My favorite find last night was the artist Tom Souhlas. He was doing something I've never seen before; painting on the backside of salvaged windows and I fell in love with pig painting below. You can see more of his art at junkwithpaint.blogspot.com/ and frankly, at around $100 a piece, I think it's worth having it shipped if you're reading this from across the country. Hmm, that makes me think my girlfans at Country Living would drool over these...
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click to enlarge;)
click to enlarge
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In an attempt to distract myself from getting some work done, I have found myself obsessed with vintage bikes. I found this one on Ebay and I can't believe how beautiful the photography is.
Vintage Foremost Bike on Ebay
Written by the seller: This nice vintage Foremost cruiser is in good riding condition and would love to take you out for icecream on a warm summer evening! This tank bike originally had two lights at the snout of the tank, though it looks like the batteries etc. have been taken out. The bike rides well and looks good. It has some surface rust, some pitted chrome, and overall wear - apparently it's been ridden a fair amount over the years, but still has plenty to go.... The frame is a steel gray with a blue tank and blue back rack. The front chrome rack will expand to hold your packages (or beer, or what have you). This is a single speed bike with a coaster brake - nice and simple!
There is no shipping for this bike - LOCAL PICKUP ONLY. Please do not bid on this bike if you cannot pick it up. Our shop is located in downtown Bloomington, IL, about 2 hours south of Chicago and 2 hours north of St. Louis...
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click to enlarge (because this might no be PINK enough for you and you may need to see how pink your computer monitor can get!);)
Click to enlarge because this really DID say "make every room a gay room". Can you imaging having friends over in the eighth grade... "hey Sarah, want to go hang out in the gay room?" Sure your furniture is beautiful but you're going to have a really tough time if you're straight. ;)
I always love to impress my friends on Memorial Day. (War Veterans always love salad.) Mostly I provide only ridiculously healthy salads for my kids and this is one of them. The trick apparently is FRESH marshmallows, not those crappy non-organic marshmallows they sell at the grocery store.
I have been working on retro inspired website for a new client and I had the privilege of going through my collection of old magazines. Ok this is all I've got right now: A pink living room, a gay room and a healthy marshmallow salad for Memorial Day. Enjoy!
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The kids and I made this out of a matchbox a couple years ago.
I'll make this short and sweet; I'm not going to argue that being a Mom is any harder than being a Dad. It's all hard work and it comes with it sweet rewards. Mostly, I am just really appreciative of the wonderful Wonder Women who have influenced me and continue to keep me laughing and smiling.
A shout out to two Wonder Women, Kim and Michelle, who sat with me for two days at our yard sale and made me laugh. We looked at each other's boobs (ok just mine), and told each other some secrets and (of course) talked about our kids incessantly. We enjoyed having fake conversations with some our ruder patrons: "Why don't you want to buy the BLACK Groovy Girl?"... "you'd like to buy that Lilly Pulitzer dress for a quarter?... hmmm... I thing I'd rather rip up the dress and eat it in front of you."
Remember, not all Moms are the women who pushed us out. Some of them don't even have kids of their own. For instance, I have three "Moms" and even though I adore #2, I won't exchange calls with any of them. No big deal, we're just not that close. But today I called Scott's Aunt Joann and I owe another call to my Aunt Annie. Aunt Joann doesn't have kids but for 17 years she has loved our family unconditionally. She always remembers birthdays and always has some kind and practical words when we need them. She's like a Mom to me and Mr. Meathead and a Grandmother to my kids. My Aunt Annie, well she's a character just like me. She has been "mothering" me for 15 years now and I adore her. My best Mom was my Grandmother. She died two days before Piper was born and gave Pipey her personality and blue eyes. On Mother's Day I miss her so much, a golf ball swells up in my throat just thinking about her.
Happy Mother's Day to all my sweet friends and family. And thier friends, and their friends...
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New Junior Editor arrives on "Take Your Kid to Work Day"
Ok, this part I made is 2 bricks high, 12 bricks long, and 8 bricks long. The studded base is 16x16 but you can use any size you want. 
Materials for the next step.
After the parts are put on.
Materials. 
Afterwards.
Well what do you know it's more materials.
The tall white brick and the multi colored tall brick go in the back.
Even more materials.
The tall bricks in the back of the materials photo go inside the base. 
AAAAAHHH more materials!!! P.S. The next shot is a movie.
A few decorations can help show your personality.
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I don't really have time right now to write any in-depth articles or rants. Sometimes "Nifty Living" isn't so Nifty, but that's ok because this blog isn't about making you feel like my life is so much better than yours, because it isn't. Fiona has had some serious speed-bumps lately as well. Cross your fingers for both of our families. We could use some good luck.
But that's not really important, is it?
What is important are the little things, not the big things. A compliment, a kiss at the door on the way to work, a phone call to a sick aunt, and actually listening to your kids and their silly stories. That stuff seems to pay off.
This morning we had three adorable 8 year-olds playing outside way to early for the neighbors to appreciate. I couldn't resist sitting on the porch listening to them and sipping my coffee. Life is really confusing right now, but for 20 minutes I was in my very own heaven. Then I grabbed my $9 vintage Polariod and finally nailed a perfect picture. It was so satisfying that I dragged Sky away from his book and made him pose for me too. You can tell that he thought this was a stellar idea.
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One of her gorgeous hand painted pillows (on the painted couch as a matter of fact). She also does curtains, bed linens of every kind, shower curtains, you name it. You can contact Mary for one of your own custom pillows at this email address.
Mary K. Mooney turned out to be Jane Raymond's sister and she came in to talk about Run Like a Girl Design creating a website for the amazing textiles she's been painting lately. I now remember Jane telling me that her sister Mary actually painted a couch this winter. I thought it sounded a little crazy, (Oh yeah Jane, I've been sewing my own maxi-pads as well!) but yesterday I saw the pictures. It looks fabulous!
If you go back to one of my first posts it was about Jane and her sexy bags and her amazing house. She and her sister, Mary, have been painting walls, furniture, floors, you name it for a very long time. These two are so good at DIY decorating that they really should have their own TV show.
Jane's daughter's room was a cross between a girlie-gasm and a DIY masterpiece. Mary made the sheets and I was completely gushing over them when I saw them!
Sheet close-up.Mary K. Mooney also paints curtains, bed linens of every kind, shower curtains, you name it. She also does furniture and textured walls and floors if you live nearby but for her internet business she is focusing on textiles because she can ship them easily.
You can contact Mary here. Yes, do it now, while you're still inspired.Then she can pay me lots of money for her website
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the brightest blossom - beautiful bursting pink strapless party dress with lace icing at http://www.etsy.com/shop/tigercultMr. Meathead NEVER buys me gifts. Years ago I forbid him from buying me flowers or jewelry because they were (more often than not) thoughtlessly procured on the eleventh hour. Apparently he was trained to buy presents from watching bad tv shows and is completely stumped when I cross those two categories off the list of possibilities. Lame, very lame. To make matters worse, as if to taunt me, Fiona's husband has called in the past me to help him think of more great gifts for her (He had already picked out a few himself). Which makes him a really sweet guy... and also makes me want to punch him in the face.
My point is that is that Mr. Meathead could walk into almost any thrift or vintage store in town and find something that would give me a gift-gasm. He could also spend ten minutes on Etsy. Maybe I could program Yahoo Sports to redirect to Etsy, hmmm....
I can go on and on about how wonderful Etsy is; real people selling one-of-a-kind goods that cost LESS than the "made-by-children-in-Indonesia" stuff you could buy at any department store. These hand crafters at Etsy are working for what?... maybe eight bucks an hour? When all is said and done, I still can't believe that anyone would walk into a mall and spend two hundred bucks on a purse that 3000 other yentas are going to buy as well. I mean, do you really think that big name designers really appreciate your cold cash as much as some sweetheart on Etsy? Pat yourself on the back because you recycle, drive a hybrid, eat organic, but I think it's just as important to support local artists, fellow Americans, and spread your cash among people you would invite over for dinner (and would accept your invitation).
Sooooo.... every couple weeks, Etsy has this thing called "the voter" where a certain number of items are selected and then people vote on their favorites. This weeks goods are all about Easter so check them out and buy your Easter fare here and maybe skip the basket of crappy chocolates (unless of course they are from a local chocolate shop).
The Etsy winners are featured on the front page so pay close attention to my friend's pink dress "the brightest blossom" from Tiger Cult. Clearly we are shamelessly pandering for votes (please vote for her), but her vintage finds are fantastic. And if you don't dig vintage, there are so many cute things on this Etsy page to give to your favorite little bunnies and there is time to get it on your front porch without panicking.
Sorry I haven't written. It's spring break in Portland and that means "no childcare". It also means "staycations suck." What a fortuitous time to be laid up since this weekend. I have a herniated disk from a car accident and when I bent over to pick something up it totally did a Rick James and "freaked out" my lower back muscles. Essentially, I'm a wreck.
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But if only to cheer me up, Piper has been enjoying the laptop and I just found this lovely email from her. Who knew she could log into her Gmail account by herself? Go friggin' figure what is going on in the mind of this eight year old. Life is funnier than fiction - who could make this crap up?
Also - does anyone want to take her to Target?
The pictures pretty much speak for themselves. Piper invited 12 girls to join her for makeovers, karaoke, and a sleepover. The next morning three boys that regularly play with Piper "crashed" the pancake breakfast. I couldn't have pulled it off without Holley, Deborah and (of course) Fiona. The four of us did hair, makeup, and false eyelashes non-stop for about 3 hours. All these beauties were at thier best behavior, no cat fights, no snarky remaks, I would adopt each and every one of them! It's amazing how unique and wonderful they all are, their Mom's should be proud.
I am perfectly aware that I am trying to reinvent my own childhood through my kids. Piper especially. My parents made me trick or treat by myself when I was seven so they sure as hell never threw me a Birthday party beyond family members. Up until middle school the only kid I had a playdate with was my Mom's Friend's daughter and she pretended not to know me when we went to school. Needless to say, doing something like this is cathartic to say the least. My kids aren't spoiled, they get very little shizz throughout the year, so I don't mind making a bid deal about the day they popped out of my hoo-hoo.
I know this party looks extravagant but I spent VERY little money on this party, maybe $150 total, so look and learn!
Mr. Meathead made these delicious cupcakes. He's a baker and his butter cream frosting is amazing. He spent three whole days making the cakes. Only God knows why it takes three days, probably so he didn't have to help me with the rest of the party.
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I made these bags with scrap fabric and when I finished I realized the girls were going to be petty about which one they got. So I decided to spend an extra hour rubber stamping and sewing name patches on them they would shut the hell up.
I filled the bags with $1 makeup from eyeslipsface.com, yes everything is a buck. (Right) I had these retro ponytail holders I found on Ebay, the girls didn't bite however. Stupid girls.
I hung a sheet over our dining room windows and the built-in sideboard. I actually made the gold frames for a "Hello Portland" display and we popped two $10 mirrors from Ikea behind them. I found the curlers and curling iron at the Goodwill for $5.
My only regret was buying dress up clothes. I didn't spend more than $3 on any single item but it added up to a lot. A few hours before the party, my friend Tracy offered up her family's dress-up bucket that was filled with amazing hats and outfits that would have cost hundreds of dollars at the Goodwill and are harder to find at the cheaper thrift stores. (Her Mom had ben a volunteer at the Salvation Army.) Thank you Tracy! And let this be a lesson to ask for help before you spend money on something.
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BEFORE (click to enlarge) ;)
AFTER! Alice in Wonderland Incarnate! (click to enlarge ;)
Another tomboy transformed! (click to enlarge)
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