Paula Prass may be my new favorite designer. Her frames are to die for. Well, she isn’t just a frame designer – she does all kinds of fun stuff, including fabric. I was perusing her site today and thought I’d show you too. I’ve seen some of her frames in a local boutique, and fell madly in love. There are tons of great color combinations. I just love their graphic, bold appeal.
This little door hanger sign is hilarious. I think I need one of these for my front door! 
My dad has a wicked sense of humor. He always has – he is legendary amongst the family. And my mom swears up and down that one day, she will, in fact, get him back. So anytime we can hatch up some kind of crazy plan to get him, we do.
Back in October, when we went to Lauren’s wedding in Dallas, we were perusing the Pottery Barn and we cracked up over their Halloween decorations. There was this big black crow, and Dad held it up and I took his picture with it. “Look real scared,” I said. We all laughed. I think it goes back to our shared love of Alfred Hitchcock – who doesn’t love The Birds?
A week later I was walking through Michael’s and lo and behold, there was the exact same crow. I couldn’t help myself – I bought it and hatched a plan. Jude was semi-scared of the crow, but the minute I told him it was Dan-Dan’s (his name for my dad), he was like, “oh. Okay.” Now anytime he sees a crow, he says “Dan-Dan.”
One afternoon, we showed up over at Mom & Dad’s. Dad was taking a nap, and so I took the crow out to the garage with a roll of tape. In the back of Dad’s SUV, there was this huge cardboard box, and I taped the crow to the lid of the box so when Dad backed the car out of the garage, there would be the crow, like it just flew on in and perched on the top of the box. I showed Mom and she started to laugh. The next day, I got a phone call – he didn’t even see that crow until he almost got out of the neighborhood onto the main street! He said that there were these big black crows that had been hanging out in the neighborhood lately, and then as he was driving, he looked in the rearview mirror and saw the fake crow and thought, “Oh my gosh, how did one of them get in the car??!?!?!”
Anyway, it was a good little prank, and we’ve been having good fun with the crow ever since. One day, Mom set the crow up with breakfast:
At Jude’s birthday party, in particular, we all took “scared photos” with the crow, and I keep forgetting to post them.
Enjoy our craziness!
So, the Alt Design Summit sounds like something I would want to go to. Totally. It’s a conference for design bloggers. And. AND! It’s held at the same time as the Sundance Festival. Does it get any cooler than this?
According to their site, you should attend Alt if you fit any of the following criteria:
- People that love talking about design in all its iterations. What it is. How it’s changing. Why it’s important. (Check.)
- People that read sites like Apartment Therapy/drive German cars/subscribe to magazines from Europe. (Check – well, that Apartment Therapy part)
- Design or lifestyle bloggers who want to (finally!) meet their fellow design and lifestyle bloggers. (Check. That’s right. I’m a stalker.)- People from across all the design disciplines: graphic, industrial, fashion, interior, product, textile. Plus illustrators and photographers too. (Check.)- Business Owners who make pretty things and want to figure out how to get their products on design sites. (Erm, ok, not me, but interested in learning about this kinda stuff!)
- Advertising Agencies and Marketing firms that want help creating social media campaigns for their design-minded clients. (Not exactly me either, but I’m sure it would be educational nonetheless, n’est-ce pas?)
- Employees who would love to get credit for working while actually hitting the slopes. (I think this fits Simon, so ok, check.)- People who create inspiration boards. (Check!!!)- People who look at inspiration boards. (Check! Is anyone still checking?)- Big-Love fans that want to find out if polygamy is for real. (Um, no. Not me. We can’t win ‘em all.)
- Star-struck film fans obsessed with the Sundance hype who want to spend a weekend celebrity sighting. (Ok, who are we kidding – check.)
If so, you might be getting one of these postcards from Simon in the mail soon!
I’m so proud of Simon – he’s doing a great job and I’m so happy that he’s doing something that he loves.
Hop on over to 405House+Home, and leave a comment on any post to be added to the mailing list.
Ok, we are all officially nuts. NUTS. After Jude & Noah’s costume party, Dad was remarking that we had so much fun with all the wigs that everybody brought were the life of the party. I think the exact phrase was, “We should bust out the wigs at our next party!”
So, we took him seriously. Maybe a little too seriously.
In the month of November, we have 3 birthdays: Dad (Nov. 5th), Luke (Nov. 10th) and Eric (Nov. 14th). So we did a big combined Wigapalooza. Amy ordered in meat from the Salt Lick BBQ in Austin, TX, and it was incredible. There was also quite the selection of cheeses. And for dessert? A spread of individual slices of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. I mean, it just doesn’t get any better than that.
Unless it’s all happening when you’re wearing a crazy wig.
Me-YOW. Am I a lucky gal or what? Billy Ray Cyrus, you got nothin’ on Simon.
Here’s all the wigs laid out on the dining room table. And it’s true – there’s something about a wig that brings out the funny in everybody. It was pretty hilarious.
Everybody that put this wig on manages to look like a laid-back surfer dude. That whole, “I just rolled outta bed and into the surf” look.
Mom made Dad take off the mullet wig – she said he didn’t look good in it. LOL Actually, the mullet wig was probably the one wig that really looked awful on everybody.
Happy happy birthday to Dad, Eric, and Luke! It was a grand occasion!
This morning, the lawn guys came to blow the leaves away, but didn’t hit the neighbors’ yard. I give it, oh, 20 minutes for the leaves to be back.
Packaging is everything, don’tcha know? But let’s get real – you could package up s’mores in a paper bag and it would still be happily received. Jordan Ferney linked over to Twig & Thistle’s post on these DIY S’mores kits. Could they be any more perfect? And what an easy gift this would be as we are entering into the holiday season! Hostess gift? Check. Adorable with a great big mug for hot cocoa? Check.
I’ll bet Martha Stewart Crafts at WalMart or Michael’s will have some fun Christmas packaging going on this year – I can’t wait to see…
Anyway, if you receive something similaire to this from me for Christmas, try and look surprised, ok? ;)
DIY: S’mores Kits | Twig & Thistle.
Edited to add as an afterthought:
Have you seen all the awesome stickers at PaperSource? These Peppermint stickers would be perfection on the S’mores packaging.
The leaf situation is out of control here. I guess that’s what we get for having all these gorgeous, mature trees in our neighborhood. The yard guys came last week to blow the leaves away, and not two hours later, the grass was totally covered again. This past weekend, Simon borrowed a leaf blower from Eric, and went to town on our gutters. It was a balmy 80 degrees, and we were enjoying the sunshine. Jude particularly enjoyed watching his dad wield a power tool.
Nothing like eating a peanut butter sandwich while only wearing pants out on the back patio.
I should’ve taken a picture of all the leaves. They’re still out there. It’s like parting the Red Sea to walk to the mailbox.
Jude, with half-intact PB sandwich, watching his Dad blowing leaves. He is unsure.
Oh WOW. WAIT, THIS IS COOL!
NICE! I love the look on his face – he was delighted with the leaves blowing everywhere.
But then there was this look of resignation right before he got pummeled with the leaves. Yum – Peanut Butter & Crunchy Leaf Sandwich. Blechhh.
You guys, I am oh so proud of Mr. Shingleton. He is loving his new job over at Keller Williams Northwest, and I know that great things are in store for him. He has also launched a blog of his very own, (405)House+Home. (For those not in the OKC area, 405 is our area code.)
I helped him get set up over here at WordPress, and I am just so excited to see what he’s going to come up with. Add him to your reader – he’s going to do a fantastic giveaway in the very near future!
You can also check out his latest listings over at SimonShingleton.com. I know! How awesome is he?!
I love you, babe – I am SO proud of you!
 | Julie on Form and Function |
 | rachelshingleton on The Crow! |
 | Angela on The Crow! |
 | Keri on Are you on the list? |
 | Aunt Patsy on Leaf blowing |
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