Posted in Holidays, Parties, tagged Derby, Horse Racing, Horses, Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Oaks, Oaks on May 2, 2012 | 3 Comments »
The 2012 Kentucky Oaks and Derby are this weekend. I’m not going, but my parents are. So, I’ve been busy trying to find pink items for The Oaks and other needed items for Momma. I’ve really gotten in the mood. So, I have vowed to throw a Kentucky Derby party next year. Of course, I’ve already started looking around for inspiration and here is what I found:
I’m getting jazzed for next year already. Hats required.
Posted in Funny, Holidays, tagged bunnies, bunny, children, Creepy bunny, Easter, holiday, kids on April 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
When I was in high school I had an Easter photo taken with my younger brother. The photographer made me hold a rabbit for the photo as I was over the age of 10. My brother wanted to hold it, but he was too young. (This was the photographer’s rule.) I wasn’t a 100% on the rabbit, but decided I’d take one for the team. So, I held it. Then, while our photos were being taken, the damn thing bit me. Hard. I ended up dropping/throwing the rabbit. This was following by a yell and some tears. This has led me to a few things. (1) I won’t have a pet rabbit but I love Cheryl. (2) Easter photos can be weird. So, let me introduce you to Sketchy Bunnies and my favorite photos of the Easter Bunny creeping out the sacred holiday of Easter.
The penguin’s just a distraction, Son. Don’t take your eyes off that bunny.
I think that bunny has been hit with a weed wacker once or twice.
He only had enough rufies for one kid.
I think this bunny is trying to seduce children with more than just candy.
This baby isn’t going down without a fight.
Because a paper plate mask sounds like a great idea. The grown person in a rabbit costume doesn’t look like a suspect for killing mutliple teenagers in the woods at all.
Then, we have my favorite Easter photo of all time. It can only be found here. It’s my best friend Jenn.
She looks to be a mixture of confused and looking for her momma, but trying to behave and keep her skirt down.
That sounds about right.
Posted in Holidays, Television, tagged 30 Rock, blue and yellow, Leap Dave Williams, Leap Day on February 29, 2012 | 1 Comment »
If you watched 30 Rock last week, you know that you’re supposed to wear blue and yellow on Leap Day. So, here is some blue and yellow inspiration.
via completelytotallymadly.blogspot.com
This is one of my favorite rooms.
Photo via rikshawdesign.blogspot.com
My famours pillow from here
“Real life is for March…nothing on leap day counts.” – Leap Dave Williams
Posted in Holidays on February 15, 2012 | 2 Comments »
I hope you had a lovely Valentines. This is the fifth year I haven’t been home for Valentines Day, which I’m okay with. It’s not a big day for us, but I like it’s concept. As someone who can be a Debbie Downer sometimes, I need to be reminded that love is what you make it. Everyone deserves love and it’s often up to you to make things better for your life and the lives around you. I try not to focus on the romantic hype of Valentines and instead focus on a theme of “Be good to others and do things out of love.”
It’s important to do things out of love as people move in and out of our lives. You want them to know that you appreciate them and you’re glad they are a part of your life. Hearing about Whitney Houston gave me the sads but it made more sad to see how quickly people became ugly. I’m not saying that I don’t judge, nor am I saying that I’m better than you. I’m likely worse than you. However, I recognize that I need to be better at showing love and I believe that most of us need improvement.
I love The Mister for many reasons, but many are wrapped reasons are combined into “he’s a good egg.” He’s typically more positive than me and he often encourages and challenges me. We created a $10.00 limit on each others Valentine’s Day gifts when we celebrate this weekend. This does not include our dinner out nor does it include the card. I would like to put on record that I voted for it to include the card. We’re exchanging our goods this weekend. I haven’t preplanned at all. I found two Tennessee souvenir plates (he has a collection of them) a few weeks ago but I already gave them to him. So, now, I have nothing but a few ideas. Any suggestions? Let’s keep in mind that I’m gone through Friday night and this has to be available Sunday.
Be good. Be safe. Be lovely.
Posted in Holidays, tagged Christmas, Christmas tree, Christopher Radko, glass ornaments, ornaments, Radko, vintage ornaments, white tree on January 25, 2012 | 1 Comment »
It’s exactly one month after Christmas. I find it hard to believe. This past year we used our white tree, opposed to the green tree for Christmas. Here is where we started.
We put a bunch of ornaments on it and it could have used more. My feeling towards Christmas trees is typically “More is better.” I can always add ornaments. You need a good mix of color and reflective. I like clear and/or mirrored ornaments shoved in first to create depth and a reflective surface. Then, I was able to find around seven boxes of Christopher Radko’s reissued Shiny Brite, plus The Mister’s mother found some older glass ornaments.
Some of the Radko Shiny Brite I found
The box of ornaments from The Mister’s momma
Of course, we had my other Radko ornaments and family ornaments to add. Then, I found some glittered curly sticks, red bows and some clear ball picks. I decided “Why not?” and loaded it on.
Here are some up close photos:
This is probably my favorite photo.
Next year, I will be better about taking better count of what we put on it. I’ll go for a step-by-step run down.
Posted in Holidays, tagged costume, easy costume, face, Halloween, hat, owl on January 20, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday, I told you how to make the body of the costume. However, the face the most important part. It was the identifying feature that I was an owl. Here are the items I used.
I considered a headband or creating a hair clip but when I saw the visor at Hobby Lobby it was obvious. I took the stretchy band off of it and put it in my hair with bobby pins.
First, I covered the visor with hot glue. (see photo below) Then, I laid fabric on the visor as a sheet. Then, I trimmed the excess.
Second, I cut some ears out of the same fabric.
I made them so large so they could easily be glued.
Next, I trimmed the coffee filters for the owl eyes. I used coffee filters to give it some depth. I used three filters for each eye, as one filter wasn’t thick enough. However, the filter diameter was too much so I cut them down after stapling them together.
I traced circles on the black fabric to create pupils which were hot glued onto the coffee filters. Then, I used a sheet of orange foam for the beak. It took me a few tries but I finally got the size and shape I wanted.
Last, I hot glued everything onto the visor to make my mask. I hot glued the ears first, then the eyes. I decided to add lashes by cutting a couple long strips of the black fabric that I glued in the top corners of the eyes. You can see them below. However, they were not visible when I wore the costume. I glued the beak on last. Here is the complete face or mask.
Here it is with the costume.
I wore my Halloween costume to work as we have an annual contest and party. Here I am all done up.
I wore a long sleeve black shirt, a black skirt with black tights under the vest.
Then, The Mister and I met his family for dinner. That’s right I went to TGI Fridays with The Mister’s parents, sister, niece, brother-in-law and brother dressed up as an owl.
I put the mask on for a short time for our niece and to show that the “vest” was for a reason. I’m ridiculous.
Posted in Holidays, tagged costume, easy costume, Halloween, owl on January 19, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
As you know from here and my 30 before 30, I dressed up for Halloween. I decided to not be Punky Brewster, even though I really wanted to be. Turns out that it’s harder to find a purple vest and puffy tennis shoes than you’d think. However, I’m going to stay on the lookout for these items for future Halloweens.
I didn’t choose any of the costumes from here and instead went rogue. Marisa (hello!) was awesome and dressed up like The Mad Hatter and suggested using a large sweatshirt for something as she saw a bunch of them at Wal-Mart. I instantly thought of this image.
I purchased a 3X men’s sweatshirt and a couple yards of $1.00 fabric. I purchased way too much yardage, though I thought I was being conservative. I’d suggest only buying a quarter yard of each. Of course, this depends on the number of fabrics and the size of sweatshirt.
The cream and navy dotted fabric is our tablecloth, so it was not included. I like it where and how it is.
I cut the arms off the sweatshirt. I decided to wear it like a vest/jumper and wore a long sleeve black shirt under it.
I decided to make my feathers with a rounded edge. I started by creating a template and tracing it on the fabric. However, I quickly realized it was much easier to “eye-ball” the size and shape. The feathers were not consistent in exact shape and size, but I liked them better. It added interest. Obviously, the fabric had different patterns and types which added to the interest. I cut out large numbers of each fabric. Then, I hot glued the fabric randomly on the shirt. I started at the bottom of the shirt and hot glued just the top part (the straight edge) of each feather onto the sweater. Working from the bottom allowed the feathers to overlap.
I glued the front and then the back. Then, I put it on and had The Mister spot check me. This is when he announced that he is an owl costume expert as he dressed up as an owl in an elementary school play. I used left over cut out feather to fill in the few gaps on my sides. The Mister glued them on the shirt while I was wearing it.
Due to the thickness of a sweatshirt, and me wearing a shirt under it, I couldn’t feel the hot glue. The section that needed the most filling in were my shoulders.
The Mister, using his supreme owl costume knowledge, decided to alternate the sides of fabric to fill in the shoulders. The black feathers are the same fabric but the underside of it was brown.
Tomorrow, I will share how I made the hat/owl face. You’ll need to know how to make it so you can look this cute.
Posted in Holidays, Our House on January 6, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Since today is Epiphany and we are celebrating the last day of Christmas, I thought I’d celebrate with you by sharing photos of our Christmas lights. We’re taking them down this weekend, as I enforce a strict “This is still Christmas” rule around the house.
Number 15 can be taken off the 30 before 30. You saw a sneak peek of the porch here. Not only did we decorate for this year, but we cemented some future holiday decor plans. In the future, we want to put lights on the house. However, this year we got gutters in the middle of the holiday so we decided against it. Still, our lights and outside decor was pretty great.
We love the vintage plastic Christmas decorations. We really want a nativity scene.
Next week, I’m going to have some posts of the prep, clean up and what it looks like during the day. The prep took the longest as we decided our decoration plan for this year needed to hold up till for years.
As we celebrate Epiphany and the last day of Christmas, I hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday season. May you realize the blessings and life before you in 2012.
Be good. Be safe. Be lovely.
Posted in Decor, DIY, Holidays, Home Improvement, tagged bookshelf, bookshelves, built ins, wrapping paper on January 4, 2012 | 4 Comments »
A common suggestion is to paint the backs of your bookshelves. This creates a “pop of color” or simply adds interest. Some people have upped that by adding wallpaper or attaching fabric to the backs of their shelves.
via Eddie Ross
from Domino
All of these are good suggestions, yet I think wrapping paper may be a better solution. It’s cheaper, readily available and comes in all sorts of colors and patterns. I found three rolls at Target that were half off and all the rolls shown below are less than $3.00. Here are my TJMaxx and Target suggestions:
Red trellis… do it.
I bought three rolls of this. Then, I went to Fabric House and found the fabric below for $23.99 a yard.
TJMaxx had the best options, including this teal leopard print.
Colorful Vera Bradley paisley
faux python…pow!
Posted in Holidays, organization, tagged annual, annual calendar, calendar, etsy, Paper Source on January 2, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Now, that you’ve rang in the New Year you likely need a new calendar. Here are some options:
via libertypressprinting on Etsy
It’s a printable calendar. You pay $3.00 for the PDF to print as many times as you want.
via avrilloreti on Etsy
I love that it’s a tea towel.
This year I am using Planner Pad for the first time.
It was suggested by a friend of mine and I’m so far enjoying it. There is some information out there on it (including strange helpful videos on YouTube) but I’ll share my information when I have more usage under my belt. Until I use it to it’s entirety I’ll use this calendar.
here
Hot guys with baby animals are completely work appropriate.
I'm Rachael Anne. I’m a social person and I like to share.
You can reach me at:
thelovelylifestyle (at) gmail.com
Twitter: Rachael__Anne (There are two underscores.)
Be good. Be safe. Be lovely.
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