Spooky time

A few weeks ago, it was like, "Halloween stuff already?!" and now the scary thing is that suddenly, there's only 16 more days until Halloween! So... I've got skulls on the brain... although skulls are outside the brain... um.. nevermind. anyways- I am quite enjoying how some retailers are making more "sophisticated" Halloween decor. Shelterrific just had this great post about the current skull trend- I find myself strangely attracted to them. Not that I'm gonna be going all goth or anything, but I couldn't resist purchasing this surprisingly cool candle holder from Target. It's all metal, quite substantial and I think quite... stylish, for skulls... it was $7.99. I have this crazy idea to paint the whole thing white or light grey and keep it up all year round. (looks like another weekend project!) I couldn't find the candleholder online, but it is in stores.
UPDATE: Speaking of skulls, check out this cool FREE font! (via Craftzine)

blue munday: blue figures

I have always loved the blue mannequins and props they have at Barneys Co-op. Recently, I noticed that H&M and Express have been using blue mannequins too. In the interior design world, it's been a fun DIY trend for people to spray paint found thrift store sculptures white, at Barneys Co-Op, they paint them light blue. These little wood sculptures at PBTeen could be a fun little homage to that I guess. I love the little dog and cat one! They're on sale too!!

happiness is... one more package!

Happiness is... one more package! to me!
(from me...a gain...)
I've been waiting for this last one to arrive, now I'm going to open all three at once...
stay tuned!...

TGIF! Tecktonic french kids

Wooo Hoo! It's friday! Time to dance around like wacky "tecktonic" french kids!

blue shrimp

Shrimp are YUMMY- but I don't know if I would have said they were pretty? But looking at this ad for Subzero... I might reconsider. Not sure what it is- but the colors and details are strangely beautiful aren't they?

tuesday: happiness is... presents for me!

Happiness is a bunch of boxes from the mailman... presents for me! (ok, they're from me too, but whatever. you gotta get what you can get.) I'll share what's in the boxes later this week-

tuesday: happiness is...

Happiness is... a fresh warm sticky ooey gooey cinnamon roll...

blue munday: ocean rug by angela adams

happy munday. It was a great weekend, although it got kinda hot and windy Sunday. Oh well, that's So-Cal livin' for ya! Speaking of SoCal, this gorgeous "ocean" seaglass rug from Angela Adams would look amazing in my imaginary beachside home... I love the raised textures too. It also comes in a brown colorway, but its called "sand"- which... could look great in my imaginary desert home I guess... hehe-

No evil

It's friday!! Nothing bad should happen on fridays (or any days I suppose). So, perhaps we need to get this cup to remind us. This "no evil" tea cup has cute monkeys and is available here.

happy colorful clay bunnies!

the new sony bravia commercial (via Gizmodo)

Sony Bravia - Play Doh Ad
Uploaded by tvspot

Jim Houser interview at fecal face

I'm a big fan of Jim Houser's work. There's a great interview on him over at Fecal Face. Adam Wallcavage did the interview and tooks some great shots of his studio and some recent work. I love the the scalloped edge striped wall! I also love the painted plants. I think I need to paint some fake plants in seafoam (or blue?). They'll last longer than the live ones I tend to kill. Definitely check out the interview here.

Reform School Rules!

Yay! Reform School has a new website and they opened their online store too! Go get some schoolin' ! and if you're local to LA- stop by the store, they're having a big 15% off everything from now until Sunday October 7th, 2007.

Overlapping Squares chair ornament at West Elm

Ok- yeah it's not even Halloween, and yeah, all the stores are already putting up Christmas stuff- but let me just say I have been eagerly waiting for these things to come out. Last month, I received the holiday preview catalog from West elm and these little guys were calling for me! Now, I have always appreciated and loved this signature chair from them, but I have no room for another chair, and quite honestly, it doesn't really fit with the style of decor in my home. However- I surely can find a space for this 4 inch one! How adorable are these little guys!? $8 each. Get them quick! I bet these won't last by the time Christmas actually comes!

the big 500

wow- I was getting together today's post and I saw on my counter that this would be my 500th post! I started this blog back in March 2006 and it's so interesting to look back at what has happened since then. In many ways, many things are still the same, but then in so many other ways, so much has happened that have added so much more to my life. So... I just wanted to thank all of you for your support of this blog and that take those few minutes a day to check out my mundane musings. I've received so many great emails and comments and have made some great friends that I would never have met without the blog and this great thing called the internet- ("the interweb?") It's great to know that even if you live in a little suburban town in Orange County, CA, you can be connected to a whole world of people that share your appreciation for happy mundane things...

mundane aesthetic: little birds

I know you're not supposed to feed these little birds that come waiting for crumbs when you're sitting at a table outside. They're so crazy and fearless, but they're kinda cute...

House & Garden vintage

Happy friday! Was perusing House & Garden's new store section where they are selling prints from their amazing archives. These images are so stunning. I don't know how I could ever choose. It's so awesome that they are letting these be sold to the public- They're kind of expensive, so perhaps if you're lucky, you'll come across an original copy of an issue and find some other images you could tear out or color copy and frame for yourself. It could be cool to even have one blown up really huge on a wall- Here are just a few of my favs... (all images obviously from the Conde Nast H&G store site)

The happiest place on earth has happy colors

One of the best things about living where I do is that I'm literally 15 minutes away from "the happiest place on earth", Disneyland! (Disneyland always makes me happy)
Since I'm local, this year, I opted to get one of those Annual passes, cuz honestly, with the prices they have for admission- the annual pass makes a lot more sense. So, since I have the pass, I feel obligated to go as frequently as possible... (or as often as I can drag my also-pass-carrying friends)- A few weeks ago, I visited the California Adventure part to check out the Monster's Inc. ride. I loved the opening credits of that movie.


I thought it was so clever to do it with a vintage 50's-60's vibe. They made the entrance of the ride in the same vein and it looks great. The ride is fun as well. Another thing that got my attention was this interesting wall mosaic that is sort of off to the side of one of the buildings. It's made up of all kinds of random things. I didn't see any obvious signs as to who made it, but it was kind of pretty in it's bright coloring. It was fun looking at all the pieces. Happy colors in happy land.

new (for me) white vases

Time for another confession. I've been kinda bad lately. (Well, not that bad.) You know how sometimes you just feel like you need to change things up a bit? Perhaps its the changing seasons, but I've been feeling a need to spruce things up, switch things out. I suppose we all go through it, and honestly, it's probably just my excuse to do some frivolous impulse shopping. I've been picking up a bunch of random things lately, mainly because there's all these big sales going on for spring/summer product. One of which is this vase currently at West Elm. Now, it's actually pretty new, but I just love this zig-zag-y "geo totem" one. It reminds me of Architectural Pottery, only in a mini-me size version that I can afford. I don't know where I'm going to put it, since... well, as I've said before, I have waaay too many vases. But for now, it sits on my kitchen "counter." I'll be sharing the rest of my recent aquisitions in the next few weeks... but misery loves company- Have you been succumbing to all the sales going on lately too? Tell me I'm not alone! hehe Oh- one more thing- speaking of white vases, I spotted these fun white vase sets over at Sears on clearance too.They're from the Ty Pennington collection- Could be fun to mix it in with your other groupings... there's several to choose from, all on sale-this one with holes in it here, this modern set here, these candle holders here, and these are a total steal ($4.99) here.
That's all I could find on the website, but as you can see in the pic, there were a few more styles. Definitely check it out if you have a store nearby. Sale apparently ends on Saturday.

Trash Luxe

Dezeen has some great images of the Trash Luxe show at Liberty in London. (I just love that name "trash Luxe". The designers that are part of the exhibition have some wonderful ideas, and I'm particularly impressed with this chandelier that is made of old eyeglass lenses! brilliant! I also love this quirky candlestick made up of... everything? It sort of give me inspiration to try making one out of maybe a bunch of random objects, maybe of the same color- or in the end paint it the same color? hm... anyway- check out the rest of the pics here.

blue munday: more blue pillows

(sigh) nothin' like some pretty blue pillows to help ease your munday blues...
this is image is from the latest O at Home magazine. The pillows are from Ankasa and Daisy Hill. love the grey wall and white couch/wood floor combination...