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Blerg





Don't have much to say today. Was at work. Went home. Changed. Walked the dog around town. Visited Cat at work. Got cupcakes from Astoria. Went home. Split one cupcake with Kevin, it was red velvet. Ate a Black Bean Burger. Went to Gusoline Alley to meet up with long lost friend Keith, and not lost Matt and Maureen. Then sleep.




My outfit as you can see changed. I wasn't feeling the look at work and the weather was so nice out that I thought a flowing skirt would be great. And a flowy skirt needs stompin' boots not riding boots. So yeah that's how it evolved. I felt very 90's in this... Oh and there were total factory workers looking at me and Kevin as we took the pics, haha.





And here's how I wore the dress, skirt, and sash before. I love remix posts.



{ Outfit }
  } Dress - Not Sure
  } Sash - American Apparel
  } Riding Boots - Frye
  } Green Skirt - Renaissance Fair
  } Black Boots - Candies from Kohls

Huggles,
Lauren
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I get lonely



Work can be extremely lonely sometimes. I usually am by myself because my boss has to go and cart art around town. And our accountant only comes in twice a week. Even though I sometimes like being alone, it can get boring and really hard to motivate myself. I know I have a lot of stuff I could be doing, but it seems like it's too much, so I end up not doing a lot of what I want to do... ie: redoing the picture inventory, creating new forms, updating our blog, updating website, etc.

Kevin also had a meeting last night so not only am I alone at work, but sometimes I'm alone at home. I have recently just been placing myself on the couch watching the tube on those evenings, I need to remember that there is a lot I can do alone! One thing is be the nerd I am... a comic nerd. I have hundreds and hundreds of comics that I used to read over and over again. I revisited that last night, and man did it feel good. The comic in hand is a '84 New Mutants issue with all the art done by a comic hero of mine Bill Sienkiewicz. His run of 18 issues of New Mutants in '84-85 is something to drool over. I have the entire series with his art... I have a lot of X-men comics... I am a nerd, nice to meet you.


Yesterday, surprisingly, I was pretty productive, updating our work blog with these cute sculptures we have, but before I finished I had my co-worker snap a picture of me posing with them. It's like they are my friends. haha!



And I did pretty well this morning and yesterday evening as well. I updated my etsy account with all my new prints! Please go check it out. I'm also going to put up holiday cards and presents soon, so stay updated!



Well here's the question of the day:
What do you guys do to motivate yourselves?


{ Outfit }
} Dress - Target, years ago
} Cardigan - UO on sale last year
} Belt - Ecote from UO on sale
} Tights - Vera Wang for Kohls
} Boots - Candies from Kohls

Huggles,
Lauren
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Tripp Tuesdays

If you don't already realize this then you are silly, but you see I love love my puppy. He is perfect, although I wish sometimes he wouldn't bark so much. :)

I've wanted a dog since I graduated from college, for me having grown up with dogs (I had a beautiful Dalmation named Freckles) it didn't seem like a big deal. But to Kevin who was allergic as a child and never had any family pets other than a Rock Bass, the idea of a dog seemed crazy. I scoured petfinder.com daily looking through the Korgi mixes (spelled with a K like fake Crab is Krab, haha). I knew I wanted a Korgi mix because Kevin and I both love Corgis and they are smaller dogs, I had to remember if I were to move to another city I needed a dog that would be able to live in an apartment. I came across Tripp in October and with only one picture of him I thought he was beautiful. So we drove out to the adoption day in Brighton and played with him and walked him around. At closing Kevin and I left empty handed and a little teary eyed. We decided to wait a week and see if we still really wanted him. Kevin says he thought about the dog daily, so we decided to go back and get him. We walked into the adoption store on Saturday and low and behold someone had taken him for a trial night. We were too late. But we were determined, we drove back the next day and waited for the people to come back with him. Luckily they did, and the sad thing is they just threw him back in his cage and didn't look back. They obviously didn't realize that adopted dogs are a lot work, and he is hyper, needed attention and training. But no they just threw him back into a cage. I guess that was lucky for us.

Kevin bought him for our birthdays/anniversary (the November Juggernaut as he says) and since then it's been great. It's been a chore learning how to train an adult untrained dog, but it has been totally worth it. Tripp is incredibly smart and witty. I can't believe he went through the first year of his life with no one to love him, and had to go from home to home. He was wanted for his cuteness but then unwanted because no one had properly trained him. He bit, because as a puppy he was never taught not to. Now through Kevin and my teaching he doesn't bite anymore, he still sometimes plays with his mouth open and looks as though he will bite, but he hasn't bitten us in months, and I'm so proud. Getting a rescue dog is something that is very rewarding but is also hard work.

It's funny to see how unsure Kevin was of the entire thing and how now he is totally obsessed with his dog... haha he is a sucker for Tripp.

With all that story behind here is a silly video Kevin took of me making Tripp dance. I put the song "I love onions" to it because really it works, and Tripp just so happened to get onto the table the other day and eat an onion... oh dogs...




And a equally cute picture of Kevin and the doggy.


Huggles,
Lauren
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Kickin' Boots going Mongo





Got these boots today on sale at Kohl's. I also got some new tights and socks on sale there and at Target (knee high socks are $1!!). I'm excited to have some good black boots, cause I have so much brown. Kevin thought these boots looked like they'd be good at kickin around.




Well I wore this out with Kevin and our flatmate Mike who is moving to London on friday. So we are packing in as much novelty american food as possible. We went to Mongolian BBQ which even though it's "Mongolian", it totally is ridiculous in how corporate it is, and how it is so "American". You know what I mean?



Well all got stuffed and had to listen to the grillers ridiculous shouts and hollers. And yeah to be even more American, we drove there... We live about four blocks away.

{ Outfit }

} Dress - Cooperative via UO
} Sweater - INC., Gift from Mom
} Belt - F21
} Tights - Vera Wang via Kohl's
} Socks - Target
} Boots - Candies


Huggles,
Lauren

PS: Working on my layout of posts, what do you prefer paragraphs in between photos, story before photos, or after? What's the most legible?
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Dirndls and a Hammocks

Ok these are my two favorite things, and combining them together... whoa.

When I got home from work on thursday Kevin and I enjoyed what may be one of the last nice evenings (since it's been so cold here!) and played in the backyard and snuggled in the hammock. This hammock is amazing, you can wrap yourself up like a burrito in it... sooo cozy. So here are some outfit shots and a bunch of ridiculously adorbz dog and couple pictures... I'm sorry if you get a cavity from this inducing of sugary sweetness.










Outfit:

} Dirndl - Vintage on Ebay and resized to me
} Blouse - Vintage, was my grandma's
} Belt - F21
} Wedges - Guess





His ears move independently of each other, haha!




Belly scratch dog!


And the overly sweet... My new favorite picture. Adorbz. (that word is directly stolen from Marlee)



Have a great weekend! I have parties to attend!

Huggles,

Lauren
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Oktoberfest Vignette

I work in an art showhouse in the Michigan Design Center, which is like a mini mall for interior design. There are upholstery and drapery places, furniture stores, tile places, and one art & framing place... TRA Art Group. This week the MDC hosted an event called "Celebrations" where designers were asked to create a vignette of a celebration of their choosing. Some designers did New Years Eve, Christmas, Engagement & Wedding parties, even a Divorce Party. We decided that I'd be the designer for our showroom and I wanted to be a little different and true to my roots, so I chose Oktoberfest. I transformed our front room to what I thought would be an awesome Oktoberfest dinner and gathering. So here you go, my Oktoberfest vignette.




















For my color scheme I centered around the Bavarian flag colors where Oktoberfest is celebrated, blue and white. I brought in silver elements for more "white" and brought in accents of yellow and orange for the German flag. The dishes where all blue and white motifs but they all mismatched to give in a country/elegant feel. I folded blue napkins into little Bavarian hats with feather accents to push the traditional feel. The name card holders had illustrations of Dirndls and Lederhosen in silver goblets with succulents (aka Chicks and hens, from my backyard!) in them to give more of a earthy country feel.

The center piece was comprised of thrifted beer steins holding dried flowers, twigs, and wheat, placed on top of some of my collection of old hard cover books. I also added in some candles, deer antlers and mini deer skull to give it even more of a old world feel.

The art I chose I wanted to be very eclectic and not of a certain genre. I have framed pieces beside unframed, and abstracts next to old traditionals, I wanted a feeling that the host of the party has art from his ancestors and collects new art. The ceiling drapery over the seating area I wanted to remind the guests of a tent where Oktoberfest is usually celebrated. With all the little details I tried to convey the host as collector living in a Southern German country home. I borrowed furniture from Beacon Hill and Henredon (both are located in the Design Center), the art is from our gallery, TRA Art Group.

I of course wore my Dirndl and we served homemade baked pretzels (by me), apple cidar, oktoberfest beer and german wine. Here's a quick iPhone picture of my outfit, more to come later.



So what do you think? Did you get any ideas for your own Oktoberfest party?