aussie obsessed

                                                                         Source: thingssheloves.tumblr.com via Jenn on Pinterest

I love way too many bloggers in Australia.
did you know that they are so fashionable down under?
they are!

here are a few of my favorites, and probably yours too.
let me know if there is someone else I need to know about!!

• http://tabletonic.blogspot.com/
• http://cocokelley.blogspot.com/
• http://absolutelybeautifulthings.blogspot.com/
• http://www.brightbazaar.blogspot.com/
• http://adaanddarcy.blogspot.com/
• http://verandahhouse.blogspot.com/

and I love Adore Magazine.
an online Aussie home decor mag.
go read it now.
or at least look at the pictures :)

black globe!!

My friend Catherine just sent me a picture from her phone of a black globe she saw while shopping at Target!!
$24.99!!

I neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed this!!!
I'm calling my Mom now to beg her to buy it for me for my birthday (which is in 2 weeks :)

Thank you so much Cat for thinking of me & remembering my love & lust for a black globe!!

Not only is she thoughtful, she's also super thrifty, crafty, and fun!  Check out her blog Budget Blonde  for lots of great tips and ideas!

What I Wear Wednesday

I only managed to get pictures of 3 outfits this week.
maybe because I only went to 3 places worth dressing up for??

On my way to a talk with Cholene Espinoza at SGU.  She is the author of the book Through the Eye of the Storm.
She is such an interesting lady.  used to fly U-2s, undercover reporter in Iraq, humanitarian in Sudan and rebuilt after hurricane Katrina.... and now attending medical school with my husband.
After the talk I balanced out all that education and meaningful stuff by going to a little Jersey Shore watching party :) and I did poof my hair.
dress - Target, belt - Target, shoes - Target, necklace - body central

Volunteered at a luncheon for teenage mothers in Grenada.  We talked about how to care for your baby, your body, and yourself, self defense techniques, how to practice safe sex.  It was my 2nd time helping with the luncheon and it is such an experience.
dress- walmart, black tee - F21, shoes - payless

spent the entire day on the beach!  from 10-12 every  Saturday they bring a group of kids from the local orphanages to play and have lunch :) and then from 1-5 we had our SO Midterm Social.  These are some of my lovely SO friends and I :)

Sunday morning church!
Dress and shoes - Target!

does it seem like everything I own is from Target?? it's because it practically is!  In my hometown we have an outlet that sells Target stuff dirt cheap!!  For $10 you can get an entire outfit!  I miss it so much!

linking up with http://thepleatedpoppy.com/blog/ and http://www.nomodellady.com/

oatmeal cream pies

tonight I got a craving for oatmeal cream pies
and since I'm in Grenada I can't just run down to the grocery to buy them. no Little Debbie's on the island :(
so I looked up a recipe and luckily this lady over at Craving Chronicles had the same craving!!

delicious!!
the filling isn't exactly the same, but it's close enough
I'll probably work on tweaking it.
of course I didn't actually have marshmallow creme so I made my own from regular marshmallows.

linking up with For Love of Blogs' Tasty Tuesday!

'

Designer Spotlight A-Z: Dorothy Draper

Do you know Dorothy Draper??
She was one of the first pioneers in interior decorating
and her husband was FDR's personal doctor (oooohh aaahhh) and then he dumped her, but she showed him!
In 1939 she wrote a book called "Decorating is Fun! How to Be Your Own Decorator" and became one of the most famous designers in American history!

she decorated numerous fabulous places & they said that after she was done they had been "Draperized" haha!
she loved intense colors, shiny checkered floors, bold prints, and florals!
whats not to love about that??

In 1946 she decorated the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia and in 2007 it was given a bit of a facelift from her protege Carleton Varney. 
It's pretty fabulous if you ask me

 the original lobby.

 an original siting room

 the outside of the restaurant named in her honor at the Greenbrier
designed by Carleton Varney

the re-vamped lobby by Carleton Varney

I actually have on of Varney's old books at home! I got it at the goodwill! score!

but remind me to get this book when I get home!!

and to spotlight Carleton Varney when I get to the Vs :)

Color Duo: Purple and Blue

inspiration: peacocks!
remember those shoes?
sigh.
what a gorgeous color combo.

Source: peoniesforme.tumblr.com via Kathy on Pinterest

Source: hiddeninfrance.typepad.com via Kelsey on Pinterest

Source: bohemiansugar.tumblr.com via Kelsey on Pinterest

Source: houseofturquoise.com via Boya on Pinterest

Source: lookbook.elledecor.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Kate on Pinterest

I love this wallpaper! My husband would think I was crazy if I dared go that bold.

and just for fun. can you even fathom the thinking behind this one.
a hotel in Death Valley National Park Callifornia has this room to offer it's guests??
Amargosa Opera House's website

:)

40 followers!

Can I just say how shocked and happy I am to have 40 followers!?
As my sweet husband said "that's more than a follower a day!"
he likes to kinda poke fun at me for getting excited about blogging.
& he's promised that once midterms are over next week he'll teach me some more html stuff, yay!
Month 1 (it isn't even over yet!) of this little blog has been so much fun
Thank you for all your kind comments and support!
I can't wait to see what the next month holds!

and just like all of you... this made me smile.

Source: insidetheloop.tumblr.com via Kelsey on Pinterest

earrings out of coins

last Sunday I had "Crafts with Kelsey" as apart of our Significant Others Organization here at SGU. 
I taught everyone how to make these little earrings out of the Eastern Caribbean Currency.
the 1, 2, and 5 cent coins here are made out of aluminum or some other non-strong metal. 
It feels and sounds like play money. and it's worth absolutely nothing.  5cents EC is like a penny in the US. can you believe they waste time and money making a 1 and 2 cent coin??

One day I was looking at them, they come in different shapes and sizes.  frilly, round, square.
and I decided I could make earrings out of them. 
only problem was I didn't own a drill or have any nails to hammer a hole through.
so as impulsive as I am I found the next best thing, a box of thumbtacks and went to work with my little hammer.
I broke about 10 of them, but after a while I was successful and had holes through the coins!

I've upgraded my methods recently to either using a really thin nail and hammer or my friends drill.

my favorites! the frilly 5cents!

"She's got a whole shoebox full of them. dangly ones"

I was just having fun with these ones. this shows both sides. Thought I'd show the Queen in honor of all the royal hype going on lately (btw love Kate Middleton!)
I looped them together using fishing line, my to go crafting essential.

next up I am making an awesome EC necklace.
anyone know if defacing money is a crime in the caribbean?? :/

foodie fun!

I can only hope to one day be as cool and creative as this mom over at http://meetthedubiens.blogspot.com
She does lots of great crafts and things... but her "Fun Food Friday" is awesome!!!
here are a few of my favorites... check her out!!  even if you don't have kids. which I don't.

in case you didn't know I have a thing for lions.  I think it's Liam Neeson's voice in the Narnia movies that started it....
but what don't I have a "thing" for???

decorating with beach finds #1

I collect a lot of random shells and corals from the beach. 
& a lot of sea-finds have natural made holes in them already!

I made my mom a wind chime while she was here.
I made one for my mother-in-law for Christmas and I actually liked it better, but alas I forgot to take a picture.

I whipped this up in about 10 minutes as a surprise while my mom was in the shower, so it probably could have been better, but she loved it!

I'll have to make one for myself whenever I get my next stock pile of beach finds.

this was made with clear fishing line, random shells and corals, and large branch type thing (I'm not sure what it it, I found it on the beach, perhaps it was a sea fan or some other type of sea plant ?)

sea shells and  the coral pieces make such a beautiful sounds when clanked together!!

Pottery 101

I took my first pottery class last week at a local souvenir shop.
It was so much fun!
I only got to make a pinch pot, I guess the most basic thing you can make (?)
I found out that pottery certainly isn't for the perfectionist... or one with long finger nails.
it was so hard to smooth out those cracks!!

I went back today to paint my pot after it had been fired.
I decided not to glaze it for several reasons
a. it cost double
b. I'd have to go back again to pick it up
c. the colors wouldn't have been as vibrant

the downside is that I can't ever put a liquid in my pot.
and the guy kinda looked at me weird when I told him I had no intentions of actually using the pot anyway.  it was just a decoration!
hopefully it can make the journey home with me in December!


Day 1:

Day 2

In case you didn't know... Grenada is known as the Isle of Spice!  It is the 2nd largest exporter of nutmeg in the world! and the entire island is 24 miles long. crazy.
Someday I want to master the pottery wheel!

new blog header

spruced things up a bit over at the Coghills in Grenada page.
I hate to have my blog look the same for very long.
as soon as I get a great idea I'll probably be changing this one.  I don't love it anyway.

and here are some that I've done for my friends

Michelle over at - http://mavyboo09.blogspot.com/

Kristen at - http://kristenann11.blogspot.com/ (Kristen and Michelle are identical twins and by bestest friends since 1st grade!)

 Lea and her adorable little family over at - http://rolandbaby.blogspot.com/
and she's actually on a new header that I made for her, but this one is my favorite :)

these were all done using Picasa (& now Picasa is linked with Picnik! I am an avid picnik-er!)

want to see more of my amateur blog headers?? click here
someday I'll learn how to do the fancy stuff. maybe

What I Wear Wednesday

As lame as this sounds, it is actually really hard to put together a nice outfit everyday when you don't have a job, or school, or somewhere nice to go to.

I spend the majority of my days with kids at the orphanage, our after school program, or babysitting.
and the other part of my day is spent sweating as I walk to the store, beach, or to the university to take my poor over-worked medical school attending husband dinner.
and I'm currently functioning on about an 1/8th of my wardrobe.
(I know I know, cue the sad music for the girl living the dream life on a tropical island)
anyway, this is a bit of a challenge.  thankfully this week I had a few interesting places to go that I could "dress up" for a little more

 Friday night we went to Fish Friday.  A street festival on the northern end of the island. and we caught this sunset on the way up.
My necklace was a Christmas gift from my husband, it's in the shape of Grenada :)

 Sunday morning church!  the yellow shoes make an appearance once again. remember this necklace?  and my hair is getting out-of-control-long!

 Monday night some friends and I went out to watch the crab races! haha seriously. they race hermit crabs here! so much fun until that cute little crab pinched me!

random other days spent playing with the kids and doing some shopping.

and St. Patrick's Day craziness.

How do you take pictures for WIWW?
have a friend take them? self timer? in the mirror??
I need some help.

I'm linking up with No Model Lady, The Pleated Poppy, and Jewelscapes!

diy.... shoes?

I want these shoes so badly!!

Source: shopplasticland.com via Kelsey on Pinterest

If I was at home I'd take a go at painting my own feather on a pair of plain heels.
(remind me of this in December when I return to the homeland)

I painted my wedding shoes.
I couldn't find the right color of blue, open toe, 2 inch heels.
so I painted a pair I already had with acrylic paint one night on a whim
and it worked!
I added inexpensive pearl and rhinestone ear rings and they turned out beautifully!

The paint may have cracked a bit during the hours of dancing at the reception, but who cares :)

Designers Spotlight A-Z: Anne Coyle

C! week 3 already!

I randomly stumbled on Anne Coyle when I was researching another great designer (Melanie Coddington) but Anne caught my eye and is a little more my style.

What drew me to her was her use of art found in nature. I just made that up btw.
art found in nature.  that is my new line! yea, perhaps a new weekly post. 
There is so much art to be found in nature. 
sea fans are a personal favorite of mine.
coral, shells, branches, drift wood, flowers, sand dollars, star fish.... etc.
and Anne likes them too! \
all photos from her website & I may have "pinned them too" :)

Source: annecoyleinteriors.com via Kelsey on Pinterest

Source: annecoyleinteriors.com via Kelsey on Pinterest

Source: annecoyleinteriors.com via Kelsey on Pinterest

Source: annecoyleinteriors.com via Kelsey on Pinterest

this room is so luxe.