It’s been a week since my last post and a few things have happened since then. On Valentine’s Day, I bought myself one of the most awesome (bold faced &underlined. yeah, it’s that awesome) valentine’s gifts ever. Actually, my parents made that purchase happen, so kudos to them for being the most awesome parents ever. I’ll elaborate on the purchase later this week.

Then, over the weekend, me and a couple of my girlfriends took an overnight train trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. It was then that I discovered I do not like train rides and that I’m too damn old for Mardi Gras. Before we actually went on the trip, I had planned on focusing a blog post on the adventure, but I’m from the school of if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say nothing at all. So, I think for the purposes of this blog I may just leave that one alone. (Read: this blog. I’ll probably write about it elsewhere.)

Lastly, last night I did a mini-photoshoot for a blog interview I’ll be featured in tomorrow. I won’t go into it here, but as soon as it get’s posted, I’ll share the link with you guys so you can check me out in all my pseudo-famous glory.

And because a post sans picture is just wrong, here’s a random picture of my living room set up. This room is the most underused space in my entire loft. Mainly because it’s on the second floor of my loft and I’m too lazy to walk up the stairs to utilize it on a daily basis. I just may be the laziest Asian ever.

Tyson and I got the best Valentine’s Day card this year from the most perfect valentine, Rienna. She’s not even three months yet and she’s already super-crafty. She really is the sweetest little cupcake.

I’m unattached  this year, so nothing romantical (yes, that’s a word, except that it isn’t, but let’s pretend that it is) plans for me but I think I will treat myself to something nice

PS. My friend, who also happens to be my tattoo artist is debuting his website today. Do yourself a favor and go check it out –> http://lovelesssociety.com 

I’m not usually one for making wishes (except for when I’m wishing to win the lottery – hello, the powerball is at 310 million right now!) but occasionally I’ve been known to throw a penny in a fountain or wish upon a star or even rub a Buddha’s belly (actually, I probably do that one the most). Because really, who is it hurting to have that extra little bit of good mojo behind you? Nobody. That’s who.

So, with that being said you’re now probably looking at the subject of this here blog post and thinking okay, well what does making a wish have to do with a cobradove? And also, what the hell is a cobradove? Well, I can’t tell you what  a cobradove is but I can tell you that if you find yourself needing a little extra good mojo in your life but are finding yourself short of fountains to throw your pennies in or a buddha’s belly to rub then you need to get yourself a cobradove falling wish bracelet that way you’re never without something to wish upon. And they’re pretty too.

Also, could I have said cobradove more?

[images via: cobradove]

I’ve been really thinking about painting my master bedroom door a nice bright yellow lately. I’m really digging the look of painted interior doors and kinda sorta want to take the plunge myself. You can see a bunch of examples of painted interior doors on this blog post from A Design Story. Love it, right?

Well, this is my door. It’s a nice boring white. Right now my room has a LOT of grey and white. Grey walls. White trim. White furniture. Grey and white duvet set. The only yellow in my room right now is in my duvet cover, which you can see here. Need. More. Yellow.

So, I threw together this crude photoshop mockup of what it would look like if I did decide to go yellow. And then, there’s the question of whether or not I’d have to paint my closet door yellow as well if I do decide to go the yellow route. Ah, so many decisions. I think I may just have to stare at this picture for a few more days before I make any sort of decision.

What do you guys think?

You may remember me mentioning in this post that occasionally I’ll be posting projects completed by my crafty friends in a category I’ve called Other People’s Property. Well, today’s friend also happens to be my sister, Valerie.

Around the same time I purchased my first home in 2009, my sister also purchased her first home. While she and I share the same parents and the same sense of humor, one thing we didn’t share was our choice in homes. She chose a traditional home with a yard in the country, that was somewhat of a fixer-upper. Me? Yard? Fixer-upper? Country? No, thank you. Modern 2-level loft with concrete floors in the city? Yeah, I’m gonna choose that.

Now, because she has somewhat of a fixer-upper, she’s been making some much needed changes the last 2 years. She recently sent me some before, during and after pictures of a small-but-with-a-big-impact change she made in one of her bathrooms.

Now, these cabinets. I’m not sure what kind of wood finish that is, but those bathroom cabinets look like they have some sort of an unfortunate skin condition. You know, if cabinets could have skin conditions.

And you can’t tell me that primer doesn’t look like some sort of creme.

For the paint finish, she went with Oil Rubbed Bronze paint which she basically said was a pain to use. I know a lot of people swear by the Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint, but according to my sister the paint version is sticky and hard to use. She even said she had to use nail polish remover just to get it off her hands and the paint brush. Still, I think after all the trouble it gave her the end result looks pretty darn good, especially compared to the before.

Next on her list: replacing those countertops.

One of my favorite books. Kinda makes me wish I had a gift to wrap.

I got a little happy today with a can of hot pink spray paint that I like to keep handy for random days like this.

I really had no idea what I wanted to spray pink, I just knew I wanted to spray something. So I took a look around my room and spotted  a lamp that my grandfather had made many, many, many years ago. I don’t really know how many. I’m not even really sure how it ended up with me but it did. Since it’s been in my possession it’s gone thru more than a few makeovers. It started off brown, then black, then white and now pink. In my excitement to start spraying, I didn’t take any befores (silly me) but you can catch a glimpse of it in some of the before pictures of this post.

I gave it 4 good thin coats, you can see the progression of the first three below. I probably could have stopped at three coats, but I’m an overachiever. Typical Korean, right?

With the last coat done, I slapped together a makeshift drum shade so that I could see what it would look like with a white shade before I run out and purchase one.  And I must say, I’m pretty happy with the almost-end result.

I told you on Friday I’d be back Monday with an update on the games from the bridal shower, except today’s not Monday. So, let’s pretend it is. Faux Monday, if you will.

So, to briefly recap. One of my nearest and dearest is getting married. I may or may not be known as the crazy game lady amongst my friend. I was put in charge of the games for her bridal shower. Got it? Okay.

And if I can toot my own horn, I put together a nice little arrangement of games. For the prizes I decided to use a raffle ticket system since each game would produce multiple winners. So, instead of the winner(s) from the games getting a prize right then, which would’ve resulted in a plethora of prizes, they got raffles tickets. We then raffled the prizes off at the end of the shower.

Here are a list of the games we played and in the order we played them.

1. The Clothespin Game – also known as the Don’t Cross Your Legs or Say Wedding Game. This game starts with everybody getting one clothespin to wear on their person. If they’re caught either crossing their legs or saying the word “wedding” (or any other word(s) you designate)  throughout the wedding then the person who catches them gets to take their clothespin. This goes on throughout the life of the shower.

Raffle tickets: For the Clothespin Game, each person would get 1 raffle ticket for every clothespin they had in their possession at the end of the game.

2. The Celebrity Couples Name Game – For this game a list of celebrity couples was prepared before hand. We were expecting 44 guests, so I came up with a list of 22 celebrity couples (ie. Obama’s, Beyonce & Jay-Z, Fred & Wilma, Ricky & Lucy, Bonnie & Clyde, Marge & Homer, etc.) One name from each pairing was placed on a name tag, which was then placed on each guests back (so that they didn’t see who they were). They then had to get up and talk to the other guests and ask questions to try and figure out who they were by asking a series of Yes or No questions (i.e. Am I a woman? Am I a singer? Did I just have a baby? Am I Beyonce? – YES!) until they figure out who they are. Once they’ve figured out who they are, they then have find their pair (in Beyonce’s case she found her Jay-Z) before they can collect their raffle tickets. **This game was a lot of fun and got everyone up out of their seats interacting with each other. 

Raffle Tickets: The first couple to pair up  received 5 tickets each, 2nd pair – 4 tickets each, 3rd pair – 3 tickets each, every other pair – 1 ticket each.

3. The Celebrity Hubby Game – for this game, we asked each of the guests to write down their fantasy celebrity husband on a slip of paper which were then placed into a bucket. The bride then pulled each response out one by one and attempted to guess which of the guests chose that husband. There were some duplicates, but the bride only had to make one correct guess. For our game, we gave our bride 3 guesses to get it right.

Raffle tickets: If the bride guessed correctly on the first try, the guest got 3 tickets. If she guessed correctly on the second try, 2 tickets. And if she guess correctly on the 3rd try, 1 ticket. If she didn’t guess correctly that guest didn’t get any tickets.

4. The Purse Raid Game – for this game, the guests needed to have their purse in their possession. A list was prepared beforehand of items typically found in a purse (lipstick, tissue, keys, etc.) and called out. The first person to pull that item out of their purse got a ticket. I then moved to a second list of items not typically found in a purse or slightly taboo (rock, underwear, condom, etc.), the first person to pull one of those items out of their purse got 3 tickets.

Here are the items we used, but you can of course come up with your own.

1-Ticket items: lipstick, tissue, car keys, cell phone, pen, camera, gum, coins, checkbook, business card.
3-Ticket items: rock, underwear, bridal shower invite, bottle of water, medicine, picture of the bride, tampon, calculator

Raffle tickets: The first person to hold up an item from the easy list got 1 ticket; the first person to hold up and item from the hard list got 3 tickets.

P.S. Be warned, if your group of ladies is anything like ours then they’ll be able to produce those items from their purses super fast (for the first list at least). So, we designated one person (the bride in our case) to keep an eye out and determine who was the first to hold the item up and give them their raffle ticket(s). 

There was also a 5th game that we didn’t play because we ran out of time (and I’m kinda glad, because coincidentally I was also running out of toilet paper at the house), but I’ll still list it here in case you needed another idea.

5. The Toilet Paper Bride Game – Divide the guests into equal teams (however many makes sense for the amount of guests you have), each team then picks a “bride” to be dressed in a toilet paper wedding dress. After a set amount of time (5 minutes or so) the Bride then gets to choose which Bride’s she likes the best.

Raffle tickets: The winning team each gets 1 tickets per person.

As for the prizes. I picked up a few items from my local HomeGoods. And let me tell you, if HomeGoods was a guy, I’d date him. I’m saving marriage for IKEA. But seriously, I love HomeGoods. They have all the goodies in there and at reasonable prices at that. The prizes included a Trina & Co. Travel Valet, a silver Sonia Kashuk clutch, a Progressive Food Chopper, a Fit & Fresh Lunch Box and an Oleg Cassini Crystal Votive.

So there you go. Hopefully this gives you some ideas in case you’re planning a shower. And if you have any shower game favorites, feel free to post them in the comments.

I can be such the procrastinator sometimes, which is why I’m taking a half day from work today to do some last minute prep work for one of my best friend’s Bridal Shower tomorrow. I still get stuff done tho, even at the last minute.

I’m in charge of games. Can you tell?

I’ll be back on Monday with details of the games we played, prizes and pics.

Happy Weekend!!

I normally delete without reading newsletters from online boutiques when I’m not trying to spend any money. You know, avoid temptation and all of that. But there was something about this 80′s Purple newsletter introducing Wildfox Couture Jewelry that said hey you, you should read me. So I did, and I’m glad. Because had I not, I probably would have missed out on these white enamel and gold plated deer head and cowskull rings. They are so my speed. Seriously. I want them all. And seeing as these particular rings only range from $35 to $45, I might just get them all.  

{images via: 80′s Purple}