death grip.

aside from being a heir to the fendi empire, delfina delettrez is making quite a name for herself in the fashion industry. a love for anatomy, nature and jewels is displayed in her signature jewellery line for fendi, and although on the creepy side of things, the jewelry is stunning in person. i'm sure these bracelets are not NEWS, but b-rad, audrey and i had the pleasure of seeing skeleton hands in person last friday, and all we could do was stare. this, of course, was in part because the wearer was also sporting a bomb balmain jacket, but the bracelets... holy mother mary, the bracelets. would anyone like to loan me $50,000?

living vicariously through other peoples' kitchens.

should you need respite from the monotony of your own home, and should you be a resident of the greater houston area, i highly recommend checking out the 2011 ASID Kitchen and Bath Tour, occurring next saturday (november 5th) from 10am-5pm. for the magical price of $20, the tour features nine lovely homes throughout space city, including one particular stunner designed by my firm (not that i'm playing favorites or anything).

for those of you hoping to learn a thing or two about a thing or two, there are also some in-house seminars going on in some homes, hosted by industry partners and scheduled to occur as shown here.

AND THAT IS NOT ALL. if ya'll wanna party like we do, if ya'll wanna party like us... there are two parties happening and you should go to them, because i will be there and i would love to meet you. if you've not yet visited the new westheimer plumbing showroom (SPOILER ALERT: no longer located on westheimer), i'm here to tell you it is up n fancy. like $20,000 bathtubs and shit. plus lots of affordable items for common folk like you and me.

so don't be a square and GET YOUR TICKETS HERE. you can also purchase a ticket at the door of any of these fine homes ($25 at the door) but be prepared-they are only taking cash money, hoes.

Peggy Hull, ASID - 3302 Tangley Road
Elizabeth Koval, ASID, CAPS, CKD - 2105 Del Monte Drive
Laura Umansky, Alllied Member ASID and Assoc. AIA - 2909 Inwood Drive
Jane Page Crump, ASID - 6007 Glen Cove Street
Laura Litton, ASID, RID (Jane Page Design Group) - 10822 Timberglen Drive
Blake Woods, ASID - 744 W. 43rd Street
Blake Woods, ASID - 1023 W. 43rd Street
Lynne T. Jones, ASID - 1003 Gardenia Drive
Nicole Bruno - Marino of Cabinet Innovations - 1025 Richelieu Lane

and should you need any additional convincing, which is just preposterous since i'm sure you'll already have purchased a dozen tickets by now, you can roll up and see this stunner in person. that light fixture and damien hirst are worth the drive, ladies and gents. worth it.

i'm a giant (weirdo) update: ch-ch-ch-changes.

first of all, how about a tiny round of applause for emily henderson, who not only dreamed up this hobby extraordinaire, but also did a round up last of everyone participating in the challenge. it's awesome to see what all the other nerds are doing with their spare time, so danke emily. you can check it out here.

i really thought the dollhouse would be poorly received, like a manrepeller of the hobby variety. we can all agree that it is strange (YET TOTALLY NORMAL AND COOL) for a childless woman to obsess over and build an intricate replica of what i'm affectionately calling 'marie antoinette's country coke den', but everyone who i've told has been politely interested. some people have also been enthusiastic about my participation, which has been a nice surprise. i've also started to remember all sorts of weird dollhouse references from the past, such as this super creepy awesome video that was part of my sesame street programming as a child:

i also recall that one of my favorite books as a kid was the borrowers, which were little people who lived in the floorboards and borrowed things from the owners of the home to survive. arrietty clock anyone? anyone? i kept my eyes peeled around our house as a kid, but i'm pretty sure either a) borrowers didn't live there or b) they might not be real. which sucks, because i could really use a borrower or two to help me reupholster some of this tiny furniture that has been arriving on tiny moving trucks. 

so after taking a tiny step back, i decided i wasn't digging the blue walls in the kitchen or the black and white floor upstairs. although wallpapering is tricky, i've added paper to the kitchen (a vintage map of paris) and re-done the floor in the bedroom upstairs to be something much more ridiculous and gaudy. animal print floors? MEOW, people... really a no-brainer. i am purchasing tiny crown moulding and baseboards, and i've been unable to resist strange tiny things, like parrots and trivial pursuit and the tiniest little heads of lettuce in a crate! so that's where it's at. i should finish the front of the house today and then it will be more little things like painting, before i do a major overhaul on some furnishings.

one year.

happy anniversary to me and sugarbear, y'all! i could gush and reflect on the past year, but there is a bottle of fancy bubbles, some breakfast tacos and a handsome gent working on a crossword, all waiting for me downstairs. instead i will share this hilarious portrait i commissioned for part one of brad's present (PAPER). have a great sunday, bitches!

i'm a giant (weirdo) update: steve edition.

lots of you have mentioned that although you understand i'm building a dollhouse, it's tough to get a sense of scale without some recognizable hallmarks for sizing purposes.

so i hope this helps, because i probably shaved another six months off steve's tiny life span by cramming him in the living area. hims was terrified, y'all!

i'm really just killing time until some of my furnishings arrive, because i can hardly hang drapery prior, right? tiny DUH. as you can see, not much visual progress has been made (except the addition of one tiny dog inhabitant), but i want this thing to look good in person so little girls will see it and think it is pretty and then i will yell NO TOUCHING!!!! i've taken some care painting and re-painting the walls, which also means painting and re-painting the trim, because i'm sloppy and drink wine while painting and watching tv and talking on the phone all at the same time. if i build another dollhouse ever, i am going to paint at the beginning, FOR. SHORES. when i haven't been painting, there is still that gold leaf ceiling to contend with (you shiny disco bitch), and i totally thought i'd fixed it last night. thank heavens i didn't waste time writing a 'how to gold leaf like a pro' tutorial, because i am going to have to scrap it, which is a several-hours-down-the-tiny-drain bummer. as a consolation, i have silver leafed (paper, not foil) the bath floor at the top of the stairs. i also added some lighter colored grasscloth paper to the ceiling in the kitchen (it up n dark in there, yo) and finished the tree paper on the second floor, which was le bon difficult. i have partially installed the trim which will go around the stairs opening, and i'm going to add crown moulding and baseboards. i've decided i'm not wild about the bedroom flooring in the black and white... stay tuned for what may or may not happen there.

in related fun news, here are some more cool bloggers participating in the challenge!

go haus go
me you and a weiner

in five years' time.

i bought this today, be-yotches.

i figured i will start it on our first anniversary, which is sunday, for those of you who are not my husband (b-rad is right on top of that, rose, when it comes to anniversary celebrations). and here's why: a whole lot has changed in one years of life-slash-marriage, people. for starters, one of my bridesmaids is back in the U.S. of A. again, as opposed to singapore, where she lived one year ago. one of my bridesmaids moved away to live with her boyfriend (BOOOOOO). other friends got hitched and are already preggos. the last harry potter movie came out. sugar bear won a golf tournament. prince william got himself married. i wrote a poem about a sofa. wilson phillips really made a comeback. i met jonathan adler and suzanne kasler. target for missoni happened. kelly wearstler started a blog. important people passed away. this list could go on, but you get the idea.

so i think this will be cool. we shall see how goes it. i mean, one line a day, right? life's not hard when you're setting realistic and attainable goals. plus it is small and pretty and has gold-edged pages. plus it reminds me of this tremendously awesome song from the processional to our wedding, by noah and the whale. i would have pasted it up in here, but embedding has been disabled by request? what? say it ain't so, noah. so instead,

i'm a giant (weirdo) update.

when i say doll, you say house. DOLL. HOUSE. DOLL. HOUSE.

dollhouse-ery took a turn this week when i decided to gold leaf my living room ceiling. you see, i had some gold leaf materials, which i had never used, nor never tried. being the highly over-confident person that i am, i thought using gold leaf for the first time ever, in my neverland ranch dollhouse for adults, would be easy. i was a little bit wrong. or, as they say on my favorite television program (which is coming back, y'all!!!), i made a huge tiny mistake. what i'm trying to say is that, while there IS some gold leaf on the ceiling of my dollhouse, there is also gold leaf aaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllll over this casa. it is stuck to my nails, it is all over the floor, it is in my clothes, it is in sugarbear's golf materials and crosswords. and there have been some extremely elegant moments on our recent dog walks, IF YOU KNOW WHAT I AM SAYING. i'm talking fancy poop, people! like straight goldschläger class. i'm surprised the kardashians haven't thought of this yet. anyway, i digress. aside from the giant nightmare on the ceiling, i have made a ladder out of twigs from the magnolia tree in our front yard. mainly because i am not down with the kit-supplied stairs, either labor-wise or space-wise. this ladder MIGHT get a re-do (probably not), where i paint the twigs black or gray. stay tuned.

LISZT BUSTZ. that stays. so cool, right? it will be a sculpture in this house, because these tiny dwellers are loaded. also, i got that sweet black and white watch in round top, which works! and will become the wall clock somewhere.

lest things get too fancy, i am incorporating a large wall photo of one of the wilson family idols, the late great john wayne (duke, not gacy). you see, the duke passed away while my mother was pregnant with me, so in my baby book, it looks like this: page one, john wayne's obituary. page two, BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT! and my baby photo. also, for as long as i can remember, there has been a framed photo of the duke in my parent's house, so i thought it would be cool to incorporate into this tiny house of unhealthy child-like dreams. don't act like i am making this up, people. in my family, the stories really write themselves.

so back to this DH-i plan to make a beaded chandelier this weekend, with nothing but my wits and those steel rings. and maybe some wires and beads. and probably it will go in the kitchen? i need some flare in there, although my table top did arrive via etsy, and it is a record!! of the soundtrack to my most favorite movie ever, the sound of music.

oh, and i picked up some POS candlestick thing, which has tiny elephant heads as legs?? so this will become a table of some sort, perchances. it needs a new top situation, as i tore it up pretty bad before enlisting the help of b-rad. lastly, doorknob and iddy biddy widdle keys. stupid cute. are you making your own dollhouse yet? WHY ARE SO FEW PEOPLE COMMENTING ON THESE DOLLHOUSE POSTS? i do this mainly for the fun but i would be lying if i said that i need to hear what you are thinking, even if it is like BITCH YOU CRAZY or something. i mean my dog is pooping gold, for crying out loud. holler if you hear me already.

personal projects: gotcha covered.

remember when i was all 'we are in a magazine?' bad news if you hated that story, folks, because the horn-tooting is not over. the luxe magazine article running nationally about the house we designed in river oaks was picked for the local cover, so all over the fiiiiiiiine state of texas, you can pick up one of these bad boys bad boys. whatchoo gonna do? get TEN DOLLARS and go buy one, that's what. yeah, i said ten dollars. shit is up and f.a.n.c.y. round here, y'all.

hey and while you are at it, running around town and buying magazines and all, why don't you pick up houston house and home? because we-slash-this house are in that, too, as part of the ASID kitchen and bath tour. SO YOU CAN TOTALLY VISIT THIS HOUSE IN PERSON!!

yeah, i tried to rotate this one. it didn't work, so sorries. you don't need to see that rustic elegance anyway.

just look at her! candy apple, looking good. 

wooderson (wallpaper).

OH SNAP. they are selling my dollhouse wallpaper (dollpaper?) at anthropologies, y'all. and here i thought it had been discontinued in this colorway... perk up your own (doll or regular) house with a few rolls of THIS.

i'm a giant (weirdo).

so have i told you that i'm building a dollhouse? emily henderson (blogger extraordinaire and host of secrets from a stylist) has cooked up a wack-a-doo challenge called I'M A GIANT, where a group of design bloggers all build dollhouses. super strange, right? which is why i'm totally on board, duh. you can check out the badassery at any of these blogs:

emily henderson - style by emily henderson

morgan satterfield - the brick house

erin loechner - design for mankind

corbett - girl domestic

nicole balch - making it lovely

jenny komenda - little green notebook

kirsten grove - simply grove

orlando soria (also from SFAS)- hommemaker

and then there are just some random people killing it. hopefully i will fall into this category. but probably not, since there are people like this guy, building a geodesic dollhouse. and all of his own furniture. insane. or this chick, who i think is somewheres in the UK, and not really participating or even aware of the challenge, but who shall be used as a measure of my success.

there is no prize for best dollhouse or anything, which has perplexed the hell out of sugarbear. after shopping online and finding several dollhouses in the $300-$500 category that were PERFECT, i decided to take b-rad's advice and check out the in-person offerings over at hobby lobby, where, in an uncharacteristic display of restraint, i decided to go small and cheap. the selections are minimal compared to the hundreds available at online dollhouse kit stores, but my needs for instant gratification kicked in and i rolled home with the orchard cottage (and the vermont farmhouse jr., which i will return at some point. hey-old habits die hard.). i'm totally making the orchard cottage (desperately needing a new moniker; suggestions welcome) because it was only $30 for the kit and i knew brad would be thrilled with that. vermont farmhouse jr. is massive (and was $100 for the kit) and dollhouse furniture is expensive, so i figured furnishing four rooms (or just building the four rooms) has to be considerably faster and cheaper than the larger homes. for instance, do y'all know the bloggess? i have absolutely no idea how jennifer managed to build and furnish her haunted dollhouse, but aside from noticing how awesome it is, i see dollar signs. SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, here are some in-progress shots of my dollhouse.

this is the floor model. no way mine is going to look this cheesy. i immediately nixed the cheap windows... i mean, idon't want this thing to look like it cost $30.

a very optimistic day one. see all those thin sheets of wood? yeah. full of tiny little pieces that you are supposed to glue together, in perfect sequence, while alternately painting or wallpapering before it was too late. thank heavens i found an illustrated instruction guide online, because the instructions included are just words. see 'em there? on the left? those giant sheets with lots of words, that are horribly undescriptive? the makers of this dollhouse kit are assholes.

the window! aka pieces that all should have been painted first. le whoops. not the first of what has turned into many mistakes.

stuccoing the outside, or as i like to call it, PRETTY MUCH THE FIRST TIME I FELT LIKE I WAS BEING INNOVATIVE. it requires so much concentration just to build this thing that i don't know how much improvising i can do. and let's not kid ourselves: most of my improvising is going to be shortcuts, okay?

boom. stucco'd and painted, although i'm not totes sold on the color. there are millions of tiny shingles that have to be glued on one by one and painted. those shingles are going to blow.

WALLPAPERS. in my living room. every bit as hard as it looks, and if you thought it looked easy, you are probably also in the midst of your own dollhouse project, right? do you want to come over here where we can console ourselves? btdubs, it's the cole and sons woods wallpaper in the terracotta colorway (which is pretty much salmon) with gold metallic trees.

dining room with leather and black cork striped floors. these were going to be some badass kind of tile pattern, like herringbone, but i scaled way, way back on the plan, because i'm not sure if i mentioned this, but dollhouse-ing IS NOT EASY. which is why the living room got woven raffia, and not the wood floors as originally planned.

Steve.

during my senior year of college, i bought my first apple computer-my first computer ever, actually-from a guy named geoff chin, who worked in the acu campus store. it was the iMac G4, with the white rounded base and the 15-inch LCD screen on a rotating arm, and it was the coolest thing any of us had ever seen.

that day felt like the future. 

"We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life.

Life is brief, and then you die, you know?

And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it."

-Steve Jobs

sometimes it lasts.

as long as you have functional ears on your head, you are susceptible to, at some point in your life, admitting that adele has quite possibly the most amazing voice of our time. this particular song is both SO good and SO sad that it has both b-rad and i sitting here with monday night football on mute, secretly wishing we were in the wicked throes of former heartbreak, if only to enjoy the misery to a fuller extent.* break out the tissues and ice cream, because no one would blame you for listening to it more than once. and this shit is LIVE.

*but seriously. bittersweet though the trip down memory lane may be, i'm unspeakably thankful that sads of this magnitude are over. for. rills.