Kaboodle is officially my newest addiction. I found these while browsing there today but they are originally from West Elm. I know, I know...shocker. (I LOVE WEST ELM!) I simply had to add this to the blog when I saw them. I've always loved embroidered things...pillowcases, sheets, blankets, even embroidered handkerchiefs framed are gorgeous to me. Perhaps it's from fond memories of embroidered "pretties" at my grandmother's house, or from my addiction to antique malls and thrift store finds. I'm not sure. But there is just something about thread woven into beautiful patterns on linens that makes me...well...giddy.

I am surprisingly particular about the pattern type, however. I'm not really fond of the "froofy frilly" type of embroidery (or anything for that matter), but this Morrocan style is absolutely beautiful. The colors are stunning and the pattern just lovely. I adore Morrocan things anyway for their color and perfection in pattern. I don't know that I'd do my entire home in this style, but I don't think I'd design my entire house in one particular style anyway. I'm not that kinda girl. IMO, a touch of several different styles blending into one palate in a home is interesting and inviting. Of course, I've seen homes that went completely overboard, but you get the picture. :)

I just have to have these. If I could only decide on which color. You know, it's not entirely crazy to design an entire bedroom around a set of sheets. No matter what you say.

Wood Slice Mirror

I found this today at Room Service Home. The frame is made from thin slices of bamboo and mango wood placed to make this pattern. I love the style of it and it's the perfect size wall space between the two windows in my living room. It would actually look great on any "lone" wall. It's not a bad price either, considering the size. Definitely different...definitely a great way to add a natural element into a room and still keep a contemporary style.

Pink Glass Pendant

I found this today on Etsy at Leslee6's shop. She has several really great pendants and earrings (and a few other things as well). I think this would be so great on a long, graceful chain. I love the originality of them and the colors are brillant. Very versatile and elegant.

She's definitely added to my faves. :)

Words of the Wise

(This quote is from a phone conversation between me and my friend, Ivy. Conclusion of the conversation goes as follows. Keep in mind that fifteen minutes before she was trying to convince me that her friends and family were not rednecks. :D)

"Well, I suppose I should go. I'm with my friend--she's getting her hair done to go to the monster truck rally tonight."

Recycled Mirror

I found this today at Urban Outfitters. I have a trash can in my living room that my husband made when he was a kid that is made from recycled magazines. You'd think it wouldn't hold up well but it's still in great shape after all of these years--those pages are incredibly sturdy when folded or rolled and stacked like this. I think it's really interesting and such a cool way to reuse old mags! I'd bet though, that I could make this for less than $52.00.

They also have a recycled vase and recycled vinyl records / coasters. They have several very cool things on their site. I'm impressed.

Daycare / Kids' Rooms--from Ikea. (Ikea Post #1)

I've decided to split the Ikea post into two segments. One is for the kids' room / daycare room ideas from Ikea and the other is for general awesomeness found via their website. Again, this is only a small portion of what the store has to offer. Looking at all of this online today REALLY made me miss having my daycare. Perhaps someday...

Here are some of my faves:

These high chairs are great not only because they are simple and easy to clean, but because they are also STACKABLE. Which, as anyone who has ever worked in daycare will know, is essential. High chairs really take up a lot of floor space.

This would be a must for a daycare but really great for your own kids as well. They have several different options on these and combinations of styles and colors for the baskets. Even toddlers really learn how to put toys away quickly when they have an easily accessible place to do so.

These are aprons for craft projects WITH SLEEVES. How often I wished I had THESE when I was working in daycare! I'll definitely be buying a few of these soon...if not only just for my own children. They really save clothing and the mess.

These curtains are very busy, but perfect! Kids love patterns and color and how cheery are these? Of course, you couldn't have much more going on in the room as far as patterns go with this knock-out design, but why would you need it? I don't know that I'd use them in my own child's room but definitely for a daycare room. They are so fun!

They have SO much more for kids and some great sample rooms available there also. You can also access a link for a free catalog. I love the catalogs for room layouts / ideas. Check it out!

Small Spaces

I'm always looking for ideas for small spaces. My husband and I have had to come up with some pretty ingenious things in order to survive in small spaces, if I do say so myself. We lived in a 900 square foot cabin for the first year of our marriage. It was beautiful but very cramped. When you live in a space that small, you really have no choice but to get creative.

Our new house is much larger than the cabin, at 1700 square feet. Much larger indeed, but not a huge house by any means. Although most of the living area is spacious and open, there are a couple of rooms that we have had to make into "combo" rooms to make way for the little ones to come.

Our first multi-purpose room is our living room / office area. I love the idea of keeping your family computer in a public area of the house--especially when you have (or are planning for) children. This actually has been working well for us and when I get pics I'll show the before and after once it's completely finished.

The other is a guest bedroom / workout / crafting room. I've been searching the internet to find some great ideas as this room has given me the most difficulty considering the layout of the room. If I ever go back into daycare, this will become the kids' play room--and then I'll have to reinvent the room again. But that's another story for another day...

I've been finding all KINDS of great ideas online. With some creativity and a good layout, I believe combo rooms and small spaces can work efficiently and still look great. Most homes could use more storage. Decorating for small spaces can give you the extra room for the storage you need. Here are some great ideas I found online this morning:

I love the simplicity of this room and it's remarkably small yet doesn't look it. Keeping everything within the same color scheme helps to make small rooms look bigger--this is a perfect example.

I can't even begin to tell you how much we could use something like this if we had a spare wall without windows. I would love to be able to store all of our books like this--taking full advantage of the height of our ceilings. Many times, small spaces can be maximized by using any height that you have when lacking floor space. It's crazy how many books Corey and I have between us. When we were first married, we had more books than all of our other possessions put together. They are still a bit of a storage issue for us, but hopefully with a few built-ins, this should take care of the dilemma soon.

I chose this one because I love the idea of those glass storage jars in the open cabinets. I have some overhead cabinets above my bar that I've been contemplating doing this with. Either this or ripping that out all together...I can't decide. They are high enough that they do not block the view passing through to the dining room. This would be a great idea to do on either side for the openness and yet keep this as a usable space.

Some of the design elements here I don't really love, but I do love the raised sleeping area for a living room that must double as a bedroom. I know many friends that have studios / lofts that could do this and it would look GREAT and double as tons of storage under the platform.
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Ikea also has a lot of really great ideas for storage and small spaces. I absolutely LOVE Ikea and it's definitely worth a trip to the store even if you have to drive a few miles to get there. But Ikea deserves a post of its own. I'll be working on that tomorrow. You can see a good selection online, but the store has MUCH more to offer. You can get so much for so little--take a minivan or a SUV if you go...you'll need the cargo space. :)

xo

A Side Note..

Daisy has a real identity crisis.

When she was 4 months old (shortly after these pictures were taken) she began to really "play" with the cats and soon started taking on their habits and behaviors. She stalks like a cat and pounces. She once used the litter box (which just absolutely thrilled the cats) and is known to clean herself habitually as if she were a cat.

She is now just over one year old and today she started using the cats' scratch pad. When told, "Daisy, no. That is not for you," she looked at me as if I were completely insane, whimpered and buried her face into the carpet.

*sigh*

The day she "meows" she's going to doggy daycare for some culture.

Bird's Nest Photo

Surfing through Etsy this morning, I ran across this stunning picture on f2images' shop. She has several other items listed from prints to photography and infrared images. She has some great bamboo prints that are simply gorgeous. I love the natural color of the paper with the black ink. The texture is amazing.

I love the mystery and suspense of the egg and nest photo. I love the touch of color with the black and white. It reminds me of some of the old photos that my mom has of her family as children when they would "paint in" color. Divine, I tell you. Of course, I also have a perfect spot for it just outside of my dining room.

Small Memo Pocket Book

A few years ago I had small red pocket book that I carried in my handbag. It held everything "paper" that just floats around in your handbag getting crinkled and stained with crushed eyeshadow particles. I loved it. But eventually (like all good things) it fell to pieces.

This is somewhat similar and I love the design. The owner (Paperama) has several styles available but this was my favorite for sure. They are priced very well also--perhaps I can talk my LOVELY husband into a little gift. :)

Ebay Finds

Wall Pillows

How awesome are these? I was so excited when I stumbled across these on Etsy's homepage today. These are simply divine. They look amazing in a grouping (there are pics on the store's homepage) and are so unique and SPEC.TAC.U.LAR.

I'm so envious of the talent of this one. You can find these wall pillows and other great items at: Stepanka Ceramics. Trust me...it's worth the hour you'll spend there.

Grandma--Final Post.

My grandma (my mother’s mother) passed away in November. This is in fact, the same “crazy” grandmother that I have written about several times and told many, many stories of elsewhere. I haven’t written about this until now for several reasons; however, the largest being that I thought it best for some time to pass before I wrote anything sarcastic or perhaps distasteful about my deceased grandmother. I don’t know how well the rest of the family would have taken me cracking on grandma when the wound was fresh. Some time has passed and I now feel it’s alright to talk about her in my own obnoxious, honest, heartfelt way.

Keep in mind that I never met her until I was 18 years old. Talk about awkward—I don’t know that I said five words to her that day. It was so surreal for me to meet this woman that I had envisioned in my head my entire life. We had one picture of her in the house I grew up in. It hung in our back hallway in a collage frame. This collage was always intriguing to me, to say the least. It contained pictures of people that I remembered only by name as most of them were just that. Names.

This side of the family has its issues, to be conservative with the judgments. I knew most of my cousins, aunts and uncles as a small child but one by one they all disappeared from my life. Eventually, I did end up regaining relationships with most of my cousins as an adult, but as a child I never knew them. I had a few treasured memories of them growing up that I held dear to my heart.

My mother and her mother stopped talking before I was even conceived. As with the other family members that we were “excommunicated” from, I may never know the reasoning behind why this happened. I suppose it doesn’t even matter now. However, I missed out on so much from the problems that they could never work out, as did my younger brother.

When people hurt you, you just act as if they don’t exist and you never talk about it and it alllll goes away. At least that’s what they do in my family. This is the exact reason why I am one of the black sheep in that family. (A title I wear proudly, btw.) I just could never seem to fit within that little mold. I no longer try. I’m much happier not trying to fit within someone else’s mold. I have a nice little mold of my own.

My grandma was not the best mother in the world. Some of the stories I’ve heard are quite horrifying. I can’t imagine what it was like growing up like that and I don’t know that I want to. I have my own issues about how I was raised; however, honestly it was a cakewalk compared to what some people had to live with.

When I first met her I didn’t know what to think. I had heard so many stories and didn’t know which ones were true and which ones were completely exaggerated. (This being another tendency my family tends to have.) I just looked at the experience as a blank slate. We took things as they came.

I didn’t really have a relationship with her for several years after this as well. It’s a long, twisted story…but here is the short version: I was kicked out of my house and not allowed to communicate with anyone in the family because I was dating a boy that was interracial. Even after I stopped dating him, the idea that I HAD was strong enough to keep everyone from wanting anything to do with me for thirteen years.

But this story isn’t about me…

The relationship between me and grandma didn’t really exist until I was going through my divorce and living back in my hometown with my parents on lockdown. We’d go to visit her occasionally, and she’d call me often at their house just to talk. She’d tell me some crazy story and it kept me blogging for days. And of course, every time you heard the story it was different and more dramatic. She was a basket case.

A dog walk gone wrong starts out as an, “I tripped over the leash and skinned my knee” story to, “I was lying facedown in a pool of blood--the police found me and took me home”. HA! Some people would get annoyed at her desperate cries for attention, but me…I found it comedic. True, I was never the target of any of her stories and / or exaggerations and it may have been different if I were, but usually they were about herself or things that didn’t really matter in the grand scale of things.

I would do anything I could to instigate the situation. I’d listen to her story and add little comments here and there to keep that party rollin’. This was also an excellent source of getting under my mother's skin. She’d get so upset at me for feeding into Grandma’s crazy world. What can I say? It was fun.

She was entertaining, to say the least. I called her my “Crazy Grandma” to everyone and some of my friends still lovingly refer to the stories of her and maintain this supreme title. It fit her well and knowing Grandma, she would have been happy to wear the crown (or anything with plastic jewels).

I don’t know the circumstances involved in her life before I knew her—I knew her as this person. I’m not blind to what she may have been and what she may have put others through. I’m not naïve either. But I have many stories of her to pass on that are good memories. I guess I can just leave it at that. She was old. She could get away with it. I know that when I’m old I’ll definitely use that excuse. It worked so well for Grandma.

She ended up in her final years struggling with Alzheimer’s disease. She eventually didn’t even know who I was when others’ spoke of me. I didn’t call her. It would have confused her even more, to be honest. I was in Georgia by then and she may have recognized my face, but she would never have known my voice. Some claim the craziness was due to the early-onset of the disease, but I know better. The craziness wasn’t loss of memory…it was her personality. She was like that long before the Alzheimer’s set in.

It was bitter-sweet, my relationship with her. I had a very short time with her even though she lived to be 96 years old. It may sound crazy, but I’d rather have had this than nothing at all.

I'm Knocked Up Announcement Card

If ever I got pregnant, this would be how I'd choose to spread the word. These are from 16 Sparrows and are also shown at elsewheres.com. I love the contrast of the pretty little picture and the quirky, sarcastic saying--that's hilarious, I don't care who you are.

Years ago, I remember my friend stating that she wanted to get a bulldog someday--the biggest, ugliest one she could find and name her, "Princess". I'm sure she'd love this card. They DO have a "You're Knocked Up" version as well. Maybe I'll buy this and save it for her.