It's the dreaded Valentine's Day, so instead of curling up into the fetal position with a tub Ben and Jerry's, buy yourself some Zombie Stompers!

Iron Fist Women's Zombie Stomper Platform Pump

You'll be stylishly ready for the apocalypse.

You're hyperventilating at the awesomeness right now, aren't you?

Well, if you haven't heard of Iron Fist by now, well... you're hearing about it now.

I don't know how to describe this company other than style meets... holy crap I want those!

Iron Fist Women's Demon Donkey Platform Pump

Sorry, where was I?

Oh yes, Iron Fist is style meeting popular alternative culture. And Zombies.

Not only do they make funky shoes you want to marry, they make clothes and bikinis and bags, oh my!

And other stuff.

So, I made you a widget to browse through all the shoe styles:

Iron Fist

I'm sorry ahead of time for the damage I do to your credit card. I hope you'll forgive me.

Yup it's true.

I was born January 10th... 10 days from the cutoff.

I definitely think dragons in fashion and design are kewl. with a Kapital K.

Fun rugsTM olive kidsTM happily ever after rug

Whether it's little cartoon fat dragons, or ornate beauties that belong in a museum, I am drawn to the mythical beasts.

Ceramic Dragon

There's just something about them that screams wise and cunning... you know, like I am.

Don't laugh, I see you chuckling! You!!! Stop it!

Since it's the Year of the Dragon, I thought I would show you a few things to help you get my favorite beast into your home.

Remember, everything is clickable and buyable. I say that because I had to remove several sold out items from my stash already. IF you like it enough to buy it, you better get hoppin'.

Candles at Neiman Marcus
Earrings by Diego Percossi Papi

I'm particularly fond of the chandelier earrings, and the dragon doing a handstand with two candles. He looks like a happy fellow.

FYI, I am looking for a crystal dragon for under a bajillion dollars to replace a broken dragon that met its untimely demise when my parents visited last. We won't talk about how it happened, but just be assured, I will get my new replacement dragon.

If you follow me at all on Facebook, you know I periodically post amazing shoes there. In fact, you would own quite the collection of kicks if you bought everything that I posted.

A couple weeks back, I posted these very Valentine-y shoes from Spool 72.



I love how very different they are. You can barely even tell they are shoes!

Well...

Rebecca from Ritzee Rebel saw them and had to have them. So she bought a pair and sent me a picture of them in use:



I totally love these shoes! I also love her red jeans.

After talking to her for a bit, she told me she had found them at a different website for far less... of course, she had already bought them from Spool.

But she's upbeat about it, since they are such a great style, and thanks to her, we both know about a new website called UrbanOG.

She found the shoes there for about $18 less (gah!), and discovered that they also come in black/grey/white as well as green/fuchsia/white. Still love the red the best though...

However, now I can't rip myself away from UrbanOG. They have some of the wildest, most colorful shoes for some really reasonable prices... and I haven't even broken the seal on all their other offerings.

Right now, I think I'll be saving up for these once my Heartsy feature is complete.

Totally in love.

One of my hands-down favorite design styles is an eclectic world traveler theme. Think World Market, but less pretentious.

Kinda like this:

(Notice that wood chair on the upper left? It's a Gerrit Reitveld Red Blue Chair.)

Here's another example:

That'salottapillows!

If you love this lookl, like I do, but are tired of the standard fare, might I recommend Viva Terra?

Viva Terra is up a few price points, but well worth the look. They bill themselves as a sustainable company, but beyond that... they have divine stuff!

Here are just a few of the millions of things I would love to have in my own home:

(click the pics!)

I really love the look, and for being a bit more expensive than you would normally see, it's surprisingly affordable. Tell me what you think... would you design your home like this?

Yep, after three separate submissions, a brand new DSLR camera, an entirely new backdrop for my photography, and about $30 in fake rocks and stuff, I finally have caught the eyes of the product pickers, and I have made it into a feature of my very own!

 

I'm pretty shocked... I was about to write a nasty letter to them about allowing a bajillion of "assemblers" on their site (all doing the exact same thing), but not giving actual artisans much of a chance. I don't glue cellulose flowers to brass bobby pin bases, I never have. I'm still peeved about that.

Nonetheless, my hard work is going to finally be appreciated, which I am glad for. I have been making one of a kind sterling initials and other charms for a little while now, and while I have sold quite a few, I haven't gotten much notice.

I don't know exactly what day the feature will come up just yet, I didn't get notified until Friday and they haven't replied to my demands.. er, requirements.  I promise you as soon as I know, I will tell you. In the meantime, go to my Zibbet shop and start deciding what you want. I'll be adding to it all through this week and next!



 
Mister Huxley is everywhere it seems. In the dishwasher, the fridge, the shower... he's very curious. I love him dearly and it seems that he was the missing link to get all the animals to play. I only mention him because January 20th marked 2 years since the death of my sweet little Katie:

 
He seems to know that he has a big responsibility. He is very loving and playful, and crawls all over everyone. Of course, to make sure we know he isn't perfect, he has decided that he won't use the litterbox under anycircumstances. He will either go outside or pee on my carpet.

I'm sure you can guess we are not thrilled about it. We have read up on ways to entice him to the litterbox, but he refuses. If I didn't have a carpet steamer, I'd be in serious trouble. As it is, he has made our house smell just lovely...

Even worse, when the weather is less than stellar, you know, windy or rainy or cold? He won't go outside either. And of course, our weather has flip-flopped this winter.

Early on, it got so cold that my pond waterfall turned into a giant glacier. Seriously!

 
See?

The middle of that is about two feet thick. We kept having to come out and break up the ice with a rubber mallet every few days. The day these photos were taken, our breaker blew in the middle of the night, and everything was frozen solid.

 

Here's the side view.

We ended up having to do a lot of torching to make holes for the water to go under the ice, as well as install a heater in the top pool so it wouldn't build up so high. Of course, as soon as we did all this work, the temperature went above freezing and it all melted anyway. Figures.

If you've noticed, I have cut back heavily on posting. I have things to post about, but I am in the midst of an endless bot attack. I am just now finally getting my reader numbers to around a thousand a day. It has been up to 8000 a day, and some. It's hard to plan postings when you aren't even sure who is reading what. I have also finally gotten the spam comments down to something manageable. I'm still not quite comfortable with un-moderating the comments just yet, but rest assured, I will post your comment if it is a real one!

One final thing...

I do have some possible good news on the front that I can't talk about, but it has also affected my desire to blog daily. It's one of those "wait and see" things and it has the potential to be such an amazing life change that the husband and I are up to our ears in hope and stress. So rest assured, I'm not winding down my blogging, just being reserved for the time being.

Fyi, leave a comment here about any special items you want to see in my Zibbet shop prior to my feature, and I will gladly make it and reserve it for you.

And surround me with color.

Lots and lots of color.

Make me gasp every time I enter a room.

Inspire me in unexpected ways.

Leave me breathless.

Make me love your place so much that you have to toss me out, kicking and screaming.

Just please... invite me back for tea.

 

I promise to behave.

Cross my heart.

Yup, today I turned the big 35....

Which is funny, because I'm not sure how those numbers are possible, I look and feel 25.

It's all that clean living and exercise, I assure you.

It's also funny that today is my favorite day of the week... the day I show you shoes.

It's Heather's choice... so I choose my favorite rocker gal Betsey Johnson.

Betsey Johnson

Reno doesn't exactly offer any places to wear such fabulous shoes, since everyone here thinks that dressing up involves tees and jeans, but I dream big (and keep even bigger secrets *cough*) and hope that some day I can be the shoe whore I always dreamed of.

I have an extra special secret birthday wish that I can't divulge (it's killing me too), so I know that someday soon, I can own a huge wardrobe of Betsey.

So, do a 35 year old a favor and click on some of those shoes for me.

If you had a birthday wish for shoes, who would be your designer?

Oh, it's not that I hate Pottery Barn or anything,  but have you seen their new PBTeen stuff?

I find it funny that I tend to shop at PBKids, PBTeen, and Land of Nod and completely ignore Pottery Barn. Why?

Well, reason one is the price. I can actually afford the stuff from their satellite businesses.

Reason two is that if I want bright colors and fresh looks, I have to look at ditch Pottery Barn. I don't like muted colors, rusts and forest greens or burgundys. If I wanted that, I could just go to JCPenney!

Here's an apartment sofa from Pottery Barn:



It comes in stone, oatmeal, or natural.... and is either $900 or $1000, depending on which very close shade of beige you go with.

Sure, it has plump cushions, but it looks like every other sofa you see on the PB website.

Now, here's PBTeen's version:



No cushion, but it's $600, and come with either blue piping or black piping.

And why would I want to pay $400 for a desk chair like this:



When I can have the awesomeness of furry comfort like this:



Yeah, it's $299, and way cooler. Figuratively speaking.

I searched all over Pottery Barn's website, just for a brightly colored rug with a moroccan pattern, and eventually gave up. They don't have it. But PBTeen does!



That is a crewelwork rug. 5x8 for $450.

I could go on for ages, comparing PB to PBTeen. But that's not really the point of today's post.

The point is, if you're looking for undiluted color and fun texture and love Pottery Barn, don't be afraid to visit the more kid-friendly stores they have. You might be surprised at what you can find.

As a personal confession, when I had to finish my bay window in the kitchen, I bought my curtains from Land of Nod. $3 a panel on clearance (I needed 6). I saved a bundle.

So...

What is your unlikely source for your colorful and interesting decor when all else fails? 

I'm about to heavily insult your taste in sofas. Probably.

My beautiful but aging custom plum microfiber velvet reverse camelback sofa is coming up for "renewal" in the next year or two (sooner if something happens that I'm keeping hush-hush right now), and I have a big decision to make.

Do I keep it and recover it, or sell it and buy a new sofa and give my baby a new home?

It wasn't a cheap purchase, and it certainly turns heads, but my style has changed a bit, and the sofa is enormous. It has all the right things that make it a great sofa for the long haul, like a tight back, single cushion, and sloping arms. But sometimes a girl just wants something new, you know, like a white modern sofa.

Yes... I said white.

Like this (click all photos to see them in their natural habitat):


Or this:


I know, you're worried for my well-being. You're probaby also saying "Oh, I could never have white. It shows dirt!"

Well, let me transition into the preachy part of my post where I embarrass you about your choice of sofa.

I want you to look at your sofa. It probably looks something like this:


Beigity beige, with some throw pillows for "color".

Oh, is yours a bit nicer?

Well, how dare I:


That better?

I'm sure your sofa might have a bit of a pattern, you know, to "hide the dirt" better.

I know, I'm making a big production of this, but there's a few pet peeves about a sofa that I have, and this is the biggest one. I constantly hear people who buy sofas and refuse to pick light colors because they want to hide dirt.

First of all, ew. I'm never ever sitting on your sofa! If you're hiding dirt, you're not cleaning it. When was the last time you had your upholstery cleaned? EVER? Invest in a steam cleaner and clean your sofa every once in a while, and clean the dirt out.

Second of all, this isn't the 19th century. it's the 21st. We have all sorts of technological advances in fabrics that help repel dirt. You don't need to camouflage filth. Many fabrics nowadays are so easy to clean, you can wipe them down with a damp cloth. All my upholstery is easily cleanable, even when Eddie the Hairball Hurling Cat has his way with them.

Thirdly, if you have someone who just leaks dirt from their pores, consider draping a sexy blanket on the sofa, under the area they commonly sit. It's a ton easier to wash a blanket rather than constantly have to steam the sofa. Trust me.

Once you are over your fear of dirt, then you can stop pretending you love your ugly beige/brown sofa and actually buy something you adore:


You can admit it, that blue is heavenly.

Okay, now that's out of the way...

Let me address futons and godawful reclining sofas.



If you are over the age of 25 and make a reasonable living wage, you have no business owning a futon. The only exception is as a spare bed in an office or studio. That's it. I don't care how cheap futons are, we live in an age that you can buy some amazingly beautiful sofas for relatively little money. If you can't find one to suit your needs, send me an email. I'll help.

While futons conjure up images of drunken college parties, let me hit up the worse offender...

The dreaded reclining sofa.


I loathe reclining anything with every fiber of my being. Nothing says "I don't exercise and have terrible hygiene" quite like a recliner. Put it in a sofa and well... it's definitely a turn-off for guests. The only reason to own a recliner in any incarnation is because you have a valid medical reason.

I particulary hate these horrible things because they encourage laziness. They also discourage guests from sitting on them. And who wants the center seat? People loathe the center seat so badly that manufacturers actually will make them a flip-down cup holder/table so you can plop you beer and mega-grande nachos on it.

Oh, and they are hideous.

The weird tufting and shaping that has to be done to make them functional severely limits your interior design. They are generally boxy in nature, so if you like curvy and relaxing rooms, it won't happen.

If you want this:


You can find plush sofas filled with oodles of fluff and down, and just by adding an ottoman, you can have your ideal reclining situation. Even better, when you have to stand up, you can put your feet on the ground without having to slam the recliner shut with your legs.
 
No more of that annoying "WHAM" to torture others around you!

There are so many options for sofas. With every price range, style, color, and size, it boggles the mind that people are still going for the common, boring, and downright ugly.

Here is a selection of sofas that I have found that are different and inspiring.

Maybe I can talk you into ditching that old thing currently hogging your living room.


You're welcome.

I know, I'm just now getting around to this. I promised it weeks ago...

I haven't really had much of a chance to look, not even for my own home, if you can believe it. I've been busy, as well as in pain.

Since no one really cares about the smalltalk, I'll just show you some pictures of fabulous holday stuff that you know you really want!

Remember, if you like something, click on the picture and you can go buy it for your own house!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If I had more money, I would certainly own all of this beautiful decor.

What is your holiday theme this year?