Little A: Mommy's First Attempt at Braids!!

My Little A has very fine, crazy*curly hair on her little funny head.  Hairbands don't really secure her hair when it's braided, only if she's got simple ponytails.  Lucky me, these barrettes seem to stick on just fine!!

For my parents...here is this crazy little girl turning her photo shoot into an opportunity for some bed-jumping.  hahaha.  Notice the two scratches on her face.  I TOLD her the cat would smack her up.  But she just kept on invading his space.  *sigh* 

Pure Crazy...

Mom, Dad: just click on the picture to see it larger  :-)




Peace!!

Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose: Shelves

So, I got a little busy last night; I re-organized the art supplies AGAIN.  I hung these awesome shelves up, above my Yellow Monster.  I jacked these shelves from my house in AZ...they just came with the darn house!  I love how modern they are.  <3  

I moved the brushes, paints, and pens out of the drawers   and into some old BLUE ball jars.  More public, easy access...and stylish!  Yes, that is Indian Barbie chilling out...she looks like she's having fun, no?

My husband and I made these balls for fun.  It's based off a modern lampshade kit...designed by Danish Holger Strøm in 1972.  We made ours from old, unlined index cards.  We tried to make more but the new set of index cards we bought from Office Depot were true pieces of crap.  They were too thin.  We will try a different brand next time; or just purchase plastic, or shell out a few more dollars for the pre-cut pieces (via IQ Light).  Pretty neat activity though.  If you are interested, leave me a note and I will send you the Instructables' link.

Sneaky Miki

Ah, the joys of being a Pet Parent.  Here is my handsome Siberian, Mikio.  He likes to pee on everything...and enjoys bread and chocolate from time to time.  Not at all a normal dog; no carrot sticks or apple snacks for him.

Surprisingly, the only damage he did to the box was a tiny tooth mark, as you can see.  Poor guy, he didn't ever think to tear it apart for the treats inside.  Alas, how can I get mad at that face?!  I will gladly take the chocolate-stealing over the carpet-peeing ANY DAY, Miki.


:-)

SCORE!: $24.95 Table

How awesome is this table?!  I picked it up this week at a local thrift store.  The story behind this table is that I ALMOST bought an entire vintage yellow, bamboo-styled bedroom set by Broyhill.  I remember it so clearly.  It was only around $400 bucks and in perfect condition.  It included a dressing table, head-and-footboard, dresser, and nightstand.  Unfortunately, I did not have a truck and the seller was all the way in Scottsdale.  My house at the time was in Mesa.  So I PASSED.  Had I known I would have a little girl I would have gladly paid a couple hundred to have the set carted over to my house.  (I had a job at the time, and this was before the 10% paycuts that affected our entire Aerospace division.  It was a time of many sprees.  haha)

Alas, it was the dream bedroom set that I let slip through my fingers.  I vowed to my husband I would NEVER let a yellow bamboo-styled piece slip through my fingers again - EVER.

BAM!!  That's how this pretty table came home with me.  Totally worth the $24.95 I paid.  It's actually a steal.  It's an old Thomasville desk from the 1960's.  It is solid wood and nicely constructed.  Sure, the drawers stick a little, but it's nothing a little wax and a few small screws can't fix.

This is going to be my art table...so I can make it as girly and tacky as I wish.  I plan on buying an Eames wire chair with Eiffel base and a white bikini cover sometime down the line (next Modernica sale, maybe?).  For now, I'm using one of my nine million Bertoia side chairs.  This one is from the Tulip table in my kitchen.  I ended up covering it with my Eames fabric cover for comfort, but I really like the look of a pure white chair next to this ridiculous yellow monstrosity...haha.  Well, for now this cover will keep the Bertoia wire marks off my bum.

After visiting the Seattle Art Museum last night for the famed PICASSO exhibit, I was inspired to fill up my desk with art supplies.  I like how it came out.  I did this with a cup of Earl Grey tea, with a bunch of Haribo Gummy Bears at the bottom.  The tea bath works MUCH better than a microwave to soften up the bears.  Also, the microwave turns them really hard once they start cooling.  The Gummy Bears don't really change the taste of the tea, unless you let them sit too long.  Then they give the tea a "lemongrass" flavor.

I know, I know.  It's crazy.  But that's how I roll when I need my "junk food" fix.  Drinking the tea via Redvine licorice is also superb.  Don't worry, I don't act like this very often. 

A Play Kitchen for Christmas...And Other Things

I KNOW...I took way too long to post.  Well, we moved into the nightmare project house *sans internet*.  Can you believe that?  Thus, no posts for a while.  

When we finally got around to calling the internet company, it took them a week to do their jobs and actually get a technician out here (CenturyLink, you make more money than you are worth).  When the techs finally showed up, they said our phone/internet hookup was a nightmare "custom" job...the box is actually inside the house - and none of those overpaid CenturyLink customer support folk believed me when I said I HAVE TO BE HOME for your guys to hook this sh*t up!!!

Sorry...CenturyLink rant.  Had to get that out of my system.  Someone should cut their pay 10%.  At LEAST. 

Alrighty, back to the adorable pictures of Little A and her Christmas Presents!!  She is so spoiled, she got a kitchen...in an actual separate Little-A-sized playroom!!  She also received a kick butt Melissa and Doug shopping cart from her mommy and Ba and DaDa (translates to Grandmother and Grandfather in Gujarati), a set of Laura Numeroff books (If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, etc), coloring books and crayons, little "magical" milk and juice bottles for her Monkey and Horsey, new outfits, and much, much more I cannot remember right now.  I shop for my baby's Xmas presents YEAR ROUND.  In fact, I'm starting now for next year.  

I included some pictures of her kitchen.  It is the retro-styled KidKraft kitchen in Tiffany Blue (about 30 bucks more than the hot pink one Costco had for the holidays, but really worth it  :)  Everything else was salvaged, re-painted, re-used from around the house.  For example, the tea cabinet was in the bathroom of the house we bought in AZ...she loves it!  The little shelves are made from wood scraps from the closet my husband "removed" from the yoga/guest room...don't worry, the darn room still has another closet.  Who does that?  Who puts TWO closets in their bedroom?!! Apparently, his grandmother did.  lol  Weird lady, but I can understand.  I am also a pack rat/hoarder of all beautiful objects.  You can never have enough storage space. However, I AM trying not to become the old lady with a house so full you cannot walk. 

By the way, I did not purchase the banner hanging around the entrance to Little A's playroom.  I made that for her 2nd B-day and plan on posting a how-to one of these days...