Dog Crazy

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There is nothing special about this outfit. In fact, I am not quite sure I even like it. It was a rainy day and like any rainy day, I was most excited about one thing. Busting out my rain boots.

I do, however, love my embroidered rain cloud necklace I purchased from Sew Happy Girls earlier in the year.

Something happened in this outfit that shall always make it a tad bit special. It was the day I turned into a shapeshifter, crazy dog lady Winner Of Most Embarrassing Mother Of The Year.

Here is the story about how I can shame my children no matter where we go. It is my very special talent:

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I was late. Nothing shocking there. Well, actually, that is not true. As ditzy unorganized as I am, I am pretty much always on time or early. OCD and all of that. Can’t be late!

So, I dropped my daughter off at Ms. Lisa’s house (our wonderful, amazing art teacher). I did not even run into socialize, as I usually do. I just drove away.

But I had to turn my car around to get to the main street. As I did so, I noticed her little dog had gotten out. He usually just runs to her planter and back inside, but on this day he had made it all the way to the curb. Having no doubt it was because my daughter had kept the door open, I parked my car in the middle of the street to help.

I jumped out like the maniac that I am. And I tried to chase the dog into the house.

Only, it wouldn’t work.

He liked being outside.

There was a whole new world to explore.

Lisa was calling him.

He ignored her.

He made like he was going to run further up the street.

I panicked. I did not want him to get ran over. Or lost. Or hurt.

Something primal took over.

Without thinking, I began to bark at the little dog.

I ran at him barking. He finally acknowledged me. He began barking back.

I did not back down. I, after all, was the much larger, much older dog. Just call me “Alpha” from now on. I barked and growled as I marched that little dog back into Lisa’s house.

He ran away from the crazy dog woman through the open door into safety.

“Safety” being away from the insane woman in his front yard.

Lisa looked surprised and said, “Well, I guess that’s one way to get the dog in the house.”

It was not until she said that that I realized maybe what I had done wasn’t exactly normal.

I turned from a dog into a laughing hyena in my car.

Later my daughter relayed the embarrassing moment to my son.

His response to his sister, “Oh my gosh! Poor you!”

I was aghast. What did they mean?

I looked at my daughter indignantly. “But you have to admit I sounded just like a dog.”

“Um. No, you didn’t. You sounded crazy.”

There was only one response to that.

“Grrrrrr. Ruff!”

Christmas Ornaments

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Am I the only one with an ornament hoarding problem? I hope not! I cannot resist a cute ornament. It is beginning to be a problem. In fact, we now have so many ornaments, we have had to get not one, but two Christmas trees each year. The second tree is very small (for now).

I just need companies to stop making such cute ornaments.

As soon as the kids are out of the house, we can cypher out the Spongebobs, Littlest Pet Shops, and Pixar characters. That’s what I tell myself anyway. I might feel bad leaving the little guys in the box, though.

This year, I shopped for my ornaments at Anthropologie and Target. I love them all. I thought I would show the ornaments I picked up for our trees this year (which we shall be picking out today).

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Hello Mr. Fox. This little guy can be found at Anthropologie. I purchased him during the 20% off sale. He was spendy, but he might be my favorite purchased ornament of all time.

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These felted ornaments were all purchased at Target this year with price tags no higher than $3.

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It is a mouse. It is a ballerina. It is a ballerina mouse. This reminds me of The Nutcracker. Much to my son’s chagrin, we are going as a family to see this ballet in a few weeks. Hopefully when it is over, this little gal will bring back fond memories. And yes, Momma is gonna wear a tulle skirt. What else?

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And these little merry foxes. They reminded me of a morph between a gnome and a fox. I think it was their large squat heads. Could not resist!

What is your favorite ornament this year? Please tell me I am not alone in my overrun collection. What type of ornament can you not resist? Or if you do not celebrate with ornaments, what is your favorite holiday decoration each year?

I guess mine would be a fox. A gnome, obviously. I have so many of those. I am doing a Christmas decorations post next week and then we can spotlight those little guys.

And mushrooms.

And fantasy creatures.

And anything felted.

And animals.

And ornaments made by my children.

Oh, dear. I really do have a problem.

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P.S. I shared this on Savvy Southern Style.

And My Romantic Home

The Winners Are… Plus My Picks Of The Month

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Thank you so much to everyone who entered my recent giveaway. The winners of one necklace each are: Alissa and Stephen Liddell!

Congratulations! I will ship them out tomorrow! Enjoy!

I had so much fun with this giveaway. Who am I kidding? I am just having fun, period.

I also want to say, “Thank you!” to my sweet mom who has been so supportive through this whole experience. She diligently reads everyday. It has been a really hard year for her and I feel so lucky to have her in my life. I also feel awful for not mentioning her in my “Reflections” post. Sorry Mom! I love you!

This is also the time of the month where I like to take a moment to reflect on things that are interesting to me or that I am currently lusting after. And I mean lusting, because I am being very good and not buying anything (else) this month.

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Photo courtesy of Casey from Veggies and Glitter. : )

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1. First, Casey from the blog Veggies and Glitter nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award. She is such a sweetie. Her blog is really interesting. Reading her blog feels like hanging out with a great friend! She talks about fashion and life. Her recent date night post was sweet and the pictures of the food are enticing! I wish I lived closer to her, because that restaurant looked amazing. Yum! Fortune cookie martini? Yes please!

I wanted to give her a big, “thank you,” for the nomination. I am so lame, in that I will not be forwarding it on. However, I am very honored she thought of me.

“Thank you, Casey!”

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2. I bought these refrigerated noodles. And now I cannot wait to create or try a homemade chicken noodle soup recipe. That shouldn’t be too hard, right? ; ). Stay tuned in the coming month for the outcome of this!

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3. The New Target Threshold Line (pillows) looks interesting. I am loving the woodsy wonderland theme stores seem to have going on right now.

The cutest squirrel toss pillow for fall

These Cableknit Pillows in Gold Rush

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4. I wrote about these Dr. Scholls shoes that you keep in your purse last month (in case your feet hurt). They were very inexpensive. I wanted to do an update. I have tried them on. I am a true size 8. These are 7/8. They are a bit snug, but definitely doable. They seem super comfy. You could not use these for “regular” shoes, but they are wonderful for high-heel-aching-feet emergencies. I have a wedding to attend Sunday evening and I plan to utilize the heck out of these little babies!

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5. My top five fashion picks this month (I own the first two. I have not tried on the last three. I just think they are cool).

Anthropologie’s Sketchbook Dress.

Anthropologie’s Toadstool Shirt

Modcloth’s Pop In Stand Out Sweater

Modcloth’s Wizard of Ostrich Sweater. I will probably be getting this for my winter wardrobe. I have very few sweaters.

Free People’s Mod Stripe Tunic in red. This will more than likely be an October purchase.

* If you want to see more cool Fall picks, check out Roxy’s Free People Wishlist on Effortless Anthropologie. She has great taste!

What are you wanting this month? Are you being patient or indulging? Please tell!

We’re Painting The Blanket Pink!

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Oh! We’re painting the blanket pink!

Not black.

Not blue.

Yikes! What shall we do?

We’re painting the blanket pink!

My fun Mother-In-Law came in June to visit us. I had this project I wanted to do (dye a duvet cover pink), but I had been putting it off. She is a go-getter, my Mother-In-Law. She insisted we dye the comforter together the next day (what kind of mother-in-law is so gung-ho about making sure her son gets a pink coverlet on his bed?…The SUPER awesome kind!). Thank goodness we did. Because she was such a help. Amazing. And who knows when this lazy girl would have done it. It kind of terrified me.

I had originally seen a comforter like this on Apartment Therapy. It was in the home of S. Rohde Hill. He is a designer. So, of course, I tracked him down. I had to know where he had gotten his awesome blanket. I wanted the pop of pink in our bedroom. I had all ready made a pink pillow, and had a pink Otomi blanket, this would complete my need of three.

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It turns out it was a Target white duvet that he ingeniously dyed hot pink. He very kindly gave me some useful tips and information about how he did his, on his blog, The Aedis. I love his blog. He recently moved and I cannot wait to see what he does in his new space. I have also added his blog to my blog roll on the right. ‘Cause he is cool and you might want to check it out on other days, too.

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My Mother-In-Law so sweetly went out and purchased me a garbage can, some gloves, and an oar. An oar? I can hear your thoughts, “Jenni, you get weirder and weirder.” Well, while that is true, hear me out. In searching for the best way to dye this massive white duvet and the two pillow cases (which I purchased from Target.), I found a great tutorial on the blog The Hip Soiree. She used an oar. It was so smart! She dyed a couch slipcover orange. But it was the same process. I just followed her example.

Now, S. Rohde Hill informed me he put his duvet in his washing machine and simply “washed” it with one polyester dye tablet and one cotton dye tablet. Here is the problem: I have a front loader. He has a top loader. I do not have an agitator. Hence the garbage can and the oar.

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The dye packets were purchased from The Dharma Trading Company. The brand is iDye. They are one each of the polyester pink dye. And the cotton pink dye. I also purchased the fixative.

Here are the steps we went through:

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I put the garbage can in the shower. I filled the garbage can up with super hot water (just deep enough to submerge everything) from the shower head above. I added the dye packets. Stirred. I added the cover and pillow cases, stirred. And then I stirred and mixed the whole mess every five minutes for one hour, making sure everything stayed submerged in the process. I then drained the garbage can and rinsed the duvet and cases out in the shower before putting them in the washing machine for a good rinse. (And when I say, “I,” I mean my Mother-in Law and myself.)

What you will not see, is me in the shower, in my pink bathing suit, wringing the comforter over and over in the shower to get the dye out. My hands were pink.

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I rinsed and drained this three times in the washing machine.

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Then we went to a different bathtub and added the fixative. Even after three rinses in the washing machine, dye was still seeping out. I am glad I bought the fixative. After letting this rest for twenty minutes, I washed it in a real cycle. Then I dried it.

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We put it on the bed. And my son went to the pool and rowed himself around in a raft with the oar (supervised, of course). It was a great day! Who knew an oar was such an important item to have in the house?

Our duvet is a different shade of pink than Rohde’s was (I recently read he no longer has it). I think I got too anal with my rinsing and repeating. But I was terrified of it leaving a mark on the white duvet we use everyday. This was just going to be an extra accent blanket. And it is. Rohde’s was still much cooler. I used an old blanket I had laying around as the insert.

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But, I love the way it turned out (so does Murphy) and now I cannot wait to dye more things.

Have you dyed before? What was it? And was there a white light? (Groan.)

* Just a note: This post also could have been titled, “I have a rad husband.” Because even though he was not thrilled with the prospect of having pops of pink in his bedroom….he went along with it. He always encourages my creativity. And now he likes it. And I like him… Well, I’ve always liked him. : )

I shared this on Savvy Southern Style

And My Romantic Home