the prickly pair.

these prickly pear cacti lamps are amazing and totally remind me of my west texas college days (WILDCATS, OW OW!). at $1,600 for the pair, they're....... almost reasonable? it is the dibs, after all. oh wait, lampshades not included? dicks!! WEALTHY FRIENDS, buy them for me here.

put an armadillo on it.

my amazing mother-in-law, who understands that i'm a total weirdo, surprised me with the CUTEST present ever: a kate spade armadillo coin purse. please note that hims tail is the zipper pull.

while we are on the subject, b-radical and i saw this in the houston airport terminal before our flight to nyc (and 3-hour delay!), and the logistics of getting it home safely was the only thing that kept us from making a serious investment. we may or may not have had some pre-flight cocktails.

new cushions from klaus haapaniemi.

i've been in love with klaus haapaniemi AND his animal drawings since forever, so it's no wonder that i nearly fell outta my chair when i saw his new pillows, which have trippy cranes and flowers all over them. seriously, y'all, we aren't even kind of tired of our amazing wedding china and this adorable finnish illustrating nugget has done it again RE: things i need up in my house. i could look at these magical animals ALL DAY, which makes this incarnation in pillow form extra perfect for daydreaming. you can buy these pillows for yourself (or for me) right here.

the monday mash: call me maybe.

like everyone else on the planet, carly rae jepsen's jam has infiltrated my life, but this mash-up is something new and something wondrous. i feel like, when i die and my life flashes before my eyes, this mash will be the accompanying soundtrack. i haven't felt this invigorated since i saw that movie The Power of One in the 8th grade, or possibly since the first time a boy i liked told me that i was beautiful* (but i chalk that up partially to the fact that we were at a chili's sharing a skillet queso... that shit is pure magic in a cast iron package).

listen to it, download and share HERE: CALL ME MR. BURGANDY

*for the record, it was micah beck, sophomore year of college, approximately three minutes before he lost interest and went out with some girl named bevin.
*also for the record, this is probably the best use of a rusted root song since pure, unadulterated rusted root. same for skee-lo, same for fun., same for C-Ray Jeps.
*lastly for the record, you can (and i do) thank nick nelson for this and probably any other rad tunes i have to share. way to keep me feeling at least six years younger than i actually am, nick.

i feel like blog posts without pictures are super lame, so here i am with my brother brad (on the right) and his/our friend nick at the beginning of our segway tour of chicago, which remains to this day on of the funnest and funniest things i have ever done in my life. actually, go ahead and put their entire trip to chicago on that list. it was the the bomb dot com and should probably be it's own blog post or series. october 2005.

since i've veered considerably off course, this is probably a great time to share a video (from conan, sent to me by my brother brad) of jack mcbrayer and triumph the insult comic dog, at chicago late night spot, the weiner's circle, a special eatery of which was also part of 'brad and nick's killer trip to chi, 2005'.

learn about john baldessari.

personally, i felt LOADS SMARTER (aka wicked smaaat) after watching this video about iconic L.A. artist john baldessari. plus it's narrarated by tom waits.

this is kate spade's apartment, and i haven't been able to confirm it, but i suspect that's some baldessari up in thurr.

call me maybe?

this is quite possibly the most adorable thing i have ever seen. way to go, jimmy fallon. way to also go, carly rae jepsen. i can. not. get. this song out of my head.

a house in the hollywood hills.

part of my extremely glamorous jet-setting crackhead lifestyle is that on occasion, i get to bang out a project outside the houston city limits, so a recent job in los angeles was quite a pleasure, despite the traffic (citizens of LA-HOWDOYOUGETANYWHEREZOMG). our client's home is located in the hollywood hills and the location (directly above the chateau marmont!!) and views are a-to the may-ZING. travels to the home during pre-installation yielded stays in dreamy digs and we did almost meet kelly wearstler during one LA rendezvous. delicious umami burgers, dealing with the seller's realtor (aka the stepson of joan collins - KASS BAH!) and neighborly run-ins with celebs living next door (jeff goldblum!) kept things surreal. despite all the pleasure that got mixed into this biznass, we did eventually convert a stunning 1920's spanish home into an airy, relaxing getaway. check it out dot com: