life lesson 101

the greatest lesson i learned from the season finale of the oprah show, may 25. sometimes you know it, but it helps to have someone put it out there infront of you. i will remember this. and be conscious of it. in fact, i think i'll print it out and put it on my wall.

loving this

my sister-in-law sent me this. isn't it awesome? i'm usually not a skull type of gal but i love this! found here.

it tickles me....

when customers are excited about their new calling cards. ***

so much so to do this...

it also tickles me when customers make me step outside my box (square cards) and make me do them standard size and vertical. how cute are they?? they'll be getting their own listing in the shop soon (but they're always available special request!).

thanks jamie! and while you're over at her blog, check it out. i just managed to spend some time over there. love all the inspiration.

*** jamie's photo

i want to be...

a guest at this party.
and at the end of it, i'll try to sneak that credenza and those lamps into my car.

found here

an end of an era

there's only 5 more oprah shows left. are you watching? i am. i've pretty much always watched oprah. maybe not her first few years, but definitely the last 20.
i'll be sad when she's not on every afternoon. but she's closing it out with some amazing guests.

yesterday she interviewed ralph lauren. a great interview. and view into his colorado lifestyle.
and earlier this week, she interviewed james frey.... again. you may remember the controversy 5 years ago surrounding his memoir. i think this was one of her best shows ever.
oprah will continue working at her own network, own. i'm excited to see what she's go in store for us there.

i'm needy

i need sun. i had a blood test done last week. it showed i'm extremely low in vitamin d. i live in seattle. go figure.

i need warmth. while i'm at it, an ocean and sand would be nice too.

this pretty much sums it up.

found here.

snippets from our sunday

there was an open house. we had to leave. i didn't feel well and just wanted to crawl back in bed. the rain and cold temps (seattle has yet to realize it's late spring) didn't help. we headed to the nearest coffee shop and read our books. steve was engrossed. i told him it was a good one. he hesitated reading it because he watched the movie with me and doesn't like to read the book after the movie. he's almost done with the book, after just one day. he's a speed reader.
i read this for our book club meeting friday night.
and the coffee shop is dog friendly so this one got to join us inside.

giveaways!

a few of my favorite people/shops are having giveaways. and because i'm a nice gal i'll let you in on them...

ceri at cooper grey. her giveaway is for not one, but TWO of her beautiful, gorgeous pillows in designer fabrics! seriously. i'm lovin' these in hot house floral.
my very good cyber friend (although i believe if we lived in the same city, we'd be real-life friends, too) janna at jacjewelry is giving away this set of pretty earrings. how pretty are these for spring! go here to enter.
little brown pen is one of my favorite shops for photos. the quality is superb. they are giving away a set of 9 8x10s! i'd pick these. go here to enter.
now go enter some giveaways. and then have a nice weekend!

dear universe,

***

i'm ready to go. i'm ready to move cross country. i'm ready to sell our house in seattle. i'm ready to buy our house in dallas. i'm ready to get settled in a new house, in a new town, in a new state. i'm ready to cart 3 animals cross-country to a new home. not sure how yet, but i'm ready. just wanted to make sure you knew so you could send any able and willing buyers our way so they could love our house and make an offer. thank you. pam

*** i always forget the source for this photo. help me if you know. i'd like to credit it properly.

goodness

the may/june 2011 issue of lonny came out yesterday. i love it. i apparently have breakfast nooks on the brain, because these were my favorite images from the issue, both breakfast nooks.

these drapes had me at hello. gorgeous.
and this banquette. phenomenal.
now go enjoy the rest of the issue. it doesn't disappoint.

option 3

you've already seen option 1 for a house choice in dallas. (we're moving, remember?) and you've seen option 2.

now here's option 3. this one's in the same subdivision as the red house, option 2. remember, all houses are the same builder, so that's not a decision-maker.

can't you just picture some vines on the arbor over the garage doors?
front porch for sipping lemonade and reading.
kitchen. i really want white cabinets. really. really bad. and a darker island. love this.
there's also some glass front cabinets and more counterspace to the left of the photographer here.

kitchen/family room.
large backyard with an already in place magnolia tree. looks like a pool size lot to me! pixel and i would love a pool. hubby's not so sure.
master bath. love the hexagon tiled floor.
study/new office of pixelimpress.
guest room bath. L.O.V.E.
what do you think?

this little guy....

sits on a bench in our powder room. i painted him. awhile ago. while i was taking watercolor classes here. that was back when we lived in atlanta.
my mother-in-law coveted this painting and threatened to slip it into her suitcase on her last visit here. like i wouldn't notice it was gone. i made a mental note to paint one for her. it would look perfect in her newly redone bathroom where she wanted to hang it. i planned on painting it for last mother's day. didn't happen. planned on it for her birthday. it didn't happen. planned on it for a christmas gift. didn't happen. it was one week before this mother's day and i thought about it again. i already had the frame bought. i just had to sit down and paint it. and then i had a brilliant idea... do what other painters do. make prints of their original artwork! so off i went to have it scanned. it turned out beautiful. so much so that i made a print for my mother also. i framed my mil's in a dark aqua lacquer frame from pottery barn. and my mother's in a gold frame. and shipped them out last week. they loved them.

new font on the block

kapitza just released a new font. called roto. you can find it here, one of my favorite sites to download fonts. they're really nice, especially when you accidentally TWICE download the wrong font. they don't yell, they don't scream, they politely refund your $$ and get you the font you originally wanted.

here's roto.


and you can do cool things like this.imagine the possibilities.

spoiled rotten

a few months ago we started letting pixel sleep in the bed... only on weekends. the weekend apparently bled into the week this week. she's now been in the bed friday night, saturday night, sunday night and last night. she hops up, turns a few times, then buries her face down under the down comforter. this was her last night. she's so spoiled. spoiled rotten.

another possibility

so, about a month ago i showed you one of my favorite houses from my house hunting search in the dallas suburbs. we're moving, remember?

well, steve was back in dallas last week and spent an afternoon with our realtor. they stopped by a subdivision in mckinney, texas. the neighborhood is designed as a master planned, new urbanism TND. some others you might be familiar with are alys beach in the florida panhandle and serenbe just south of atlanta, georgia.

this was one of the homes he saw. it's by the same builder as the other homes on our list. just look at that front porch. it's made for sippin' lemonade and greeting neighbors.
main hallway with transom windows. love those! dark wood floors throughout the first floor.
study behind french doors.
master bath.
powder room. love! give me a pedestal sink any day over a vanity.
kitchen area as seen from family room.
do you spy what i spy? white subway tile backsplash. woohoo. and white cabinets, dark island. wouldn't change at thing. ok, except maybe put in a farmhouse sink instead.
another front view. the only negative to this house is, do you see it, do you see it??
a detached 3-car garage.
it's not my ideal. i could make it work. we could make it work. the main disadvantage though is that it takes up a lot of the backyard. and we'd have to add a small iron fence separating yard from driveway to completely fence in the backyard for pixel.

overall, it's a gorgeous house. what do you think?