Category Archives: he’s crafty

Holiday Cards *The RAD ones* and a surprise too!

Hello There,

I’m sure holiday cards are flooding your mailbox *wow, doesn’t snail mail feels so foreign?* I absolutely loved our card this year. It was difficult to top past year’s awesomeness

2008 Pre-Olivia
2009 Preggers with Olivia
2010 Olivia’s 1st Christmas
2011 She’s a pro now!

This is one AWESOME card drawn by the talented Story & Chris
This card wins at everything! From Warren & Kim
Incredibly creepy and wonderful, YAY!!

I’m going to attempt to keep this brief since I must get ready for the yard sale *of pretty things* in a minute. Yesterday Antz finished the re-organization project in our laundry nook. We bought this wire holder from the Container Store to hold our card/foam board we use for our chalkboard signs *since Liv tries to draw on them. We thought we could hook it under the shelf and slide them in and out easy, peasy. Well it didn’t turn out as we imagined so Antz went to the hardware store and came back in MacGuyver mode. He built a special shelf that holds all our paper/boards and other things that were homeless. Dude! I am always blown away by his resourcefulness, he takes $10 and does the impossible. So now our shelf went from this

2008, not that bad
2009, at it’s worst, we lost the curtains due to a paint accident
Last weekend

Now look!  We got rid of so much junk and organized. I can’t tell you how overwhelmed it felt before. I would go to Target and bring stuff home with nowhere to put it. We also had to spend 10 minutes going though everything to find something. It was a Hoarders situation.
Yesterday, See my handy dandy new shelf for oversized paper and cardboard. Of course Antz is painting it white but it’s pretty
My Real Simple mags now have a cozy new home
We used the wire for my binders and other supplies, our orchid is being rehabilitated so it’s hanging out on the shelf far from Livzilla’s wrath.
We will be curtain shopping after Christmas

 LOOK WHAT I WOKE UP TO FIND!!!!

Antz painted the pantry door in chalkboard paint. I’ve been wanting to do that for a year…Happy Happy!

Holy SHIZBALLS!! I LOVE IT
Even have a cute bucket to hold chalk.

Now I must run to the sale…I’m keeping my fingers crossed I find something SPECTACULAR!

Bedroom Makeover Update

Cause I know you are all dying to know the status…

Tuesday morning Antz *the most amazing hubby ever* somehow MacGuyver’ed the bed frame

I told you I didn’t leave Target empty-handed this weekend. I found this Missoni duvet set on sale *$34.99!!* and at first I wasn’t going to get it because it was a Full/Queen but it fit our King size comforter.

Doesn’t our queen look tiny? You should see it with Antz, Me, Liv and Lola crammed into it. I want a king bed soooo bad but it would be too large for this 10 x 10 room.

 

Now that I’ve had 2 super comfy restful nights of sleep, I can get started on the makeover. You can see we desperately need a new side table. I am considering a Blik wall decal over the bed. I also want to add new artwork and pick up a new alarm clock.

Aimee is coming over to go shopping with me. She’s bebesitting Liv tonight so we can go to our friend’s birthday party. Keep your fingers crossed they have the Pavo bedding in stock!!

Make it WORK!!

I am totally exhausted at the moment. I now know exactly how the designers feel on Project Runway. I spend a great deal of today sewing *and pulling out seams* Olivia’s Halloween costume. I am feeling pretty proud of myself given the materials I was working with and the fact that my lovely model would not stand still for her fitting. She needs to have a final fitting but I am 80% done. I was worried about the tights I bought her would not fit *I found a size 7 in the closest to the color I wanted* so I’m taking Dear Timothy’s advice “Make it Work!”

Mr. Gunn was giving me the side-eye when I started but it somehow came together. Now let’s hope Liv rocks it on *the runway* at the several Halloween events we’re attending. She already is not too pleased with one of the pieces of the costume so keep your fingers crossed. Now as for Antz and mine costumes, I have no idea what we will be. I can put something together but it’s admittedly lazy route. Antz spend most of today working his trash to treasure magic on what I considered was a lost cause.

$10.00 Thrift store found in July

 
A hot tranny mess right? This guy sat behind our rolling microwave cart forgotten and unwanted for months until…

With the added fancy props

Darn you Antz!! He somehow manages to make the ugly, lovely for NO MONEY. I mean I totally want it for myself but he’s putting it for sale in our Etsy shop. It’s going to be marketed as an arts & crafts organizer. The holder on the bottom will store rolls of ribbon, CUTE! I discouraged him from using the chicken wire for the door but again, my advice is terrible. *fine, you were right* It looks super Fabby Chic!! He used our leftover paper from our medicine cabinet remodel and the Anthropologie knob was borrowed from our kitchen pantry door. He promised to get me a new one *and I’ve wanted a larger knob for that door anyway*. Speaking of the pantry door. I would LOVE to paint it with chalkboard paint and the interior badly needs re-organizing. So many projects.

So, there you have it, pretty awesome weekend. We have a busy week ahead of us *pediatrician appt, movie date and Universal Horror Nights if we get secure a sitter*

OH! Before I go…Mademoiselle Pauline Darley emailed me back *YAY* The good news is she is available to book a shoot *and super friendly, she writes with a French accent* The bad news is the quote she gave me. Yeah, about $150 over my budget. But, she is soo worth it!! Uhhh, I have 2 years and 5 months to save. I am changing my mind a million times. I would like to go in March for my 37th *eep* birthday but if we went in May we could be there during PEONY SEASON!! And that’s 2 additional months of saving!

NELA Art Walk *this time with pictures*

So I must share with you something that blew my mind. 2 Saturdays ago we walked to the Highland Park Art Walk *only 2 blocks from our house* and I was shocked to find so many art galleries on York. We went to at least 8 on one block and there was an upstairs loft over the stores that we didn’t even know existed. I cannot believe there is something cool about Highland Park after living here for 5 years. We met a ton of awesome folks and of course, Liv received dozens of compliments about her wings. I even passed out my new Etsy cards Antz made me. *I made 2 sales this week!!*

Fancy pants biz card
The walk was super fun, I hate to admit it but Highland Park is kinda cool *however my heart still belongs to Atwater Village*. Antz is all stoked about how hipster-ery the hood is becoming.

Every month we see a group of about 100 people on bikes at night, it turns out to be a biking tour that meet up for night events like the art walk. We are going to join in October when we finally get a trailer for Liv.

Hooray for crappy blurry photos!
I have never seen so many people on my street, it was packed!
We discovered this fucking rad vintage record shop *how is it I’ve never seen it before?*

I almost peed my pants when I saw the macrame in this store, Matters of Space. We met the owner *who is fucking rad* and she told me how she bought the fabric for her macrame from a dude in Tokyo. I told her about the class I took and she is going to try to find some cord for me.
I love her necklaces but they cost a million dollars

Liv played at the coffee shop on the corner, Cafe de Leche

There was a huge building on the corner we always thought was empty, to our surprise it’s an art gallery/huge warehouse full of crazy art. Sculptures, furniture and taxidermy, it was pretty awesome.

Those sculptures were made out of buttons

The chaise you are looking at was made entirely out of the tabs from soda cans… it was bananas!
You had me at Taxidermy!!
This jewelry was made out of silver flatware
We drove over to Eagle Rock to my favorite store Leanna Lin’s Wonderland. They always have the most incredible artwork *I wanna buy it all*

I wanna make one of these pendant banners for a cake so bad!
there was a mobile photo booth that we took these at

It was a little truck and you walk up a ramp in the back and there’s a curtain and you take your photos *sorry I tried to take pictures of the truck but they came out too dark* I am definitely hiring the booth for one of Liv’s birthday. I would also love to hire this adorable band that was playing in front of the warehouse. I need to look them up on itunes, they sound like a Parisian Tom Waits, really fucking rad!

The art walk happens every second Saturday of the month. I want to take my Mom but next month is Carlos & Steph’s wedding *can’t believe it’s almost here, remind me to not get stagefright* Speaking of my Mom, after close to 40 years in the music industry, she finally has her very own Wikipedia page. I am trying to work on adding her photos but I have no idea how to do it *I suck about programming html*

My Mom is mega awesome!!

She’s so cute!

My Mom played on the Rocky soundtrack…dun, dun-dun, dun, dun dun-dun dun dun duuuunn!

Mommy & Stevie

My Mommy began her career in Motown *Detroit* so she played with pretty much every single Motown band there was. I wish she didn’t write on her photos, now I’m helping her restore most of them.

Now do you see where I get my hamming it up for the camera from?

Bobbye toured the world with Bob Dylan for 2 years right after I was born. This is a pretty awesome photo of them on a train in Japan.

My Mom hired me as her make up artist when she appeared on the Late Show with Craig Ferguson with Dwight Yoakam. He begged her to go on tour with him but she wanted to stay home since I was preggers.

I don’t remember which band she was playing with but this was for a TV show in the 60s. LOVE her bouffant!!

This is her playing with her current band, she’s retired but she does perform every once in a while.

Yep, my Mommy is a superstar!

Signage

So a while back I was pinning my favorite things and I asked Antz if he could make me this print and this is what I woke up to…

FUCK I love my husband!!
If you don’t remember these are the photos that used to live there

Sorry that’s the closest I’ve got but it’s these guys

Maxwell & baby Lola

Liz & Antz at the Montery Plaza Hotel *so lovely* for his birthday
I feel so much more motivated to wake up now!! Off to meet Aimee for our Thursday date.
Au Revior!
PS Congrats to NYC for passing a historical law. If there are two things I love it’s…
Get it together California.

Let There Be LAMP!

So you remember last week I scored the lovely Orimono lampshade from Anthro on super sale? Well Antz brought home a lamp for my crafting desk. He sprayed a few coats of white spray paint and…

VOILA!

This pretty much makes me want the matching pillow, maybe one day it too shall go on sale?
Or…have I reached a new level of craftihood to attempt this pillow myself like Suzannah did over at Adventures in Dressmaking??!!
So lovelies, have you conquered any DIY projects lately? I’d love to hear about them in zee comments.
Adieu!

Yet another grownup disappointment

Well, I was all excited for my birthday this Sunday. Antz, Aimee and I were going to go sewing machine/fabric shopping. But alas, no sewing machine for Lizzie. My birthday present is a stupid water heater. I suppose I should be grateful, because we had emergency savings, we won’t have to use our credit cards and we are being responsible *LAME* I can still throw my tantrum because I’m a brat and I’m sick as a dog. It seems to be getting worse every passing day. I was hoping Liv and I would be recovering but it seems that I’ll have to cancel another playdate this Saturday. I also have to hold off on swimming lessons until the next session since I don’t want Liv in the water next Friday. So it’s with great humility that I welcome our new plumber, Martin, bearing the gift of hot water. It will only cost us $700 bells *that’s an Animal Crossing reference if you don’t know* which is a bargain compared to Malcolm’s diabolical plan to get $10k from us to repair all the plumbing. Last night Liv decided to cheer me up by biting me while I was nursing her. I mean HARD, where you could hear the crunch. *YOUCH!!* I screamed and cried. Ahh, motherhood. I don’t know if my luck could get any better. This week has been the definition of miserable.

Well last night while I was being munched on, Antz was busy working on some mysterious craft project. He wouldn’t tell me what it was so I assumed it was something for Olivia. He bestowed this lovely pin to me as I was trying to fall asleep to the horrible sounds of American Idol *I can’t stand that show, but Antz makes us watch it*

How fucking cute is this???

The funny part is, with this plumbing snafu I’ll be wearing it on my pajamas around the house on Sunday because we can’t afford to go anywhere for awhile!

I still don’t know if I’m going to visit Aimee today yet. She really wants me to see her new apartment but Martin didn’t start work until 11am and it will take about 4 to 5 hours so I won’t want to drive over there so late. I may consider it because my Mom is having a listening party in Santa Monica so maybe Aimee could babysit for us and Antz and me could stop by. Aimee really wants me to come over and pick up my birthday present, which she is assuring me is the best pres ever!!

Well, Antz is coming home for lunch *and check up on the job*

Our kitchen floor looks like this at present
 Pretty fucking cool, right?

Cough, sniff, sneeze…GROAN!!
Update: Here’s my birthday present…

Just Kidding!!
Look what my incredibly rad best friend gave me for my birthday!!
My very first pair of diamond earrings. I love them and I LOVE Patrick Bateman!!!!
I love you Aimee, you are terrific!!!

Playdate Funarama!!

I am trying to crank this out whilst *my fave word* Antz is making himself a snack and I have the Oscars on pause. Today Liv and I went to the Zimmer Children’s Jewish museum and met Aura and a few other Mummies for a playdate. Elina and Sofia were adorable as always. I attempted to make a Cat in the Hat, hat however Liv the Destroyer broke it several times, BOO!

“Nom, nom, nom”

Elina was so cute and Seuss-y

Everyone at the museum was super nice and the children were adorable!!

Playdate Mommies and our girls!
Liv LOVED the bouncy room *gotta make her a bouncy nook somewhere*
She tried her best to eat EVERYTHING she could get her hands on

Liv made friends with this 13 month cutie *Bonus, she’s from New York, I love it!!*

She fell in love with herself in the mirror

Oh, I am super fabulous!

Aura and Sofia *who is the mellowest, sweetest baby ever, like her Mommy*

Trapped!

We heart the Zimmer Children’s Jewish Museum. We had a lovely time, the place is super cute, can’t wait until our next playdate.

I took a ton of pics which I promise *pinkie swear* to upload as soon as we come back from Oscar afterparty hunting.

Okay, back on my laptop, we nixed the celeb hunting because 1. it’s tooo effing cold, brrr, 2. Antz and Olivia are both currently in snoresville and 3. I am warm, nestled in bed with my new pal electric blankie about to *prolly stay up all night* looking up lovely bathroom renos like this beauty!!

This is almost identical to how I want to makeover our bathroom!! Love these sconces!!!

Saturday rocked…
Wanna know why? Bed, Bath & Beyond gave us major discounts, that’s why!! We bought the Lancaster Floor Cabinet *on clearance marked down from $159.99 to $74.99*

Antz and I both love our new shower curtain and bath ensemble

Modern Reflections *sounds like a pretentious New Wave band, huh?* Some towels cause new towels rule and this fucking guy…..!!!!

Calm is exactly what I want in our bathroom, spa-like, relaxing and bright

I was all about keeping Maxwell & Harmony *painted by Anthony in 2002* in the newly remodeled bathroom but Antz says New room, new picture! I was jumping up and down when I saw it at BB & B *yah, I am that nerdy*

I set the budget for BB & B for $175 for the cabinet, new shower rings and the bathrug. We bought all that  PLUS, the canvas poster, matching hand towels, and my electric blankie!! I have seriously got a Linus complex now.  The total was $219.78 but after Antz sister’s employee discount it was $174.92. Me likey!!

After all that wheelin’ and dealin’ we drove up the mountain *literally* and drove into a teeny snow flurry. I filmed from the warm comforts of my car but it was surreal, we saw cars blanketed with snow in Burbank!!

//www.youtube.com/get_player

So back to today. I got home from the Mommy playdate *which was fabulous, thanks Aura!!* to find this

Okay, this is why I married Anthony. He does shit like this! I was so anxious to put together the new stuff from Bed, Bath & Beyond but I knew we had to paint, replaster the tub and install the new tile floor before we add the new stuff. Now that he has kicked it up a notch, priming the bathroom so we can go shopping for paint. We are thinking of Martha Stewart in a light grey. I am super stoked to call Malcolm and get his ass over here to fix the plumbing.

So in Memoriam….The neon green bathroom

I’m still keeping my Johnathan Adler Seven Deadly Sins *I have committed at least 5 of them, I’ll let you guess which* shower curtain because it’s feeeeeeirce!

Max & Harmony will have to find another home but it still is one of my most favorite painting by the talented and handsome hubby!
FYI: 6 of my picks won *yay, Christian Bale with your skinny, crackheadedness and fucked up ginger beard*, I should have gone to the bookies *not like I know the slightest thing about bookies but they say it alot in Casino*
Nights!

Cleaning up our Act!

As I mentioned Saturday night, we needed to clean our messy cave. That is precisely what we did Sunday morning/afternoon. I mean, deep clean, moved furniture, mopped, dusted, took everything off the shelves, went to war with the dust bunnies…

I found dust bunnies as big as Olivia under her crib, GRODY!!

I organized and de-cluttered her dresser, she had tons of clothes and accessories she no longer fits

Antz made this adorable little Brobee for her door

All sparkly and clean, too bad there is no smell-a-vision because it smells so yummy in there!
Antz picked up this guy at a Thrift shop on Friday, I wasn’t feeling it at all but I don’t have the crafty insight that he has. He has a total 6th sense when it comes to trash-to-treasure. I was complaining about not having a desk of my own and for $12.50 he went from this…
to this…

LOVE IT!! The color is fantastic, the Anthropologie knob we picked up on Saturday and the matching seat cushion *and chair we weren’t using* He even painted a matching frame for me to use once we get our pics from Disneyland next month
I’ll say it again, my husband is a GENIUS!! Somebody give him a HGTV show!

Now I’m hanging out in the living room more often instead of balancing my laptop in our bedroom. As soon as we finished cleaning and got all spiffy to go to Target *to check out the new Splendid Baby line* my Mommy stopped by. We took her next door to show her the neighbors house *there was an open house* and we found out that they dropped the price from $469k to $399k, short sale 🙁 BOO! That makes me sad but seeing the condition they left their house sort of gives me hope. They basically moved and didn’t clean, paint or make any repairs. The house is similar to ours in square footage and amenities
although they had their foundation repaired and they rebuilt their fireplace, they don’t have as much charm.
The entire house has popcorn ceilings *obviously disguising cracks*
I do like the dining room built ins and they have orginal windows like ours and Tiffany light fixtures.
the kitchen is smaller than ours.
They do have a lovely tiered landscaped backyard and a screened porch with a bathroom in their over the garage guest house. They also left their fridge, stove and this play set with the house.
I guess it’s what I expected in this market, most houses in this area are listed in the $250’s YIKES!! Their realtor is coming over this Sunday to assess our place and give us some advice on where to put our money. She is a well-known agent in this neighborhood so it would be amazing to hear what she thinks of the place.  After the open house, we went to Fresh & Easy and picked up some dinner. Antz cooked while my Mommy and I played with Liv. Antz made a yummy dinner and my Mommy showed us a documentary she had been working on for months. I am super proud of her, it looked really professional and the music she created sounded rad!

Happily, Antz had Monday off so we went to lunch with Story. Chris had to work so we picked him and some of his co-workers up and we went to this cute place called Grub.

The food was really yummy, and we had a great time until Liv started trying to eat the plants! We missed out on the farmers market so we picked up Spuzz and our friend Dave came over our house with his doggie, Bam Bam. We hung out in the backyard with the dogs *Max was super happy to have a dogdate* and the weather was beautiful. After Story & Dave left, we went to Atwater Village to sign up for the World Citizen dance class *but it was full so we have to wait until March* it’s actually better because Liv will be old enough to take the Scruffin’ Rock class. We took a lovely evening stroll around Atwater and picked up dinner. I feel terrible that I haven’t used the Wii Fit since Friday but I have definitely been active.

Most Likely to Succeed??

Possibly Maybe!!

So, Antz and I are embarking on a new venture that I am super excited about!! After much deliberation we are opening our own Etsy shop *All is Full of Love*. Björk’s probably gonna sue my ass because I am constantly using her song titles because my brain isn’t clever enough to be original. I like to think of it as a sincere form of flattery. I would have loved to name it Tout est plein de l’amour *French translation of All is Full of Love* but it’s not catchy enough. So, you must be on pins and needles with wonder of what we shall be selling in our new fabulous shoppe??!!

 

So far we have our glitter name banner listed but once we get our marketing campaign started, we may add customized mobiles like this one Antz made for Liv.
I am hoping I priced the banner competively enough, yet affordable. I’m going to Michaels tomorrow to buy more foam board to make some more samples. Antz is working on a shop header and I still have some editing to do but I am MAJORLY STOKED!! Hopefully we’ll really have a prosperous New Year. Please check our shop out.