Green thumb anyone?

I don't think I have a green thumb. Which is unfortunate because I love plants.

The only plant that I have managed to keep alive for any amount of time was a Mother-in-Law's tongue that lived on my desk for the 5+ years in Las Vegas. I think it liked the pretty much constant fluorescent light.

Which is funny because I pretty much hate fluorescent light.

I left it there in the care of a good friend so hopefully it is still soaking up the fluorescent light and getting the remaining contents of some water bottles from time to time.

Anyway I bought this really cool elephant ear plant and I am not doing to well with it.

I read online (so it must be true) that they need alot of water. Well I am giving it plenty of H2O but I keep losing leaves. They just dry up and droop all of a sudden. It is making me really sad. 

Maybe it isn't getting enough light. It is pushed right up to the window sill and all, practically making out with the window, but maybe it isn't enough? I refuse to bust out any fluorescent light bulbs though so I am hoping this is not the problem.

I may resort to singing soon. "May" being the operative word. 

I want you to live plant! You are so perfect for the corner of my breakfast room! 

What are your favorite house plants. Any good ones that are easy to keep alive? What do you say green thumbs out there. Help a sister out!

Summer is slipping away

and that is okay!

I mean it is going good! I am getting used to the downpours in the afternoons. Mostly because I have been cool and dry in my home when they have happened.

That is until today.

That is until I was held hostage in JoAnn's. Usually one of my favorite stores.

But not when I was going on hour 3 of being there!

I was with my darling niece at a super cool craft class. And we were all good for the first two hours. The first two hours were occupied with glueing, wrapping fabric around foam core, decorating a super cool "Memo Board" for her room.

Then the girls even painted some birdhouses. Gratis from JoAnn's because the class ended early and I was the only mom/aunt that stayed with her child, so there was an hour to kill before the other kids were picked up.

I could have left right then. I have a car and a license.

Oh how I should have left right then!!! But no, Miss Reilly wanted to go shopping. She had money burning a hole in her Hannah Montana coin purse. And since I was not in a hurry I said OK!

Big mistake.

Not five minutes into the shopping in the toy/craft aisle did I hear it... the thunder.

I should have said "let's go lady"!

But no, I am new to this rain thing, and I try to be the "cool" aunt, so I didn't pay much attention. Then I heard the drumming. The drumming, droning, very loud sound of rain on a tin box roof!!!

So for the next hour we shopped slowly. Went back to the craft room. Played hang man with the other two girls and the teacher. Watched the dynamic of three 7-8 year old girls, who otherwise did not know each other, play a game. Interaction at this age is interesting. A preclude to teenage years. But less straight forward. Realized that the teacher of the class was 19, which made me feel immediately ancient. It was a long hour. Complete with drumming, droning, sound of rain on a tin roof.

With the constant downpour not letting up at ALL, I decided to purchase an umbrella. A common item in all stores in this part of the country I have found. Thank the Lord.

We made a dash for it. With the help of the very helpful "education manager" to carry the memo board, painted birdhouse and various bags that we had with us. We made it! Wet but, in the car, and on the way  HOME!!!

So in conclusion, if you hear the Thunder, and you think you might be able to escape before getting drenched, DO IT. It wasn't horrible, I did not suffer any pain or dismemberment, but it was a lesson to be learned.

Because no matter how much you like a store, being held there against your will for an hour, is still an hour that you keep thinking over and over again...

What else could I be doing right now?

Set up Shop

I just finished setting up my Etsy shop! It was fairly painless. 

Check out my shop cocolemon.


First I had to brainstorm on the name. I wanted something chic and stylish but also fresh. So CocoLemon it is! Plus that one wasn't taken as a few of my other combos were. Cocolime for example. Which I am actually glad about because I could not stop singing "You put the lime in da Coconut..." all night last night! 


But I like CocoLemon! It is rich and juicy! 


Here is a sample of what I am offering in my shop. 

They are travel baby wipes cases that I have covered and embellished with hot fabrics and trims. I have seen these at baby boutiques and even purchased one in the past for one of my friends. She asked me if I made the one I gave her at my baby shower. I said no, I didn't, but I probably could. So I decided to make a few for my sister-in-law who is about to have twins. I had such a good time doing it I thought, what the heck, I am going to set up shop! 

So I did! I love doing crafty creative things like this. It keeps me inspired! It is therapeutic sometimes. To just get lost it the craft and then voila! you end up with a gorgeous creation!

Not Me Monday

So this week I did not come down with a wicked cold. I was not out of commission for two days. I did not lay on the couch and refuse to let anyone in the house except for my husband. My sister-in-law did not bring me a very much needed care package with medicine, magazines and orange juice and I did not have her leave it on my front porch. I did not hunker down and pretend I wasn't at home when our neighbors came by to buy our old fridge. Not me.


I did not have a "deadline" on Friday to get some shower decorations done for my brother and sister-in-law's baby shower 5 states away. I did not need to get the package in the mail by the end of the day. Of course I had not procrastinated on this until it was down to the wire. No. Not me. Never.


I did not set up shop at the kitchen table with my kleenex boxes, hand sanitizer and giant glass of fluids and work through the sickness.

I did not power through the day self-medicating with Sudafed non-drying sinus (the miracle pill), Mucinex, Zyrtec, nasel spray and alternating Tylenol and Advil. 

 

Throughout the process I was not having fun even though I was ill. I do not find great joy in making things. Not me ever. 

I did not break out my interior design drafting/model tools. They are now not being used for completely different purposes than they were originally purchased for. However I do not think this is wonderful. Why not?

These are not the first nephews on my side of the family. We are not all very excited. 

I did not get the package in the mail on time. I was not super excited and happy to contribute even though I will not be able to attend the shower. 

I did not go right back to the couch after I got back from the post office. Nope not me.

Apple Paltrow Move Aside

I have a new love. It weighs next to nothing, measures a little over 13" wide and has skin of stainless steel.

Anyone guess yet?

Yes, it is my new Apple Macbook pro! I love it. It is exquisite. The day it arrived on my doorstep I rejoiced. I knew I could give it a happy home and that we would grow to be great friends.

Okay but seriously this thing is awesome. I am having so much fun getting to know the programs and I am super impressed so far. There are so many people that have always sworn by Macs and now I know why. I have hopped over to our HP a couple of times to download files to transfer and I am all disoriented on it now! Funny since I have used that computer every day for like four years!

The packaging was even exquisite. Minimal and crisp.

I just thought this was funny.

When I turned it on it was like watching HD television for the first time. You never knew that what you were watching (regular TV) was all that bad but just try and watch a football game now in non-HD. It drives me crazy! All blurry like there is dust on the camera lens.

                                        

But this screen is awesome. My pictures look better, movies look better, even this blog looks better! Just kidding. Oh and not that I need to disclose this because I have never been paid for anything that I have written - but no, the huge Apple co. did not pay for this endorsement of their computers! Just thought I would put that out there lest I be attacked by some blog police. 

Oh and if you thought this was actually a blog post about Apple Martin-Paltrow I apologize, but here is a sweet picture of Gwen's daughter to appease you.

                                        
I love my Mac! Call me Apple Fuhrer! Now I just need an iPhone and an iPad. It seriously is an evil empire. Making you fall in love with their products. Damn you Steve Jobs!!!

Just kidding, Love you! Muah!

                                      

Not Me Monday - Hurley edition

We do not have an extremely sweet pug-mix dog named Hurley. He is not a very loyal dog and he does not follow us around everywhere we go. He is not always by our side watching everything we do from brushing our teeth, to making dinner, to watching TV.

My husband and I did not go over to some friends' house this Saturday night and we did not get home very late in the night. We always come home at a reasonable hour and get to bed at a decent time! My sleepy husband and I did not go about our normal routine of going to bed and locking up the house.

We did not wake up late the next morning. We did not look around and realize that Hurley was no where to be found. This is not extremely unheard of and a strange occurrence in our house. We would not expect something like this from our other dog Roxy who is not more of an independent dog who is not known to sneak off to rooms to sleep all by herself. Roxy was not sitting in our bed acting like nothing was wrong.

We did not hop out of bed and frantically start calling Hurley's name. We did not open all of the doors in the house and we did not find Hurley in our front spare bedroom. He was not chilling on the futon wagging his tail. He did not follow my husband into that room the night before and my husband did not close the door not realizing that Hurley was still inside. We would never lock an animal in a room and not realize it.

We did not feel very guilty. I did not lavish him with attention for the rest of the day because I felt so guilty. He is not a dog and he was not safe and unharmed what-so-ever. He was absolutely not unaffected in any way. But I did not still feel horrible. Nope, I would never treat my dogs like they where actual children. No way. I know that they are not children! I know that Hurley will be fine and will not grow old with feelings of abandonment. Of course not.

Of course.

Cinco de My-OH!

So I am sitting at the dinner table this Wednesday evening enjoying a delicious and creative meal with my husband. I was a little proud of my new creation for Cinco de Mayo. I had planned out the menu for the week and had Stuffed Bell Peppers on the menu for the evening. But being the ever-festive I wanted to make something Mexican. Opening the fridge and doing a quick assessment I found all the makings to create my wonderful creation.

Mexican Stuffed Bell Peppers! I know the name isn't that creative but I was still proud.

I simply took some leftover taco meat from Monday and substituted it for ground beef in my normal Stuffed Bell Pepper recipe. I also subbed the salsa for the fresh tomatoes. Topped it with some taco sauce and cheddar cheese, whipped up a side of guacamole, and viola! I accomplished my Mexican feast and I was met with praise for my efforts.

So as I was sitting there I thought "I should write a blog about this, but no it isn't really design related, but who cares it is still creative, but I wanted to try and focus the blog more on being about design, but ya' know what? this is me, this is one of the things that I love to do, cook and be creative, break the rules a little, YA I am going to break my own rules and just be more myself in the blog! That is what I am going to do!"

So that was my Cinco de My-OH!

My life is what I want to write about. I think that who I am and all of the different things that I love is a huge part of what makes me a good designer. It is all the aspects of my life combined that fuel my creativity. I am not one dimensional. There are many things that I find inspiration in. So I am going to share all of those things.

Cooking, books, traveling, entertaining, preparing to be a mother someday, and of course design!

So from now on I will not tie myself down to one subject. It just doesn't work for me. I am multi-faceted and I want to share it!

Let me know if you want the recipe that sparked this epiphany!

Adios!