Round Up : Keep on keepin' on.

Recently this poster has been ALLOVER the place, and I am totally OK with that. I love the message and history it represents, and over all it's a simple little affirmation to give your self when the going gets tough.

I stumbled across a few of the iconic images plastered onto other every day items and thought I would Round them Up and share some of my favorites!!!

(There will be another Round Up on some fantastic posters displays soon....just you wait!!!)

Floor Mat

What an awesome way to welcome your guests!!!

But I prefer this aqua beauty!

Watter Bottle.

My water canteen is never too far away, and with the bright color it would be hard to miss place this one.

Tissues.

I'm a constant sniffler and sneezer, so these would make a great addition to my notoriously overstuffed and unorganized purse.

Cuff links.

An awesome gift for a groom? graduating senior? I nice message to bestow on someone starting a new exciting chapter of their life.

Coffee Mugs.

Almost darling enough to make me want to replace my brand new set........or maybe a few of the red ones would fit right in?!

Baby Onsie.

Although not cute enough for me to want my own to dress up, this definitely has me hoping for more babies in the future for the rest of the family( DO YOU HEAR ME, MEGAN & DEVON!?).

Throw Pillows.

I'm completely in L-O-V-E the Union Jack pillow!! I've been looking for ways to display it in the house(woooohooooo dual citizenship shout out!!!!) and I think this may be it.

Book.
I picked up this book last year when I stopped into an Urban Outfitters last year and I just love it. It's full of little inspirational quotes and tidbits.

"Better bread with water than cake with trouble"~ Russian Proverb

P.S. I found this too, pretty funny.

Trashy Trashy.

This is an old project, but I still love it (and am still pretty proud when some one notices it) so much I thought I would share it with you all.

The trash can was looking a little ragged after a few months of standard wear and tear of being in a high traffic area.


So what do you do when you catch the crafting bug, need something to fill a bit of time, and are working on a budget?!?!??!?!?!

You got it!!!!!

Mod Podge makes EVERY THING better. This is a fact.

Learn it. Live it. Love it.



We originally got the can from Walmart (this is the closest one I could find) for about $15 bucks. I lightly sanded the surface, and then went to town on it with my pictures in the same way I did on the Crafts and Drafts trays.

Cup O Joe.

This past weekend, I replaced my collection of mismatched, chipped & broken, and random sized coffee cups for a more "grown up" looking matching set.



I picked up this cute set for ...................drum roll...............a buck each!!!!!! I was returning some supplies to Michaels (one of my most favorite places ever) and saw these in the $1 section.
















































































I love the simple black & white pictures on them. And the positive little messages of encouragement are a nice added pick-me-up to help with my Monday morning cup of coffee.

Chop Chop.

My friend Cassie reminded me of this little tip a few weeks ago an I just remembered to post it.




Using chop sticks for your gardening or potted plants is cheap (often free)and easy. Whether you use them to poke holes in hardened soil for water to seep in, using them as climbing and support stakes for your crawlers, or posting herb labels, the uses for chop sticks in your gardening are endless.

NOTE:

I know I haven't posted any thing in 2 weeks, but I'm hoping with a little spare time this weekend I'll be able to post a few updates to the list, a tutorial or 2, and some pics from some more beautiful places and great times.

1. Read 50 books (5/50).

Last year, I heard a piece on my beloved NPR that featured filmmaker, Ethan Coen and did a review of his new book.

Generally, I'm not a lover of poetry, but this segment stuck with me.

On the day that I heard this piece, I happened to be giving my friend Cassie a ride home from work and I mentioned it to her.

For my birthday at the end of May, she gave this to me as a gift!!! I couldn't believe it! I had totally forgotten about it.....what a clever girl!!! She must have a memory like a bear trap.

Sorry, book swap buddies. Unlike most of the books I read that get handed over to friends and fellow lovers of stories, this one is going onto the shelf to be part of the personal collection.

2. Watch a movie for every letter of the alphabet.

Y. Youth in Revolt

Loved it!!!! Not really much to be said about it except watch it!!!
About 25 min into it, J. mentioned that he wasn't really feeling it so much. Literally, with in seconds of him saying that, things started to happen and the movie really picked up!!! At some points it was a little hard for me to see exactly where they were trying to go with it, but just wait it out. It's a good one!

L. Love Happens

The movie was alright, but the flower shop that Jenn Anistons character owns and works in, it absolutely to die for!!! If you're not a fan of J.An or Rom/Coms (guilty......I love both), I would skip it, but I think the interior design inspiration alone was well worth it.

It has me dreaming of a career change. Ahhhhh......how I would love to show up to work and just smell the roses.

12. Try 100 different beers (9/100).

For the first official weekend of fall, I celebrated with a few of my autumn favorites (even thought there was no noticeable difference in Las Vegas, 100 + degrees is 100 + degrees no matter what the calender says).

Harvest Moon is another one of Blue Moons seasonal brews. It isn't to heavy or too pumpkin-y, it's got just the fight amount of fall flavoring.

I'm definitely going to have to throw a few more of these bad boys back this fall!





And one of my all time favorites no matter what the season is Wyders Cider. It's light, crisp, bubbly, comes in delicious flavors, like pear, apple and rasberry......and....it's gluten free.....who knew?!

Just an idea......

While watching football this weekend with some friends at the Out Side Inn something caught my eye.

Generally I'm not a fan of themed restaurants and bars. Or the kind of franchise place with walls that are just completely filled with random crap and pointless memorabilia, and generally this place was the same.






The Out Side Inn had walls covered in fishing gear and rustic hunting pictures, there were canoes hanging from the ceiling, a fake antler chandeliers.......the whole tacky shebang, but then I spotted this interesting specimen.

They've made lights out of old fishing hats!!!

Although I'm not a fan of the fishing gear, I think this is an AWESOME idea!!!

But how about something a little more classy...........

......................or maybe................

.......hanging in a cluster like these lights.

Weekend garage sale score.

This Saturday I was walking around the neighborhood with Dara, enjoying the awesome weather we've been having in Las Vegas the last few weeks and I came across a moving sale that one of our neighbors was having.

Look at this baby I scored for just.....................TWENTY FIVE CENTS!!!!!

They had a ton of jewelry boxes in a bunch of different sizes in this Asian-ish, mother of pear, inlay style, but they were all broken or missing drawers and pieces.

The only reason I even looked twice at this one was because as you folks know, I'm a sucker for any thing peacock and by some strange chance it was the only one that didn't have any major defects (and who am I kidding......it was only a quarter).

The fabric in the drawers and on the top tray was all ratty and torn up, so I cut up an old American Eagle shirt I had in a fabric pile and just replaced it.


I originally thought some of the inlay pieces were missing, but it turned out it was just
REALLY grubby, so with a bit of cleaning up it has found a home with the rest of my jewelry stuff.

The full collection.

12. Try 100 different beers (7/100).

Last week we stopped by my friend Kat's house so the handy BF could check out her hot tub.

Turns out the spa worked all along (just needed the door the be shut.....damn safety mechanism), so we ended up having a beer on the patio, just enjoying the beautiful weather.

For beers, the lovely and talented Miss Kat, shared with us her personal favorite, Honey Moon by the Blue Moon Brewing Company.

Later in the week we hung out with some more friends for Taco Tuesday and got to have another beer!!

Moose Head brewery is Canada's oldest independent brewer, and really, they've been doing a good job.

Asian Orange Mystery

I'm not really sure what this stuff is, but it was sitting in my bosses office for about a week before my interest was sparked enough to ask what it was.

Boss: "Oh, that's for you. Some one gave it to me, I don't want it, and it seemed like something you would want."

Kylie: "What is it though?"

Boss: "I think it's tea."




Well.......nothing on it says "Tea" (actually nothing on it is English), and it looks a lot more like chunky orange marmalade to me, but I'll give it a shot.

So, I put 2 spoon fulls in a mug with hot water this morning and it was good!!!

It tastes like fall. It's got a strong orange/honey/ginger taste, but you can also taste cloves and cinnamon in there too.

I'm still not sure that this was the appropriate use for this mystery Asian orange product, but it works for me. I'm also going to put a few dollops in the mix next time I make blueberry or cranberry muffins.

21. Re-hab 10 pieces of furniture (1.5/10)

I'm going to count this as a 1/2 completion

because I painted these before I started the list

but I did "finish" them by replacing the cushion.

These cute foot stools were scavenged from my neighbor a few months ago.

I was taking the trash out before work one day and caught her right as she was throwing them out. I had to argue with her a little before she handed them over. She was convinced they were junk and told me that they were older than I was. This may be the case, but with a quick glance you can see that they are NOT junk!!






As was the case with the bed side tables, these babies were used outside, so already had most of the sanding done.



I painted them with some left over teal spray paint, and replaced the old cushion with prettier ones from Pier 1.

Sept. 15th - Oct. 1st. (#25.)

Since I got started a little late in the month on this one, I only made the list half as long.

September 15th- October 1st.

1. Completely clean out car.
-wipe down
-vacuum
-set up box for the trunk

2. Consolidate all Christmas stuff into white boxes.

3. Walk/run at least 3 times a week and finish at least 15 miles at the track near the house.

4. Empty out both bins of crap in back room.

5. Do another sunset hike at Red Rock before it gets too dark to go after work.

6. Organize master bedroom closet.
- get more white boxes
- throw away mismatched plastic bins
- fill one plastic bin with cloths & items to be donated

7. Get the internet hooked up in back room and organize computer desk.

8. Put together a weekly menu for both weeks.

9. Steam clean master bedroom & office carpet.

10. Organize laundry "system".

18. Take sunset hike up to Red Rock.

Last night, J. my friends Allison, Steve and my self went up to Red Rock Canyon for a sun set hike. We did the easy, 2 mile Moenkopi Loop and it was great.

It was absolutely stunning up there. The sun went behind the mountains about 20 min into the walk, but it stayed nice and light until we were finished with the whole loop.




When left alone the desert is really beautiful. It's crazy to me that such a secluded place can be so close to all the madness of Las Vegas, just 10 min away.