higher quality hotness

and for all you jacob fans....

sunday series, what flavor?

part 1. enjoy the stupidity.

wearing

the coolest t-shirt ever.

a ranch on the beach

so, can my el rancho rock a beach vibe like this?

you can't deny the power of an all white backdrop in a small house. the flow and all that. this house is primarily painted sherwin williams extra white. fab kitchen, great inspiration. i want beams!!!!! and ann sacks tiles would be nice too.

how fantastic is that wallpaper!?!?! could my ranch bedroom carry this? or would it look out of place? i would spank the hell out of that little loaf of bread in that chair.

what do you think about decorating outside the style of your house? just so you know when i say 'beach vibe' i am not talking nautical influences or a shitbasket of shells everywhere. i mean MODERN beachiness.

thoughts? opinions?

images via sunset

so you think you're katie holmes

tonight on so you think you can dance ms. kate (as tom like's her to be called) holmes-cruise will dance for us. not sure why...seems kind of random, but whatevs- i'll watch.
btw...do you think this photo was taken after a night of riding in cruise control?
ha haaaaaaa....ha ha haaaa...i STILL kill me!!!!!!!!!

aerie

i know most of you read apartment therapy and you either have already seen this or will at some point but i couldn't help but copy this post here for all the readers out there that will NOT see this on AT. this is a human nest located in big sur, CA. you can stay here for a fee. it's like camping. they have yurts and such or the human nest. before you decide whether or not you think it's too weird for you check out the view it provides...

yeah, right? nice view but i am afraid it is waaaaaaaaaay too high for me. besides, who's to say some eagle doesn't try to mate with you in the middle of the night? mel- i know you are probably close to fainting right now. you and i can stay in the yurt. so MFAMB readers, would you stay here? COULD you stay here?

$#@$$&^&*ffff*##$#@@#^&&&^(^%!!!!!!!!!!!

suffice to say i would eat the HELL out of these right now!!!!!!!! it comes in a bar too!!!!!!!!!! gGRRRRR! look at the oozy love cream! it's like it's protecting that chocolate from the cavernous hole that is my mouth. and could that rosy pink be any more perfect?

while we're on the subject of pink foods i need to throw these in my mouth too. 1-POP! 2-POP! 3-POP! one day i will get to paris and i will eat myself into a diabetic coma. watch out laduree

- you'd better have those pretty lavender ones set out for me too!!

young house love-UH-MAZING renovations...

so a couple of folks turned me on to an awesome couple who turned their el rancho el sucko...
into el rancho el cute-o.. for a ranch buyer like me this is mad inspiration.


here is the porch before: (not bad really)

but after...much better!

the kitchen before...

after: love white kitchens..seriously is there ANYONE out there that thinks that knotty pine casket above is good??!?! and can we do away with all things scalloped forever?

hey wait a minute!!! how did THIS get in here??!!
hims not good, hims bad. nicolas bb, your forces are too strong.

living room angle 1 before:

living room angle 1 after: MFAMB reader kathi are you paying attention?

living room angle 2 before:

living room angle 2 after: LOVE how they took the curtains and blinds all the way up to give the illusion of a larger window.

you simply MUST visit young house love to see all of the renovations..the bathrooms, the bedrooms, a pretty sunroom plus their yard where they were married..they did an amazing job with a pretty tight budget.

HB's kitchen of the year...heeey!!! wait..a..second...

here is the new-much-anticipated-house beautiful-2009-kitchen-of-the-year....behold it in it's beautiful functionality. notice the proximity of everything. notice the long work surface/sink area. notice the open shelving and the beautiful silver behind the stacked white dishes. notice the cool cake stands up top...

wait a minute...what's this? another angle of the same kitchen? why no, it's ina garten's famous barn kitchen from her home in the hizzies.

ok back to HB's kitchen of the year...oooh! look pretty belgian style rustic simplicity.

yes...pretty lavender slipcovers...pretty fireplace with great candl...waaaaiitt a seccc...????

i know i have seen those candlesticks and that fireplace somewhere before...OH YES!!! in INA'S BARN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HB's version of a desk in the new kitchen...

ina's desk...remarkably similar...

nice deck with large grill and herb garden..i would take out a few of those flags though..

and maybe move out of 30 rock.
but i guess once a set decorater always a set decorater. no..i kiiiid..i kiiiid!! it's gorgeous. both of them.

a lot on my mind

some of you already know that we are in the process of buying a new house. something we have never done before. always been renters, you see. we spent the entire day driving around with our agent looking at houses. (the reason for no monday color combo, sorry) an exhausting task. we saw 11 homes. most of them sucked. while this one below isn't much to look it in terms of style (not mine AT all) it is our favorite. why? first and foremost it is in one of THE best school districts in the southeast. it is within our budget. it is inside the perimeter (if you live in the A.T.L. you know what that means and how important it is). it has new windows throughout, a new roof and has been very, very well taken care of. OH! and it has a nice deck and a large, private yard. when you live in a big, expensive city like atlanta you don't exactly get much for your money. this one offers much for the money. it is not our dream house but i don't think it is realistic to imagine your first home as your dream home. right? so that said, we are looking at a few more houses this week but this one so far is a strong contender. ok..so on to the critiques and ideas..first of all i am not a fan of brick houses especially on el rancho el sucko's. can you get anymore grandma than iron railings? i am either going to have to replace or grow some serious vines all up and down them. the previous owners have some morning glory growing already, but i am thinking grape or something that grows hardy and fast and aplenty. any ideas??? this is a nice sized family room with great light...

the kitchen is...umm...odd. it is very small but offers good cabinet storage. but i am not at all a fan of how they built up these cabinet "walls" on both sides of this little area when they could have gone farther left (towards you) and made it more galley style.

at least they under mounted the sink! hate the tiles but it is such a small area i think i could get something pretty fancy! and painting the cabinets are a definite.

nice backyard.

nice deck and that is a cute little storage shed/outbuilding. i am envisioning something like this.

not too many pictures of the bathrooms or bedrooms, but the bedrooms (3) are a great size for a house this old and small. the bathrooms on the other hand are terribly small. the master is the size of your average hall bath and the hall bath is your average hall bath. it will be cramped, especially coming from our 2 bathrooms that are huge! so any thoughts? comments? advice? again, this is not our new house, yet...but it might be.

i have loads of ideas and feel stressed about them all, in fact i was up all night thinking about paint colors and how our now furniture will do in there..

but i will say that i pulled off fiona's new bed and wall configuration based on her new zig zag pillow cases from lulu and nat in about 10 minutes (that includes the bedding, the daybed style, hanging the wall art and changing the whole room around).


my skillz know no bounds!