luck + me = sweet tv with a dope cozy

Flat screen tv covered, when not in use, with childs huipil from Todos Santos.

Lucky: 1. Recently was given a sweet little flat screen tv*. 2. We have free cable. Me: Really happy to have it. But, it can't just stare me down all the time.
TV Cozy: Used traje. A little girls huipil from Todos Santos.

This is a great solution for me. I get to look at something that I admire so much while at the same time concealing the television screen and keeping it dust free while not in use. Win, win.

*Haven't had tv in over a year. Recently I stayed a long weekend at a besties house in the states and her husband gave me a tv. It's just right, small, light weight flat screen. I surprised Zach with it....we are so grateful! It's so much fun to have it! We get a channel from Germany, one from Italy, and one from France. A bunch from Mexico and South America...it's really cool to see news and stuff from other countries.  Not to go on but, there are a few good movie channels too. El Pelicula plays really old Spanish movies 24/7...always a great go-to and it's really helping me with my Spanish! Oh, another great thing is that they let all the cussing fly here. Nothing is bleeped out and it's great! To just hear people speak for real and uninterrupted. Bueno Onda!

mini succulent rock garden

I've been collecting little snippets of succulents here and there throughout Guatemala and planted the cutest little succulent garden from them. This is such a great outlet for snipping really small little tid bits off plants. It is really hard for me to pass up a fine looking succulent and not pinch a lil nub to take home. 

A few months back I did a fun package exchange with a pal in Tampa and I got a nice little bunch of crystals-rocks-gems. Housing them in my little succulent garden that basks in the moonlight and lulls in the sunshine has them super posi charged! I use them to enhance my special powers when needed by plucking the right one and lovingly carrying it around in my pocket. If I could I'd be teeny tiny & hang out in this lil succulent rock garden, I would lounge around in there all the time.

platform bed: conquered for free!

When we moved into the warehouse we tossed the makeshift bed base I had. I thought we would simply leave mattress on the floor...that didn't last. I've been on the hunt for a solution to get the mattress off the floor for weeks. We live a few blocks from Ikea so, naturally I went in search of a reasonably priced one there. I found a few but there was always something about them that did not jive!

Driving around Tampa on an errand Zach and I were driving through little weird back neighbourhood and found this little production shoppe that had a stacks of pallets outside of different sizes and woods. We asked if we could take some and we picked these cute small pallets that are 19" x 26" and incredibly, 9 of them together in a grid, are the exact size of a queen size mattress!!!! They are perfect in everyway & they were free!!!

In wrapping this up, I realized not only did we accomplish this for free. We also recycled something and didn't partake in consumerism, yay!

And they maintained the extreme simplicity that we were both striving for.

a peek at the sidedish shelves

My little online vintage store, sidedish, has been through yet, another period of neglect. But, I am most happy to say that I have the time, inspiration and perfect space to give sidedish some love! While I may fall out of habit or not have time for sidedish here and there I never fail to collect pieces for sidedish. So, here I am once again with an empty store and an excellent stock of items!

Here are 2 snapshots from the shelves of sidedish.

our warehouse has one windowsill

I have always been a big lover of displaying things in windowsills. Naturally, that's where the best light is! So, having one lone sill makes it center stage for me! This is currently a little snippet from said sill. Those are 2 of my favourite vintage glass pieces and I found that beautiful dried pod on a walk with Mike & Zach.

Industrial Living Part 3-The Kitchen

I call it a kitchen.

It's not home until the Fiestaware

is out and ready for use. I've

cooked a few meals in my

new kitchenso far. Each meal

helps me fine tune the setup.

So far so good! Each meal

has been fun and delicious!

Today for lunch I cooked organic spinach in the wok with little baby tomatoes along with: fresh garlic, onions and sesame oil. It was delicious served over Basmati rice.

I got to wash the spinach outside in the sunshine!

I truly love having a partial outdoor kitchen!

Super happy to have time to juice as often as I like!! Today we had carrot and beet juice.

After we drank our juice I filled our glasses up with water to make use of every last drop of juice. As a result our water had the most beautiful colour to it. This picture shows how nicely the daylight is diffused in our warehouse home.

Meg of Nest's Nest.

Just a super quick peak at one wall in Meg's more than delightful home!

I had the pleasure of visiting with the Coles the beginning of Dec. It's always fun to see what Meg has done with their Nest, I don't think things stay the same very much in that household (as far as decor goes...it's eye candy galoure!) This wall was above their dining room table. It is simple as can be but, freaking great!!! Just love it!

cool hotel rooms

The White Hotel-Brussels

Floroom, Florence

Brussels

The Hotel Royalton-NYC

White Tiger Forest Lodge-Bandhav, India

Hotel Zorzis-Perissa

Cap Juluca-Anguilla

Armada Hotel-Istanbul

random pretty rooms in the whitehouse

The Green Room 1946

State Dining Room

State Dining Room....oh, it's just the prettiest!

The White House China Room.

white rooms

This one takes the cake for me! I extra love it.

I've dreamt of a white room for a long time now. I wonder if I'll have one soon?

a nice little visit with janet.

I spent a most lovely evening with Janet in her super sweet pad. She so totally has a keen eye that Janet, I'll tell ya!

We had some brewskis and sat around chit-chatting and catching up for a while working up an appetite. Then we meandered out into the night down Howard for some tacos! I just had to pick out beer that was 11% alcohol (Orange Blossom Brew) and got too tipsy to sit. ... . .so we took a most refreshing stroll along Bayshore in the night aire under the biggest moon of 2009. Sweet.

Janet's home is full of clean lines and simplicity. 

It's clear she has a profound appreciation for subtleties.

Everything is smooth and functional in J-dub's pad!

I didn't capture her camera collection.....next time!