Thursday, November 26, 2009

Delectable Diggings from da Web


I am so in love with this image. It reminds me of my Dad . . . dunno why!
The above list I found on Kelly McCaleb's Tumblr. Which is essentially what my tumblr would look like if I had one, so I haven't bothered, I just look at her's. And you should too.
Not sure where I found this but I love the old can as a vase idea.


This, too, has been in "My Pictures" for a long time and I can't remember where it's from. Sorry. But I want her dress. And I could use a rusty tub like that too.
I try not to want things but when they're so beautifully styled... my eyes just get away from my brain mmkay?

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

The Next Wedding


Thought I'd share a little post about my brother and his almost-Anderson girlfriend. I don't wanna use the F word. Nope. Don't like it.
I liked their engagement pics, done by Bliss Photography & Design
But don't they kinda remind you of this cute and adorable couple? Don't tell. Either couple. :P

So I am looking forward to the weddding, three more weeks, and I will be there in Wintery Wonock (pronounced Wonnick, I was promptly scolded) Lake, wearing my long deep purple Grecian-style bridesmaid dress. I need to work on a speach which will be a challenge, because it is my brother's wedding, but I am HER bridesmaid, and sorta her friend, more like a sister but y'know sorta...that comes later. Anyways, I am sure you can imagine the confusion with it all. Hopefully I will be able to manage.

Gotta go out and face the dreary grey and drizzling day. I will be sad to leave you, soft blanket...

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

On my resemblance to a gorgeous actress

I have now had 4 people at work tell me that I look like Dana Delaney, an actor on Desperate Housewives. The first customer to tell me that, I thought she was just tryin' to be nice, and I didn't know who she was or what she looked like so I left it at that. Then the other day, THREE people told me I looked like her. And not just vaguely look like her, these people were saying things like "I couldn't figure out where I knew you from, you looked so familiar, and then I realised that it's just that you're a twin to Katherine from Desperate Housewives!"

So, still not knowing who she was so finally I had to look it up. . . and the results are in:

Really?! I wish!


I honestly can't even see a resemblance. Can you?


I do like those glasses. I'd like a set of 'em for myself...

Hmph. I don't get it. But thank you IGA shoppers! Or IGA... the lighting must be miraculous.

Do you ever get told you look like someone? Do you agree with them or do we never think we look the way others think we look?

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Taking Advice...

Yay for playing with words! I liked everyone's ideas. Everyone's!
I tried a different way of puting two together by writing all the words on peices of paper and puting them in a jar, pulling them out . . . Then I'm not restricted to my brain's ideas.

See Home - uh...
Bon Fine - does Bon mean good? Good Fine? haha!
Cushy Sing - that sounds like a voice lesson tip... tool... thing I know nothing about. A la "have a cushy voice, now.."
Habits Love - habits love... what
Kind Purely - ESL?
Sentimental Secret - barf
Porcelain Heart - porcelain is consistent throughout; pure. But too delicate sounding. And nice.
Little Polka Dot - good name for a kid's store
Soul Jam
Once One Hundred - has a ring to it?
Ruby Street
Blue Olive
Smile Simply
Button What
Ocean Ruby
Red Heap
Tea Light
Puzzle Fine
Porcelain Simply
Habits Kind - Kind Habits
Polka Dot Oh - Oh Polka Dot
Polka Dot Ocean

Simply What . . . okay this game is getting old.

Then I developed an obsession with the word/name Simon. As in simple simon... was a pie man. I'm not really a boo-yah-crazy-lovin pie person but Simon is still a good name.

Simon Soul
YaySimon
All Simon
Simon Island

Yellow Dawn (favourite colour, middle name)

My boy hates when I ask for help and then don't take the advice given, too. So you're not alone if you're thinkin 'uh why did you even ask for help, Ayla?!', but I am sorry! I was just trying to get some creative sparks flying, so thank you!

ONE of these days I will get on this and I will actually have something to show for my 'thoughts' on openning an Etsy shop. I am still struggling with the idea of putting myself out there when I feel like my ideas have all been done; I have nothing new to offer, and that feeling always bothers me. A lot.

And also wondering if selling vintage finds and treasures is stupid or smart. I just can't decide. But I do have some treasures...
I just don't like those shops where they sell a set of bowls for $35 when you can get them at the Salvos for $2. But at the same time, maybe my ability to pick out the great stuff, IS worth money. Is it? Please, I need some opinions.

Alrighty, Good Nighty!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Inspire Me


heart
home
olive
live
street
what
secret
tea
more
blue
heap
porcelain
sing
little
ocean
button
oh
one-hundred
shining
sentimental
habits
puzzle
hard-cover
smile
ruby
kind
who
jam
once
light
polka-dot
love
simply
bon
red
cushy
purely
see
soul
sailing
my
fine
ticket

Put 2 of those words together in a way that sounds like a cute little vintagey shop name. And let's see what this inspires...
Oh, and you can add an & if you must.

Yeah you. Thank you.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Ayla at 80

It feels like I am an 80 year old woman who's been missing out on life the last month or so.

Let me explain that a little better...

Well, I had a cold then it went away then It kinda came back but it was different and 'new' again and really badly affected my throat to the point that I couldn't bare to swallow so went to the doc and said please make this go away as soon as possible. Then she (Dr. Payne - love the name) gave me antibiotics because she said it was too red to just leave it.
3 days later- feeling waaaay better
7 days later - itchy feet
7.5 days later - red splotchy and itchy feet
8 days later - red splotchy and itchy legs and feet and backs of arms
9 days later - red splotchy and itchy legs, feet, thighs, back, arms etc...
and now I'm back to the doctor again. I'm allergic to that dang antibiotic I was prescribed.

Benadryl, hello, I love you, can we be best friends?!

Ya so now I'm on that but after work I come home with feet the size of an elephant's that look worse that an elephant's. Red, swollen, bruised and blistered looking. Not pretty. I'd show a picture but you'd all stop reading my blog.

FINALLY starting to subside. I can sleep at night. But ... ya...
what am I doing wrong in life to be feeling so broken for so long?!
I think the last time I felt totally perfectly healthy was the middle of September.

Anyways just needed to give a little update. I can't wait to be healthy again, I am sooo sick of this!


love you all,

Ayla the reddest of them all

Saturday, November 7, 2009

No Pictures. No Fun.

I was thinking that maybe, without making any huge judgement calls or transforming my sense of being completely, that maybe, I just get bored easily.

Firstly, I am SO veerry bored of being tired. And bored. And sick. (good news - tonight, I swallowed... swallowed again.. and confirmed: no feeling like needles and cotton balls being shoved down my throat!)

Secondly, I am working on cleaning out my closet and the highly discustingly huge grotesque (okay, well, at least I'm not under-stating it) amount of clothes I seem to have. I don't know where they come from. I don't have money to buy clothes. And yet - I can't weed through them often enough! I must just bore of them easily, and somehow new ones creep their way in. We'll never, ever know. . .

Thirdly, I am bored of yellow and grey as a colour scheme. For anything. Who knew? I love grey. And I love yellow. Meh, whatever, I can't deny that I'm bored of it.

Also, I'm getting a tad bored of photoshopped-to-death photos.

oh and Facebook, don't forget.


But then... there are the things I don't seem to get bored of. And let me think of a few...

Starbucks... around this time of the year when the cups turn red and their drink features turn fierce...

Chapters... while sipping at that Starbucks and wandering for hours from book to book...

IKEA... a place to go to unwind and walk, and walk, and people watch ... free childcare if that is applicable to you as well...

Now there are three things right there, three things, places, of which I have not thus far gotten bored of and can ALSO fall under the title "Marketing Traps". They are successful multi-squillion dollar businesses. How could I not be bored of them.

Well, let me tell you. Nobody goes to Starbucks with quite the same 'Its a special ocassion, I'm splurging on a Starbucks beverage' feeling anymore. No. Faaaar too mainstream and . . . uh . . . boring. Can I say that again? Jeepers I'm predictable.

But honestly, when Starbucks get that Christmas spirit pumping, they got the decorations on the windows, they got Christmas music playing even, but not the intolerable kind, just the kind that you have to listen for a minute to decide whether or not it actually is Christmas music, and then there's the smell of the gingerbread latte, a little eggnog one in there, some caramel spice and a little peppermint to boot. You can't trot in there in an average mood and leave with a bad one, that's all I'm sayin'.

And maybe I'm just a cheery person, so correct me if I'm wrong.
So will ya'll agree that the marketing is what gets them two thumbs up?! (and look at me, I'm not even touching on the area of the decor they install!)

And I don't even need to exemplify on my other two examples of marketing traps. We all know.

But its interesting to me, to think of how one thing can be the most amazing creation of a thing for a person to experience, something that they could never (or not for a long time at least) get bored of, and the next idea, just really doesn't catch on.

And I think that brings me to my point. I find it very interesting how that the things that surround us; the air, the sounds, the light, the scents, the objects, the energy, actually make us FEEL. Those things actual dictate our brain's response and make us feel something. Either cozy or cold. Hopeful or discouraged. Bouncy or tired. Chipper or bleak. Like splurging or like saving. Like you're at home or like you're at a fast food joint.

And... isn't that amazing?

I think that, for me, Interior Design has become more interesting the more I study the psychology of it. I know that there are Merchandising Designers who are hired to design according to the psychological response of shoppers, but I'm not so interested in that. Just... what makes us like what we like and not what we don't. And how do we even know the difference. And what are my surroundings telling my brain to feel. And why?

You ever think of that?

ps. my real opinion on Starbucks, Chapters and IKEA, in case you didn't get your fill of reading in already:
- Starbucks is good in my books because I order the Grande Americano and I know exactly how much milk and sugar I need to add to make that size/ratio/drink taste good to me. And it doesn't matter what country I'm in when I do it.
- Chapters is a place to wander around in, to open huge books in without somehow spilling your coffee, and dream of having this many books. Buying? Not so much for me.
- IKEA is a place to wander through, enjoy the designs, and sometimes ridicule if I'm in that kind of mood. It almost fits the bill for any of my moods, but usually makes me want a house all to myself to decorate which puts me in a bit of a covetous mood. But still. Good place to kill time.

Unfortunetly none of these places make their mega bucks from me. I order pretty much the cheapest (but the best) type of coffee every time, I only read the books while in store, and I only use the design as entertainment.

Oh, and really, I also wanted to touch on how it's the natural, God-designed (if you will) things that give you the best, most exhilerating feelings. An Amazing view. The smell of rain. The sound of surf crashing. Y'know all that good stuff. We humans will never compare in our design skills. I love it, the fact that THOSE things I will well and truly never ever ever get bored of. Impossible. Amazing.



*And next week, on Channel Ayla, we'll be discussing canibalism of the greatest infants of Madagascar!

**I'm joking, I just can't belive how much I wrote about getting bored easily. Sorry for the drama. Call yo mama.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

A walk around the neighbourhood...


Some pictures from around the neighbourhood last week - see, I wasn't kidding about the fall colours this year. The next day a lot of this blew away so I was really glad I went out to photograph it when I did! I also found a persimmon tree, loaded with fruit! Who knew?!
Anyways I am sick, can barely swallow and am just trying to get rid of it... have no energy at all. But I've missed my blog so I need to get it rolling again, it's been way too long since a decent post!
Soon I'll be feeling energized and doing a million things again I hope!

Love,

Ayla