crafty fanny

happiness is a giraffe in the love shack

Some things I've decided we need for the love shack (in no particular order):

Isn't this lamp awesome? You know what's not awesome? $395. 

I've had a thing for giraffes lately. We WILL have one in our kitchen, I just have to find the perfect one. Tim's on board too. He says "sure" when I come running up to him, jumping up and down, saying things like, "I've decided we need some giraffes in our kitchen." And that's why I love him.

This antiqued wooden sign from the always fantastic Rockett St. George (found via poppytalk) would look perfect, just perfect, in our kitchen! Unfortunately, it also comes with a pretty hefty pricetag. I think I'll attempt a recreation at some point.

I'm loving this bright chair from Target, althought I'm not sure how comfortable it would be. Anyone have one? Is it a chair you'd really want to spend time sitting in?

Love these. Love!

I don't know what there is to say about this one. Oh, except, if you have a uterus, do not spend time on petfinder.com. Seriously. They use phrases like "forever home." What's a girl to do?

thoughts from quarantine

Well, the "fanny is sick" theme is going to continue for at least a couple more days, I fear. I found out Saturday that I have the flu, so in addition to just not feeling great, I am now trying to stay in the house for fear of spreading my virus to others. Luckily, my flu symptoms are on the mild side, but it still seems like it's taking me FOREVER to get to the good side of feeling better.

However, today is the first day that I've really felt any spark of creative energy, so I thought it was high time to write a blog! Woot!

BUT, since today's just the FIRST day that I've had any energy, I thought it would be best to start out with an easy-to-read list rather than worry about flow or paragraphs or other boring stuff.

So, without further ado, here's what's been on my sick-with-the-ick mind for the past few days:

• The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity: My bff, Laura, and I started this on Saturday. It's a 12-week program designed to help artists tap back into their creative sides. It's fun to be doing this with a friend, especially someone who is as talented as Laura. She's like my creative guru. Oh, except -- confession -- Laura, I haven't actually started yet. Oops! But I'm starting tonight, I promise. And I'm going to do two extra sets of morning pages this week so I'm caught up :)

That's Laura. And behind her is one of her paintings. Gorgeous, right? Yeah, the painting. I mean, Laura's gorgeous too...Anyway, look forward to hearing more about Laura and her art on this blog. (Laura, I poached this shot off facebook. Don't be mad, k?)

• And on the subject of painting, I've decided that I'd like to start painting too. Laura's going to be my painting coach and send me weekly lessons that I will complete and email back to her. Would any of you like to play along? I'm sure Laura won't mind -- she's quite nice. I mean, she is my bff (since the third grade)!

• During all of my couch time, I've been spending quite a bit of time on both facebook and twitter (I just joined -- follow me @craftyfanny -- but beware, it's RANDOM!). When you're bored, it's interesting to follow the lives of other people you hardly know, but what I can't get over are the people who are constantly SO very negative on their posts. I understand that we all have problems in our lives, but sheesh, really?  These folks just bring me down. To the point that they're now being unfollowed. I can't hang with the debbie-downers.

• Sex and the City, Season 3: I've been rewatching this one. I just love it when Carrie and Aidan get together. And then hate it when she crushes him by cheating on Big.

• Homemade Chicken Soup: Today is my first try at making homemade chicken noodle soup. I'm quite excited to try it and will let you all know how it goes. I modified the recipe from Martha Stewart's Cooking School, an awesome Christmas present from my mom.

That's all I've got for now. I hope you're all having good, hopefully short weeks! I'm hoping that I'll be well enough to raise a glass to the good old US of A this weekend!!

happy designs for the home

Well, friends, it seems I'm sick. Again. I know, right? Again? Yep, again. But, I am happily on a course of antibiotics that will hopefully kick this thing for good.

I've decided that my unending trail of ickyness is the Universe's way of telling me not to get a job (yet). And, really, this is for the best since I can't go asking after a job with a hacking perhaps-she-has-tuberculosis-cough. 

The upside of being couch-bound is that I've been able to catch up on my blog reading.  When you have a whole house that you can decorate as you please (including painting the walls!), there is a ton of good stuff out there in the blog world. I haven't lived in a place where I've been able to paint the walls since I lived at home, so I am very excited.

Here are a few things that caught my eye:

For the kitchen:

 

 

Both of these photos are via design*sponge which recently featured the home of Hannah Berman of Pie Bird Press (whose etsy shop is here!). I love her use of color! Such fun! 

 

And I'm thinking of this color yellow (via Alkemie) for the kitchen walls.

For the office/craft room/guest room:

 

 

Both images via elements of style. I love the IKEA Expedit shelves and really like how versatile they can be!  

For the laundry room:

 

From Domino via The Estate of Things. The color! The ironing board! The shelves!

And finally:

I love, love, love this green (via designismine)! I don't know if it will be in the bathroom or the office, but it's just too pretty to pass up!

What about you? What if you had carte blanche to do any decorating you chose?  Would you do anything "crazy?" I've been considering wallpaper in the hallway, but am still working on convincing my mom (from whom we are renting the house) that wallpaper is back in.

Oh, and as the changes start, I'll be sure to post before and after pics, don't you worry!

wednesday's inspiration

It's ME! That's right, friends, today I am claiming myself as the inspiration of the week!

 

Wait? Is that allowed? Can I really claim myself as my choice of inspiration?

Here's the thing: I am living a dream right now. I just left a job that wasn't fulfilling, spent months traveling and having amazing experiences, and am now in a position to fully decide what I want my next step to be. Total freedom. I can go in whatever direction I choose.

I'm also in a position to say "no thanks" to opportunities that may not be right for me. I could apply for a job at IKEA, but do I really want to work at IKEA? Not so much.

This is a luxury; I understand that. Not everyone has such great opportunities; I also understand that.  Which is why I hope to use my experience in finding my happy and living my dream as a way to inspire others. To show other people that changing your life is possible. That it can happen. It may not be easy or necessarily fun at times, but it is possible. And, in the end, is so worth every step!

But, um, so far? Yeah, I haven't done so much about figuring my stuff out.  I've been living and experiencing and having a grand time. But, not so much work has been done into figuring out my next steps. Granted, I did just come off a few months of travel. And moved into a new house. And came down with the virus-that-won't-quit. But it's time. NOW. It's time to get this show on the road. For me to start doing, instead of just talking about doing. To start living. And making things happen.

The first step: put it in writing. Vocalize it. Tell other people about it. Find other people to be accountable to. And hold yourself accountable in the process.

Pretty exciting, huh? This is gonna be an AWESOME summer. It's on!

go see UP!

We saw UP last night in celebration of the anniversary of our first day. What a sweet, fun, lovely movie. We saw the 3D version, and it was amazing!

This is one that is definitely worth seeing on a big screen. Emeryville-based Pixar has hit another one out of the park! Yay for local successes!

attention all twilight lovers...and haters

So, y'all know that I went through a rabid Twilight phase (read: obsession) earlier this year, right?

I will say this: the stories are highly entertaining. Take Harry Potter and mix in some VC Andrews minus the incest and that might give you a good idea of what to expect.

They were PERFECT when Tim was away for the winter. Perfect. I would read them and get all teenangsty and then actually be glad Tim wasn't around to deal with the crazy they gave me. My mood would swing back and forth between total love and devotion to Tim and anger that he wasn't Edward Cullen and therefore also not lusting for my blood.

{suh-woon -- don't you want to bite him?}

Ladies, show of hands: how many of you who read the series wished you could date a vampire? Tell the truth!

Anyhoozy, I came across these awesome cartoons the other day by Lucy Knisley via double happiness. The first cartoon does a super good job of summing up how I, and surely countless others, felt about reading the series. Although, honestly, I geeked out with the books and pretty much owned my love for them from the beginning. I had no choice -- they were that good!

The second set of cartoons is the one you should really check out. All of you -- Twilight lovers and haters will get something out of these.

1. For those of you who love Twilight and Edward and Bella and the crew: these 16 panels pretty much manage to sum up the entire series (how many thousands of pages?) in a highly amusing way. You will be tickled, I assure you.
2. For those of you who hate Twilight and think it's dumb and overrated and poorly written and blahblahblah: this will give you some new material for your arsenal. It makes Twilight sound absurd, even to me. 
3. For those of you who just don't get it and will never read the books: this will sum up the series quickly for you. You still won't get it, but at least you'll get some answers as to what everyone is so crazy about.
4. The final category: for those of you who haven't YET read the books, but are planning to: DON'T CLICK THE LINK! It will give away too much and spoil it. Consider yourself warned. Oh -- and go buy the books. And clear your calendar! 

Finally, for those Twilight fans who have been under a rock for the past few weeks, here's the trailer for the 2nd movie in the series, New Moon. I think this one must be better than the first, right? It must.

*sigh* I will now go back to being an adult.

xo, Fanny Cullen

photo via Ezyan Y.

France recap #1: Nice and the Côte d'Azur

FINALLY! I am feeling human again (yay! thanks for healing thoughts!) and ready to rock and roll!

Here is the first of many recaps of our France trip. I decided to split the recaps up into region, so as to simultaneously not overwhelm you with pictures while also going into some detail about our travels.

As I mentioned here, our France travels started in the lovely city of Nice. Our hotel was in a wonderful spot, just a few short blocks away from Old Nice and right on a beautiful square complete with a requisite fountain.

 

In Nice, we were able to visit both the Matisse and Chagall museums. Both museums were pretty small (in a good way!) and the works they held were absolutely amazing. I didn't even know I was a fan of either until our visits. I walked away knowing that I was a fan of both!

We weren't able to take pictures inside the Matisse Museum, but here's the building. To get there, you had to walk through this beautiful park.

It was really fun to see all the kids playing outside, just living their lives. I think that's one of the things I like most about France. There's so much history and culture, but everyone simply coexists around it. And they blend it into their lives. Beautiful.

{Side note: I had this same feeling of wonder when I saw young children playing soccer outside the Pantheon in Rome. They kept bouncing the ball off the columns, just no big deal, very breezy.}

Then we took the bus a bit down the road to the Chagall Museum.  Everything was just gorgeous!

IF you ever find yourself in Nice (which I would highly recommend!) and IF you ever find yourself at the Chagall Museum (which I would also highly recommend!) BE SURE to spend sometime in the garden outside. We decided to sit in a sunny spot in the grass and both wound up falling asleep. It was one of the most delicious naps of our trip, and TRUST, we took a lot of naps on this trip!

The next day we took the train to Antibes, the home of many great mega-yachts of the world and the Picasso Museum. The museum is actually housed in the building where Picasso lived and worked for about 10 years during his Rose Period. Here's one of his sculptures:

 

Nice water, huh? It's easy to imagine why he was so happy there!

This is the picnic we had in the park in Antibes. And yes, we traveled overseas with a swiss army knife, non-stick cheese knife, tupperware, small cutting board, wine opener, and picnic blanket. That's just how we roll, yo. Actually, that's how Tim rolls. My only contribution was the wine opener!

Here are some more miscellaneous pretty things around Nice and Antibes. This is just a small offering of all the pretty that we were surrounded by.

 

 

 

 

All in all, it was a wonderful start to a wonderful trip! I have decided (are you listening, Universe?) that Tim and I will move to Nice and open a sailing school. He'll run the school and do some of the teaching and I'll help with customer service and prepare lunches with market-fresh ingredients. In the spare time, I'll paint and make cards for extra income. It will be lovely!

Le sigh, I miss it already! Thanks to all of you for helping me relive our travels through the blog! Next stop...Provence!

what I've been up to

Just in case you've been wondering what I've been up to for the past few days...I've been here:

That's right, I'm sick. Tim calls the couch my "cocoon of sick," and I'm hoping to emerge soon healthy again. We have both come down with wicked colds that don't seem to be wanting to leave us.

On a more fun note, we did watch the movie Penelope the other night. It was lovely and adorable and I highly recommend! Instant access Netflix is really awesome when you're sick and don't have cable.

Healthy thoughts are appreciated! I trust that I'll be up and running soon...

PS. Do you like our makeshift coffee table? Being sick in a not-yet-unpacked house is super frustrating!

why, hello there!

Hello friends!

Tim and I have returned from lovely France! I am happy to report that I am now 100% back online after having our internet installed at the new house on Monday, although I will greatly miss working off my anonymous neighbor's un-password-protected wifi signal which usually involved me holding my laptop out the window while chanting "Come on NETGEAR!"

I have a ton of things to share with you, including some awesome France recaps. Blogging while traveling was hard, but I have a lot of amazing pictures and stories to share. I have to find a way to immortalize our trip!

So, get excited y'all! It's good to be back!