Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Just call me an interior decorator

My brother recently bought his first home...a really cute 1940's home in the downtown Redding area.  Being the bachelor type I wanted to make sure he didn't have that typical bachelor pad look for his decor!  I offered to decorate a room and he gave me the dining room (to start with?)


Here are the before pics (they are not the best...they were taken with a cell phone)...


Photo-19 This photo is taken from the living room looking into the dining room.  The entry beyond is the kitchen.


  Photo-17 This photo is taken from a corner of the room...the doorway to the right is looking back into the living room.  The little doorway on the left is the entrance to a little room that is going to be the office/art studio.


Photo-21 This photo is from the opposite corner of the one above.  The kitchen is to the right.


And now the after!!


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This is looking in from the living room.  We painted the walls a gray color and the trim a pure white.  I found the table, chairs and mirror at a thrift store in town.  We painted the mirror black and the table and chairs will be painted black as well.  The blank wall will eventually have a large piece of artwork when Jeff finds just the right piece! 


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The silver vase centerpiece I found at Ross and my Mom found and arranged the flowers...a combo of white flowers with some sparkley greeny thrown in for Christmas.  The candles and metal wall art were bought at Michaels-using a 40% off coupon-yeah baby.  A sheer curtain covers the office/studio yet still lets in light.


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China cabinet was our Grandma's and right now has various silver pieces that were hand-me-downs from Grandma/Mom.  There is a tall plant to the right of the cabinet and I envision a funky chair being placed on the left. 


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The start of the wall o' art.  We gathered various frames we had lying around and sprayed them all a gloss black.  I filled them with various prints I found on Etsy, trying to stay with a similar color scheme.  I looked for art that I thought would interest him.  There is a print with Radiohead lyrics, a cool print depicting Hunter S. Thompson, a bulldog printed on an old encyclopedia page and my fave...a zombie inkblot!  I also found an image on Google images of a series of video stills from his favorite artist, Jeremy Blake.  This wall will be a continued work in progress.


This was a really fun project and done on a tight budget.  Next up...I get to do the office/studio! 


While I'm sharing photos from my brother's place, meet his new puppy Emma!  IMG_4637_2


 

Monday, November 22, 2010

Welcome to the Thanksgiving Day Recipe Blog Hop!

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I am so excited to be participating in my first ever Blog Hop!  Thank you so much to Kiera of ChambersMade for inviting me!  This is going to be fun!   If this is your first stop on the blog hop and you'd like to start from the beginning, head over to Robin's blog at Creative2xMom.


OK the truth of the matter is--I don't cook much...eek...what was I thinking participating in a recipe blog hop of all things?  As soon as I said yes I wanted to do it, I then called my Mom and said "HELP!"  After I calmed Photo down and thought about it though, I do collect a lot of recipes and have had my moments of glory in the kitchen.  (See the photo of my personal cookbook? That's pretty official right?)  Now the trick was narrowing it down to Thanksgiving worthy recipes.  2 side dishes came to mind! 


The first is a non-traditional Thanksgiving side, but one that is super yummy and will add even more calories to your day...but it's OK because Turkey day calories don't count, right?!  I got this recipe from my Aunt Donna...she made it for us once while we visited her in Tennessee.  The whole meal was excellent, but I had to have this recipe.


Screen shot 2010-11-22 at 8.24.16 AM Vidalia Onions


6 Vidalia Onions


1 cup Parmesan cheese


20 crushed Ritz crackers


1 stick margarine


Slice onions as thin as possible and saute in margarine until limp.  Spray a casserole with Pam.  Make 2 layers of onion, cheese, crackers.


Bake at 325 for 30 minutes uncovered. 


 The second recipe is a Rachael Ray recipe called "Micro-way-cool Bacon and Green Beans" - I have a whole section dedicated to Rachael Ray recipes when she was 'teaching' me how to cook 5 years or so ago.  This recipe is time tested and will be super simple if you want to add just one more thing to that Thanksgiving feast!


Micro-way-cool Bacon and Green Beans  Screen shot 2010-11-22 at 8.22.22 AM


6 slices bacon


1 (16 oz) bag frozen green beans 


A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil


Salt and Pepper


Place bacon between paper towels and microwave 60 seconds on high.  Cool bacon and chop or crumble it up.


Place greeen beans in a bowl and drizzle with EVOO, sald & pepper.  Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap (I use a Pampered Chef microwave bowl-that works perfectly!) and microwave green beans on high for 5 minutes, stir and cook 5 minutes more.  Remove wrap and top green beans with crumbled bacon.


Super simple, but yummy!


Your next stop will be to Jamie at Creating Home.  Have fun and thank you so much for stopping by!! 

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Dear Santa....

I 'think' I've been good.  :-)


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Custom ring from Olive Bungalow


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Orange owl cookie jar from Anthropologie


While we're talking Anthropologie, pretty much anything from there or Sundance Catalog!


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Any of these or similar would be fine! All from Zappos


 
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Socks from Little Miss Missmatched


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I have this same Lucky Brand Abbey Road purse in 'bourbon' and have used it for almost a year straight as it was a Christmas present last year (thank you Aaron!)  Again...anything from LuckyBrand would work!


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Viva La Juicy or Aquolina Pink Sugar....my faves!


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This fish shirt from Etsy - Circular Accessories  it's been on my fave list at Etsy forever!


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A print from Raw Art Letterpress


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Dare to dream....salt-water set up with Nemo and Dory in residence!


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The Ultimate Wish List Item-Porsche 911 Carrera (how pretty is this color? I think it was made for me) --OK, maybe I haven't been THAT good!


So...right before I was about to post this, Ella looked over my shoulder and said "Those all look SWEEETT!"  So Santa, we'll take 2 of everything please.  Thank you.  :-)


 

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Turtle Bay and Juella Designs

This past weekend my family and I took a walk to TurtlePhoto Bay on the new Dana to Downtown bike/walking  trail from Hilltop Drive.  The trail was full of people and so fun to see so many people out in the fresh air enjoying this beautiful area!  Our destination was Turtle Bay...the kids wanted to see the fish viewing (just never gets old for them!), Aaron wanted to see the new costume exhibit with famous movie costumes featured, but I was most excited to see my jewelry for sale at the Museum Store! 


And here it is....Juella Designs....many designs exclusive and made just for Turtle Bay!


Photo


Also in the Turtle Bay Museum Store are some of my fellow Redding Handmade team members.  You can see more info on that here.....Redding Handmade team website

Monday, November 15, 2010

Ugh...

IMG_4520 P90X has done me in.  I hit 6 weeks of faithfully doing the P90X program a few weeks ago.  I stopped at 6 weeks for a variety of reasons.  It was just going to be a brief stop, an adjustment of sorts.  One of those reasons has derailed my restarting the program. 


That reason culminated in a visit with an orthopedic surgeon this morning and a panel of x-rays.  Lucky me...I have chondromalacia.  In simple terms it is a misalignment of the patella (kneecap) which causes the kneecap to rub against the joint, irritating the cartilage.  (Along with causing constant pain and swelling).  I most likely have always had chondromalcia but the added intensity of P90X and the attempts I've made at becoming a regular runner-type, have exacerbated the problem.  So by the doctors orders I am not to overextend my knee in any direction, do any jumping or running.  Even though I thought I'd love to be told I can't run, I don't.  I don't like being told I can't do something.  And sure I can still do it, but is the pain worth it?  Uh, truthfully no.  Especially when surgery could come into play.  So now I rest it and wear this knee brace while it's healing and probably forever while doing any type of exercise.


So....cycling anyone? 

And the winner is.....

Eilyne Davis!!!!   Screen shot 2010-11-15 at 3.27.15 PM


As the entries came in I assigned them 'raffle ticket' numbers in an Excel spreadsheet...then used the handy dandy 'Random Number Generator' to select the winning number.


Thank you so much for ALL who entered!  This was so much fun....keep an eye out-I'll definitely do something like this again!!  


I mentioned I'd throw in some other goodies...here's Eilyne's haul....


Giveaway


 

Friday, November 12, 2010

In the mood for....a giveaway!!

Up for winning is this handmade (by me-of course!) sterling silver and copper 'XO' necklace...


Xo


Perfect to pop into a stocking or a "just because you're thinking of them" gift!  I plan to throw in some other extra special surprises as well!


To enter: 



  1. Post a comment to this blog - 1 entry

  2. Become a follower of this blog (see box in the right hand column) - 3 entries (if you already are-that counts!)

  3. Become a fan on Facebook (Juella Designs FB page) - 5 entries  (if you already are-that counts too!)

  4. Invite your friends to become a fan of my page on Facebook - 10 entries! 


Let me know either here in the comment section or on my Facebook page which of the above you have done...if you've done it all...I'll give you a total of 20 entries! 


I will draw a name on Monday morning....thank you so much and good luck!! 


 

A Suite Beginning

I must make everyone aware of a new blog....Suite 100. ...it's just "A Suite Begginning" but really it's the continuation of an incredible journey.  A journey you really must start from the beggining to truly understand.Screen shot 2010-11-12 at 1.05.41 PM  The voyage began here.... 100 Days Without Starbucks   Don't let the title fool you, it's not really about Starbucks.  Well it is.  But not really. 


Her 100 days ended and I was so honored to be a part of that final chaScreen shot 2010-11-12 at 1.05.17 PMpter which culminated in an incredible evening with new and old friends. 


Eilyne is a new friend.  She is an old friend of lots of my friends.  She is an inspiring  and thoughtful person, an incredible writer and a mother-daughter-sister-friend just like us.  But not like us.  She can say with her words what so many of us cannot say.  Please visit her site. 

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Inspiration everywhere

My Etsy banner says Juella Designs - Inspired by....LIFE.  The following just proves you never know when I'm going to get inspired!  I was flipping through the paper this morning and the Bizarro cartoon caught my eye--it immediately made me laugh.


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I clipped it out and I've been staring it at through out the day and thought, "Hey I want that on a necklace."  And wa-la! 


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Handcrafted and soldered onto sterling silver.  This one's mine but let me know if you're interested in me making one for you!


 

Halloween Recap

Halloween was a full 10 days ago and for a Halloween obsessed person I am embarrased to say I'm only now posting our Halloween photos!  I'm also only now reluctantly taking down the Halloween decorations... I'm planning to hold out a few skeletons and popping santa hats on them... ha. 


So this year the Lee family had a coordinating costume for this first time ever!  (As alluded to in this post....Costume Mission Accomplished)  We became the Zom-lee family!


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Ella as Miss Zombie Queen (with her King)


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Jacob as the star football player/brain eater


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And their proud parents


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Sunday, November 07, 2010

Lisa and Aaron's Love Letters....

Photo-34_2 Sadly we recently received the last of our 'love letters'...."Lisa and Aaron's Love Letters" was a project that my mother-in-law put together at our wedding...September 5, 1998.   All the attendees were given a piece of paper and wrote us a letter, marking on the envelope the date it was to be delivered.  Over the years we have had such fun receiving them...this last one is from Aaron's brother and wife.  The details in it are amazing to read 12 years later!  As an added bonus Jaime included a time capsule of sorts and wrote a list of current events and prices of items.  The price of a gallon of gas on our wedding day...$1.25...sigh....


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