Daily news sites

What better way to come off of a party weekend, then with another party?  My friend Jennifer, over at The Pink Pagoda is hosting a link party about all things blue and white today so I thought I would join in the fun and share some blue and white in my house.

I've spread my blue and white collection over two spaces in my house.


The bookshelves in our family room hold a lot of my blue and white. This way I have something to look at while My Little Pony is on for the millionth time.



And the rest of my blue and white to the kitchen. The little bit of pretty encourages me while I put dishes away. And I need all the encouragement I can get with that.




Hey, now I've realized that I've put my collection in the two spots where I spend the most time. Subconscious at the time, but rather smart as they always do put a smile on my face.

What about you? Do you have a collection, blue and white or otherwise, that you display in your house? Do you move it around all the time like I do I hear some people do?


Be sure to check out The Blue and White Bash over at The Pink Pagoda for more blue and white eye candy.

Happy Monday!

As you might have guessed, I like to do a little bit of shopping on vacation. (last vacation related post, promise) But I never really gravitate toward souvenir type things. We've already got enough crap at home, we don't need any additional t-shirts or koozie holders.

But there is one exception. Sea shells. For some weird reason I'm wicked psycho about seashells. It is physically not possible for me to walk down the beach without bending over every two steps to pick up a shell. It's great cardio. I even have a type of shell that I look for each year - this year was sand dollars. (told you - psycho much?!)

This means however that each year, at the end of our annual beach trip, I have a huge basket of seashells that I can't bring myself to leave behind. So I also pick up these old glass canisters from the local architectural salvage thinking I'll store all my shells like some awesome organized person.

And each year they sit in the garage of some awesome unorganized person.

So this year, damn it, I was going to get these things cleaned and put in their place.

First things first, I followed these steps to clean the shells. I had to do them in batches and they took forever to dry, but otherwise not hard at all.

I wanted to add a label to mark each year but I didn't want to stick or spray anything on the canisters. So I went to Michael's and picked up some labels Martha made some for me, and grabbed the twine from the garage. (which ironically was right next the the shells on the shelf)

I didn't want anything to precious or perfect but rather relaxed and easy - just like vacation. So I just wrote the year on each label and tied them around the top of the jar with the twine.

Voila.

Each year lined up and ready to go.

For now they are living on the bookshelves in the family room so I can look at them while I watch TV and remember good times. (the trips, not the tv show) Dynomite!

btw - I HATE taking pictures in the basement. Crap lighting.

What do you bring back from vacation? Does it end up in the closet? Have you found a special place for it?

I stare at these bookshelves a lot. Most of the action in our house happens in this room. Barbie's wardrobe is stored just below these shelves, as well as puzzels, legos, movies, games. Everything. And of course there is the TV as well. I watch a lot of TV. I love TV. So again, I stare at these suckers all the time.

every bookcase looks a little better with Aiden in the middle

"You need to find something to actually go in those big picture frames if you are going to hang them up you lazy fool. A picture of a flower on its side is not doing it for me."

good gracious the lighting down here is awful

So a few weekends ago I had the rare treat of an entire 24 hours with no one to take care of. I took it as a sign. (to paint and drink cocktails) So, I stripped them down, clean up about a pound of dust (does anyone dust bookshelves on a regular basis) and taped them up. Buh bye brown.
I looked thru my pins and found that I'm obviously loving the whole color coded look. Like this.

via Pinterest

 Or this.

via Pinterest

As a side note - isn't it funny to look thru your boards and find you pin ten variations of the same thing? Subliminal design. Hey, that would be a good name for a business...I'm getting off track.

To go polar opposite of the brown, I wanted something fresh and clean, but not white. I liked having a color of some kind back there. Martha pulled thru with just the right fresh, clean but not white color. (I need to get better about keeping paint chips so I can remember the name of the color)

Thanks to the power of the internet...voila. Painted shelves.

Much cleaner. Much brighter. A good start. Now lets see if I have enough books for a rainbow.
Who knew I had so many red books? And yellow? Crazy.

An afternoon of finger painting and I had some new artwork...from Amelia. Not me. My finger painting days are behind me.

Old cup/bowl/whatever it is made by me, age 8


 Rainbow continued on the other side. I apologize for the horrible lighting.

The finished product with the Olivia stamp of approval. Not a huge change, and not a lot of work but it makes me feel like I've done something. And its nice to stare at something new while watching TV.

Have you made any small changes around your house lately? Is this all the motivation I need to get started on some of my bigger projects? And more importantly, who's ready for Monday's RHOBH reunion show? Viewing party at my house!