William Sonoma Home??

I was scoping out William Sonoma's website. I love that website but a little too expensive for me but hey, a girl can look! Than I notice on the bottom left screen W.S. HOME.


What???

So I went browsing and turns out they got some pretty cute stuff! Just as unaffordable as William Sonoma Cooking but still cute! Here are some goodies I found :)

I love coral and this coral pillow SCREAMED to me!! Too cute!!

I am not crazy about animal prints but I LOVED this giraffe print rug. I can't tell you why I just thought it was adorable.

These porcelein candle holders are gorgeous!

And lately I am loving garden seats - especially white ones :) I tried to convince to buy one the other day at home goods but he wasn't convinced it was cute. I'll get him to see my way!!

And I am in love with both of these pillows! On sale ... for 69.99? I dont think so :(

Who Know's Where the Time Goes?

Oops... I've been busy and have not written in a while but I do have a bunch to share - including my tiny sprouts of fall decor in my house as well as some lovely additions to my fancy schmancy new office!

And seriously... Who Know's Where the Time Goes?? I mean I blink and it is suddenly 50 degrees every night the past couple days! It is seriously feeling like fall here in Jersey. But I love it since it's my favorite season! Anywhoo... A Bit of Fall Decor to make you all warm and tingly inside :)

My fall flowers on my table along with my fall runner my mom got me courtesy of Berwick Offray Ribbon Company :)

As well as these lovely "hat boxes" and ribbon - both courtesy of Berwick Offray Ribbon Company :)

And these adorable little pumpkin container which I have seen in at least 4 different stores this year - but I snagged mine at CVS because I get my employee discount!



And here is what is going on in my office... a very tiny bright little green picture frame [I'm waiting for the perfect picture of my cat and dog together to fill it]

And the frame next to the green and white lamp. Frame... 4.99 from Home Goods! Yuuup!

As well as 10.99 each Nautica pillows from Home Goods. Home Goods is the best!

That's pretty much it! It certainly gave me a warm and tingly feeling all over again!

And Its You When I Look In the Mirror...

Tomorrow September 12th will mark 5 years since my dad passing away. He had dementia, a type of alzheimers, and it was just horrible. For him, for us. It was devastating watching him suffer for nearly 7 years and just completely lose himself. These days I don't think of my "sick" dad... I think of the dad I grew up with.

The dad that loved [i mean with a passion loved] hockey, Canada, going down the shore every summer, music, The Beatles and of course Elvis [hence the picture hanging in our dining room in the background in the picture below!!] He was a very passionate man and loved all of those things equally and dearly. He is the reason I love those things... especially music. My first tattoo was music notes for him and I plan to get his initials around or intertwining with it.

But on top of those things being the loves of his life, so was his family. All 6 of his brothers, 3 of his sisters, 4 of his daughters [me :)], his son, his 2 granddaughters, 1 grandson... and my mom. We all love him and miss him so much its hard to think about sometimes. Though my sister and I were young when he was diagnosed with alzheimers, I remember everything about him so vividly. Sometimes I can still smell him in the air. I remember the way his hands felt. The way his skin smelled. My father is the love of my life.

He always teased me saying "one day you're gonna meet a guy, fall in love with him and forget all about me". And daddy, I will never forget you. I love you and miss you dearly every day. And everyday I hear a song that you loved and makes me think of you.. I stop and think of you all over again. And I always will. I Love You.

Riddle's Got Talent!

I saw this idea on Young House Love a couple months ago waaay before we got Riddle and LOVED it! Thought it was the cutest personalized present ever! And with Jose's birthday and our anniversary both back to back [literally, our anniversary was yesterday and his birthday is today] I decided to do it for him!

Whats the big idea??

How about some personalized pet art? The youngsters awesome little dog Burger did his own little artwork and Riddle tried it out and did it as well!

Here it is all done up:

And here he is posing next to his masterpiece with this grumpy little face on!

Well I gave it to Jose for our anniversary and he LOVED it! He thought it was the cutest thing and was amazed! And what did it take? Some water based acrylic paint and some cardstock - JUST like what the youngsters did over on their site! Seriously, I can't take any credit for this idea but I LOVED it and even sent them a photo of the finished masterpiece so they could see how great their idea was! [Or actually Sherry since she did it for John's birthday]

Hope you spread the puppy love too! :)

The Office Transformation: The Big Reveal!

With only tiny little details left [like cork boards on the wall and pillows] I decided it is time to debut my new office! I'm telling you sitting in this room just makes me happy. It's totally different than our dark and dingy Before Office.

Also a correction.. the color is said the new wall color is was Summer Splash by Olympic but it is in fact South Pacific. And a beautiful color I must say!

Here is what you see when you walk in the room:

A close up of our desk and our new shaggy cream rug [20 bucks clearance from Target] Obviously this is Riddles favorite place to snuggle up.

We have this ottoman as seating [will put some accent pillows on it soon]... But honestly, you think it goes?? Let me know!

Our bookshelf in the right corner. The top shelf for now holds Jose's met's memorabilia and the first two shelves hold my collection of snowglobes. :)


We fell in LOVE with this lamp from Home Goods and had to have it! We thought the green lamp shade and the white base went perfect. The green looks great next to the blue on our walls.

And Hitchcock is in this room ten times more than he was before :) He just loves our new sheer curtains 10 bucks from Target!

I put our books on our bookshelves but really hated it. So I stood in the room thinking and thinking than decided to put them on top of our desk... but than color coordinated it. AND seperated each color by section AND start each section on the left and right with the tallest books first. Now I love the zig zag effect these books have.

Also we have a BUNCH of markers and colored pencils and really, no where to put them. And I am always doodling and drawing so I bought this set of 4 cups for 1.99 at CVS! :) Who'd thunk!? Also seperated these all by colors as well [pinks and reds together, oranges and yellows, blues green and purples and than blacks, browns and grays]

And I have had my eye on these magnetic containers from the container store for a year or so and FINALLY found a reason and place to get them! Now it holds our rubber bands, usb cords, pins, etc :) And the mugs on the shelves are to hold our litle knick knacks.. I have the cowgirl mug, Jose has the starbucks. But I really want C and J mugs :)

And lastly, the other bookshelf on the left wall across from the desk. The bottom shelf holds ALL my scrap books [yes I scrapbook :)] and my INSTYLE magazines. Than boxes and other goodies :)

And that's it! FINALLY! All we need is some stuff on the walls and some pillows on the ottoman [or just a different type of seating] and this room is done! YaY! We have loved doing our office over and are really so in love with the final product :)

Basket Case

After work today I decided to do something I rarely do... go visit the neighborhood K-Mart. [eeeeeww]

I thought hmm, maybe they will have SOMETHING cute. Turns out they had 4 things cute. One was a chew toy for Riddle [which I could not get a picture of because since he is teething, he tore it up quick!], the second was a fabulous blue collar for Riddle which really brings out the blue in his eyes [seriously, he's got blue eyes] and 2 were these adorable baskets!!

I was really looking for one to hold Jose's clothes in the office [cos god forbid he walks upstairs and puts it in the closet] but now you can barely see his clothes and I really like it :)

And yes this is a tiny little sample of whats hiding in the office as we speak...

The other was a magazine holder so I stuck my magazines in there. But didn't take a picture of that :( It's okay, some other time!

You Give Me Butterflies...

I was out for a walk the other day with Riddle [a GORGEOUS day I might add] when I looked up and saw a bunch of butterflies. I haven't seen butterflies in the longest time so I was amazed. I stood there and watched them for a good 2 minutes than realized what I was doing.

Butterflies on the last day of August :) It was a nice sendoff from summer [though technically it still is summer, it feels like fall in Jersey! I have been wearing long sleeved cardigans for a couple days now] and I wanted to capture it quick! So I ran home with Riddle, grabbed my camera, and ran back to the flowers. And they were still there so I snapped some photos :)

These are my two favorite photos:

I seriously am going to print those pictures and have them framed in our lovely lil apartment :) I love these pictures so much and am so glad the butterflies were so cooperative with me! And the pinks in the foreground look perfect against the purple!

Just thought these pictures might make your day as much as they made mine!

Ooh and finished office photos are coming soon :)