PAISLEY PATTERNS, DESIGNS and PRINTS for your HOME

Paisley print fabrics are one of those designs that just don't ever go out of style. The colors and patterns change with the times so that there's always a stylish paisley print that looks fresh and modern.

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Some cool decorating ideas for this funky set of teen bedding would be to get a lime green, hot pink or orange faux fur rug for the bed side and stencil some paisley patterns in coordinating paint colors on the walls in a similar grouping to the one on the bedding fabric.

If you are really aggressive and like a challenge, use a striping paint technique on the walls to match the dust ruffle!

Each new generation seems to thing that they came up with paisley. The hippie crowd in the 60s did paisley along with tie-dye and the 70s mixed it up with disco glam. In the 80s and 90s paisley designs took a more starched, dignified form. Now here we are in the new millenium with cool paisley prints showing up in teen's bedrooms as well as their purses. Paisley and polka dot wallets, coin purses as well as paisley bandanas and sheets are considered so very cool this fall. Paisley patterns are pretty classic , but the colors! WOW! Bright oranges are combined with shades of turquoise blue and purple for a brilliant display of traditional fall colors gone wild!

If your tween's bedroom has an adjoining bathroom, decorate the bathroom with paisley print towels, shower curtains and other bath accessories like these! Return to Tween and Teenage Girls Paisley Pattern Bedding and Bedroom Decorating Ideas

COOL PINK LEOPARD PRINT STUFF

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Here are some decorating ideas and ways to update existing furniture for a teen girl's bedding or bedroom with pink leopard print. Pink leopard comforters make a pretty large decorative footprint in room and you have to be pretty imaginative on ways to carry your wild animal print around the room without things getting out of hand. Here are some really cute pink leopard print decorative accessories and gifts that should soothe your teen's need for a walk on the wild side.

Get a special wooden personalized wall hanging with your tween's name cut out and painted with a leopard pattern in any color you choose. Keep reading for wall painting ideas and suggestions for this cool bedroom that's being decorated and accessorized right before your eyes!






Pink leopard drawer pulls could help put the finishing touch on a quick, cheap and easy makeover for a plain old dresser or makeup table. If you have a stained wooden piece of bedroom furniture you can instantly transform it into a perfect piece of pink leopard theme furniture specifically designated for a spot in this funky animal print room!



A pink leopard area rug would be very cute if you prefer your pink leopard print on the floor rather than displayed in your little diva's bedding or comforter sets.

I suppose you could paint your walls in a leopard pattern if you're a pro with a paint brush, but I would like for you to try another wall painting idea that works well in any bedroom, but will be spectacular in this teenagers posh pink dream room. If you are really feeling adventurous, mix and match leopard spots with zebra stripes and see how much a unique pattern mix can do for a bedroom!

Paint your wall in a shade of pale brown to match the fabric print on your comforter. Using a chalk line, draw off equally spaced diamonds and paint them in a pale pink paint color to match your pink leopard print. The diamonds give a welcome break in the wild animal action yet allow you to stay in the same color family.


Return to find more COOL PINK LEOPARD PRINT STUFF for girls.

EXOTIC TEEN GIRLS BEDDING and BEDROOM DECORATING IDEAS

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A theme in shopping in any of the online stores or websites that specialize in contemporary teen bedding and accessories you know that they equate funky prints with an expensive price tag. There's lots of places that you can buy cheap comforters and duvet covers but will your teen think that it looks cool, funky and stylish enough for her to show off to her friends? One decorating trend for older girl's bedrooms has been to use very bright and colorful print fabrics for the bedding and then to calm it down with statues of Buddha and other vintage bronzes.


Here are some tips and ideas on how to make your teenage girl's bedroom as trendy as she wants with a price tag that much less expensive than you might expect.

1. Sit down with your teenage girl and get her to show you what she likes either in a catalog or in one of the online stores. Turn down the pages with the pictures or bookmark the pages with the pictures of completely decorated bedrooms that tickle her fancy.

2. Discuss fabrics. Does she like sleek and shiny silk and satin fabrics or does she prefer rustic and nubby textures? Will you need something that's easily washable or is your teen ticky and capable of dealing with a high maintenance duvet cover that's made from fabric that might be ruined if her friends smear onion dip on it?

3. Take note of basic color schemes that she seems to favor. Could it be that one will work with the current wall color? If you don't have to pick out new wall paint colors, that's a bargain!


Now, check out the discount bedding sites or shop the closeout sales for discontinued bedding collections. Don't waste time searching for bedding sets for teens, they are few and far between. A more beneficial use of your time would be to see what's available at discounted prices and see what could be done to make them appealing to older girls. Take note of decorating ideas that you could use with each set and how expensive it will be to put them to work in the room that you are decorating.

For example look at pictures of the average set of paisley bedding. Most have lots of browns, shades of camel tan and burgundy or blue.


At first glance it would only appeal to an older person, right? Ok, now imagine that set of bedding with bright orange, red and cobalt blue silk, satin or even leather throw pillows. An Indian throw with sequins that's been embroidered in wild colors thrown over the foot of the bed would liven things up as well as a dust ruffle in a coordinating, but eclectic print and you'd need to replace that stodgy canopy and header with something right out of the latest Bratz movie or off the set of DeGrassi, too. Fringe is cool, so check out some bolts of purple or turquoise to see if they would work while you're in the notions section of the discount store.

Decorative accessories can be a large bronze colored Buddha, Indian elephant end tables and brass lamps!

A sculpture of Buddha brings a sense of peace and calm and is the perfect decorative balance to your psychedelic bedding design as well as coordinating with the boring brown print that you started with.

Return to Exotic Teen Girls Bedding and Bedroom Decorating Ideas to see more bohemian style bedroom ideas for teens.

Mikhail Baryshnikov

I'm not sure exactly when my obsession with Mikhail Baryshnikov started but I'm pretty sure it was sometime in high school. I took ballet classes very briefly as a small child, as most little girls do, but that was it. I was not and am not a dancer myself, but I have always loved everything about the dance world: its grace, its beauty, its strength, its magic. The classical ballets were my favorites: Giselle, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker. I fell for Baryshnikov after discovering the movie The Turning Point. He was just so gorgeous and no one danced like him: great flying leaps where he seemed to hang in the air longer then seemed natural like some freaky ballet superhero!

My dream of seeing Baryshnikov dance live came true when I was nineteen. He was peforming with his White Oak Dance Project at UNLV's Ham Hall. The day before the show I got horribly sick with a virus, and ended up at the performance with a high fever. My boyfriend at the time went with me to the show and he was actually very sweet and took care of me during the performance, making sure I was awake whenever Misha was on stage, because I was so sick with fever I would kind of doze off in my seat. Suffice to say, I don't remember that much about it. I do remember Misha doing this little like golf routine, very cute and quite funny.

Anyway, I was so excited when I saw that Baryshnikov's new Hell's Kitchen Dance Project would be performing in Reno as part of their month long arts festival Artown. My dear friend Amy, who lives in Reno, was a ballet dancer when she was young and I knew she'd be thrilled if I came up so we could go to the show together. It was incredible. The Pioneer Center in downtown Reno is quite small, and we had amazing seats about 10 rows back from the stage so could see everything perfectly. The minute Baryshnikov walked out on stage the entire room kind of gasped and then held it's breath in anticipatory unison. The first dance was called “Years Later” and on a huge screen at the back of the stage they showed footage of a very young dancing Baryshnikov and then our present day live Baryshnikov danced along with the footage. There was a light in the very front of the stage so that it projected his shadow on the screen, and he could move up or downstage to make the shadow bigger or smaller so that there were sometimes three Baryshnikovs dancing: the young one onscreen, the 59 year old live one, and his shadow. It was quite touching, and even a little bit sad. The onscreen Baryshnikov was the young strong dancer, doing all his great jumps and leaps that the now older Baryshnikov has a hard time doing. He would even make fun of himself and laugh along with the audience as he bent over holding his back like an old man, throwing his hands up in the air like he won’t even try to keep up with his young self anymore. Baryshnikov is so humorous and down to Earth - it's really refreshing and interesting considering how superhuman he truly is. The final dance featured Baryshnikov again along with the dozen or so young dancers in his hand picked company. It was wonderful but again quite touching and sad, a passing of the torch kind of thing. He would dance with them, but also watch them in amazement and with a bit of nostalgia and regret in his posture and demeanor. You knew he was envying their youth. And then it's not like Baryshnikov blends in with these dancers. It's very obvious: there's freaking Mikhail Baryshnikov dancing onstage, 30 years older than all of the other dancers, and although some of them are excellent, they will never be as good as he was and still is. But this dance titled “Come In” was like Baryshnikov inviting them to give it a damn good try. All in all, it was a great experience getting to see him before he stops dancing altogether, something I will always cherish. Clumsy old desert rat me got to experience the greatest dancer that ever lived, Mikhail Baryshnikov, live in person, not once, but twice.

I love these iPod shuffly survey thingees.

So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Limewire, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...

Opening Credits:"Oh Very Young" by Cat Stevens

Waking Up:"The Basts/Spring Landscape" from the "Howards End" Soundtrack

First Day At School:"Return to Sender" by Elvis Presley

Falling In Love:"Soft" by Kings of Leon (this song is about impotence, so that SUCKS!)

Peaceful and/or Fight Song:"Here's Where the Story Ends" by The Sundays

Breaking Up:"Beautiful One" by The Cardigans

Prom:"The Absence of God" by Rilo Kiley

Sex Scene"Revolution" by The Beatles

Life:"It Don't Come Easy" by Ringo Starr (You can say that again!)

Mental Breakdown:"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison (Nice!)

Driving:"Cut Your Hair" by Pavement (this is an appropriately bouncy song for a drive)

Flashback:"At My Window Sad and Lonely" by Billy Bragg and Wilco

Getting back together:"Free Man in Paris" by Joni Mitchell (Ha! No getting back together for me!)

Wedding:"Days That Are Over" by Sondre Lerche (that's kind of depressing)

Birth of Child:"Atomic" by Blondie (weird)

Final Battle:"Ocean of Noise" by Arcade Fire

Funeral Song:"The Bargain Store" by Dolly Parton

End Credits:"So Long, Marianne" by Leonard Cohen

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - A Spoiler Full Review!

Ok, now it's time for my spoiler-full, positive and negative rant on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Seriously, if you haven't finished the book yet, don't read this! By the way, sometimes in the following rant, I do talk directly to Jo Rowling. I completely understand that she will never read my blog, but it makes me feel better to address her just the same.

I'll start with the positives:

-Good triumphed over Evil! Hooray! And Harry didn't have to die for it to happen. I know that Rowling has gotten some flack over the years for always having some kind of loophole for Harry, but thank God, cause I would have been crushed by his death even though I would have accepted it. Ditto for the survival of Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, and Luna.
-Dumbledore ain't perfect. I loved that Dumbledore was shown to have some major flaws of character. The wizened old wizard, perfect in every way was boring. Selfish, neglectful and glory seeking was more honest, makes him a well rounded character and greater for having overcome those flaws.
-I KNEW SNAPE WAS GOOD! The Borders Books where I bought my copy was handing out stickers that said "Snape is a friend" or "Snape is a foe." This was a huge debate in the fan Universe and I must say: how could you possibly doubt it? Once it was revealed his love for Lily was what turned him to the good side forever, it was like duh, of course, that makes so much sense! Apparently many people figured that out halfway through, but I'm a little slow. I knew he was good, but hadn't even considered it was love for Lily.
-You go Molly! To paraphrase something my friend Tim said: after 6 books spent cooking and making Christmas sweaters, Molly Weasley finally got to kick some ass! "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" That was fantastic!
-Ron and Hermione finally snogged! Too bad it was in the middle of the biggest battle of their lives. Geez, how long had that been building??? About halfway through this book, I was beginning to despair that Rowling was just teasing us this whole time and was never going to let them consummate their "sexual tension." How freaking awkward is it going to be for Rupert Grint and Emma Watson when they finally have to film it?!
-Rowling is a Tolkien fan. I'm sure there are plenty of other things she stole from like ancient myths and Roald Dahl but I noticed the Lord of the Rings parallels the most. The one locket weighing down the wearer and making everyone mean? The myriad magical creatures coming to the aid of the good side towards the end of the last battle? I almost put this under the negatives, but realized, hell I'm a Tolkien fan myself and this kind of "stealing" happens all the time in literature. Plenty of writers will go on to steal from Rowling.
-Harry is a freaking man! I was monstrously proud of Harry as he walked into the Forbidden Forest all ready to sacrifice his own life for his friends and the world at large. That's a lot of pressure for a 17 year old, even if he is a wizard.

Ok, now time for the negatives:

-The death of Lupin and Tonks. Ok Rowling. I get it. Since you weren't going to kill off any of the main three, you had to find some other beloved characters to bite it. But it really bugs me that you did it to these two just when they had finally resolved all their issues and had a baby!!! What? It continues the whole Godfatherly theme? Fine, but then why did you have to kill them off stage? If they had to die I wanted to SEE IT HAPPEN! Who did they fight? What kind of battle was it? Did they die in each other's arms? Come on!
-The whole Elder Wand thing confused the hell out of me. Just reading 7 was not enough for me to get the Draco connection. I literally had to reread parts in 6 to realize that Draco disarmed Dumbledore before Snape killed him. I think Rowling could have done a better job of making that all clear.
-I missed Hogwarts. Now I know that the story is told from Harry's POV so it has to stay with Harry, but I really missed Hogwarts. Especially once we learn that Neville and Ginny were getting up to all kinds of DA shenanigans during the year. Rowling, you could totally write a whole book that parallels this one from the Hogwarts student's POV. That'd be awesome.
-Gryffindor's sword. This was something that was pointed out to me by Tim and my sister too and I went, "Huh, yeah, you're right!" I think this might be the biggest plot hole in the entire book. If the goblins got the sword back after the Gringotts debacle, how was Neville still able to pull it out of the Sorting Hat at the end to kill Nagini? I guess it just had that much magic associated with it, you know?
-Dragged in the middle. Was it just me or did the story drag a bit in the middle? All that hopping from one forest to the next got old. I was totally ready for some freaking action!
-The Epilogue. Now I am all for epilogues. They usually make me very happy. But this one did not give us enough information. Rowling, if you're going to write an epilogue, then freaking write an epilogue woman! Ok, so Neville's the Herbology professor, but what does Harry do? Did he follow his dreams and become an auror? And what about Luna? Did she by any chance marry Dean Thomas? I had a feeling you were leaning that way. I know I shouldn't complain, but I'm selfish. I wanted more.

Ok, I'm done. I'll think of more I'm sure, but this is plenty for now. All in all I really enjoyed the book and I'm sad that there will be no more Harry Potter. I'd love for Rowling to go back and do a whole series of prequels about the first war, James and Lily, Sirius, Lupin, Arthur and Molly, etc. That would be totally cool. Oh, and I hope Emma Watson gets some serious acting training before they start filming this one, because as Hermione she's going to be in a majority of the scenes and has a big emotional journey to go on. HA! I'm so mean.

Come on all you readers of Harry, what did you all think?

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Well, this isn't going to be a serious full blown review, just my thoughts and ideas on it really. First off, I must say that I will be required to see it again do to the incredible rudeness of a woman in my theater who let her two year old child run free and then continually left the theater to get said child more soda, popcorn, and candy and basically was a distracting nightmare throughout. Why didn't I move you ask? Well, the theater was packed so there wasn't anywhere to really go and I was with 4 other people including my 11 year old niece. I feel sometimes like I have bad movie theater karma because it seems like I always get a loser like this sitting near me. It has to be punishment for something.

Anyway on to the movie. This new director David Yates did a great job with the look, tone, and feel. The kids are becoming better and better actors, except for maybe Emma Watson who has a delivery that for some reason just gets on my nerves. Daniel Radclifffe especially is really connected to Harry now so that he can totally get across the angst and vulnerablility of the character. Imelda Staunton was absolutely brilliant as Umbridge. Such evil underneath a perfectly perky demeanor. My favorite touch about her characterization were the precious decorative plates with kittens on them that adorned the walls of her Defense Against the Dark Arts office. So as she is essentially torturing our hero Harry, in the background and coming from the Dolby digital sound system all around you are these little sweet innocent purrs and meows. Awesome. I checked the book and the decorative plates are mentioned but Rowling did not write that the kittens moved and purred and meowed. So, well done on that filmmakers!

Now, of course the movie differentiated A LOT from the book. But granted the book is over 800 pages long so that was totally expected. But there were some things that were left out or changed that really irked me. Here is the short list:

1. They did not make Ron and Hermione prefects.

2. There is no Quidditch, so Ron does not become Keeper and Umbridge does not take it away from the students.

3. The Cho Chang storyline is completely changed in a way that kind of leaves a question mark as to the end of her and Harry's short lived romance.

4. Fred & George Weasley's exit from Hogwarts was kind of lame.

5. The confrontation at the Ministry between the students and the Death Eaters was not done in a way that made it feel like the kids were actually in mortal peril.

6. They let Sirius be all cuddly protective Godfather and did not reveal his reckless, petulant, immature side at all.

7. They did not reveal Neville's connection to the prophecy.

Well, geez, after reading that back to myself it sounds like I didn't like the movie at all but that's not the case. If you have never read the books and just seen the movies, it is a very good movie. And even though I have read the books, I still really enjoyed the movie. I just wish they could have made it six hours long and fit everything in! Is that so much to ask?

I will say though that one of my favorite things about this entire series is that from the lead characters down to the minor characters with the smallest screen time they have kept the same actors in every role throughout. Except of course for Dumbledore, who had to be replaced after Richard Harris' death. But I think that really sets these films apart and makes them completely believable as a world unto itself.
I can't wait for Half Blood Prince in November 2008.