sun dog

Because there can never be too many pictures of Lottie on this blog. A nap in the sun... what a hard life.

busy pinning

I haven't made an I could live here post in a long time although I have seen many homes around the web recently that fit the bill. I've been pinning such architectural delights on my Pinterest page. What a love-hate relationship I've got with with ol' Pinterest. It definitely works well to save all my fantasy homes and dream spaces as I find them...and keeps me unshowered and in my PJs for way too long on my days off. Damn you Pinterest!

it's the little things

I HAD to have this little $10 doggie ring dish on a recent visit to Anthropologie. So cute.



Anyone else pick up a pair of these salt and peppers from Target? So simple and perfect... and $3.99 a piece. I opted for a black and white set although you can get a white pair or a black pair if you so choose. And they had red too.

bedroom update (very slight updates)

Made a few changes in the bedroom over the last 5 months. Back in October, I scored a cute grey quilt on clearance at of all places... Meijer! If you don't know Meijer, it's a notch above Walmart yet not as good as Target combined with a huge grocery store. It's also the best place around here to get avacados and Gruyere cheese, go figure. So what a shocker it was to find such a lovely quilt on clearance at a Meijer. I decided to make yellow my slight accent color and I've been searching for a piece of wool fabric in a black, grey, yellow plaid so I can make my dream throw pillow. I'm pretty sure I will end up buying a plaid flannel shirt in the men's department at Target once it hits the clearance racks. It's not exactly that yellow plaid I'm hunting for but I can make a pillow out of it until I find "the one". My Bend outdoor table found a new home indoors as a bed side table and I'm loving it there. This means I have about 4 months to find its replacement once it becomes patio furniture season again. Back to Target, they've got some fantastic faux fur throws - I've got one on the Eames shell chair and Lottie's got one for her bed...so spoiled. Everything else in the bedroom is pretty much the same. Same artwork, same light fixtures, same rugs, same Ikea Henny throw on the bed (the one that I was totally obsessed with last year), and the same Skinny Laminx pillow. Like I said, this is a very slight update.

January 2011 vs. January 2012

the average winter as seen in January 2011...







and the not normal January we are experiencing in 2012...

holiday recap

Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed (or at least survived) the holidays. If you didn't get a card or package from me yet, it is because I haven't sent them yet. I stink this year. There will be something headed your way so be patient.

We didn't have much snow here this holiday season so it never truly felt like Christmas. I did catch my dwarf papyrus one afternoon with little snow balls on them although the snow melted away about an hour later. Lottie found many cozy spots in sunny windows for naps. Mark made his annual holiday hot sauce from his summer pepper crop and I've heard it's quite tasty...you know I have NO heat tollerance so I have to believe what I hear. This year's Christmas decor had a plaid theme. Mark would like to point out that every time I walked past the tree, I had to make minor adjustments to the ornaments and ribbon and I think I got them all to be perfect... eventually. The tree topper was also new this year - a nice rustic wooden star that wasn't meant to be a tree topper but worked well none the less. Mark dressed up like Santa for a cancer fundraiser and won first place with his "Santa on vacation" costume. Way to go Mark! Thanks to the Hungry Hound, Lottie had so many cute Christmas cookies and cakes to eat - yes dogs DO need cute cookies and cakes too!! The 'merry woof-mas' cake was especially devine. Mark whipped up a batch of his famous italian meatballs for New Year's Eve. AND we were so lucky to have my sister and her family in town to ring in the new year. Speaking of my sister, she always finds the best bird ornaments for me. I love my new ornaments - thanks P! To keep my New Year's Eve tradition rolling, many drinks are consumed and at around 1:30 AM I think it's a good idea to take a photo of myself in front of the tree. This year it's a holiday miracle that I even ended up in the shot!

Cheers!