the roof is not on fire...

but the ceiling sure is HOT!

sometimes i get crazy ideas that cause my sweet husband to make eye contact with me, blink a couple of times and very sincerely shake his head no.  silly husband.  this only motivates me further.

like when i wanted to paint the dining room black and he wasn't entirely convinced.  or when i insisted that we dress up as jager bombs for halloween the year we met...

warning...man tights ahead!!

he didn't think anyone would "get it".  (we now know that the only person confused by that ordeal was the little old fella at the hardware store who helped me find "bomb-making materials").  they were replicas! 

regardless, sometimes i wanna try something strange and it turns out cute.


but on this particular occasion all credit goes to the hubs.  


you see, i was getting pretty serious about wallpapered ceilings after finding a few awesome inspirations online, but i was having trouble committing to a pattern.  shocker.  then the suggestion for painting the ceiling black came about. 


i was a doubter. 


i probably even shook my head no.


but in the end, i did for him as he always does for me and i approved.  we were back in black.  and the results were better than expected:

the ceiling went black.  the walls went white. and we both nodded our heads in approval.  then we enjoyed some jager bombs.


just kidding....or am i?  


and speaking of bombs (major shift of topic here) last night i attended my first kc blogger meet up event at saks off 5th and it was the bomb dot com.  mainly because of the fellow kc bloggers i met, but the awesome yellow maxi skirt i snagged at a serious discount didn't hurt either.  


black ceilings.  yellow skirts.  style explosion everywhere.  and it's friday.  boom! 


(see the evolution of our home here)

instagram of the day: a midsummer night's dream

um... where have we been?  we mosied (mossied? is this even a real word?) on over to the nelson the other night to see what this heart of america shakespeare festival is all about and it is definitely a thing.  like a big thing.  a production.  a free production no less and it was awesome.

we were embarrassingly unprepared. we had a tiny blanket (a towel basically) some bubble gum and a bottle of acqua panna.  a bottle of luke warm acqua panna i might add.  not even chilled.  people had lawn chairs, picnic baskets, wine, crackers and nutella!  no one mentioned anything about there being nutella!  i am pretty sure the people next to us had a damn martini shaker!

plus there were margaritas and funnel cakes for sale.

pardon me for a moment.

MARGARITAS AND FUNNEL CAKES??!!?!?!?  ET TU BRUTE?!

we didn't even bring our wallets!  if you had seen me there, i would have blamed it on my allergies or something like that, but i would have been lying.  those were real tears starting to form in my eyes.  i'm sorry margaritas.  telling you "no" hurt me more than it hurt you.  i promise.

despite our lack of supplies, we had a fab time and we will go back with wads of cash and nutella next time...and a blanket that more than one and half humans can comfortably fit on.

black top

how does everybody feel about painting their ceilings black?  strong to very strong?!?!  okay... just checking.  too late to turn back now.

lights, camera, action

a couple of weeks ago we posted a rather obscure looking photo of a spotlight-thing on our staircase, and the world stop turning while all inhabitants of earth awaited news on the mystery wattage.

well not really.  my dad asked about it, but i think that was all.

there was also this giant thing in the yard that a couple neighbors inquired about it, so we did manage to pique a few people's curiosities.

we did not buy a minivan.  i just want to say that.

anyway, a few weeks ago the pkd foundation, nationally headquartered right here in good 'ole kcmo, asked if we would be so kind as to lend them our staircase and entryway for the filming of their upcoming public service announcement.  we were happy (and flattered) and figured it would be a fun couple of hours shooting in our foyer.

well....about 48 hours prior to our staircase's big debut, we got the call from the lovely kristin at reliant studios (who i will seriously gush about in a minute) asking if, in addition to the steps, could they also use:

- a bathroom
- a kitchen
- a living room
- a dining room
- a kid's bedroom
- a master bedroom
- and a front yard

now, i don't know about your housekeeping standards, but on any given day, approximately zero rooms in our house are ever ready for their close up.  so we panicked a little (a lot) and did what any reasonable family would do:  we tossed a bunch of crap in another room, closed and locked that door, then pulled an all nighter of dusting, vacuuming and general de-cluttering.

the catch was, we were right in the middle of doing something drastic to the entryway (!!!) when we got the initial call.  so in addition to slipping into the early stages of a full blown hoarders episode, we postponed the entryway project and welcomed these ridiculously cool cats from reliant studios (cornhusker holler!) into our home.

now, before we share the pics from the shoot, i want to talk about reliant studios for two sentences.
1.  these dudes & dudette have talent
2.  you need to go check out some of the seriously important work that they are doing for a number of organizations including the pkdf and tiny hands international.
and 3. - this is a bonus sentence - we were in awe of their passion for what they do and we loved having them in our home.

and the pkd foundation, a cause we hold near and dear to our hearts, can't say enough about them.  we're painting ceilings and potting weird little plants over here, meanwhile they are out changing the world.  nbd. 

now for the pics:

rad right?  we got to do things like meet a really cool group of people from nebraska and lawrence, ks  (okay jayhawk holler too!) and sit around on our front porch with them and the pkdf marketing team "working" all day:


Image Search

and then we got to play with their nice expensive camera lenses and do awesome stuff like this:

the actual commercial/psa won't be complete for another week or so, but when it's done we'll be sure to share.  until then, go check out reliant studios on twitter @reliantstudios and register to walk for pkd in kansas city, or in one of the other 50+ cities nationwide where a walk is happening this fall.

cut!

UPDATE: see the completed PSA here:

baby got back (from a garage sale with this)

behold.  this thing of beauty was being given away.  given i tell you!  at a free garage sale.  FREEEEEEEE.  as in: take whatever you want.  as in: $free.99!  as in: best. day. ever.

she's long.  and strong.  and down to get the friction on.
with sandpaper.

she ain't much to look at now folks, but just you wait!  that's over 10ft of quasi-mid-century modern goodness looking back atcha!

don't worry about the handles...those aren't anything.

we're feelin' blue

what do we have here?  can of paint, some frog tape, little turquoise paint in the ole hair 'do?  how does that even happen?  matching reindeer pajama pants - don't worry about those, they have nothing to do with this.

any guesses where we are or what is going blue? 

This Sucs

well actually, it's pretty freakin' amazing.

i became border-line obsessed with succulents two or three years ago and in that amount of time, haven't really been able to get enough of their weirdness.  when it came time to plan the 'ole i-dos last summer, i already knew these little water-retaining weirdos would rule the day.  

i wanted to offer up a tiny little plant to each of our guests as a parting gift/favor, but finding a good source for buying them in bulk - at my super stingy pre-set price point - proved to be impossible.  so we picked up several variations here and there and sprinkled the venue with their presence. 

why do i love them so?  let's review:  the best way to care for this plant is to basically ignore it and not water it much at all.  the first time i heard that mix of magic i was like --- oh i got this!  see, i already do that to every other plant i bring into the house and the result usually goes something like: 

day 1:   baby, look at my awesome new {insert plant name here}.

day 2:   yes i am taking care of my new {insert plant name here }.  

day 12:   baby, what's wrong with my {insert plant name here}?

day 20:  what do you mean did i water it?  of course i did...........

day 21:   plant funeral. 

day 22:  repeat

needless to say finding something as low maintenance as a succulent means i can enjoy them, forget they are even here, then remember they are here and --- bam! --- what do you know?  alive and thrivin' like a mo fo.   

so you can imagine my delight when my adorable husband found the holy grail of bulk succulents online and ordered us up a box of 36 different varieties.  ready for the part that doesn't suck suc?  they were just over $1 a pop!  what the what?!

man, what i would have done to find these little guys a year a go!  but they are here now and i couldn't be happier.  

now, i have to warn you, this is where i get really weird and totally spaz out over the cuteness of my new plant friends and provide you more photos than necessary of the planting process.

see how they arrive all bulk-like and popcorned?

surprisingly, completely intact and happy as sardines inside their Priority Mail box:

eeeeeeee that one has a cute little branch!

notice how hard i concentrate on their placement...

and how insane they look in those tiny little glass jars!

this is where you can almost hear my squeals:

and this where you shield your eyes from my super tan legs: 

and this is where i sprinkle them all over our house and proceed to love and ignore the crap out of them.

and this is where you get yours:  www.thesucculentsource.com

the end.