Friggin' PINTEREST!

Son of a B!
Wanna know the worst thing about dieting?.....PINTEREST!
Now, I go on there with the best intentions..you know,exercise ideas..
Healthy recipes..Crafts for the kids...and yah' know what I get stuck on..FOOD PORN! Don't judge.
It's only fair I share it with my buddies right?
So here ya' go. check THIS out..

Banana Pudding CUPCAKES!

UUMMHUMP....What about these bad boys...

ANYTHING. With Marshmallow frosting is right as RAIN, In my book!

I have actually  made these..and let me say..Yum-FREAKIN, oh!

.

Here is my guilty pleasure ya'll. Yes, I'm talkin' bout the CAP'N! Cap'n CRUNCH that is..Am I alone here?


Anyone?




Crickets....

Bueller?


The only part that I will admit is kinda' gross is the oily film that it leaves behind in the milk?...WTF is THAT?
Like. How does CEREAL excrete oil? 
N-t-Who...Don't ask, don't tell right?
I love it just the same.

The Cap'n & Marshmallow..GENIUS combo...Shut up Mother.

As you can tell  by the photos..These all come from one Evil Genius..."Kristan" This lady is creative,funny and a smart ass to boot! *My kinda gurl ..& She gives you every single one of these recipes for FREE! Woop! I just  lub her. So, hop over to Confessions of a cookbook queen and get your motor runnin'! Oops! I mean. OVEN runnin'

En~joy!

Mel

Little grey desk..

Well, after that whirlwind trip meeting Annie, I came home so excited to get painting BUT I still had the bug pretty bad..This past weekend I did drag out an older piece I had in my stash that I felt was just screaming Paris Grey! (My hubby & Youngest even felt well enough to garden...Who wouldn't pass on free child labor?!)

 I did all the usual steps that I always do BUT I did try out something a little different..For the top instead of waxing it and since I don't have Annie's Lacquer yet..I used my good ole' wipe on poly.

 Worked like a charm..I also kept all the origial hardware, I just went over them very lightly with Old White and did a wipe back of the paint with a damp cloth after they had dried for an hour or so. I think it came out purrty cute! It's a smaller desk, and would be perfect in a little girls room. Matter of fact my oldest is eyeing it! ;)

 Thanks for stoppin' by!~

Melissa

I did it! I did it!

I met her! Yes. HER.  the QUEEN..and she was AWESOME!

We made a little family trip of the whole thing and we had a really good time =)

Here are my little ones bundled up, EAAAARLY Sunday morning as we left L.A and headed up the coast...

It took about 7 hours, and we got there just in time to go drop our stuff at the hotel and go fly some kites and do a little site seeing!

* We even tried to be ninja's and sneak in these peoples picture! but grrr we couldn't get out of the car quick enough! =(

That's ok..we had lot's of fun on our own!

 Soooo much fun in fact..I didn't realize that I must have RE activated the flu I was just getting over!

Man! Did I pay for it that night back at the hotel!!! I had fever, chills, sweats you name it! I was a hot friggin' MESS! but I would be DAMNED if I drove all the way up here and came THIS close to meeting Annie Sloan and I punk out! Aww hell no! So, I doped my self up to beyond the legal limit probably in MOST states , put on enough make up to look like I belonged among the living and took my comatose ass into that damn seminar the next morning!

The venue was gorgeous~

And the minute you checked in you saw a HUGE Annie Sloan Vision board!

It shows some of her paint inspirations and samples but can you read what those posters say?

Annie's own line of brushes! I want one!!

Annie Sloan fragrance collection? Yes Please.

and..wait for it.............................................................

Ah HELL! Great, Annie Sloans fabrics!

Now, I'm gonna be friggin' BROKE this summer! She has toile's and ticking and Belgium linens....drool..

Yeah' they look pretty flippin' comfy!

So after you wipe your chin off, grab a seat in the lecture hall to hear Annie speak about paint, color, texture, color combinations, inspirations etc...

Seriously you guys..she really is as friendly as she looks in all her photos! She is super down to earth, easy going, forgetful (Like us!) =) and just makes you feel so relaxed about painting..Don't over think it! It's only paint! If you don't like it, paint over it! So after the lecture we ate lunch and then broke out into smaller groups for our workshop! By the time lunch rolled around those pills were wearing off and I was starting to feel it..

Our instructor showed us a tip that I can't WAIT to start using! 

She explained that she doesn't really do a lot of sandpaper distressing anymore..she paints her piece in ASCP then in about an hour...come back with one of those thick blue paper towels in auto shops? Wet it with warm water, and just rub away the paint where you want to "Distress" it..no more living room full of chalk dust for meeeeeeeeee! Woohoooo...ALSO, she told us to save your arms... mix up your clear wax with some mineral spirits apply it in large figure 8 strokes with your wax brush and there you go! You save some clear wax AND it's waaaaay easier to apply! Yippee...those 2 little nuggets just made my sick little day! I was lucky to have Jessica from 

"Paint in my hair" blog as one of the instructors in my class and she was very sweet. 

After we had our workshop we were able to go have a glass of wine with Annie and get our books signed 

Here's what I felt like in line..., It was surreal..like I was in a movie!

Then you get up close and ...you forget all the eloquent things you had planned out to say!

I did tell her that my stockist (Sitting next to her) was THEE best and I REALLY LURV her paint and I thought she was an amazing artist. & Do you know what!? I'm such a douche...do you think I remembered to ask for a picture with her?...nnooooooooooooooo...Ole' over medicated molly over here forgot! =(

Oh well, The opportunity to meet her and learn from her will stick with me for a long time! 

Thank You again Debbie and Thank you Annie for coming..

If any of you guys out there still have a chance to meet Annie on her tour.I HIGHLY recommend it =}

Cheerio Dah' Lings !

~Melissa

I'm off to meet the QUEEN!

O.K. Are you ready for this....?
Guess who got selected to go and not only meet but PAINT with the QUEEN of designer paint, Annie Sloan? MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...Me, Me, Meeeeeeee!
(Do I sound like the Geico pig?)

My totally fantabulous stockist here in Orange County "Debbie"

Here she is, in England WITH Annie!

from Round the coop chose yours truly, to meet Ms. Annie at the Annie Sloan American tour. In like 3 weeks! Eeek! Super stoked and sooo thankful to Debbie for choosing Mói..I will take goo gobs of pics and will tell you guys alllll about it..ok.gotta' go practice my best "curtsy"

muuaahaha! *Hoepfully I don't trip over my BIG feet doing it! ;)


Luv~ Meliss

Pinterest addiction...

Hi guys,

Last night I was on pinterest , and I was looking over some of the boards I have..And ya' know what .I have some pretty friggin' awesome pins on there! It set a fire on my a** to actually start DOING some of these projects..I think alot of them would be perfect for the shop, and most are really inexpensive! I wanted to share with you guys some internet awesomeness that I've found...

Ruffles,Ruffles, Ruffles!!

Source

Know what this is? It's Genius is what it IS! It is those pink plastic streamers that you use for birthday parties.
All you do is pull and stretch the sides and VOILA!.. Ruffled streamers! Lub it <3

Giant Lolipops? 

Yes, Please!

Source

I luv these GIANT lollipops over at Charming little nest...The tute is very thorough and would be so awesome for a birthday party or even a candy themed Christmas? (Yes. It is February and I said the word Christmas...Forgive me!)

Cheapest wreath form EVAA'!!!!

Source

Now, I know your gonna click on this one and be like "ANOTHER coffee filter wreath. Really bitch !?&*
I KNOW  I too, wanna vomit if I see another one BUT! I thought what she used as the actual wreath form itself was so clever! Instead of going to Michales and buying a styrofoam wreath to use, and probably paying 5 - 6 bucks...She went to the plumbing dept. at Home Depot and bought a six foot piece of foam tubing (for pipes) for .97 cents!! Cut it down to the size she needed and just taped up the ends! ANNDD with a six foot piece she probably has enough to make 3 or 4 wreaths out of that ONE piece. THIS is probably my most re-pinned  pin on there..
Alright well, gotta' run..Michael's will be opening soon!! Oh, as a parting gift to you all.. Here's a little Ryan Gosling "Hey Girl" for ya'...

Glad you understand baby.. LMAO!

Dueces,


Meliss

Union Jacks!

I know I am sooooo 2011 with this, BUT I finally have jumped across the pond and did my versions of the Union Jack. I have a provincial dresser that I will do BUT I wanted to practice on these 2 side tables.. I think they came out really cute, So I wanted to share with you all in case someone else wants to try it!

You will need
LOTS of painters tape.
Piece of Chalk
Red,White and Blue paint.
Since I LURV Chalk Paint. I chose
Pure White, Emperors Silk and Napoleonic Blue by Annie Sloan.

*Since I did 2 different tables I will be interchanging pictures for the tutorial FYI*

Here is the before:

Clean your piece up (A little diluted TSP is my Fave)

In order to correctly draw out the union jack, I used a very helpful site that you can visit here

Tape off your red cross first..

Paint it, let it dry..and remove the tape..

I taped off the red now and painted the white outline 

Here's where your chalk will come into play! 

Draw out the rest of the flag and keep going..

I did the blue first..

You get the idea...

Here it is all painted, waxed and ready for distressing..

*Note, I LURRRRRV Chalk paint BUT this WAS challenging sanding and distressing, with all the vibrant colors so close to one another because this stuff distresses a little too well for this scenario..Make sure you wax each color section well before you distress, to minimize bleeding/blending of the colors.

Here's the white base table after sanding and chipping..

I then applied a second coat of my dark wax "mash up" to give it an aged patina 

Put your clear wax on a little plate,

Then, mix IN your dark wax..now you have a uniform blend of the 

dark wax & the clear and it just makes

it so EASY to wipe off, when it's mixed like this! 

So, apply your dark wax, buff and take their purrdy pictures!

Cheerio Ol' Chaps!

~Melissa