the goods, the bad, the winner

so where do i start, the good, the bad, or the winner?  whenever i have several things to talk about, i never know where to start, and that goes for blog posts and real life; i'm kind of scatter-brained all the time, and i hope it doesn't get worse with age otherwise i only have a few more good years before i'm crazy.  anyway, first i want to announce the winner of the danielle clubmaster sunglasses from tumbleweeds!  drum roll..... the winner is LIZ!

now, how about some good(s)?  it's been cold and rainy here, so i've been watching old tv shows (the millionaire is one of my favorites) and stockpiling links of all the things i want, want, WANT!  i'm seriously eyeballing the boots, but there's just one thing in the way of me making them mine, and i call him husband.  why must my wants outnumber my dollars?

you can find these beauties here: lulu*s, i miss the sea, raw dezign, honey and bloom, turquoise city, lulu*s, hindsvik, tumbleweeds handcraft

okay, it's time for the bad.  but there is some sliver of good in it., so i won't be a complete negative nancy.  last night beca told me that there was a shop on etsy selling cell phone cases with my elephant painting on them.  it felt like a punch in the gut.  i put so much work into what i do, and i just finished communicating with someone who told me a few months ago that she loved my shop and was inspired by it, and then ended up copying some of my paintings, so the last thing i wanted was to have to deal with it again.  not only did Daddydecor steal my artwork, they also stole artwork from several other artists on etsy, and then used it to make a profit.  this is disgusting and it makes me so fucking mad i could shoot smoke out of my ears.  i'm not sharing this because i'm looking to have my ego stroked, but rather as 1. a warning to artists who share their work on the thief-infested internet - be proactive and STAND UP FOR WHAT'S YOURS, and 2. to hold people like Daddydecor accountable for their actions in hopes that potential customers will see it and not give another cent to sellers who don't think twice about stealing.  this sort of thing runs rampant, and sadly, there's so much of it on etsy it makes me want to cry. the listings have been removed, thanks to another artist (whose art had been stolen) confronting the seller, and that's the good part, but etsy (as usual) refuses to get involved and enforce anything; let a non-vintage item be listed as vintage though and etsy is on it like white on rice, because that's an important issue, right?  geez.  i think beca summed it up pretty well in her last blog post, so i won't continue a rambling tirade, but be sure when buying things - handmade or otherwise - that you're supporting the REAL artist and not a copycat or thief!

gimme, gimme

my birthday is a short 13 days away (the big birthday - 30!!!), so naturally i've been thinking about the hundreds of things i'd like to have. okay, i honestly start thinking about it in february. it's ridiculous. anyway, i've been constantly adding to my mental wish list, and i think i should stop before i mentally spend more money than i'll ever make in a lifetime. a few of my top favorites on said mental wish list are these...

where to find these beauties: elk chandelier // vintage folding basket // vintage shift dress // vintage pleated skirt // witching hour necklace // alligator tie rack // vintage silk skirt // wood side table // gold leaf poster // vintage skirt

you know, on second thought, with such a large wish list, maybe i should just take up playing the lottery. yes, maybe i will. when you have a birthday coming up, how far ahead do you start making your list? or do you make a list? i guess being an adult and paying bills and doing adult things can be sort of meh sometimes, so that's why birthdays and christmas are still so fun, because those are days you can still celebrate and get excited no matter your age!

romancing the home

happy valentine's day, friends! bwow chicka bwow wow. chris and i don't really do anything for valentine's day - not because we're anti-celebratory people who think hallmark made valentine's, blah, blah, blah, but because we're just happy to eat dinner while watching a movie on the sofa - but i think this year if i were going to celebrate, i'd show my house how much i love it! and what better way to show love than with a gift that keeps on giving? live plants!

as with life, romance, and funerals, i always think it's important to have a sense of humor with your house and things that go in it. a pink giraffe planter, who would've expected that? a little piece of funny from boy-girl tees.

one thing i can't get enough of is any sort of plant that can be propagated so easily you could do it blindfolded and with your toes. enter succulents. i have a little succulent garden on my living room coffee table, but i'm planning to add a few new species like the ones pictured above from succulents galore. and let's face it, what are plant clippings without planters? trashbound. vintage planters from harlow monroe vintage and bombshell bettie's vintage.

these don't really need any explanation; i just want them. hanging air plant pods from mudpuppy.

so how are you celebrating valentine's day? are you exchanging presents, and if so, what are you getting or asking for?

the one where i show some home decor and share a music-related opinion

i'm not quite sure where i'm going with this one, but i have a few things to share, so let's just mix it up like my grandma does with all the food on her plate (side note - my grandma was in a near fatal car accident when i was young, and since her teeth and some of her mouth isn't real, i used to figure that made it so she couldn't taste anything, therefor explaining why she mixed all her food together). first order of business, the sun conure. i was given this sun conure statue a few years ago, and recently i've been thinking about doing a little makeover. maybe a year or so ago in one of design sponge's sneak peeks, i spotted a large white parrot figuring similar to these, and i've wanted one ever since. being the cheap skate that i am, i wasn't willing to pay what some of them have been going for, so i decided to do the next best thing: spray paint!

before and after. i'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out, and i think i have gloss finish to thank for that. now the albino sun conure can become part of the albino flock in the den. and you can ask my soul sister, i'm all about the absence of color.

lastly, on the home decor front, i was talking to rosita earlier this week and i told her that as luck would have it, i was in possession of a large antique frame in which the kona painting fit perfectly. i told her that now he looks like a member of royalty being surrounded by this huge gesso frame, and she was curious as to what it looked like. so here you go, prince kona bear hair of virginia...

moving right along, this is the part about the music. i've said it before and i'll say it again, i think the best music EVER came out of the 70's. and one song in particular just never gets old; whenever i hear this song i sing like i'm ann wilson and air drum like i'm michael derosier. i will tell you though that i only do this while i'm driving alone, although my right leg starts twitching for a little bass drumming when i have passengers, but i've managed to hold it together thus far.


my brother and i have discussed music from the 70's before at length, and his theory is that musicians in the 60's over-rocked and over-drugged and took the 70's as a decade to just mellow out, which is reflected in the music, but i think musicians in the 70's still knew how to tear shit up! so random, right? it was just on my mind so i thought i'd share! what's your favorite music? and have you done any DIY around your house lately?

p.s. mister dinosaur toes is now on twitter.

wishlist wednesday!

okay, i'm going to warn you now, i'm going in the home decor direction again. i promise you i'm not turning this into a decorating blog because that's way out of my area of expertise, but lately i've just been wanting to change things up in my house! anyway, since none of you have been to my house (but you can come and we'll have a slumber party!), let me tell you that it's been a hell of a lot of work to get it to the point it's at, and we're still not finished! it was completely trashed when we bought it, and we basically had to rebuild or repair everything except the outside walls. to make it simple, we're trying to turn a crack whore into a beauty queen. we still need to replace the kitchen floor, and once we do, chris is going to build an island since it's a large room, and what better to compliment an island than modern bar stools?

want to win a bar stool? or maybe something else for your home? be sure to check back this weekend for a giveaway where you get to pick your prize! doesn't that sound very car sales commercial of me? ah well.

i hope you've been having a good week!

i make things in here.

i don't know about you, but i LOVE seeing what other people have in their home. i'm no decorator, but i like to rearrange things and try to give rooms a facelift either with items i already have, or with vintage finds that are easy on the wallet from my favorite antique/thrift/junk shop. brandi asked me to show picture of my house a few days ago, so i figured i'd take a few pictures in a few rooms and share, and if i'm lucky, maybe you'll share pictures of your home, too! today's room is my pink room. it has pink walls (of which i've grown tired), so the name isn't all that original, but i feel too arrogant calling it my studio. i don't do any hammering, drilling or soldering in this room, but everything else happens here!

above: a few of my polaroids on a piece of twine. i love polaroids and want to show them, but this was the only thing i could come up with. how do you display your polaroids? flojo is modeling on her cage. remember all that free fabric i told you i got? that's some of it on the right.

above: two of my favorite cameras; an argus seventy-five and a polaroid impulse. my sewing machine that doesn't see as much action as i'm sure it'd like; i just get lazy when it comes to sewing.

below: a watercolor painting brittan did just for flojo and i! i love it not only because it's beautiful, but because flojo strikes that EXACT same pose when she's curious about something and watching it closely! i love it!

if you don't have anything else to do, or you do but you're like me and put it off, please take pictures in your house so we can all see! i want to see what your style is like, and maybe you'll inspire me to mix some things up!

wishlist wednesday!

Okay, so I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but Chris and I are pretty much the biggest cheapskates you'll ever meet...almost. In our nine years of bring married, the only furniture we've actually purchased is our sectional sofa, and antique trunk, a loveseat and a $2 end table that I still can't get Chris to admit is awesome. Our dining room table & chairs, bedroom suite, my desk, and our guest bed/futon are all hand-me-downs, so if you can imagine, our house is a little bare in the furniture area. When we were in our old house it didn't matter as that place was tiny, but now that we're in a house twice that size, it's become apparent that we need more stuff! I wouldn't mind having these things to fill up our space...

folding table from hindsvik, bear rug from concu, wire stand from moxie thrift, rocking chair from the unique seat company, steamer trunk from topsy design.

In dinosaur toes news, I've been working my big butt off on a dinosaur toes website. I always make impossible deadlines for myself, and I decided that I should be able to have it up and running by Tuesday evening (which gave me three days to create it from start to finish), but I'm thinking it's more reasonable to say it will be up and running by the first of next week. Of course I'll let you know because I'll need your input!

If you have a wish list you'd like to share, leave me a link in the comments; I'd love to see it, and maybe find a few new things to covet!

wishlist wednesday!

Whether it's for home decor, clothing, jewelry, or anything else, I'm a big fan of the natural, earthy style. #1 it's a great source of inspiration for me, and #2 I think I may have been a hippie in another life, so it just feels natural (no pun intended)! So today's wish list has been pulled together with the common thread being nature.

#1 and #8 from the social cellar, #2 from feather children, #3 from sukan, #4 from moon raven designs, #5 from jean pelle, #6 from terminy, #7 from vonlenska vintage.

If you'd like to join and make your own Wednesday wish list, link back to me from your post, and leave a link to your list in the comments section! I can't wait to see you found! While I've got you here, I need to ask you something. You know how men can be a little blunt or insensitive sometimes? Chris was honest enough to tell me a few weeks ago that maybe my blog and I are boring. So, do have any ideas of things you'd like to see? I'm open to suggestions (which doesn't happen often because I'm incredibly stubborn)!

paper from the past

I wouldn't say I'm a big wallpaper person, in fact I'm quite the opposite (especially when it comes to the bright, bold monstrosities I remember from childhood homes), but there's something about the delicate colors and patterns of vintage 9or vintage inspired) and antique wallpaper that I just love. For example...

images via flickr

Sometimes I think maybe I'd like a wallpapered room in my house, but it would have to be a bathroom since I'm leery of prints and patterns. If I did any wallpaper though, I'd want it to be a large pastel pattern with flowers or leaves, and birds of course, like the first picture! So what do you think? Do you have any wallpaper in your house?

Also, I must tell you about my love of lambs. I've been begging Chris for years to let me have a donkey and a lamb, otherwise this farmland will just go to waste (that's what I tell him, at least). Well obviously I'm sans lamb and donkey, but yesterday on our way home from Culpeper we went the scenic route to see the multi-million dollar estates. Most have horses, but there was one (beautiful) farm with hundreds of sheep and cute little lambs! It was love!

How was your weekend?

wishlist wednesday!

Today's wish list is inspired my my aunt Cindy's kitchen. Along the top of her cabinets, she has the most impressive collection of teapots, and while I was admiring them on Easter, I started thinking I wouldn't mind having a little teapot collection for my bare kitchen!

From the top: large mid century modern aqua ceramic coffee pot from jetsetvintage, vintage english sadler collectible teapot from camelotglass, white porcelain teapot with gold and flowers from putthekettleon, ladylike teapot from ladyjamie, winter pine occupied japan vintage tea set from grandmasfridgevintage.

And while I've got you, I wanted to tell you about my computer woes. My trusty laptop has a bad hard drive, so until Chris gets her all fixed up, I'm stuck with this crappy desktop. It's as old as a dinosaur and as slow as molasses. I may not be commenting on and stalking your blogs like normal, but don't think I've forgotten about you because I haven't.

Last, I got my first birthday pressie celebrating the 28 years I've graced this earth. Okay, I'm only kidding, but I will be 28 (which I've heard classifies me as "no longer a spring chicken," whatever the hell that's supposed to mean) and I did get this fabulous clutch from Micaela on Saturday when we met to see the fashion show! She gave me strict orders not to put pictures of her on here.