miss kitty

Hey everyone,

to go along with the “where have i been post” we finally just miss kitty back yesterday. She was gone for 9 days while she was receiving radiation treatment to kill a tumor. So far so good, kitty cakes is feeling a lot better. Since she is still a mutant kitty, we can only pet her for half hour a day and have to scoop her litter box while wearing gloves. This might not sound that hard, unless your cat is glued to your lap constantly & sleeps at your face.

So far the first night was spent with her scratching at the bedroom door and squealing to get in, it pretty much broke my heart. Funny enough though the tumor was in her throat so her voice has changed now, it’s a much lower pitch and not so blood curdling. THANK GOD.

A little back story on kitty cakes for those of you who don’t know me, i found kitty on a website here called petfinder. It’s an orginization that works with shelters here to take photos and write bios of all of their pets. I found kitty on here in 2008 and for some reason i was oddly attached to her despite her not having a bio written up. It took us a couple of weeks to locate her because she has been trasnfered from shelter to shelter. Once we finally found her they let us know that she doesn’t come out of her cage for anyone and she’s incredibly timid. As soon as i opened the crate she came and instantly walked in to my arms. It was at this point the shelter staff pretty much approved my application regardless of my info and we took her home. She was pretty skinny and not eating for the couple of days so we took her to the vet (she really didn’t like car rides). At this time we were young (we still are young) and pretty broke. We spent what then felt like a fortune running tests on her wondering if we’d be able to afford it and finally determined she had an illness, we quickly took it under control with some medication but as she grew older the medication seemed to stop working thus leading us to the radiation therapy that seems to have done wonders for her.

Back to her hating car rides.. we were unaware of what happened to kitty in her previous home we were pretty much told she was found as a stray & they had no info on her. We had noticed that aside from turning in to a horror show in cars, she had a really hard time jumping on things. She usually just walks up to whatever object she wants up on turns around, looks at us and meows. It’s worked pretty well, we just lift her up and she meows when she wants down. Turns out her previous owners attempted to get rid of her by through her out of a fast moving car window. I’ll never understand this happening to ANY animal, but especially kitty. She’s just the sweetest, most loveable cat ever. She had to broken back legs and had road rash all over her frail little body. She had eventually scoured under a tree where the spca thinks she went to die alone but a passerby found her.

I’m happy to say that she’s found her forever home with us & she knows how to love people again. She’s not shy at all anymore and welcomes every guest that comes over by sleeping in their shoes. Despite her incredibly first (but long) start, it’s amazing to see how she’s overcome the abuse she’s put up with and not to sound like a crazy cat lady, it motivates me to make the most out of my life as well.

We’re (well, more so just me & beefy) so thankful to have this little super model home again, i missed my little shadow.

where have i been?! + some instagram

Hey everyone,

i've been away for a few weeks, i took a surprise trip to kamloops to see some family that i really needed to see. recently we've had some huge things happen (things you just don't talk about on your blog) that really remind you to bring your family back together. Being with them was the exact kick in the butt i needed to remember to be a better person & your family is your family. your only family. people can be added in to this family, and unfortunately some people choose to leave your family but it's always the ones you least expect that will be there for you in the end. it's rather strange how it works really.

when i got back from said trip, i came to find beefy had eaten the internet. ( he chewed the ethernet cord, and though i work at a communications company i was too lazy to grab one from the front desk).. so yes, this is where i've been, with family and lazy.

In other news, i will be updating this week! currently jonah and i are on the hunt for a new sofa that we so desperately need! enjoy some instagram pictures of pretty skies and spring!

Things i loved this week.

Hey everyone!

I thought yesterday was friday, but quickly realized i was a day behind on my blog. I decided since i was already a day behind i might as well make it two. Normally i schedule these posts but i had a busy week at work, so it just didn't happen.

before i continue, let me just fill you in on the recents. we finished out button tufted ottoman that we made out of a coffee table, i'll post the how to later this week! I got my hair re done yesterday, i started going to a new hairdresser who i'm very happy with but she's on vacation for a month, so i went to the same salon and a different stylist. This was just supposed to be a touch up and my roots, she forewarned me that there were a few copper parts that just didn't take so well but looked like "highlights"(which i found weird because i've been doing this colours for 1 year.. year and a half). I got out of the salon at 6:02 PM and they closed at 6:00PM so i'm fairly certain she just wanted me out, these are random spots she legitimately just missed. i'm so terrible at complaining, i feel bad and i don't want to hurt their feelings. normally in this case i would go to the drugstore and dye my hair black and call it a "new look" but when you pay $130 for your roots and brightening the ends, you don't expect it to look like a raccoon tail.

I guess i'll have to give them a call when they open, wish me luck.. i'll probably straight up vomit as soon as they answer. /firstworldproblems.

now, for the things i loved this week.. i'm just trying to get away from the "house and home" i drool and obsess over so much, mainly because i start following through with these things i love and spend far way too much money re doing the place each year.. but sometimes it just doesn't work out.

side note: I think all of us tattooed artsy girls love nautical themes, i've been looking endlessly for a nautical themed bathing suit, since i can actually wear one comfortably this year, but i can't find a cute one for the life of me. send me some links if you know of any :)

1. i just about died over this ship diagram found at iscreenyouscreen. 2. this dreamy, whimsical feather watercolour from jodyvanb 3. this funny cat print found at popcapopca. 4. this pretty owl print found at corid. 5. this hilarious bulldog bride & groom found at millerseye

after a day from hell, i could use some pretty pictures

i guess it was just one of those days,

i was a little moody, a bit tired, pretty insecure & pretty much over it 2 hours after i woke up. all i could do to cheer up was creep some things on pinterest. I find inspirational/funny/adorable paintings and quotes help me get through these days. every time those feelings start coming back and your eyes well up for pretty much no reason, you open it back up and you forget.

i'm very artistically moved. i can be having the worst possible day and listening to a favorite song, or looking at a beautiful painting and it instantly turns that around. Unfortunately, the opposite can also be true (though not as easily).

so as a note to myself: cheer the &*%$ up buttercup! nothing in life should get you down.

feeling blue.

  life, recently.

Things i loved this week.

Hey everyone!

this week i've been dreaming of warmer weather & sun. welcome to "what i want to buy this week"!

 




1. "bike lane" dress found on anthropologie. 2. the "peach me i'm dreaming" dress from my favorite modcloth 3. this pretty "coincidence & chance revel dress" by urban outfitters 4. this pretty "staring at stars" dress, also from urban outfitters. 5. the "pony tales" top also by my number 2.

DIY pretty home made vases

hey everyone!

i told you folks i'd have a DIY for you, it's a little late but we were so caught up with finishing things around the house. turns out i found the inspiration i needed! my craft room is almost complete, our walls are finished, we have pictures hung, french doors up. when it's all said and done, i'll show you! for now, i'll show you these pretty DIY vases.

If you love vintage bottles & vases as much as i do, then you're going to like this. What you'll need:

• latex paint in any colour you want
• paint tray
• bottles / vases or any glass wear you want.

it's seriously as simple as it gets.

1. plump a good amount of paint in to each bottle ( i used a large syringe for the skinny necked ones )

2. turn your bottle over and over until the inside is fully coated.

3. let the bottle sit upside down in your paint tray over night to dry!

4. find pretty flowers to put in them!

Voila!

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!