Day Dream Nation

So Jeff and I started house hunting yesterday, which is something that I have secretly and not so secretly been waiting to do for a long time. I've been trying to keep myself quiet in a lame attempt not to psych myself out, but if you are my close friend you know that I've been yapping about buying a house for far too long. I am so stoked that it is finally happening. We are looking at houses in the Uptown/Kingfield neighborhoods of MPLS, MN, so if you live there already, I can't wait to be your neighbor. We haven't found "The One" just yet but I can't help but day dream about all of them. Hence, the image above.

This is my first idea for a future bedroom. Here's how it breaks down:

Since we're on a budget we'll put our bed on a simple bed frame (no more Ikea Malm bed!). We'll buy a cooler bed frame sometime down the road. The bedding will be basic and white, (I know, bad idea with a kid). We currently own a handmade white quilt thanks to my grandma -- we'll just need to add other linens and shams from Target and we'll be set. The main pieces will be this Jonathan Adler pillow and this vintage granny square quilt which I just purchased on ebay for 14.99 (couldn't resist). The walls will be painted yellow to remind us of our first apartment we had on 26th and Garfield. If anyone feels like donating a pair of Nelson bubble lamps I would think that you were awesome. I'll scour craigslist until I find the perfect mid-century end tables/night stands. And lastly we'll have FLOR hook us up with a tile rug. Yup, I think we're ready to move.

Just a heads up, I'm guessing this is not the only time you will hear me talk about my future house with it's future rooms and future possibilities.

Peekaboo Barn & Peekaboo Wild

This is Finn's favorite new app for his iphone, (Ha). Part of our morning routine now includes getting in bed with mom and flipping through all the animals in Peekaboo Barn. For $1.99 each these cheap apps can be a nice break in the day, especially when your little dude or lady needs a quick distraction. Not only that a Mom can appreciate the simplicity of the illustrations and audio. For more info check out the peekaboo barn site.

We made it to the Semi-Finals!

Hey Everyone, guess what? Remember that cool Ohdeedoh Color Contest that Finn's room was in a few weeks ago? It made it into the semi-finals!

Now the real work begins. To get into the Final Top 3, Finn and I need everyone's help! Follow this link and please vote for "Finn's Inherited Blue Nursery, Entry #11" This is for all the Nursery Glory. Whatever that is.

If you've already voted on ohdeedoh this will be super easy for you, just login and vote with the account you made before. If you haven't voted yet, just start a new account and then place your vote. Don't worry, they don't spam you. Only one vote per person so EVERY VOTE COUNTS.

Onward!

Hey Colez, let's make these for Elsa's 1st B-Day.

Flickr Find from howaboutorange

Nicole and friends, don't you love this? I do. Nicole, I think you should consider it for your little ladies first b-day partay. Everyone else, this would be great for a bridal or baby shower OR it would even be cool as permanent decor. If I ever get to have a girl baby lady, I might make these for her nursery.

Martha Stewart breaks it down here.

A Holiday Arrangement

I went to the local nursery with my Mom on Monday with the intent of getting some mini-pumpkins for decorating the thanksgiving table. I should know better—going to the nursery always = big money. You always end up spending more than you'd planned.

Mom convinced me that I needed spruce tips and red berries and ribbon and I NEEDED to make an arrangement for my front stoop. Whoa, hold the phone. Thankfully she also convinced me that we could do this for super cheap. We went back to her house and took out the saw and started cutting down evergreen branches, picking up pine cones, spray painting sticks and hydrangeas, and in the end, the only thing we bought was a few berries and a little ribbon.

Voila. A holiday arrangement for my front stoop for less than 20 bucks and a sliced finger.

Must be Santa

Holy Shit balls, this made my day! New greatest thing about Christmas: Bob Dylan singing a horribly lip synced Raffi Christmas song with a long grey wig on. This has made my Christmas, my life, and my week. Thank you Bob Dylan for always being crazy and ruling so hard.

Watch the video here, it's worth it.

Cool Things for Babies

I am not sure if you have heard about this awesome breakthrough in baby technology or not? If not, check it out. There is this really truly thoughtful and lovely set of DVD's created solely to introduce our kiddos to seeing and hearing and thinking. I am pretty sure it will blow your mind.

One Down, Three to Go.

I finished Finn's stocking last night! I'm glad that I was able to get the most important one done in time. I still need to crank out a stocking for "MOM" and a stocking for "DAD" then our little stocking family will be complete. I used an assortment of vintage patterns but mostly just scoured flickr for inspiration. I want these all to look handmade and vintage, and I think this one is successful.

Okay, okay I'll stop talking about Christmas for a little while, I know I'm being annoying.

Are you sick of me yet?

Flickr find by thn26987

I wish I could promise you that this is the last time I will mention Christmas for awhile but that would probably be a lie. I'm trying to figure out cool ways to make cool DIY decorations for our 5th annual Friend Feast this year. I think these fit the bill pretty well, I could hang them from the windows and from from the ceiling. People would probably mistake our place for the Northpole, I'm pretty sure of it. I found instructions here just in case anyone wants to try this out. Let me know what kind of results you get if you do.

Yo, more Gocco!

This is my 2nd creation with my new favorite friend, the old Gocco machine. I made some of these Christmas hang tags and it was super easy. I love this machine, if only I had a million dollars I would Gocco all the time.

I am so making handmade gift wrapping really cool this year. I hope it's not too over the top. I've got my kraft paper, my homemade gift tags, and my magazine gift bows. I'm all set. If I was me doing this 10 years ago when country living and knotty pine was really cool for suburban moms, I would probably think that I was really dumb for doing all of this from scratch. Who knows it might still be dumb.

Flannel Fest 09'

This is the part of the blog where the mom's drink the beers. Last Saturday after bar close we had an impromptu flannel fest party which involved listening to every Nirvana record ever, wearing flannel and eating beef stew, just like every good grunge god did in the early 90's.

There was also lots of air guitar, air bass and air drums that happened at this party

Giving the Bird.

This recipe came from Craftzine.com and I'm totally going to make this for Thanksgiving. Have you ever brined a bird? It sounds kind of awesome and delicious. So I'm gonna put my skillz to the test and see how it turns out. Let me know if anyone else decides to try this too.

Dear Ebay, You Just Let me Be. Love, Scoops

It's an addiction, I know. Buying things on ebay is fun and easy and I love it. These roly poly spaghetti string tumblers are my new latest and greatest. I like to believe that I got a deal on these so it's not all bad. I suppose I need to get the pitcher now too.

Hey red lotus bowls, you better watch out, you're next on my hit list.

2 Socks Does NOT = 1 Pair

Well I finished one sock of each of the patterns I was working on. I now am the proud owner of one sock knitted in the pattern "Gentleman's Winter Sock" and the other knitted in the pattern "Child's First Sock In Shell Pattern." These socks will have to become friends because their sock buddies won't be showing up until after the holidays. There's just too much other stuff to get done first.

This is cool: Bows Made from Magazines.

Just found this great idea on the good ol' internetz. If you can't tell already, I'm a little gung-ho about Christmas and all the things that come with it. Thanks to Jessica for the tutorial which can be found at howaboutorange.blogspot.com. Now I have an excuse to put the cart before the horse and start my Christmas present wrapping before I even have gifts bought. I know what I'll be doing when I'm bored at work.

This could be really awesome too if you were to use vintage children's christmas books instead of magazines, I can picture it now.

Thanksgiving Count Down Begins Now!

It's getting to be time for the Allen family to host their first Thanksgiving dinner. First things first, now that I have this new dining room table I decide I should probably buy the proper tools to dress it. So Finn and I head over to Ikea and buy 12 place settings including dinner plate, salad plate, bowl, drinking glasses, place mat, coaster, table decor, and napkin rings for about $85 bucks. Holy crap that rules. Instead of buying fall colors I buy a shade of blue that matches my living room - I can't start color coordinating for holidays just yet.

Check it! Place card holders/napkin rings. How very fancy of me.

Pun'kin, Punk'in, Pumpkin Pie

Elsa celebrated her first Halloween this past weekend. She was such a trooper, allowing us to dress her up in this hilarious pumpkin costume!

In other news, I cleaned out a crafty craft spot in my basement. Stay tuned for some photos of the new space as well as some new projects.

See you soon!

My sock yarn is here!

Yay me! My sock yarn came in the mail today. I bought this on etsy and will be using it for a secret pair of christmas socks. Shhhh don't tell. Mom, if you're reading this, now would be a good time to close your eyes.

This is cool, I bought the yarn from yarnadoodledo on etsy this will be the first time I've bought yarn on etsy. The seller made her yarn label from recycled card catalog labels, pretty cool stuff.

Handmade Finn Gifts

Finn's been receiving some pretty awesome handmade gifts lately and I decided I should probably blog them. His Grandma knitted this up for him in a matter of days. A perfect little dudes sweater.

My Friend Caylie gave Finn her old Twins bear and added his name to the back of it. Now Finn will always be a member of the team.