Martha makes me laugh

Since I'm home a lot more nowadays I take full advantage of our dvr. One of my favorite shows growing up was the Martha Stewart Show...where she always had her "good thing" tips and she'd constantly talk about her herb garden (normal people pronounce it an "erb" garden. Not Martha, no no, she has HURB gardens. Yeah, pay attention next time you watch her, HURB...)

Anyway, one day I caught her new show and realized just how self-absorbed this woman was. Yes, she's a money mogul. Yes, she's the ceo of a huge corporation and yes, she has achieved more in her lifetime than most families combined (over several generations!) achieve...but what struck me as rather odd was just how snooty she was.

She was interviewing Julie Andrews (who, if you don't know who that is, you OBVIOUSLY live under a rock). Julie said something like, "my children and me..." Martha quickly corrected her, "you mean, 'my children and I". HELLO? MARTHA? That's Julie Andrews, you do NOT correct Mary Poppins! (She's practically perfect in everyway!)

Next time I caught the show she had on Kenan Thompson (hilarious guy from SNL) and while doing the beginning introductions, she pointed out that Kenan was "overweight" and could "learn a lot from our nutritionist today". SAY WHA?! This woman is straight up CRAZY! She just insulted him. TO HIS FACE!

I immediately grabbed the remote and selected "record series". I needed to watch this train wreck daily!

And Martha has lived up to my high standards I've set for her.

Yesterday I watched her "tall show" and, as the name says, the show was related to all things tall. The tallest cake ever made, everyone in her audience was over 6' and she herself was wearing the "tallest shoes I could find".

This might have been my favorite Martha moment to date. Midway through the show, she brought up five of the tallest audience members, handed them FEATHER DUSTERS and said, "my staff always misses tall places on the set to dust, so I thought you could easily reach for me! Get to work!"

The audience at first was like, "whaaa?" You could hear a pin drop. It was awesome. They didn't know if she was serious or not (which also made for great tv) and when she confirmed that, in fact, they were to start dusting, the looks on the feather-duster-holders faces was PRICELESS!

She encouraged them to "get the top of the moldings!" and then pimped out her home keeping handbook saying that everyone needed to have one of these...yaddy yaddy, always dust from the top down because "it will always fall"...Are you going to tell us next that you invented gravity too Martha? That would just be incredible...like Al Gore invented the internet. Really?

After they cleaned her set (which only lasted about 45 seconds) she gathered the maids up and bestowed upon them some new Martha Stewart Cleaning products.

It still boggles my mind that with such a warm, sensitive soul like hers she didn't receive a get of jail free card...

Yeah, Martha makes me laugh.

How many collars do you really need?

Eric and I spent over 20 minutes in Petsmart on Saturday debating over what kind of collar to get for Jack.

For as long as we've had him, he's always had a black leather spike collar. The night that we got him, I put on a spiked collar and it nearly toppled him over (which made it even cuter!) And then as he grew, so did the number of spikes on his neck.

The exception to the leather spike collar rule is when we are at the lake house during the summer. I put on a nylon collar for him (so when he's romping in the lake, he doesn't ruin the leather)...anyway, he was having issues during the summer when we put the leather one back on, I figured something like poison ivy oils got under neath, causing him to have a rash.

For Christmas we gave Jack a brand new black leather spike collar and it was wonderful. He was so happy and looked super stylish :)

Then last week Jack walks by me and I notice that he's got that puppy-needs-a-bath-now smell. (If you own a dog, you know what I'm talking about...) So I plunk the pup in the tub and give him a rub. Haaaahahahaha, I didn't even mean for that to rhyme! Awesome.

Anyway, as I'm washing him off I notice he's all red under his collar, UH-GAIN! So I put the summer/lake nylon one back on him and wait 'til the hubs gets home to talk about our options. We decide to bite the bullet and buy him a new collar. Again. Himph.

Which is why we ended up in Petsmart on Saturday spending far too much time talking about pros and cons of said collars. This one didn't seem strong enough. This one he'd probably break out of. This one...oh yeah, it went on for ever. (and it was because of me, not the hubs that I dragged on for so long, I accept that fact and I'm moving forward) HOWEVER, we finally find one that meets my safety requirements along with fashion reqs and we buy it.

Can I just tell you how thankful I am for the people who made this collar? We got him the graphite (which isn't a huge, but big enough, departure from his constant black...) and it has lil' brushed nickel accents; Jack now coordinates with my car!

It seems, for now (fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed) that it does the trick for Jack. I think the problem was moisture was getting trapped under the leather, so his skin couldn't breathe, causing the rash. Anyway, the graphite one is working like a charm and I couldn't be happier.

Which now brings his total collar count up to, er, 7. He's only 4 years old. Most dogs get a new collar like, once every year or once every two years...he's above average in one more category now!!!

Yup, that's my lil' over achiever!

I can't get 'er done right...

We've lived in our house for 3+ years now and for all this time, I've never gotten our master bedroom "just right".

Doing the redesign for the whole house seemed like a piece of freakin' cake compared to doing our bedroom. "But Erin, your a designer...this should be easy for you" you might be asking...but here is the thing:

When I do someone else's home, it is THEIR home. Not mine. Its very easy for me to help make decisions for clients based on their needs and my ideas, but when it comes to my own house, I hit a wall (haha, no pun intended) and just can't seem to get 'er done right.

This is what it looked like before I painted the walls Bona Fide Beige (Sherwin Williams) and got new nightstands...now its completely empty over the headboard...notice how the ceiling line goes UP...it angles to the right for about seven feet and then flattens out at 12' high for about eight more feet in overall length. Did that make sense? Anyway, its a HUGE wall...)

I picked my dad's brain this weekend while he was here (which, our time together was awesome!) and he suggested just adding pictures over the headboard, and leave the other walls in the room bare. Which got me thinking...what did other people put over their beds?

I dig the simplicity of this...being married to a photographer we have no shortage of pictures to choose from...I know this is the same basic idea as the one above, but these are taller

Maybe just one long one?

Oooh, maybe a shelf over the headboard with stuff on it? Grrr, but then I have to dust it, hmmm

See what I mean? This is hard stuff I'm dealing with here y'all!!

(All photos, except the one of my bedroom are from thenest.com)

Thanks Carly

"You're so vain, you probably think this post is about you. Don't you? Don't you?"

This song is on the newest cd we play at the jobbie job and every time I hear it it gets stuck in my head all. day. long. I've tweaked the lyrics a lil, hehe.

Happy Super Bowl Monday y'all! I'm really glad the black and gold guys won; their colors looked better running the field. Although, I'm more of a silver and black girl myself, whatever...

Oh, and how cute was it at the end when the the quarterback won mvp and he was holding his little kid with the ear muffs on. (Did anyone else notice that he was TALKING to the kid...who was wearing noise deafing muffs? Hellooooooo)

Awesome news, my dad is coming into town to visit this week! I cannot wait to see him and spend quality time with him; I haven't seen him since my birthday in August! OMGAW, that's a loooong time to go without a hug from your dad!

There is so much to be excited about this week; dad coming to down, Eric's birthday, Valentine's Day, basketball game, ice festival, EEK!

I'm closer to being done...

In the beginning of January I asked the hubs to walk with me around a furniture store because I "just wanted to see what they have"...which turned into us buying new bedroom furniture! (hehe, I'm a lil' persuasive; and, we got a great deal..)

Me being the anxious-Annie that I am, I called the furniture store in late January to find out when it was getting delivered. They were waiting for one more piece so it would be a little while longer, but it would be delivered on Feb. 4. Awesome.

Monday evening my fil came over and helped the hubs move the dressers from our bedroom into the guest room (which, makes the guest room look more like a real room, like someone could totally live there...hehe, its cool!) which left our bedroom open. And bear. And then the light bulb went off, I should paint the room NOW. Like, right now. But it was 11.30p and Home Depot was already closed so I'd have to wait 'til morning.

Too bad I had to be at the jobbie job at 6 a.m. which meant I'd stop at the Depot on the way home...which I totally did. (While I was working, the delivery time for the furniture was sent to my celly, Thursday, Feb 4 between 11.45 and 1.45....) I got out of work at 2.30, high tailed it across the street to the Depot, got my paint and rollers on...and came home armed and ready to paint.

I had to prime the walls though, which at first I was really bummed about because it was taking away from my real-paint time. Anyway, after I get the primer on, the hubs comes home. "YOU PAINTED THE ROOM WHITE?" haha, nooooooooo.

After a short dinner break (a girl has to keep up her strength you know) I got my Bona Fide Beige (Sherwin Williams) on. I thought, honestly it had a little pink to it...but it TOTALLY doesn't. It turned out to be a real, true beige, and I heart it!!

I kept the accent wall (that I painted French Roast, also SW, three years ago) and did the other three walls in the beige...omg, it was instant bliss. I went to sleep close to midnight, but all the rolling was completed, all I'd need to do in the morning was the cutting-in. Easy!

Fast forward to yesterday morning, I got up, made coffee, got my oatmeal on, hopped on the ladder and like a painting FREAK knocked out all the trim in 45 minutes. Then I had to put the room back together. Why was I working at freak pace? Because I was certain the delivery truck was going to come early and I wanted the room to be put together before they got here (and take a shower, 'cause seriously, I was smelling...)

Thank GOD I worked at the pace I did because Christmas came early...like half hour early! The delivery guys were super nice, I gave them each a Pepsi (hoping that would encourage them to NOT dent/scratch my walls) and you know what, they didn't! We talked about their worst homes they've delivered to...I signed the paperwork and off they went.

Let the games begin!

I waxed the new furniture with such pride...hehe, it looks INCREDIBLE and with the new paint color it really looks like a new room. I'll post pictures soon...you know, once I take them!

So I think I'm almost done with the whole house redecorating adventure...I mean, there aren't a lot of rooms left...