Spoiled Little Princess

I think this is totally cute, and it doesn't help that I think she kind of looks like my daughter.

I found this at Barnes and Nobles. I love going there, I could probably spend a whole day there just browsing and browsing. I found books to read, which I added to my To Read list. And I found cute mugs and journals and kits and pretty much anything to keep me happy and entertained.

Oh and this totally skips topic but I had heard on a TV show long ago that when people go to the book store they feel relaxed and get the urge to use the restroom. Well, I spent quite a bit of time by the restroom entrance since that was where the kids books were placed. And sure enough, there were TONS of people going to the restroom!

Owl Cushion!

I had to run to the grocery store today during my lunch break to get a new shower curtain. The shower curtain I had said it was machine washable, but apparently they said that to get you to buy more shower curtains because when I washed the curtain it ended up with multiple tears in it.

Anyways so I go to the grocery store and I HAVE to look at everything there. I looked at the stationary section since I'm looking for a new notebook for work, and I looked through toys to check for sales/clearance deals. Then I finally got to the shower curtain area and found something I didn't expect to see there at all.

They had the most adorable owl cushion ever! Little dancing owls in different colors! I love, love, love this cushion! Who would have thought the grocery store would have something so cute!?

I could get the cushion for my home. It would  totally fit in. But cushions kind of bother me on sofas and beds. They look nice but they're a nuisance, something that soon ends up tossed aside or thrown on the floor.

Could I get it for my cube at work? Um...suppose I could but I guess it would look super awkward just propped up against the wall.

Maybe there's a way to repurpose the cushion so I can appreciate the cute owls without the inconveniences of the cushion form it currently is in.

Got any ideas?

F*ck This Arrow Post-Its

Oh how I wish I could get away with using these at work. It would be hilarious as a joke on days you're feeling goofy. And it would just be awesome on days when you really hate your job and you wanna let your boss have it. Let's admit it, we all have those days, right?

This just got me thinking about the ethics training we all had to take at work recently. It was funny how taking this course put all these ideas in our heads of inappropriate behavior and inappropriate things to say. For the two weeks after the training we were all very "badly" behaved, joking around about how unethical we were being. These post-its would have been fun to have then.

And I just noticed how the color goes from yellow to read as your F-this meter goes up. LOL nice.

Take one...

I think these "take one" ads(?) are pretty cool. I'm secretly (not anymore) very drawn to them. I found an example of one online a while back that said "Free Smiles, Take One", with smiles on the tabs. I made my own and put it up at work. It was really fun seeing people take them, then put them up in their cubes. Then a guy at work made a version that was a butt. It looked like this: (_|_). That was funny.

I think it would be fun to start posting these funny "take one" ads in random places. Thing is, it would be hard to check up on them to see if anyone's taking them. Which for me was half the fun. 

Plant Curtain

What a neat way to use these plants! I'd have never thought to do this. It reminds me of the Japanese noren curtains that are hung on doorways. I guess you would have a shelf with a planter in it above the doorway and let the plants hang down. It would be best to have it in a bright room with little traffic going through this doorway so the plants don't get battered. But it's definitely unexpected and pretty. I bet it would be a good way for the plant to do its job as an air purifier too. I wonder what other plants you could do this with. We had a goldfish plant that grew fast and long like that. Maybe you could try it with one of those.

Teepee

I loooooooove the look of this bedroom! I love the shape, the windows, the mattress on the floor, everything. I guess this isn't really a teepee because aren't those more like tents? But a tent version wouldn't have all the big windows and beautiful wood structure. I actually wonder if this isn't a room at the top of some really neat house. Like one of those houses that look like castles, with the cone shaped roofs on top of little sections of the house that jot off? Or this could be a really neat cabin somewhere. I'd definitely love to go stay in a cabin like this. It would be neat if you can lie in the bed and see stars outside. 

Handmade Streetscape

This reminds me of when I had to make little houses and buildings in art class in elementary school.

One time we took glass bottles and put clay around them to look like Gaudi's buildings in Spain.

Our bottle buildings didn't actually look this cool. But it did broaden my world view.

The houses we built focused more on the interior rather than the exterior. I don't think we ever put the houses together but it would have been cool to have put them side by side like a neighborhood. 

Inside a String Instrument

My first impression was that this was the inside of a concert hall. But then I realized it was the inside of a string instrument. I'm not sure if it's a violin, viola, cello, or a bass. 

It takes me back to the days when I used to play the violin. I'd peek inside it and see the paper label inside. I'd look at all the lines, the spacing of the tree rings, marvel at how beautiful the instrument is. 

I had no idea the inside would look this beautiful as well. I think it makes sense that it looks like a concert hall - every time you play the instrument it's like a little concert inside. I think it would be cool to design an actual concert hall to look like this. 

Cool Cat Envelope from Japan

There's so many times I think I should open a Japanese import store because of the number of cool stuffs I find in Japan. But then I figure the fact that there isn't one already means no one around here's interested. Well, maybe me plus a couple friends I know, but that would be it. 

I love shopping in Japan, there's so many stores just full of various knick-knacks. I think the ones I like the most are filled with interior decorating items. I haven't given this much thought but I imagine that due to the general lack of space in Japanese homes, women there like to choose neat items to decorate their houses with, to maximize the space they have. I think it's great to surround your life with neat things. I'd much rather spend a little extra on something I really love than to have something mundane. 

I've written so much already without talking about the cat envelope. 

This looks like it could be a pochi-bag, a bag that parents/relatives would put money in for kids for New Years. Or maybe it's not. But it's the Manekineko, the good luck welcoming cat. I love how the illustration has been framed so you don't see all of the cat even with both sides of the envelope next to each other. But you'd still know what it is if you saw the front of the front. And it's rather appropriate to have this cat, if it's got the proper hand up (although you can't see) since I imagine it would be the hand welcoming wealth. 

Melted Crayon Art

I usually talk about stuff I like but this post will be different.
I just had to get it off my chest.
I DO NOT get what the big deal is about  *melted crayon art*.

I found out about it on Pinterest and people seem to think it's sooooooooooo cool. And I sooooooooooooooo don't see what's so neat about it. To me it just seems like a big waste of crayons. Unoriginal, unimaginative.





Here's an example of a better one. It's good enough that it's been sold on Etsy.
Not bad. The melted crayon's been made to look like dark and gloomy rain. Ok.... But $79 for this? Really????? I think $8 is even asking too much, IMHO.





Then there's ones like the picture to the right where people just glue crayons to canvas or cardstock and melt the crayons with a hair dryer and they love how the wax drips down. Seriously????

Maybe it's something that I have to do to "get" it. Maybe it feels really good to watch the crayons melt down? Well too bad I don't think I'll ever find out what the appeal is. I won't be wasting a box of crayons on trying this out.

If someone reading this can enlighten me to the great appeal of melted crayon art, well... we'll see if that's possible. :-P

Locker Storage Cabinets

Seeing this brought back memories from when I was younger. I used to think it would be neat to some day have school lockers in my home to use for storage cabinets. I thought it would be cool to have it in my bedroom to keep my clothes and other things in. I think I glamorized lockers because I never had the generic lockers throughout my school years. In elementary school we had cubbies at the back of the room. In middle school and high school we had lockers but they had wooden doors and no locks. So seeing these standard issue lockers that all other American kid supposedly grew up with made me have a special place in my heart for them.

I still think it would be neat to have lockers in the house, but I'm not all tickled fancy by the thought like I once was. Guess time does that to you. :) 

More on the Bird House Key Rack

I had talked about the bird house key rack idea in an earlier post, and I found some things at a store last weekend that made me think of it again. 

I thought this bird house could be a good candidate for being used as our bird house key rack. Add some hooks to the bottom, mount on the wall. Easy Peasy. I like the orange star on it, and the size. It would come out a little from the wall though, so I wonder if you could saw it in half or more so it's only a couple inches thick. But then that might look weird.

This one isn't a bird house but it seemed to go with the theme. I like that it's already got the hooks, and you can clip pictures, notes, messages, etc to the bird cage section. This one isn't exactly my taste but I thought it was neat.

Koi Fountain

It's hard to tell from this picture, but this is a koi shaped water fountain. 

It's about 3 ft tall, so it's a good size fountain. 

Since I like koi and water, I was instantly drawn to this. 

I'm curious if this is meant for indoors or outdoors. 

I would imagine indoors, but I'd imagine you'd need quite an entrance way in your house to display this. 

I mean, where else would you put something like this? 

Just trust me, it looked neater in person.

Green Gargoyle

 I recently spent an afternoon painting pottery with a friend. There's these studios where you can go, select a piece of ceramics such as a plate, cup, or something ornamental like this gargoyle (technically a grotesque since it doesn't have a sprout), and paint it. I really enjoy doing this, and should make time to go more often. This was only my 3rd experience (aside from some minor pottery exposure in grade school.) 

The studio I went to the previous times had closed, but I was able to find another place in town. This place is only open part-time, as it is a side business run by a school art teacher. She didn't have as many varieties of items to choose from, nor as much variety in paint. I debated whether to free-hand something like a cup, or just paint something that already had form. I had tried to prepare for this visit by coming up with ideas of things to free-hand. But this grotesque was too neat to pass up. 

This is what my grotesque looked like before it got fired. Even though I was using green glaze, the grotesque looked all gray. And I was using a sea sponge to try and get a mottled effect, but I couldn't tell if that was going to come out or not. This is one of the challenges and appeals of painting pottery for me. 

And this is what my grotesque looked like after firing! It didn't come out quite as dark as I wanted. I should have done a few more layers of glaze on this. But I think it kind of looks like oxidized copper, and I like the variations in the color. 

I'm already trying to plan my next visit. What to paint next??

World's Smallest Car

Apparently this is the world's smallest car. I thought the Smart Car was small, but this takes small to a whole new level. Actually I wonder how these compare to the Tata mini cars I read about. Although since the description says it's only big enough for the driver and a shopping bag, this definitely sounds small. 

I think this looks like something out of a vintage cartoon or comic book. I'm not a Tin Tin expert but I'd imagine I'd see one of these in the Tin Tin books. It wouldn't look out of place in the Wallace and Gromit world either. 

While there's no way I'd ever own one of these cars (especially with a sticker price of $12,676 for something so small!) I do think it looks really neat. I think I like the "anti-conventional" appeal of this car. Start with the fascia. It doesn't have the standard "car face"!!! Only one headlamp, so it's a cyclops. No front grille, so no mouth. And what's with those three round circles under the headlamp? Fog lights and something else? 

I've been pleasantly surprised to see the Fiat 500's cruising around town, but something tells me I won't be seeing any of the P50s around. And that's just fine with me. I think this would be cute as a toy car for kids. Little 10" models, or even plastic ride-in types. 

Bird House Key Rack

I've been looking for a key rack ever since I moved into my house and haven't found one that's "perfect" yet. What I'm thinking of now still might not be the "perfect" one but it's getting me quite excited right now.

I was inspired by the picture to the right. It's actually a key holder, as in a key chain, but in my excitement I thought it was a key rack.

I think it would be neat to take a cool bird house like the one below, mount it to the wall, attach some hooks at the front end, and hang keys from there. We could even stick little notes to each other inside the bird house. Little love notes, or reminders.

This would be a bit of a DIY project but I think it could be fun and rewarding.

Yellow bird key holder

Red heart bird house

Woven Basket for Toys, etc

If you're a parent you can probably relate to the amount of clutter (ah hem, toys) we have found ourselves surrounded by. I've bought bins to put the toys away in, and there's bookshelves for the books, but we still find ourselves in a house filled with books and toys all over the floor. 

Sure we could put stuff away after the baby's gone to sleep but we don't risk waking her. Oh no. Never wake a sleeping baby! We could practice putting things away, true... but she's just not quite at that stage yet. Right up to the point where she falls asleep, she's pulling books off the shelf and asking us to read them to her. 

So if we don't put stuff away, why would I bother with storage solutions? Well, maybe because I like the illusion of being organized? I DO put things away when I get the chance!! Well that, and for when we have visitors over. 

I like this woven basket because it's got a look that can work for kids' toys, or for things like throw blankets down the road. It looks grown up, would look cool as a living room decor, and yet it's functional even for life with a kid. Oh and this particular basket comes from Israel and is made from weeds from the Sea of Galilee. Cool.

Etsy Source

Felted Octopus Purse

I like objects of art and I'd consider this to be one. It reminds me of some really neat felted fish I saw at a local art studio last year. It's really neat what people can do with hand-felting. My only experience with felting was when I accidentally threw a 100% wool sweater in the washer. It shrunk into a tiny, thick felt sweater not even an infant would fit into. So I have appreciation for people that can take wool, add water, friction, and turn it into something really neat to look at.

What I like about this felted octopus is that it's also a purse. Even though I'd never buy this, I like the fact that it's multi-functional because IF I were to buy it, this would make it easier to justify the cost. Two things in one, it's a bargain! That's the way my brain works.

Imagine pulling this octopus coin purse out of your bag at the check-out counter. Can you imagine the look on the sales person's face? I'd know I have a like-minded friend when the person gives me a genuine smile or a genuine comment of appreciation. But unfortunately for me, too many people would just think I'm super weird. And a purse like this would be quite impractical anyways. Then again it's art and it's not meant to be mainstream or practical.

I won't be carrying a purse like this, but I do hope to see someone carrying a purse like this some day. And I'd think that person was so cool. In my mind, we'd be instant buddies.

Link to Etsy page for this purse

Drunktard

Drunktard: Known to say some stupid stuff after a few beers.

Oh haven't we all been there? 

I say some stupid stuff even without a drop of alcohol so I have to be extra careful once I start drinking. 

So given that, I'm not sure if having a beer stein like this would be a cautious reminder to me or a drunk pass, encouraging me to just say whatever.

This might be a fun beer stein to have around for parties. I think a clear glass version would be neater though, since there's something about being able to see the beer through the glass that I really like. But that would make it harder to read the words. Oh, so a T-shirt would probably make the most sense. There we go. Way to show up at a party announcing you're gonna get drunk and make a fool out of yourself. Haha. 

Link to Etsy page for this stein

Gumball Beta Bowl

As much as I don't like clutter, I LOOOOVE knick-knacks. And as much as I love my house, I just wish there were more places to display knick-knacks. Because I'd love to be able to have things like this gumball machine transformed into a beta bowl!

I'm assuming the gumball machine has been modified so that the beta can be fed from above. And obviously you'd have to seal the bottom so that the water wouldn't leak. I saw a comment on this picture that said marbles should have been used so that it looks more like a gumball machine. I agree! 

I love the look of this vintage/aged gumball machine and I love how it's been re-purposed in such an unexpected way. It would be so much fun to do this some day.