Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Octo-momma

Work continues on our big opening between the kitchen and the dining room which I still forget exists until I stumble into the room in the morning only to feel the sun shining in and break out in song and dance. No really, I do. It’s like a Disney movie around here. So while we deal with door jambs (and trim and a wooden ledge for the half-wall) we thought we’d introduce you to the latest member of our family. It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve added to my brood of white ceramic animals, so imagine my delight when John surprised me with this fine tentacled specimen:

Octopus Angle

Apparently I mentioned that I was in love with it a while back, but it was out of stock at the time. So sweet John recently received an alert that it was available again and secretly ordered it for me. Right around the time I was secretly working on his surprise 7 for the office. Cue the collective aww.

We’re thinking of calling it my belated “congratulations on finishing the office stencil and not having permanent claw-hands” gift. Though it does make me a smidge jealous that I don’t also possess eight arms to help me finish projects faster.

Octopus Straight Down

Important things to know about my new ceramic pal: she hails from Plasticland (but is made of porcelain) and I haven’t picked a spot for her yet (she’ll most likely end up on the dining room built-ins with a ton of our other ceramic family members so she’s out of Clara’s reach). She was $19, but with shipping she came to about $27. Not my cheapest creature (boils down to about $3.37 per tentacle), nor my largest (she’s about the length of a dollar bill at the widest point), but she is my first octopod! And she was a surprise gift from the hubby, so I couldn’t be my cheap self and talk myself out of it. Haha. Score. Oh, and her name is Henrietta. Not sure why. It just felt right.

Happy Friday to octopods, bipeds, and quadrupeds alike! Anyone doing anything fun? I’ll be found dancing in a certain doorway with a toddler and a dog. And no I won’t video tape it for you. I’m only ok with being this annoyingly chipper slash awkward in private. But it kind of looks like this.

Psst- As if John wasn’t cute enough for surprising me with my tentacled friend, this video of him introducing Burger to Clara for the first time (well, her scent) is pretty darn cute.

Comments

  5. Gina says

    Um, FREAKIN’ LOVE THAT OCTOPUS!!!!! MUST-GET-ONE-NOW!! I never really had an afinity for porcelain animals until I started reading your blog. I do now and will be keeping my out for them.

    Reply

  6. Veronika says

    I love you $herdog! But I don’t get the ceramic animal thing at all! Oh well! But I do get your love for shiny sparkly things so that’s nice!

    I enjoy how you love those weird creatures so much! It’s interesting that both your and John’s secret gifts have something to do with numbers, you know 7 and 8! Or maybe it’s just me!

    Congrats on your new toy!

    Reply

  7. Ashleigh says

    I wondered if the octopus looks like your hands did when you were stenciling. It’s kind of how I envisioned them. :-) Yeah for sweet spouses. Mine came home with flowers last week out of the blue. I love it when that happens!

    Reply

  8. Sarah says

    Love her! Welcome, Henrietta. I was going to say, we need a video (not of the door way dancing) but, a new house tour. I can’t believe how much has changed since the last. Hope you guys have a happy weekend!

    Reply

  11. Hesper says

    I totally have this guy, too! We just picked him up a few weeks ago at a local shop. It’s funny because my guy gravitates towards oceany creatures and I’m all about the birds! We have some shelves in the living room with a bunch of things like this — always either fishy or flighty!

    Reply

  14. Emily says

    Out of curiosity I used the search bar on the your sidebar to look up “ceramic animal” (in quotes). And….there were 75 results! Yep, I would call that an obsession :)

    Reply

  20. Loren says

    So cool! I think this is my favorite of your ceramic animals. Now he just needs a name. Something that starts with an O? Like Oliver or Oscar?

    Reply

  27. Emily F says

    I love all of your ceramic animals! I think the octopus is my new favorite. If I’m remembering correctly, there was rhino and he was my old favorite.

    Yay for weird/awesome collectibles and husbands that assist in the collecting (I am married to an enabler as well <3)!

    Reply

  30. Ginny P says

    I must say that the octopus is great addition, do you have any other nautical elements?

    Oh and I love the video with Burger & the Clara hat! We’re going to be adding a 4-legged family member to our family tomorrow and I am so excited for the kids to meet a puppy face to face!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hmm, we have a giant faux clam shell that we use as a fruit bowl. Haha. And a few giant shells along with an old framed sea fan (haven’t seen that since the move- it’s probably sitting in the playroom waiting to be hung).

      xo,
      s

  32. Bryan W. says

    Henrietta huh? It just felt right? Sherry, taking a wild guess here, but maybe your subconscious was speaking to you because of your (possible?) time spent watching The Tudors or The Other Boleyn Girl, both of which involved Henry VIII (the 8TH)…. Haha, sorry for the random post, I just had to throw in a weird guess here.

    Reply

  33. partyofsix says

    Where are all the comments going?? Usually when I hit “send” I get a very reassuring quick post showing what I wrote and that it is awaiting moderation. But nothing this morning. No reassurance. Am I not in the circle of trust anymore?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      This is the third comment we got so I think they’re coming through. They do wait in moderation for a moment, but they’re all here on our end. Hope you can see them!

      xo,
      s

  34. Emily says

    I happened upon not one, but TWO of the giant white ceramic dogs that you had and broke! If you’re feeling nostalgic and need one back in your life, I could arrange to ship it for you. Just let me know and I’ll send you an email :)

    Reply

    • Emily says

      Oh I meant if you wanted it I could front the money and you could pay me back, but unfortunately I was in HomeGoods today and it looks like they have BOTH been adopted. Hope they went to a good home :)

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha- no worries! We figure if it’s meant to be we’ll bump into a another dog someday! We still have our ceramic grayhound (which might be more durable for babies than a ceramic one) so we’re probably ok for now. Haha.

      xo,
      s

  36. Sarah B says

    Does your whole collection have names? If so, I think a post dedicated entirely to introducing everyone properly is in order!

    Example:
    Here is Henrietta. She currently lives in square 3 of of the dining room cabinet. Her favorite movie is The Little Mermaid. In her spare time she doubles as a paperweight.

    Reply

  37. Teresa says

    LOL… this cracks me up. Kudos John, much better than my idea of you picking out bras for Sherry… and I agree with Sarah B.. introductions are in order! :)

    Reply

  39. Raina@ Mamacita Spins The Globe says

    I love it! Apparently I have been into Octopi lately as well. I didn’t realize it until a recent visit from my brother. I was showing him something I had pinned and he said, “Geesh you like octopi huh?” When I looked at how many pins I had that somehow were an octopus, I responded with, “Hmmm. I guess I do.”
    Henrietta is lovely.

    Reply

  40. Allyn says

    1) The image that comes to mind when people say octomom makes me despair for the human race
    2) How totally awesome is the Plasticland site?! Holy crap, new favorite! Christmas!

    Reply

  42. Megan says

    Your permanent claw hands line had me laughing out loud. This is going to sound extremely weird, but after reading your blog for several years I feel like I know you. Your goofiness reminds me of my sister and I and our crazy humor that we find hilarious…not sure about everyone else.

    Reply

  43. Kaitlin says

    Ahh the octo is a great addition to the ceramic animal family! I have my own little ceramic animal family, started with the West Elm white owl lamp and I’ve been adding to it since. Apparently mine are neglected without names, so I’ll have to resolve that issue this weekend :)

    Reply

  46. karen says

    I have a thing for owls, but for some reason I failed to buy a beautiful ceramic one at TK Maxx a while back (it is tk and not tj in England). I regretted it as soon as we got home, so set off trying to track down Hootie (yes, I named him) the next day. But he’s flown the nest forever and even extensive web searches couldn’t track him down. Guess it was not meant to be. So my birthday rolled round a few months later and my sweet hubby continued the search to no avail. But refusing to be defeated, he tracked down another pair of owls, in copper, via my pinterest boards. How genius?! I still hope that one day Hootie will join Neil and Suzie.

    PS Sherry I totally blame/thank you for both nr pinterest and ceramic animal obsessions! X

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      That’s so cute! I hope you find Hootie someday. I once found the coolest wooden hedgehog at HomeGoods and I forever rue the day that I didn’t get him. He was completely Clara-proof (wood not ceramic) and would have looked so good on any of the lower shelves that I can’t put glass on. So sad.

      xo,
      s

  47. Jessica says

    Loving the name “Henriette”; it reminds me of my younger sister who used to use our cat’s scratching post as an imaginary horse of the same name.

    Reply

  48. Megan says

    You are a girl after my own heart. The first gift my husband ever bought me was a white ceramic rhino to pay homage to our white dog named Rhino! I love your Octopus!

    Reply

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