In case you were wondering, the Barlin house WAS a hot mess inside. Granted, we had to see it at night with no electricity, but the light coming from our iPhones showed us enough to know we wanted the get the heck out of there. WAY too much work needed on it, plus there were awkwardly large windows in the "master" bedroom and living room that led to the backyard that really creeped me out. Bad juju in that place. Pass.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Mail joy!
I got these new mailers from Oh Joy! in the mail this week, aren't they the prettiest mailing envelopes you've ever seen? On sale for $9.72 on Amazon, they're a pretty good deal since each pack comes with 16 envelopes (4 of each design). I love sending pretty post.
Posted by Liv at 7:43 PM 0 comments
Cutest puppy in L.A.!
Notice how I did not say cutest puppy in Southern California Mandy. Crum is still up there. This little muffin though made us have a freak-out on Melrose Avenue today. We saw him across the street and the second that light was green Jeff and I bee-lined for him. No wonder these are your favorites Sue. It's pretty much impossible not to fall in love with them.
Posted by Liv at 7:26 PM 0 comments
A new addition to our family...
Nope, not knocked up, a new computer!! This baby is sweet. As you recall, jerks broke in and ruined our life a few weeks ago. Harmony and joy has been restored in our home, now that it is again whole with a fabulous new iMac. Jeff was teary in the Apple store. They were so nice, and hooked us up with a teacher discount, an upgraded keyboard, discounted Apple Care, and a free HP photosmart printer/scanner combo. Deal! Jeff wanted the big boy 27" iMac and what Jeffy wants, Jeffy does not always get. But this time I allowed it. Those 6 inches make a world of difference when you have 18 screens open at once in Illustrator toggling back and forth between them. He works hard and deserves an awesome tool to make the job a little more pleasant. Here's our little bundle of joy:
And don't think that I didn't get anything fun out of the shopping trip to the Grove. Oh yes, mama treated herself to something pretty too. Also courtesy of Grammie's x-mas gift card! This one is from Anthropologie (of course), and I loved the royal blue color. I don't have anything in this color and it may be my new favorite.
We both had to pose with the new child. Look how cute the trim and buttons on the shirt are!
Love it. Thanks Grammie!
Posted by Liv at 7:21 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Oh geez...
Posted by Liv at 3:21 PM 1 comments
Housing update
Alarm installed and hot water is flowing- good times are back. On the purchasing side of things, we got an update on Daisy last night from Noelle that the BPO (the seller's bank appraisal) was ordered for this week and a negotiator was assigned so those are positive steps forward. Interestingly, two other houses that we put offers on eons ago became available to us this week. Here's one:
This one is in a really nice neighborhood in Lakewood and looked cute from the outside. I had been in it during an open house when we put the offer on it, and I don't remember it being the hot mess that it was when we saw it on Sunday. UGH. Water damage in the bathroom, mold in the kitchen, no appliances, really dated oak cabinetry, broken and missing countertop tiles, floors in need of refinishing, faux paint finishes everywhere (no, I'm sorry. Your walls are not Tuscan plaster. They are drywall.), teeny rooms, and a backyard with 4 foot fences all around so you can be up in your neighbor's business. No thanks! Noelle told us last night that after we refused it, they dropped the price 36K and offered it to us again at that price but we still passed. It would be a huge headache to fix up, and we just didn't like it.
The other one though we really liked when we saw it back in August (was vacant then so it was an accurate representation of what we'd be getting into) so it could be a viable alternative if Daisy (still our favorite) falls through. It's in a nice neighborhood in Long Beach, is a 3 bedroom/2 bath, and is on a huge lot. Here's a pic:
So we shall see what the cards hold for our housing fate. Hopefully another update soon!
Posted by Liv at 11:27 AM 0 comments
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Our creepy afternoon
Jeff has been raving about this cemetery here in Lakewood that he went to when he was bored one day, and kept saying how I HAD to go check it out so this afternoon we decided to mosey on through and check it off my list of things to do before I die. It really was incredible. It was built in 1921 in the Spanish Renaissance style of architecture and has a huge mosaic interpretation of a Vatican fresco done by Raphael. Here's a picture of Jeff thrilled to be in its presence:
Inside was even more incredible. Sooo much marble. In respect of the building's occupants, we didn't take pictures so you'll have to take our word for it. The coolest feature was a three story Foucault pendulum swinging in perfect time. It made a deep vibration with each pass that sounded like a heartbeat. Totally spooky!
Posted by Liv at 7:29 PM 1 comments
Converse & Paper
Last night, Jan, Mandy, Seth, Jeff and I went to the Montalban Theater in Hollywood for a show/event Jeff was in. It was sponsored by Converse and Paper magazine (who interviewed and photographed Jeff earlier in the day so we'll be looking out for an upcoming centerfold spread with him in it). He did these great paintings that spelled out LIFE and a photographer then snapped shots of them and blew them up to poster size which were displayed next to the originals.
It was such an awesome party, we all had a great time. Belvedere vodka and Heineken were other sponsors so those beverages were flowing, as was Red Bull and lots of free candy. Two bands played (Dum Dum girls and Best Coast) and they had interactive stations where you could decorate plain tote bags with provided fabric markers and stencils. A bunch of celebrities came through (it WAS Hollywood), and we saw Kelly Osbourne and her boyfriend, Kat von Dee, Perez Hilton, Bam Margera, and Christina Ricci. And our good friends Roger, Pete, Jana, Matt, Dave, Candice and Darren (who curated the piece of the show Jeff was in) were there too so we had lots of fun. Just what we needed after this week!
Posted by Liv at 7:10 PM 0 comments
Friday, January 22, 2010
New blogs!
I just got the latest issue of one of my favorite, not yet cancelled, magazines ReadyMade, and found they have five new blogs linked on their website! I just peeked at them and got excited so they were quickly added to the reader. Here are the links if you want to do the same!
Fashions: http://readymade.com/blogs/fashion
Editor's notes: http://readymade.com/blogs/readymade
Home and Garden: http://readymade.com/blogs/home-and-garden
Food and Entertaining: http://readymade.com/blogs/food-and-entertaining
Craftiness! http://readymade.com/blogs/craft
Posted by Liv at 11:30 AM 0 comments
When it rains, it pours...
This lovely little chain of storms we were so looking forward to has ruined our week. Apparently there was a big hole between our house foundation and our basement that was directly under one of the gutter pukers (what do you call those things? Gutter drains? Spouts? I don't know. But it looked like it was puking rain water, mud, and leaves) so the big storm on Wednesday filled up our basement with 9 inches or so of muddy water. Just tall enough to reach our water heater pilot making hot showers a thing of the past for us. Ugh! Luckily Jerod and Karen (and other friends of course) offered up their facilities to us, and our wonderful neighbors Dave and Christi came over with a sump pump to help us drain it out. Jeff woke up early this morning to intercept the sandbag shipment Home Depot was expecting and plugged up the hole as best as he could. Brian and Gina are hopefully getting a service person out here today to look at the water heater, and have plans to buy a new tankless system to replace it if need be. Good times...
So we (the boys) started filling up a bucket with the sludge instead to carry it outside. We didn't know where to dump the liquidy mud so Jeff just dumped it in the dirt next to our sidewalk. It looked like a T-Rex came and had diarrhea all over our front yard.
Strong Jeffy. He did a lot of work yesterday and today. TCB, takin' care of business!
My positive perspective is starting to fade. It's an inverse relationship- my mood goes down as my lack of showering increases. Fingers crossed this gets taken care of soon...
Btw- for anyone worried- we got our house alarm system set up. With motion detectors and the works! Take that crack addicts!
Posted by Liv at 10:40 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Perspective
Our house was broken into today. :( I came home early from work after our conference wrapped up, dreaming of getting into peejays and curling up with a book. Unfortunately some jerks pulled the window A/C unit out of our den window and helped themselves to our Wii, flip camcorder, and Jeff's desktop computer. It was an awful feeling. The police were really nice though (they swarmed the house and brought a K-9 unit because we thought they were still in the house when I got home) and Jerod came over to stay with me until Jeff could make it home from LA. As shitty as it was though, we are thankful that Lily Mae wasn't hurt or escaped, that we are fine, and that they didn't steal too much. We had a little freak out when we thought they stole Scott's video camera that still had some footage on it but we found it tucked in our media cabinet and out of the bag.
Also, we're thankful that we are blessed enough to be able to leave a neighborhood we don't feel safe in. I realize a lot of people don't have that option.
There is a lot of horrible suffering going on right now in Haiti and in our neighboring hills (the rain is crazy right now!! Simmer down El Nino!!) so when things are put in perspective, we're doing just fine.
Posted by Liv at 10:49 PM 2 comments
Monday, January 18, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
This ain't yo grandma's wallpaper!
I'm starting to vibrate with pent-up house decorating energy. I'm jotting down all sorts of notes on what I (we) want where, what colors, what plants, etc for the Daisy house so when papers get signed and keys get dropped into our hot little hands, we can get going. Fortunately, not a whole lot needs to be done to the Daisy house as it's essentially turnkey, drop the furniture, and start living. There are just a few aesthetic changes we'd like to make (interior lighting fixtures all over, dining room and kitchen paint, and new flooring for the den) and topping my excitement list is wallpaper for the dining room and bathroom that I got clearance for from Jeff. Yay!
If you've been paying attention to the design blogs in the past year, wallpaper is hot. It's exploded with edgy cool artists designing their own paper. Anthropologie is carrying wallpaper now, ferm-living wallpaper is beautiful, and our very own LA-based Walnut Wallpapers has our favorites. I think I've blogged about Geoff McFetridge wallpaper before, but this one (shadow of the paranormal) is a winner for us. I mean, seriously. It has a big yeti in it!! We want it for the bathroom, in the gray and white colorway which we think will pair nicely with our retro pink fixtures.
I have so many favorite wallpapers, I'd love to wallpaper single walls in all of our rooms, but wallpaper (and the professionals that hang them) are expensive! So we're thinking just the bathroom and dining room for now because those are the only rooms that we don't like the current colors of. The dining room right now has a lovely little chair rail so I'd like to paint below the chair rail and wallpaper above it. This wallpaper (also from Walnut) is pretty dang cool. Dinosaur skeletons! Love it.
Posted by Liv at 7:55 PM 2 comments
Crum-sitting!
Posted by Liv at 6:45 PM 0 comments
Friday, January 15, 2010
Daisy update!
We just heard from Noelle today with a Daisy update... we have an approval on the short sale from the 2nd lender already and the listing agent thinks the approval on the 1st might come in as early as next week or the following. Exciting! They anticipate the BPO (the bank's appraisal, not ours) to be done next week which is a hurdle so we'll be waiting anxiously on that. After the approval, we're looking at a super short escrow (when we would do our appraisal and the home inspection) so the ball is a'rollin! Good news!
Posted by Liv at 3:06 PM 0 comments
My next read
Posted by Liv at 2:48 PM 0 comments
Thursday, January 14, 2010
The lovely Ditte
Someone in the Bay Area should snap up this beauty. I'm still obsessed with this Anthropologie sofa, and if Jeff and I hadn't agreed to get a vintage leather/vinyl sofa for the den to prevent Lily Mae's likely attempt at destruction via pee/puke, I'd steal his truck and drive up there this weekend to pick it up myself. 50% off people! Anthropologie Ditte sofa on Craigslist- SF
Posted by Liv at 12:49 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Posted by Liv at 7:01 PM 1 comments
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Ideals vs. Style...
And to continue the yellow/brown/grey obsession, let's now turn to CB2 and their spring offerings:
Parlour sofa. Holy crap I want this.
CB2 is doing the whole organic sheet set thing but they're just a boring solid percale, which is decidedly less awesome than stripes. Oh what's a girl to do...?
Posted by Liv at 4:17 PM 1 comments