Succulent should be a dirty word

Pinterest strikes again. This time in the vision of a succulent garden. I've been eyeing these adorable little glass spheres of unneedy greenery for over a year now... Never could find a reason to pull the trigger... But now in the bleak, bleakity bleakness of the Cincinnati winter I want some green in my life. And those fiddle leaf fern trees are just way the hell too expensive. Trendy trees are definitely something is never thought I'd be craving...

Mmmm figgy fern goodness

So yesterday I was running errands and headed to Home Depot. While waiting for my Cherry Cola paint selection for an accent wall I'm painting without permission in my apt, I wandered over to the plant section. The plant section in Ohio is approximately the size of a guest bathroom. Why? Because only garden assholes like me think they should be gardening when it's below zero outside. On that note I recently had a patch of grass delivered in more or less a pizza box for my puppy to poo in peace in. She wants nothing of it, and as such I now have a box o' turf on my porch, collecting snow...

Pre-porch... that would be a glass full of a random dog's yella snow.
Things get weird in Cincy.

I digress. I found some cute succulents. (What is a succubis? I know it's from some kiddy thing and I can't remember... But I want to say it every time I write succulent...) I then went to Michael's and found a mediocre glass bowl and some even more mediocre artsy fartsy pebbles and stones. I carried around a miniature dwarf in my basket for a hot minute until I remembered that I'm supposed to be hiding my Lord of the Rings affection from the public until my Frodo costume arrives for Comicon. Realizing the pebbles may not be enough, I bought some Spanish moss too. Which is absurd to have to pay for since I grew up with the stuff being a nuisance full of chiggers... Makes for great costume pubes though.

I got my goodies home and realized I'd made a whoopsie. Uh oh. They need dirt?! I've seen these things chilling in nothing but air! Clearly my green thumb and I are at a crossroads...

I know what you're thinking - they're going to let you procreate and care for a human at some point in the very distant future? But how human are babies, really? Much like a succulent they just need small amounts of food and daylight and someone to change their soil. See? I'm prepared.

After some prodding and digging and breaking of small plant arms, here's what I've got.

Pretty lame. I should've gotten a fish. And the gnome.

For added charm, I have been using a nettipot to water.  Straight from my nose to my little cacti friends.

Goodbye Pretty 1st Home

In the last 18 months Hubster and I have gotten engaged and married, taken new jobs (me) and promotions and bought and listed our first home.  No big deal.  :) 

Many lessons learned, patience gained and adventures had.

It took 15 months of hard work and serious Pinteresting to turn this puppy into our perfect home.  Super hard to let it go, but we are excited for big adventures in Cincinnati and looking forward to no yard work for a couple of years!!!

I'm going to miss my gorgeous turquoise walls most! 

JK this cutie stays with us!

Painting beds - seemed like such a good idea when I first started.  This was so hard! 

We're keeping the laundry room barn door that Hubster built - it is so gorgeous and one of a kind!

Lanterns all spruced up and styled much better than the original! 

My gorgeous family piano and gallery of my brother's beautiful photographs - loved this corner of our bedroom so much.

We just hope the next people who live here love it as much as we have and find even more fun projects to make it their own as well!

DIY: Lantern Wall Display

While perusing Pottery Barn for some wedding registry ideas and came across this awesome wall hanging of lanterns.  

It was styled a little busy, but gorgeous just the same.  Too bad PB style costs my mortgage, that bad boy was almost $500 worth of lanterns and curtain rods!

I rounded up the lanterns at a Kohl's sale for $12-$20 each, the curtain rod at a Hancock furniture sale for $15 and hit up Lowe's for some really thick fisherman and spent a goofy Saturday morning trying to figure out what the hell to do with it.

I found a great guide online, that shows animated how-tos for each of the knots at AnimatedKnots.com.  Here are some we picked out... mostly due to frustration with the purty ones. Monkey Fist?  Right.  Just after I build my own yacht to tie it with.

This was a joke.  Now I know why people on Etsy charge like $20 for a mini one.
Fist fail!

Initial styling.  Ha!  The radio is for my pup, who likes to jam out to Bieber and a little One Direction, if she's feeling frisky, while we're at work.

Here they are all lit up.  Style just ain't my thing with this idea.  I need help, big time.  

I think I need to pull the lanterns up a bit?  

Disaster.  Suggestions, please.

Wishes & Wants: Turquoise

Halfway through Winter and I'm already craving Spring - the warmth, the colors... the mimosas and Hoegaardens in the sunshine....  Especially those.

Growing up on Hilton Head Island, SC spoiled me to the core with constant proximity to the beach, and all things country club chic.  I love nautical textures, patterns and especially colors!  Even my wedding is predominantly navy with lots of navy/white striped linens and burlap textures!

The color turquoise has been my biggest obsession since I can remember - down to the first car I bought for myself: a neon turquoise (think Fast & the Furious) '93 BMW 325i, not-so-fondly nicknamed the Blue Bomber.  It died slowly but magnificently.  It was once towed and impounded for 2 weeks without my knowledge and I found it with 3 flat tires, a dead battery and 2 boots.  TWO boots.  In case I was going to take off on the only inflated tire...  In another epic moment, the car alarm wouldn't stop wailing as a poor valet (at Aiko in Altanta) desperately tried to get the thing started.  My 3rd party alarm had kicked the bucket - so in a moment of panic I pleaded with him to physically rip the horn out of the hood to end my embarrassment.  With the most incredulous look I've ever seen and a not so subtle "crazy woman," he obliged.  The bomber never honked again.

Back to the point.  My Spring inspired wishlist of the day:

Bracelet | Jars | White Croc Tieks | James Nares Print | Clutch | Chaise

Bar Cart Obsession

Recently I’ve become obsessed with having a gold bar cart in my house.  I don’t even really have a place to put a gold bar cart, but that’s beside the point.  When I get obsessed with something I typically research like crazy, beg and justify with the fiancé, and will eventually cave and buy whichever was the first one I saw anyway.

This has held true for jewelry, cars, even my puppy’s rare breed (Glen of Imaal Terrier)… pretty much everything even remotely feasible – I know what I like immediately and I just have to have it.

I haven’t found “the” bar cart yet though, so I am still in the market!  I plan on going hunting at some of the many antique stores near my house I have yet to explore.  Every thrift/antique experience I’ve had so far ends up with a car full of a bunch of inexpensive crap I turn around and re-donate within a year.  Last time I ended up with 10 records that I thought looked cool – things like Pink Floyd and the Grease Soundtrack.  A steal at $0.25 each!  Until I re-gifted them to Goodwill less than a month later – what the hell did I plan to do with those things, anyway?  Remember Laser Disks?  I don’t think I could even tell the difference between the two, given the chance.  My parents have a bunch of those enormous DVDs still, I believe, including classics like Aladdin and True Lies…  Nothing says suspense like having to flip a disk mid-way through a Schwarzenegger scene!

Here are some things I just NEED on my booze laden cart of gold (preferably gold bamboo):

Society Socials' Hayworth (front runner!)

Vintage number from Etsy

Love this from Luvocracy

Hendrick's is the best gin ever!

St. Germain Elderflower liqueur for something sweet and floral

Delicious bubbly!  And so pretty!

Freshness!

Cute little guy from Dwell Studio!

I may settle for this python tray in the meantime... really similar to the Target-Neiman collection Altuzarra tray, but I need brown!

I went on the St. Germain website (amazingly pretty), where they have a link to submit a request for them to make you a signature cocktail for your wedding - I just emailed them with some info about the theme and feel of my reception (wedding@stgermain.fr) and got a response in an hour with this great recipe and response "Considering your love of gin and bubbles, I'd propose the cocktail below!"

Rachel's Cocktail

1 1/2 part gin

3/4 parts St-Germain

1/2 part lemon

3 parts sparkling wine

Method: Mix gin, St-Germain and lemon in a fluted glass and then top with chilled Sparkling wine.

How fun is that??  Looks a lot like their Nomayo cocktail, minus the aperol bitters!  How chic!

St. Germain Nomayo Cocktail

A Very Merry Corporate Christmas

Amid some hectic travel plans and a sick me and Big P we managed to go out and get our first tree and decorate a bit for the holidays. I grew up as a Cashew (Catholic-Jew) and celebrated both Hanukkah and Christmas in my early years - while I can still rock out some random Yiddish words regarding important things like my lovely mensch, and although I have a carefully crafted menorah on my chalkboard pantry door, I clearly have bastardized any real meaning of the holiday.  I blame a rather embarrassing incident where one of my acrylic nails burst into flame in high school while I was attempting to light the menorah and sing some words I couldn't pronounce to an ex boyfriend...  I've managed to overcome my tragic decision and opt out of acrylic talons for life.

Regardless of any actual religious merit, future kiddies can still expect some dreidels and gelt, because that plastic flavored chocolate is just delicious.  'Merica!

Full steam ahead for the zaftig Old Saint Nick!

(See what I did there?)

So here we are chopping down the finest tree in the forest (per Lowe's) and trimming some random bits of home with the luxuries of the land (per Target) and warmth of the season (per Duralog).

Finnley's bf Mashi keeping her warm by the faux-fire (with crackle sound effects!)

DIY: Matte Art

I have a neutral problem.

My entire living room is becoming one big neutral bomb of sand tones and beige-y glory.  Besides my big blue carpet that poos blue carpet fuzzies throughout the entire house that is...

Little Boo on the blue poo carpet
(Miss Piggy was an unrelated casualty)

A recent taupe and tan addition is a set of 9 panels I purchased from Beyond the Rack on a whim.  I knew it looked like a clock, but I didn't even bother with the description long enough to realize I was actually gettingggg a clock.  Neutral?  Will be lovely in my living room!  Purchase!  

It arrived looking about as glossy and cheap as can be expected for the $80 or so purchase price, so I doctored it up with some spray paint Frosting:

Valspar Frosting spray paint ($6)
Nail polish remover for frame edges caught in the cross fire ($2?)

Middle row has been un-sprayed - gross.

Finished product!
[Check out the wainscoting we did here]