The OC what a bummer

Apr 30, 2013

We spent all of Sunday in Orange County. Besides Balboa Island and Disneyland, the OC is not my favorite place to be. I don’t know what it is about that place but it rubs me the wrong way. It’s a weird unexplainable vibe but I don’t know why I give that place such a bad rep, it has one of the best malls in California, The South Coast Plaza. I haven’t been there in ten years *I bought my wedding dress from there* As you know a few weeks ago I ordered our cabinet knobs, a new light fixture and the drawer pulls from Pottery Barn online. Lo and behold I received the package but no drawer pulls. I checked my order status and it says in process. I waited a week later and I noticed the amount for the pulls were credited to my bank account. Okay, that’s strange I checked my emails and saw nothing from PB. I go to the site and discover my order status went from being in stock, to in process and now it says backordered until 7/16/2013!! Now I have high expectations from a store like Pottery Barn but to not send me an email to notify me that an item I already purchased 3 weeks ago was on backorder, that seems shady. I called customer service and they gave me a spiel about there being thousands of orders everyday and they don’t have time to notify the customer. Well, I’m fully expecting some kind of discount for my trouble and they would send me the pulls immediately but she gave me a big fat “We’re sorry” and she tells me I can go to the Costa Mesa store and buy them there. Ummm, okay PB that’s totally uncool of you. So I got dissed really hard by them I had to drive all the way to the South Coast Plaza even though there are like 30 Pottery Barns near me. Lucky for them, I had to go out there to pick up a few things from West Elm anyway. I picked up Antz Mom to join us and we made a day of it. I got to the store and almost had a heart attack when I looked for the pulls and there weren’t any. Fortunately, they found some in the back but then I opened one to make sure it was the right color to find the screws were missing. Sheesh, Pottery Barn, get your shit together! You totally left a sour taste in my mouth after years of being a loyal customer.

We then went to West Elm and found everything I needed. That place rocks! Most of the items were on sale online but they match the price in store too and a few items were on sale that I didn’t expect to be. I saved so much I picked up an extra goody for the kitchen.

New things makes me happy happy

We had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe which is a totally cheesy, touristy place but Liv loved it. There was a guy making balloon animals and this dude was like the Lord of Balloons. I asked him if he majored in balloon making in college because there was nothing he couldn’t make. He told me his trade secret, it’s all in the quality of the balloons. He made Ariel The Little mermaid, Spiderman, the Sistine Chapel…he was fascinating to watch in action.

It was very difficult to get her to eat with so many animal distractions

Lord of the balloons

Princess Bratface

How cute is my hubby and his Mommy?

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Queen Bratface

We drove down to Laguna Beach but it was too chilly to walk on the beach. It was a nice trip but I’ll stay up north where I belong. So a week has been added to our timeline but I’m so happy with the progress. If anyone is looking for a contractor or handyman, email me. Pottery Barn…you really need to improve your customer service because I’m not a happy camper!

A – Z of Elizabeth

Apr 28, 2013

This is what happens when SNL is a re-run.

A. Age: trente-six

B. Bed size: queen, which is ridiculous for humans of our stature

C. Chore that you hate: used to be washing dishes before we got our plumbing fixed, now it’s cleaning the toilet, cleaning the litterbox and cleaning Liv’s potty – anything poop related.

D. Dogs:
none at the moment, when Liv turns 5 or 6, we’ll look into adopting. *I want a pug, Antz wants a bulldog

E. Essential start to your day: pee, brush my teeths, saying good morning to Liv in French, and turning off our house alarm system

F. Favorite color: green, pink and turquoise

G. Gold or Silver: either but lately I LOVE GOLD!!

H. Height: five foot ten *I’m a giant*

I. Instruments you play: merely for fun, I play a little piany and a mean kazoo

J. Job title: Liv’s unpaid nanny and former hair stylist

K. Kids: Light of my life, Olivia Lily

L. Live: Hipster Highland Park, California

M. Mother’s name: Bobbye Jean

N. Nicknames:
Liz *which I find to be boring* Aimee calls me Lizzie, my Mom has called me Bethye since I was born. Antz and I have a secret nickname for each other.

O. Overnight hospital stays: Luckily only 2 nights when I gave birth to our daughter

P. Pet peeves: The phrase “At the end of the day,” when people leave the light on in rooms they aren’t using, Vaguebookers, panhandlers in Los Angeles, how annoyingly poor my grammar is

Q. Quote from a movie: “Constantly talking isn’t necessarily communicating.” Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and “Oh, please, tell me, Elizabeth, how exactly does one suck a fuck?” Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko

R. Right or left handed: Righty tighty!

S. Siblings: none!!

T. Tattoos: none, but maybe when I turn 69?

U. Underwear: I’mma keep it real, I don’t wear thongs unless it’s necessary, I adore my girl shorts in black. Totally comfy and never gives me wedgies!!

V. Vegetable you hate: ALL OF THEM!! I particularly loathe raw onions

W. What makes you run late: procrastination, hair snafus and constantly having to run back upstairs to grab something I forgot

X. X-Rays you’ve had: recently I had my back x-rayed. Is that the proper past tense for x-ray?

Y. Yummy food that you make: spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread and a mean grilled cheese sandwich. When our new kitchen is finished, I vow to cook more often *and plan to take a cooking class*

Z. Zoo animal: Polar bears make me extreme happy. I also could watch elephants forever

I found this post on Our City Lights. Diana has much more interesting answers.

Our new kitchen floors!

Apr 28, 2013

Beautiful is an understatement. The crew was here at 8 am this morning and by 2pm, we had brand new kitchen floors. The house is full of the sweet smell of fresh wood and I’m finding it surreal walking into our kitchen without the familiar sounds of old floorboards creaking.

The floors looked like this on Friday

All done!!

They are so pretty I want to breakdance on them!

Liv says “Mom, I like your new floors!”

Antz and I are even contemplating leaving them this natural color. Rene *our rad contractor* said it would be harder to maintain and we already chose a dark stain. I do want a distressed finish, so we may take a hammer to them. We’ll see.

These are our old *literally 90 years* drain pipes

This little hole is not where you will find Alice and the white rabbit but this…


The new drain pipes that no longer back up in the bathtub when we do laundry and allows us to flush the toilet, do laundry and turn on all the sinks at once without any change in pressure!!

Sadly, this will most likely be the last update I share until the kitchen is finished. I want it to be a grand reveal and I am terrible at keeping secrets. I may leak a few photos on my Instagram.

This is how I’m feeling at the moment!

Oh, this man’s voice gives me shivers!!

My Favorite Things: Mothers Day Gift Edition

Apr 28, 2013

In the middle of the kitchen remodel, *our new floors are being installed as I write this!!* May is approaching faster than I’d like, mostly because I am swamped with things to prepare for my busiest month of the year, June *Liv’s birthday, my BFF’s son Holden’s high school graduation, Poppa’s day, Liv’s summer break & Antz birthday, whew!*

Luckily, May is a nice, long month and I will soon have a beautiful new kitchen to play with. Since Mother’s day is a nice day to receive gifts from my lovelies, why not nudge them in the right direction.

All mom wanted for Mother's day was to be shit balls drunk ecard - funny ecards

I couldn’t think of a more appropriate gift for our new kitchen! Sadly it’s sold out but I emailed the guy who makes them to see if he can make me one.

Hello Lionel Richie Ritchie Is it Tea Teapot Tea For One

My favorite pair of pink slip on Vans are on their last leg.

My beloved Pink Vans in happy times

Since I can’t find the slip ons in pink in my size anywhere *keep your eye out for a size ten for me!* I could replace them with these. I prefer the convenience of non laces but these are still cute.

Vans Authentic Sneaker

I also like these. Classic!

Puma Womens Glyde Lo Shoe

I’ve always been a big fan of Volkswagens *I have owned a Convertible Rabbit, two new Beetles, a Jetta and my current car is a Tiguan* I think everyone has fantasized about owning a rad VW Bus and road tripping along the coast. The colors are so cool and those curtains are adorable. I never understood why VW couldn’t modernize the interior features but keep the same body as the ones from the 60s? Well, since a bus isn’t logical for us, I would sure love this guy as a cute substitute! You can even create the inside too.

LEGO Creator Volkswagen T1 Camper Van

My laptop case doesn’t function as well as I need it too *hint, need room for my plug, iphone cord and other laptop related junk*

MARC BY MARC JACOBS Pretty Nylon – Computer Commuter Bag

This bag has a strap and goes so well with my new snazzy ipad case I got on super sale from Nordstrom. I’m sensing a pink theme here.

I have been wanting a record player for years now. I am glad I didn’t get one yet because this guy is so pretty and is exclusively at Urban Outfitters

AV Room Portable USB Turntable By Crosley

Well, I need to have a few records to play on it, right? Here are some I hope to find at one of Highland Park’s local record stores.

Björk Debut

Tom Waits Rain Dogs

Paris Combo Attraction

Lana Del Rey Born to Die

Joanna Newsom The Milk-Eyed Mender

This pouch is super sweet. Plus it reminds me of my favorite MJ cover by Nite Jewel.

Rebecca Minkoff Cory Sayings Pouch “Pyt”

Mother’s Day isn’t complete without a homemade breakfast, a card and some jool-ree!!

This is lovely without breaking the bank but sadly sold out. My Eat Cake for Breakfast bag

was sold out for years and I still got it, so you never know.

kate spade | things we love charm bracelet

Mommy’s Day is two weeks away, any items you have your eyes on?

Just a few hiccups

Apr 26, 2013

I am starting to believe there is no such thing as an easy peasy remodel. I am totally happy with the work, the mere speed and the compromise of our contractor, Rene. However, we have to pay an additional $400 for the wall patching/painting. To be fair, our walls feel like they have braille written on them and are as crooked as a dog’s hind leg so it’s a big job to make them appear straight.

Doesn’t it seem that most kitchens have a pastel wall color?

Smooth as butter!

Guess who still hasn’t chosen a wall color? This girl! We are going to look at a new store because I’ve exhausted every single color choice Home Depot sells. In the long run, $400 is a bargain for painting the walls *since it would take us a week and look like shit and only take them a few days* but that $400 has to come from somewhere. So it happens to be my fucking metal stools and new curtains budget!! I’m optimistic about it though, we are selling Liv’s stroller and once we do, I’ll have my $400 back for my stools and fabric for making new curtains. Yesterday I had to buy house paint since they had to cut through the wood siding to access the bathroom pipes. Yay! Another $73 on stupid paint.

Pretty incredible before and after

Today the guys are working on our fence. Tomorrow, they are installing our new hardwood floors. Somebody buy our rad stroller so I can buy my stools!!!

Our Craigslist ad

I was planning to have a much needed date night and go see Room 237 tonight with my sweetums but after playing at the Laemmele *aka the old folks movie theater* for weeks, it’s no longer playing. Boo! Maybe we’ll just go to dinner, I’ve been wanting steak and I could use a drink!

Happy Friday!!

Enjoy some Goopy rapping courtesy of My Man Michael K!

Kitchen Progress…at last!

Apr 24, 2013

Monday began like this…

It took 2 hours to remove our 90 year old cabinets

Awesome hole right?

Even more progress yesterday afternoon…

Oh, you beautiful drywall and 3 new electrical outlets!

Our grody ninety year old galvanized pipes were almost completely closed with gunk.

Sweet copper pipes! We got a new fancy shmancy Delta Showerhead too.

Our pipes to our washing machine were the worst. They were installed in reverse so when the laundry was set to use hot water, it would be cold and the cold water took hours to come out. One load of laundry would take two hours.

This may look unexciting but a majority of our remodel budget went towards new copper pipes. Our house was on it’s last leg in the plumbing department. By Thursday we should have wonderful water pressure!!

Sunday’s Ikea delivery went smoothly and we somehow managed to fit everything in the living room.

I am so excited about our dishwasher!

The delivery guys ran the boxes up our stairs like they weighed nothing. In two weeks, the new cabinets, countertop, sink, faucet and dishwasher will be installed. So far, everything is on schedule and going according to plan. *knock on wood* We had a few hiccups but nothing major. Our amazing contractor Rene told us that our floors are in such bad shape, we can’t refinish them. *Boo* So now we are getting new floors that he will install on top of the old floor. Which means I have to find new floors that look old and distressed.

This is me…

I can’t wait until I can start decorating! I found our stools at a fraction of the cost. We are still undecided on the wall paint.

I like the bright white *Marshmallow white #2 but I do agree with Antz, we may need some contrast from the white trim. I’m not sold on these colors yet, the natural looks like dirty white.

We are going to Jill’s Paint in Atwater Village this weekend to see what they have. This has been the hardest to choose so far.

Happy Kitchen Renovations, so far!

Apr 21, 2013

I know I haven’t been posting regularly lately but we have been busy bees. So much progress has taken place in the last week in our kitchen. We still have 3 more weeks of scheduled work.

I can’t give everything away now but here’s a few sneak peeks.

Rene and *sorry I forgot the other dude’s name* working hard so we don’t have to!

I’m so happy we chose to keep the uppers. It saved so much money and they look 1000 times better!

What a difference some paint makes.

I’m super excited about the new kitchen! The next few weeks will be busy. Our demo crew starts on Monday, then the plumbing. I am sure once the plumbing is repaired we will use less water since it takes forever now to wash dishes or do laundry since the pressure sucks so bad. I’m crossing my fingers our water bill goes down significantly.

Today Ikea is delivering our cabinets. All 800lbs! We cleared some space in the living room.

We cut this pile in half, by donating, selling and recycling a bunch of junk

But the new cabinets are gonna have to chill in the garage until the floors are done. I did save some money by finding a new company to install our cabinets but I promise to post a more detailed account of the remodel experience once everything is finished. So from here on out, I’ll share a few photos of progress but Antz is swearing me to secrecy until we can do a grand reveal. I am playing around with the Nikon *hello ISO levels* to make sure I get some amazing after photos.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention, Liv went to her school’s first Parent’s Night Out last Friday. Once a month, they offer a night when we can drop her off in her pajamas at school for pizza, playing with her friends and a movie. It’s funny they chose Wreck It Ralph since that’s her favorite movie *at the moment*. See how awesome her school is? While she was at her slumber party, we went to a cocktail mixer hosted by the *rad* parent’s of one of the boys in Liv’s class. It was awesome since I haven’t had a chance to individually meet the parent’s from her class. I know most of the kids, but we really enjoyed being kid-free and meeting everyone. Cindy and Steve’s house was incredible. Now I’m thinking of sending her to Parent’s Night out every month.

Can you believe this month is almost over? I can’t. Time always flies when I’m in the midst of a project.

Happy Sunday!

Kitchen Remodel Update Week One

Apr 18, 2013

Last you saw of the kitchen we were testing wall paint choices and choosing the tile for the backsplash.

Neither of these blew my skirt up.

Antz worked his butt off for the past 2 days and sanded the years of gross paint off of the cabinets. Our kitchen went from this.

To this.

I’m estimating it will take 3 weeks to finish the kitchen. I’m still not sure which wall color we will use. These cabinets are a mess. Antz said he found at least 5 layers of paint, like a jawbreaker. I can’t wait until they are painted lily white.

While I was away at my Mom’s house I ordered the new light fixture and knobs from Pottery Barn. Our poor mailman has been delivering boxes to us everyday now. Our living room is looking like a storage room.

The new cabinets are being delivered this Sunday, YAY!! All 800lbs of boxes will be in our living room until May, BOO!! Now is a good time to donate, sell and throw away. With all this kitchen talk, I am smitten with Diana from Our City Lights amazingly bright pink Hello Kitty themed kitchen.

excuse the messy hair and the baby bump trying to make an appearance.

Darling pink kitchen via A Beautiful Mess

You can read more about her kitchen over at A Beautiful Mess

I love her bold use of color and all the Hello Kitty accessories *Antz would never go for it* but I think it’s brilliant. Did you see the Royal Tenebaums artwork and the pink chalkboard door? She is my new blog crush.
Oh, isn’t it sweet to come home to something as lovely as this?

This beautiful gem is courtesy of my hubs, our world map looks quite sophisticated!

Merci mon ami!!

A love letter

Apr 15, 2013

Dear Antzy,

Thank you, loving husband for all that you do. You are taking the next 3 days off of work…to work in our kitchen. You send me and the bebe to my Mom’s house to have fun while you do all the dirty work that would cause us to sneeze and have itchy, red eyes. You listen to me go on endlessly about all my desires and you sweetly reassure me. You are the string attached to my balloon of ideas that keeps me grounded when I become overwhelmed with color selections, budget and light fixtures. You make possible what I think is impossible.

You are patient, kind and good.

You are one in a million and we love you so much.

We miss you!

Love,

Your Girls

E & O
P.S. I really like these knobs and pulls for the kitchen cabinets.

Everything must go Sale!!

Apr 14, 2013

It’s been two years since we have been on the search for a *non crazy* affordable electrician. Yesterday I poached my neighbor’s electrician and he fixed all our lights for less than I budgeted!! *thanks Lisa & Aaron!*

These guys nearly gave me a heart attack

Is it bad when you go to Ikea and the salespeople know you by your name? Thursday night after months of exhaustive planning we finally ordered our kitchen cabinets.

Inside this folder is our new kitchen!!

I have read horror stories about the cabinets being on backorder forever or out of stock, so I was pleasantly surprised that all our cabinets were in stock and will be delivered in ONE week! I wanted to hug Jaime and Lucy for all their help and support. It took a lot of math, problem solving and thinking outside the box to get our new kitchen planned *thanks to 90 year old kitchen measurements*. So now the fire has been turned up and we need to clear out our house to make room for all the new pretty things.

Sadly for me, this means letting go of Olivia’s bebe items we no longer need. I have been holding on to them for sentimental reasons but now I’m ready to de-bebe our house. Sniff, I’m selling her gently used bebe stuff. The prices I’m listing are firm, I don’t want to spend a lot of time going back and forth negotiating. They are fair & reasonable prices and cash only por favor. Promise me they will go to a good home and you will take tons of pictures of your little ones enjoying them as we did.

Boon high chair

Liv loved her chair

I love this guy, super sturdy, rolls anywhere and very easy to clean. It comes with two clear removable trays. I’m sad to see it go, but she uses her big girl chair now. We are selling this high chair for $120.

Bugaboo Bee Stroller with cocoon attachment

Liv’s first time in the Bee *one week old*

This guy was heaven for us. The seat flips forward and backwards, the chair swivels and extends and the bar is adjustable. Folds down easily. Olivia was obviously a tall bebe so having so many options to expand the seat was excellent. She used the cocoon for about 3 months. The canopy is sold in different colors here. The Bugaboo Bee is for sale for $450 with the yellow canopy, yellow cocoon accessories and instructions included.

Babea Babycook

Cooking some kale and carrots

I’m gonna pay it forward on this one. I bought it used from an awesome lady. Ours is in good working condition, here’s the easy online instructions *sorry if you find her voice annoying but she gives a thorough demonstration*, and comes with a bebe cookbook and the orange spatula/spoon you see in the photo. $25!!


Diaper Dekor Plus

This guy can hold a million diapers. We have one bag left to get you started, they last for weeks. My husband will gladly demonstrate how to add a refill bag. I buy my biodegradable refill bags from Amazon. $25.

The last item in this insane sale is this brand new Hatley raincoat.