the inspirational interwebs

Last week, after discussing my thoughts on Motivational Jealousy, The Man and I got into a conversation about inspiration, and the overwhelming, endless amount of it found on the wonderfully terrifying internet.

I am a blog addict.  The list of sites I follow is always growing, but rarely edited.  From home décor to fashion, life style and d.i.y. I love it all.  All that inspiration is amazing and beautiful and there's always something to give you new ideas and it's exciting and clever and beautiful and never-ending and…stifling.

I have this problem where if I see something a person has made, even if it is an idea I've had previous to seeing it, this thought goes through my mind that it's already out there in the world and there is no point in recreating it.…I give up before I even start. Isn't that sad? After a while it's hard to remember what was yours and what you picked up from out there. Of course, as you learn in art school, there are no new ideas, and even if you recreate something you’ve already seen it will always be different because your style/method/hand is different. But still, there is this "damn! If only I had done it first" thought.  It's similar to the "why didn't I think of that" thought, except you did, you just didn't act on it.  

I love blogs and pinterest and perusing artists' websites but I think it might be time to take a step back (wait,  I didn't realize where this rant was going, am I really going to take web break? I love the Internet!)

The internet can be a great tool when used properly, but when your need for a creative outlet gets taken over by pages and pages of mindless images it’s time for a change.

And that’s where our conversation lead me.  The realization that I need to focus more on my own creativity rather than being in awe of others'.  I have this annoying affliction where everything I see I think to myself "well, I could do that," but when was the last time I actually did? So The Man gave me an assignment to get me out of my inspiration-overload-non-creative slump.  I started last Tuesday, and I’m really excited about it. 

... and I’ll tell you more about that later!!

p.s. blog headers pulled from:
SF Girl By Bay
Gems
Junkaholique
The Design Files
Keiko Lynn
Design Love Fest
Oh Happy Day
House Tweaking
In The Make
Little Green Notebook
Design Sponge
Atlantic Pacific
Bleubird
A Cup Of Jo

is it warm yet?

Is it spring yet? Every store you go in right now there are bikinis and shorty-shorts, who's buying this stuff? Is cruise season real? Is that enough of a phenomenon that I can no longer buy winter gloves? Because it is damn cold outside! I'm pretty sure it's going to snow today, and tomorrow and I'm probably going to be wearing my winter boots until the end of April.

Since winter is so gloomy, and I keep hearing so much about spring, I decided to jazz up my nails with some roses.

I can't wait for flowers to bloom!!

motivational jealousy

What motivates you? Do you ever have those moments of clarity where you have a sudden desire to improve your life either through exercise or social events or creative endeavors ... Of course they rarely come to fruition, but there are moments where you suddenly think anything is possible if you just get going.
 
Every once in a long while I have these moments, episodes, where I suddenly have a strong desire to improve my life and I have a clear view of what will make it better.  And, as much as I'd hate to admit it, it's normally spurred by the success of someone I know or once knew… or I guess I should say, the envy of their success. The other day I had a moment on the train where I couldn't stop thinking of what I could do to get "back on track" if you will. Go use that gym membership I've been paying for for three years, start printing or drawing or painting or just anything remotely creative because Jesus Aly don’t let those student loans be for nothing! Then I realized what brought this on.

A couple of extremely talented people I went to High School with are doing very well. 

The two of them have been in an ever evolving string of bands since Senior year, each new ensemble makes me simultaneously nostalgic for the previous iteration and overtaken with enthusiasm for the next.  For a while now they have been Wild Ones.  I absolutely love their music, and after a bit of silence they’ve created a new album. “Keep it Safe.” The album itself is not out yet but one track is. It has an awesome music video (directed by another talented alumni) and, oh yeah, it was featured as an exclusive premier on IFC’s website.  

Wild Ones - Golden twin from Calvin Waterman on Vimeo.

How amazing is that? They are really getting out there and I am incredibly happy for them, but there’s also this other feeling, this juvenile, tacky, “I want what they have!” feeling. 

From now on I think I’ll call it Motivational Jealousy.

love day {more!}

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day!

The Man did a fantastic job with the love day presents (yeah, that's right, plural).  The best being this super cute Tea Towel from Paper Source that I had previously seen and wanted but never told him about, which goes to show how well he knows me :)!

I have a collection of Tea Towels I've been hanging on the walls of our kitchen and this is the perfect addition!

I also painted new Love Day nails on Wednesday to celebrate double.

Have a fantastic weekend and don't stop showin' the love!!

love day {cards}

 Happy Valentines Day!!!!

Remember Elementary School when you would get ton's of Valentines?  You'd pick a box of Valentines Day Cards, most likely themed from your favorite tv show, and make your Valentines Day mail box in class and hand out a card to everyone (unless you were one of those mean kids who only gave cards to the "cool" classmates).  It was so much fun to dump all your Valentines on the floor and read through them while eating all those chocolates and lollipops.  I miss handing out a bunch of cards, it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy. Last year I made 3 cards, and it felt really good, so this year I sent out even more!

A few weeks ago I found blogger Oh Joy's video series called "Make Someone Happy."  So far there are 5 videos and they are all super cute, with ideas like surprise balloon bouquets, and love notes hidden in cupcakes (which I totally want to do!).  The one that really caught my eye was No.5 A Little Letter.  It's like a mad-libs love note, and they give you a link to the blank note here. So I printed a bunch of copies and wrote to some of the people I love the most!

love day {nails}

It's almost Valentines Day! 

I've got my love day nails on and I'm ready to eat lots of chocolates and give lots of smooches.

The Man and I went out to dinner last Thursday, we always take advantage of restaurant week for our love day meal.  How can you pass up an amazing fancy dinner for just $33 a person?!?  If your town does a restaurant week or a chef's week you should definitely check it out!

wishful wednesday {taking the flor plunge}

One thing this Lazy Lady does best is fantasize about the future.  I'm not very good at living "in the now," I'm always thinking about the next recipe we should make, or couch we should buy, or city we'll live in, or job I could have, and where we'll be in 1, 3, 5, or 15 years.  It's not really the healthy way to live, buuuut sometimes I come up with some really great futures, and every once and a while those futures come true. . .

So, did you notice the floor in my post about that awesome sleeping bag?

We got ourselves a flor floor!!

We finally made some decisions about what colors we wanted (we are seriously terrible decision makers).  It took 3 trips to the flor showroom and lots of hemming and hawing, but we did it!!  Their "Customize your FLOR" tool is a great help to figure out patterns, but to see the real colors you need a sample.  When you go to the showrooms they have mini tile samples that you can take home (you can either buy them or pinky-swear to bring them back:)).  It really helps to see the true colors in your house.

In the end we chose "Toy Poodle," it's a low pile (since we're messy eaters), and we went with a bit of a safe palette with mostly grays and a deep blue thrown in for good measure (cloud, fog, overcast, and lagoon).  So for we haven't stuck the tiles down yet, we're still deciding on the layout

Here's the before. No rug, super plain, icky couch.

First The Man wanted to try it so the rug went a little under the entertainment center and a little under the couch.... It was bad.  It was just a weird stripe that just chunked up the room.

Then we tried it the normal way, which is very nice.
Then we tried it the wonky way!  For now we've kept it like this, we like it, but again, we're terrible decision makers!

What do you think, did we make a good choice? How would you lay it out?

super bowwwwwl

Go 49ERS!!

I haven't been excited for a Superbowl in a couple years.  Other than my tradition of ruffles & ranch, I haven't done a thing.  But this year the San Francisco 49ERS are in the game!! I'm so Pumped!! That's my Team!!!

I made my own decals just like on presidents day last year, but I only have a black and white printer so  this time I figured out if I paint on the back of the decal I can color within the black lines without going over them. Thats how I got the white and gold on the SF logo! Cool Huh!

So let's go 49ERS!!