PATTERN MIX inspiration

Before Christmas I bought some chevron and striped linen Anthropologie curtains for the master bedroom and have been stumped by how to decorate around them ever since. I started to fear that I had ruined any hopes for a feminine and romantic room by purchasing such bold curtains. I am glad that I was wrong. This bedroom is now my inspiration. I am on the hunt for some equally beautiful floral accents to bump up the pretty in the room. I love when one single photo can give you an electric jolt of inspiration and send your decorating wheels a'turning, don't you?

What's inspiring you lately?

awkward & AWESOME thursday: the TMI version

AWKWARD:
-My hair. My bangs need to be trimmed and I am attempting to grow my hair out but it is an odd length right now and lives up in a bun.
-Having bean burritos for dinner. And the resulting stomach ache.
-Meeting a relative's girlfriend who was the cause of his divorce.
-Aunt Flo visiting for the first time in 20 months. I did not miss her.
-4 sharp baby teeth + nursing. Figure it out.

AWESOME:
-Baby girl slept through the night three times this past week and has been taking hour naps more often rather than the 30 minutes naps I have been enduring for most of her life.
-Homemade pad thai with friends-- friends who brought me tulips.
-Hubby's new iPad 2.
-Scoring Baby GAP deals from a $50 for $25 coupon.
-My sister is coming visit in a few weeks and then my best friend will be here the next week! Looking forward to two weeks of awesome!
-Baby girl waving at me as she nurses as I finish this post. Okay, awesome for me... awkward for you.

I love having more awesome than awkward in my week! How is your week going? One more day till it's the weekend! Hang on!

daily duds: I WEAR YELLOW

(shirt: F21 - cardi: LOFT - jeans: Express from 6 years ago... the beginning of the skinny jeans saga - belt: Anthropologie - flats: Target - laundry: overdue)

(shirt: H&M - necklace: Anthropologie from the inlaws - skirt: LOFT - flats: Target)

I think this cardi, skirt, and flats are the only three yellow things I own, but they managed to make it into a post together. Yellow just sticks together like that, I guess. These two outfits are weeks apart because I keep forgetting to take any photos of my outfits! I think it's my selective memory intentionally forgetting because it is really weird to take photos of myself, especially when I haven't found a good place or way to do it. Maybe someday I'll remember...

Lately I have been uber exhausted- uber duber. Hey, if people can say super dooper, I think I can say uber duber. It's fun to say out loud. Do it. I just did it. Really. It was fun. Anyway, do you ever get into a sleep and health rut and end up hating yourself for it? I am definitely in one right now and my body is paying for it. Ever since the baby stopped sleeping in our bed, I've been staying up way too late to get my "me time." My "me time" is taking the place of "sleep time." Not okay. And I've gotten in the habit of eating quick foods (as in Trader Joe's frozen chicken burritos) or forgetting meals and allowing myself to have lots of sugary treats. Ay yi yi... (Ricky Ricardo? Anyone?) I need to (wo)man up and make some changes! It's sure not easy, but it is necessary. *sigh* Sometimes it's tough being a person.

How are you doing? Any new health/sleep plans you've implemented lately? I need inspiration.

DECORATE or un

It seems ironic that the two books I am drooling over right now are Decorate and Undecorate. I wonder which one I will end up doing...

awkward & AWESOME thursday

AWKWARD:
-A stranger talking and singing to my daughter for 10 minutes in the Target checkout line while continuously grabbing my hand and putting her head on my shoulder to point out that I'm "mama".
- Getting a huge computer monitor and being excited to check out my blog only to see the iPhone pics I've been posting while computerless look hoooorrible. Sorry, dears!
- Goat milk chunks in my cereal this morning. Cow milk is not chunky. Why is goat milk?
- Thinking the man at Trader Joe's who spent 10 minutes in the cheese section, who was staring at his cart with his 2 inches away and talking excessively loud was mentally handicapped, then hearing him say "I'm hiiiiigh". Oh.
- Trying to type a big word and then being told by spellcheck that it's spelled wrong... then being unable to find the real word. I still have no idea.
- Daylight Savings is this Sunday. Ugh.

AWESOME:
- Going on a date with Mr. Man for his birthday last night. Three cheers for my husband being born! He is the best thing to ever happen to March 9th... well... since Charles M. Graham patented artificial teeth in 1820... and the first Ford Mustang was produced in 1964. Since then. ;)
- Mr. Man spilling the beans about how he bought tickets to an upcoming Josh Groban show for our anniversary. FLOOR SEATS. 13 ROWS BACK! AH! Hello, mother of early (5 months early) anniversary surprises! And hello, wonderful husband man!
- My new "go to bed at 10, wake up at 6" routine. Well, I have yet to find out if it's awesome. Today is my first day. But breakfast at 6:45 with no baby has been awesome so far!
- Finding adorable baby clothes on clearance at Target. A lot of them.
- This Anthropologie announcement. One is coming to my local Anthro!
- Doing this Awkward and Awesome post. I love all things awkward and awesome. Thanks for the inspiration, Sydney!

BABY FOOD SPICE JARS tutorial

As promised, here are the finished spice jars in all their spicy glory. I may glue some magnets to make a magnetic spice rack, but I'm rather liking them as is. Hmmm. Want to make these yourself? I'll give you a hint. They are much easier to make if you have a BABY who eats FOOD. You got it. These are baby food jars. We should play guessing games more often because you are brilliant! Okay. Here we go.

MATERIALS:
-spices, likely in ugly mismatched jars
-as many baby food jars as your heart desires
-spray paint for the tops
-Goo Gone
-a labelmaker (or decorative masking tape, or little label stickers, or a paint pen)

STEP 1: Empty your baby food jars. I would hope this involves a hungry baby but I have heard of the baby food diet and if that's your jar-emptying method of choice, I don't judge. Okay, I do. A little.

STEP 2: Remove the labels and apply the Goo Gone to the sticky ickies left over. Kill a few minutes by reading this or cuddling your full-bellied babe while the Goo Gone goes to work. (This was my first time using Goo Gone. I am greatly intimidated by sticky ickies and the thought of using elbow grease, and didn't realize Goo Gone eliminates the need for my elbow to be greasy! I am now looking all over the house for sticky messes to clean up. True story.)

STEP 3: Take a cloth or paper towel and rub the goo off, then wash the jars and lids with soap and hot water. I'd also recommend running them through the dishwasher for some extra sanitizing- if you have a dishwasher. Here on Crooked Shmooked we don't discriminate the dishwasher impaired. I love you, sister! ;)

STEP 4: Go outside or find a well ventilated area and give your jar tops a nice coat of color. Only spray the tops and sides, not the underbelly. I used Rustoleum Painter's Touch Ultra Cover in Satin Granite. I only had to spray one coat for full coverage but use your own discretion and eyeballs to decide what looks good.

STEP 5: Crank out some labels with your labelmaker or stick sticker labels or tape on and use your best penmanship to write the spice names. I used a vintage Dymo labelmaker for my yellow labels and ran out of tape 4 spices short. Lovely. Gonna have some fun tracking down vintage labelmaker tape...

STEP 6: Once your lids are dry, empty your spices into their jars, screw on the lids and you are done! No more mismatched spice jars. Arrange the jars in a cabinet or spice rack where everyone can see your craftiness.

Yay for you!

cook with my RIFLE

I'm not a cook. Husband is the chef extraordinaire in our house, but this recipe box and these recipe cards from Rifle Paper make me want to cook up a storm.

CURRENTLY crafting...

these:

into these:

...currently as in right now. I'll share the finished product and link up a tutorial when I'm done. I hope you are having a fantabulous Monday! Hubby and I decided we'll pretend it's Saturday to avoid a case of the Mondays. So far it's working--- but somebody forgot to tell the baby.