Things i loved this week.

hey everyone!

here are the things i loved this week! as you guys can probably tell so far, i'm a little obsessed with modcloth, owls & prints.

1. hilarious jaws cup from modcloth. 2. mustache cookie cutters, also found at modcloth 3. these hilarious prints found at mischief champion 4. theses amazing prints by the incredibly talented hydro 74.

see you tomorrow! 

sometimes you need to be reminded of the truth

is there anything more truthful? i personally don't think so. i'm so incredibly thankful for all of the choices i've ever made. i'm so thankful they led me to my husband, my job, my friends, my home, my fur babies. They've taught me valuable lessons about people, i'm thankful for the choices that led me to lose the bad friends and the choices that led me to replace them people who really deserve my time. at the time of some of those choices i've had to take a deep breath and say "this too shall pass" and you know what? it always has!

moral of this post? this painting really hit home for me. through the tears, the heartache, the times where i thought i was as low as could be, the waking up on the wrong side of the bed, the minimum wage slave jobs, the being alone and on my own at 15, the full time job in high school, the empty bank accounts and living in dumps, the broken down cars, the every day problems we all suffer from, "this too shall pass". it's all passed, it's all paid off. the beautiful home, the amazing fur babies, my fantastic husband and wonderful family, my lovely, talented, supportive & caring friends.

I would make every single one of those wrong choices again if it took me to where i am today. in the end, all of our wrong choices can turn out to be the right choices, we're all dealt difficult cards in life, it  depends entirely on how we choose to deal with those difficult cards that determines where we end up and where our "right place" is.

(stay tuned this weekend for a super pretty, super simple, super cheap DIY chic home decor!)

30 things. behind the blog.

Hello everyone!
to all my new followers, welcome to my blog! for those of you who don't know much about me (almost all of you), you're about to! 

1. first off, writing about yourself is always incredibly difficult. I have a really hard time writing about myself, my mind always draws a blank! My Name is maiden name is Nicole Macdonald. The majority of people in my life call me Coley, and my married name is Friesen.

2. i'm only 22, i'm married and we own our on home. we've made huge accomplishments as a young couple and have a lot to be proud of.

3. my tattoos are obviously a very prominent part of me, i got my first one when i was 15.

life with tattoos: i've have little old ladies come up to and make comments like "you're so naturally pretty, why did you do that to yourself?". people grab my arms, pull up my sleeves "ooing & awing" and downright invade my personal space without asking. Mothers grab their children and whisper "sweety you don't want tattoos like that when you're older do you??" my favorite is the "wow you have tattoos? look at this star i have on my hip, it's for this one time.." just like your tattoo artist most likely doesn't want to know what every star means, neither do i. I'm not a walking LA Ink counseling session.

4.my most meaningful tattoo is one of my first, a robin i have tattooed on my wrist. a robin to me is all things grandpa barker, the funniest & most loving man i ever knew. He used to sit at the dining table before we left for school each morning and sing "red red robin" with all the most important words missing.

5. I have an overwhelming addiction to refinishing furniture & painting my home. over & over & over again. I stay up late cutting out the perfect pieces of each room from magazines like Style At Home and gluing them in to bigger better more perfect rooms in my artbook, aka dream book.

6. I can't cook. I don't know how to, it freaks me out. i'm my own worst critic, i always feel like everything i cook is the most terrible thing john has ever eaten, but he's generally pretty impressed.. or just really nice! i do want to learn though!

7. I can on the other hand bake! I can bake up a storm, i create recipes, i make the most difficult cakes and i make them well. I've had way too many people tell me to open a bakery, but when you're hobby becomes your job, it's no longer fun.

8. my biggest fear ever is buttons. not jean buttons, but plastic buttons. I don't know why, i don't know how it started and it doesn't bother me too much, i just don't wear buttons & neither does john.

9. i'm your classic girl on this one.. my second biggest fear is spiders.

10. i spend way too much time searching for grapples ( google them, so delicious).

11. i don't believe in making the bed. why?! you make the bed, to go to work, to come home and un-make it. you don't even get to enjoy the glory of looking at the pretty well made bed. this is probably johns biggest pet peeve about me.

12. i record every episode of judge judy. enough said, don't judge me.

13. i'm a shop-a-holic. I believe in retail therapy., I go clothing shopping probably once a week and my closet is JAMMED.

14. i'm obsessed with picture frames. I hoard them. I have picture frames still un opened and wrapped in a closet that I feel one day, i might find the perfect picture to put in it, and have the most amazing, fabulous gallery wall ever.

15. i've watched every episode, form every season of degrassi. (degrassi is the worst Canadian television show everthat drake started on, i have no shame)

16. i obsess over cleaning random things, like baseboards. ask me to organize something and i'll whine all the way home.

17. i'm completely & totally addicted to instagram.

18. i refuse to wear socks. One time when i was a kid i had a wart on my foot and my best friend at the time nicole, said she stopped wearing socks and it got rid of hers. I stopped wearing socks, and it got rid of mine! ever since though, i haven't been able to wear socks. never ever. not even in the dead of winter.

19. i'm afraid of calling places. I always get john to do it. I won't call stores or companies to dispute a bill.. even though i worked in phone support, I hate being on the other end of that line 10x more.

20. the first thing i do when i get home is take off my pants. they restrict my life style & i'd prefer to live without them.

21. my biggest insecurity is my legs/knees. The paleness that never gets darker and the knobby knees.

22. the only thing constantly running through my mind is how i can improve my home. it might be a sickness.

23. i've broken 8 bones. both wrists, both arms, my right scaphoid (3 weeks before my wedding), my foot, my right index & middle knuckle. if you count, that's a lot of casts.

24. i get searched every time i cross the border. i think it's because this one time when i was 17 my friend nicole and i tried to drive down to California. I think they thought we were running away, long story short I was stuck in immigration for 7 hours, they took my fingerprints scanned our eyeballs and confiscated our strawberry jam.

25. my absolute most favorite colours are soft rose pink & seafoam.

26. i am obsessed with owls, they are the one thing i collect!

27. night owl.

28. I don't want children any time in the very near future, but every time school supplies come out, I wish i could buy them for beefy. that was always my favorite part of back to school.

29. We don't have a salt shaker in our house, we cut it out a few years ago. Now everything with added sodium tastes like a salt lick for a horse.

30. i REALLY want to live in Ireland.

That was one of the most difficult posts to write!

beautiful inspiration for the week ahead

word of last week? funk.

I've was in one. this was the one weekend where i promised not to make plans and get things done around the house that we've been in for 9 months. i did manage to accomplish some painting in our den, my soon to be sewing & craft room, but i'm finding it really hard to be inspired.  i'm normally creative, passionate, positive, funny & constantly inspired to better myself and better my living space. I want to find a desk and be inspired to refinish it, i want to find pretty fabrics and be inspired to make pretty curtains, most importantly, i want to find the time to do all of this.

Last week i was in a funk, i didn't feel inspired at all. i felt negative, overwhelmed & bored. Generally when i get like this, i like to re decorate my place to feel that fresh breath of "something new" but i haven't even finished my last over haul.

I felt tired, insecure, lazy & drained. I need to find the time to do the things i love, and i need to find the time to be me again. this feeling could be the weather that comes with the territory of where we live. If you don't know, Vancouver rains 10 months out of the year. during the winter when you finally get a sunny day, it leaves faster then it came & it can really get to you. you can't have a rainy day fund when you live in Vancouver, you have a snowy day fund, because it snows once a year and lasts 10 minutes but nobody goes outside on this day. I need to remember that outside of John & the fur babies, i should be my number one. I shouldn't be afraid to tell friends "no, not today".

today i'm going to sit in my pajamas, i'm going to drink 3 or 4 cups of coffee, i'm not going to do my hair or my make up, i'm going to refinish the fireplace and try to inspire myself. mother always told me nothing and nobody can make you feel anything, every way you feel and everything you do is your choice. Today i'm making the choice to pull out of my funk, to inspire myself, to sit in my pajamas & to share some cuddles with beef dog (to be honest, cuddles with beef dog would probably be enough to complete the rest of that list).

make sure you make the choice to be kind to yourself some times, put aside some time where you normally do everything for everyone else and do something for you! this picture really did it for me and i'm going to stare it all week when i start feel gloomy.

Things i loved this week.

Hey everyone,

it's about that time again! here are my most magnificent finds this week. This week is my inspiration for home decor & pretty finds for the house. I have to admit, a lot of these posts will probably be in this category.

1. the most amazing owl motif wallpaper from abigail edwards, i just about died when i saw this on HGTV and googled and googled until i finally found it. Well i found it, and i bought it, and it's pretty much as amazing as i'm gushing it out to be. 2. these super pretty, super soft chevron curtains found at urban outfitters 3. the most amazing owl umbrella stand found at twos company. 4. these handcrafted own nesting dolls found at savageartworks. 5. you may remember a post from me where i oogled over this room with a similar big octopus picture, well i found a really cheap, not very well done counterfeit of it here, it's also not black. better than nothing! 6. call me crazy, but i've been in love with white hardwood floors since the white on white issues of Style at Home magazine. I wouldn't dare mention this to John, i know the look i would i get!

365, picture a day, instagram. yes that post!

Hey everyone!

here it is, that picture a day, 365 basically post my pictures from instagram post. I have to admit, i actually am a bit addicted to instagram, so enjoy!

what john came home from toronto with

Hey everyone!

I told you guys that i would show you better pictures of johns sleeve.. well here i am, making good on that promise. I'm about to show you just how nerdy my husband really is. He has a full sleeve of.. yes, batman (thanks to Danny Pennie @ Radium Tattoo)! John always told me he had these amazing plans for his sleeves and his whole back when we first met, and i of course didn't believe him, though I wanted it to be true because i was already slowly covering my arm. he came with me to all of my tattoo appointments and one day said "i think i might want to finally get one". Being the incredibly supportive wife i am, i pushed him over that edge and made him book his appointment. Now today, almost two years later, we're a a fairly heavily tattooed couple.

We're used to going for lunch and having servers grab our arms and twist, random people yank up our sleeves and ooh and ahh. I have to say there is a lot more positive from random people now a days then there used to be & my parents are more less supportive now. John says his mom still cringes every time he comes by with more, but that's to be expected we're their babies. I'm obviously happy we found each other, but also really happy he finally decided to take that leap 2 years ago. We get to go through the positives and the negatives together. When we get a snide comment, we can vent to each other and we understand, as lame as it sounds - it truly makes our relationship stronger & it makes us realize exactly why we're best friends.

For those of you thinking "my golly, what about when you're 80?!" it's simple. I'm not living for when i'm 80, an age i might not ever make it to. We all have a story, and being individuals, we all have a different way of telling that story.

can you play spot the beef dog? he tried to get in on every photo.

Things i loved this week.

Hey Everyone

I used to love reading friday finds & friday favorites on my favorite blogs until i started finding too many things i loved. I now know why so many people do this..you need to catalogue your finds in some way! this is the valentines addition, and though i'm not a huge valentines freak, i love all of the pretty red hearts & how cute everything is that comes out around valentines!

1.the made with love spatula from modcloth.  

2. amazing cupcakes that make you want to squeal from the cupcake blog  
3. the most amazing hand made valentine ever found at cherry's jubilee    
4. the cutest mustache sporting "amour to love" octopus found also at modcloth  
5. the cutest ever valetines elephant.BlackBaroque etsy shop.
6. last but not least, these adorable conversation heart cookies found at sugar and flour.

if that didn't make you go stir crazy for valentines, then you're worse than me!

DIY - Deer Silhouette Painting

Hey everyone!

remember that blog post i promised you with the pretty DIY art? well, here it is! the best part about this DIY? it's perfect for people who have absolutely no artistic ability! like me!

my friend miranda, whom i've introduced you to several times taught me this pretty, amazing, super simple DIY!

This is what you'll need:

1. Canvas! I used 16x20 for an acrylic medium.

2. Paint! I used a black acrylic, but a black ink would work best & you'll only have to do one coat.

3. A book. I soooo did not use a bright shiny morning - it's my all time favorite book. I used a stephen king book that i've read 12 times and can get a 2nd paperback copy for $7.95. My friend Miranda used a nancy drew book, which i really liked because of the black and white images.

4. Modpodge in gloss luster.

5. Paintbrush x2. One big, one small.

6. very thin Sharpie or felt tip pen.

First things First. You're going to have to cut or rip pages out of your beloved book and place them on your canvas one at a time Take your big brush ( i used a 2 inch trim brush ) and modpoge over each piece of paper. I made sure to paper around the edges and corners of the canvas, so no canvas was showing at all.

once you've completed this step & let it dry for about an hour, if you have no artistic ability when it comes to drawing, like myself.. google whatever image you want & print it out. I found a doe head that I liked, then googled some antler that i knew wouldn't be too much of a pain to cut out. i did create my own antlers, to make them look more.. antlery by adding in extra spikes? or whatever they're called.

once i had my head all laid out, i had a problem moving forward. I really liked the grungy processed look of it, but move forward! you can always make it again!

now that everything is aligned and where you want it, just tape it down with scotch tape and line around it with you're super thin sharpie. lining it is honestly, probably the hardest part of this whole project, so that says a lot.

once your head is totally lined, paint! that's it.. paint inside the lines! give it about an hour to dry and modpodge over that bad boy and voila. you've created a masterpiece.. or atleast a pretty little DIY you can hang up and enjoy for under $25.

worlds worst blogger.. maybe second worst.

Hey everyone.

I already know i'm the worlds worst blogger, i wasn't always this way i promise! but we've been going on lot's of trips lately & moping around with the gross weather, not to mention I work crazy hours, but love every moment of my job! Today is one of the sunniest days i've seen in a long time & what better way to start the day and update my blog!

With john gone for the week working, it's just been me and the beefdog. we've watched a lot of teen mom & jersey shore ( don't judge me ) and he's done a lot of sleeping while i've been at work.

Rewind to before john left and my life became boring!

John and I went on a trip to Toronto to see our tattoo artist Danny Pennie, Him and his lovely jewelery making wife hosted us for the weekend. It was such an amazing time, and we were tattooed at the shop pretty much all day, 2 days straight. I'm usually the one who hogs all of Dannys time when we get to see him, so this time, i gracefully agreed to give it up!

this is what we came home with (i'll post better pictures of johns arm when he gets home as opposed to just a family portrait):

The owl is on my right thigh, don't you love how i gracefully just pulled my pants down for the picture? me too! Johns arm is a sleeve.. full of batman. It's really crazy & amazing and everyone stares at it & him wherever we go. I'll make sure to post some pictures of it as soon as hes home (which will hopefully be this weekend)

Remember that DIY i've been promising for a month? ( don't hate me ), well it's been done forever & hanging on my wall. You can expect that post tomorrow! I promise!

thanks for stopping by, here are some lovely photos from our trip & a couple of randoms to end this one: