Are you catching my drift? It's hot. Not just outside, but inside
as well. That's right, my a/c is on the fritz. DOA to be more
accurate. Ahhh, the joys of home ownership. Well, while I
wait for the new unit to be installed (fingers crossed, sometime
next week) I'll think cool thoughts.

Maybe a little something like this...



And DEFINITELY some of this...

And a big 'ole glass of this...


Wishing you ice cream cones and tall cool glasses of lemonade
for your weekend!

Shut The Front Door!

I mentioned awhile back here that my front door was
in desperate need of a makeover. I think I've narrowed
down my options, but unfortunately they were few to
begin with because of the siding and brick color. But
as with our doors, just like with ourselves, we work
with what we've got.

But it didn't stop me drooling over these
gorgeous front doors and dreaming that I could have
one of them.

I could do without the greenery and would probably
add a colorful mat, but this is still lovely...


And how can you not adore this cottage and it's
yellow door...

.
I'd love to have numbers on my door like Karla over
at It's The Little Things, but alas, pesky HOA...



And I save the best for last. I absolutely love, Love, LOVE
the sky blue door on the right here, or at least it looks sky blue.
Totally Gorgeous!


A girl can dream...

Paris and...Chocolate?

So I did manage to conquer my project ADD long enough
this weekend to get a few cards done. I finally broke
down and picked up the 'Paris' stamp set from Cavallini
& Co.

The French Collection...


And anyone for chocolate...


Picked up the ...got chocolate? stamp from a cute little site I
ran across while wandering around the web. Rubber Soul
Definitely check them out if you are a stamper. They also carry
the same line of reusable bags that Paper-Source just picked up.
They fold up into almost nothing so you can stash them in your
purse and they are washable. How cool is that!

Happy Tuesday!

The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming!

Have you heard?! It's Britweek in L.A.!!!
And Oh how I do love all things British.
The Pacific Design Center and Luxe Interiors + Design
Magazine are co-hosting "Salute To British Design"
on Wednesday April 28th. Check out some of the
attendees:

Martyn Lawrence-Bullard...

martynlawrencebullard.com

Peter Duham

PeterDunham.com

and Kathryn M. Ireland...

Veranda

Lovely!

And it gets even better! My favorite little tea salon,
Crown and Crumpet from San Francisco is doing High Tea!

Now if I only lived in L.A.
Bloody Hell.

Project A-D-D!

Do you ever suffer from project ADD? I sure do. I gather
all these lovely project ideas in my Craft folder and I start
some, and plan others. Then I realize I don't have all the
supplies for one, or get bored with it and decide to jump
to another. It's a vicious cycle.

So this weekend, I am going to try and get a handle on
my ADD tendencies, and actually finish a project or two.
Ambitious, I know! My folks are coming in for a visit
tomorrow, but Sunday is wide open. And it's supposed to
be rainy too. Sounds like a perfect day for crafting. Now
just gotta FOCUS!

Wishing you all a Happy Weekend!

Name That Tune!

I've had a nasty case of writers block lately. The
creativity I want and hope to inject into my blog
has just not been flowing. So what's a girl to do?
Well, I'm open to suggestions, that's for sure.

But until those creative juices start flowing again,
I've decided to share a few of my current favorites.
Today it's music!

I just don't care for what's on the radio these days,
and the DC metro area doesn't have a great selection
of stations to begin with. I tend to find most of my
new music on tv shows or commercials. And luckily
most networks will post their playlists online these days.
So convenient! Picking songs for movie or tv show
soundtracks, now that's a job I'd love to have. But I digress.

Here are a few favorites from my current playlist:

"Let Your Love Grow Tall" - Passion Pit
"Miracles" - Jeremy Messersmith
"Animal" Miike Snow (yes, that's 2 'i's!)
"Don't Hold Your Breath" - Athlete
"Captivated" - Shawn McDonald

And if you are a child of the 80's as I am, I urge
you to go check out 80's Hits Stripped. It's
acoustic versions of some of our favorite 80s hits.
Wait until you hear "Heat of the Moment" by Asia.
Positively haunting it's that good!


Enjoy!

Give me a C -O-L-O-R!

I'm usually a pretty neutral gal, color wise. Especially lately.
Cremes, grays, and black and white have been my favorites.
But I must admit, I just love these images. I guess sometimes
a girl just needs a little COLOR!

Freshome

BHG

Happy Monday!

Pillow Talk

So this was one of the inspiration rooms for my master suite redo.
You might recognize it as Amanda's bedroom from the movie
"The Holiday". I pulled bits and pieces from several rooms and
photos. I really liked those Euro style gray pillows pictured here.
I picked up Euro-sham pillows at Target for 9.99 each, and then
went in search of fabric. I found this awesome gray material on
the clearance racks at Joanns. Are you ready, it was marked at
$2/yard and 50% off. Yes, I bought every last inch they had
(almost 10 yards) for less than 10 bucks! SCORE!

Enter my dad and his sewing skills. I said I just wanted them
covered. Nothing fancy really. My Mom actually suggested a
tuft/gathering in the middle. I thought that sounded pretty
cool and gave them creative license to have at it.

I think they came out better than I could have ever imagined.
Don't you think?





A custom look for about $30. Now that's a great deal in my book!

If You Can't Buy It, Make It!

I've been working on redecorating my master
suite for a few months now. Still have some painting
to do, and a few other things I'd like to try, but it's really
coming together. I finally got my new curtains up in
the bathroom and WOW, I couldn't be more pleased.
Especially since they started out as a shower curtain.
That's right, I said SHOWER curtain. Awhile back when
Target was clearing out a lot of their home items, I ran
across this Fieldcrest curtain for 20 bucks!



I picked it up and determined the size should work perfectly,
it just needed to be sliced up the middle to make two panels.
Enter my fabulous father who got all the sewing talent in my family.
And voila...



My motto is always if I can't find something that I want, I'll
just make it. Using whatever I can find. Wait until you
see the pillows we cooked up for my bed! I'll post them
later this week.

Happy Monday!

Let Me Out!

I'm very fortunate to be able to work from home
90% of the time. Fortunate and spoiled to be honest.
Well, this week, I must experience some of that 10%
office time. I was stuck in a conference room all day
today, and will be tomorrow and Wednesday as well.
I've just gotten so out of practice being in an office.
And this is a new office with new people, making it
even more challenging. I know, I know, I should be
very grateful I have a job, but boy was it a long day.
We were supposed to break at 4pm, but we were
still going at 6.

Around that time, I finally had to look out the window
just for a break, and there was this hawk or something just
soaring through the air right outside the window.
I sure envied that bird right about then.

Hope everyone had a very Happy Easter weekend.

Image by Dave Levinson
LoudounLandscapes.com

Easter Sweets - Day 3

Happy Friday! I guess Happy Good Friday to be
more precise. Today I've got my third and final
installment in my Easter Sweets series -
Something Different!

When I think about "something different" for
an Easter dessert, the first things that came to
mind were something light and maybe fruity.

This Double Citrus Tart looks like it would
fit the bill perfectly!

from My Recipes

And although maybe not quite so light, this little lemon cupcake
looks like it packs quite a tasty punch...

from Zupas.com

And my favorite, from this months Better Homes & Garden,
this Angel Food Bruschetta looks incredible. I really must
try this...
So which way do you go, cookies, chocolate or something
different for your Easter sweets this year?

Why choose, go with all three!!!

Happy Easter!

Easter Sweets - Day 2

SO sorry, I got sidetracked by my day job and was
not able to post yesterday. But let us not waste another
minute. It's time for Day 2 of Easter Sweets - CHOCOLATE!

What are the iconic (albeit commercial) images of Easter that
most of us grew up with? Fuzzy yellow chicks, colorful spring
flowers, and of course chocolate bunnies.

I do love this little guy. A classic...



One of my fondest childhood memories involves an annual
trip to the one custom chocolate shop in my hometown
every Easter. I was always giddy with excitement as I
entered the shop, and laid out in front of me were row
upon row of chocolate Easter goodies. Bunnies, lambs,
eggs, chicks. Pure heaven. It was so special because 1. I
was with my Grandmother, 2. I got to pick which one I
wanted, and 3. they would personalize it with white
royal icing. Ahh the little things that meant so much to
us as kids.

These eggs from Not The High Street brought me right
back to those days picking my Easter treat...



And here is something a little different from the regular fare.
Love these letters also from Not The High Street...


And here is my own twist on Easter chocolate this year...


I altered a Valentines recipe I ran across which used hearts.
Since I couldn't find hearts I picked up dark and milk chocolate
Hersheys Bliss, some square pretzels and Easter M&Ms.



I suggest doing your milk and dark separately as milk melts A
LOT faster than dark. Heat your oven to 250-270 degrees.
Line a baking sheet with parchment. Place your pretzels down.


Then the chocolate on top of each. Pop in the oven for about
2-3 minutes for milk, up to 4-5 for dark, but watch them! Once
they soften up, remove immediately and place your M&M on top.
Cool so they harden up. And Voila...


A final thought, this mug, again from Not The High Street,
sums it up...



And tomorrow, stop by for the 3rd and final day
of Easter Sweets - Something Different!