Winter Whites

Thanks everyone for your emails and comments about my money chasing adventure at the bank!  When I called Mr. Tide after it happened I had already regained my sense of humor, so it will be one of those things I can use as good cocktail party convo! ;-)

My daughter (who is now threatening to buy me a money clip) and son took great delight in saying that they kind of wished they had been there to witness it all.  I informed them that it was likely up on You Tube somewhere, so that everyone could share in my foibles!

Today has been one of those gray days, where everything outside looks kind of bleak and colorless.

I really don't mind it, though I do prefer the colors of spring and summer, but sometimes it's nice to give your eyes a rest and to be able to have something not too jarring to look at.

I think that is why we are drawn to white, because it gives us a sense of respite.  Now I've said it before and I'll say it again, I could not live in an all white house, where the walls, the furniture, the accessories were all white, or even just tone on tone, but I do love a well done all white home.  There is just something so soothing about an all white abode when it has enough interest and texture to not look sterile but serene instead!

I have touches of white in every room of my house and I find that this time of year in particular I am drawn to them.  Maybe it's my way of giving my senses a rest before the colors of spring and summer start popping out.

I can't imagine that white, or black, or any neutral will ever truly go out of style.  They play so nicely with other colors, and are often content to be the supporting cast so that other more vibrant colors can be the stars of the show.

The funny thing about white is that it is often hard to photograph, so some magazines shy away from all white homes in favor of more colorful fare.  I think that we are starting to see a change in that way of thinking thanks to blogging actually.

So many wonderful white decor loving bloggers have stepped to the forefront and shown that an all white home can be beautifully photographed, and I believe that that is why we are seeing some magazine and book publishers coming around to the beauty of white!  Information that some designers have known for years.

 Photo by Ellen van Deelen

And for one last bit of white, this time pure cuteness!  My daughter shared this with me and even if you aren't a fan of rats, you can't help but think this is pretty adorable!  The photographer, Ellen van Deelen, who is from Holland, has trained a few rats, (which are supposed to be very clean and smart little rodents), and she takes the most amazing and heart warming photos of them.  She even has a book of her images appropriately titled The Rat Pack! Here is a link to her Red Bubble account where you can see more of her work.  I'm thinking about ordering a calendar with some of her oh so cute images!

Tell me how you decorate with white, or if you prefer color in your world.  Happy Weekend!

Did You See Me?!

First of all, thanks everyone for your wonderful feedback on my last post where the talented Kelley of The Polished Pebble guest posted and rocked the  house!  I knew you all would love her style as much as I do.  Thanks again Kelley!!!


And before I forget, to the reader who said she couldn't get the subscribe thing to work on my blog, thank you for letting me know!!!  I will look into it and try and get that fixed ASAP.  And to the nice person who liked my kitchen, thank you so much!  Your email isn't enabled, so I couldn't reply directly back to you or the reader who was having trouble subscribing...:(

The photos in this post are what you would call random.  They are random because in a way they signify my day yesterday and today, kind of crazy and a little disjointed.

And that's how my brain has been too, a little wacky and all over the place.  But hey, you get what you get when you pop by this here blog, some days it's awesome vintage bathroom beauty, and other days it's a votive holder and some bird photos.  I like to keep you all guessing, or at least that's what I tell myself as I cobble together posts every now and then. ;-)

The reason I wanted to show you this votive holder, which was a lovely gift from my mother in law a few years ago, is because I think it would be such a cool project for all of you super crafty bloggers out there.  Notice I did not say "us" but instead said "you."   As you read further through this random post you will see why I don't have time to be crafty.  I have time for another c word...namely to be CRAZY, just not crafty.  Those years ended when my children entered middle school and I realized I had been forcing that craft gene for far too long.

Anyway, back to this pretty votive holder.  It's actually bigger than it looks in these photos, but you could use any size you like, just keep in mind the size of the tissue paper you will be using on it.  What the crafty person who made this did was to take a glass bowl and then to decoupage pretty tissue paper inside the bowl.  Simple right, yet so so pretty when it is all aglow, like tonight!

Now you crafty people probably know what to use to make this work.  I'm assuming you select something to adhere the paper to the glass that is non flammable, I think that would be a wise idea.  So if anyone has an idea of what to use, or has done something similar, be sure to comment away and let us know so that the crafty readers of this blog can get crackin' and make one of these pretty votive holders for themselves.  One which won't catch their houses on fire please!!

Today I wandered out to take more photos of the bluebirds.  I truly think I need a 12 step program for my bird photography these days!  And I want to give a HUGE thank you to Laura from 52 Flea for helping me out with some beautiful new textures!  She provided me with this very cool ephemera!

Ok, now on to a brief run down of my day yesterday.  I got up, did the usual work stuff, and then headed out to visit my friend Ms. M and take her some chocolate chip cookies I had made for her.  After a nice visit, I headed out to run some errands, including hitting up the bank.

I had some cash from the sale of my dining room table that I needed to deposit, so I pulled up to the drive-through window at the bank and put the nice crisp bills and a check into the little drawer.  The paperweight they had in the drawer was way far back, and in my big honkin' SUV it was hard to reach.  So as I was reaching for the paperweight to hold down the bills and the check, a big gust of wind came up and started blowing the money out of the drawer and all over the world.

Now let's just say that a few choice words flew out of my mouth as I screamed at the poor young guy working to shut the #*$% drawer before it all blew away.  At this point, I tried to get out of my big ole vehicle, but you know what?!  You can't get out because your door won't open!  So I may, or may not have gunned it and gotten up to a point where I could exit my vehicle and I began running like a mad woman chasing down my money which was truly blowin' in the wind!

You could cue a version of the song Blowin' in the Wind right now if you like, but it was more like that Charlie Chaplin scene where he is blown all over the place.  I mean it people, I was running, all the way to neighboring parking lots, major roads, you name it as those nice crisp bills were gleefully floating away.  We're talking $20s and one $50, not chump change, so I was determined!  It was like I was on one of those game shows where they put you in the booth and turn on the wind machine and you grab as much as you can, only I was lacking one key feature...the booth!

I'm sure the rest of the folks at the drive through, and anyone else in a large radius was wishing that they had a really good video feature on their cell phone so that they could post it all on You Tube!  Finally, out of breath, frustrated beyond measure, and mad at myself for not using the drive-through window the dang tube things that I hate, I ventured inside.  I'm sure I looked great, kind of a like a crazed wild woman.

A nice young man working as a teller asked if he could help me...poor dear soul, he didn't have a clue.  So I began to tell him how I had been at the drive-through, that my money had flown the coup, and that I was REALLY hoping the rest of it and the check were still in that drawer!

He went to talk to the guy in the booth, and quickly came back to say that he could see more money flying around outside and he would go try and get it.  In the meantime another teller, a woman about my age was NOT very helpful and acted like it was my fault that it was windy outside and that their window was inadequate to handle such tasks.  She pointed out that that's why they have a paperweight in the drawer...really?!!!!  

Before I could put the smack down on her, oh yeah, I was close, the nice young man came back in with a crisp $20 bill and we sat down and counted up what was left in the drawer and what I had collected and all was accounted for, thank goodness!  I had chased down $190 in fast flying cash and he had found the last rogue $20 bill!

At the point when we discovered that all of the money had been recovered, we then realized that my driver's license was missing...sigh!  We found it outside too!

Ahh, all's well that ends well right?  But I think it will be awhile before I go back to the bank again.  My family reminded me that maybe my grandparents weren't so happy about me selling that furniture after all...yikes!  Or more likely they just wanted to have a little fun with me!

So there you have it, a typical day for me, and the reason I don't have time to do crafts!!!

Have you done anything that could land you on You Tube?!