Fun and Flirty!

Fun and flirty this scarf is! I made this yesterday and it is so easy, you could make one too! See below for super, duper easy instructions.

Flirty Scarf:
1. Purchase three quarters of a yard of cotton knit.
2. Cut three 7" strips from salvage to salvage.
3. Line the three strips of knit on top of each other and iron flat.
4. Measure in 3.5" from edge and pin entire length of strip.
5. Sew down the center where pins are.

6. After stitching the center, iron flat again and make cuts into each side about one half inch apart. (You don't need to be super accurate as the fringe will roll.)
7. After making all your cuts on both sides of strip, wash and dry.
8. Take out of dryer and wrap around your neck!

Let me know if you make one, I'd love to see your creation!

Sunday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for my friend calling and dragging my butt to church. Awesome message of surrender!

Random Musings.

Today is a day of random musings, bear with me, you may smile, drool a little or shriek in horror...

This is chicken fried steak from Hash House A Go Go, the most fabulous of fab breakfast eateries in San Diego. I tried this yummy-ness for the first time this week and am in LOVE. If one could be in love with food that is!

After dining with friends last night and comparing notes about the best farmer's markets around town, Mr Man, The Kid, and I headed down to Little Italy this morning for some fresh greens and other culinary surprises. This coffee truck has won awards apparently, and they make a Chai Latte that would be hard to beat.

Imagine putting something like this in your soft palate... ouch!

On the way back from the market, Storm Troopers were storming our hood for some lemonade customers. Alex's Lemonade Stand is a fundraising for childhood cancer and our neighbors go all out for this yearly event. Apparently, you can't even keep the force away!

And finally, remember around the first of the year when we acquired The Beast Toby our puppy? Our neighbor wasn't too happy about the early mornings puppies love to torment us with. Today, she got her own alarm clock...

The barking and yelping has been nonstop for the entire afternoon. Our dogs are parked under the bushes that line our fence... life is a little upside down again. Paybacks are a b#@$% I guess!

Happy Weekend!

Saturday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for some delightful greens to juice with!

Just a pop of color.

A few days ago, I painted a mural for my lovely friend Nita. Her daughter is having a baby (can you guess if it's a boy or girl?) and her room needed some dazzle since she has been out of the house for many years. Picking up some leaves and florals from the bedding, I began to dazzle.

Starting with chalk drawings, here I am filling in the shapes...

It's starting to take shape...

Just a pop of color and we'll call it a day...

Happy Friday!

Thursday's Gratitude:

I am so grateful to see friends alongside a movie.

Friday's Gratitude:

I am so grateful for the stumbling block of not being able to register for the exact class I want for it reminds me to stop and trust in the process.

My blog has been ignored a little bit as of late. The kid is in a half day camp this week and I'm beside myself with a few hours to myself, I haven't been keeping up with my regularly scheduled life! Here's a little of what has materialized on the art table lately. This is a screen printed pillowcase for a dance team event....

room by Judith Balis for HGTV

I thought it would look fabulous in THIS room. This room is SO fab that I'm thinking of painting some black and white stripes around my house somewhere. Not sure how this will go over with The kId and Mr Man, maybe they won't notice?

Tuesday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for a fun mural to turn out quite well and a super fun birthday celebration with good, good friends!

Wednesday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for some yummy food and coffee with a dear friend.

Free printable cards.

Late last night while not being able to sleep at 1 AM, I trolled around some creative blogs and found these super cute printables. You print the envelope too and cut it out! So much fun... AND it's FREE! Go here to download a few for yourself!

Love, love, love.

Style AND comfort, I must be dreaming!

The past few days I have been experiencing some pain in my foot, in the arch of my foot to be exact. Enough pain to seriously need some orthopedic type shoes. Sigh. It's from wearing very flat shoes without much support. Sadly, I have done this to myself and the only thing to do is either rest (which isn't going to happen) or get some shoes with some serious support. OK. OK. Serious support means down right ugly not very attractive in my mind so much to my surprise when I stumbled upon these babies by Mephisto at the walking store in Little Italy....

Look at the very cute detail! Style AND comfort, oh my!

AND the very best part is... I saw these in white patent in Nordstrom with $150 price tag and these lovely bronze sweets just happened to be HALF OFF at the walking store! They had just marked down their flip flop type shoes a half an hour before we walked in there! Woot, woot! Hello busy life, there is no slowing down here! I'm walking on a cloud.

Monday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for 3 lovely hours to myself this morning AND some walking comfort!

Summer is for fun.

Faces of summer fun! Complete joy.

Sunday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for some fun creative projects coming up!

I dream in turquoise.

OK. So, the next morning after I applied this metal/patina process to my cabinet, the coarse sandpaper came out and I profusely tried to remove as much of this hideousness as I could. Ugh, quickly another plan produced itself...

Sadly, part of this plan involved making three trips to Walmart for a paint by Sherwin Williams called Cozumel. I KNOW, I KNOW! Walmart for paint? It was a paint recommended by another turquoise furniture lover so I thought I'd give it a chance. However, Cozumel was not available so instead I listened to the universe telling me to go with my own instincts. My instinct selected this dreamy turquoise paint called Blue Egg by Valspar at Dixieline Lumber.... and it is perfect. Absolutely perfect!

The first coat of paint goes on and it is looking much better...

After the second coat, I rubbed on Jacobean stain by Minwax to give it a worn in look.

Me likey very much. I want to paint ALL my furniture this color. Don't think the troops would agree though, so for now it's gonna be this one show stopper!

Turquoise is my favorite color. What is yours?

Saturday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for a leisurely day.

San Diego is on the map!

Between painting many coats of paint onto my large cabinet, finishing files for birthday graphics for a large retailer, and playing with my dogs, I FINALLY finished this map. It is for the FAB website, www.theydrawandtravel.com. It is just in time for their contest too... wish me luck! (You can click on the file to see it larger!)

Friday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful to end the week with a gorgeous cabinet in my favorite color, finished work and a refreshing dip in a pool! What are you grateful for?

Not always what you think...

Today, I decided to tackle a project I've been sitting on for several years. I have had this cabinet (from the 70's) sitting in my house, waiting for a paint job. Not knowing quite what to do with it, I let a bit of time go by and pretty soon years slipped by. Well, no more. However, I am not sure if I should have left it alone...

Cabinet with knobs removed and sanded WAY down...

Cabinet with hideous copper primer...

Cabinet with ONE coat of patina finish... still transforming...

Couldn't wait to watch cabinet transform any longer so I decided to watch this disappear instead...

Tomorrow I am hoping to finish the cabinet and really hoping it will turn out as lovely as my mind had it all figured out to be. No matter what, I'll post the finished product. Gulp.

Thursday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for three mural consults today.

More silly rhymes.

Ahhh, beach the today was lovely. Cold breeze and cold water but still lovely none the less. Three questions though...

1. Why do boys like to throw sand?
2. How come sunscreen can trigger such vivid memories?
3. What is it about sunshine that makes people want to eat?

Wednesday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for sunscreen smelling so yummy!

Swaying in the breeze.

I like me some rhymes. How about you?

I don't know about you but I've seen palm trees and an ocean breeze only a handful of times this summer. I think I need to do something about that tomorrow. I'll be dragging three boys to the beach for some summer fun while I sit under an umbrella reading a trashy magazine.

Tuesday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for a busy productive day that includes clean dogs, clean car, and clean bathrooms.

Imperfections.

This quote stumbled into my view today and I am enamored. How about you? What grabbed your attention today?

Monday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for lots of time to get a lot of nothing done.

Karma... Chameleon.

Today is a day for a nice quote, and thanks to the wonderful Wayne Dyer, I have one for you. I suppose this one came to me because I've been very conscious lately about how I react to people. I used to get so upset by some of the things that morons certain individuals would say and I'd stew about it for days. (And trust me, it's AMAZING what dumb things have been said to me.) Then BIG things happened in life and I realized that it's ALL really small stuff. It's not worth my time to spend ANY of it on useless senseless people. So. I. Stopped. Reacting... Mostly. (I must say it's still fun to imagine them tripping in public though.)

How about you? Do you react blindly or thoughtfully?

Sunday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for The Kid to have some swim time with his cousins!

Life is crazy and then there's the circus...

We went to the circus last night. I've only been one time before and that was when I was a little girl visiting my relatives in New York. This show last night was quite a spectacular event, in fact it was much more than I had imagined. Here are some photos to share...

Wow. That's what I have to say. Oh, and clowns still freak me out. How about you?

Saturday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for the chance to walk early in the morning in Balboa Park.

Brewing ideas.

Something percolating on my computer... not quite finished yet so only a sniff right now.

Friday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for fun projects, nice summer weather and the circus coming to town.

Cupcake.

I am stepping out the door to celebrate my sister's best friend's birthday, who has now become my really good friend. Birthdays are a really, really good thing in life and hopefully this celebration will contain a cupcake... or two.

And maybe a handmade flower pin...

Do you like to celebrate birthdays?

Thursday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for life's little celebrations.

A thousand words.

Some more Etsy love... I am humbled.

How about you? What humbles you?

Wednesday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for one on one time with my niece and also very grateful for a cleanse I'll be starting tonight.

Fingers crossed... apple sauce.

This is a project I worked on a few weeks ago with a large shopping mall and The San Diego Children's Discovery Museum. It was a quick project with many pieces that ranged considerably in size. It makes me nervous when something has to be pretty small and quite large so my fingers were crossed.

So yesterday, I got to uncross my fingers as I stopped by this large shopping mall and snapped a quick photo of one of the signs.

How about you? What makes you cross your fingers and hold your breath?

Monday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for a day to accomplish lots of little projects that have been stacking up.

Sommatime, sommatime.

I'm enjoying this time of year so much. How about you?

Sunday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for the horrible beast who has turned sweet and an outdoor play to go see tonight! What are you grateful for?

Summer Travel.

Ahhh, summer travel. I would love me some summer travel right now... Paris, Portofino, Quebec. But for now, a little summer travel treasury will have to do. Thank you Susan Siegel for the Etsy love!

How about you? Where would you like to travel to?

Friday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for six lovely hours at the water slide park. Summer time fun!

Saturday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for the most beautiful warm summer day.

Courage has many languages.

Courage is showing up even when you really, really, really don't want to. Courage is jumping into your fear feet first. Courage is saying something nice when all you want to do is scream out something really unkind. Courage is trying to keep the peace when things are out of control chaotic. Courage is choosing to not be offended. Courage is being vulnerable and raw. Courage is painting a wall bright pink. And least of all but most important...

How about you? What is courage to you?

Thursday's Gratitude:
I am really grateful for air conditioning on a hot and humid day.