nothing like a little lilly to put a smile on your face

want some lilly pulitzer for a little more than target prices?  wait until august, when lilly pulitzer's "endless summer" sale takes place.  it is online, once a year, free shipping on all orders, and offers deep discounts. 

my box-o-lilly arrived today.  yay!  it is so colorful.

i like bits and pieces of it for me, but i love the dresses for little miss s.  she only likes to wear dresses.  every day i want her to wear shorts and saltwater sandals and a t-shirt and she wants no part of it.  if i let her, she would wear dresses with high heels, lipstick, and mascara.  we don't really see eye to eye in the fashion department but we do agree on lilly dresses.

many of these dresses are regularly priced around $80, but not at the "endless summer sale."  this is both of our favorite.  the scallops are great.  i like to funk up the dresses a little. this will be so cute with yellow leggings, a white thermal underneath, and hot pink wellies in the winter.

one item i could not resist for myself, a paper bag skirt with a rope belt.  this will be great with topsiders, a white beater, and a messy bun.

can't wait until next august!

family ties

we have a lot to catch up on friends.  i don't even know where to start.  i'm a little out of sorts today.  my girl is gone and my parents are gone.  this morning when little miss s woke up she went right to our guest room to look for my parents, but they weren't there.  then she ran down stairs looking for them, but they were gone.  they left at 5 am this morning while she and i were sleeping.  today is also the first day of her last year of preschool.  for the first time in four and a half years i will have free time, 20hrs a week of free time.  i have been looking forward to this day for a long time, however in the past couple months as this day approached closer and closer i became sad, not glad.  my little buddy is going to be away from me...a lot.  she's a cool kid and fun to be around.  she is pleasant.  she rarely has temper tantrums or meltdowns.  she is easy going.  it is easy to be her parent and i like hanging out with her. after i dropped her off i hung out at her school with my mom friends whose kids start later, just kind of lingering and not sure what to do with myself.

we took these pictures with my parents yesterday at my great, great aunt's 100th birthday party.  it was so nice to connect with family that i haven't seen in 20+ years.  these pictures are a great depiction of the silliness we had this past weekend.

i'll be back soon with a happier post.  i have lots to share about my room redo, palm springs, and a great new recipe.

i still have two hours to go before i have to pick up little miss s:(

my parents are coming! my parents are coming!

hi friends!  i've been out of the loop for the past week and it has been heaven.  my family and i took a mini vacation to palm springs.  we just got back into town yesterday and now my parents are coming for a visit today!  i'm so excited to see them!  they are all i have, no brothers or sisters.  i'm an only child and i haven't seen my mom and dad since april.  i miss them so much.  i hate that we all get so busy that we don't visit each other more.  last time i was at their house i went through a bunch of old family photo albums and came across this picture.  i love it.  it was taken around 1975 according to my mom.  my mom looks so smitten with my dad i can't stand it.  he kind of looks smitten with her too.  he was an adventurous surfer/skater and she was a shy lover of music.  they were really young when they got married and really young when they had me.  they have happily managed to beat the odds and celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary this year.  i love the life that they gave me when i was growing up.  their purpose in life was to make sure mine was great and i don't mean with material objects.  i hope you have a fabulous weekend friends!  i will be soaking up as much time with my parents as i can.

smiles,

amber

floored: part two

i'm in love with my new floors.  i'm so glad i took the leap and went a little unconventional.  these floors are tough and i think they will make a great surface in a house that entertains many people under the age of 5, at least in the durability department anyways.

this was a tedious job and the guys that installed the floors did an amazing job, 200 square feet of brick in a herringbone pattern.

thankfully the transition between the wood floors and the brick is seamless.

i like the brick so much i'm going to use it in my downstairs bathroom in the future.  that will be a much smaller project.

next up:  sofa, pillows made of vintage fabrics and grain sacks, seagrass rug, my rooster prints i bought back in april from the rose bowl.  i'm so excited, can't wait!

happy monday!

sushi and snakeskin

looking for something to do tonight?  should be a fun time! happy weekends friends!

breakfast for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

i like breakfast.  i like it a lot.  i eat breakfast for dinner quite frequently.  it is easy when my husband is traveling and most of the time breakfast foods are kid friendly.  this isn't very kid friendly, but it sure is mom friendly!  i had this amazing concoction yesterday for lunch.  my mouth was very happy.  this is how i made it:

ingredients:  

1 piece of toasted french bread

goat cheese

a handful of arugula

a few slices of proscuitto

1 fried egg

evoo

salt and pepper

directions:

spread a layer of goat cheese on your toast, be generous.  toss a handful of arugula with a little evoo, salt and pepper and put that on top of the goat cheese toast.  place proscuitto slices on top of arugula.  then top that with the fried egg.  it is yumalicious my friends.

some natural beauty for your tuesday

this is an artichoke unharvested.

my neighbor has a couple of these growing in her front yard.

 i had no idea that this what artichokes do.  amazing right?!  find beauty in something simple today.  it is all around us.

a handmade care package

i recently bought a bunch of these striped rugs from ikea.  i bought them to make pillows.  i love the shade of red and the texture of the rugs.  then i saw them turned into bags with jute webbing straps at one of my favorite stores.  i had to make some.  all i did was fold the rug in half, sew up each of the sides and attach the jute straps.  cute right?!  i might do a giveaway of one of these.  what do you think?  would you like one?  i feel like my ideas are ridiculous sometimes, actually most of the time.

i filled the bag with these goodies for a friend who recently had a baby, sunflowers, fresh cut fruit, blueberry zucchini bread, egg and cheese bake, orange juice, paper plates and utensils, and a little goody for the big brother.

i also included one of my sleep sacks.  this one is my favorite so far.  the front fabric is vintage that i ordered off of ebay.  isn't it adorable?!  i paired it with red ticking and made the bias tape out some fabric i picked up for free at a scrapmeet i went to.  sometimes it's hard to combine new and vintage fabrics because the colors produced today just don't compare to those from the past, but these all went great together.

i love ticking.

i love the animals in this print.  i love a lot of things.  i'm just full of love.

i wrapped the sleep sack like this.  this is my new favorite way to wrap presents.  i buy old patterns at the thrift store, four of them for a dollar, and then use the pattern instructions as wrapping paper.  here i attached bakers twine for the ribbon and attached a little note.  i had so much fun putting this care package together.  it didn't take much money, just my time and i love that.  i love when i can turn some very inexpensive simple items into something great.

happy sunday friends!

love,

amber

floors are done

whadda ya think? the brick was becoming a pain so we just painted them.  do you like the hot pink?  not quite as rustic as brick.  just kidding.  i hired a new mason crew and this is how my floors looked at the end of the day yesterday.  they had to prep the concrete and apply this sealer-like stuff to the slab.  the sealer is supposed to act like a barrier between the concrete and the thinset, which is supposed to help everything adhere together.  that is what they are telling me at least.  i wish my dad lived here as he is in the commercial construction industry and this is the kind of stuff he does.  now it is on to the bricks!  my new masons are here and the sound of a tile saw never sounded so good.  i hope you all have a great weekend friends!

floored: part one

Source: decorpad.com 

i have always loved brick floors. i've always wanted to use brick floors in my house, but i've never had the guts to do it.  it's not for everyone.  it definitely has a country flavor to it and in the past i've always tried to keep my house appealing to the broadest range of people, for resale purposes.  we've moved seven times and owned four houses in the past 10 years and i've been in the same house now for 3 1/2 years.  so, basically for the first 6 1/2 years of our marriage, my husband and i were seriously on the move.

Source: houseofturquoise.com

i've finally decided to "move in" to my current house.  yay!  my husband has reassured me we are here to stay.  we are not going anywhere.  that means i get to make my house mine and that means brick floors are going in!  

Source: kitchen-design-tips.com 

it is a little unconventional, at least where i live it is.  most of my friends that i mention this too, have given me a deer in the headlights  look when i tell them i want brick floors.  if all goes well maybe i'll change out my backsplash in my kitchen too (my current backsplash is a slab-o-granite, hate it.)

Source: houzz.com

this is getting a little too polished for me.  i like a more rough and tumbled look, but i still like this.

Source: houzz.com

love this!

here's the dilemma:  i wanted to use this, 100+ year old used brick, or 

this brick, but

it is being installed here, on a cement slab foundation butting up to my wood floors.  i needed something thin, so there would be a smooth transition between the two surfaces.  i could have bought the used brick and then pay to have the brick cut, but that started to drive the price up too much.  so...

i found this... thin brick!  new, clay bricks, manufactured to look rough and tumbled.

it is only 1/2" thick.  perfect!  it comes in a variety of colors and textures.

1,000 lbs of brick,  i unloaded it myself.  now if mr. bricklayer would show up to the job to install it, i'd be pretty happy.  i wish i had the guts or know-how, i'd get on my hands and knees and install this myself.  i'll report back with the finished product soon.  hope you're enjoying your summer.