LATELY.

Lately I have been crafting and decorating and thrifting and getting ready for A's 1st birthday party. I seriously cannot believe she is turning 1. Insane. I have been loving actually accomplishing things. When the birthday madness is over, or when I feel like I am prepared for the event, I will be back with photos of my craftiness. But for now- a picture of my gorgeous girl as shot by April Christine Photography. If only I had those blue eyes. Yes, I am jealous of my 11-month old.

ORANGE you glad it's Friday?

I'm not a big orange lover- the fruit or the color. But these outfits are changing my mind. Who knew orange could be so chic? And who knew I would ever be wishing for an orange maxi skirt?
1- via Apartment 34
2- J.Crew via Style.com's iPhone app

AWKWARD & awesome thursday: it's almost friday edition

AWKWARD:
-Right now I am wearing yellow sweatpants and a college sweatshirt with fresh out of a bun crazy kinked hair while eating Chinese food with chopsticks and typing. It is H-O-T. Ha!
-Being so exhausted that I had an emotional breakdown today right before date night. Time to start getting more sleep.
-Crying during Flipped, a PG movie about the romance between two jr. highers. Did I mention I'm tired? But seriously- it was a really sweet movie.
-Getting sprayed in the face 3 times in the last week by my water bottle after leaving it in the car and forgetting that the warm weather causes the pressure to build up. Luckily I wasn't going anywhere where I had to impress people with dry clothes.
-Realizing that I forgot my debit card at home while I was halfway into the insanely long line to get gas at Costco. Hubby bailed me out by bringing me his card since he happened to be a couple minutes away. Phwew!
-Getting emotional every time I think about my little girl turning one at the end of the month. She is growing up so fast!
-Having an elderly lady come up to me while I was in line at Target and singing "Li li li li liiii" to Lil' A while tapping her long purple fingernails on the shopping cart, then putting her head on my shoulder numerous times and telling A that I was "mama", then grabbing my hand and giving it to Adelaide.... she spent 5 minutes trying to get A to smile and she didn't once. People get crazy around babies!


AWESOME:
-Hanging out with my best friend who is visiting from SoCal on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. We usually only see each other once a year but we've seen each other twice already this year and there are 2 more visits coming up through summer. Yay! Now if only I could get her family to move here to NorCal...
-My sister is finding out the sex of her 2nd baby on Monday. I am SO EXCITED to find out and shower the little peanut with gifts.
-I finally have weekly walking dates with some girls from church which means fellowship and exercise. Win win!
-Tina Fey's new book, Bossypants. Hubby and I listened to an excerpt last night. She is hi-larious. I can't wait to read the rest.
-Having chicken and waffles for dinner on Sunday. It was so delicious. I've been having crazy cravings for Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles lately and was ecstatic when I found some pancake mix in the cupboard and realized I could make my own Roscoe's dish at home! It was mmm mmmmm good. I know it sounds weird, but don't knock it till you've tried it.
-Having a sweet little snuggle session with Lil' A before her bedtime this evening. She rarely sits still, but she just cuddled under a blanket with me and played with my thumb while I savored every second. It was wonderful. *sigh*

Oh my goodness, you know what was awkward? Writing this post! The brain cells are not cooperating today. I must sleep. Now. G'nite friends! I hope you are having an awesome week with an abundance of cooperative brain cells!

CORNERS of the living room

If you have been around Crooked Shmooked since the beginning then you know that this blog was started as an attempt to follow what was supposed to be a quick remodel. It turned into over a year of the husband and I living with my parents while our house was worked on by family on and off. It was finally finished a month or so before the babe was born, but I haven't given a house tour yet and have been nervous to show any photos with decorating gaps throughout the house. My ideal was to have the remodel and decorating done before April of 2010 when Lil' A was born, but as Robert Burns said-- The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley.

So, no living room tour yet, but these are some corners that I am liking right now...

1 - our unfinished photo wall: prints by Katie Daisy and JellyBeans, triangle collage by me

2 - thrifted globes

3 - a dottie angel wall hanging, gma and gpa back in the day, a tin found in my German gma's sewing kit after she passed, a bird terrarium a friend brought me when I was sick, thrifted milk glass with gma's wooden daisy

4 - IKEA lamp, World Market curtain, Nick & Nora zebra print blanket, vintage embroidery

5 - thrifted paint by number, vintage and antique books from various places, brass swans from the sister

daily duds: CRAYOLA COLOR

Happy Monday, ladies and gents! I disappeared off the face of the blogosphere for a bit there because my dear wittle baby sister and niece were in town for a week. She's not really that wittle. She's 3 years and 3.5 months my junior. Her daughter is 5 months older than Lil' A AND she is pregnant with number two. So she's older than me in babymaking years. That's peeerfectly alright with me though. Pop 'em out to your heart's content, sis. Besides spending the week watching our little gals share, not share, hug, knock each other over, and be their adorable selves, we shopped at F21 on ma's dime (a favorite pasttime, if I do say so myself), and hit up an awesome local Salvation Army compound. I came home with lots of treasures that initiated a bit of a clash between husband and I because, well, he didn't know that ma's tab was closed and the treasures were now on his. Marriage and money. Blech. Hopefully some of the money will return to me someday though, because most of the treasures are going to go in my vintage etsy shop which is going to pop up sometime next month! I'm pretty excited to finally open a shop. It will be a fun little side project that will hopefully drum up a teeny bit of play money for me. You'll be the first to know when it opens.

All in all, it was a pretty busy and fun and tiring week- so busy and fun and tiring that I didn't spend much time on the interweb. It's good to have weeks and/or days like that from time to time. In fact, husband and I decided that Sunday is our day of no technology. It's not a hard and fast rule in case we are both so exhausted that we want to just chill by watching a movie, but it has been nice to take our attention off of our iWorld and put it on each other and the babe. Oh- and excuse me while I laugh to myself a little bit because I happen to be typing this post on... Sunday. The other loophole in the no technology rule is that if the other person is napping, a bit of solitary technology is okay. I may or may not have made that loophole up just now.

(dress: F21, thanks, mom! - tights: Target - flats: Target - bangle bracelets: The Icing - earrings: gold studs so tiny you can't see them, stolen from ma)

(Husband is awake from his nap now so I have to finish this post quick! *gasp* I just turned around to see what he is doing and he is playing Words With Friends! I guess I can cease typing 100 wpm and finish this at my leisure.)

This is the outfit I wore to church to hear my BIL preach. He did a fantastic job, by the way. It was pretty exciting to wear such vibrant colors although I did feel like an advertisement for Crayola compared to the other colors worn in church this morning. Husband took my outfit photo this time. Isn't that nice of him? And I realized my dad's shop is the perfect backdrop. There are also a variety of barn walls on the property that may get some love in the future too. Maybe the days of bedroom mirror with laundry in the background self-portraits are over. We can only hope.

P.S. Today is my half birthday! Do you celebrate half birthdays?