Planning a Vaycay!

Working on planning a cruise vacation with some of my fellow bloggers and favorite people! Stace, Mase, KC, and Nikkie (our non-blogger of the group) will hopefully be setting sail December 13 from New Orleans to Mexico! We're totes excited and I just had to tell you about it and to prepare you to hear a lot about it!

Bad Comics #9

(Via Nedroid)

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto

I go though phases of design elements the I love. For quite awhile it has been birds, especially owls. This is probably because my parent's love eagles and like to go "bird spotting" at the wee hours of the morning (and take Sissy and I) with their scope and "b-nocs" (this is bird spotting lingo for binoculars).

But lately I've been leaning away from the birds and have been loving robots! I think most designer probably goes though a robot phase, well now is my time. They are so cute! I love this one that was featured in Domino.

Pens Rally

A couple of the girls from work and I wandered down to Market Square for the Penguins rally this afternoon. Nothing too exciting, the mayor spoke, but it is good to see some Pittsburgh spirit. (I did get a couple of signs, the "Bring back the cup!" and the "Deflate Detroit".) GO PENS!


Oh and I love this poster from the Post-Gazette.

Grandmas

My sister (oh hai, Sissy!) came up from Maryland (with Jamie & Suede with his one ear up and one ear down, so cute) this last weekend and so we had brunch with our family and the grandmas. I love our grandmas, I mean I know everyone loves their grandmas, but seriously, ours are awesome. They work, volunteer, go to parties and have more of a social life than I do! Our one grandma just had to buy a book called "For the Over Scheduled Woman", I don't think an 85-year-old woman was their target market, but she needs it! Our other grandma gets frustrated when we're at a restaurant and there is a table of people that she doesn't know (I swear they know everyone in Erie).

Oh and f.y.i. Grandparent's day is the first Sunday after Labor Day, so this year it will be September 7th.

Okay that's my random (happy) rant of the day!

Composting for Beginners

We never tried composting until we moved in with Randie, so I'm not very compost savvy yet. But, between recycling and composting our garbage is quite minimal, so we will most likely keep it up even after we move away from Randie (sniff sniff, we don't like to talk about that happening). But this is a handy (and cute) little guide that shows what does and doesn't go in your compost pile.

(image via re-nest, dkhlucy's flickr)

Bad Comics #8

(via nedroid)

What Grinds My Gears: Kitchen Cabinets

I don't know why, but I just don't like kitchen cabinets. I've looked at plenty and none have ever jumped out at me screaming "Just look how beautiful I am!!!" (What? Inanimate objects don't scream at you? Weirdo.) I guess I don't mind the bottom half of the cabinets so much, I mean, your counter has to go on something and you might as well store things in there, so it has 2 purposes, it's a multitasker, I like that. But the top? It stores things. Single purpose. Stupie. Anyway, I love the look of just putting your dishes and plates on shelves, plus I love my plates so I want to see them all the time. Here are some top-cabinet free spaces:


Well thats my rant for today, have a great weekend!

(via domino & ikea)

Reclaimed Drawers

I absolutely love this dresser! Furniture that is beautiful and "green"!? Fabulous! Each of the drawers in the piece were rescued from flea markets.
It's frustrating how being eco-friendly seems to cost a little extra. But, for those of us who are unable to drop $4,000 on a couch made from green materials, buying used furniture and fixing it up is a great option. Being green includes buying less and creating less waste, it doesn't mean everyone has to throw away their old furniture and buy new eco-friendly items. This concept tends to get passed over, but I think it is equally as important. Mike and I have a few projects this summer of furniture we are "reclaiming" such as a side table we snagged out of our neighbor's trash (they are moving) and dressers I've had since, I think, I was 3 and are a bit out-dated. I'll keep you updated on their progress, which is non-existent at the moment.

(dresser via inhabitat but not for sale)

Buddha Bowl

Anything that encourages me not to sit down and eat at the table is probably a bad thing, but would also probably get the most use. Since we've been renting at our current house, I think we've only used the dining room table for eating maybe 5 times (since August). We ether eat in the kitchen or the living room. Does anyone else do this? Well, this looks like a great bowl for eating while standing, wandering around the house or lazing back on the couch.



If my mum is reading this....ummm....I'm just kidding....we sit down at a set table and have all of our food groups every night...ummm...and we drink our milk....yeaaaahh....

(via better living through design / buy here for $20)

Subscribe

By now you can pretty much find anything you want online when it comes to recipes, decorating tips, etc. But sometimes (although it's not eco-friendly) its nice to look at something tangible like a magazine or something to inspire you when you don't have access to a computer (like on the bus). Anyway here are some free magazines that I find actually interesting (and they don't send me junk mail!). They advertise themselves a bit, obviously, but it is nice to know that all the materials/ingredients are definitely available.

Lowes: They have some pdf samples of their 3 magazines (Creative Ideas, Woodpost or Garden) to check out before you subscribe.



Kraft: You can read any of their magazines online. (They have plenty of cuppycake recipes.)

Eco-friendly Logos

With the enviornment being a hot topic these days (as it should be) there are "green" logos popping up everywhere (fyi: I wrote "pooping" thank goodness for proofreading!). It's weird that the word "green" has a whole new meaning. Although green is the most popular color for eco-logos, red and blue seem to tie for second place. Anybody see any purple or orange logos out there??(via Copyranter and google)

Delong Press

I am drawn to this print from Delong Ceramics (even though I'm not particularly attached in any way to the Brooklyn Bridge, I'm quite fond my my Pittsburgh bridges, no offense NY'ers). I like the colors and the very geometric yet organic feel of it. Done by a collage artist in New York, they have others, but this one is by far my favorite.

(11" x 14" print comes to $42 with shipping and everything, is framed behind glass, signed and numbered)

Bad Comics

I've been writing a lot lately so here is just something for you to look at.

(200 Bad [awesome] comics: via nedroid)

Ross?

On Thursday night, my friend and college roomie Ash called and asked if I wanted to go to dinner "right now"...and (after checking with Mikey real quick) I said "of course!"

We went to Double-Wide Grill (Sounds real classy, I know, right?) they had "Trailer Park Trivia" and Mike got this "TV Dinner" that came on this crazy metal plate. We couldn't hear the trivia very well it was mostly current events, so if you don't watch the news, you're screwed. But, overall the food was really good (don't get the veggie medley, it sucks) and they had good beer specials, cornhole, etc. after 10.


The best part of the night however was one of Ash's friends looks like a certain paleontologist from a certain tv show called Friends, and I got a pic (or two) so I could share it with YOU!

Oh and as a side note (and just in case he comes across this some day) he is a very genuinely nice guy.