MOSAIC - May 2012

My Life Recap / May 2012
*This month I planned my blog posts, which meant I posted EVERYDAY!
*Cody & I had our 6 year Wedding Anniversary
*Took our dogs to the park FINALLY
*Did two blog makeovers {HERE} & {HERE}
*Did my first What I Wore Post
*Revealed my vintage chairs for my living room
*Revealed new photos of my living room with my world map over my couch
*Made a design board for Jennifer's Living Room

TODAYS COLOR: BLACK

Casa SugarSelanx Architects For Life Shelterness & Decor Pad
Porter House Designs
I love black rooms! I painted my very first kitchen black. Black rooms look so modern & sophisticated!

Trip 2 The Park

For our Memorial Day we decided to take the dogs to the park.  I feel like a horrible pet parent because we have lived in Wyoming for 9 months and never taken the dogs to a park!  We did move here right when winter started, moved twice already and stayed pretty busy!  The weather here is crazy.  Basically you DON'T trust what the weathermen say, because a cold day can end up being beautiful and on a warm day it can end up snowing!  It was very windy today, but we decided to just go to the park anyways. Besides the strong wind it was perfect...
Muffins is so old now and is starting to have trouble walking. I did have to carry her often.
Chloe on the other hand was loving every moment and glad to be using her pinned up Chihuahua energy! We were so glad to get out of the house today! See the trees and the flowers. I really want to start taking the dogs places more often, even if I have to carry little Muffins sometimes. She loves the wind in her hair....
It was a great way to spend our day! I can't wait to take the dogs to another park soon!
Tomorrow we plan to go biking for the first time!

BLOG MAKEOVER: Bless This Mess

I just got finished making over Melissa's blog, Bless This Mess. Melissa is in the middle of remodeling her home while she is also living in the "mess". Her blog showcases her home before, during and after all her projects. She shares craft projects and lots of yummy recipes on her blog.


Go over to her blog & say HELLO: Bless This Mess

Travel // Danish Town Solvang, CA

Last year when we lived in California I blogged about a little town called Solvang a few times. I wanted to post more photos that I took while we were visited this small danish town. I love it because I love photographing the scenery and buildings. It's a great town full of small shops, great food and windmills!
I had the best Chai Latte EVER at the Bulldog Cafe.
You can learn all about Solvang, California by visiting the town's official website {HERE}.
View my post of Solvang, CA from last year {HERE}.

VEGAN FOOD: Penne & Chreese

When traveling I found different food products that I hadn't seen before in my local grocery stores. I found some Vegan friendly pasta by Road's End Organic's. I decided it was worth a try! One thing I had really missed eating was Mac & Cheese. There are so many great Vegan options though to keep you from giving into temptation. Even though at this point the thought of cheese and diary makes me sick to my stomach! After just 3 months of giving it up, I don't really miss it. This Vegan pasta version was Penne & Chreese. I still have yet to find and try the Mac N Cheese version. I will say it doesn't have a strong "cheddar" taste. I added salt, pepper and Franks Red Hot to mine and it was delicious! It is a lot of calories to eat it all yourself, but it was my dinner one night. It was quick and easy! Great traveling meal. :) Cody and I eat it sometimes as a side dish with Black Bean Burgers.

Please visit my WHOLE FOOD PAGE to view all my recipes and read about how easy it is to eat Vegan!

Fashion 4 ME

Recently I have complained about my current wardrobe and my lack of personal style. I love clothes and love feeling cute.  What I don't love is how frustrated I find myself when I go shopping and can't seem to find anything that fits or that I just simply LOVE enough to buy.  I have felt this way for years now and I want to challenge myself to fix.  I am still going to sit around the house in my jeans, but I think a good first step would be 1 day a week attempt to dress cuter.  I don't want to go out and just buy a bunch of stuff, unless it's second hand and found while thrifting!  Here is my first mock up board of things I want to incorporate into my wardrobe....

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I designed this to help give me an idea of what I should look for when I am out.  I never have a plan, so maybe that's part of the problem!  I get overwhelmed and frustrated then go home empty handed.  I can't seem to put cute outfits together!  Hopefully making these mock up boards will help me, since I am a designer! :)  Here is a breakdown of what I picked and why....
I love stripes and I love dresses!  I much rather wear a dress then shorts during the summer.  I fell in love with the black and white dress above.  It has adjustable straps so I know it will actually fit me.  I picked out the belt to add color and love the hot pink earrings.  (I never wear earrings.)  I love the sandals and have always wanted to try a pair on!  They seem like they would go with a lot of outfits. I don't like to follow trends, but I love colored pants. I really want a pink pair. The shorts are actually "kids" shorts from Target. The tank top is so pretty. I saw it in person at Target. I love the sequins. I am going to stalk the clearance racks at Target because they have tons of clothes that I actually like right now. So overall I am feeling more confident about dressing cute and making an effort! Last week I did my first "What I Wore" post, you can see that {HERE}.

I am linking up over at Blonde Episodes for Fashion Fridays!
Have a great weekend!

TODAYS COLOR: YELLOW

Decor Pad Decor Pad Decor Pad Decor Pad
On Home Design Consider the Coffee

Inspiration: IKEA Dining Display

I love photographing IKEA room displays.  I find most of them very inspiring.
I love the paint colors they pick for their displays.
I loved the simple plate display they did on the wall!
I used CHIP IT to find some paint colors that where similar...

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I can't wait to our next trip to IKEA!
If you missed the IKEA bedroom display I posted about earlier this month you can view that {HERE}.

GREEN Cleaning

When it comes to cleaning and things looking nice I am borderline O.C.D.I actually enjoy cleaning and straightening "messes" up. This is why working at IKEA was a good fit for me. There was always something to "fix". One of my nicknames at a previous job was "Little O.C.D". Not everyone loves to clean like I do... Maybe I don't LOVE to clean, I just can't stand things messy and out of place. I wanted to talk about some new things I have tried in my home recently. We all have to clean somewhat. If you are like me, every time you go to pour a cup of coffee you spill some on the counter. (I guess I can never be a waitress!) Now that recycling has become very important to me I figured it was also time to do something about the amount of paper towels I use! (waste) Since I clean like crazy it was always very easy for me to not even notice how many rolls of towels I was going through. I decided this had to change! I purchased some reusable sponges by Scotch Brite from Target. I purchased a pack of 4 and you just place them in the dishwasher to sanitize them. It's been a few weeks now since I started using them and I am very happy with the results. It just makes more sense! I am not wasting all these paper towels now to clean up one mess or wipe down my kitchen counters. It's saving me money by not having to purchase all those towels, plus I hate storing them. I am currently still using paper towels to clean the bathroom areas and also "pet accidents". I plan to just look for other options for the bathroom soon. I also started using Green Works cleaner for my kitchen. I plan to purchase the Seventh Generation cleaner in the future. I have also used it and love it! It doesn't seem to be as easy to find in the stores though... Other products I have yet to try but would like to is anything by Method.... I am mainly interested in switching my hand soaps and dish soap to GREEN products. I really would love to try the anti-bac wipes. I usually would buy the Lysol wipes but their smell is so strong! It would be nice to use something that doesn't make me feel sick to my stomach if I smell it for to long! Then there is always the option of making your own cleaning products. I haven't reached this point yet but I am very interested in trying it someday soon. I found this great post about making your own cleaning products: Utopia Invitations.

Cincinnati Union Terminal Center

While visiting Ohio last month my friend Dennis & I went to the Union Terminal Center in downtown Cincinnati. I tried to be artsy here and put these 4 pictures together to make a panoramic photo of the building, but it's crazy looking.... There is so much to do and see at the Cincinnati Museum. During our visit they had the Pompeii Exhibit, which was very interesting and sad at the same time. An entire city covered in ash from a volcano. I counted my blessings that day and my heart went out to the people who lost their lives. Needless to say, I couldn't photograph any of that. The other part of the museum we did walk through was Cincinnat In Motion. It's a train scaled display of downtown Cincinnati during the early 1900's. Look how cute the Union Terminal Center model is... My favorite thing in the display was the roller coaster from Coney Island... The train/city display was so fun to look at, but hard to photograph. It's very dark in the museum.
They have lights that change the city scene from night and day.
You can view my pictures of the REAL Downtown Cincinnati {HERE}.