on a decorating hunt

I'm a girl on a mission.  I'm wanting to change what's on my dining room table and I have this vision in my head that I think will be perfect.  The only problem is I'm having trouble locating the two main pieces.  Dear bloggy friends I'm desperately hoping you'll be able to help because this girl has googled high and low, been to every craft store, home depot, lowes you name it and cannot find what I'm looking for. 

I'm hunting for two cheap roman styled urns that look like they're made out of ceramic, but not.  It doesn't matter what color they're in and they need to be about a foot or so tall.  I found a picture of the style I'm after to give you a visual, it's just a little more than I want to spend.  Does anyone have any ideas on where I might be able to find something like this; preferably online? 

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Thanks sweet bloggy friends for the help!

the allergies, they've got me good

1. First things first, where did September go?  This month has just flown by.

2. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.  I'm apologizing to everyone around me in advance for my snarkiness today.

3. My snarky mood is not being helped by allergies and a pug that won't stop yapping.

4. What'd you think of season premiere week?

5. I have to be honest the two I was looking forward to the most: Brothers & Sisters and The Office kind of disappointed me.  The whole year passing by, no Rob Lowe and where's Rebecca?  And with The Office maybe I just had my hopes set too high for a really funny premiere.  Just wasn't digging it y'all.

6. I do have to add that I LOVED Raising Hope and Running Wilde.  We're excited they come on again tonight.

7. My windows are open and I couldn't love it more!

8. I'm thinking that's not helping my allergies at all though.

9. Thanks for the feedback and reasurrance on the stained concrete.  I think we'll make that a priority on the next house.

10.  I'm off to pop some more zyrtec.  Have a good day y'all! 

concrete dreaming

Some girls fantasies about diamonds and jet setting the world.  I dream of new floors.  Well and let's get real here I'm not going to turn down a diamond bracelet or trip to Paris. Ha!

But seriously, I'm really done with the carpet thing.  I'm tired of the vacuuming and then a few years ago I got a carpet cleaner that has helped (despite the hard work), but I'm just done with it in the main areas of a house.  I've mentioned prior that we're getting our house ready to put on the market and shopping around as well.  I've totally fallen for some houses that have the stained concrete!  Y'all it's bananas!  At first I thought it would be too industrial, but it's proved me wrong and is rather warm and inviting.  I love the look, how easy it is to clean and not to mention the low dollar signs.  Plus it's green, which I'm thinking may help make up for my rather large water bottle consumption.

And just look at the colors...so gorgeous!  I really like the idea of it with white cabinets.

photo via

photo via

image via

Hubs is a little more hesitant, I think he envisions having to put pug and any future kids in a protective helmet when playing around the house.  Does anyone have stained concrete in your homes?  Curious to here you're thoughts.  Oh, I should add that I know this would be a little impractical to put in a home up north with the winters, but down here I think we'd spend half our summer just laying on it to cool off.

What improvements would you like to make to your home?

cha cha

I first heard about the trendsetter cha cha yarn on this wonderful blog and was smitten with the first mention of ruffle.  I knew I had to add it to my projects list.  Well quite a few months later I finally ordered some, from here, and was pumped to make a scarf.  There are so many cute colors.  I'm wishing I had ordered a grey too.  I found some youtube videos here and here that were really helpful and I got to knitting.  It's super easy to work with.  It did take me a little bit to get the hang of because I'm a lefty and flipping the video in my mind is always a tad tricky, but once I got going it was the easiest and fastest thing I've ever knit.  

And tada a cute ruffle scarf.  

leaping lizards

I'm convinced that Texas is being taken over by tiny little lizards.

Y'all they are everywhere down here.

Am I going to have to start blaming global warming for this lizard population hanging out around my house?

Which by the way they look like the Gieco lizard and I'm afraid one's going to start talking in a British accent and sell me insurance at any moment.

The other day I opened the door to retrieve a UPS package and one came flying in the house.

I screamed.  Then panicked because boy was not home.  This sort of thing usually falls to him.

So I got the next best thing.  Pug.  Although, bless his heart, he is rather useless I do have to give him credit because when it comes to bugs he's a pro at holding them while I run a get something to smash them.  It's the funniest thing!   I go get pug he spots the lizard on the wall and I shoo the lizard down the wall to pug.  Pug corners it.  I grab a shoe and smash it.   We make a good team.

I know I killed it.  I feel terrible.  Boy came home and when I told him he was like "you killed it".  I was like "I panicked it was so scary" and then he's like "you can just pick them up by the tail".  And I'm like "you must not know me very well".

So, I killed my first lizard and it was gross.  This others hanging out around my window better not mess with me and my pug.

attack of the baby gate

I got into a fight with one of the baby gates yesterday. 

I lost.  And it wasn't pretty.

If you're confused.  No do we not have a baby; we just have three baby gates for one crazy pug.

So, for 5 years I thought I had mastered the art of high jumping over said baby gates, but I guess I was wrong.  I was coming back into the family room and I think my toe must not have cleared it and I go flying across the room landing flat on my face.

It was a moment I was very glad their were no witnesses.   Unless, you call pug a witness.  He was too generous to slowly get up from his nap on the top of the couch to come see what all the racket was about that woke him.  Then he realized the baby gate was done and took off.  Freedom.

So, I laid there for about 20 minutes in agonizing pain convinced I had broken every bone in my left leg.   I think I'm good just a lovely rug burn the size of Alaska and an entire leg/hip/foot that hurts like no tomorrow.

I was going to take a picture for you all, but then I realized it's lunch so I'll spare you.

Watch out for those baby gates!

miscellaneous bin: tv talk

Well friends it's a week to celebrate...the return of season premieres!  And because I'm desperate for some blogging material I felt today I'd lay out my thoughts on this week.  I know y'all are just at the edge of your seats on this one.

1. I am VERY excited for the following to return: "Brothers & Sisters", "How I Met Your Mother", "Modern Family", "The Middle", "The Office", "Community" and "Dexter".

2. If I'm going to be honest I think that list is realistically a lot longer.

3. I think I'm going to try out these new shows: "Better with You", "Running Wilde", "My Generation" and already loving "Nate".

4. Shows I'm going to pass on: "Hawaii 5-0" & "Undercovers"

5. I'm going to go out on a gander and say that one of the first shows to get cut is "No Ordinary Family".  Kind of reminds me of the real life Incredibles.

6. I just watched the season finale this weekend of "Grey's Anatomy".  What a finale....so their best episode!

7. I'm convinced on Thursday my TiVo will explode.  It's got it's work cut out for itself that day.

8. I wish I had watched "Parenthood" from the beginning.  I'm going to add that to Netflix.

9. Who's super sad for Michael Scott's latest season?  I think the show needs to just end if he goes. 

10. I should stop.  I'm beginning to think I need to start turning off the tv every now and then.

What are you looking forward to this week?

chocolate pretzel cupcakes

I'm not kidding when I say I might need a cupcake baking/eating intervention.  I find it only a gift from above that my jeans still fit.

I think this recipe may be my favorite so far.  Shockingly, I'm more of a fan of the carbs than the sweets so I thought these cupcakes needed a little saltiness to them and it's super easy because I'm not above a box of Duncan Hines cake mix.  Here's to laziness!

Chocolate Pretzel Cupcakes

1 box of Duncan Hines finest chocolate mix (and ingredients for batter)

1/2 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups crushed pretzels
frosting

Pretty much follow the box recipe and get your batter and oven set.  In the microwave slowly melt the chocolate chips down in 30 sec. intervals until melted.  Add into melted chocolate the crushed pretzels and stir.  Then place a tablespoon of chocolate/pretzel mixture  into the bottom of each cupcake liner and top with batter until liner is 3/4 full.  Bake as directed.  Cool and top with your favorite chocolate frosting and add a pretzel on top for the garnish.

Look at the delicious inside.  The bottom firms up so it has a little crunch to it and gives just a subtle hint of the saltiness.   And please ignore my sloppy frosting job in the pictures.  I think they look so much better piping the frosting on, but boy requested a little less frosting this batch.  Enjoy!

the princess and the pug

I've been slacking on the blog front this week.  You can blame it on this girl (my cousin) who sent me a copy of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and the advice of stay with it till page 50.   Well I took that advice and now I can't stop reading when I have a free moment.  So good!

My parents got a rescue kitten, Gracie, this week and she is a love!  Just look at the those big ears and she's already got the princess/diva act down. 

And with the arrival of Gracie we have discovered that pug is a scaredy cat himself.   We were a little fearful that pug may play too rough with her so we eased them in.  Turns out Gracie's the one we have to watch out for and pug is just terrified of her.  He now insists on keeping his distance from her at all times.  Boy's telling him to man up now.

Here he is tattling to Big Daddy about how mean Gracie is either that or he's begging for food.  Most likely the latter.

We're going to keep working on the Milo and Otis thing, so we'll see how it goes.

quilts

my sweet mama picked up quilting as a hobby a few years ago.   this hobby made me ever so happy because two Christmases ago she surprised me with this quilt for our master bedroom.

i heart it so.  it was the perfect finishing touch to the room. and i adore it's coziness and the whimsical fabrics of the quilt.

mama's got some mad quilting skills going on.  i recently began hinting that with the winter months approaching the pug and i could use another one to curl up with and read a good book.  and so she finished this one for me just in time.

it's adorable and perfect!  i love it... especially the fun gray fabrics mixed in.

i just treasure these quilts because i know their made with lots of love!

chalkboard frame

i would just like to say that i have a new obsession with chalkboard spray paint.  it's pure genius and the projects are endless.

this weekend i decided that my recently repainted office needed a touch of chalkboard paint.

i had found a few years ago a large empty frame at an antique mall for about $10.  their are so many fun things to do with these frames so i had to pick it up.  i had a spot in another room outlining a small painting, but i recently changed that out so it needed a new home.  so i ran to home depot had the nice wood cutter guy chop down a 2 x 4 sheet of thin wood then spray painted it and with wood glue married the two.

now it has a perfect spot in my office ready to display my to-do list.

favorite things: for the pug

::1. soggy paws- an absolute life/carpet saver for rainy days like today::

::2. puppia- this was a blog recommendation a few years ago when we found out we needed something to help ease pug's respiratory problems on walks.  this is amazing for pugs!  love it::

::3. haute diggity dog toys- pug loves these toys and i think they are hilarious.  i bought pug a chewy vuitton a few years ago and hubs is still so mad at me cause it is his absolute favorite toy to carry around::

::4. martha stewart toy basket- this thing is amazing.  i had this canvas toy basket for pug and he would always reach for something at the bottom and start gagging because it was pressing against his throat.  someone that was over once said, "oh how cute he's sneezing"  i was like no he's choking.  so i found this from the new martha stewart dog line at petsmart...total dog must have::

what are some of your dog must haves?