much it cost?

Ten G's!

As in ten George Washingtons...or two Abe Lincolns.

Either way, a smokin DEAL...

A

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My Hair Has Me All Ferklempt...

I just broke the super sharp upper slicing blade off my serger.

Stupid pin. Yup, I forgot about a hidden pin and let it go through the serger. Not a good plan.

The upper chunk of the blade flew off into a pile of unrolled yellow ribbon on my sewing counter with the sound of Julie Andrews singing supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in the background. Do I need to wear safety goggles when sewing? Maybe.

Been searching online for an inexpensively priced blade replacement. Bah!

I'm feeling a little off today. I think I know why. I'm wearing my hair in a side messy bun and I think my brain's confused. Too much pressure and tension on one side of the head has my neurons misfiring and synapses all askew.

I think I'd better switch sides half way through the day. I wouldn't want to start walking sideways or anything.

That's it. The messy side bun has me all ferklempt today.

Yup, I'm blaming it on my hair.

+ 2 bonus points if you know the definition of 'ferklempt' and have used it appropriately in a sentence within the last two weeks.

+5 bonus points if you have used the word 'Ferklempt' today.

+35 points if you can sing the chorus to Craig Morgan's song 'International Harvester' by heart along with me.

+1,247 points if you can tell me what these points are for.

Told ya I was ferklempt...

A

p.s. you win the point game if you actually clicked over and sang with the video. Tell me, did anyone click over?

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Costco....Thumbnail....Poffertjes....

Let's do some housecleaning!

Nah.

Let's do some cleaning out of the draft folder instead. That's WAY more fun:

***

Saw my kids excellent pediatrician at Costco today but hid from him so he wouldn't see the 10lb bag of chocolate chips, sweet potato fries or hot n' spicy wings packages in my shopping cart...

***

I'd completely forgotten how messy a twenty month old can be while eating.

You know it's getting pretty bad when instead of choosing foods based on their nutritional value I'm choosing foods based on their "scratch off the wood floor with a thumbnail" rating.

***

My take on the annual, held-in-my-small-town Fair:

I don't love crowds. I get crabby at people who walk slowly and then stop in the middle of a walkway forcing everyone to walk around them. However, since I am now one of "those Mom's" who push a gargantuan double-wide Bob stroller around I fully realize I am now part of the crowd problem. My penchant for speed walking and whipping around people with the double-wide Bob doesn't help. I'm pretty sure I startled eighteen or so peoples, whom surely though that there was an emergency or free Poffertjes giveaway that I was rushing towards.

 ***

Not in the draft folder but blogworthy news: Christmas has arrived at Costco. Yes, I already purchased a roll of sassy Christmas wrapping paper. I'm thinking this might be the year that I actually have all my shopping done and wrapped before December. 

Anyone with me on this one???

***

Thanks for providing me with an excuse to ditch the housework. Blogging is much more exciting than scratching crusty dried food off my wood floor with my thumbnail...

A

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Vacuuming My Driveway and Destroying Vanity...

I just got finished vacuuming my driveway. I am now not only known as the Mama whose little boy uses the rhododendron bush in the front yard as a convenient urinal but the crazy lady who vacuums her driveway.

Although, one of my neighbors is a crazy cleaning lady. She washes her windows weekly. Her outside windows. Her outside GARAGE windows.  I'd be impressed if I wasn't so jealous of her mad scrubbing skillz.

I hope she saw me vacuuming my driveway. I hope she was impressed. That's right neighbor lady, I've stepped it up!

WHY was I vacuuming my driveway? OK, it's kind of a story. Keep reading:

Last week I headed into our local thrift store. After throwing the ugly mangly little kid chair into my shopping cart I wheeled right to my favorite section: Furniture.

Right away I spotted an ADORABLE little girl's vintage white dressing vanity and mirror. The paint was perfectly chippy and the mirror had a lovely curve and charming aged appeal.

HELLO BEAUTIFUL.

It was labeled $40 and I snatched that purchase sticker and clutched it to my chest, already dreaming of the many hours my Lil Chick would spend sitting by her pretty vintage dressing table playing dress up and being all girly and such.

I called my Mom (who lives really close) and said, "IfoundthisawesomebeautifulvanitytableforLilChickandIneedfortydollarscashcanubehereinten???"

Thankfully she understands a good find and said she was coming.

I continued shopping while I waited.....until the store director came to tell me that unfortunately someone had already purchased the vintage vanity the day before and that it was mistagged.

*(heart breaking)*

Fast forward a few days and a bunch of phone calls later from a nice lady in our church asking me if I was the one at the thrift store wanting to purchase the vintage white vanity and that she insisted that I should really have it. SO nice. REALLY nice.

I went to pick up the sweet vintage vanity today and smiled when I saw it sitting there.

HELLO BEAUTIFUL. I'm here to take you home, test you for lead, possibly refinish and repaint you, give you crystal cut knobs and a sweet little girl will spend hours and hours by you playing dress us and being all girly and such.

Finally loaded it and a few other treasures into the back of Lola and headed home. Pulled into the garage, randomly hit the automatic open back hatch button and opened Bubbalu's door to take him out.

THUNK THUNK THUNK......CRASH!

I screamed. Then cried. Then mentally groped for the rewind button on that dang life remote that is always lost.

Got the kids set up with a movie inside and sadly threw the biggest chunks in the garbage and vacuumed up the rest of the shattered pieces of a perfectly aged, bevel cut, vintage, curved mirror from our garage floor and driveway.

(Enter a poignant paragraph on the ironic circumstances of the vanity of decorating a little girls room that has led to destruction of a little girls vanity table.)

Being that I need to replace that shattered mirror, anyone know of a great, inexpensive mirror cutter?

*Sigh*

A

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Ugly Mangly Chair Gets a Makeover...

So I ran through our local thrift store last week and gasped when I saw this ugly mangly old chair.

I gasped because HELLO POTENTIAL!!! And for only $8 it was a STEAL. I all but dove for it and threw it in my cart, giving the ole hairy eyeball to anyone having the audacity to look at it sitting contentedly in my shopping cart. I've seen many upholstered little chairs for well over $100 at various stores. Lil Chick was anxious to sit on it but I refused to let her hiney touch that chair in its slubby state.

Fast forward three days. I've already ripped off and thrown away the previous disgusto upholstery fabric and purchased some pretty decor weight fabric, button kits and cording. My weapon of choice is a compression powered staple gun and I've got the craftin itchies. I told my hubby to keep the kidlets out of the living room and went to work:

New fabric covering cording and new padding:

Working on the back of the chair:

Only a SHORT time later (OK OK it took me six hours) I have a cute upholstered chair to adorn Lil Chick's new bedroom:

I FINALLY let her sit her hiney on it:

PERFECT.

A

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Plain Gray Tank Gets Sassy...

After finally seam ripping all of that punky, non-cooperative black lace off of my cheapo gray tank top I was left with blah tank top with three seam ripped holes in it.

Lovely.

Not to mention the frustration of a failed project.

After the tank top came out of it's time out (Yes, I punish sewing projects that don't work out as I have planned them. They get a time out. Sometimes they get a forever out. ) I decided to have another go at it.

Blah:



So I dug through my not often enough dug through fabric stash and found some goodies.

Anyone remember the Olive Hope Shirt???

I decided I needed one too. Yup, let's try a patterned fabric this time around:



MUCH better. Covered up the torn holes and added a healthy dose of sass to a plain gray tank top:



I'd call this one a success...

A

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Please Don't Set Your Teacher On Fire...

I was this close to pulling out one of my cheerleading outfits from way back when to help CHEER Bubbalu into this new age of education.

Yup, my baby's going to preschool.

And I'm certain he'd appreciate the extra effort his Mama would show by squashing her times two postpartum self into an eensy teensy cheerleading skirt and top.

Acutally, he probably wouldn't notice. I brought him to the door and before I could say, "let's hang up your coat" he was off and running. Uh, can I at LEAST have a hug or something? You know, show SOME recognition that it pains you to be separated from your Mother for three hours?

I'm sitting at home waiting for the phone call from the principal to have me come and collect my child.

So far so good. No teachers set on fire, no mass stampeding of the school and no ripping down the display boards.

There was one tiny thing I forgot to mention to his teachers. I do hope they hid all of their sharpies...

A

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Rebellious Black Lace...

So it appears that I am incapable of sewing luscious layers of black lace in a sloping angle down a plain gray tank top.

Picture unevenly bunched lace, lace flipping up on the wrong spots, lace sticking straight out from the, uh, ta-ta's and making me look about the width of a life size Mrs. Potato head. Not exactly flattering OR appropriate.

After three failed attempts I'm ready to throw in the towel and try something new. It's so frustrating when I have an idea in my head of what I want a project to end up like but cannot seem to make it happen.

It needles me to not be able to create it.

Get it? NEEDLES? Tee Hee Hee!

I have now temporarily abandoned lace and am now happily creating rolled fabric flowers. They. Are. Delicious. Lots of dramatic layers and no two are the same. Perfect for sassifying a t shirt, giving a bag some eye candy or even adorning an accent pillow.

Speaking of accent pillows, I am currently redecorating my living room. Many a day has been spent poring over paint chips and trying to pinpoint in my head exactly what look I'm going for and what will look good. If you come to my front door I'll probably drag you into the living room and tell you to choose a paint color for me. Then I'll second guess myself and doubt your advice and will end up more confused than ever. However, I need to trust my own instincts. I'm the one who lives in my house and I need to own the decision. My instinct usually steers me in the right direction.

Except when trying to sew black lace onto a gray t shirt...

A

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