Toe curling good

I have a kitchen floor full of grocery bags that need to be unpacked, but I thought sharing this was way more exciting.

I stopped in to Zimman's, my fave fabric store, this morning and found fabric holy grail goodness...
I have no idea who makes the painted fan fabric- the salvage has been cut off, but it sent my into a buying frenzy.
I only bought two yards (for $15.95 a yard, its fabric crack!!!) and the hoarder in my is screaming "go get more!".  I also grabbed a yard of Jonathan Adler's citron zigzag eye candy too.

It slightly reminds me in color and painterly feel of another fabric obsession I have.
Aomori by Kravet ($$$$)...
(been considering painting something like that in the entry)

I originally bought all this for my unfinished family room, but now that it is home it looks REAL good in my pale pink and citron office.

Maybe I will get more and make new curtains:

Or re-up this chair.

I have no idea when I plan on actually having time to do this- I have a filthy house, groceries to unpack, a pile of emails and quotes to do
 and the Christmas elves start their nightly visits tonight in our house 
and they are "a little behind schedule". 

It will have to be in done in manic spurts.

I also found a few other less exciting finds that I will share with you when they are finished 
(and are actually a bit more exciting to look at.) 

Check back with me later, and don't forget to enter my giveaway.
I am giving away 10 magazine subscriptions courtesy of Zinio to the mag of your choice
 (international decor mags too!) tomorrow at 8 am so get in on it here.


Giveaway Time!

Today I am really excited to bring you a fabulous giveaway from Zinio
Zinio is "the world's largest newsstand", carrying hundreds of magazine tiles 
for your mobile device.  I love having my favorite magazines at my fingertips on my iPad,
  and since I have an unhealthy shelter magazine addiction it definitely 
helps keep the clutter factor down in my house!


Zinio has been so generous to offer up 10 subscriptions for me to giveaway as well as offering a chance to win an iPad mini in their sweepstakes.

Here is a sampling of some of my favorites:

And lets not forget about getting your fitness and gossip on!







Here is all you need to do to enter:

You will also get $5 towards any subscription when you enter too.

2) Leave me a comment confirming you entered as well as your choice of magazine subscription.
*please leave your name if you are posting as anonymous so I know who you are if you win!!!

I will be choosing 10 winners this Saturday morning at 8am.

Good luck!

I'm about to get stupid

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend!  
I spent lots of time with family, counted my blessings, avoided the mall like the plague 
and started getting my Christmas on...

Tree is up.
(with both colored and white lights so I can plug whatever one I want in when the mood strikes)


Kids are ecstatically counting down the days.

Fireplace has been getting a workout.

And I hear we might be getting a bit of the white stuff this week ...
I freaking LOVE Christmas and the holiday season.

life is good














Playing fabric designer...

Hey everyone!  I am officially on Spoonflower selling stuff:


This all started after I drew this pagoda fabric last spring, and ordered a yard to make some pillows for my living room.  I have been meaning to get around to this forever now, but I finally just ordered a bunch of re-colored strike offs of it- as well as some other some fabrics I am working on. 

Very excited because they they came today in a big sampler.
I like the multi-colored ones. 
Not too crazy about the single colors, they got a bit pixelated since I played with them too much.

If you haven't played fabric designer on Spoonflower yet, do it.
Its so fun!

And you can print it on a bunch of different types of fabrics, and I can order all these designs on wallpaper since they are awesome and carry that too.  My paintbrush may just take a vacation.

Now go design and create people!
Big time suck, but so worth it.



Boats, no kids, mojitos

Thats what I've been doing.  Last weekend the hubs took me away to Florida without the kids.  
It was pretty fantastic.
  
I did miss the boys, especially when I heard their little pipsqueak voices on the phone- they always sound about 3 years younger...  but the man and I slept in, went for walks and runs together (7.5 miles the first day)- and I still mananged to pack on a few pounds because the jeans I flew down in were WAY tight on the way home.  I'm talking top button undone tight.  Must have been the liquid lunches and dinners of mojitos buffered with red velvet anything.

One of the "non-laying on our backs while drinking and absorbing sunlight"activities we did was go on a boat trip fishing.
A friend of my husband, Brandt Symes,  now runs Sanibel Custom Charters.  He took us out for the day fishing, and we actually caught stuff!  We can't remember exactly what they were, but the real fishermen would probably consider some of them bait.

 My husband and his "guppy/shark bait" (we really can't remember the name)...
 Me looking all "ewwww" at my fish. 
I was actually pretty badass baiting my own hook and all with "live things"
- killing those poor shrimp.
Then we stopped for lunch at a very cool spot. A little remote island called Cabbage Key
 You can actually sleep here if you are so inclined.
 But most people just take a boat or ferry for a day trip...
 Inside the restaurant the walls and ceilings are lined with dollar bills, about 70,000 I think...
Dollars actually make for a very interesting and expensive wallcovering.

 And if you are up for it...

After a beautiful day on the water it was back to a marathon of more mojitos...

admiring Christmas lights tropical style...
more mojitos...

and lots of this...

Now we are home its 30 degrees and we are feeling like we are freezing- bunch of babies we are! 
But we're glad to be back with the pipsqueaks, Legos and pie baking/Thanksgiving happenings.

Hope you all have a terrific Turkey Day!



ADD, you are one cruel mistress...

But before I get into all that craziness, let me entertain you with a photo that has been making me snort-laugh all weekend.  Family portrait time kiddos!

Really.  this is me and my sisters (actually we look more like bros here).
I am the one with the killer green "kissing whale" sweater. Rocking it!
Yes, the 80's were not kind to us. AND the fact that my Mom had picked this photo just makes me wonder what all the other proofs look like.   My poor sister and with her shoes and the facial expressions.
SO bad, but all so GOOD! still laughing! snorting.

F-you Dorothy Hamill and your little boy hair cut that we all copied like sheep.
I owned that bitchin' cut!

 Now, back to ADD...
The entry wall. That was the plan Sunday.  
My zig zag stripes were going bye-bye.
I had painted them over wallpaper (amongst many other things) so the paint was really thick and I was dreading having to strip them.  

Then a miracle occurred...the paper just peeled off the wall. 
In almost full sheets.
(5 year old camera man strikes again!)
Even my kids jumped in because I made it look like so much fun...
About 3 Minutes later  I had a bare wall and the birds and unicorns 
were singing joyfully in my head...
 This is where things get weird. 
I kind of slipped into a "paint"/ "too many options" black out....

I remember ordering my husband to get me white primer, he returns but not fast enough because I had decided I needed to cozy this room up while he was gone.  
"I need a gallon of Ben Moore 'Old Navy' eggshell finish!" I said.
He looked at me, didn't dare ask any questions and brought it back.

What happened next was a 2 day bender of coffee and wine, paint, rearranging shit, 
breaking shit (I rush, therefore things fall over and break) and lots of second guessing.
 Kids home from school?
No better time to start a big project and complete upheaval. They were awesome actually.

I made sure to snap pictures to document this craziness.
Navy was making me happy.
The big brown rug not so much. Felt like a cave.
Painting goes on pause while I search for a rug substitute...


 I steal the one from the family room...
 Drop it down, rearrange things back... thats better, brighter.
I also switched the curtains out to white panels during all this.
Back to painting...

 I painted for a good part of the day, but not without many more sidetracks.

Does this ever happen to you?  
Painting, painting... 
(convo in my head) 
"hey. isn't there that old Brunschwig panel downstairs. 
That might work on the ottoman or dining room chairs."

(I run to basement, find more than the said panel, 
bring it all up stairs and start trying out new ideas for the ottoman...)
 liking the tiny grey leopard better...
back to painting.
"hey, remember that old rust rug?  hmmmm...."
(pull said rug out and try it under DR table)
color scheme is completely changing FAST around here
 I turn around and see this now happening and the big blank entry wall.
"Crap. I was suppose to be working on YOU!"
I have now lost all focus and I have a zillion new ideas for that wall.
 and a zillion ideas for pillows and maybe a tint or something on the ceiling.
and my head is all about his now...


and I have now rearranged the family room and added pink and a big brown rug to 
orange, aqua and gold...

and I have not even started my entry wall.

And that folks is how things get done/ not done around here.
Scary isn't it?  And my family hasn't left me yet either by some divine force.
Maybe they are crazy too.

Anyhow, I now have opened a can of about 12 new projects and ideas.
 I am back to work now, so they are going to have to wait a bit.
Anyone else do this?


The Look for Less: West Elm Dresser/PANYL

 I LOVE being able to get a high end look for much less (who doesn't?)
Well the very talented & crafty guys at PANYL knocked it out of the park with an amazing and 
surprisingly VERY inexpensive version of the West Elm Patchwork Dresser  
by using the IKEA ODDA Dresser + their genius product PANYL.

West Elm Dresser (retails for $999):

The IKEA Odda dresser + PANYL (entire project about $150):

This version looks just as high end, and in my opinion a lot more sophisticated with it's cleaner lines.
They added 3 different pieces of PANYL in Dark Walnut, Pale Oak and Ebony to the drawer fronts by  cutting the sections a little larger than the actual drawer front. By firmly pressing them on to the fronts and paying extra attention along the edges, (they pressed down at a 45 degree angle here to create a crease but not stick it to the sides)  the edges were then trimmed using a sharp blade.

They even wrapped the original handles in Brushed Gold PANYL to finish the look.
And the best part is the entire makeover took less than 15 minutes!

Here is the ODDA before (it retails for $99):

If you have never heard of PANYL, this is what you need to know.
Their ingenious product line consists of SO many colors and woodgrains that are available 
either precut to fit several different IKEA pieces or by the foot.

Instead of the time and money it takes to paint, you can quickly change color or add woodgrain to a piece by simply applying the easy to install self-adhesive "panyl".  
Their website offers easy to follow instructions and also gives difficulty ratings so you know what to expect.  

My favorite part (since I am a visual color girl) is the ability to try on a look:

So go check it out! 
Just think of all the looks you can create or replicate in minutes!

And the guys were sweet to offer up a promo code:
10% off with PanylLovesOverlays

Happy Weekend Everyone!








The Security Sunburst

Sorry this post is a bit late! I lost power for a good part of the day, so I am a little behind.

SO as promised, a convex traffic/ security mirror makeover.  
I have always loved convex mirrors for their bubble- fish bowl effect.
You know those security/traffic mirrors you see on the road so people can see oncoming traffic from around a corner or a blind driveway?  Or in your local convenient store to watch shop lifters?

Well I happen to think they can also make for a kick ass hack for your home.
(And you can watch your kids from anywhere in the room...)




This project all started with a big discarded convex mirror I found while picking pieces to redo at the Furniture Bank.  I thought the mirror would make for a good sunburst mirror project- I just wasn't sure what I would use this time for the "burst".  

Cheryle came to the rescue and brought back a woven curtain panel (the ANNO STRA) from her latest IKEA haul. Its only $9.99 for the 24"x108" woven straw-like panel....
I decided that I would try to cut and layer it. 
I started by pulling a few (3-4) rows of the strings out that bound it on each side...


I then cut it longways down the center of the panel,
 making one strip wider, the other smaller. One strip was 6 sections, the other 7
 (by sections I mean the segments above between the white string).
I did a test of two pieces to see how it took spray paint.

It did great (with Rustoleum Bright Gold):

I stacked and folded the two pieces together and plated around with a layered look until I was happy....



I then proceed to spray both strips with gold on both sides
(they were cut in half in this picture so that they would fit on one drop cloth):


Once dry I brought them inside and broke out a glue gun and scissors...

I cut the strips into 3-4" wide pieces:

I first glued the shorter (6 segment) pieces along the mirror's edge, being sure to leave one segment frayed and the edge bent up...

Once I had a few of those pieces attached around the perimeter, I took the longer "straw" sections and folded  them 'almost' in half making sure the finished length was a little smaller than the shorter sections. 

I put a few drops of glue in the center of the longer piece....

folded, and made the fold 'permanent'...


I added some glue to the pieces that were attached to the mirror and then placed these new folded shorter pieces to them...

This created a fuller, layered sunburst, 
and the little bit of fringe from the first piece attached hid the second piece's seam...



I continued this all the way around...

Until I had a big, gold grassy sunburst.

Kind of hula beach chic...

Coming to your local 7-Eleven soon.



FYI- You can find convex mirrors here.
If you don't have a convex mirror, just use any round flat mirror!


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