Seriously?!?!

Come ON people!

A, E, I, O, U

THE on sale for $99 originally $325 atwestend 

I already have an ampersand but i definitely need the @ and maybe one of my (our) initials.

Artist Crush - Audrey Kawasaki

Let me tell you a little background on me. During my first year of art school we had to take life drawing classes four times a week for 2.5 hrs a day for one whole year. They were all naked models mostly women, which was perfectly fine with me, not that I'm a prude about seeing men naked I just wasn't into drawing them. They were difficult to draw, all the contours were so square and it was difficult to make look realistic without looking bulky. On the other hand I loved to draw women, the curves the way there were no hard edges, even on super skinny chicks, made what ever attempt you did look awesome. So I have an affinity to drawings of women, but this artist blows me away and the media that she paints on is usually wood.

The artist is Audrey Kawasaki, and I truly adore her work. She has a way of painting that looks ethereal and the juxtaposition on hard wood making the pieces glow at the same time. I have followed her work for many years and unfortunately she has never had a gallery showing in Chicago, mostly the west coast.
If your lucky to get on the waiting list you may be one of the limited who are allowed to buy a print from her on a first come first serve basis. Trust me, it goes FAST. I have only been notified twice, since she seldom sells any prints, but the two times I tried I lost. Better luck next time I guess. 

Audrey Kawasaki

Here are some of the many that she has done, enjoy and If you get a print or (gasp) an original oh her work then I hate you already, just kidding. Or am I?

Updated fall front decor

It seems that if you carve a pumpkin too early or like October 12th, by the time halloween rolls around it will rot. Thats exactly what happened to me. I carved a cursive letter S onto my pumpkin scraped away the top layer only revealing the flesh ala Martha Stewart.

Too bad I did not get a chance to take a pic of it but you get the idea. To make my front porch more appealing to trick-or-treaters, since my husband brought a barrel of candy and we need to get rid of it, I should do something decorative. I whipped this up in a couple of minutes.

Had some left-over branches that were hanging around in a vase and lookin kind of sad. I shoved the sticks into the dirt, poured some lava rocks to give it more height and then placed some moss that I ripped from the edge of my yard on top of that. And ta-da!!!. Well it was a ta-da for me since it was such a no brainer, best part of all it was SUPER CHEAP-OOO. So now maybe we can get rid of all the candy so I won't have to eat it all, since I'm the only one that knows where its hidden.

Kitchen tool I LOVE!!

I love this gadget. Don't get me wrong my knives are nothing to laugh at but this tool makes my life sooo much easier. I received this Cuisinart food processor 5+ yrs ago for my wedding shower and it has been the biggest work horse in my kitchen toolshed, next to my pots and pans, but those don't count. Its worth its weight in gold I tell ya. I used to chop pico de gallo by hand which took me a couple of hrs with the mincing of that and the dicing of this. With this machine at my disposal – I can crank out a pico de gallo in 20 min flat. At the end of the summer I shred parmesan and pulse my basil to make pesto, make coleslaw with the attachment that shreds, and make dough for cookies during the holidays amongst other things. Like I said... gold.

Well this summer I brought it over to my friend Ann's house. We were chopping away through all the recipes we had to crank out for the company picnic that she decided that she needs to get one too. YES YOU DO! I'm sure it will be on sale before the holidays.

Where are you my love?

Last summer I saw this Directoire Table at Pier 1. It was also on a crazy discount sale for $29 WHAAA!!! and like a dumb-ass I walked away thinking I was going to come back and get it. Well it was gone after I remembered it a month later. So I have been looking for just the right thing. And wouldn't you know it I have become so picky that there is always something wrong with ones that I find.


Either they are way too much, or too high, or too modern, or not modern enough, well the list goes on. I also like for it now to have a second shelf underneath which this one didn't. Although on second thought I do like the nesting tables that are made of the faux gilded bamboo or bronze anything. So for now the search goes on, and if there is anyone out there that would like to post where you have seen this particular table for that same or close to price please do so, it will be greatly appreciated.

But then again I do like two of these in front of the sofa also, though they do seem a bit high.

Then there are these beauties from Plantation that I would need to have money growing on trees to be able to afford, I'm sure!

Or these nesting beauties called jonathan, from Oly Studio, aren't they lovely? Sigh... I can just see my daughter whacking her head on the corner of one of these. (not so kid friendly)

 And then there is this, but you see as great as it sounds to have a tufted ottoman as a coffee table, it's not practical. One day when there are no kids in the house and no animals and we become extremely clean and not want to put snacks or drinks on our coffee table, this is what I would get. Maybe.

Halloween Decor

My halloween decor outdoors usually is a pumpkin carved in some funky pattern, dots or stripes. This year I got as a hand me down from my grandmother these two planters that were looking like they could be cement but were actually made of some kind of cheap styrofoam filler composite. They had been sitting outside all summer, as I had already planted and didn't know what to do with them.

As fall started to roll around I decided that these planters would be perfect in front of the house with my pumpkins inside them. I'm still debating if I should spray paint the pumpkins themselves a pewter or leave as is OR carve our initials on the surface and light them? Well I did spray paint the planters a black with a shimmer. The shimmer doesn't really show up as well as it does on other surfaces, maybe the planters are too porous? But they are painted none the less.

The other lit pumpkin is from my mom that was a gift to my daughter for her first halloween. Its not something I would have gotten myself but she loves it every time she sees it, so its stayin.

Hello World... or the only person reading this (me)

Sigh, I finally did it.

I have been a voracious reader of blogs for a couple of years and I have always wanted to start my own. The reason I took so long to get my ass in gear was, I wasn't too sure what my blog should be about. I couldn't decide if I wanted to blog about design, I am an art director for a small agency, or a food blog, I love to cook. I figure that this can be a place to post my ramblings and a way to record my recipes and see how my DIY sense has developed over the years. I have a ton of ideas that are in my head and being the terrible procrastinator that I am, maybe this will be the kick in the pants I need to actually get those ideas out of my head and done.

I'm not a professional writer and I'm sure you will notice my judicious use of commas and run-on sentences, but I am writing the way I speak. English is a second language to me, even though I grew up in the states it was not the dominant language spoken growing up. Please be kind, I went to an ART school which did not put too much stress into writing papers but instead developing your portfolio. So enjoy the randomness that this blog is and I hope along the way you will find the inspiration to cook a dish or do a project. If you like something along the way, or not, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you!