a yellow lab named magnum

As I was driving out of town this afternoon I passed a yellow lab running along the side of the road. All alone, no leash happily trotting down the 55 mph road. Normally when you see a dog offleash it's in a neighborhood and by the time you pull over the dog has taken off. But on this particular road I knew this dog wasn't supposed to be out so I drove a bit further to a driveway so I could turn around & head back toward's him. As soon as I pulled off the road he galloped over, so happy to see someone & even kissed my chin. [if my heart could have melted more for him it would have]

I checked his collar, no tags. Perfect. And the house we were in front of didn't look like anyone was home so I tried the house across the street. After the man peered at me suspiciously through the front window he told me he didn't know who the dog belonged to and shut the door. Really? Just shut the door....not maybe hang on to the dog since you're at home and I'm in my car? Nope, obviously it wasn't his problem. So my great plan was to get him back to my car and call the local police to see if anyone had reported a missing dog. At this point in the story I'm sure all my friends are expecting to hear that I took him home with me and it was looking like that was pretty probable but as we were waiting to cross the street at the end of the non-helpful guys driveway a black truck slowed as it approached & pulled into the next driveway to turn around.

Luckily it was Magnum's owner [who introduced himself but with my notoriously bad memory I've forgotten his name] who had been looking for him for over an hour & was very appreciative that I stopped. And to Magnum's owners credit he did have a tag with his info, it was secured to his collar not hanging off an 'O' ring like typical tags so it isn't as likely to fall off.

So good deed done for the day, Magnum is safe & sound and hopefully I have a little good karma for me as well.

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fall love

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happy birthday mrs. h

Mrs. H [my sister] has a pretty big birthday this week so instead of giving her some random gift we spent the afternoon in one of my favorite places, Royal Oak. So many cute shops & good restaurants, so little time......

When I'm down that way I never miss stopping by Shine. The owner, Kelly [see another small business owner named Kelly] always welcomes every customer as if you were old friends. She is just the nicest and has the some great pieces. I picked up an item for a friend but it's a gift so I'll show you guys later. I love these kissing white elephants, so adorable!

Next was lunch at Pronto, hummus [my ultimate fav!] and fried pickles, the best around. We had a couple girly summer drinks over lots of chit chat & gossip [the way only sisters can].

After lunch we stopped into several other stores but it was this last shop, Paris was the name I think, where we found a couple great peices. Mrs. H picked up a cute gray dress, I'll post pics when she wears it and I found a gorgeous chandelier for the new studio space! I was so excited when I saw it I forgot to take a photo so I'll post some later. I can't wait to see it in our new space, it's just perfect. This shop was a nice mix of old & new. Before I spotted the chandelier I noticed these slightly creepy dolls just hanging out in an arm chair and this super cute vintage purse that would make a great sewing basket.

It was a great afternoon and so nice to just hang with Mrs. H, it doesn't happen as often as I'd like, we definitely need to do this more often! Happy Birthday!

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a quick project for the studio

In between the massive downloads I've been doing at the studio I've been trying to take care of some projects for our new studio space................I picked up this cute little round table from Le Fluer Decor . The owners name is kelly and lately I keep running into independent business owners who are either named Kelly or Nicole. 'my Nicoles' [kalil & kilpatrick] & I joke that if we ever formed a band we should be called 'kel leigh & the nicoles'. not that any of us can sing or play an instrument but at least we have the name taken care of.]

Ok, back to the table........so I loved it & knew immediately where I was going to put it in the new studio space, but it happened to be bright grape bubblegum purple & the top had a couple gouges at the edge. A little sanding, couple coats of paint & primer in one [i am in love with this new paint & primer in one-it's wonderful!] and the table is reborn. But it felt like it needed a little something more so I scavenged through my piles of fabric and came across this lovely green and rose number. The pink in the fabric was a perfect match and I've been wanting to use this fabric again, I also have it in a square black frame above the bed.

[if you attempt this let me give you a couple suggestions....1.trace the shape you're cutting out on the back side of the fabric with chalk, i used some sidewalk chalk i had around. why i had sidewalk chalk i'm not sure but it came in pretty handy. 2.when you go to put the fabric on leave one side flipped back on itself while smoothing & removing bubbles from the middle out, then move on to the side you had flipped up, smoothing from the middle again. 3.embrace that your fabric will not be perfect & un-frayed. i actually like the ends a bit frayed and uneven.]

.......all finished! This was the first time I've covered a table with fabric & I'm pretty happy with the results. {thanks nicole for letting me borrow your floor. can't wait for the studio to be done!!}

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can we pretend it's yesterday?

That way I wouldn't have forgotten my sister & brother-in-laws anniversary. So it's really September 9th and 4 years ago TODAY my sister {Mrs. H} married a wonderful guy {Mr. G} I am so proud to call my brother!

To try to make up for my forgetfulness I went to their house this morning after I knew they were both at work and made a little art project out of their front door with some post-it notes & a sharpie.

They are a great couple........at their wedding during my toast as the maid of honor I told them how proud I was of them & that no matter how hard things may seem they always find their way back to one another, because like John & Paul said......'all you need is love'.

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in·de·ci·sive/ˌindiˈsīsiv/

Adjective

1. Not settling an issue: "an indecisive battle".
2. (of a person) Not having or showing the ability to make decisions quickly and effectively.

I literally just spent over an hour changing the blog. What? You don't see the changes? Well that's because all I did was divide the sidebar items at the bottom and changed the colors a bit. That is after I tried it with about 10 different backgrounds........just white looks too plain but with a pattern or wallpaper it's too busy. I moved the links and sidebar to the left and then the right. I played around with the fonts and spent most of my time trying to figure out how to adjust the html code of the new blogger templates compared to the older versions. Good god, glass of wine and bed for me!

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for the love of advertising

I l.o.v.e. creative unique print ads like these from aveda. A little wierd? Yes. But who can't use a little weird?

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a complete waste of time

but it's kind of fun...........

try it

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the perfect summer dinner

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change is good

Have you ever desperately wanted, no needed things to change? I love change. The anticipation, the wondering how it will all play out, but as much as I love it I don't always handle it very well. I'm a planner, a list maker, and as long as I have a list and know I'm working toward a specific direction I'm good. But change doesn't unfold how we'd prefer, and this I'm having a bit of an issue with.

I'm good at starting over. Trying something out to the point of knowing it'd be successful and suddenly discovering something else that peeks my interest and moving on. Listen I get it, I protect myself from investing too much and getting seriously hurt, let's psychoanalyze later and just try to embrace change.

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an abundance of patience

all carved from pencils by Dalton Ghetti

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musical abilities

I dreamt last night that I had purchased a keyboard months ago so I could take piano lessons and had completely forgotten it under a pile of newspapers. I've always wanted to play the piano. My folks had an organ when I was growing up. It had been my grandparents and my sister {Mrs. H} and I would play around on it. We'd get out the old sheet music and scores from musicals that my grandparents had collected and pretend we could play. The organ is gone but I kept the old sheet music.....I should do something with them, some sort of project instead of keeping them in a box.

The mornings and evenings are beginning to turn colder. I opened the windows this morning and had to put on a sweater. This time of year, towards the end of summer and into fall, I always get the desire to take a class, go back to school......maybe I'll go get that keyboard from my dream and finally take piano lessons.

xo,

Mrs. B

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while we're on the subject of dead bodies

Several years ago I went with a friend to see the Our Body exhibit at the Science Center. It was interesting, beautiful, visually stunning, thought provoking and a little sad. While we walked around the exhibit I couldn't help but notice the funeral home feeling. Conversations took place in hushed tones, if at all and there wasn't a lot of smiling - more somber observance. With their plastic slightly glossy appearance it was easy to forget they used to be living, breathing, thinking human beings but then, just as quickly something akin to grief would sneak up on you.

You know that feeling you have when you leave a funeral? I can't put it into words, sad, guilty, glad you're still here? That's how I felt when we left the exhibit, very much like I had just been to a funeral.

Regardless of the moral questions......were the bodies willing participants? {or as my friend suspected, asain criminals that had no choice in the destination of their corpse} is it "wrong" {for lack of a better word} to eternally suspend a human body this way? The whole exhibit was well worth the moral questioning...........................learn more about it here.

xo,

Mrs.B

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a good stiff one

Sometimes you just have to go with the cheap joke.....

Anywho, dead bodies & decomposition might not be the best dinner conversation but they do make for an interesting read. I enjoyed the chapters with a bit more history and the taboo topics {labs that leave dead bodies in a field to document their decomposition to help solve questionable deaths} or {apparently humans used to be made of much stronger stuff & in the early days of surgery had surgeries performed without any anesthetic}. Definitely a good read, just don't eat right before or after, I'm just saying....

xo,

Mrs. B

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smokey cotton candy

No it's not a new flavor, I am talking cigarette smoke infused cotton candy. I spent yesterday evening at the Reunion with a Cause and it was a wonderful, heartwarming night. And my friend Monica & I decided to take a trip around the track to check out the other tents & just generally be nosey. It's commonly known that calories don't count on the weekend & when attending charity functions. So when we spotted the "Fresh Squeezed Lemonade & Cotton Candy van [should have been a tip off right there, what more can you expect from a carnival van?] we made a bee line for it. The cotton candy not only smelled like smoke but tasted like it as well. And my "fresh squeezed" lemonade was literally sugar water [that you could chew the sugar granules because they hadn't dissolved] with a half of lemon floating in the top.

Other than the less than tasty treats the night was great. At the end of the night they have everyone line up on the track that is lined with white luminary bags that have been decorated in honor or in memory of someone who has fought cancer. The luminaries are lit, they turn off the field lights and everyone walks the track in silence as a bagpiper plays amazing grace. It's pretty powerful.......

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design porn

I love these retro inspired posters for the ultra modern social networking sites.

Irony & sarcasm two of the best methods for social interaction & conversation.

the genious behind them

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farm tools

auburn hills.

black ford probe.

2 guys.

1 pitchfork with the "fork" part sticking through the sunroof.

couldn't get to my camera fast enough.

disappointed.

still pretty damn funny.

[not my photo]

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auto-not-so-matic

Ever get stuck in an automatic door? Nah, me either, but I came pretty close tonight. I made a quick trip to Target and as I was leaving the young woman in front of me stopped short because the automatic doors had stopped, leaving an opening just shy of getting a shopping cart through. She hurried the 2 boys that were with her through and noticed me with my cart stuffed with a huge box, took a second look at the door and waved her hand in front of the sensor above the door. But when that proved to not work she gave me a look like, "well I tried. good luck." Really? That's it? So let's see, I'll just pull this door open a bit more with my left arm and keep it there with my left shoulder, stretch my right arm to loop my fingers through one of the holes in the front of the cart and pull the very heavy cart over the door jam and through the door. Cuz I'm just talented like that.

So it turned out to not be that difficult but still.....a sister just needs a little help every now & then. stumble it !

new fav

i've been playing it over & over again.

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pretty damn funny

this may be one of the funniest things ever! thanks robin for posting it


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