Anthropologie's menagerie

Helllloooo gorgeous! I was sick of looking at the Grants.gov forms for a proposal we're submitting next week and needed something pretty to rest my eyes on so I clicked on over to Anthropologie's website for a little eye candy. They featured a category of animal jewelry that is so beautiful it makes me want to threaten divorce unless Jeffy buys me all of it. It's cost-prohibitive however so the marriage will be safe, even if he doesn't get it for me. Le sigh.

A quoi ca sert l’amour

Jerod sent me this video today, I love it! From Drawn! The illustration and cartooning blog.

Random bits

This weekend we went to the Long Beach flea market and found more oddities. The best was this huge painting of old ladies on a roller coaster. I don't know why we passed it up, it was fantastic (and probably not too expensive). If it's still there at the next flea market and under $40, I want it. Something about old people making funny faces just tickles me pink.

This one was painted by Mical, my boyfriend from back in the day. He said he'd sell it to me so I'm saving my pennies for this one too.

After the flea market Jeff and I went to an open house in our future neighborhood. We found the coolest enclave of mid-century modern homes in a really beautiful tree-lined quiet area of Long Beach, across from the huge El Dorado Park. When we start making babies (and money) we want to move there. Look at this gem:
I love the font of these numbers:
This was a Cliff May Rancho style home. It had like 147 windows. Clerestory windows make me swoon.
The kitchen was small but it was so bright and with those ceilings it wasn't claustrophobic at all. I love the birch wood cabinets with the stainless steel appliances and light blue formica countertops. Who needs granite when you've got awesome retro formica!?
This is where I would sit every morning while Jeff made me coffee and breakfast. 

Then on Sunday our friend Josh came to visit with his girlfriend Monica and they stayed with us for two days. We were making dinner with them on Sunday night when the earthquake hit. Jeff bolted for the middle of the street and Josh The Gentleman grabbed us girls and got us under a doorway. We laughed about it afterwards, but now I know I'm on my own in a state of emergency. Here's a pic of the cute couple:

Look how handsome my husband is!

For our wedding last year I gave Jeff a few special gifts, one of them being vision insurance. After 6 years of no optometrist visits, he finally found a doctor in Long Beach and had his long awaited eye check up. His prescription didn't change at all which is pretty amazing and he doesn't have any nasty eyeball diseases either. Sweet! We got him a sassy new pair of glasses from the Paul Frank store also. I think they look super sharp on him. He likes them too.

Sent from my iPhone

Jeff and I got iPhones this weekend! My old smartphone was crapping out on me and slowly committing suicide so I knew it was time to bite the bullet and upgrade to the iPhone. Jeff came with me and threw a tantrum in the AT+T store when they said he couldn't upgrade as well without paying the additional $200 until his contract was up in August. The promise of an ice cream cone after we left with my new iPhone wasn't enough to stop his whining so with my dad's permission since we're on a Family Talk plan, we used his upgrade (which was really my mom's upgrade that my dad stole- thanks Mom!) to get Jeffy a phone too. We both love playing with them sooo much. We hardly talk anymore! It's okay though, because we still text each other. Just kidding.

I got a few really cool free applications for my phone too. One is called Brain Tutor 3D and shows all the brain structures highlighted on an MRI of the brain and you can slide through and see the structure in all three planes. It's the coolest and will keep me from having to lug out my neuroanatomy textbooks every time I forget the connectivity or function of a brain structure. Was that sufficiently nerdy? I also got the Lucky shopping application, Skype, Dictionary.com, a pedometer, Yelp and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch applications- all freebies! This is going to revolutionize my life. Jeff on the other hand, got the iFart application. It looks like a piano keyboard but each key plays a fart noise. Of course.

The camera on the phone is pretty great too. I forgot my cable at home today so I couldn't upload my other pictures I took this weekend, but here are the first two pictures I snapped of my favorite subject right after getting the phone:

Ideas for green

How great are these planter tiles?? I hate when I find something so amazing and covetable only to discover they are a prototype by an artist and NOT FOR SALE! Ugh. These would be amazing in a kitchen, planted with a bunch of herbs. I found them on the Housemartin blog (one of my favorites) and are the work of Maruja Fuentes.

And this is a neat idea too, especially if you don't have much of a backyard or planting space. Gutter planters!

via Urban Greenery

Win me a Madsen!

How rad are these bikes? The bucket comes with a seatbelt and a seat in it! So Jeff can pull me all around Long Beach in style! The company is having a contest and picking two winners from people that link to their website. I won't win the "most web traffic" contest because this is just a baby blog, but I might win the general contest. Fingers crossed! Click here: MADSEN Cargo Bikes

Finally.

I've been waiting to hang art up on our bedroom walls thinking that we were going to paint the room. I'm torn on the colors to paint it though so in the meantime something had to be done. A little switcheroo with the dressers and my vanity and Jeff's senior show from the Art Center pieces up on the wall make for a much more finished room. For now. 

Jen made the art piece on the left and Jeff did the cross-eyed Siamese on the right. They both make me grin every morning. 
A close-up. Not quite sure why he put my name in the rainbow above the cat, but that's Jeff.

Happy Mom Day!

For Momma's Day I made little linen baskets from a pattern in my Zakka Sewing book and Jeff and I filled them with little goodies for our moms and Grammie. I loved how the baskets turned out, and they were sort of addictive to make. I'll probably make about 84 more out of the Variegated linen I bought recently. 

How gorgeous is this linen? I bought this teeny little scrap at a flea market for a quarter and I've always admired it. I turned it into two book covers, one for Sue and one for my mom but my mom's didn't turn out correctly sized cause I mucked up the seam allowances. I was too tired to rip out the stitching and do it over but I will later because this fabric is too cool to waste. 

I love the idea of book covers. You can read your trashy romance novels while pretending to read Dostoevsky and fool everyone in the coffee shop around you. 

These were for my mom cuz that how she rolls.
Happy Mother's day Moms! Love you! xoxo

Thank God wallpaper is expensive.

And that I've never wallpapered in my life and would probably screw up hanging the $120 roll of wallpaper. There are SO many cool wallpapers out there right now though, it's so tempting! I keep seeing new gorgeous ones all over the blogs, along with instructional YouTube videos for hanging them. Jeff and I are sort of obsessed with Geoff McFetridge's papers, and also this neat dinosaur wallpaper from Walnut Wallpapers in LA. Jeff wants the orangish-red Yeti wallpaper for the downstairs bathroom. I'm sold on the design, the color not so much. I think the same pattern in the grey would be a lot better.

Happy Anniversary to US!

I am brimming over with excitement. Jeff and I just decided for our first wedding anniversary on June 14th, we're going to treat ourselves to a night at the super swank Ace Hotel in Palm Springs! We reserved a room with a garden patio which sounds lovely. Calling to make reservations instead of doing it online is a good idea too, because they gave me 20% off the room (making it $135- not too shabby!) and 20% off any food, drinks, or spa treatments we get! Super score!





And helloooo... any hotel with giant cat wallpaper gets bonus points in my book. I hope this is in our room.

Indigo

Someone up in the Bay Area needs to adopt this guy. How cute is he?? It looks like a Sears Portrait Studio picture. Indy is available for adoption with his girlfriend Marigold at the Pacific Siamese Rescue. I asked Jeff if I could have them and he said only if I trade in Lily Mae. No way Jose. So one of you has to take them.

America's Suitehearts

Jeff did the cover of the new EP from Fall Out Boy and it was just released on iTunes. I picked the zombie girl's hair color. You could say it was a collaboration.

The weekend in pictures, and a few words

The move crew (me too! except I'm taking the picture. Of course.)

Erika's new laundry room. Sooo cute!
First time I've seen a 1/4th in an address.
The living room/dining room/craft spectacular zone:
The kitchen. My two best friends will now have black and white tile kitchen floors. Double the jealousy.
The owners left her all these rad succulents in her backyard space!
Penny tiles!
Jeff doing what Alberto failed to do.
This is just Phase I of the backyard remodel. Stay tuned.
This was my chore. I ripped up all of the old vegetable plants and planted new ones. From left to right it will be: Mesclun party mix 1 and 2, basil x2, existing chamomile with chives, broccoli raab, and microgreens!
My gardenia babies! These are for the bees. I inherited the love for gardenias from my mom, but hopefully not her skill for killing them. I got two sizes as an experiment. Momma and baby gardenias. The super cool planters were wedding gifts from my 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Barnett and our friends Alex and Aikiko Gross. 
My bamboo planter plants are sprouting! The one on the left are Johnny Jump-ups, the middle one is nasturtiums, and the baby yellow one is a surprise. For me. I forgot which seeds I put in it.