Small things that make me happy...

Small things like new plates, being first at a stop light, and the smell of wet cement make me happy.

My mom was helping me put my dishes away..and said, "I think you might wanna buy a new set of dishes"...not one of my plates really matched.

All my plates were pretty random: some were "hand-me-downs" from my mom, a few I found at Ross or Marshall's, and even an incomplete set of cool vintage looking dishes I got at a thrift store years and years ago. But they weren't mix matched in a cool Anthropolgie kind of way, they were mixed matched in a "are you modern, Asian inspired, shabby chic, 60's vintage, country kitchen, or animal print", kind of "style-confused" way.

THE HUNT FOR NEW DISHES:
The place of choice to hunt: Marshall's
(if you don't know what Marshall's is- it's one of my favorite stores where you can find cool stuff from fancy department stores or designers for super cheap!)

And my mom found these on the clearance aisle! I love them, kind of girly, kind of "quirkly fleur de lis", yet with a modern and graphic twist! (how's that for a description)

AND, THE BEST PART OF ALL....

as you can see they were $2 a plate!!!

That is almost as awesome as Dollar Store prices.

We used them at our Saturday dinner my mom made, Baked Rigatoni with Mozzarella, Bacon, Crispy Sage and Parmesan Breadcrumb Topping - yumtastic!

Alani said she loved eating off of our new fancy plates. And I must say, it was like make-up for our food...it just made it look a little extra special!

huge love and and happy new plates, your kandee

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Hello Kitty Hello Christmas

 It wouldn't be my house if you didn't find hello kitty-ness almost everywhere you look. As I type this, I can see Alani's Hello Kitty backpack, some hello kitty stickers on things, hello kitty stuffed animals and just this morning Blakey was asking Alani where his, "hello ditty" was....he adopted a little "punk" looking hello kitty from her.

These are our "holiday kitty" goodies- the ornaments are special ornaments that were gifts from precious people, to me- Wintery Princess Hello Kitty is above in my pink tree (I have no idea where my mom got the little pink Christmas tree that she gave us, but I love it! It looks like cotton candy!) Below is the "hot pink and fishnet kitty" in one of our mini table top trees (another fun find at Target).

 And of course I bought Hello Kitty wrapping paper at Target, too! I will probably just wrap Alani and the baby's presents.....I'm not sure who else in my family would appreciate it! ha ha ha Definitely not Jordan!

So if you are a Hello Kitty, or as Blakey says, "Hello Ditty" fan....I hope you like our Hello Kitty Holiday decorations...

they need to make "hello kitty snowmen"....wouldn't that be cute? Like a regular snowman, with a cute hello kitty head on top! Maybe I should make one! ha ha ha

hello ditty love.... your kandee

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Christmas Decorating Must-Have Gadget & My Mess

 this is what "pinky", my hot pink couch looks like...
full of Christmas decorating messiness, and there is more mess not shown in this picture....

The  MUST HAVE GADGET,  I'm kinda in love with- I got it at Target, it's a wireless outlet remote! Whatever you plug into that power outlet, you can turn on and off with the remote! How cool is that?
No more crawling under the tree branches to get poked in the back by real or fake pine needles to yank the Christmas lights out. I think it's made by Westinghouse, and you get 3 outlet pluggy things. Yes, I just googled it, and it's called the Westinghouse 3-piece wireless indoor remote system with remote. I couldn't find a link to show you these...I got mine at Target for much cheaper than all these websites show too...

BUT...here's what I wish would happen:

1. That the lights would "hang themselves".

2. That someone else would come and take all the decorations down AND take apart my fake trees when New Year's rolls around.

3. That you could leave decorations up for longer than a month...with how much work it is, I think you should be able to leave them up til Valentine's day.

4. That I could make my house look like either a gingerbread house or a Candy Cane Wonderland- with giant candy canes.

And I still haven't even finished decorating...I still don't have my lights for outside. I want to make it look extra twinkly for the kids. My favorite, was seeing Alani and Blakey had hung the stockings up themselves, and Blake had on a mini-tree skirt around his neck, like a little elf, and said it was a "cape"!

i heart twinkly lights..... lots of twinkly lights, kandee

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Color Therapy: kitchen things I love

 When we were at the Grove in LA....we went to one of my favorite stores for fun home decor goodies... Anthropologie.
It is whimsy, colorful, vintage, eclectic, flea market looking...and I love it. It always smells like yummy candles inside too. I'm a sucker for anything yummy smelling- candles, perfumes, stores.....

 I love all the colored bowls, plates, glasses...everything. I just want the whole store to be my kitchen!

My favorite are these summer-sky, blue bowls....I own some on other colors...but I loved this color. And I didn't buy one bowl....insert sad face. How I would love to eat ice cream out of the bowls! ha ha

 Look at these delicious, turquoise colored crystal drawer knobs....I just want to buy them so I can, make any dresser or nightstand over by adding these babies!

If look...it's a drawer knob thingy..but a flower that looks kinda like my favorite rose ring! How cute would this be on a white, glossy dresser!?!

Did this get your creative juices flowing? Or at least give your eyes a little "color therapy"? I hope so!
Let's pretend we are going to eat some of our favorite ice cream on my "pretend porch", out of those yummy turquoise bowls...and then maybe we'll sip some homemade strawberry lemonade "we just made"...and swing on my "imaginary hammock"....we're going to have a lovely afternoon together!

I love ya! kandee