Viva Las De La Nuez!

Las Vegas is always changing- I remember when this hotel used to be the Aladdin- Now it's The Planet Hollywood Hotel. The outside is kinda funky. It's Disneyland meets Broadway in Manhattan (but only for adults!) Those round disks on the building change colors from Blue to Purple.. Kinda funky, kinda cheesey and very Vegas!

One thing that I did find was a very cool ceiling mural in the mall part of the hotel. It reminded me of local LA Artist De La Nuez but a little different since the people in the mural were current pop idols. I think one was Christina Aguilera ( not sure) but I really thought this was really COOL! I must have looked like a total TOOL taking pictures of the ceiling- Ah, who cares- at least I got the shot !

Viva Las Vegas

Hizees! Just got back from Las Vegas- I guess the beauty of living in LA is that you are just a hop, skip and a jump away from all the fabulousness of Las Vegas! I make the trip there at least twice a year. Once in July for our anniversary and the other usually at holiday time with the in-laws. We all LOVE to gamble and we LOVE Vegas! For the past few years we usually stay at the Wynn.

I love the details like the Warhol pictures in the rooms and and how the decor is slightly funky, elegant and eclectic. Sorry about the blurriness of the pics-That's when I didn't quite know how to adjust my camera.

Anyway, here's a shot of the lobby.

I really like the mosaic tiles they did on the floor.

I enjoy the Wynn but this time we stayed at one of the older casinos- The Flamingo!The Flamingo has been around since the 50's. Not one of the newer "super sized" hotels on the strip but this hotel has HISTORY! The casino itself is pretty dank but this is from someone who likes to gamble her money at the Wynn , Bellagio, or Mandalay Bay. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised when I say the newly remodeled rooms at the Flamingo. I think what impresses me is that with a little know how, you could probably do this decor yourself, Something a little more posh than Design on a Dime but all do-able. Here's what I mean

See the headboard.. It's white vinyl tufted- I think it's super cute- The room is kinda girly but I still dig it. The color scheme reminds me of Neapolitan ice cream- Pink, Brown, Beige, White
Yummy! Check out the wall paper.. It's totally Ice cream!

Another genius thing was the TV in the bathroom mirror- Ok, I think I've seen this on HGTV's "I Want That" and yeah, the Wynn has a TV in the bathroom too but this one is in the mirror- So much better!

The next two pics are of the desk in the room and the light fixture above the bed.

See the lamp and the chair? Very Jonathan Adler! I swear I think I saw an episode of Design on a Dime and they showed you how to make a lamp just like that one.. well, kinda like that. Here's what the room looks like in the day and here's a shot of the wall paper in the natural light.

The Flamingo may be an old hotel but what a pleasant surprise with the room renovations. Very cute.. and If I still had a New York apartment and I was a single girl, you could bet that I'd be redecorating my place to look like this!

The Kitchen..(room by room)

Since my last post was about goodies I had for my kitchen, I might as well start the room by room tour of my home.. You got to see the living room now, let's move on the second best place in the house- The Kitchen!!!

When we moved in, there were a couple of things that we had to live with in the kitchen. First of all, the Hubby and I are not big fans of the maple cabinets. (Oh well, they were new when we bought the house.) and we HATE the tile the previous owner picked out. It's a tumbled pinkish Mexican tile.

Yes it's neutral but when you think of 1953 ( the year the house was built- you DON'T think Mexican tile) I have to say to her credit, the previous owner did take fantastic care of the house. When we bought it, it was newly renovated. She actually lived here for a while with her family. She didn't just flip the house, add a bunch of Home Depot crap to it and go off and sell it- You can tell that she really loved living here and took the time to pick out what she thought was" nice".

NICE to her.. Not so nice to us.

I've learned to live with the tile- I don't really obsess about it too much but what I couldn't stand was the random "basket o' plenty" fruit tiles on the back splash. our back splash is pretty standard- White tile. I guess to add "interest" she put these random tiles in. We have so many cool things on our counter , we really didn't mind the white tile as a backdrop to our colorful collection of kitchen stuff- Here's a pic of when she lived here and we did the walk through ( Notice the arrows and that hideous random tile I'm talking about)

We had to come up with a solution to hide those ugly tiles.. so I came up with these.

I am a HUGE fan of SHAG and it was a perfect opportunity to infuse him into the home. I made these tiles by priming white tiles ( You need to do this so the oil based paint will stick to the tile) I bought a bunch of Shag decals. The cool thing about these decals is that they are clear so the color shows with through. I thought they turned out pretty good.

I was only limited to the stickers that had in those sizes. I have since learned that you can get the same effect with using something called water slide decal paper. If you use that.. you can pretty much do whatever design you want- even real photos since you print them right off from your home computer.

After the decal is on the tile, you have to make sure you put the clear sealant on the sucker or else it could possibly peel. I get them wet all the time and I clean my back splash with Mr. Clean and Fantastic- I haven't had a problem at all!

Here's what it looks like on the white back splash with all my colorful kitchen stuff-

I Love Stuff- for the kitchen

My kitchen is probably the second best place in the house. and just like the rest of the house, I love to fill it with "stuff". Whenever I have friends over, they always say something like,

" Wow, looks like everything you have in your house belongs here".

I totally agree with that! It's so true that I feel as if even though it's kitchen stuff- It should be fun too! So here's some of my favorite kitchen "stuff" that I wanted to share with all of you-

Yesterday after losing the top for my favorite mini bottle of dish soap, I wanted to get something that looked cool in the kitchen and I found this

It's called the Koziol Salto Bird Soap Dispenser of course, I got the red one- It's super cute and just sucks right onto your back splash. Koziol carries so many cute things for the home. For my bathroom I bought this Koziol Kai P Piranha Dental Floss Dispenser




I think it's funny because the little fish has a piece of string ( The floss) hanging from his tooth.

The Koziol line carries a bunch of stuff for the bathroom, office and kitchen. A couple of months ago I got this Luigi Spoonrest I think he's super cute holding my spoon whenever I cook .

I just love their line! Another favorite place I love to shop is Chiasso . I got this as a gift from my Mom when we first bought the house. Sometimes I hate to use it because it's so cute!

Oh and here's one of the best finds that made it's way into my kitchen. My husband says it's a little macabre but, I have a pretty twisted sense of humor- I think it fits right in...

"The Ex" knife holder It's HILARIOUS! I actually scored mine without the knives from Ebay for a fraction of the price- I already had knives with colorful handles and it looks so much better with my knives than the ones that it came with!

It's about THAT time-

Last year was pretty crazy.. We were in the process of coming back home from living a year and a half in Chicago. It was so crazy that we didn't even get to celebrate Christmas that year. All our stuff was in transit back to L.A and we were traveling by car, cross country the day after Christmas so, we kinda put Christmas off and decided that our Christmas celebration was us coming home! Anyway when I was in Chicago, I scored a tinsel tree from E-bay-

I've always wanted one so for Christmas 2005, I got my wish and we had our first Tinsel tree ... color wheel and all-

I was stoked that it was in great condition and the crazy thing is that some of those vintage trees can put you back a pretty penny. I think I paid less than $40 for mine - It was complete with no branches missing and I think it's about 6 feet tall- I have seen fuller ones but I kinda like the "minimalist" look of this tinsel tree. Oh, yeah and those tinsel pom-poms and clear glass ornaments-Totally IKEA! (I loves me some IKEA)

Anyway.. since we are going to have our first Atomic Ranch Christmas back HOME at our house, I figure it's time to really deck out the house this year. So what did I find at TARGET???

Yes!! Baby colored tinsel tress for $2.50! I can't tell you how stoked I am! I know, they're not for everyone but, have you seen my house?

It's not for everyone-

The best thing about these trees is that they come in pink, purple, silver and blue.. even the font on the packaging is retro! And for $2.50? I suggest you get in your car NOW and get them before I buy them all out!! You can find them in the dollar section bargain bins..

You're welcome! ;)

I love L.A.!

I think one of the best things about California living is the weather. I've been back in L.A for almost year now after living a year in Chicago, and I lived in New York for 3 years too- All I can say is there's nothing like a 82 degree day in the middle of November in California!

Today the hubby and our "kids" took our annual Christmas photo in front of my favorite new setting-

I found the "Pink Motel" when my GPS took me on a goose chase around my 'hood. It's so unique because it looks as if time stood still there. Apparently, they use that location for movies and TV shows. I swear it's the coolest place to check out!

So early this morning, we loaded up the SUV with my husband's co-worker (who is a fantastic photographer and certified "cutie-pie" Phillip ), and our 4 pugs. It was a perfect day for photo shoot- The girls were a little distracted since they were used to harnesses and not collars, and there was a really noisy junk yard dog nearby barking his head off. I think Phillip got "the shot" and I'm really excited to see the pics tonight when the hubby gets home. Thank God for digital cameras, computers and Photoshop!

I'm hoping that it'll turn out kinda like a picture from one of my favorite photographers,

David La Chapelle. His stuff is so colorful and kinda strange.. Just how I love it!

Two more Pets.. without the cleanup or the feeding

My Girls (Lt to Rt) Bijoux, Penelope, Skylar and Diva

I've got 4 pugs.. I can't take care of anymore "friends" but I wanted something to add to the dead space in my kitchen/dining area. I got this idea from a friend who has a fish tank almost like this hanging in her home. I've seen the beta wall pods

but her fish tank actually hangs from the ceiling and as soon as I saw it, I had to have one for my house!! (but just a cheaper version!)

My last trip to New York I stopped by Canal Plastics and bought 2 plastic hemispheres. They connect by a plastic screw on the bottom. I think retail stores use these for displays at Christmas time and put merchandise in them since they look a lot like clear plastic ornaments. Anyway, I hand carried these suckers on the plane back home to LA.

Since I don't have the time and energy to take care of any more "friends".. I came up with this idea.

I had to epoxy glue the hemispheres together and cut a hole at the top so I can add my gravel in there but .. Mission accomplished..It's cool to look at, there's no having to clean up after my fish and the dead space isn't so dead anymore in the dining area! Check it out hanging in the corner!

What? It's all at JC Penney?

So, I have this really cute coffee maker. It's Apple green. Whenever I have friends come over- they always ask me where I get my crazy, colorful kitchen appliances..

JC Penney!

I just got the catalog in the mail today- They discontinued the Apple Green but they come in all sorts of awesome colors. Actually, COOKS makes a bunch of appliances in crazy colors but here's the deal.. you can only order them from the catalog- They don't carry them at the stores!

Imagine looking at this when you get up in the morning for coffee- I'm sure this will wake you up- And for $29.99- It's so worth it!! JC Penney also carries a microwave, deep fryer, toaster and hand mixer in these bright beauties too! I've got the Apple Green coffee maker , a red microwave and a baby blue hand mixer! I love this line!!

The Outside..Checkity,Check it ..OUT

So, I've posted some pics of my home on the inside and I plan to do a whole house tour soon. Since I only showed a photoshopped artist rendering of the front of the house-
Here's some pics of what it looks like au natural

We really hate the look of the gridded windows and yeah that's on the do to list- The roses in the front are pretty but we're torn if we want to change that all into horsetail bamboo one day-Here's another view of the house

It took forever to find the right walkway solar lights but after some searching we found the perfect ones for us at Walmart. These are stainless steel and when they turn on, the color is a bright white. Totally worth the wait! I know that they have a black version too made by Westinghouse.

Another awesome "treasure" I found at the Pasadena Rose Bowl were these 60's ashtrays. I made them into planters for my horsetail bamboo. I got them both for $25 and since I was still searching for a decent inexpensive bullet planter..this worked out even better for us! They were even orange when I bought them!

When we bought the house one of the first things we HAD to change was the front door. At first, we had one of those Home Depot doors with the fugly stained glass window in the center. We changed it to a single light door and frosted the glass ourselves with GILA privacy window film that stuff is amazing!

Yes, we hate the color of the terracotta tile. (that was all the previous owner) We have plans for that too- stay tuned!

Last but not least we must show off our house numbers. We wanted to get something that shows off our personalities. Something that would make people say,

"Hey, That's definitely THEIR house"

We couldn't find anything that did it for us so we decided to make our own. We went to a plastic store and had them cut out 2 pieces of colored plexi , one in an oval shape and the other in a parallelogram. and we came up with this design

The numbers were made at one of those kiosks in the mall that makes decals for your car. Basically, they're vinyl stickers. You can choose from any font or color and best of all- they're water proof (since they're made for cars) so the numbers won't bubble.