ETSY art

My twin sis' Winnie went to Iceland a couple of months ago and brought back some beautiful swag to share with me when she returned. One is a postcard with some great art on it that I think I may be hanging up soon in my bathroom. My poor, poor little (tiny) bathroom... its just so small and needs some love! Anyway, I tried to find something cute to go with it to hang in there and came across this awesome print by Joom.
At some point I'll post pics of the arrangement on the wall once I get it finished. :-)

House pics

I have promised pics of the house several times since I re-did the guest room back in September. We got a new camera for Christmas (our old one broke) so here are the pics, as promised!
Our living room over Christmas break
Joe Ironing in the kitchen (I just made the small shade over the window over break)
Sammy actually being a dog
Our guestroom wall I redid in September

Bearded Guys

Every year after Christmas I get a bit greedy. There are things on my list that I didn't get, and when I do get something for my house as a gift there are things that get moved around so I need something to fill a hole, etc. This year I went a bit crazy in a section of town in Iowa City just north of the ped mall. I ate lunch with my mother in law at a place called Hamburg Inn (where all the presidential candidates stop by just before the caucases) and then headed to a few shops.

One in particular had a bunch of items from some of my favorite sellers-- Henry Road and Boy Girl Party. I happened upon a print of bearded men that I just KNEW i had seen somewhere and I loved, so I bought it. I just figured out I had seen it on Design Sponge , and it is by an excellent artist Ashley Goldburg . I can't wait to show you how it looks on my dresser at home!

decorating

So my parents are getting all new flooring in their house this week, and have suddenly been inspired to redo their bedroom and the guest bedroom. Since all I do is lay around in my room and do nothing, I have been shopping to help them figure out what would look good. I created this inspiration page in Polyvore and thought it looked good.

Plate search

So, I am a clutzy mess which means I drop things occasionally (see below post for a sad example). Most of the plates that my husband and I received as wedding presents have broken because I have dropped them, so I have decided to replace them with a random assortment of plates.

At first I thought I would just want plates that are either red or white with red in it... but then after looking on countless websites I haven't had the best luck. So I have decided to go with a new eclectic theme to fit in with my kitchen ware--- white dinner plates with either red, light green, or tealish-tiffany blue designs on them. I am going to start with the needed plates first, then hopefully start to collect bowls and dessert plates as well. Here are some examples:

Ikea Plates:


Anthropologie Plates:


Pier1 plate:

still laying flat...

Well, here I am, five days into my injury and still laying flat on my back in a lot of pain. Trying to stay positive. Trying to get out into the world through cyberspace and continue to call and talk to people. Its been a huge test of faith and my need to control everything-- I surely can't right now. Its hard to even get up to go to the bathroom. honestly, I'm starting to get depressed.

So, wanna see some cool stuff I've been looking at when I am bored and no one is around?

I got the new CB2 catalog in the mail yesterday, and although a lot of it is way modern for me, I like to so much of it! I am the type who wants to mix modern decor with old grandma-y stuff, so I thought some of it was way neat and am coveting a lot of it. I can't get some of the pics to come up on my blog, but you should check out the website and the new catalog.

These are some hanging vases I am coveting from CB2. On sale even, super cheap, but what a great idea! I think I may order a couple.





These plates I found are on sale at Pier 1. Not that I can run out and buy them or anything, but I thinking I want to start mixing and matching my dinner wear in reds and whites so these would be perfect.


I have been super into gardening this year and am really into doing anything that spruces up the yard. Isn't this little birdie house cute?


Another covet of mine: Tom's Shoes. Ever heard of them? Its an AMAIZING company with an amazing mission. I love these red polka dot shoes. Before I post the pic, I sort of have a beef with Tom's shoes, not the company, but my husband. I bought him some last year and they were too small, he NEVER returned them so I'm sure they're way beyond the point of being able to. They're still sitting in our utility room for whenever he feels up to calling them to figure it out. We'll see. But here is my fave:

Renewed Interest in Design

In the few moments I've had to bask in my in-between-classes glory (didn't last but like, 2 seconds, I was done with my final last night I started to work on a paper this morning) I've had some time to think about design. This was prompted by some bad behavior of two dogs-- mugshots below:


Morris- aka "new guy." Love him. needs a home though.


Lucy-- aka "first born."


The other night while Jeff and I were watching (and getting very excited) Obama give his awesome democratic nominee speech these two hooligans tore the quilt on top of the bed to shreds. I LOVED that thing. It was a gift from the Fowlers and Dockerys-- a quilt from Anthropologie that I basically designed our whole bedroom around. Since then I've been frantically looking for a replacement to much disappointment. I think I might have found two candidates that would work with our two primary goals: #1-Budget. #2-color scheme of orange, pink, purple, and cream. Here are the two candidates, both from Ikea. Votes?

Number one:


Number two:



In other news I took pictures of the house today. I have updated a few things here and there and wanted to share the goodness on my flickr site. Thought someone who stops by the blog might wanna take a gander as well. Enjoy!