this....

found here at little brown pen reminds me of sunshine. it's in the forecast for this weekend. sunshine that is. finally. 70s and sunshine. we seattle-ites have waited a long long time for it. i might go do cartwheels.

the last 5 days

the last few days have been a whirlwind. last thursday afternoon i got an email from an associate producer of the nate berkus show. we all know nate. he's the cutie patootie interior designer who's tight with oprah. now he has his own daily talk show.

the ap said they were planning a segment profiling a few small businesses. would i be interested in being part of the show? interested in coming to nyc to film the segment? having pixelimpress as one of the businesses?

huh?? me??

i don't know if you've ever rec'd a call/email from a talk show. i haven't. you can't predict your reaction. do you scream? do you play it cool? do you frantically calculate if you have time for a haircut, manicure, teeth whitening before the taping? do you mentally go through your closet for the perfect outfit only to realize that as a home-based business you have nothing perfect to wear to meet nate? do you wonder if you can you lose five 15 pounds by taping time? do you try to calculate the massive effect this will have on your business?

we chatted briefly and i answered some questions about pixelimpress and she said she'd contact me the next morning. she did. she said her producer would be following up with a phone call. i waited. i waited some more. in the meantime i did this...

escorted steve to the emergency room.
he woke up saturday morning with heartburn and some other weird symptoms. he worried that it wasn't just heartburn. he has a family history of heart disease. he chose to call 911. 6 paramedics first treated him in our bedroom at 6 am saturday morning. because of his family history they chose to take him by ambulance to the emergency room. i followed. 4 hours later he was released. it was just heartburn. thankfully. but he has this scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

this morning i heard from the ap again. she said they've chosen 3 others for the segment. disappointing? yes. but all's ok. i believe things happen for reasons and if it's not meant to be this time around, perhaps next time. and as all oscar nominees say when they're nominated but don't win the oscar, i'm seriously honored to have been noticed and considered.

and, since today's my birthday, i'm going to celebrate another way. by purchasing this. it's been on my radar for awhile.

goodies

i just received these in the mail from little brown pen, one of my favorite places for photographs, since i got these and loved them. it's a set of 4 5x5" photographs. these are just as gorgeous as the others.
i'm surprised i picked red because i have an aversion to red. but these i love. i had a coupon. a coupon that i won along with some other goodies in a giveaway last december on little brown pen's blog. she paired with real simple to offer a box of goodies to 10 winners. i was one of the winners. and the box of goodies was great.

here's part of the stash. essie nail polish, color.... 'real simple'. i took it to my last manicure and it's a great color. a mini calendar and coupon from little brown pen. a mouse pad, letterpress cards, pottery barn photo frame.
and this thing, that came in the little velvet bag. i studied it, steve studied it, my neighbor studied it. we couldn't figure out what it was. so i wrote an email to the kind lady who sent me the package. she replied. and it's this.what'll they think of next.

these caramels were good. steve doesn't know how good. because i didn't save him any. bad wife.
a couple of books were in the box.
and of course, the latest issue of real simple.
like i said, great box of goodies. thanks little brown pen and real simple!

little brown pen

i took advantage of cyber deals black friday weekend. nope, not for christmas gifts for others... for myself. i ordered prints from little brown pen. they arrived in this package. love the sticker.

then there was this sheet. more packaging love.
then this. oh my goodness. i seriously want to frame this belly band. it is the deepest, darkest shade of green. and i don't even like green. it's not my favorite. i bought this set of photos to go in my guest bath. they would be the perfect wall art. but they're so beautiful... i want them in my office where i can see them daily.
this was the picture that sold me on the set. stunning hydrangeas.
but these do not disappoint.

and the photos are printed on a heavy cotton rag paper. so luxe. AND to top it off, i was poking around little brown pen's blog shortly after i got these and entered the contest she had going on. and i won!! real simple sponsored the giveaway. so it's a few goodies including something from little brown pen. i'm so excited...

sneak peek

remember this project? i made some headway this weekend. the first step (prepping for painting) took more time than i thought mainly because it took me, my husband, 3 pottery barn reps, 2 hours, 1 screwdriver, 67 bad words (yes, from me, not hubby), and finally one instruction sheet to remove the drawers. my advice.... read the instruction sheet FIRST, don't just merrily toss it aside when cleaning out the drawers.

but here's the sneak peek. my original plan of painting it turquoise has changed. when i layed out my photographs to become my gallery wall above the chest, i concentrated on this one and pulled my color scheme from it.

my new favorite color, rainstorm by sherwin williams.
these beauties are on their way. i'm so excited. i've never had glass knobs before. on anything. weird, huh.
final results soon.

flickr find

saw the orange and stopped.

from here

My Favorites of Their Favorites

I'm a huge fan of Alicia Bock. Her photographs are stunning. I admit I have yet to own one, only because I cannot possibly choose just one. I pop in on her blog occasionally and ogle more beautiful photographs there. I clicked on her sidebar and found this. Each week she and Susannah Conway take a photo with their Polaroid SX-70 cameras. They post their photos side by side. The results are uncanny.

Here's a few of my favorites.

week 35

week 24

week 19

week 36