stylish blogger award

A great big high five to Rene at Cottage and Vine for bestowing me with the stylish blogger award last week! It was such a bright spot in my week and I think it's such a fun way to share not only about yourself but to shout from the roof tops about some other truly rockin' blogs. 

If you’re not familiar with it, there are 4 duties to perform to accept the award:

1.  Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award

2.  Share 7 things about yourself

3.  Award 10 (or so) recently discovered great bloggers

4.  Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award

about me

1. While i grew up mostly in indiana I'm actually from south haven, michigan and a true lake girl at heart. 

2. I love me some power tools. In college we were "forced" to craft our own stretchers for our paintings so I between that and the occasional sculpture class I became quite a regular in the wood shop. This has served me well in the home renovation department. 

3. I'm a homebody. We aren't much for going out in fact I think Nick and I have only been out by ourselves with out Lucy twice since she was born. Once for a wedding and another time for a fundraiser.  We love our Netflix, fire in the hearth and vino. We watched Miss Potter on Friday night. I had never seen it and I thought it was so cute!

4. I swear by Uggs. It started in college when the 100 year old + building I took many of my drawing classes in was always freezing. I got a pair for Christmas and it was like walking on a cloud. I don't care if they're not very stylish this is indiana and it's cold (18 degrees f to be exact at this very moment). 

5. Nick I met and were engaged six months later and married six months after that in July 2007. There isn't a thing I'd change about our wedding, it was beautiful! We honeymooned in Bermuda everything was absolutely perfect!

6. I feel like the luckiest momma in the world being able to be at home with Lucy. It's been a dream of mine since I was a little girl. It's what I always knew I was meant to do first and foremost in life.

7. Not too many days go by that I'm not busy with some sort of project. I not good at sitting still. Saturday and Sunday I repainted the yellow stripe bathroom and created 4 new pillows for the etsy boutique which I hope to get listed later today. 

Now I'd like to recognize some truly great bloggers and friends to pass this sweet award on to:

City of Dionne

The Cottage Nest

Flower Patch Farmgirl

Fitness, Food and Faith

Ticking and Toile

Three Men and a Lady

The Shabby Chic Cottage 

The Paris House

Sweet as Candy

Hope everyone has a fantastic week!!!

dwell spring 2011

Soft and soothing ikat patterns, the classic dot, and toile dominate the new dwell spring line. I wish I could swap the dot bedding in image one for the ikat bedding in number three. The ikat on that beautiful grey upholstered headboard would be just my style right now. So calming, relaxing and fresh. 

*source

on a completely unrelated note i'm in a movie watching mood. has anyone seen anything awesome lately? 

gettin giggy wid it

Ok so in honor of what I'm sure will be part 1 of Bravos best RH's reunion show let's go play at the Vanderpump house. (or at least dream of laying by the pool while Cedric brings us pink vodka and Giggy lays sweetly by our feet.) But seriously her house is by far my favorite of the cast. Don't get me wrong i've got mad love for "the maloof" but her crib is a bit guido chic for me.

"the black room"

living room

dream kitchen

i would just hang out in my dressing room all day if i were her

ok seriously? 

she's lucky to have a hubs that doesn't mind all the pink

there's one scene were she and ken are discussing cedric moving out while she clips roses and it just made me smile, i cant wait for spring

i'm now ringing my little bell for cedric to bring me my pinktini and us weekly dahhling

one more thing-  trixie has a something to say...

crushing on this office

I love everything about it: the lucite cubes, the grey paint on the walls, the grassy green chairs (we have the prettiest knoll chair in the same color!), fresh flowers, topiary in the window and the sculptural take on sea life lining the top shelf. It's just so fresh and so clean-clean! 

union jack pillow now available

After such an awesome response to the union jack pillow I posted last week I decided to make a listing on etsy under a brand new shop. Arkanoff Design Co. opened today for business and as time allows I'll add more but for now we'll start simple.

You may recall I had a shop before called Lucy's Shabby Treasures which featured lots of fun vintage items. I've since retired it and decided to focus more on design work mostly for a much needed creative outlet and to put that good ole' college degree to use. The vintage wares were fun but to be honest it was a lot of running around trying find items to fill the shop and crossing my fingers and praying like crazy they didn't shatter in the mail after I shipped them.

Say a prayer for me... this is kind of scary... but super excited all at the same time! 

h&m home collection

I'm dying for the new H&M Home Collection! Those savvy Swedes have done it again adding an affordable home line to their already super successful apparel empire. It boasts the same type of appealing price points to suit almost any budget. Unfortunately it's not available here in the US yet... Soon? I hope.

cold with a side of ice

Our little family is headed to Toy Story 3 on Ice today, and I'm geeked out stupid excited. You see Lucy has loved the Toy Story movies since what seemed like birth. The bright colors keep her attention and she watches at least one of the three installments every day. Luckily for Nick and I the hidden adult innuendos make it funny and tolerable for us too. We've never taken her to anything like this before so I'm so pumped for her.

She and I were "colded in" (-3 outside) yesterday so out of sheer boredom we had ourselves a little photo shoot. I was surprised she left the hat on the whole time and didn't try and rip it off and give me the stink eye for putting it on her. If you never messed around on picnik.com (photo editing) you should. It fabulous! I only use the free tools because I'm frugal like that and they keep adding great ones but I hear the ones that come with a membership are well worth it.

Hope you have a super weekend! 

frenchy toast

I'll make this short because I've got a toddler behaving like a stage 5 clinger for some reason right now. I hope you all have a great weekend and if it's as cold where you are as it is here you might enjoy this recipe originally posted by Cassandra at Coco+Kelley. It's heavenly! TGIF kids! 

Amaretto-baked French Toast

3 eggs
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons amaretto
1 loaf brioche bread, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 tablespoon butter (for greasing your baking dish)
1/2 cup pecans
maple syrup for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, beat eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla & amaretto. Add brioche cubes and let mixture soak for 5 minutes. Spoon into a 9” x 12” well greased baking dish; sprinkle with pecans. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Pour maple syrup over & serve

blog anniversary giveaway

My little blog turns the t-w-o today! It almost slipped right by me but it hit me this morning whilst drinking my coffee right before a tiny mouse scurried by and sent the morning into a tail spin. All I can say is I really ♥ my kitty cat for gingerly corralling him and my husband for being quick with the mop bucket. 

ANYWAY in honor of this special day I thought I'd send the very first person to leave a comment one of my favorite aqua ball jars as a thank you for your bloggy world friendship. I had know idea when I got bored one day and created this page it would still be going strong and I would meet so many wonderful people as a result. It's been truly life changing. 

Hope you're all having a great week. We are expecting yet more snow tomorrow so I'm going to cozy in with my little family and work on the pretty new cable knit hat I started to knit today. Love you all! 

color amore

I cannot even begin to describe my love for this image. I don't think I could live with this kind of color on a daily basis but it's one of those "it'd be a nice place to visit" type spaces for sure! The paintings totally remind me of my last two years of undergrad as a painting major.

*le sigh*

union jack pillow

Everywhere I turn lately I see such sweet union jack decor. I decided to hop on the bandwagon and create my own. I couldn't wait to jump on this project and I knew my mom would love one too and with her birthday this week it was motivation enough to get started so this is how I spent part of my weekend. I bought a couple of yards of tan moleskin fabric from Jo Ann's along with some pretty ribbon. The inserts are 12''x16''s from Walmart. I've never really made a pillow cover before but I thought the envelope closure looked pretty simple. After the first cover was done the next two went fairly quickly. I made three all together because of course I needed one and I knew one would be perfect for Nicks momma too. Look out world of pillow covers I'm hooked now!

simple envelope closure

light blue ribbon version

I left the muslin unhemmed for a messy frayed look.

seafoam green ribbon versions 

(ribbon from the Martha Stewart line at Michael's on clearance right now. RUN!)

***

update! due to all of the positive response i've added them to our etsy boutique (link to arkanoffdesignco.@etsy is located on the side bar)

linking up to