Potty mouth

Last week, I had the occasion to meet with a few moms from the new Montessori school that my daughter is enrolled in and sip some coffee and chat.

The house was a turn of the century stick style and thoughtfully decorated with a few unexpected touches.

As I was leaving I thought it might be wise for me to visit the loo.

Good thing it was coffee and not wine or I might have shouted, "Holy s#!%! Why have I never seen these before?!"

Instead, I contained my enthusiasm for this product and promptly bought two online.

I had no idea such things existed. I was thrilled that the bathroom needs of a small child were solved neatly without the unattractive accoutrements that I currently have.

Have you found an unusual and amazing product lately?
I've got another one for you tomorrow.

Things to play with

My fabric designs

Do you ever feel like avoiding the things you should be doing and resort playing with things online? I am not talking about Candy Crush Saga (I am never talking about those games) I am talking about the wealth of sites that let you customize their product and see it before you order.

Here are my faves.

We all know about Spoonflower, right? It is a deep hole to fall into. I have uploaded and tweaked image after image only to notice that it is suddenly 2 am.

Fabric is something I can never get enough of so I have played with Spoonflower a lot. It is one of my favorite diversions.

I was catching up with one of my favorite blogs, Privilege and found this personalizer from Crane & co.

Cute, right?

Why stop there? Did you know that you can design your own US postage?

There are several sites but I  tried Photostamps.com and it is actually real postage.

I had a ton of fun playing with my paintings on stamps and trying the customizable ( albeit ghastly) borders.

 I had a hard time visualizing what exactly would look good surrounded by a border of hearts or balloons but they are available.

Found anything good to play with lately?

Drake-faces and other things that should be outlawed

I'll get to the faces in a minute.

I am in week two of a gluten-free, vegan experiment and I am a bit hungry and grumpy as will be evident in this post. I need a chili cheeseburger.

Have you ever had another design blogger come to your house and have the overwhelming urge to apologize for all of the ugly crap in your house that you haven't gotten around to changing?

That was me Saturday morning at 10 am.

I had already joked about my ugly kitchen floor and the still unpainted walls in some rooms and somehow found the strength to avoid total dorkdom by commenting on all of the orange wood in my house.

The suburbs just wouldn't be the same without orange wood and the economy might collapse entirely if all of those 50 gallon drums of the stuff were suddenly outlawed.

Have you ever wondered who picked this for the standard builder wood stain? 

Usually wood is stained a color that it might actually turn if oiled and left alone for 100 years.

The other thing I have decided to hate is ceiling fan /light combos.

I am not thrilled with ceiling fans but they are a necessary  evil in some parts.

I have the ghastly builder version.

Just because fans and lights would both be useful on the ceiling does not mean they should be combined.

A toilet and a bidet...useful in the same place...not good to combine.

It doesn't make it any better to make it look all space age.

There should be a $300 fine for using them.

Now I should explain the term "drake-face". Drakes are the name of a male ducks.

Just when I thought that Restoration Hardware dominated the man -duck-face in print I saw this...

iphone photo

Its an ad in Elle Decor. I laughed out loud and still can't look at it without smirking.

That guy and his mustache just said, "We have this Indie-barbershop quartet and it was so hot that we took these bedazzled inner-tubes on our electric scooters to the ironic swimming hole." Then he made a drake-face and now the water is cooler.

Karen very kindly featured me in an interview with her 2013 Artist Series. Be sure to stop by.

Clever

We all have seen something that makes us slap our forehead and say," Why didn't I think of that?!"

Here are a few recent Pinterest finds that had me saying that.

source

This paper towel holder is on my kitchen redo wishlist. One of my many, many peeves is stuff on the kitchen counter so several times a day I put the roll of paper towels away. Then my husband takes it out again. This is has the possibility to save many a marriage.

source

I saw this pull out cutting board over a trash can and said , "DUH!!" Why doesn't every kitchen have these? I would hope the board pops out for cleaning.

source

Hmmmmm. Maybe with different chairs. I was thinking something with a lower back. If it it were possible to find two matching vanity chairs or these...

What cool thing do you wish you thought of?
Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for my final "Spring into Action" project finale.

A Friday trip

On Friday morning I had the urge to purge ... my closet. 

I also thought of a few other things that I was on the hunt for and a quick trip to neighborhood stores turned into a minor trek to Ikea.

 Ikea is about 40 minutes away without traffic.

So, armed with my camera and lollipops (they buy a lot of 2 year old time) I headed out.

 It must have been the blue words and yellow arrows that confused me. It's not like I've never been there before but I went the wrong way. Not only did I skip the second floor showroom but I grabbed a weird and totally wonky wheeled cart.

The plan was to look at and feel a LACK side table to guess whether it could be painted.

I also wanted storage solutions--remember the urge to purge.

In all of my brain dead, seriously dumbass stupor, I forgot my camera until I got to lighting.

The saving thought was that I needed to run a few options by my husband.

Duuuuuuh.

Right about here I stopped idiot drooling and woke up.

I liked this pendant but have concerns about keeping it clean.

Love but not enough light for my kitchen table.

I looked at so many things and went away with thoughts on...

these ready made linen curtains that would work in my bedroom for $50 a pair.

Interesting aside-- for us "hang 'em high drapery snobs" Ikea  finishes the tops of all curtains (most bottom out at 98 inches) but leaves the bottoms undone. Also for the non-sewing folks they include iron-in hem tape.

Still a tad short for those that prefer a proper 4 inch doubled hem, but it beats the crap out of useless 84 inch curtains.

I also found many lighting ideas that need to be revisited with the hubster in tow.

I recalled O'verlays but could not recall which items they were compatible with.

Double DUH!

It was rather tiring.

But here is what I came home with.

An array of containers to liberate my closet from "dreaded droop" or my name for stacks of clothing and unmentionables that begin to slide about after a week or two and appear droopy.

Tell me this candlestick isn't groovy! I just wish it were orange.

This huge 21 x 21 frame. I used it to frame a vintage Vera scarf.

It was meant for the 2 year old's room but it has become a happy welcome when coming in the garage entrance.

I have another scarf I would like to frame too.

Ikea has frames and then there are real Ikea frames. The former are suited for and displayed in store as a great way to frame giant kid art. The latter are more on par with something you might buy at Bed,Bath and Beyond.

My 21 x 21 frame was only eight bucks but I wanted to make sure I liked it before I went hog wild.

I bought these for the 14 year old girl's room. Two windows at $14.99 each. Yay!

 I neglected to buy hardware there. 

Stupid. 

Here is the one very smart purchase.... drumroll...

Somehow in the midst of all that yellow and blue signage I missed the kid area that I promised my little miss.

In my drooling search for LACK tables in the warehouse before the checkouts I saw this cutie for $14.99!!!!!

Santa should be so smart. 

She hasn't stopped playing with it but to sleep or eat.

Bonus for me, it folds flat in literally 2 seconds so I can stash it when I want to be all cool,  like I don't have kid stuff in my house.
I think I am headed back today.