I've been struggling to clean off my desk, and I stumbled across my Christmas notebook from last year. In case there are any doubts, I really was that psycho. I carried this file folder with me everywhere and took copious notes on my progress. Oh my.

Thinking back, the whole thing makes me laugh. Last year at this time, I was in England on a business trip freaking out about how I was going to finish everything. I took the list on the trip with me which was a kind of painful torture. I was stuck there without any supplies or time to make things. I'm not sure why I thought re-reading the list obsessively was going to help. I remember the long flights and the growing feeling of panic at missing nearly 5 days of preparation time.

It's good to be at home. And it's especially good that this year's list could fit on a post-it note or a napkin and has no need of a file folder.

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Last week, as I was completely freaking out over my "to do" list, I had a sudden inexplicable urge to do some paint by numbers. A couple of people have mentioned them lately so I think the idea has been simmering for a little while:

Yarnstorm talks about how embroidery can be similar to paint by numbers. And Blair at Wise Craft found a completed paint by numbers painting for her house.

I think the idea of creating something without having to really think about it appeals to me at the moment. I have such a limited amount of time to actually create things, and millions of hours where I can think about what I'd like to make. By the time I actually have supplies and free time in front of me, I end up putting a lot of pressure on myself. After this next round of commitments, I'd like to take some time to do some "selfish sewing" and maybe some more relaxed projects. Of course, if I order a kit, I'll be completely past this idea and ready to –I don't know- design my own patterns or something. (Ok, not really. That will still be completely beyond me.)

This place has quite a collection. I have a certain fondness for "Balloon Glow" on page two. Anyone tried one of these lately? Or what about "Twilight Cottage?" I've spent the past couple of weekends looking at model homes (just for fun – more on that later), and I think I have houses on the brain. I don't know if I could seriously hang either one of these on my wall, but they look like they'd be fun to do.

If anyone's in the market for some upscale (read: pricey) paint by numbers. There are some flower prints over here at Weego Home.

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 08:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, we’ve had a change in plans. Now, I will definitely be making the triple chocolate mousse cake as we’re going to have a small get together at my apartment on Saturday. Some extra ramekins have been purchased, and I’ve located the never before used parchment paper that’s been sitting in the back of the pantry. Wish me luck! I promise to post pictures no matter what the outcome. I’m pretty bad about editing out all of my less successful cooking/crafting endeavors, so this time I’m going to come clean.

This past weekend, it was unbearably hot in my apartment so we escaped to Ikea. [Have you seen Ikea's Dream Kitchen web-site? I’m not in the market for kitchen cabinets, but this site is really fun to look at.] Ikea never feels like real shopping to me. It's more like being inside an air conditioned adult theme park. And there inside the magic kingdom of Ikea shopping, we found these very cool napkin ring/place card holders.

I love place card holders and have absolutely no reason to own them. I've only had one dinner party in the last 4 years, I believe. And that was only a few months ago, so I will probably need to wait another 4 years to have a second one. Sometimes I'm tempted to whip them out just for me and Mr. Slippers. I've confessed my obsession to him, so I think he'd understand although we both know where to sit. Place card holders are enough to make me want to find more friends and invite them all over to dinner.

To top it all off, earlier this week I stumbled across the Papayalicious site (via Pam Garrison). Look at the amazing enclosure cards! I love these and think they would be perfect for place cards (not sure exactly how big they are). I guess they would be sort of expensive ($2/each) if you were ordering up enough for a large dinner party. I just placed a small order to start. I also love the happy place cards and place card holders at Plum Party. I’ve been slightly obsessed over the squirrel place card holders for a while now.). I'm not going over there to look right now. I can't bear it.

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 08:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Saturday, I was left to my own devices. So after dawdling around drinking far too many cups of coffee, I put together a little list of errands I’d like to run. It sounded perfectly lovely on paper.

Off I went to the fabric store to hunt down some inspiration for my Back Tack III project. I didn’t find a thing. (A bit of trivia - the fabric store near my place is the one Kara Saun takes Jay to in the Project Jay special. Oh yes... I usually feel a little lame when I can't find anything there...)

Then I headed over to Paper Source. I am always reading on other people’s sites about how lovely and divine this place is. I have decided that this is clearly because they do not have to go to the Beverly Hills location. The store itself is lovely, but it is located around the corner from Rodeo Drive. I'm sure this is very nice for the store and for people who like upscale shopping, but I'd just as soon not have to dress up to buy my stationary, thank-you-very-much. I’d been there once before, but never on a busy Saturday. And I had forgotten how out of hand that place was until I was already there surrounded by cell phone wielding, purse-dog carrying women. (My apologies to anyone who carries a dog in a purse – I'm sure your dog loves it! It’s just not my sort of thing.) I’m not big into parallel parking anyway, but it’s somehow worse when the street is lined with Ferraris.

I think I wore the wrong flip-flops for this occasion.

Luckily, this tin of labels was there and worth the drive alone. I've had a crush on them ever since I saw them mentioned over here.

To top it all off -- on the way home, I scoured several newsstands and finally found copies of Blueprint (discovered here) and Marie Claire Idées (discovered here).

As if those labels weren’t enough, I went home and made some like this (very much inspired by these expensive ones):

And I printed out the mailing labels from here.

And now all I want to do is label things.

P.S. - speaking of amazing labels, I just found some new ones to admire.

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 06:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This past weekend, my orders from Posie Rosy Little Things and The Small Object arrived. (Talk about speedy!) It signifies quite a change in my life that instead of ripping them open immediately, I first opened the window shades and shot a few pictures of the wrappings. Such care and attention to detail went into these packages.

I will post pictures of “Follie,” my beautiful little apron, later. The results of the apron photo shoot did not really do the apron justice. (That and I had not paid enough attention to the background for the shots – and well, let’s just say it really looked like I needed to be donning an apron and grabbing some serious cleaning supplies. I desperately need to do some spring cleaning and tossing.)

In the meantime, you can see my new apron peeking out of the top photo.

The stationary flats and stamp from The Small Object could not be more perfect. I love how quirky these are (and well made, too). Now for some letter writing! I miss the days when my friends and I could spend hours writing a letter to each other. Of course, that was in high school, and we really should have been taking notes in Biology, but still... It was always exciting to unfold that piece of paper and wonder what someone has written.

In other news, I signed up for Back-Tack III so I can now indulge in searching for black and white fabric full time. I’m a little bit scared and a little excited all at once. Making little stuffed creatures is the one sewing task I feel pretty comfortable with – small mistakes are easily written off as part of the creature’s personality. (Not so with clothing and purses...)

And if you’re wondering about the little bunny peeking out of the last post, I hope to elaborate more on him soon. You can consider that quiet little post as a note to self.

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 09:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 09:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Above: the view from my desk. I look out into a courtyard area. It’s not the best photo, but I thought my co-workers would think I’d lost my mind if they saw me taking pictures of my desk. This is my little hint of green for colors week.

I completely splurged today.

I got one of the lovely aprons from Miss Alicia P! I know it may be too much to ask, but I’m really hoping that it comes with Magical Motivation Powder which will transform me into a domestic being who loves cleaning and doing dishes. (Everyone would be so proud!) Of course, even if it doesn’t, I know I will enjoy wearing my apron around while procrastinating on various household chores.

Apparently one present for myself wasn’t enough, because I then turned around and purchased a little helmet friend stamp and some stationary flats from The Small Object. Yay! I love her style – so very unique and yet somehow familiar. I can’t wait to see what downloads she spoils us with next. (And I had to keep going back and staring at Amy’s use of the labels. I’m a huge sucker for office supplies in general… this just takes it to a whole new level.)

Then I spent far too much time looking at black and white fabrics online and planning 8 different softies for Back-Tack III. Somebody needs to stop me. I don’t even know if I’ll make the sign up list yet.

I’ve completely worn myself out.

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 06:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are the contents of the mystery present… a teacup and saucer! This is something I’d been daydreaming about for awhile. It’s the last of my birthday gifts and wow – they certainly seemed to keep rolling in...

I’d seen this ChilliChilly teacup (called “By the Lake”) at a number of design sites and loved it. I couldn’t find it anywhere in the U.S., so this came all the way from England at Design My World. My parents are so thoughtful and very patient to have ordered it from so far away.

When I get presents, I divide them into two categories: for the office and for the home. I try really hard to keep my home a more grown up space. I love kid stuff and cute things, but I don’t want my place to look like a kindergarten classroom. This is really hard because for a long time, it did look that way. And with a mammoth purple velvet couch, it’s hard to get a classier style going. But we’ll talk about the couch another time.

At work, I let my inner 12 year old decorate – and that’s where all of the fun, girly stuff goes including the pink rug I’d never put in my home.

This teacup is for the home. Thanks mom and dad.

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I like to keep running lists of things I like.

And I have an entire list just for stationary. I reference it quite a bit, and try to decide if my opinions have changed… if maybe one of them has moved to the forefront and left all of the other cards and social flats in the dust. I’m not good at mailing letters (although I’m pretty good at writing unsent ones), but I like to pretend that if I had a huge collection of papers I would write everyone I know often. I’m going to share some of my current favorites here although I can’t take credit for finding any of them. I rely on the likes of Creature Comforts, oh joy!, decor8, and design*sponge for that.

1) Binth
2) Joy By Mel Lim
3) Snow & Graham at Greer
4) Paper + Cup
5) Egg Press (Also at Greer)
6) Elum
7) Cavallini
8) The Paper Princess

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 07:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I found the bunny! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, click here for the story.)

Here he is relaxing at home with his new buddy, Little Yellow Chick. Thank you to Jessica who kindly left a comment suggesting I check the grocery store. Sure enough, the sad looking Easter Bunny was waiting just two doors down from El Pollo Loco next to the baskets and candy. As I stood in line, I wondered if the other people knew how exciting this was – I was on a secret bunny rescue blogging mission! (Yes, I just typed that.) I hesitated before putting the bunny on the conveyor belt (what if he gets dirty?!) and cringed when the grocery bagger stuffed him brusquely into a plastic bag.

I don’t normally fall for random grocery store bunnies (especially when so many talented people out there make such wonderful home-made versions), but there really is something about the too short arms and legs, giant head, and bewildered expression that did me in… he looks a little alien even, which I love. And maybe he will inspire me to create some new little happy creatures…

So now that my bunny and I are happily reunited for $4.32, I thought I would confess to some other “not so very grown up” things that I’ve been daydreaming about lately:

1) Children’s composition notebooks at eeboo.com via shelterific via weewonderfuls

2) “Ewe’s Fluffy” T-Shirt at Delia’s

3) Squirrel Place Card Holders at Plum Party

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Ok, so this is not healthy to admit, but I’m slightly obsessed with a stuffed bunny rabbit that I saw at El Pollo Loco. (I’m checking right now and discovering that El Pollo Loco exists only in California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. So for anyone who doesn’t know, El Pollo Loco is a fast food chain restaurant that serves chicken and burritos.) Traditionally, it is not a place to look for stuffed bunny rabbits.

However, they had a bizarre display advertising their catering services which had sort of an Easter theme (ok, a blatant Easter theme - see Easter egg paper plates above as reference). And there sitting next to the pictures of chicken and macaroni and cheese was this perfectly adorable little Easter Bunny. My boyfriend, of course, did not understand the fixation but indulged me while I snuck a photograph. Ok, like 5 photographs. (Hey, lighting conditions weren’t exactly ideal and I didn’t want my special bunny picture to be all blurry.) I even convinced my boyfriend to ask the person at the counter if she knew where the bunny came from, but this elicited a shrug and a slightly horrified look indicating that we were as insane as we felt.

Oh, bunny – I wish you could come home with me.

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 07:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Some unexpected delights from the weekend:

• Drinking coffee and staying up too late with friends – It’s even better when they bring you birthday gifts of pink legwarmers and the New York City Ballet Workout.

• Finding these Count Von Count stickers at the Sanrio store (see below) – I’ve mentioned this Sesame Street collection before, and finally gave in and brought something home. I love looking at this stuff; most of the products are pretty witty. These stickers are quite happy and nostalgic that way. (Plus my mom would kill me if I started walking around with a Count Von Count purple vinyl purse… and who could blame her? The stickers are much safer for all involved.)

• My dad hunting down a copy of Harry Potter (thank you dad!) – This movie really is better when the weather is slightly gloomy/rainy outside, and you’re curled up in front of your parent’s rather large TV.

• This delicate Waterford tea cup – I found this lonely, little tea cup at the Robinsons-May closing sale (which was a pretty big disappointment – everything was marked way above normal prices before taking off the 60-70% discount). I think the pattern is really special (called Chrysanthemum). You can’t tell from the picture, but the little pink dots are raised. The soft colors complement another recent birthday gift from my parents - this plate from Tord Boontje’s Table Stories collection.

This plate didn’t look like what I expected to at all – it was actually much better. The pattern in the light grey is really understated. In fact, in direct sunlight, you can't see the pattern at all. I love that it has a happy deer pattern on it without screaming “hello, I’m 12 -- check out my awesome deer plate.” (Why is it that half the things I like seem to say that?) I like this plate for being so nice and quiet about it. And no, I have no idea what I’m going to do with my quickly growing collection of plates and cups. I guess I’ll have to start having people over and making dinners. (Um, right.)

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 08:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I love the maps Sarah has been making over at The Small Object. (I love her new site too!)

I was inspired to draw a little map myself. I hope she doesn’t mind.

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Left to Right:

• Songbird sconce from lluminations
• Nicole Miller rug at Bed Bath and Beyond – On sale! Looks great in person. I caved and actually bought this one. The center flower is more grey than black, so be warned.
• Triple Five Soul Purse at ebags.com – I ordered a tote bag in the same fabric.
• The Count von Count collection at Sanrio
• Tord Boontje’s Icarus Light at Dutch By Design

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 08:19 PM | Permalink

My mom really loves nativity scenes so we had a lot of them in our house during Christmas. Ok, to be honest, it wasn’t just at Christmas. She started keeping up some of them year round. In fact, my mom has a lot of little traditions like putting Baby Jesus in a drawer and waiting until Christmas morning to add Him to the nativity scene. One Christmas morning, half-way through unwrapping presents – she exclaimed “I left Baby Jesus in a drawer!” We stopped while she ran around the house placing the many little Jesus(es) in their rightful locations.

The one pictured above was my favorite. The little wood pieces were kid-friendly, and I liked playing with and rearranging the animals. Except that the one in the picture above isn’t really the set I played with as a child. My mom sent that one to me when I was in college, and I gave it away or lost it somehow. I was careless then.

This year I was slightly (ok, seriously) obsessed with Christmas decorating, and I wanted a nativity scene – but not just any nativity scene, my nativity scene. The one I had played with as a child. The one my mother had carefully wrapped up and sent to me. I harassed her with all sorts of questions about where it had come from and how I could find a replacement, but in the end, it was E-bay to the rescue.

It’s embarrassing, but I got so emotional about the whole thing that I ended up in a bidding war and spent WAY too much money on this thing. It was very sweet and lovely to have again, but there was no way that it was worth the $50 I spent. I swallowed hard and waited for it to arrive.

Yes, it was the same as the set I had had, but it smelled funny, the donkey didn’t look quite right, the paint was peeling -- and I tried to figure out how in the world I was going to explain to my boyfriend that I’d spent $50 on this thing. I felt SO silly.

But you know what? It stopped smelling funny after awhile, the little animals are still fun to play with, and every time I look at it, it feels a little more like Christmas. To me, that’s $50 well spent.

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 08:50 AM | Permalink

I’ve been really craving holiday plates. I know it sounds cheesy, but I remember the special Santa mugs my mom pulled out for the holidays, and they always felt special to me. This year, I’ve really wanted to have something decorative but not kitschy for Christmas.

I saw these plates at the Mikasa outlet and really liked them. To me, they have a hint of sparkle without being over the top. Of course, I didn’t realize how much I liked the plates until I had left the outlet and driven the hour and half to get home.

I became obsessed with the plates. I scoured the internet looking for a place to order them. No luck.

I put “get Mikasa plates” on my Christmas to-do list. I tried to figure out when I could drive 3 hours to buy plates. Eventually, I got my opportunity

Definition of madness: girl driving 3 hours to buy plates the day before Thanksgiving during pre-Christmas shopping hysteria.

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 07:28 PM | Permalink

Did you see that the Little Wooden People at Acorn Style are even cuter now?

Ack! I can’t stand it.

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 01:11 AM | Permalink

I’m letting the little wooden people go. It’s hard, but I think it’s for the best.

Continue reading "Little Wooden People" »

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 12:54 AM | Permalink