Atomic Lilly Ranch

Hey hey hey!

2012-01-12T16:49:00.001-08:00

OK, so the lovely ladies at No Pattern Required added a kindly mention of little Nadine's room over on their FB page. Obviously, this guilted me into making a post. Sorry for neglecting my blog and all of yours! I read when I can, but between work, school and now two kiddos, I just haven't had as much blog-writing time. So, here's Nadine's room now that it's all done. It's never this clean though. Baby clothes multiply in the night. And drape themselves all over everything.

First of all, here's Nadine in her new high chair. She's five months old now!! Ah!
I think this high chair fits right in around here. The graphic on it is by Dwell Studio, but since it's a Fisher Price chair, it was actually really reasonable. I got it on eBay.
Here's where the grainy pictures of her room start. I know they are awful. They were taken with an iPod. Sorry. Our camera was broken at the time.
The pouf is now one of the cat's favorite place to sleep. It makes a great cat bed.
Good gravy this is terrible looking.
I love these colors.
Ok, so this has changed a little again. Now, the table is to the right of the chair and there's a simple floor lamp next to it. Mr. Modtomic was right that the lamp is too big for that little table. My mom suggested moving the floor lamp in there, and it was the perfect idea. The shade is a gold/yellow velvet.
This is Nadine's long-awaited crib! After IKEA pulled their cribs, we started looking elsewhere. This is a BabyMod crib from Wal-Mart. It's perfect, and I got it on sale. It's super super sturdy, and has a great modern look io it.
Pretty cozy.

So yeah, sorry for the grainy photos. Someday when I get my act together I'll take and post some decent ones! I was given a Canon Rebel camera for Christmas (via giftcard from my employers) so I now have no excuses for terrible photos.

I hope you are all well!

She's here!

2011-08-11T17:41:00.001-07:00

Just a quick note to announce that baby Nadine Patricia arrived on August 7 at 7:45am. She was a little early, but still weighed in at 8 pounds 12 ounces and measured 20.5 inches tall. We're all doing great and just adjusting to our new addition! I'll try and post photos soon of Nadine's room. My mom found some super fun thrift store gold that has really made things perfect in there. Oh, and yes, in case any of you recognized it, her first name was inspired by one of our favorite mid-century musicians.

Pregnancy Brain is a REAL THING

2011-07-17T13:51:00.000-07:00

I put these flash cards up over the course of like two weeks because it's so impossible for me to finish anything... I took this photo of them, loaded it on the blog, and then realized (after typing a happy commentary about how much I like them) that I did in fact put up the letters in the wrong order. I fixed it now, honest. But I felt guilty keeping my mistake to myself and hiding it from the blogging world. So here you go. The reality of mom brain. In any case, these are cute, aren't they? Even cuter when they are correct.

Trying to Wrap Things Up...

2011-07-17T12:42:00.001-07:00

I've been working on the baby's room this weekend again. I still have to work schoolwork, but this has been a nice distraction. I've got two more weeks of school, and one big paper left. Ugh. I'm about half done with it, but still. The baby's room is almost done, we just still need to purchase and assemble the crib. We're hoping August will be the month for that. I've been keeping an eye out for second hand cribs, that are SAFE, and not drop-side, etc., but most consignment stores won't carry any cribs at all anymore because of all of the new regulations. I've been calling around, and the consignment stores all tell me the same thing. Maybe it's just meant to be. I know we'll feel better having a new crib, and the IKEA crib isn't that much more than a second hand one anyways. Sometimes I am just very very thankful that we have IKEA as an option. The only other cribs in that price range are the portable folding cribs which really aren't very sturdy and most babies age out of within nine months or so. Um, sorry for rambling. Here's some photos of how things look right now.
Here's the view from the doorway. As usual, dark photos. Sorry! But, as you can see, I hung the curtains higher. I bought a double rod from Target (one of the super cheap white ones) and I think it makes a nice difference.
Here's my pouf! Finally done! It's got a twin-size white comforter in it that my mom handed down for the cause. It's lumpy, and I know I could have stuffed more in it to fill it out, but I was worried about having a lot of white showing through the stitches, and I also didn't want it super stiff. Roxanne likes to sit on it, so maybe it will become a nice bean bag type chair for her to sit on in here when she's visiting with the baby. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the project though. I love the color and the texture.
I hung some basic taupe curtains we had left over from our old apartment in this closet. They are on a tension rod inside the closet doors. They aren't a perfect match, but they are neutral enough to work for now. Justin hopes that once we get things de-cluttered in the closet, we can just leave it with no curtain, but I'm thinking it would be nice to keep at least one panel on this side to cover the giant utility box thing that seems to be part of the HVAC system (and is currently hidden behind the curtain). Oh, and I turned on the mushroom lights for the picture. I love them!
Another shot of the pouf/chair combo.
Cozy. :)
Not much new here, but that brown box behind the changing pad. It's perfect! My mom found it at TJ Maxx, and it's a SkipHop tote. It folds up really easily, but I love it where it is. It's currently full of baby soap, and wipes and pacifiers, etc.
I need to hang this somewhere. I'm not positive where yet. My mom found it at the thrift store for about $2, and I think it's so cute. It picks up a lot of the colors we have in here, and it still works! It's petite, so I'm just trying to find a spot where it won't get lost. Oh, and I love how it picks up the mosaic on the side table I have.
I added these square shelves here next to the Charley Harper puzzle, and filled them with goodies. I know it still looks kind of weird, but I moved the glider and table there to see how it works, and it looks much much better. But I'm not going to move them there permanently until the crib comes in.
Here's a close-up of the shelves. These were thrifted a while ago and I had them in me and Justin's room. But I really wanted a little place to display some vintage toys and photos. The two white frames are from IKEA and are reversible. I put a different picture on each side, so we can turn them back and forth for variety's sake.
Hello dark and scary photo... This is just to show the curtains a little better. I'm not crazy about the white metal rod that is so plainly visible, but at least it somewhat blends with the white sheers in person. It's not quite as "sore thumb" as it is in the photo. Honest. :)

So I'm close to done in here. I need to make the mobile as my next DIY project. I bought an embroidery hoop, and my idea is to use felted balls to hang from them. I'm torn between buying wool and doing some DIY felted balls or just ordering some on Etsy. I found a seller who has a set that are subtle gradations of orange and yellow that I think would be adorable.

Baby Room Progress

2011-07-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

The three day weekend was supposed to involve me doing a lot of homework and also getting a lot done in the baby's room. The baby's room won though. Oops. In any case, we got a fair amount done in the baby's room. Some of that was washing, sorting and folding baby clothes, which is not exciting in terms of decorating, but important to get done. We still have some more things to do, like buy the crib, but it will wait. As most parents know, you don't use the crib right away anyways, so we have a little time. We plan to get the IKEA Gulliver crib in white. We tested it out at the store, and it's actually very sturdy feeling. Yay for European safety standards! OK, time for the photos. By the way, there are a lot, but only because this room is insanely small, dark and hard to photograph, so I had to do lots of angles to try and show how everything links up.
I moved the chair and side table to in front of the window for now. The crib will go here eventually, but in the meantime, this is a nice spot to sit and it makes the room seem less empty to have the chair here. Also, I can prop the laptop up on the dresser across from it and watch the X-Files while I fold baby clothes. Which is what I did for several hours this weekend...
Here's a badly lit photo of this same spot, but I tried to get the curtains in for perspective. I finished the left panel on Saturday, and Justin and I both love these curtains. When closed, they actually block quite a bit of light, so the room stays pretty dark during the day. A little depressing, but good for naps.
Here's a close up of the curtain fabric, just because I love it. And the way it looks on the wood grain of the dresser. So nice!
And here's what it looks like next to the sheers. I still like the mix of the two textures. If I do say so myself...
For a sense of size, here's the dresser across from the chair. I'm telling you, this room is LITTLE. But cozy. Also, I have plans for the heinous ceiling fan to get out soon. I hate it. A lot. I think we have a few extra IKEA fixtures we can look at putting in it's place. I'm at that point where a bare bulb would be preferable. You can't see here, but there is blue floral stuff on the glass globe, and one of the dongles (technical term) that hangs from the chord is a tiny birdhouse. Not our taste...
I was trying to get a better angle of this dresser, but I was wedged into the closet as far as possible, and this was the best I could do. Use your imagination please.
I love the way this changing pad cover that my mom found compliments the designs on the pulls of this gorgeous dresser. I know both this dresser and the one in the closet need some cleaning up, but I'm not messing with all of those chemicals in my current state. Maybe in a few years... Also, that cover is soooo soft. Baby stuff is often ridiculously comfy and cozy. It seems a little unfair.
This is the "gallery" wall over the changing table. I've had these red frames around the house in different areas for a while, and never could seem to make them look like I wanted. They are all just thrifted wood frames that I painted, but I think they are working pretty well here. They compliment Roxanne's artwork so well. All of these drawings were done in the past month or so, and I figure we can rotate them out every once in a while. These are all animals and people that Roxanne draws. She LOVES drawing and painting. If you click on the image, it will get bigger and you can see her "guys" a little better. Justin's favorite is the blue guy on the bottom left. I like him, too, but the little one is my favorite. It looks like a big kid standing with a baby. So Roxanne and I decided it's her and the new baby. I know these look a little (or a lot) scribbly, but it's her current style. She likes her guys to have curly hair and she tends to draw several guys on a page so they blur a little. Justin and I just love looking at her artwork, and figured it would be perfect to put in here. She was very proud when I showed her this wall when she woke up on Monday morning. She did a deep gasp and said that her pictures all "looked great!"
Moving to the other side of the room (my back was to the corner between the window and dresser/changing table), you can still see some clutter. Sigh. On the wall is one of my favorite providential things. When I was taking the red frames apart to put Roxanne's art in them, I took out some Charley Harper flash cards that had been in there. I had cut them in half, but I was VERY careful to save all of them. I realized when I got the box out that the flip side of the flashcards made a "floor puzzle." Well, two actually. One was this lovely sea anemone image. It's about 16x28 inches, and I mounted each small square with Command tape. I'm not sure if it translates in pictures, but the blue/green in the image matches perfectly with the curtains. It looks small and lost with the baby piano under it, but I think once we move the chair back, it will be lovely. And yes, that closet is a mess. All of the visible toys on top I am hoping to put into some bins, but I haven't found the right ones (especially at a decent price) yet.
Here's the other dresser, complete with some of my favorite vintage toys on top. And the mushroom lamps! I love them! They have the nicest soft glow.
Here's the knit part of the pouf I'm making for a stool for the rocker. I have to stitch it up and stuff it, but look how long that thing is!
I think the red of the chair and the red of the knit is a great match. Phew.
And last, here's me in a wonky photo. 33 weeks pregnant. And very tired. Gah, that mirror is dirty. Another thing to clean...

One panel down...

2011-06-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

Here's my one curtain panel up! The other is sitting on my fancy new ironing board with my fancy new iron waiting for me to have another hour or two to finish it. But, the good news is that even with my less-than-perfect ironing abilities, the panel looks pretty good with the fusing tape! Don't look too closely, since you'll see how wonky some of the lines are, but whatever. That color is just so so good. I love it with the wood of the dresser. And I think it brightens up the whole room quite a bit. I also think it looks nice with the sheers I got at Target. I even think the length is pretty good. I'm a fan of a little bit of pooling. Oh, and I know you are supposed to have your curtains hung close to the ceiling, but there is some old water damage close to the ceiling in this room (from when the roof leaked, which we have fixed since then) and now that it's all painted over and won't be leaking anymore, I didn't want to deal with trying to screw the curtain rod in anywhere near it. Plus, I think with the sheers hung on a tension rod inside the window, it would look weird to have a big gap in between, and I'm not about to spend the money to get a double rod. Long story short, this is how it looks, and I like it. :) The other great thing about this fabric is that it's pretty heavy, so when it's pulled closed, it actually blocks out a lot of light. Great for baby naps...

I promise to catch up more soon. Summer classes, work, pregnancy, family, bla bla bla. Things are crazy!

Nursery Lamp Table

2011-06-05T10:36:00.001-07:00

Once again, my mom is my hero. We all went to St. Simons Island for a Memorial Day trip (although my mom and her family got to stay longer than we did... jealous). The antique festival was going on, and although I didn't stop by (my husband will not allow hours of antiquing on a tight 2.5 day vacation schedule, and I can't really blame him) my mom did. She called me about a super cute modern side table. I've been half looking for a table for the baby's room. Only half looking since I'm currently overwhelmed with summer classes and work and being pregnant. Speaking of which, if you notice this post is riddled with typos, my apologies. I have half a brain these days... So anyways, my mom sent me a text photo of the table, and I immediately responded "Yes, please!" At $20, it is a pretty good price for such a pretty piece. It needs a little TLC, but I think even just cleaning it and polishing it will do wonders. I love the little tiles on the top, and the size ended up being absolutely perfect next to the chair. I hadn't planned on putting a table here, but we realized that we couldn't fit a lamp on the changing table dresser because we'd have to run the chord across to the opposite wall, and I just don't love that idea. There is an outlet right behind the chair, so this works perfectly. Thanks again Mom!
Here is the little table after I reassembled it. The legs screw off easily, which made for perfect transport. It's also surprisingly sturdy considering it has three legs. It doesn't feel any different from a four legged table, which I guess shouldn't surprise me.
You can't see them, but there are subtle gold flecks in these little tiles. The white part is just laminate but is in great shape.
See what I mean about the chair/table height? Perfect! This was my first lamp option. I think this lamp is just too tall though. Sad, because I love the ceramic and the color and the texture. But this is just not the right home...
Here's lamp option number 2. I think this is better. Justin griped about how it takes up the whole table, but I reminded him we have two dressers in there if we need to set stuff down, etc. I really don't want much on this table aside from a lamp and a glass of water. Maybe a book? The shade is the best I could do... Target carries a TEENSY selection of lamp shades that will work with a lamp that has a harp on it. This was the only white option. I think it's OK. I'd rather it be smooth and not so tapered up. I was dying over these amazing barrel shaped ones at Target that were brown burlap, but alas, they were not for vintage lamps with harps. I've been checking the thrift stores, but nothing has come up there either. I'll keep the wrapping on and the receipt for a while, but I do think this shade is OK. Just not as perfect as it could be.
I think it looks nicer when the lamp is on... This just looks cozy to me. I'm really happy with how everything has been fitting together. We've only got about 9 weeks left to get everything together! To that end, I bought an iron and ironing board today, and some fuse tape to try and do the curtains myself. My grandma has very very kindly offered to help me sew them, so if this doesn't work, that's my plan B. But I realized that not having visible stitches would actually be a really nice thing on these curtains. And, I'm 27; it's probably time for me to own an iron...

Curtains... How to?

2011-05-15T15:32:00.000-07:00

So, the turquoise fabric (seen here again) is perfect color-wise for the room. The size seems like it will also be perfect. I think I could literally cut it in half and each half would make a panel that would be the right size. However, I don't know how to make it work. All of the edges are unfinished, so I know I'd need to hem them somehow, but I'm NOT really a sewer. My grandmother gave me the most wonderful vintage sewing machine, but somehow every time I try to use it, I get the thread all snarled up. I am not exaggerating, every single time I have ever touched a sewing machine, I get it hopelessly snarled up. I even took home ec in high school and did it to EVERY SINGLE SEWING MACHINE in the class. Every time. Some day I will conquer my problems with sewing machines and be able to learn to use the beauty my grandmother gave me to take up quilting, but I don't think I have the time to do that all right now. So I thought about trying to use the fuse strips and iron the hems down, but I'm not really sure if it would be OK to iron this kind of fabric. It's a crispy kind of polyester I think. Right now, I'm considering getting some pretty red embroidery thread and doing a blanket stitch by hand along the edges, to give it a little extra color, and because I can definitely do it myself. The problem would be that it would take me quite a while to hand sew all of that yardage on four sides. The very final issue is the weight of the fabric. Although it's thin, it's HEAVY. I worry that it would too heavy for the dinky curtain rod I have and would pull the screws out of our wonky walls. Sigh. So, should I try and figure out a DIY way to turn the fabric into curtains, or just admit defeat and buy some actual curtain panels (cheap ones...)? I'm all ears. :)

Modern Vintage for Baby's Room

2011-05-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

So, you've seen some of our progress so far for the baby's room! One other thing we've been trying to accomplish is adding some "modern" touches that still work with the vintage influences in the room. I've bought two things that seem small, but I think will make a big impact. One is a set of three small touch lamps that are shaped like mushrooms. I first saw them on Ohdeedoh, and found them on Amazon for less than $20. Since there is no outlet in the closet of the baby's room, I put these on the tall chest in there and they are SO CUTE. I think the color and shape are modern, but speak well to vintage style, too. They give a nice glow and I think they will work well as night lights.
The other find is this set of "Vintage Alphabet Cards." Unfortunately, I can't grab the photo like I did with the mushrooms above (I'll photograph my own stuff once I get the room in better order) but I highly recommend you click the link to look at these super cute cards. They are pricey, but I was able to find them on one of the gazillions of discount mom websites (I think it was Zulily) so they were half off. Very very very worth it. They are adorable, and they will take up a great spot on one of the walls. I'm not sure where they'll go yet. I think I might put them over the crib, but I also might put them on the wall next to the mirror on the long low dresser. We have to push the mirror almost all the way to one side so we can fit the changing pad on the dresser, so it looks a little wonky. I'm thinking maybe the cards would balance it a little. Even though I think they look super cute hung on strings like in the display image, I think I might just use command strips to fix them directly to the wall in neat rows. I have a friend who has alphabet flash cards displayed like that and it is surprisingly cute and not messy. Of course, then I'd have to use a level... Ew. Maybe some twine and clothespins would be cute...

So now we are looking for one or two more pieces of cool art for in there. And a nice mobile. One of our favorite boutiques in town is running a half off deal through Scoutmob, and we really really tried to find some good stuff but couldn't find anything that was right. We were tempted by a Jonathon Adler paper lantern (like this one) but in such a tiny room, a purely decorative anything has to be a big important decision. Of course, looking at it again, I'm thinking maybe we really need it... Isn't it so pretty? We looked at Kudzu Antiques near us, too, but just couldn't find the right thing. We've got a few months though, and we're both happy with the progress we've been making.

The Chair is Here!

2011-05-10T19:34:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited that the chair got dropped off today. I didn't get home from school until 10pm, so sorry for the dark photos.
I love these brass tacks on the arms. Unexpected, but very appropriate I think.
Here they are again on the front of the chair! Cute!
Side view. I don't know if you can tell, but the wood on the chair is almost exactly the same as the wood dressers. It's so nice when things work out like that...
Here's the side/back. I love this little piping detail. There are a couple of little flaws on the chair that are kind of annoying, but overall, it seems like the upholsterer did a really nice job. He fixed the springs that needed replacing, and the chair feels softer to sit in, so I'm assuming he replaced the padding/stuffing, too. I'm still knitting the pouf to use as a stool, but hopefully it will be done soon. I'm almost done with the knitting part, but now school has gotten back in, and I'm slammed.
Here's the chair with the best blanket ever tossed over the back. I'm officially in love with the brown and white and red. And the wall color with the red chair is really pretty, too. Things are clicking! Now we just have to find the baby's name...

Paint!

2011-05-08T19:25:00.001-07:00

OK, I know these photos are going to be kind of semi-useless. Sorry. But we painted the baby's room this weekend. I'm so happy that we got it all done. We ended up using the "Vintage Taupe," and it is really fresh and clean feeling. It's not totally white white, so it's still kind of cozy feeling, but in such a tiny room that gets the least light of any room in the house (except maybe for the bathroom...) using a light color really was a good choice. The Benjamin Moore paint is all low VOC, so I could help Justin with it. The primer was a different story. Ugh, it was so awful! I helped a tiny bit with that, but not much because I started worrying I'd end up giving the baby another arm or something. All told, it took two coats of primer and two coats of the paint color. The trim could definitely use a refresher, as could the ceiling, but neither is glaringly awful, and there's just too much other stuff to do to worry about it.
Here's the closet doorway "before" with the blue on the walls (and clutter EVERYWHERE).
Another view of the blue. It was so pretty, but trust me, it was just way too dark. It had a lot of gray/black undertone, and it just made the room feel kind of depressing. Not what we wanted for a baby...
The current light fixture... Ugh. This is the last ceiling fan in the house. We are planning to replace it with something more fun (and not a ceiling fan, since it's just not necessary in our house and we have the awesome crank windows when we want circulation). We just have to find the right fixture.
Here's BooBoo watching us paint from outside. And yes, that is a giant tupperware of sand and sand toys on our stoop. It was my DIY/cheapskate answer to getting Roxanne a sandbox. Classy.
Here's the closet "after." The wall color you see is the final color. BUT, we did not paint inside the closet. It was already a slightly darker taupe, and not worth changing. This dresser will live in here, and we actually think we might leave the doors off (at least for now) because it makes the room feel bigger. We just need to get some storage bins for up top. All those delightfully bright plastic giant toys up there are for Roxanne's vast "Weeble Village" that my mom has helped me amass via thrift stores and consignment sales. Roxanne LOVED the Weeble toys, and I'm sure the new baby will, too. My plan is to put them in bins and just have one down at a time. Roxanne always had them sprawled over half the house, so we're trying to avoid that now.
In cleaning out this closet, which was full of thrift store and estate sale stuff still in bags (come on, you know sometimes you stash a bag or two of thrift store finds and forget about it... right?). I cleaned it all out, and found this super adorable vintage Playskool toy. I had forgotten about it! When you move the rings on and off the peg on the right, the bell rings. I love the colors of it, too. It looks like I paid about $2.50 for it. It's wooden, so I'm pretty sure I won't let the baby play with it (lead paint? can't be too safe) but for display, it's adorable.
Here's another view of the new wall color. This little wall is where the crib will go. I'll try and take photos in here soon that are better lit, but I can't figure out the best time of day to take photos in here. The lighting is just awful.

My rocking chair is supposed to be dropped off tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed!

Topeka Lipstick

2011-05-01T14:44:00.000-07:00

OK, so I spent over an hour this morning at the fabric store... ALONE. Justin bowed out gracefully, so I trudged up to Marietta by myself and wandered around looking at fabric rolls for what felt like three weeks. I cut lots of samples (probably 10?) but none of them were absolutely perfect. Like, none of them screamed that they were the right fabric. I took what I had and called my mom (duh). We talked about it at length, and she helped me realize that using a print had a LOT of drawbacks. I won't bore you with them, but for serious, it was a lot. At that point, my four favorites included a red and white print of chickens and chicks (which sounds crazy but actually looked sort of dutch and retro), a brown faux velvet (the only semi-plush fabric that didn't look really really cheap), a cool red and dark orange Moroccan style print (the same as the yellow one from last post, but in reds), and a yellow and white wide stripe with some brown polka dots along the white stripe. Each choice had drawbacks. The chicken print had the white parts, so would end up dirty and dingy from everyone's butts/legs/arms,etc., the faux velvet made me nervous because I didn't want to end up with a poop chair, the Moroccan print was two busy and read a little more pink than I liked, and the stripe had the same white issue as the chicken print. SO, after talking to my mom, I realized I really agreed that a solid was probably the best, and that one of the most appealing things about two of my favorites was the bright red. I went back to the torture chamber/gallery room and hunted for a true red (preferably velvet). I finally spotted Topeka Lipstick, a really really pretty cotton duck/slub fabric up on the top row of the red section. I cut a sample, took it outside to my car and held it up in the sunshine against the baby comforter and crib dust ruffle, and decided on the spot that it was perfect.
Here's the fabric sample in the middle. On the left is the crib dust ruffle (pleated, not ruffly) that my mom found at Goodwill. It's DwellStudio for Target, and $40 on eBay, but my mom got it for under $3. Score! The crib comforter is on the other side. One side is the dots and the other is the stripe. This is from the DwellStudio line that is *NOT* from Target. You can't get the comforter without getting the set, but the set is around $340 or so on Amazon. Yikes. My mom got the comforter at Goodwill for around $5 (I think...?). The two are not from the same set, but I think they are adorable together. I bought a white flannel crib sheet yesterday for $10 from Buy Buy Baby (the most appallingly giant baby store EVER at a mall in the burbs). I think this bright red is just amazing with this palette.
Here's a close-up of the chair fabric. It's a SUPER tight weave, and there's a slight amount of variation to it, so it almost reads like a chenille when you look at it from a distance. It's just such a pretty, saturated color. It was $8 a yard, and since I only needed 3.5 yards and got a 15% discount via my upholsterer's relationship with the fabric place, I spent $25 total on the fabric. Not too shabby!
Here's the sample with the knit blanket I talked about previously. I hope to keep it on the back of the rocker, and I think it looks wonderful with it! Another huge plus to using a solid. I could never have used that blanket with another pattern on the chair. Too busy.
Just one last view. I can't help it. It's just so good! I really couldn't be happier. I'm keeping my finger's crossed that I can use the turquoise fabric I bought first for curtains. I LOVE turquoise/aqua and red together. In fact, they were our wedding colors. We had a gently retro themed wedding (duh) and played only 50's and 60's music at our reception. It was so fun.

I've still got LOTS to do to finish my one last paper by early next week, but I'm having fun doing what I can here and there to work on the baby's room. Justin and I went by Ace Hardware this afternoon and picked up two different paint samples to try in the baby's room. Both are light and taupe, but one is almost totally white, and one is darker. We'll see how they look up on the wall... We learned our lesson about not trying a sample on the wall. I'm looking at you, mustard kitchen. Stupid, stupid mustard kitchen.

Lame

2011-04-27T19:02:00.000-07:00

My rocking chair will not be getting my beautiful aqua/turquoise vintage fabric. Unfortunately, the upholsterer thinks it's too thin and will not wear well on the chair over time. On the one hand, I'm glad that he let me know so I the chair doesn't end up worn out in a couple of years. On the other hand, I really loved that fabric!! On the upside, I *think* I have enough of the fabric to use it for curtains. I think it would be great for that. I already bought some sheers from Target that have a Moroccan-ish diamond pattern on them, and I think the two textures would look pretty together.

Since I'm in the midst of a storm of end of semester papers and don't have time to drive the 45 minutes to the fabric store my upholsterer recommends, my mom is going to go for me tomorrow. I trust her, and the beauty of a camera phone is that she can send me some of the contenders. My mom and I send each other thrift store (or other) finds via picture text all the time. These days, she's able to do more shopping than me, so it's a little one-sided, but I really really appreciate it. She's found so many great pieces for the baby's new room. Some day I'll have time to do more thrifting, but in the mean time, she's been a champ. Most recently, she found a Dwell crib skirt for a few dollars. It's from a different line than the brown and white, but it will work fine.

So, if you want to weigh in and read this before tomorrow, feel free to chime in with some fabric suggestions! I'm wondering about doing a brown velvet or brown boucle, but I don't want the chair to end up looking "old lady." The fabric store is called Fabrics and Fringe, and the online selection is a little sparse, but there are a few samples I like. Oh, and we are buying from here because they offer a discount via our upholsterer, and because he can pick it up from them easily. If I bought online, I'd have to get it shipped to me, then shipped to him. No thanks. Also, this way my mom can see the samples (and feel the samples!) in person. Definitely an advantage. I know a lot of online shops allow you to get cheap samples, but then that's just even more time to factor in. Double no thanks. Here are some pattern samples I'm digging from the website.

The new baby's room

2011-04-17T15:35:00.002-07:00

OK, I'm trying to get caught up on everything. Or at least sort of... My mom and I have been busy plotting out the baby's room, and she's been doing some fabulous thrifting. Don't worry, my husband has plenty of input, too, and we aren't railroading over him on anything. He does like having a say in decorating things. He has strong opinions about style. Seriously. Fortunately, ours are usually in tune.
Aside from the wonderful rocker that I'm still waiting on (the upholsterer has it, but I have no ETA for when I'll get it back. Does anyone have any suggestions about how long it usually takes to get a piece of furniture back?) these blankets are the base inspiration for the baby's room. They are from Target (duh) and I'm in love with the graphic patterns and the warm colors. And of course, gender neutral.
Don't they look pretty together? The blanket on the bottom is a knit blanket. I'm thinking maybe it will be used on the rocking chair as a throw blanket, or maybe as a "stroller blanket." But I'd probably be too worried it would get dirty. Sigh.
These receiving blankets are so neat. I love that pattern on the far right. I wish they were sheets or something more useful. Receiving blankets are great to have, but more from a utilitarian standpoint. They don't give tons of impact. The set is under $20, and it's very tempting to go get another set to have on hand "just in case..." Same with the knit blanket. That one is a little more, but I want to say it's maybe $16. Much much cheaper than the DwellStudio line that isn't associated with Target.
Speaking of DwellStudio, this is the "dream set." It's around $350 on Amazon, which is just never ever going to be in our budget, but isn't it lovely? The similar line that is DwellStudio for Target is not nearly as cute. The stripes are different, and the dots are just regular dots, so it looks more girly and babyish. It's also about $300 cheaper... After finding the blanket sets at Target (the ones I bought and love) I found this set on Amazon and sent it to my mom in one of those "can you believe how cute this is?" e-mails. So brace yourself. Not too long after that, my mom found the comforter FROM THIS SET at Goodwill for $3. Yes. $3. Granted, it's only the comforter, not the bumper or crib skirt or sheet, but it's definitely from this fancy set. My dream set. It's the dotted comforter depicted above folded over the side. One side is the dots and the other side is the stripes. Isn't that the weirdest/awesomest/happiest coincidence? I think so.
Here's a depressing and weirdly dark photo of the baby's room. Sorry. I don't know why it came out like this. I think my camera might be on its last leg. As you can see, the room is teensy. And full of junk. We are still in the process of clearing Roxanne's toys out of here and finding new homes for them. It's not an easy process... The wall on the left features the amazing chest my mom found at Goodwill. It came with the amazing dresser on the right! Better pictures below, I promise. I just wanted to show what the room sort of looks like now. The chest will be put in the closet (which is also on that left wall, but out of this shot). I measured the room, and that spot is the only place where the crib will fit. The dresser will stay where it is, and we plan to put the changing pad on it. It's looooong. And lovely.
Here's the chest. If you can see it behind all of Roxanne's toys. See those legs? The laminate on both pieces needs a little TLC, so I'll need to brush up on my DIY tutorials and get them cleaned up at some point. But neither is that bad, and they are sturdy and solid pieces.
Here's the dresser. The mirror is pulled over the left because we need to have room on the right side for the changing pad. And for the lamp collection... We're not going to keep all of them. We're just trying to decide which ones we should keep. Isn't this gorgeous though? From what I remember, the two pieces together cost around $115. Cheaper than the one IKEA dresser we were considering, and a zillion times more sturdy. My mom has a great eye.
This is what the center knobs look like on the dresser.
The handles on both the dresser and chest feature this carving detail. Amazing, right? We were trying to figure out the era that this set probably dates from. No firm conclusions yet...
The set is by Bassett, as evidenced by the stamp inside the drawer of the dresser. The back of the set is marked "Pageant," so I was hoping I could find some information about this line somewhere on the interwebs, but nope. Either way, Bassett is a great company, and this furniture is fantastic.
I'm hoping this stool will work with the rocker. I spotted it at Goodwill but talked myself out of buying it. My mom ended up going to my Goodwill the same day I found it to do me a favor and look at a daybed I was having second thoughts about not buying. I didn't end up getting it, but she helped me realize that this stool and the cute nursery lamp that I had her look at while she was there were worth buying. This stool was $8 and the lamp was around $5 I think. I originally planned to have this stool recovered in the extra fabric from the rocking chair, but then I realized we were using a lot of brown, and I decided to keep this fabric on the stool for now. It has a pretty deco charm.
The one on the far right is one I just recently found at Goodwill. It was $8, and is a fakey kind of wood. I like it, but I think it's too much wood/wood-look in there. The one in the middle is my favorite. My mom found it at her Goodwill, and I think it was around $11. It's a lovely shiny lamp. And I like that it's a lighter brown. The nursery lamp on the far left is super super cute. But it's also kind of tiny on this dresser. And I'm not sure if the colors will be OK.
Here's a close-up. Cute, right? It's a little broken, but I still think it's adorable as is. Sorry the image is blurred again. My camera and I are not big buddies at the moment.

OK, that's all for now! We still have lots to figure out, like if we are going to paint (Justin wants to, but I still kind of love this wall color) and what will go on the walls. I'm really hoping the rocking chair gets done soon. I can't wait to see it all done!

Mid-Century Motel

2011-04-06T21:34:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I took Roxanne for a mommy-and-me trip to St. Simons Island, Georgia. It's not too bad of a drive, and there are some inexpensive options for lodging (under $70 a night!). My family has been going to St. Simons for a very very long time, and so I always feel comfortable navigating the beach and the restaurants, etc. It's low-key, too, even though things have been changing there for a long time. Just the usual progress from sleepy beach town to vacation spot replete with lots and lots of fancy condos and villas. But, there are still plenty of charming mid-century and older beach houses and buildings that fit in so nicely with my memories of St. Simons (disclaimer, I was born in 1983, so I'm merely pointing out that the fancy architecture didn't really pick up speed until I was a teenager, so all of my little kid/toddler memories are of the low profile buildings). There's something about cinder block and Spanish Moss adorned live oak trees that just works. Trust me. So anyways, our family used to always stay at Queen's Court, which is right next to "the village" and had the most lovely layout ever. It's three buildings shaped in a "U," with a pool right in the middle. As you can see from the photos, there are beautiful established trees and other landscaping placed all around to make the grounds seem lush and fancy, even though the rooms themselves are comfortable but definitely not luxurious. Not that I'm complaining. The sad part is that the motel has been used as staff quarters for one of the nearby luxury resorts for the last few years, so it's not available to stay in anymore. It kind of boggles my mind that they could take such a perfectly located property and turn it into "staff quarters" in an area that again is not quite as ritzy as Hilton Head, but is certainly a nice beach community. Location-wise, you can walk to all of the best restaurants, as well as to certain public access beaches. Prime real estate! That being said, at least the building is still there. I always worry that someday I'll come back for a visit and find those lovely white concrete boxes and their cheerful green trim all torn down, replaced by something that looks gaudy and Italian or French (yes, that does exist in St. Simons, and personally, it gives me the creeps). But this trip, I tried to snap a few photos. Just in case... These buildings date from around 1948. They've still got it.
Look at the greenery! Gorgeous! And don't you love the stairwells? Although you might need to click the image to enlarge to really appreciate/see at all. And the windows... If I remember correctly, I think the stoops have always had astroturf on them. Perfect for getting the sand off your feet...
Just to point out; I'm not against growth and development. I think there are some really lovely new construction projects in St. Simons (and a few that really don't fit, in my opinion). I just hate that the general public (i.e. my family) can no longer enjoy Queen's Court. I fondly remember knitting lessons in my grandparents' room across the courtyard from ours. And sneaking Little Debbie's cakes out of the kitchenette where my bedroom was when we were lucky enough to be in one of the "suites."

On another note, my fabric came in, and it's lovely! The upholsterer said he'd pick up the chair on Friday. Let's hope so! He first told me Monday or Tuesday of this week. Sigh.

Sneak Peek

2011-03-26T19:02:00.001-07:00

So, after asking around for recommendations, I found an upholsterer who gave me a great quote for recovering the rocking chair for the baby's new room (under $200!). We talked it over and decided to go for it. I'm sure that the quote might end up being a little lower than the end price, but I still think it seems very fair, and the upholsterer is extremely responsive, professional, and willing to come pick the chair up from my home. I searched some upholstery online sources (like the recommendation one of my lovely readers suggested, www.newtoto.com) and found some great options. But after thinking it over, I decided I wanted to try and find vintage fabric. Ebay was overwhelming, so I turned to Etsy. Etsy was overwhelming, too, but I was at least able to narrow it down more easily by search term. I found this fantastic fabric, but thought I'd just mark it as a favorite and keep looking. Five minutes later, I had a panic attack that someone might buy it while I shopped around, so I went ahead and got it! The upholsterer told me I need 3.5 yards, and there are 5 yards of this, so I'm hoping it will work. The fabric is also 43 1/2 inches wide, which seems more narrow than most modern upholstery fabric, but again, I'm hoping the extra yardage will make up for it. I'm also hoping the weight will be OK. This is described as thin, almost similar to linen, but I just love the bright color and the texture looks so pretty! I'm really excited, since this is the first time we've sprung for getting something upholstered, and I can't think of a better reason than a new baby.
Again, here's the chair in question. I wish the upholstery were in better shape. It really is neat.
Here's a sneak preview of the fabric. This is the listing photo from GiantFlea's etsy shop (which by the by, is full of neat vintage goodies. The fabric with shipping was a little more than I had been hoping to spend, but still under $60 (which is more than the price of the chair...). But I think the color is just gorgeous, and I'm happy to have found vintage fabric. So after all of the costs, I know it feels expensive, but to put it in reference to new mama/baby chairs, an upholstered glider runs around $400 on Craigslist, and about $600-$1200 new (of course, the sky is the limit with really fancy rockers and gliders). Wooden gliders with cushions start around $200 and run up to about $500. So getting a vintage rocker with the perfect shape for our design taste and built like a tank and having it redone with a fabric we choose, seems like a great deal for what I hope will end up being around $300. The upholsterer said to call him as soon as I get the fabric delivered, and he'll come and pick up the chair. He said once he has it he can give me a better idea about what they can/need to do for it. The estimate he gave me was based on photos. But like I said, hopefully it stays in the same ballpark as the end price... Either way, I'm so excited. This will likely be the only real "splurge" for the new baby's room, and it's something that gets a lot of mileage when you are nursing little ones, so I think it's a good place to spend a little extra. Also, it's totally going into our living room after the baby's done with it...

Roxanne's Room

2011-03-25T19:17:00.000-07:00

OK, so I know that Roxanne's bedroom is not really a designer showcase, but we are just not one of those families that have few enough toys to make her room look like the pretty ones on ohdeedoh, etc. But we love it. And so does she. We've been wanting to get Roxanne a play table for a while, since she has so many tiny toys and dollhouses and they end up in weird jumbles in different corners of the house. Alas, even on Craigslist, the fancy play tables are super expensive and HUGE. Roxanne's tiny room won't accommodate the size, and our tiny budget won't accommodate the price. I felt like there HAD to be an IKEA something or other that we could use instead of a play table, but I just wasn't finding the right thing. Obviously, I've been checking thrift stores, but nothing has been coming along that was right, hence the IKEA move. I googled something along the lines of "IKEA play table hack" and found an adorable playroom with LACK side tables pushed together to make a play table. Sold! So a few weeks ago, we went to IKEA and bought 3 LACK tables (and some new, solid colored, less busy curtains) and some pink bins for underneath the tables. And it's a great change to her room! And since the LACK tables are around $10, it's OK if they don't last forever.
Here are the little tables. We went with the light blue, just to cool it on all the pink in there. And I'm in love with this green curtains. I think the pack of two panels is $10, if I'm not mistaken. And the pink bins (made to go in the Expedit shelving unit, but also fit perfectly under these tables) fit an amazing amount of stuffed animals. Trust me.
I know this bin storage unit is cluttery, but it really does help with little ones being able to see what is where. I have found (and I'm a nanny ya'll, I am with little monsters all day every day) that they play with stuff more if they can see it. They're also more likely to clean up if they can see where to put things...

I know that little red framed picture is way too close to the big one. I need to move it. Also, please excuse the insane amount of junk on Roxanne's dresser. Kids=insane amounts of junk.

Settling

2011-03-20T15:31:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry. I realize these photos are horrifically dark. It's kind of an ugly day here in Decatur, and even with the flash, they were too dark. My only suggestion is to click and enlarge and that helps a bit. I guess waiting to take photos in better light would have been the better solution, but I'm just not very patient, and I've got TONS of reading to do. Tiny violins anyone?
We have added a couch (the gray one on the right). It fits that whole "Mr. Right Now" instead of "Mr. Right" rule. It's an Urban Outfitters Night and Day convertible bed and the rumors are true. It's not very comfortable, and feels cheap. However, it sure does look good, even though this one is quite worn and the price was right. I found it on Craigslist for $100, and it's normally $600 before shipping. If I paid anymore than that, it would be stupid, but for that price, we're all OK with it not being the most comfortable couch ever. We just wanted another landing spot in the living room. Not a chair, but something to lay on. This fits the bill in the looks and price department. Some day, we'll win the lottery and buy a sectional, but for now, this is pretty OK.
We moved the credenza under the window, which is actually pretty nice, and only slightly awkward because it's not centered under the window. But the dang arms on this brown couch are just so high that anything put under the window next to it looks weird because it gets blocked. I'm vaguely toying with the idea of trying to sell the brown couch and trying to save up to get a sectional. Justin is in agreement, but we also both understand the time and difficulty involved in trying to sell something on Craigslist... Plus, we'd want at least $500 for it because that's close to what we paid a friend for it, and new it's $1500. And it really is in pretty perfect shape. It's definitely the nicest piece of furniture we own, so I'm loathe to think of getting rid of it, but it just doesn't quite work in here! If we had a different house, I'd marry this couch, but as is, I'm just not sure what to do.
I put all of our magazines on this shelf. We love magazines... It's an addiction I think.
Here's the new couch. It is about 2 inches too big for this spot, but it's the least awkward place to put it of all of the myriad of awkward ways we tried to make it work.

So this is our living room at the moment. It's feeling pretty OK, and definitely offers better/more seating than before. Which is a big plus.

A New (Old) Chair

2011-03-12T21:42:00.000-08:00

Ever since I found out I was pregnant with baby number 2, I've been obsessing about getting a new glider or rocking chair. I've combed Craigslist constantly and looked new, but everything is either too expensive or too granny. Today, on the way to my cousin's baby shower, my step-mom and I stopped at an antique mall out in the country. I should point out, we were early, so we didn't miss the baby shower for it. I'm not that bad... There was a consignment section of the antique mall, where the furniture was marked with a price, but for every month that the item had been there, it would marked down 10%. This chair was marked $85 but had been there for a full year, so I got it for a total of $45 (they max the discount out at 50% which I understand... I guess...). The chair has great bones, and while it's not a glider, or rocker, it kind of bounces. If you have your feet up on a short stool (which I now have to hunt out the perfect one) it rocks nicely. It has springs on the underside attached to the base.
You can see the legs need a little love, but they look they will clean up nicely when and if I get around to it. The upholstery is kind of on the icky side, but it's really not that bad. We can live with it until we win the lottery and get it re-upholstered.
Look at the profile! I've never seen such a modern looking granny chair!
Here's a close-up on one of the arms. The upholstery has kind of split from the staples, and I feel like the upholstery job on the chair overall is not great. But again, it's got good bones, and will be worth it to use as-is and eventually get it fixed up when we can afford it. It's not something that screams "BABY" so I think we could even have it in the living room once it's done with baby duty. I'm very excited though!
Here's a rough spot on the back. It looks like a cat got to it. For a few years... But face it to the back and it will be fine!
Speaking of backs, here it is! I wish I could do these upholstery jobs myself. I just don't know that I have the right skill-set or tools. If anyone has guesstimates on the price of getting a piece like this re-upholstered (or a good online DIY tutorial for me to follow along with and do it myself) I'm all ears! My dream fabric would be a bright happy Marimekko print. Budget-wise, we might try for some IKEA upholstery weight fabric.
Here's a close up of the fabric. I kind of love it, but it really is pretty worn, and like I said, I think it was kind of a cheapy job to start with. I plan to use orange in the baby's room (gender neutral, just like we need!) so I think it will work well.

My Mom's Fantastic Eye

2011-03-06T06:40:00.001-08:00

So, my mom has been collecting vintage goodies for the past few months in the hopes of opening a booth sometime soon. She's got quite an inventory built up, and will hopefully start looking more into booth rental in the next few months. In the mean time, I asked if I could do a post about some of her goodies! These photos were taken by my step-dad, and show how she has styled different vignettes to display everything. Keep in mind, these are taken in the garage, but I think they look amazing! I already told her I'm going to sneak in once she opens her booth and buy some of my favorites. All of these finds were either thrifted or from estate sales. I'm pointing out which things I'm proud to have helped find, but almost everything was found by my mom and her fantastic taste. She has more than what is pictured, and I assure you it's all awesome. I'm putting in small photos, but you can click to enlarge.
Here's the "warm colors" set. This hutch was something I actually found on CL, and it was not listed in any way as being MCM or even vintage, I don't think. I called my mom and freaked out and told her to go get it. I think it was around $100, and it's in amazing condition. It's Drexel, and it actually lights up in the glass part. Gorgeous.
I love all of the autumn plates and the planter's clock together. I saw that planter's clock in the photos advertising an estate sale, and when my mom ended up going, she bought it. I think it's really cool. It tells you when to plant what.
I love this little bentwood chair. Especially the arms. It's in great condition.
This pillow/rocker is something I covet for our baby's new room, but my mom assures me that the rocker is really not very comfortable. I think maybe it's small. But I'm thinking toss a sheepskin in there and call it a day...? But don't worry, I'll get it fair and square once it hits the booth floor. I don't want any of those awkward, "stop taking all my inventory for free" situations. :)
Look at these colors! Love it!
I love this teapot, and sugar bowl. The water pitcher is so graceful.
Who could resist this little set? Here's what it looks like when the hutch is lit. It's like disco dishes. But more elegant.
The cool colors set! This table and chairs set folds, and is in amazing condition.
I love these glasses and carafes. I especially love the way she put them together like these. I think she's got a great eye for staging. Way way better than mine.
Don't these all look so pretty together?
I LOVE these little glasses.
And this china is so cool.
Is there anything not cool about this set? I love the lamps, and don't even get me started on that white stool.
I don't know how she knows so well that these glasses work well altogether and with the other things from this vignette, but it so does. I feel like all of her vignettes could just move into a room together and make that room perfect.
I love this color palette. And that print... Don't even get me started.
Yes, please. The louvered cabinet behind the wicker beauty is from an estate sale. At first, my mom and I were both convinced that someone had painted it. But after some research, it seems like it probably actually came in that color. I love the handles.
Last but not least, I think this looks like the cutest little "diner" vignette. That chair is darling.
Aren't these apple canisters adorable? I love the coffee tray back there, too.
Penguins. So cute.
I dream of someday having a kitchen big enough to display some cute metal canisters. I have an Everedy set that is awesome,but I love the look of these brushed metal ones, too.
OK, this is a special entry, and if anyone has any information about this piece, we'd both love to hear it. This is a gorgeous (and huge) watercolor. It's an original, and is signed (and has a watermark that we can't read).
Here's the signature (and the watermark is to the left). We thought maybe it was by Charles Hopkinson, but it looks to say "H.C. Hopkinson," which doesn't really match up with Charles. And when you look at other examples of Charles Hopkinson's signature, they don't really match up. Either way, it's a lovely painting.

Hope you enjoyed! And for the record, my mom reads my blog, so please feel free to tell her that she's wonderful! :)

OK, brace yourself...

2011-02-26T14:37:00.000-08:00

Here's photos of what the yard looks like *after* my clean up today. I didn't have the courage to take any as it was before that.
Let me open with something that I know you will like... This is my treasured Bertoia and my fabulous wood table. The Bertoia should probably not be out here, but it's under the roof line and it just looks so good out there! I will say, when I actually sit in it, I use the fake sheepskin/flokati that is normally inside. It prevents waffle butt beautifully. The little table was under $10 from what I remember. I found it in the basement at an estate sale with my mom a few months back. I think it's home-made and I just love the way the base looks kind of like a retro rocket. My idea was to clean it up and give it a fresh coat of paint, but I parked it out here while figuring out where to put it inside, and it just looked so good with the Bertoia, I left it. The metal edging around the top picks up the metal legs on the Bertoia beautifully. Oh, and the chair is from a local antique place, and although it was expensive, I'm assuming it's a knock-off. The things we do for waffle butt...

The view while standing on the stoop. Mmm, brown, brown and more brown. You can see the weird patch of sod the HGTV people put in to smooth out the curve. Before, it was straight across. We had to WATER that patch, as well as one on the front of the bed. Sod does not like being planted in the hottest part of summer. Trust me.
Here is the other side of the driveway that I mentioned before. If it looks familiar, you are probably just thinking of Chernobyl. Or Siberia. Oh, the house to the left across from ours (the one that is kind of beige-y/greige-y was one of the small "neighbor projects" on our episode of Curb Appeal: The Block. It's cute, and a nice family lives there.
This is that same little stretch between driveway and fence. The bermudagrass here really never got dug out; I'm convinced. I think they just sprinkled a tiny bit of mulch on top.
From the front. At least the house looks pretty...
Here where the bed is supposed to widen again where it meets the street has basically disappeared. We get really heavy water run off up here, so the mulch washed away really quickly, as did the plants they put in. I think once we get a divider in, I'd like to put in rocks instead of plants. But we'll see. Monkey grass seems to do fine.
Close up of what used to be a planted bed... Gross.
Another angle. And Roxanne's lovely Retro Red Radio Flyer. It was a gift from her cousins, and it's so cute now that she's starting to be able to actually pedal it. She just can't steer well, so she just yells a lot if you don't hold onto her while she's riding.

Getting Started...

2011-02-26T12:15:00.001-08:00

Today I went ahead and did about an hour's worth of work in the yard (who needs to do midterms anyways?). Roxanne and Justin even helped a little, too! Roxanne decided to go after all of the wild onion weeds. I can't get anywhere near her hands now, since the smell is making me nauseated...

I didn't do much, just pulled about an 1/20th of the weeds, and (I think) all of the dead annuals. The flower perennials I pulled the dead parts off but left the roots in the hopes that they will come back and be just as lovely as last year. The stalks were so insanely brittle, they just cracked off with almost no effort at all. I also discovered that one of the camellia bushes that has been struggling had a large vine root next to its' roots, so I got that beast out. Hopefully it will help the bush recover. That being said, this one particular bush seems to have been half dead ever since it was planted. It's weird, because it always has some green leaves, but then lots of brown. It's probably got some really super common problem that if I knew ANYTHING about gardening I would immediately recognize. Oh well. At least that stupid vine is out.

We have vines all over our property, as does our neighbor. The backyard looks like the jungle in some areas, and we spent a lot of time last summer cutting the vines back and ripping them out, etc., but then we realized that even if they are weedy vines, they were giving us more privacy. Which is significant since our neighbor on one side uses a line to dry all of his and his wife's unmentionables, and it's kind of unpleasant to look at someone's underwear during a cookout and/or picnic. The backyard will probably remain neglected for a couple more years. It's functional, and hidden beneath the overgrown stuff, it's obvious it was beautifully landscaped at some point since you can see lines of monkey grass and there is a gorgeous hydrangea bush that I trek my way back to in the summer time to get beautiful blooms off of. The scratches and bug bites are SO worth it. Oh, that's the other thing... There is a slow creek behind our fence (it runs between our house and the one that backs up to ours) as well as some other serious drainage issues that cause our backyard to be kind of swampy for days after it rains. Make that weeks. That kind of water everywhere makes our backyard a mosquito haven. Gross. I looked at getting a bat box, since they supposedly eat mosquitoes, but I talked to several people who have tried that, and they say it's pretty ineffectual. Apparently bats are picky and might not like your bat box, and even if they do, it might take years for them to get established enough to actually make a dent in the mosquito population. However, the county sent us a letter a while back about a proposed drainage plan in our neighborhood that should address a lot of these issues. Of course, the meeting they scheduled to show the plan (which apparently includes taking some of our property) was in the middle of a work day, so we asked them to send us a copy of the plan. No word yet. Shocking, I know.

Wow, I'm rambling today! Back to the yard, I finished up by spraying Ortho Garden Grass Killer. We haven't used it before, but we had the bottle, so I figured I might as well try it before we spend hours and hours trying to dig up the bermudagrass. It looks like we'll need to respray in a week, but then it should work in one to four weeks. We'll see how it's looking, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it at least helps get some of the grass and weeds before we have to really dig everything up... We still plan to get some free mulch in a couple of months, so we are trying to get started on getting the other stuff under control before we get that figured out. Oh, and we do plan to get the plastic divider, too. We thought it would be easiest to try and fight off the existing bermudagrass first...

Thank you again for all of your suggestions! They were very very helpful. I definitely felt better about taking out dead plants knowing that I wasn't ripping out anything that might come back! I also remembered my 1955 copy of the Better Homes and Gardens gardening book. I might start reading in there to get ideas about period-appropriate plantings, etc. It's such a great book, and it was published the year our house was built, so it must be fate.

Other vantage points

2011-02-25T17:15:00.000-08:00

Here are some more photos from other angles of the house right after it was finished. It shows more of the enormous size of the flowerbed that is now half covered in bermudagrass. Also, you can't see it, but to the right of the driveway is all flowerbed. It's only a few feet between our driveway and the neighbors busted chain link fence, but it's probably the worst looking patch of flowerbed. It has some more knock-out rosebushes and some more camellias, but other than that it's pretty just weeds and grass now. Oops.

My sister watering the lawn; isn't she sweet?! As you can see, the flowerbed curves around and widens again as it hits the street. It's really a pretty big area.
This was taken the day of the reveal, and I feel like the plants already look hot and uncomfortable. It was late summer, so I'm not sure it was an ideal time to be planting these, but again, what do I know? Maybe I should have asked for gravel and succulents only. Maybe if we didn't live in Georgia... Or if anyone had asked my opinion. :) When the water main broke and flooded our basement, this raised bed in concrete was SO flooded. It was gushing over into the driveway. I will say that the contractors replaced the water main and fixed most of what we asked them to in the basement. But holy cow, I never want to deal with that again.

Just for funsies...

2011-02-25T17:13:00.001-08:00

Just in case some of you reader viewers haven't seen it, here's what our house looked like when we first moved in (October 2009). So even as I feel wracked with guilt over the sad state of our current landscaping, I can at least remember how it used to look. That banana tree had beer cans planted in the roots. Seriously.

We need yard help...

2011-02-24T20:25:00.001-08:00

OK, so I'm going to sound ungrateful here and complain a little about our HGTV experience. Which maybe is unfair, since I could really just blame the landscapers... In any case, our yard is not nearly as pretty as it looks in the photo in my blog header. We did our very best (in all seriousness, we really did) to maintain things and keep the yard looking as it did the day of the "reveal," but things have worked against us... The biggest issue that we have run into is with the grass creeping back into the flower beds. We kept up with weeding for several months, but the grass growing back in has been IMPOSSIBLE to take care of, and in our frustration, we kind of let the weeds go, too. We have bermudagrass, which if you know anything about, is OUT OF CONTROL. If you look at the link there, the line that sums it up best is: This is a very aggressive grass and flower beds or other areas will be quickly overrun if not kept in check. Once established it is very difficult to remove due to its extensive root system. Yes. That is exactly right. So the problem is that when the landscapers came and planted the dozens and dozens of lovely new plants, they did two things that seem wrong, even to me, an admitted idiot when it comes to plants. One, they did not really add any soil to the flower beds. The plants are mostly planted in straight up Georgia red clay, so a lot of them didn't make it, in spite of our best watering/feeding efforts. Two, they didn't pull up the bermudagrass in many areas of the flower bed. They may have churned it a little, but they didn't pull out the root systems, so it started growing back through the mulch, etc., almost immediately. After spending about three hours removing about 3 feet of bermudagrass+roots in one section of the flowerbed, Justin called it quits. Since then, they have more or less been neglected.

So now I'm trying to figure out some low cost fixes... Not easy. I did find some special spray that is supposed to kill grass but not flowers, but I've been too nervous to use it. We have so many lovely rosebushes planted in the yard, and I would hate to accidentally kill them. My other thought was to pull out as much as we can cosmetically (as well as try and figure out which plants are annuals and which are perennials so we can pull out the dead plants that are not going to come back in spring... which will be nearly impossible for us) and then get some free mulch to put over the flowerbeds. I'm thinking some pretty brown mulch might soften things up and match the warmth in the railing. Oh, that was the other thing: the black mulch that the landscapers used was VERY thinly applied, which made the weed/grass situation that much worse. They didn't use any kind of barrier between the lawn and the flowerbed either, so it has been tough trying to keep the grass from creeping in on the edges, too.

I'm open to any and all suggestions. We are so proud of the outside of our house and we don't want it to end up looking like we don't take care of our lawn. For now, we still have the winter excuse, but soon, we'll be fair game. And again, I don't want to sound ungrateful, but I think it would have been nice if they had given us some extra information about the yard. We were never told what any of the plants were, or how to take care of them, which is fine, but I think it would be smart on their part to help educate homeowners like us. I mean, part of the reason we got on the show was because our yard looked like crap, and we said in our audition tape that we had never had a yard to actually plant things in before so we didn't know where to start. But I know the bottom line is the big before and after. I mean, I'm pretty sure that's mostly the reason I watch the show!

Mid-Century Modern Playground!

2011-02-14T14:24:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, I used to go to Piedmont Park often with my Dad and my sister. We would ride bikes or roller skate, and play on the super awesome modern art playground. I went back to see the playground about six years ago, and it was in sad shape. It was a mess, and a lot of the equipment was roped off and not in playing condition. *BUT* this weekend we went back with our daughter and it is all shiny and new! And still the most amazing looking playground I've ever seen. It was designed by a Japanese-American scupltor named Isamu Noguchi (!!!). It was originally built in 1976, then refurbished in 1996 and 2009. There have been a lot of things that I'm not super proud of in terms of Atlanta's infrastructure, planning and restoration projects, but this playground makes me glad to be a Georgia peach. There's a fantastic article about the playscape here at Burnaway.org, which is a fantastic art website in general. Here are some of my own photos of the playscape. Some contain my little monkey child and my handsome husband. Some don't... Taking pictures of a playground without feeling like a creeper is not easy. Trust me.
The twirly tower thing is the coolest slide ever. You wind up the staircase on the inside, then slide down the outside. It's all very metal/concrete modern, but awesome. The block formations are in a few areas of the playscape. They are so cool!
Another view of the tower. And my family. :)
Towards the middle of the playscape is this cool mound. It's smooth, and while you think kids would be less than enthused by a round semi-circle, they all seem to love it. It's neat because it is near a large sandpit that is a similar size (and is also a circle) so it almost seems like you could just pick it up and plop it on top. Of course, I'm sure it's really about art and positive and negative space, but either way, it's lovely.
Here's the giant sandpit. My daughter loves sand. Especially getting it in every nook and cranny on her body.
There are also several of these geometric shaped monkey bars (or maybe just two...) but they are amazing looking. Kids love all of the holes in these pieces. Peekaboo possibilities are endless.
Check out this swingset!! Gorgeous. I love the color they chose.
My daughter loves this one. It has monkey bars across the top in the inside. Look at the pretty gray inside!
Here's Roxanne standing on the mound again. You can see the awesome swing set again. And some more of the playscape itself.
Another slide. This thing is incredible. Clean lines, fantastic materials, and it never gets congested with kids because it has the three slides. Roxanne can only do the middle (little) one for now, but someday she'll be on the big ones!
Tada! Lovely!

A new room to decorate!

2011-02-11T17:44:00.000-08:00

OK, a new excuse for my infrequent postings. I'm almost 13 weeks pregnant. So half of my brain is being taken up with thoughts of baby at any given moment. The other half is trying to cover my non-in-utero family, my job and school. So a little crazy. But in a good way. Mostly. I fully admit that I cannot stop thinking about decorating another kid room. I've been reading blogs lots and lots and looking for ideas. Just as we didn't with Roxanne, we won't find out the baby's gender until delivery, so it's got to be gender neutral stuff. For now, I'm thinking vintage kid stuff, but in a cool high brow/not too babyish way. We'll be transforming the playroom/music room into the baby's room. It's tiny and oddly shaped, so even just deciding where to put the crib is a pain. The crib itself is a pain... We planned to just use Roxanne's again, but hers was recalled since it's a dropside. ALL dropsides are recalled. We can get a part that is supposed to disable the dropside feature, but I keep reading that you should still just replace dropside cribs. So far, there have been 36 deaths associated with dropside cribs. The worry wart in me says we should just get a $130 crib from IKEA and rest easy. But we like Roxanne's crib. And cribs are expensive... In funner categories, here are some things I'm looking at and feeling inspired by. Yay for babies!

We *need* one of these Queen Buzzy toys, since Roxanne has dubbed the new baby "Baby Bumblebee." On a floating shelf? Adorable? Yes. This one on Etsy looks lovely.

I saw a posting on OhDeeDoh the other day about vintage WPA posters (or reproductions thereof) being used in kid's rooms, and I love the concept. Ebay has a fantastic selection. I also love this one that I can't borrow an image from... It's not WPA, but I love the graphic on it!
We're also thinking about dressers, etc. I've been keeping an eye on Craigslist for a nice long, low six drawer dresser. Preferably a handsome teak MCM one... We could put the changing pad on it, which would be great in such a small space. We've also got to decide on wall color. Even though I love the color in there already, Justin thinks it's depressing. I say soothing. We'll see... At least I have a good excuse as to why I can't help paint...

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Atlanta Craigslist goodies...

2011-01-23T19:25:00.000-08:00

My spring semester has started with school, and I'm intimidated. I'm just taking two classes again, but it's going to be a LOT of work. Reading, yes, to be expected, but lots of writing this semester, too. But I'll make it! Taking a break from reading some fabulous Eudora Welty stories for class, I love scanning CL. It's like thrift store shopping when I don't have time to actually go thrifting. Since I'm not in a position to actually buy anything, I'm posting some of my favorites. :) Enjoy!

This Welbilt range is right near me in North Decatur. Only $100! It doesn't mention whether or not it works... It would almost be worth it even if it didn't... Except we actually cook these days.
This is listed as a 1952 Kent Coffey Highboy Dresser. I love ads like these, where they clearly love the piece, but never once use the phrase "mid-century modern" or "Eames era." It's listed at $110.
This piece is not a diamond in the rough. It's a diamond, but the owner knows it. :) It's listed at $600, but claims to be a Peter Hvidt design. It's beautiful. Look at the edges!
I love these vintage high chairs. I just always worry about the safety... This is only $25! I love the image on the chair back.
This might be one of my favorites. It's described as a toybox, and I just love the shape and colors. It reminds me of a carnival. But in my opinion, it's too expensive. $50? I don't know. I guess in a booth it would be that much. Either way, it's adorable, right? I will point out that it's been up for a while, and keeps getting re-listed but with no price drop. Take a hint?

The big girl bed

2011-01-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

Here's our kitty, BooBoo, breaking in Roxanne's new bed. Maybe she thinks she blends in with all of the Hello Kitty toys. She didn't fool Roxanne though, who is apparently unwilling to share her new bed with the kitty and her "stinky booty." Sorry BooBoo. We know you don't really stink.
I'm still not sure about the wall decor yet, but I love this little quilt hanging on the wall and wanted to try and display it somehow. I think I need a better way of hanging it. Maybe a curtain rod. But isn't the headboard adorable?!
This quilt folded at the foot of the bed is another one of my favorites. I love the pink and red and creamy white (obviously). I'm just glad we don't have pink walls in there. As it is, I need to work in some different colors.
The footboard is low, which is great for Roxanne climbing in and out of the bed. The only problem we are running into with the vintage bed is that it seems wider than a modern-day twin. Weird, right? It seems like usually everything runs bigger now. It has an inch or two on each side between the box spring and the metal bed rails. We bought slats at IKEA to go under the box spring, and they really aren't tight enough to stay totally in place. Of course, as long as she's not crazy jumping on it and with the addition of the bed rail, it seems pretty safe and sturdy.
The stepped back view. As you can see, the bed is right in front of the door. And her bed is now on the wall that our room shares with hers. Such is life in a little house!

Mish Mash Photo Post

2011-01-08T17:35:00.000-08:00

This is the very first piece of Roxanne's very first vintage collection. With my mom's help, I decided that she would love collecting vintage Josef Original animals. They were made for quite a while, and there is a range of styles. The later ones are flocked, and adorable, but I decided these earlier ones that have a shine to them are slightly more vintage looking and less cheapy. My grandmother gave her this dog and the kitty pictured below. I found both on Etsy and the sellers were both WONDERFUL.
My mom got Roxanne a glass display shelf that I plan to hang in her room to put these little guys in. We just got her new twin bed set up, so everything is off the walls and ready to be re-worked. Her room gives me grief because it is just so little and so crammed full of stuff. But so it goes with little ones. The important part is that it's cheerful and she loves it. As she gets older, we can cull out things like the glider. I'll post photos once her room is all done. Her little headboard and footboard look like they are from the 60's and my mom found them painted off-white at a Goodwill. I meant to do some touch-ups but opted for a good cleaning for now.
Here is a side view of one of Roxanne's Christmas presents. It's a large wooden dollhouse. My mom spotted it at Goodwill while we were shopping, and it was only $6 for the house and a good bit of the pretty wooden furniture you see inside. I re-painted (including the chevron rug you see here...I couldn't help myself). The house was painted along the edges with dragonfly and flower stencils. Not really our style.
Another painted rug... These colors are the same pinks and reds I used to paint her dresser. Someday maybe we can actually fit the dollhouse into her room!
I could be wrong, but it feels like a home-made dollhouse. I love to think that a dedicated Dad built it for his little girl. It's very sturdy, and I actually like the sort of modern lines and the fact that it's kind of sparse inside.
Here she is looking at it on Christmas morning. This was one gift from Mama and Daddy, and not from Santa. Santa gifts were wrapped...
On an unrelated note, this is our improvised "den" in the basement. Our old IKEA futon, the old flokati, and some other useful pieces of furniture w had around. I know it's not exactly fabulous, but this area was being used just for storage, so it's nice to make it livable.
We haven't owned a TV in a number of years (although we watch internet TV and use Netflix on the computers; me moreso than Justin). This set was given to us by my bosses. They upgraded to a flat-screen, so were ready to give this one away. It's nice to angle it towards the elliptical so we can watch one of the eight or so free channels that we get through the digital cable box thingy. Maybe that will motivate me to use it more...

Christmas-ing the house

2010-12-12T18:36:00.000-08:00

Here's my dark-as-a-cave living room with our newly decorated Christmas tree! This is our first live one yet.
Our kitty, BooBoo is apparently not such a Christmas fan... She's doing that cat thing where she stares at the door expecting it to open any second. Magically.
The tree, closer up.
My vintage ornaments in a little dish in the book nook. These are the guys that I would be especially said if they broke.
My hodge podge collection of Christmas dishes! These are from my mom, part of my Christmas gift. They are all thrifted, and all adorable. The white is Termocrisa, a Mexican version of fire-king that was only around for a little while during the mid-century period. These are really cute. I had found some on eBay that I wanted, but just couldn't bring myself to follow through based on price and shipping, and then my mom found these at the thrift store! I'm hoping after Christmas I can find some leftovers around for better prices and round out my set for next year. Roxanne has already had hot chocolate out of one of the mugs. Perfect.
This is a vintage Swedish wall-hanging I found at a nearby Value Village. It was forty cents, and I love it.
This little set was my Grandma's. I remember it so fondly from her house. She always has the most wonderful Christmas decorations.
Christmas clutter. Festive! I put mini-ornaments on our plant. The Noel sign is another thrift store find I made recently. I think it was under two dollars, and I just love the graphics on it. The Coke Santa was my mom's, but his Coke bottle has disappeared somehow. Sorry Mom.
The stocking on the far left is mine from when I was little. My grandma made it for me. Now we use it for Roxanne.
Sorry, it was dark when I took these. And this is better than the flash version. Trust me.

Missed it...

2010-12-07T20:51:00.001-08:00

Here's the tiny, badly lit photo from the Craigslist ad. This stupid ad went up November 23, and somehow, someone bought it last night as me and Justin were trying to decide how we could swing the $150 price tag. Yes. $150. Are you throwing up in your mouth? I am. It is brown tweed, and the seller promised it was clean, never in a smoking home, and it had belonged to her parents. There was apparently a broken leg somewhere, but I'm sure I could have fixed it. Look how each piece just has one long cushion! Perfect! And the tufted back??? How will I ever get over missing this? I really am disappointed. This would have been so perfect in our little living room.

At least I can tell myself that tweed sometimes makes you itchy.

Um, let's be honest. It would have been worth the itch.

School Crunch

2010-12-06T06:55:00.001-08:00

Sorry. In case anyone has noticed, I've been an absentee blogger. I'm working on my final papers for the semester, so I'll be done on Thursday.

In the mean time, I am having heart palpitations over the couch OF MY DREAMS that I found for a fantastic price. A fantastic price that is still too much for me and my broke husband. I asked him to see if he could somehow find a little extra in the budget for us to get it, but it's kind of like trying to get water out of a rock (guys, Christmas presents don't come cheap). If we don't get it, I'll post about it so anyone else can. Well, anyone in Atlanta. Of course, someone else might scoop us anyways... Just trust me. You'd die if you saw it. Like I am. Sigh.

A visit from the thrift fairy (a.k.a., Nana)

2010-11-23T15:53:00.000-08:00

So, my mom came down last night for a visit and brought lots of vintage goodies from her recent thrifting endeavors (yes, I come by this naturally). They are my early Christmas presents, and I couldn't be happier. I'm not including everything in this post, but I'll update soon. I also need to update on some estate sale finds we made last Saturday, but I don't have any photos at the moment, so it will wait.
I'm really starting to like the living room. I think it's heading in the right direction... Roxanne likes it, too. It's the perfect venue for arranging her "guys" and having elaborate story lines for their activities. Right here, they are having a party. But anyways, new things in the room include the rug under the coffee table. My mom picked it up for $6, and I think it adds a nice texture to the room, and grounds the table. I'm not 200% sold on it yet, but I think it's a keeper.
Another view of the rug/table/couch trifecta.
Curtain/rug interaction can be seen here. I kind of like the contrast.
Thrifted Christmas items on the credenza. Love the plastic holly with flocked bears. My mom found it. So cute. The yellow planter I found a few months ago. It's lovely, and stamped "Italy" on the bottom.
Closer view.
This is one of my favorite things she found. It's a Dansk crystal angel. I'm not usually a fan of crystal, but this is just lovely. She picked it up for a cool $4, and it's listed on Replacements for over $100. It's part of a nativity set, which of course, now I'm obsessed with collecting. I'm just planning to keep an eye on eBay and thrift shops to see if any of it comes up for cheap. I can't afford the Replacements prices.
And of course, this Coronet Super 12. I love love love it. What English nerd wouldn't? It looks so pretty with the wall color, too. I love the shape of the keys. I don't think I'll be typing any novels on it soon, but it's fun to look at.

Now we can walk through the living room pantsless again

2010-11-22T04:49:00.000-08:00

Not that we do things like that. But just in case. I stayed up way too late to finish last night. Worth it! Ask me this afternoon when I'm trying to keep my eyes open... and I'm pretty sure I'll still think it was worth it. But that maybe I should keep working on my time management skills.

I used a foam roller this time, as the tutorial I used suggested. It helped the paint go on using less, so the stripes aren't as "crunchy" as with the first two panels. But they are still splotchy when the light comes through. I've decided I don't care.

UGLY bathroom (complete with ugly photos)

2010-11-19T18:52:00.000-08:00

OK. I am about to seriously overshare... Our bathroom is really really horrible. I've taken really horrible photos of it to prove it's horribleness. And for the record, we do clean in here regularly, but it's kind of a lost cause... You finish cleaning, and it just still looks icky.
Justin and I have pipe dreams of making changes in there, but absolutely no budget for it. I'm really wondering if I could DIY the tiling... Is it that hard? I would love to have penny tiles on the floor, and just some nice clean white ones on the walls, with maybe some small black and white tile detailing around the top. I'd go with a dark grout so it didn't look filthy all the time. I'd rip out those cabinets and put in open shelving with bins. And I don't know what I'd do about the tub/shower, but it would be awesome. Honest. These are the cabinets of doom. And all of our bathroom things. You're jealous right now, aren't you? You want all of your house guests to see all of your cheapy bath products (although Justin uses some really fancy hair product in his hair. We could keep that out. It makes us seem cultured.). Who wouldn't?
I'm not asking for a jaccuzzi, but this tub is so shallow, it barely covers our littlest. And it was painted badly at some point, so it's peely. And see that gross rubber stuff someone put on the bathtub/tile edge? It's not really properly placed anymore, and it's all sticky and black. I need to at least replace that, but it's one of those "eh, I'll do it when I replace the tile in the FAR DISTANT FUTURE" things. Ew. Also, note the cracked/badly repaired tile in the tub surround. We didn't do it.
Other things we didn't do: put that stupid rubber stuff around the top of the shower tiles so that the wall paint is peeling around it. And goodness knows what kinds of disgusting are going on behind it...
I'm not going to tell you about how this towel rack got broken. But it wasn't me. And I'm not being sarcastic. It really wasn't. If it were, I'd tell you all about whatever ridiculous thing I was doing to cause it. I try to keep my shameless over-sharing confined to my own hijinx.
This light is so high class. The bulbs are so blinding that we can't have them all in at the same time.
See that outlet? It doesn't work. When I want to take the time to blow dry and/or flat-iron my bangs, I have to do so in the bedroom, crouched in front of my tiny make-up compact mirror.
This Bruegal print is above the toilet. Justin hates it, but Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts" is my favorite poem. And it's covering the badly patched holes where we ripped out a very unsteady 1980's medicine cabinet that put fear in your heart any time you sat on the toilet.
We've also got some of this. Old grout. Not holding up well.

The main issue is that I'm just not sure where to get started. How much does it cost to DIY bathroom tiling? In a teensy bathroom? I mean, ours is TEENSY. The sink is fine, and the toilet is fine. Not much charm, but totally functional. And I'd leave the tub indefinitely. It's not a huge concern, it's just that it's really the worst tub to take a bath in since it's so shallow, and the sliding, wavy glass door thing gets sludgey hours after cleaning. Charming. I just think this bathroom would look so so so much better with just some little changes. But I'm still stumped. Eh. We've only been here a year. We're not miracle workers. Ideas are very very welcome. I know about the panelling over tiled walls thing, but I just don't think that flies in a 1950's ranch. I'm also interested in whether anyone has tried tiling over an existing tile floor. Reading the internets makes me think that some people think it's the worst idea ever while others think it's stupid to not tile over the existing floor. I'm going to ask Santa for a tile cutter...

For inspiration photos, I'm looking at Retro Renovation. Googling "1950's bathroom" leads to a lot of heart-breaking images of people taking perfectly wonderful 1950's bathrooms and making them look like they came from a contemporary house. Blergh.
Here's one of my favorites. You should definitely look at the full article. It's such a pretty bathroom. Thank goodness for Pam and Retro Renovation. There is no other website like that. It's such a huge resource for homeowners like me and Justin.
This spread from Apartment Therapy is so so so wonderful. I want to move into either bathroom. In useful terms, I love the tile in the image on the left. I'd totally do that in my bathroom.
I want to marry this bathroom. I actually even love the floor. That tile combo is amazing. And it looks smart, but not necessarily a billion dollars...

Yeah, it's going to be a while, unless I learn some DIY tiling skills during the Christmas break. Which would actually be completely amazing. And it could certainly be worse. Everything is functional, and there are no really horrific areas of damage. But this is the only bathroom we really use, so it would really be nice to give it a face lift. I don't want to fix it up right before we sell it (not that we will be selling it any time soon). I want to fix it up so we can enjoy it. That's the whole point, right?

DIY Chevron Curtains

2010-11-15T16:31:00.000-08:00

I know. Chevron is very very popular. But I've been in love with it for a long time and looking for a way to work it into my house. We wanted to get a Chevron rug for Justin's office in the basement. IKEA and West Elm both have lovely options. But budget-wise, not so much. So with me and Justin getting more and more sick of our brown curtains in the living room, I saw opportunity... I mean, they are pretty curtains, but we wanted a roller blind, like we put in the dining room. The window in the living room is too big though, so instead of the cheap IKEA roller in the dining room, we'd have to order a custom blind, with the cheapest option being around $160 (eBay). I know, we could use 3 blinds, but with the size of the mounting brackets, there would be goofy gaps in between the roller blinds. Ew.

ANYWAYS, I googled "chevron curtains," and found mainly things that were crazy expensive and beautiful. Then, I found some blogs with DIY tutorials on sewing or painting chevron curtains. We had six white panels in our bedroom that we have been wanting to get rid of, so we bought super cheap (and NOT permanent) paper blinds from Wal-Mart. They are OK, and at least get some of that fabric out of the bedroom, but they are just cheap looking. The positive is that they literally just stick up to the window casing. That's a huge positive considering we have metal casings and it's INSANELY hard to drill into them to hang anything. Back to the curtains... I found this blog entry about doing a huge chevron print, and me and Justin were both in love. I pretty much just stole her tutorial to make my curtains. I used the super dark blue color from Justin's room in the basement for the stripes. I love these but they are a PAIN to make. And I have to make two more. Fortunately, we have two more of the same white panels. But I think I'll need a new tarp. Boo. Also, there are some splotchy parts of these curtains that you can see when the sun shines through them. I'm not sure how much I like that... I definitely had a few booboos with splattered paint, etc., but you can't see them unless you are close up. And let's remember, this was a free project. It only cost me the $15 we spent for the new paper blinds for the bedroom. And a lot of time. So happy with the result though. The room looks so much brighter. There was simply too much brown in there.
Here's the before. Yes, the living room is a MESS. I'm not ashamed. Well, a little ashamed. We have a toddler...
Here's my math. Ya'll, I'm an English major. Yipes.
Here's a during shot. Painters tape!
Another "during."

During the day, all done! See, I need two more panels. It'll wait. And if you click the photo and make it big, you can see the splotches. I'm not sure if they are bothering me or not.
At night, it's more forgiving. Phew.
Backed up, with more context. Sorry, I know this room is messy. I should have cleaned it up. Now you know how we usually live... Although, there isn't usually a tarp under the coffee table. Or a can of paint by the couch. So yeah. The room feels great! No more poo panels!

Desks and Dishes

2010-11-09T19:56:00.000-08:00

I'm trying just a little harder to have nicer photos. I know, they still aren't great, but I actually changed the setting on my camera before taking them! That's a leap for me.
So, here's Justin's man-room in the basement. This is the beast my mom found for us. Isn't it handsome??? I need to get to work on getting it tip-top, but I've been busy with school. I'll be done in early December, so it might be then when I have time to get to it... Tsk Tsk. Oh, and the rugs in here are kind of weird, but we're going for cheap and functional. The taupe one was actually free from my bosses who were getting rid of it. The smaller one is IKEA and is actually a really good looking rug, just too little.
Here's a close up of one side. You can also see the curtains Justin picked out from IKEA. Nice, right? I found that lamp at Goodwill for $3, and I think it's awesome. I'm not sure if it's vintage, but I like it. It's probably early 90's IKEA or something, but whatever. It's perfect with the curtains.
Does it drive anyone else nuts when thrift stores stick sticker prices onto stuff that seem somehow IMPOSSIBLE to remove? I cannot get this stupid tag off, and I'm all out of Goof Off.

Here's a detail (with flash, sorry ya'll) of the side of the desk. This little detail is on all corners, and it's so elegant. But in a James Stewart kind of way.
Here's my little lady. Very delicate and lovely. She's a little wobbly, but can you blame her with those legs?
She fits right in. Perfectly. Now I just need to find an uber comfy chair to sit here. I'm thinking something leather. With arms. Wouldn't that be perfect for reading? And writing papers that have been put off to the last minute?
Look at the liner paper in the drawer. I could just pinch its cheeks.
In other news, here are my first pieces of what I have decided are my new china sets. Everything is different, but I think it "goes."
First, the creamer and sugar that my wonderful wonderful grandparents got me for my birthday. These are from the Homer Laughlin Rhythm collection. If you remember from a previous post, I plan to collect this line in gray. These are my first two pieces! I love them!
I decided not to collect the other Homer Laughlin Rhythm set that I like because it's just too obscure. As a matter of happenstance, my mom was out thrifting and found a cute plate with a peacock design. She sent me a text photo and I immediately called to say "buy it please!" I have a thing for peacocks lately. I know it's trendy, but I'm not going overboard. And these are VINTAGE, so there. These two pieces I ordered online. The Peacock Alley platter is from Etsy, and the divided vegetable bowl is from eBay. To fill you in, the peacock pattern is called Peacock Alley, and it's by Harkerware, or Harker Pottery. It's stoneware, so it's heavy and wonderful.
As you can see, the divided vegetable bowl is a darker gray than the Peacock Alley gray. But, the shape of the Peacock Alley divided vegetable bowl is the same, just with different colors. I thought this piece was Peacock Alley until my mom the antique detective helped me puzzle everything out. As it turns out, the dark gray is likely from a different Harker line, which was actually designed by Russel Wright. It was called White Clover, and it's insanely modern and beautiful. It came in several colors. Now I think maybe I'll just collect the charcoal White Clover, the Peacock Alley, and the Homer Laughlin Rhythm in gray. Since they are all vintage lines, it will take forever to get a substantial number of pieces (although, I have some Peacock Alley plates coming via eBay...yay!) so collecting all three will be a fun adventure. Wow, I'm a nerd. But you have to admit, it's pretty china! Also, I should have linked these things, but I'm too tired. Sorry.

The Girly Girl Haven

2010-11-07T15:13:00.000-08:00

Since I have a GIANT assignment that I'm behind on, I decided it was a good time to spend an hour or so making changes in Roxanne's room. Logical, right? Yeah. And now I'm blogging. Sigh. I put a quilt up on Roxanne's wall behind her crib. My grandmother gave it to me, and I'm absolutely in love with it. The colors are so beautiful, and it's PERFECT for the direction I want to take Roxanne's super girly bedroom. We're slowly phasing out her darling baby nursery stuff, and moving more to "girl" stuff. I'm aiming for antique, girly, and with a little modern touch thrown in. Obviously, I'm not a designer, and I'm working with not much budget, but I love her room. It's so comfy.
I don't know why these kitties are so angry. Maybe it's the bows.
I love these lambs. And puppies.
Cute overload? Yes, please.
I moved the decals (and scaled them back) from the two walls above Roxanne's crib to this corner between windows. Much nicer.
I love love love these curtains. I found the set at Goodwill with my mom. I fell in love with the fabric, and the pinch pleats, and the fact that these are nice curtains. They are heavy, well-made, and lined. They had their original tie-backs, too. The problem is that there were 3 panels. I only bought 2 (and I still have some heartache for not buying the third). They are too small to cover her whole window, so I bought a tension rod and some sheers from Target today (super super cheap; yay!) and put them up behind the curtain panels, and inside the window. I'm not sure what to do about getting them to cover her whole window, but practical concerns often get in the way of cute curtains...
Jeepers, I love these curtains. Above the head of Roxanne's crib is a small framed postcard. I think the image looks like her. And I'm fairly certain it was sent to my Grandma at one point, but since it's been framed so long, I can't really remember. I know it's kind of weirdly tiny for that wall, but I'll work on that later.
I swapped the wall art so that the large round frame is back over the dresser. It works much better that way. And yes, Roxanne's dresser is junked up. And she broke the middle left handle off. I've got to find the right glue to repair it. Who knew a two year old could do that???
This is Max. He's taller than Roxanne. He's adorable. The print behind him is sentimental. We had one like it (mine was part of a pair) growing up, and my mom found this one in a local thrift store. It's a sweet poem. The yellow chair was a curb find. I talked about him in a prior post.
A view of Roxanne's room.
Another view of Roxanne's room. We would like to replace that glider some day. It's the squeakiest chair in existence, but she loves sitting in it and reading to herself, and Justin reads to her in it every night. Every little child needs a glider or rocking chair in their room. This one was my sister's, so Roxanne is the third child to use it, and I think it's starting to give out. Justin tried tightening various parts underneath it, but to no avail. I used to want an Eames shell chair rocker, but I have heard that they are really uncomfortable. My new dream is an upholstered glider. They are SO expensive. I browse Craigslist for them though.
While I was working in her room, Roxanne kept running in there, grabbing a few toys, and running back out. She was yelling "we are decorating the house! We are decorating the house!" over and over. I didn't know what she was doing until I came out for dinner. By now, the whole table is almost encircled. Like mama like daughter I guess. She loves organizing things into little lines. I'm not so much big on the organizing thing. Just the decorating part.

Our Curb Appeal: The Block Episode

2010-11-07T13:03:00.000-08:00

It's on the HGTV website for now. Click here if you want to watch it. Our episode is the one titled "Goodbye Boring Brick Facade." If you do watch it, please don't tease. It's embarrassing enough... :) Not the house part of course. We are happy with that. It's more the talking. And that whole camera adds 10 pounds thing. Although it only seems to have affected me. :)

Let's step away from bad photography

2010-11-02T20:40:00.000-07:00

I should post photos of the new desks (yes, plural DESKS) we got for the basement. My mom, who has a perfect eye for MCM, found them at her Goodwill. One, a neat little corner desk for the guest bedroom, was my birthday gift. The other is a giant beast that was partly my birthday gift and partly refunded by yours truly. Just to be technical. ;) The beast is in Justin's man room. It needs some love, so it's waiting patiently for me to do some sanding, cleaning, and oiling, but it's gorgeous. Oh, and one handle is broken, so I need to measure it and get one in the right size. But it's so so lovely, and so huge. Perfect for a man desk. When we were getting it into Justin's room down there, it wouldn't fit through the doorway, so we had to unscrew the legs (easy peasy) and in the process, discovered some treasures within... Well, not treasures. Behind one of the bottom drawers, we pulled out a tangle of two Chinese dragon statues (small) and a Chico's member card. For Bonnie Bonham. Sweet. The dragon statues were actually marked with a Goodwill price. I'm really curious about how they got jammed down there, and the Nancy Drew in me wonders if they are actually fancy, genuine Chinese relics that someone recognized, and hid until they could get back to buy them. But really, it was probably some jerk kid who found them on a shelf and stuck them in the desk to be a jerk. Either way, they are actually pretty neat. Photos soon. I can't deal with any flash photography tonight. It's late, and I spent the last two hours talking about Herman Melville and the Great White Whale. Grad school is fun, but it wears you out...

On a nicer note, I'm just putting up some inspiration photos that I'm in love with right now. Enjoy!

I'm smitten with the sectional Mr. Modtomic has featured on his blog. I wish I had the time and money to drive to New Orleans and buy it. Orange is slowly taking over my living room, and I need more. Immediately. I'm not stealing his photo, but I found some other orange beauties to post. I still would love a sectional in our living room (Justin actually admits that he thinks it would be a nice fit), and that one linked above set me off. None of these would actually work in my house, which is totally OK because none would ever be in my price range, but a girl can dream...
I know, I'm not cool enough, nor do I have a big enough house for this Ligne Roset sectional, but come on. Even though I used to think these things looked like weird intestinal tracts, I have come around to their charms. Look how comfy that looks! This set is from an Apartment Therapy Scavenger feature. Like most of those, it doesn't seem all that attainable even at the Craigslist price of $4000, but I guess for one of these, that's a steal. Whew...

I like this vinyl one, featured in the awesome blog Adventures in the Atomic Playhouse. But I can hear the sticky sound now as we tried to peel ourselves off of it in the Georgia summers. Gross. And come on, there isn't a sheepskin big enough to get me to curl up on vinyl on cold winter nights. Maybe if we had a fancy fireplace like they do...
I love this image, found via Style Carrot. Isn't that a magical set? Not exactly the most comfortable looking group, but who cares? I love that dark-dark-almost-red-orange color. It's similar to our Eames chairs. This one I would do in our house, but not all three pieces. And I do wish they had arms. And a higher back. OK, maybe I wouldn't do these...
This looks uncomfortable, but I still love it. It kind of reminds me of what Waffle House couches would look like if Waffle House had couches. But in a nice way. You could lay out on one after eating too much bacon the morning after binge drinking. I just grossed myself out. Found via Just a Modern Guy.

If you had this couch, would you ever get off of it? It's velvet. And fancy. And not vintage. It's by some super fancy designer I'm not fancy enough to know. But if you want one, go here. I'm pretty sure when the name of the furniture maker is Vladimir Kagan Couture, it's one of those things that would probably give me a small stroke if I knew the price. But I love looking at it... And that flokati. And the curtains.

I'm too tired to keep this up. You get the idea. I'd like a sectional. But in the mean time, we got lots of compliments on our new orange chair at our Halloween party on Saturday. BooBoo definitely agrees that it's fabulous. That cat is in it four hours a day. Better there than at the foot of the bed, where she tries to bite my toes through the blankets.

OK, even though I promised no bad photography, here's some photos from the house as it was all decorated for the Halloween party. We went cheap and mismatched. So don't judge. We couldn't afford all those fabulous Martha Stewart decorations at Michael's. Who knew Martha was so good with the spooky stuff, too?
Oh, this is where the Danish chairs are living for now. They are actually quite nice there. Out of the way, but accessible. And still oh-so-pretty.

Pumpkin Spray Paint

2010-10-27T18:39:00.000-07:00

First off, I have to show you Roxanne's recent "additions" to our decor. She's so driven to draw these "people," that they have started popping up all over the place...
Here's one on the credenza. I was doing my homework in my bedroom, and when I realized she was being too quiet, I found this. Fortunately, this is dry erase marker and wiped off easily. While she was having a time out, I snuck out and took pictures of her artwork. I mean, it's kind of awesome, right?
These two guys were drawn on the floor, right in front of the credenza. Like, the direct middle of the living room floor... She had more of them drawn on the floor under her work table, but I didn't photograph them. As I mentioned, the dry erase came off pretty easily. But we're working on impulse control...
So this table and desk were purchased at Goodwill. I think they were around $15, but I can't remember exactly. They were a little beat up and kind of an ugly wood color. I did a rather lazy job spraypainting them my favorite pumpkin orange, since I didn't prime or sand, just sprayed on lots of orange layers. But honestly, this furniture, while I think it looks neat with the shapes and lines, is not high quality. I don't think we'll have it in 10 years. Plus, she has colored on the chair and table with crayon so much that it won't come off, and still shows through the paint a little. Oh well. I like the color, and it's a nice fit for this corner. Her little Heyward Wakefield chairs and the other table that we were using here have migrated to the music room.
That picture on the wall is a recent drawing she did. I love these guys. This one is our family, although when I ask her who the fourth character is, she just insists that it's a "baby," but she doesn't know what baby. It's name is just "baby." Sigh. And again, no, I'm not pregnant. Eventually, I want to get some wood pants hangers and hang some more of her art up on the wall. I got the idea from an Apartment Therapy post. We'll see... Add it to the list of things to do.

Music Room

2010-10-25T15:45:00.000-07:00

Here's the music room with Justin and Roxanne having fun. It's not the prettiest spot in the house, but it's SO fun. The photo is awkward, since this room is so small, but you get the idea.
Here's Roxanne's cowboy couch, a gift from Mimi. We moved this small expedit into here so we still have four bins of toy storage.
Just to explain, my daughter wears socks on her hands and feet not because we are weird germaphobes, but because she likes to pretend she's a kitty, and she calls these "kitty paws." She's eccentric.
Our kitty BooBoo likes the sheepskin on the new orange chair. Probably because she knows she looks so pretty on it...
Ugh. Flash photography is the worst. But I just wanted to show off the orangey collage here. So cozy.

Since I have a take home midterm to do...

2010-10-17T11:02:00.001-07:00

I am fluttering around the house starting and not finishing various projects. Always advisable... Yesterday, we decided that the playroom is wasted space. How it functions is like this:
*We clean the playroom because we are going to have people over who have kids. Roxanne and her buddy or buddies tear up the playroom and pull out every possible toy.
*We say we will clean it up after we get the rest of the house cleaned up from entertaining. We don't.
*Roxanne won't play in the playroom because it's so messy she can't move around or find anything.
*We are going to have people over who have kids, so we clean the playroom. Repeat steps above.

So, we decided it's time to rethink that space. In a house as small as ours, you really want to make sure that each area of the house is being used to it's full advantage. Since I'm not a stay at home mom, it's not like Roxanne plays in the playroom on a daily basis (Just in case you don't know me, I nanny full time and bring Roxanne with me). And a lot of the toys in that room are not appropriate to her age anymore. Justin and I started talking about making it an office, a guest bedroom, or possibly a music room. The problem with making it an office is that it's such a tiny room that you would hardly even be able to fit a desk in there, and if you did, it really wouldn't be able to serve any other purpose. Having a guest bedroom up here would be great for when we have guests, but it's just not that often. And the room is so small that you would be able to have a bed, and NOTHING else.

The music room idea is vastly appealing for us. Justin's music equipment is always in limbo between the basement and the living room, since playing music down there is not all that fun. And now that Roxanne has a guitar and a baby grand piano, it would be awesome to put Justin's guitars and amps, her instruments, and my keyboard and keyboard amp all in the same room and allow us to have family music time. If we can configure it correctly, maybe there will be room for a small table and or desk for me to use as a work space. Justin likes having his computer/sports TV on the computer time in the basement, so that will work well for his man room down there. I bought a storage shelf with bins for Roxanne's room at Target yesterday evening, and it was kind of expensive, and I don't love the way it looks, but it's the right colors and the right kind of storage. I also like this type of shelving because she can easily see into the bins and know what's inside. At work, Ben's playroom has the cubby style shelving, and the stuff that is not visible basically is either completely ignored, or dumped out and then ignored. So far, she loves it. Here it is next to her bed. And yes, that's her in her bed. I took this right when she went down for nap... I'm a jerk.
For now, we are in the process of sorting through everything else that was in there and doesn't fit in the bins. I filled a garbage bag with baby toys that we want to keep (in case another baby comes along...but don't hold your breath) and stuck it in the play room closet. I also put her Weeble village in there, but we left out the individual Weebles, since she loves playing with them and they fit in her bins. She has been playing with her toys SO much more, since they are organized and she can see them. Since we took the changing table out of her room, there is enough space for her to have this perfect little corner to play in. It's so cozy. I kind of want to get her a tent for her room, but I'm not sure if the room could handle it. But I did put the Hello Kitty one on her Amazon wish list. Maybe we'll have a chat with Santa... One thing about being a mom to a toddler... You just have to get used to clutter and messes. Roxanne's favorite things are teensy and include lots of teensy pieces. Oh well. She also likes pulling all of her clothes out of the drawers (um, yes, that's what is happening in the lower left hand corner).
The expedit in the playroom is going down to the basement. We will fill it with toys again (probably) at Christmas/birthday in December, but this way we can rotate what goes in her bins in her room. For now, I stuck the expedit in the hall, so Justin will be forced to help me take it to the basement... I'm kind of a jerk. That's one of the ways where Justin and I differ. He blames caffeine. Once I decide on a house project, I want to start it immediately. I don't always finish it quickly, or at all, but you can be sure I'll start it. He likes to talk about it for a while. Then wait for me to start it. :) Aren't we like an old married couple? At least we are usually in agreement on house stuff. Here's the expedit in the hall. And for the record, it's now in the basement. Win for me!
Here's some artwork Roxanne did on the wall of the playroom this morning. For the record, we don't let her do that. She told me she couldn't find her coloring books. Which were on the floor under this part of the wall that she colored on. Sigh. Those are people. See the eye/nose/mouth? It's bad when you are impressed with your child's drawings on the wall. Makes punishment that much harder... Or in this case, virtually non-existent.
Here's the spot on the wall where the expedit was. It's nice having it open.
I'm thinking we'll put Roxanne's tiny sofa on this wall (which is to your left when you open the door).
Here's the pile of stuff we have to sort now. Yikes. And someday, I'll get around to changing this light fixture... Someday.
You guys, I realize my photos are so bad that I should probably just not post them, but I don't have time to fancy them up, and I'm not a professional blogger (obvs) so this is what's here. Just know that I am mildly embarrassed about them, and that they are mainly here so you know what I'm talking about (or have a dark/fuzzy/grainy/poor quality idea of what I'm talking about). Maybe eventually I'll sell a kidney, buy a nice digital camera (SLR?) and take a photography class so I know what I'm doing. Right after I finish graduate school maybe.

Basement Photos

2010-10-11T05:10:00.001-07:00

So, we did lots of hard work this weekend, and we are getting ever closer to getting the basement bedrooms done. The guest bedroom is the first set of photos. It's not totally done yet, but it's getting much better! And please keep in mind that it's mostly being done with odds and ends we are pulling together from other parts of the house and/or leftovers. Photos are tough because the room is so small, but you get the idea.
Standing in the corner looking at the door of the guest bedroom. See the pretty wall color? And the pretty floor color? We are washing the sheets/duvet for this room. Red flannel sheets and a white duvet cover with a fairly traditional red floral pattern on it. It's from IKEA, and definitely not our usual taste, but it looks comfortable, and that's what we are going for.
New pillows! And this is a big map... mainly being used to cover up the holes in the wall where I took down a wall shelf that seriously wouldn't fit in this teensy room.
The little closet with the cute little puppy picture I've been dragging around for years.
A messy bed.
My favorite little corner. I've been collecting these thrifted pictures that are different types of needlework. My mom found a few of them, too. I love them! The curtains look weird, I know. But I had the blue velvet, which are great at blocking the cold air from the old windows (two) in this little room. But I only had two panels (I bought them in the as-is section of IKEA years ago). I think the addition of the white panel looks better than when it was just one blue per window. We just need the warmth of the velvet curtains, but I can't pay $120 to buy four new velvet panels for in here. We found this super comfy rug at IKEA.
I love these bird prints, but Justin doesn't. They are from my family, and I am so glad to use them somewhere.
Justin's man room with the paint all touched up. Again, this white floor paint is a Drylok concrete floor paint. It's wonderful.
This is the only window in the man room. We found perfect curtains at IKEA. Coming soon...
The closet in the man room. One of the bi-fold doors is down right now. I think Justin hates those doors...

Updates...

2010-10-09T15:54:00.000-07:00

This morning, my mom called me from a yard sale in Alpharetta. She had found this super cute orange chair for only $20! She sent a photo text of it and asked if I thought it might work for us. I immediately told her it was perfect. And it is! The only drawback is that the foam inside is deteriorating, so it's really dusty. But for $20, we'll keep it until we can afford to get it reupholstered and filled with new foam. It shouldn't be that much on such a sweet little chair, and I'll have time to search for some perfect fabric. I'd like to stick with this dark orange color though. Maybe a boucle. Nubby and soft.
One of my other favorite thrift finds this week. Roxanne LOVES it. It's a Schyller Baby Grand, and they retail for around $130 or so. It's missing the sheet music and the little stickers for the keys, but it's in great shape, sounds amazing, and Roxanne loves it. I paid $35, which felt like a lot, but Roxanne's Grandma Lilly had sent a $25 check for us to pick something out for her, so I felt like this was perfect, and I could justify $10 of our money for it. In the background, you can see I was working on the table last night...
Here it is all sanded and ready to be cleaned. I realized during the sanding that some of the stains were just too dark to be sanded out, and that this table probably does have a veneer top. There's a fairly small issue with the veneer on one end, where it has warped/bubbled a little, but it's hard to notice now. I figure I'll just put a coffee table book over it and call it a day.

The dream chair, and the table after it's first coat of Danish Teak Oil. I followed the directions from the tutorial on working on vintage wood furniture on The Brick House. So helpful! I love that blog...

Here is the table as it is now! Three coats of teak oil... She was thirsty. I haven't waxed it yet, but I will tomorrow once the oil is completely dry. Already, it looks so much better, and the damage just gives it character.
Beautiful! I went ahead and cleaned and oiled the Danish chairs, too. The wood on these and the wood of the table are a very close match. Also, Murphy's Oil Soap might be my favorite smell ever.
I'm not sure if I'll keep these Danish chairs, but I feel like with the chair and the table, the room looks much more finished now. More like a real room.
View from the hall (yeah, I left in the mess). The vinyl seat chairs are going back down to the basement. I just had a headache from all the teak oil and didn't feel like doing it today... Oh, and the hutch has my pom poms I'm working on for Halloween decorations on top. I realize they look weird up there... I'm planning to arrange them better soon.
Another view.
Jeepers, my photos are the worst lit EVER. Sorry.
Standing by the dining room table. Like I said, I'm not sure if I'll keep the rope chairs there. It's a little cramped. I just love how they look with the table, so I hate to take them out altogether. Suggestions on where to put them are welcome!

Stuff Stuff Stuff

2010-10-04T17:49:00.001-07:00

OK, sorry. It's been a while. And I still don't have basement photos. We went to the beach and did some other stuff so things are still where they were at my last post in terms of the basement. BUT, we have been making some changes in the living room/dining room. Mainly as a result of my thrifting/Craigslist addiction. It's starting to feel more finished in there! Yay! There are still lots of things to be changed, upgraded, etc., but we are closing in on being in our house for a whole year, and for our budget, I am totally happy with where we are. I think Justin is, too. One of the best parts about having to do things slowly is that you really think decisions through, and you learn how your house functions best. So the changes we're making seem to really make sense.

Here's a photo of the "book nook." I know, it's terrible to take a photo with boxes in it, but oh well. These are to go in the trash, full of my flood-ruined books. :( Although some of the further back books are new/old ones my Grandma passed to me, including her The Bobbsey Twins collection! I can't wait to put them in a prominent spot up here. I can't tell you how much I love having books out like this.
Here's Roxanne's little corner. The little shelf back there is a record shelf, but it will do for her odds and ends for now...
I put the couch back under the map. As much as I feel like it eats into the room this way, it just works better for now. None of the seating in here is quite right, but I love the pieces we have. They aren't the perfect solutions, but I really do love them.
Here's the Danish rope seat chairs. We want to get a roller blind for this window and take the curtains down so we can lighten the space up, but to order a roller blind for this window, it would be at least $150... Ugh. I've been searching high and low, but this stupid window is at least 92" long, which means custom. Which means expensive. Stupid expensive. And here's my sassy new surfboard table. I'll explain that later (and yes, I plan to repair the top).
Another view of the coffee table and two more chairs. Again, I know they aren't ideal, but it really does feel kind of cozy in there... Isn't this table so nice! It's HUGE!
I love the legs on this beast. And the way the edges curve up. I bought it this morning at Goodwill for $25. And it's not veneer, so I'm fairly certain I can sand the top a bit and treat it with some Danish Oil and get it looking pretty. A lady followed me and asked me if I'd sell it to her for $50. She said she had a friend who was a buyer for City Issue (my favorite dream shopping store I can't afford). I told her no thanks. But it definitely reinforced that I got a good piece. After I made it clear I wouldn't sell it, she gave me advice on the refinishing. She said I should get the Walnut Rose color of the Danish Oil. I might take her up on that... I don't know what kind of wood the table is, or what color would look best. I've never done any refinishing. So I'm nervous. But I think it will be worth it!
Here's how it's constructed on the bottom. It's missing two screws, but it is solid as a rock.
Here's the only mark on the bottom. Anyone have any ideas about where it's from? Or who it might be by?
Here's our other new addition. We went and picked it up on Friday night from an EXTREMELY bad neighborhood. The guy was nice who we bought it from though. I found it on Craigslist, and I fell in love with the photos. I was able to talk the seller down to $85. Still a bit more than I would have liked, but I think the metal is perfect with our cafeteria style pieces (in terms of our table and chairs I mean). Justin and I both love the handles. It's a little cheap feeling, almost like file cabinets, and the plastic pieces in the top look kitschy, but I think I might try and get some plexi-glass cut to take their place. They are just so cheap. But I think the size and look of the piece are exactly what we needed. We'll have no furniture budget for a while, but I think this was worth it.

Here's a closer shot of it.

I also found these canisters today at Goodwill. They are by Everedy. I had to call my mom from Goodwill and ask her to google them for me. I thought they were too shiny to actually be vintage. And the label on the bottom is beyond kitschy, so I assumed they must be reproductions. But nope! They must have just been used very little. I love them. I walked right past them, and then a woman banged them really loudly into her cart, and continued banging them as she was taking them apart to see all of the pieces (they were all nested inside each other at the store). Thankfully, she put them back. I scooped them up for $12. Not the steal of the century, but they are perfect on the new hutch.
Just wanted to show our new roller blind for in here. Again, we wanted to lighten this area up, so we took down the curtain and bought this very inexpensive roller blind from IKEA. We both love it. It feels much cleaner in there now. We bought a set of 3 to try and do the big 92" window in the living room that I mentioned before, but it's such a GIANT pain to screw the brackets into the metal window casements, we want to make sure we want to put the three pieces in before committing to it. A single big long one would look SO much better. But like I said: stupid expensive.

I should be reading The Scarlet Letter. I'm stalling.

2010-09-20T21:37:00.001-07:00

I promise, I'll take basement bedroom photos on Wednesday. I keep meaning to, then missing daylight. The floors are GORGEOUS. Now if we could just keep the stupid bugs out of there... I finished the trim in both rooms, so the very last part of painting will be touching up some spots in Justin's room. The roller with the white floor paint splattered a little on the bottom portions of the blue walls. And I may or may not have dropped a huge glob down one part of the wall when I was touching up the window trim. Oops. The gray in the guest bedroom needs SO much touching up, but we ran out of it, and the big stupid Home Depot is no longer carrying Ralph Lauren paint colors. We could try to get it matched in another brand of paint, but I'm worried it would look bizarre. We did get the bed all put in the guest bedroom. We just need to put the sheets, etc. on it. It's a little awkward because the room is an awkward shape, but we can always move it if we figure out a better configuration. We're both just really happy to have a guest bedroom! Some day we'll redo the bathroom down there (mainly a lipstick on a pig kind of job I think) and fix up the kitchen, too. We have dreams of setting up a sweet little bar area in that basement kitchen. And who doesn't love having a back up fridge??? We already have a stove and microwave and dishwasher waiting to be installed down there. My dad and stepmom passed them to us when they moved. Oh, so much work... But I love the idea that we are building (hopefully) equity on our own. We'll someday have to have professional help with the bigger projects, like the upstairs bath and the kitchen, but I'm trying to convince Justin that I could teach myself how to tile and redo the floors in our upstairs bathroom. I'm not succeeding.
The new project I have urgently waiting for attention is spray-painting a bed frame for our new bed. Our old bed was a lovely wooden bed from Justin's Dad. It's a double, and will live on forever in the basement bedroom as the guest bed. When we got our new mattress (a queen) we bought a bed frame from Costco (thanks Mom) but we can't afford a headboard and footboard. Did you guys know how expensive that business is??? Bananas. I've been reading up on lots and lots of blogs about DIY headboards (Quirky Delight, I'm looking at you) but I just don't have it in me to scour for beds at the thrift stores. And a lot of my favorite thrift stores have been getting CRAZY expensive lately. Boo. So when my boss said she had a black iron canopy bed that we could have for free, I jumped at it. I assumed we wouldn't use the canopy part, but the finnials that fit on without the canopy attachment are SO early 90's that I might try to just test what the canopy would look like. In my mind, I thought the black iron bed would be like this gorgeous Country Living example, which is not altogether our taste, but is so classic and gorgeous, you just can't not like it.
Is there really anywhere this bed wouldn't work? By the way, I love this little room. The shiny white floor, the little stool, and the cowhide rug... So cute. I love this kind of country. Clean and pretty. I'd like to spend a weekend here. And have nice older ladies bring me tea while I knit in that blue chair in the corner. Hmmm. But anyways, the bed we got is more like contemporary, and by contemporary I mean early 90's (at least without the canopy on). It was free, and I am not trying to sound like an ungrateful jerk, just wanting to explain. It has the swirly ball finnials. Ew. It's almost exactly like this:
Sorry, that photo is kind of tiny. But you get the idea. In any case, I have no guilt whatsoever about my plan to spraypaint it red. I have the spraypaint, as well as the gun attachment for the spray bottles. I learned my lesson with Roxanne's dresser about spraypaint finger and the globs that can happen as a result. It can get ugly. We were originally planning to just not use a headboard/footboard for a while, but the bed scoots around a lot, and Roxanne has figured this out. She likes to push it around a little (when she thinks we aren't looking) and if you bump into it after a middle of the night bathroom break, you will scoot it a foot or two. When discussing the paint color for the bed, Justin and I agreed that a bright color would be best, to break up the white blob that our all white curtains and all white bed were forming. I wanted orange, but HD only had one can of the Pumpkin Orange spray paint. Jerks. And yellow just seems a little overdone for right now. The red will hopefully be pretty though. And detract from the datedness of the bed.
I'm loving this color with the gray walls, but our walls are darker, and if it doesn't come in spray form, I'm not interested...

Enough with the chemical burns...

2010-09-06T12:53:00.001-07:00

Where to start? Justin and I bought a new mattress on Saturday (thanks again to my mom for keeping Roxanne so we could actually take our time). We got a great deal during the Macy's Labor Day Mattress Sale (no, I'm not being paid). So, in with the queen bed, and downstairs with the double. The new bed will be here on Saturday sometime (we got free delivery, too!) so we have a week to try and desperately get things in order. Also, I think there's some kind of law that says you have to do home improvement projects during Labor Day weekend if you aren't at the beach. And we aren't at the beach.

You know how these projects go... One thing requires another thing which requires another thing. So we started with stripping the floors in the two basement bedrooms. The carpet has been out for a while, but there was that nasty old adhesive everywhere. I have mostly finished up one room, the one that will be Justin's room, herein referred to as the Man Room. The other room, which will be for my crafts and the guest bedroom, is in a state of disgustingness. I have scraped it clean, but all that sludge is just sitting there for me to clean up. But since I can't think straight, I'm taking a breather. This stripping agent works very well, but it's AWFUL. It stinks, but in a way that is toxic. Like, I probably have lost half of my brain cells between yesterday and today. The other really hard part is trying to get it all off the floor. My method in the other room was to scrape it all up, get as much of the sludge as I could into a bucket, and then pour water on the floor and mop it around, then run the shop vac over everything. I did the water in the bucket part twice in the other room, but I'm still worried that there's residue there. And I'm worried that it will damage the paint that we put on the floor in a few days. We opted for white floor concrete floor paint. If it will go on without getting destroyed by any remaining chemicals, we think it will look lovely. It will likely need at least two coats, but Justin and I think it will brighten the rooms down there.

We also need to paint the Man Room. With a lot of pushiness from me, we opted for a dark blue, Benjamin Moore's Gentleman's Gray. I know it looks really dark, but with the white floors and white trim, it's going to be amazing. We want to create a more sophisticated "study" look in that room. I told Justin I think it would be neat to make it look like a mid-century command center for NASA or something, and he haltingly agrees with my cheesy description. We have a very large world map to put on one wall, and it's laminated, so I think it will definitely brighten things up. Justin seems mostly excited about getting a rug. I say get everything else done first... I have already found some great metal filing cabinets and he has an awesome teal mid-century good-form chair. Eventually, I hope we can get him a vintage steelcase tanker desk and some vintage task lamps. There are a ton of awesome vintage NASA posters on Etsy, and I'm keeping my eye out for a cheap lunar globe. They can't all be this expensive...

As for the guest room, I painted the walls a couple of months ago in the most lovely soft shade of gray. It will look really great with the white floors. If I ever get all that done... I have dark turquoise velvet curtains for the windows, and I plan to use either an antique quilt on the bed, or our old duvet cover from IKEA that is yellow and white stripes. I'm leaning towards the quilt though, since it's sort of "my room" and I have been collecting vintage needle art for the walls in there. Can you tell how excited I am? Justin and I really can't wait to have these two rooms as extra living space. And we hope sometime soon to be able to get a TV and a sofa for the part of the basement that is now his office. We want a den. And it would be amazing to not ever have to have a TV in our living room. As for the Craigslist couch, we are on a spending hiatus now that we spent so much on supplies for the basement bedrooms and the mattress. Oh well. Things happen when they are meant to.

Pictures to come. I'm scatterbrained thanks to the fumes I've been inhaling. And all the chemical burns I've sustained. Seriously, this stuff is no joke.

Craigslist Couch... Yea or Nay?

2010-09-02T19:51:00.000-07:00

So, I was looking on Craigslist (probably while on the phone with my mom who was probably also looking on Craigslist) for vintage sofas. I troll Craigslist pretty regularly because it's like thrift store shopping from work. I never follow up on anything, aside from that one estate sale I saw advertised there... But I found two lovely vintage sofas that seemed like they were in great shape and had fairly reasonable prices. After e-mailing the sellers (just for kicks) and getting fast responses from both, I decided one was not in good shape (a vintage sectional that looked like it needed to be reupholstered=$$$$) and the other was lovely, but just too expensive.

Fast forward to now, the seller of the too expensive sofa just sent me an e-mail with three simple words: "Make an offer?" Whew. I'll talk to Justin about it, but I'm not sure what to do... This sofa is kind of far away, and we'd surely have to procure a bigger vehicle to get it home. BUT, the color seems like it would be fantastic in our living room, since it would bring out the reddish color of our Eames chairs. And it would mean we could move the current living room couch into the basement for our TV den that we will some day complete. It was listed for $500. What do I even offer??? Do I even want to offer??? I have been thinking that maybe we should just go new couch to avoid the ick factor, but this couch is tempting.

China Dreams...

2010-08-23T17:16:00.000-07:00

So, Justin and I (for a long and embarrassing story) didn't do a wedding registry when we got married. Which is totally fine, but I've always wanted "china." You know, the whole everyday china and fine china thing. So I've been looking at vintage china patterns for the four years that we've been married trying to find one I want to make "ours." There have been some close calls. But nothing that was totally perfect. I recently found 8 of these Blue Heaven glasses and then 2 of the plates, at two different thrift stores, so I thought maybe I'd go with that. I mean, I love aqua, and they have a neat modern design. Here's the dinner plate:
I also like it because as you can see from the Replacements listing, it comes in SO MUCH STUFF. There's even a line of Fire King Blue Heaven stuff. The crazy hoarder in me dreams of having everything in Blue Heaven. Right down to these darling Fire King custard cups.
BUT, I realized that even though I love this set, it's just to kitschy. It's not elegant enough. It's not grown up enough. So I kept looking (and now I'm thinking of listing those 8 glasses in my etsy shop...) and started learning more about different mid-century kitchenware manufacturers. Then I decided I should search for my wedding colors, aqua and red. That magical combination led me to this bowl on etsy (that I bought today, yay!). I am smitten with this design. And the bowl (with shipping) cost me under $9, which I would consider a lot, but will help me remember how much I love this pattern! It's the start of my "fine china" collection. :)
The only draw back is that I can't seem to find a pattern name. I know it's by Homer Laughlin, and I know it's from the Rhythm Line, but the pattern seems to be known by a number and letter combination: JJ167 They have some of it here at Replacements, Inc., but not as much as I'd love to see... I wish I could see what the rest of the pieces look like. But I'm just in love with it. I love the aqua color, and the way the leaves are so detailed. Lovely!

When I was on ebay looking for more of it, I found another Rhythm pattern that I want for my "every day" china. And the two patterns really look lovely together. The other set is slightly similar to Homer Laughlin's FiestaWare, but it's solid gray. And since it's from the Rhythm line, the shapes should be the same as the JJ167. I just love the color gray, and the simplicity of the china. I think it's timeless, even though it dates from the mid-1950's. Look at this sugar bowl! How adorable is that? And I think the gray matches the gray in the JJ167 very nicely (not that that is necessary, but if it was all in a sweet mid-century modern hutch, it would look pretty sitting near each other. Just saying.). The best part of both sets? Even Justin likes them. He is surprisingly picky about such things, but he thinks they are both very nice looking. He just doesn't share my enthusiasm for random bits of pottery... This set is also on Replacements, and seems to be slightly more complete. And there's quite a bit of it on ebay. Once funds are restored, I want to get a few pieces to start out!
My plan is to just buy a piece here and there and slowly build a collection. In the mean time, I have a collection of various brands of vintage plates that mostly feature floral designs. So if I'm able to collect some pieces here and there, they will blend right in with the mismatched sets. But some day, I hope I will have that hutch full of these pretty things!

And for the record, all of this silliness was brought on by an inspirational Apartment Therapy article about how you should buy things as you can afford them and not worry about getting the whole set at once. Of course, now that article seems to have disappeared, but I promise, it was oddly motivating for me. It's particularly nice to pick vintage china to collect, since you don't have to worry much about it being discontinued, and pieces only become available sporadically.

Last note... The neighbor who backs us is playing music REALLY loud. First, it was a Phil Collins song and now he's rocking "Piano Man." Yeah. Can I call the cops to complain about that? Is there a special section in the criminal code about blasting your neighbors with Billy Joel?

Ooops...

2010-08-15T06:36:00.001-07:00

In spite of two different e-mails from two different production people telling us our Curb Appeal: The Block episode would air next Saturday, it actually aired last night. We are hoping to watch it today at my Mom's house (thank goodness for DVR...) but they are supposed to send us a DVD of the episode sometime soon. Fingers crossed... If you want to watch it, and you have a TV, there is an episode guide here, listing when each show will air again. Ours is the one titled "A Boring Brick Ranch Style Home Gets a Modern Makeover."

Built-ins

2010-08-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

As the work finishes on getting the basement back to the glorious state it was in pre-flooding (haha), Justin and I are really getting excited about turning it into living space. In my scattered brain, I've been trying desperately to try and figure out priorities down there. Like, what needs to be done first in order to get us down there? I have a list now, so look out! I decided that a great start would be something that would help clear a lot of the stuff in storage down there. Our goal is to have only the basement closets filled with boxes, and only boxes that are things that absolutely don't need to be out, like baby stuff. Or holiday stuff. Since I've been hating the living room closet since we moved in and took the stupid bi-fold doors off of it, I decided to go ahead with our "somdeday" plan of turning it into a book nook. A couple/few Saturdays ago, I took measurements of the closet and looked closely at the one existing shelf so that I could mimic the construction. After dinner (and a beer or two for Justin) I convinced Justin to take me to Home Depot shortly before they close so we could buy the materials. Win for me! Roxanne had a great time "helping," and it was altogether kind of a newbie Home Depot lumber shopping experience, but it came out OK in the end. More or less. In any case, I measured, screwed, puttied and sanded supports into the closet to make more shelves. I did them fairly large so that we could display our (my) antique books as well as our novels, etc. Five million coats of white trim paint and four melamine white boards later, they are pretty OK. I still need to fill them with my books and some choice clutter, as well as figure out some kind of center support, but for now, I'm proud. I did them by myself. Justin helped a lot by keeping Roxanne busy for me to work. She kept trying to "help," which is heart breakingly sweet, but not necessarily productive.

Here they are all done, but not quite. :) I can't wait to load them up... If you want to read book titles, I think when you click and expand, you can see them. If you see anything you like, let me know. I might let you borrow something.
I took the rug out of here and put it in Roxanne's room. We took the side off her crib, and I was terrified of her hitting the floor when she rolls out of bed. I think Justin and I agree that it looks much bigger in the living room with no rug. I just took that little wood shelf out of here and put it in Roxanne's room, too. It holds her books beautifully.
Just to show you how we "watch TV" in our living room. That's Yo Gabba Gabba playing for me and Roxanne. Katie is sniffing some spot on the floor hoping for something edible. I can't wait to get some soft chairs in the living room. Justin and I agreed that we would love to find a pair of leather club chairs. Vintage ones. Cheap vintage ones. A girl can dream, right?

Photos of thrifted stuff

2010-08-10T20:32:00.000-07:00

You guys, I feel like an idiot. All this time, and I just now realized that I can stick the memory card directly from my camera into the laptop to upload photos. I NEED NO MIDDLE MAN. That's so awesome.

In any case, here are some photos to link up with my previous post.
Justin says these are gross, but I think they are charming. It's just a piece of wood with these two little owls on it. Someone even attached a hook to the back for easier hanging. I found this at a thrift store in Chamblee. I wanted to put it in the bedroom, but had to lie and say it's going up for sale ASAP.
This was under a quarter at the estate sale. It's got some heavy staining, but I can't refuse a peacock. And staining is different from chipping... I hate chipping.
Little teensy bottles. My favorite is that purple one in the back right. It's a "ball and claw bitters" bottle. I have Roxanne to thank for finding these...
I don't know what song this is, but it sounds pretty. I think this would be a cute wallet.
Cigarette case closed. Did I just pun? Sorry.
Open view of the musical cigarette case. Isn't it cute?
Man, this image is so weird. And awesome. My favorite thing about this game was opening it up to see that the family had really played it. There were names written on the score cards..
This is a really cool set. There are TONS of shapes and sizes inside. Not mint condition, but still really fun.
This game is my favorite in terms of artwork. The game board itself is really cool.
The game board is much cooler than the box, but still... What a box!
This is the back of the "Noddy's Taxi Game" board. It's so adorable. This was the board only; no box, no game pieces, but the board itself was just soooo cute.
The front of the Noddy's Taxi Game board. Click on it to make it big so you can see all the fun stuff going on here. So cute.
Later in the day, I found these curtain panels at a thrift store in Chamblee. The little flowers are flocked. As soon as I saw them, I thought they would make a lovely pairing with the Noddy board. Maybe some day we'll have another baby and I'll use this a spring board for a nursery... Or I'll just try to sell them as a set. Sigh.
I bought a few of these Kohner games. Great boxes, but the games inside don't make any sense. Just some geometric shapes and no directions. Oh well. The boxes were worth the fifty cent price.
I have a TON of these. I still think they look like a Georges Briard design. But either way, they are too cute to use. What is wrong with me??? I'm turning into a hoarder!

I lost my camera cord, so this is way less interesting with no photos... Sorry.

2010-07-27T17:51:00.000-07:00

I went to my first estate sale on Friday last week. It was SO good. It was a 1950's split level that was in pretty much time capsule condition. I would have taken photos, but I had my daughter, so I was mainly focused on making sure she didn't do anything embarrassing. I felt really weird about dragging her in there with me, mainly because the sale was being handled by some fussy people who I'm pretty sure threw up in their mouths when they saw me approaching with my blond tornado child. But whatever. Some lady brought her dog in there. Like a big dog. Not a yappy yorkie in a hand bag. And I'm extremely conscientious about Roxanne in places like that. I hardly let her get down and walk, even though my back was killing me from hauling her 26 pounds around. Regardless, I could have gone absolutely nuts in there. There were CLOSETS full of vintage clothes and dozens of boxes of shoes and scarves and jewelry. This woman had great taste, and was a meticulous packer. But it was just too weird for me. It's one thing to buy that stuff from the thrift store, but another to buy things out of the deceased lady's closet while standing in front of the deceased lady's bed... The upstairs was so insanely full of kitchen stuff, books, knick-knacks, etc. etc., I could have easily spent hours in there, but a 2 year old really shortens your shopping time. I had a friend with me, but even between the two of us, there's only so much you can do to make looking at old china patterns interesting to a toddler.

The basement was basically like heaven to me. It's where the cheap stuff was. :) I bought lots of vintage board games, a musical cigarette case (no mom, I don't smoke), five teensy multi-colored bitters bottles that Roxanne found, a huge mess of plastic (disposable type plastic) cups with a design that looks like a Georges Briard, and 3 aluminum stacking lawn chairs with green webbing. I spent just under $20. I think the chairs were the best deal, at $4.50 for the 3. Everything was 25% off when we were there, but I wish I could have gone back on Saturday for the real discounts. I'm sure it would have been a freak show, but the house had some goodies that were just too expensive for me, but that I might have shelled out for after a deep discount. One of my favorites was a guest bedroom that featured two twin beds, a tall dresser, a low dresser, a desk, and a night stand all in that 1970's French Provincial style. It's not so much that I'm a huge fan of that style as I have Roxanne's dresser in it, and painted in off-white with pink details, it's perfect for a little girl's room. I would love to have the desk and nightstand at least. But the desk was marked $140. Too much. They also had a cute MCM room divider/hutch that was very small and would have been great in my house. But it was marked $148 and the laminate was ugly. Had it been super cheap, I would have bought it and painted it. I usually don't paint wood furniture, but an ugly laminate? Yes, please.

So the point of all this rambling and listing (don't pretend you don't sort of love hearing about the junk left in a deceased lady's house) is that I realized how much I would like to have my own booth in a local antique shop. If I had a business credit card and a place to sell some of these larger pieces, I would have been at that sale at the opening bell on Saturday morning. As it is, I bought the vintage games and cigarette case for my etsy shop, but I know they will sit there forever. Who does an etsy search for "vintage board game?" But if they were sitting in a booth and someone could pick them up and imagine them used on a wall in a pretty frame...? Definitely. I don't know. I'm probably being unrealistic... I know that having a booth would not equal instant success. I wouldn't quit my day job or anything. But I just really want to try it out for a month or so. I wish I could find a place where I could just consign some pieces but not rent out a full booth. There is a super cute antique shop near us that specializes in mid-century, although they've got all kinds of goodies. I called and asked about booth rental, and it starts at $450 a month. Ah!!!! I just can't do that. I guess I'm just going to keep looking at different options (maybe eBay would be better??) but I'm just not sure what to do. Any advice/suggestions would be much appreciated. Seriously.

Drumroll please...

2010-07-21T19:22:00.000-07:00

I'm not even going to apologize for the photo quality. I'm not a photographer, and even though I keep letting Roxanne take pictures with our camera in the hopes that she will break it and necessitate us selling one or two kidneys to get a new one, I'm stuck with it. Just see past the poor image quality to the majesty of the shell chairs. They are lovely. Justin sat in one at dinner (I only had time to finish one before we ate) and the first thing he said was that it fit his butt nicely. I reminded him that we don't use the "b" word in front of our toddler/parrot, but oh well. I'm glad that he likes the chairs.
Speaking of the parrot, we are thinking about not keeping her chair with the booster seat in it for now... She seems to be able to reach the table fine with the shell chair. That being said, any excuse to strap down a two year old at meal times is probably a good one. So we'll maybe do a short trial run. She's still prone to sliding in and out of her seat for various reasons (dance breaks, finding a toy to get all gummed up with her meal, yelling at the dog to stop taking her food even though the dog is fifteen feet away, etc.). So yeah. Maybe keep the booster for now...
I know it's a little cafeteria looking, but I mean, it is cafeteria stuff, right? And that's fine. The color is so bright and happy, and this table is perfect for the space and perfect for messy kids. You just can't hurt it.
At Justin's insistence, I took down the print that was in this spot on the pre-hallway and put this lovely lady up. He's not crazy about this either, but whatever. Once we win the lottery he can go pick out something fancy. In the mean time, I love this poster. I got it at Value Village, too, and it's a print of a summary of a Shakespeare character from a British newspaper. Somehow, this helps me feel justified in going back to graduate school in August. Like, I'm studying English, and I have Shakespeare-related art on my walls. Profound, right?
Here she is, a little closer. Doesn't she look perfect? I'm pretty sure these were done in the seventies. I love it.

Are you proud?

2010-07-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

So, I just finished the second coat of Penetrol on my Eames chairs. They look AMAZING. And the Penetrol, while making me feel a little funny (kind of like breathing in sharpie for an hour or so), it's waaaay easier than I thought it would be. I feel a little silly for putting this off for so long! Justin thinks the chairs look amazing, and he says he can't wait to put them in the dining room. I think he was actually a little grumpy when I told him that I thought the chairs might need a third coat of Penetrol. He is serious about getting them in place. I can't blame him. I'm convinced that the extra pop of color will go a long way up here...

One thing I was worried about with the chairs was whether or not they would really "clean up" during the sanding process. It's hard to tell when they are faded out and kind of dry looking, but the Penetrol really brings the color back. They are a surprisingly dark orange now. Almost tomato red even. I'll post photos when I get them in place, but for now, you can just use your imaginations. They still have some rough patches, and there is a definite pattern on them, in terms of the fiberglass pieces being almost black on most of the chairs, and I had it in my head that the chairs would look uniform in color. In all honesty, I really love the texture of the aged fiberglass, and as long as the Penetrol keeps them shiny and not itching me and my family during meal times, they are perfect. One of the chairs has some areas where some of the fiberglass threads have turned totally white. It almost looks like paint, but I don't think it is because it would have come off during the sanding process. Either way, they have great character. Some day, I want to put the wooden dowel bases on them. The H-bases are fine for now, but they aren't in immaculate condition, and some of the screws seem reluctant to go in all the way. I might take a few to Home Depot or Ace and see if I can buy some new ones.

Oh, and here are some photos of the new room set up. It's still not perfect, but definitely feeling more cozy. Oh, and the lighting is awful, I know. It was stormy out and I was forced to use a flash. Ew.

Yeah, I might be stalling...

2010-07-17T19:00:00.001-07:00

I just got back from Home Depot. I bought some new lint-free cloths and vinyl gloves so I can FINALLY get started on sealing my Eames chairs with Penetrol. It's been so long. At least they are done being sanded. That part was not enjoyable. I have never been so itchy in my life. Truth be told, the Penetrol freaks me out. I have nightmarish visions of leaving them to set in the basement in all their glossy glory, only to find our cat curled up in one in the morning. Stuck. But in a few moments, I'm going to go down there, find something fun to watch on the computer (thank goodness for Netflix Instant Viewing...) and get started. I'm hoping I can at least get the backs done.

In other news, we have officially adjusted to the new room set up. I switched the new Danish Modern chairs (that no one is mentioning in terms of reselling or not reselling... at least for now) so that they are under the map. It looks SO much better. The height of those beauties works well on that wall.

That being said, my new dream is to find a modern sectional for the living room. After hours and hours of thinking over the best way to utilize that small space, I really think that would be ideal. We could have the main section on the wall where the map is, and then have it come out under the window. I've been checking Ebay and Craigslist, but most used sectionals are those big clunky beats that look like leather potato sacks and somehow have four recliners built in. Ew. It will be at least a year before we have the budget to get anything in there, but I want to keep an eye out to figure out what my favorite shapes and scales are. I'm completely infatuated with this one sectional at Room and Board, but like most Room and Board furniture, it's probably never going to be within our reach. But look at it! I think my favorite is this red color.
The second part of the sectional plan means putting our current couch down into the basement "living room" to create a den. It would be great to have a TV down there. There are no windows in that area, so it would be ideal. We just have to get a TV first... And this sectional. Am I the only one who gets depressed thinking about how expensive home decorating is? Am I the only one who feels guilty for wanting to spend money on these things and not just appreciating exactly what we have? I mean, I love our house, and I'm happy with what we have, but as we live in our home and figure out how it works, we are bound to come up with better solutions, right? Sigh.

So in the world of basements, ours is so frustratingly awful right now. It was flooded a couple of weeks back when a water main broke in the front yard. It's a very sticky and uncomfortable situation. The water main that broke in the front yard was broken during the HGTV renovation. They hit the water line with an auger. Oops. Apparently they didn't repair it well enough either, so it rebroke and we woke up one morning a couple of weeks ago with two to three inches of water in our basement and lots of the front yard flooded. We called the contractors, and they came out and fixed things. That first day, they had a plumber come out and replace that water main, then replaced the drywall in a small part of the basement kitchen where the new water main comes in. They also shop vacuumed up all the water, and left a giant dehumidifier thing for a while. But since then, they have had some pretty slow going on doing other stuff... *I* spent several hours on a Saturday ripping out the carpet in the basement bedroom that was most effected by the flooding. The berber carpet was glued directly to the concrete by some genius before we moved in, and it just would not dry. Our house smelled like a moldy locker room for several days. Even though I got that carpet out a few days after the flooding had been cleaned up, it was still completely soaked. It made it easier to pull up since the adhesive was so wet, but it was the most ungodly smell of all time. While I was pulling it out, I realized that the rubber baseboards (again, some dingleberry who "finished" the basement used that rubber commercial-grade stuff as baseboards throughout the entire basement) were not sticking to the drywall, and when I pulled one up a tiny bit, I noticed that everything was moldy behind it. So I ripped out all that rubber stuff in that one bedroom, and we asked the contractor to replace the bottom portion of the drywall in that room. They have been working on that over the last TWO weeks. Sigh. I know it's not a huge deal, but I wish they would just finish.

On top of that, the floor in the rest of the basement had been sealed and painted before we moved in, but the paint is now peeling up in most areas from being wet for so long. We also lost a lot of Roxanne's baby stuff (including her baby book), some of our books, some of our wedding stuff (including my wedding shoes, which makes me sad) and we have yet to check to see if Justin's amplifiers are still working. I think we are too scared. It's really overwhelming to have everything in your basement get wet and have to go through it all to figure out what is ruined and what can be salvaged. And the contractors have not offered at all to do any further repair to the floor or to compensate us for anything that was lost. Up until recently, Justin and I just assumed they would refuse and were sort of sheepish about the whole thing. But now I'm mad, and I feel like they should do more to bring our basement to what it was before this happened, since it is clearly not our fault. I'll keep you posted on what happens once I send my e-mail with a list of repairs I'm going to ask for. I'd kind of like to ask for them to replace the bottom portion of drywall in the whole basement, but I think I'm just going to focus on asking them to fix the floor. And for some kind of compensation for our personal belongings that were destroyed. I'm not going to go after them for pain and suffering or anything, but still. Justin is staying out of it for the most part. I think he thinks nothing will come of it. But seeing your daughter's ultrasound picture melted into the baby book that you had to save up to buy... It just brought out the mama bear in me. Any tips on how to handle this situation would be appreciated. I'm not good at being demanding and scary. But as my mom reminded me, we didn't sign up to be on this show expecting to have a flooded basement, and it's highly unlikely that any of the other homeowners had to deal with this. And everything about the whole experience was magical, and we really liked the contractors until this issue came up, so it's all just very unfortunate and disappointing.
This is someday going to be the guest bedroom/craft room. Right now, it is jammed with our belongings that were displaced by the flooding. Would you want to plow into that room and tear through stuff to see what's ruined and what's not? Keep in mind, Justin has already gone through about 10 boxes that were in the basement kitchen, and thrown out about six garbage bags full of our stuff. At least the walls in that room still look pretty... I just spent a weekend priming and painting in that room before the flood. The color is a lovely soft gray called "Artist Loft." Love it.
This is a spot on the floor where the paint is peeling up. It didn't look like this before the flooding. It now looks like this in patches in the entire basement.
This is what the drywall looked like behind the rubber baseboards. This is three days after the flooding, and it was still wet under there. And that black stuff? Yeah. It's mold. The floor looks like that because I had just ripped the carpet out. The yellow stuff is the old adhesive. We have to strip it (using more noxious chemicals) and then repair any cracks/holes in the concrete, seal it, and then paint it. Fun.

OK. I've stalled enough. On to the chairs...

To Sell or Not to Sell...

2010-07-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

For the record, I realize the house is kind of a wreck in these photos. Sorry. It was 1am when I was taking these photos, and I'm still trying to figure out how to arrange this room.

So, I started my very own Etsy store. So far, I've sold only one item, but I've also only had the shop open for a week. I need to add more fun stuff, so I took a thrifting trip yesterday. I found this pair of chairs, and although I planned to stick to smalls on my etsy shop, I couldn't leave these behind. There were three of them, but I only bought these two. The third was in rough shape, while these two are in almost perfect condition. I was initially drawn to the lines of the chairs, and the colors, but when I flipped one over and saw "Made in Denmark" stamped on the bottom, I hoisted them into my cart. They were $18 a piece, which was a bit much for me, but I was assuming I could sell them for more (hopefully). Only problem is that I'm getting attached to them. Danish Modern in my very own living room. I have been trying to research the chairs, but without a name on them, it's kind of useless looking them up. All I know is that they are extremely comfortable, attractive, and solid. I'm trying to trick the hubs into not wanting to part with them either. We'll see...

You'll want to click on the photos to enlarge... They are too little in the post

2010-06-30T16:11:00.000-07:00

This June has been a big giant sweaty mess in Georgia. I mean seriously. And the bugs are bad. But in spite of these handicaps, we've been doing our best to get out and water the new plants at least five days a week. But it's a losing battle for the annuals. I'm kind of OK with it. As long as the rose bushes and the regular bushes pull through, I'm happy.

For the inside of our house, I randomly decided to rearrange the living room over the weekend. I just couldn't take it in it's layout any more. I'm not really in love with the new layout either but I think it uses the totally weird dimensions of our living room better. It just makes it more obvious that we need different/new furniture. I figure if we live with the weird inadaquacies for a few months, we'll know better what we really want. Which is convenient, since we don't have any budget for anything. It's nice having a classed up exterior, but it definitely makes me way more intolerant of the inside. Like we are not doing it justice.

I realize these chairs AND the shelf are too little for this wall, but it's nice to be able to stand and look at the map without having to kneel on the couch. And I really love having my books out. You guys, I was an English major. These are like my babies. I attempted to color code them, but I know it's weak. The shelf was thrifted by my mom (have I paid you back for that yet?) and it's such a charming little piece. I think it could work in lots of places.
The credenza as it is now. The radio does work. I paid a little more than I wanted to for it, but it was $20 at Last Chance Thrift in Decatur. They have a few pseudo hipsters working there who know to mark up anything that looks mid-century. Jerks. The plant on the far right was on our back deck, but I wanted something for a little color. It's an asparagus fern, planted in a planter my friend Ariel made. It's lovely.
The rug is a flokati that my step-mom gave us. I thought it was vintage, but then I saw the Pier One tag underneath. Oh well. It's still extremely comfy on the feet. Over the weekend, I washed it with Woolite and brushed it with the cat brush for like an hour. A little ridiculous, but it made a big difference. We had it down in here for a while a few months back, and the dog puked on it in four places. She's so spiteful. She loves the rug. In the mornings, she is laying on the middle of it with the sides all rumpled up like she's been digging and rolling in it all night.
Ideally, I'd like to get upholstered chairs for this spot. Something low profile and small, but colorful. I'm loving this chair from CB2, but the price is pretty high. And it's a little big. I'd go for a loveseat, too, but again, it would have to be little. I'm always hesitant to get a loveseat that doesn't match a couch. Risky. I could go for this loveseat from Urban Outfitters, but I'm not digging the colors. It's a moot point because of budget constraints, but a girl can dream. In the lower left, you can see my darling little $3 thrifted magazine rack. I'd been wanting one for a while, and I love the shape and details of this one.
I changed out the dining room art from the vintage cook book/entertaining images to some Charlie Harper collages. My sister gave Roxanne this amazing flashcard/floor puzzle Charlie Harper set for her birthday, but her first time playing with them, they cut her finger pretty badly. After wiping the blood off, I decided to find another use for them. I fashioned these collages, which still look a little more holly hobby than I would love, but on a budget, I think they are cute. And the images are certainly fabulous.
I was trying to get the full room in here. What do you think? Did the couch work better in it's old home? I think this new formation is growing on me. It's nice to lay on the couch and look out the window. From here, I can see the house across from us that got the "mini-makeover" from Curb Appeal, and it's lovely.
With my mom's help on layout, and Justin and my step-dad's helpful moving abilities, we pulled the table out of the closet, and put in Roxanne's little table and Heyward Wakefield chairs. I think it's adorable in there. I just want to put a little light in.
Again, the kid closet. This is a thrifted table, but I think it's charming.
Slight close up of the radio. I can't figure out what year it was made. On the one hand, it looks sixties, but maybe it was a later model made to look vintage? I haven't had any luck searching it online. It's by Commodore. And it let's me lay around and listen to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on NPR on Saturdays.
And here's the Charlie Harper collage as it relates to the rest of the room. This room is so hard to arrange you guys. But I like changing things up. This is normally the time in my living situation where I start looking for a new place to rent, and it's such a nice feeling to not be stir crazy and hating millions of things about our home. There's work to do, but I feel so much more settled here, and like I actually want to invest the time to get things right. The longest place we've lived in since getting married was about a year and a half. I hope to be here much longer...

Some "after" shots

2010-06-10T15:04:00.000-07:00

We are done! I can't believe it! The house looks amazing. I'll try and get out some this weekend if it stops raining and take lots of photos of the front and back of the house, but in the mean time, here are just a couple that I snagged from my stepdad who graciously took some lovely photos at the "wrap party" on Monday. We LOVE the house. Love love love it. The last photo is the "before." Just to remind you of the nastiness. I still have a soft spot for that pink brink, and just the character of the house, but now I love the modernity of the house. And the stoop is so big and roomy. I feel like I'm at a cool restaurant when I'm standing on it. Oh, that lovely lady watering the lawn is my sister. She looks like me but much much thinner. Thanks genetics.

Progress Photos! for some reason, my intro is at the end, and I can't move it. Sorry.

2010-06-01T18:07:00.000-07:00

The concrete poured on the front steps, and the new door (hopefully not finished).
Apparently, the stoop and concrete, etc., went way over budget, so to save, they used a piece of plywood to cover our old door. It's not done yet (apparently) but the idea was that the lines in the door match up to the lines of the new brick. I'm hoping they will stain it to the color of the wood hand rails that will be put into the stoop. Or they could paint it, but I just love the wood grain with the lines in the door. Either way, it's going to be very clean and modern. Love that.
Can you see the new bricks? This is where they wrap from the carport to the front of the house. They will extend to the top of the windows across the front of the house. Pretty! John Gidding says that the design is supposed to mimic the wonderful mid-century "corner windows" that you see. I think once the house is painted and everything blends, it's going to be gorgeous. And make our house look a little different from all the ones around us.
More brick detail on the left side of the house. They couldn't do much more because the concrete was still wet on the stoop. These were all taken today. We are supposed to be done on Monday!
These steps lead down to the backyard (on the left side of the house). If you see the funny gap after the second step, it's for a step that will actually be a planter with some pavers in it. I totally didn't know that until today, and just thought that they had laid it out wrong. Oops. But, now that I get it, I think it's going to look amazing.
Detail of the left side of the house.
This new stoop is gorgeous. That front rectangle on the stoop is going to be a large concrete planter. It's so much more scaled to our house. It will help hide that immense mass of cinder block in our foundation.
Detail of the right side of the house (where it meets the driveway). You can see how big the stoop is, and how nice and big the planter is, too. They just poured all this concrete today. The urge to leave hand prints was strong, but I resisted.
Before the concrete was poured, this was the view out the front door.
View from the front door. Cinder block down, but no concrete, and no dirt filled in. But no awful bushes randomly placed around the front yard!
The new placement of the leyland cypresses is so much better. I actually like them now.
Roxanne about two seconds after I turned my back (after telling her she could play in the sand but not stand in it). She was pretty disappointed when the giant sand tower disappeared.
Cinder block invasion of our carport... Soon to be the stoop!
The dirty remains of our "landscaping." Um, we didn't do any of that though. Just to clarify...
No stoop, and the new cypress placement. Much nicer already!
Roxanne wears this dress a lot. But these were taken on day one. The sand ones were from last week. They got all these forms put up, and then left it alone for a few days. Roxanne just kept yelling "more dirt! yay! more dirt!"
Day one, the last time these stupid cypress trees would stand all in a row along the driveway. *sniff* Also, I want that Bobcat.
Filming the bush removal.
That man is standing up straight inside the hollow stoop. It actually had no support, so that giant slab of concrete on the top of our stoop was only supported underneath on three sides and could apparently have toppled at any point. Happily, it's all filled in now.
No more railings!

Finally, I'm posting some photos from the HGTV progress. The house looks like a wreck, but I'm sure it's all for the greater good... And at least it's not a mess we have to worry about cleaning up. It's amazing how little giant piles of dirt, sand, gravel and concrete (and the list goes on) in your front yard and driveway bother you when you know you don't have to deal with them. I mean seriously. It's like vacation. Justin and I are just interested spectators in a way... Very surreal. But everyone is so nice, and working hard, and the plans are a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Here are some photos. They are backwards, with the top photos being the newest, and the bottom ones being the first day of filming. As always, click to make the images bigger if you want.

Living/Dining Room photos...

2010-04-06T19:08:00.000-07:00

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We had a brief shooting adventure for part of our HGTV thing (ohmygoodness the design plans are phenomenal. Can't wait for May when they get carried out) and we weren't sure if they would come inside. So we did our feeble attempt at gussying up the living/dining room. I took the opportunity to take some photos while there weren't random bits of Mr. Potato Head or Katie's ickle bickle dog bed in the frame. Yay for clean houses!

v-i-c-t-o-r-y

2010-03-18T18:27:00.001-07:00

What does that spell? Hobo Camp. That's a nod to Jerry Blank; please disregard if you aren't a fan of Strangers with Candy. I couldn't help it. The whole time I was finishing up that last drawer pull in my kitchen, I kept hearing her in my head yelling "hobo camp!" as I was thinking about being victorious over those stupid drawer pulls. I still have one lower cabinet with paint on it, but that's it. Everything else in the kitchen is looking much better. I'll post photos soon. I'm just so excited that I got those stupid things out. It finally took me using pliers to turn the screws, and tearing up my fingertips as I loosened them by hand for the last half. But I promise, it's worth it. Now I just have to figure out how to hide stupid holes that are showing from where someone had drilled two sets of holes in the drawer fronts (only on four of them...only). I didn't know they were there until I had already bought and opened my new drawer pulls, so no chance of finding some that would just extend flush on the front to hide the pulls... Man, I'm boring myself. Sorry.

So last weekend I put some time in on our bedroom. I finally got the old ceiling fan down, and put up the IKEA fixture.

It's not as fancy as I'd love, but the shape is very fun, and it makes the room feel younger and more bright. But holy moly, it took a REALLY long time to get that bad boy up. The good news is that I learned to cut and strip wire, which was a new skill for me, and required new tools. Definitely worth it though. The light fixture makes a huge difference.

We also found a new duvet set, at IKEA of course, that we think will look pretty amazing in the bedroom.

The thing about IKEA is that it's cheaper to buy that duvet set (that includes two pillowcases) than to go buy special pillowcases. So eventually I'll venture out and get awesome graphic pillowcases, but I think this set is fine for now. And the yellow and white stripes look lovely with the grey walls. Some day I want to spring for this amazing IKEA blanket, but it's a bit pricey for me right now. And we needed the yellow. But look at it! Nice, right? I would link the IKEA stock photo for our set, but it's not on the website for some reason...

I found a $3 yellow clock at Target that I wanted to hang on the wall below my "air plants" print, but Justin vetoed it. He says it ticks too loud and he can't sleep through it. I know he's right, but I think I'd sacrifice sleep for that clock. It is adorable. And while I'm thinking about it, here's the air plants print. Justin and I picked it out a Indie Craft Experience a few years ago.
I also have this little plastic yellow candy dish that I found at the thrift store a couple of weeks ago. I had no idea what I'd do with it, but I couldn't leave it. It's perfect for my ridiculously mismatched and pitiful hair accessories (tied together hair rubber bands, bent bobby pins, etc.). I think it's adorable. In spite of the awful photo. Sorry. But yes, the photo in the background is one of our wedding photos.
Two of my other favorite pieces in our bedroom are my milk glass lamp and Rose. Both were given to me by my mom. I had Rose in my room on and off when I was little (as did my sister) but she always gave me nightmares. Not anymore! Now she just reminds me of how lovely it is to be clean, polished and thin. *ouch* The little milk glass lamp is so cute, and Justin found the perfect shade for it. I bought an awful one at Target, and we returned it and he picked this one out at Kudzu Antiques while I waited in the car with Roxanne. Babies and antique shops are kind of like bulls in china shops. But with more precise risky behavior. And thumbs.

Tweaking things

2010-03-03T16:08:00.000-08:00

I'm so glad that no one got on and teased me for the title of my last post. New Directions is the name of the glee club on Glee. And yes, I loved that show. I watched it when we were living at my mom's house under the guise of "well, it was on so I watched it," but I admit that I love it. It's so cute! It makes me jealous that the tweens and teens today have awesome programming like that, and we were stuck with Dawson's Creek. Ick. Not that I didn't watch it, too, but you know.

Anyways, I've been trying to get some things done and tied up around here. I haven't made any new progress on my Eames chairs, but mainly because our dog keeps using the whole basement like a giant toilet, and it's not really all that fun to hang out down there. She's being a jerk. However, I have made some strides in the kitchen, and it's seeming less terrible. I mean, I still hate the 80's white laminate cabinets, but I bought new drawer pulls (there weren't any on them before) and they make a huge difference.
I also framed a print that I love and mounted it over the sink using command tape.

That covers the blurg-inducing white spot where we tried to paint over the ivy print on the tile. Tile paint doesn't work. FYI. It's expensive, too. At least we can use the rest of it at some point to repaint our tub. Some dingleberry painted the tub using regular paint at some point, so it's got that half-peeling thing going on and just looks dirty all the time. Nice.

I still have this one area of the kitchen that is the thorn in my side.
The cabinet that covers the sink is a nightmare. It's got the false drawers on it, which is fine, but the screws on the backs of the drawers are only about 3/4" away from the sink. So I can't get in there to get the screws off. The old drawer pulls are still on there and look SO SO SO SO bad. I bought a new tool on Monday night that is more low profile (yes, I've tried an offset screwdriver, and it was still too big) but it still is not working well. I spent about forty five minutes under the sink Tuesday night, and I got the screws loose, but I still have not able to take them off. And my arms are still sore from the weird angle. The Home Depot guy sold me a saw so that I could try and trim the back of the screwdriver off to make it even smaller, but the blade he gave me is not strong enough to saw through the bit. I should have checked the label after him, but Roxanne was going nuts and I didn't realize he didn't really know what he was talking about. Fortunately, the hand saw was only $5 and the blade was $2.50 for two, and I know that a saw is a good thing to have. But it's still annoying. He mentioned that I might be able to find some kind of special screwdriver at an auto parts store, but I'm really not sure if I feel like looking for it. Stupid drawer.... I guess I could, since we live off of Lawrenceville Highway, and have like three auto part stores within two square miles of our house.

I also hung curtains in our bedroom (finally). We've been torn about doing it, but between the cold air coming in through the old window above our head and my concern that maybe people really could see in inspired me to go ahead and put them up. We're pretty happy with the result, but we really need to finish that room. It's second only to the basement in terms of being a wreck. I want to get some fun solid white pillowcases with a bold graphic on them to match our white comforter. I think that would look awesome. They have some cute ones at Urban Outfitters, but they just might be too cute. I think there are some quirkier ones on Etsy. Here's two of my favorites from Etsy.

Or we could always go this route (also from Etsy):

And I've got my eye on these CB2 mirrors for over the dressers.

If we can get those (in five year when we aren't broke), and get rid of the clutter, and I put the light fixture up, it will look really nice and modern and clean in there. Ah clutter. My constant companion. Here are the curtains. Excuse the mess. I was going for realism.

Here's the end table I mentioned last post:
I love it. And it's cluttered. What a shock.

New Directions

2010-02-23T17:39:00.000-08:00

Isn't that the name of a dance and or singing troupe from some kind of comedy show? I can't remember. But it signifies nicely my new hopes for my house blog. I try to keep up with my other blog, which is all about the fam, but I've been sorely lagging on this house blog, since I feel like it has to be strictly relating to house progress. But there just isn't much noteworthy going on over here. We got a new (used) dishwasher from my Dad, which is insanely wonderful and beautiful (a stainless Bosch) that essentially makes the rest of the kitchen look even worse than it did before. The kitchen is so appalling right now. I don't even want to be in it. Not having a functioning dishwasher for over a month in a busy family is basically a long-term sentence to having crusty dishes pile up. On the up side, we now have a dilapidated dishwasher in the backyard, which to me lets the neighbors know that we are high class. For real.

Um, I'm off track already. My point was that I think I'll just blur the lines a little with the house blog and post about general topics in terms of the house. And things house related. Basically, the stuff I want to write about that doesn't need to go in the family blog to be read by my daughter when she's old enough to read. So, I'll do maybe some of that thing where I post images of things on other design blogs that are lovely. I've tried not to do that since it usually just makes me feel depressed about the current state of my house, but e-mailing myself links to design articles I like is also stupid. I never remember to go back and look at them... At least this way I would have to go out of my way to not look at them.

Since we found out about the Curb Appeal thing, I've been wanting to get the inside of the house up to par, since it might end up having glimpses on TV. Ah! Here are some of my most pressing issues:
1. The ceiling in the living room needs to be addressed. It's still peeled back from the old leak. And in the dining area it is discolored. There is no more leakage, and I bought the spray on ceiling texture, I just need to use it. Ugh.
2. I need to finish my Eames chairs and get the dining area mostly done. I found this little owl napkin holder at the Last Chance Thrift Store a couple of weeks ago. I know it's really kitschy, but it was a dollar and I love owls. I had a 70's owl light switch plate when I was a kid (courtesy of my awesome mom helping me adorn my bedroom in 70's decor, even though it was the 90's). So I'm not just trendy. I'm continuing a personal affection that just happens to be trendy.

3. I am not happy with the furniture placement in the living room. The couch and credenza are pretty much stuck, but I can't seem to get a chair arrangement around them that looks nice. We got a BEAUTIFUL end table from my mom, that she found at a thrift store. I'll post photos soon... But I promise, it's insane. It's all angle-y and has metal-capped feet. It's big, too. One of those multi-level tables, but unlike most of them that have old-lady swirls and curves, this one is super modern. I LOVE it. It just needs some work on the finish. There is a little bit of discoloration and some cup marks. But it's not bad. And this table feels so solid. I kind of think it was homemade. But back to furniture placement... I'm thinking I'd like to create some sort of conversation area next to the window, but I'm not sure how to do it yet. I just love the idea of having the central seating, and then a separate little conversation area. I'm just thinking the space is too small.
4. There is a problem with our stupid IKEA pendant light in the dining room. The cap doesn't sit flush with the ceiling, so you can see the wadded up cord and the icky hole in the ceiling. Thanks IKEA. I bought a surround to put between the light and the ceiling, but I have to uninstall the light to put it up. Are we finding a pattern here? Half-finished projects? Yes, I have thousands.
5. The hall light still doesn't work. The new fixture is up, but it doesn't do anything. I hate you hall light.
6. I want to find a lamp for the afore-mentioned end table. I've got a Home Goods gift card that has lamp written all over it. I'm thinking small and clean.
7. I want to create a plate mural on the wall of the dining area. I'm not liking the collection of red frames. It's just too holly-hobby looking. And I read this post on Apartment Therapy that had the most lovely instructions on how to make a good display. I want to try it. Justin is not convinced. I think I can get away with it if I find modern and non-feminine plates. But seriously, how amazing does this look? I'm even thinking I can trail it up over the doorway to the carport hall, like this image. I just love clustered items on a wall. I've just never known how to do it nicely.
OK, that's all I can do for now. I made a giant "to-do" list in my gmail, and just thinking about it is making me sad. I totally thought I was going to finish sanding my chairs tonight. But I'm still itchy from last night and I had a margarita with dinner. Excuses, excuses... But I've got two totally sanded. Two are half sanded. I'm further than I was on Monday. And I'm sanding these things with a vengeance. I hope they look good after the Penetrol goes on. I'm a little nervous that they will still look ghostly and pale, like they do now from all the sanding. I wish I knew what I was doing. Oh well. Cheers to flying by the seat of your pants!

Chairs and chairs and chairs

2010-02-10T18:42:00.001-08:00

After complaining about how we needed new chairs, we ended up with TONS. This photo shows my Eames shell chairs just as they arrived.
Roxanne really enjoyed the box they came in.

Sadly, they are still sitting like that, but now in the basement. I did go and get the Penetrol, sandpaper and rags, but I just haven't had time to get started on them. And I didn't want to put them together only to have to take them apart again once I start shining them up all pretty. I have already started fantasizing about getting some dowel bases for them, but that dream will hold for a few years. That's what I love about these chairs...you can plan for them "long term." So amazing.

The other chairs you see are these fantastic metal/wood/vinyl beauties my mom found for me at a thrift shop in Sandy Springs. I'm in love with them. And we have EIGHT! They make a nice stand-in for the Eames chairs until I get them fixed up, and they are extremely comfortable. I know my photos are oppressively dark, but using the flash is just embarrassing. It makes the images look somehow really seedy and maybe a little pervey. I just don't like it. OK, I'm breaking my rule. Here's a photo with flash just so you can see the chair better.
The metal on the legs and back is a coppery color, and absolutely gorgeous. They may not look it, but they are very heavy, and sturdy. They are stamped "1960" on the bottom. The best part? My mom paid $2.99 a chair. Seriously. Isn't that insane? I love my mom! The only part that makes me a little sad is that when she went back to the thrift store to pick up the last two of the set of 8 she got us, they had put out 14 more. So she asked, and they told her they had about 40 of them in the back. FORTY. You could seriously open an antique booth with that purchase. But after a lot of deliberation and back and forth between me and my mom, we decided my 8 were enough. The timing just isn't right. And of course, within the week, they were gone.
Here's my little chair tableau. I love them all.

Curb Appeal: The Block

2010-01-28T18:48:00.001-08:00

We totally made the cut. We are going to be on Season 2 of Curb Appeal: The Block! It's the Atlanta version of HGTV's Curb Appeal. And while I know that lots of vintage-minded people are dubious about the makeovers that HGTV does, we think this is going to be wonderful. The designer who does the Atlanta episodes is named John Gidding and he is really awesome. Also, we get $20,000 (aaah!) worth of work done to the outside of our house! And for the record, we think that doesn't include most of the labor on the project, which is mostly covered by HGTV staff. We mentioned in our audition tape that we love Mid-Century Modern design, so even though our brick will get painted, which we have reservations about, we are confident that the overall design will be really modern and awesome. I'm not sure yet how soon this is happening, since I just got the call this afternoon that we were picked, but I'll keep everyone posted. We are so incredibly excited, and feel like we won the lottery. We would never in a million years have been able to pay that much money to fix up the outside of our house. We would have had wonkey stoop, the cracked driveway, and the dried blood color siding for years and years to come... Yay!

I won the chairs!

2010-01-19T17:48:00.000-08:00

Hmmm, now I'm getting four scuffed chairs. But I've been reading up on some websites (The Brick House, and Chairfag.com, which I realize is kind of an offensive title, but a great chair blog nonetheless) about how to fix them up. I'm so excited I can't stand it! They were definitely more than I wanted to spend, but they are exactly what we wanted, and I saw a similar set (same bases, almost the same color) but that were all shiny and fixed up, sell for literally double what mine cost on eBay. I'm pretty sure the only people bidding on mine were pretty die-hard furniture people who saw their true potential... But thanks to eSnipe and their bid-in-the-last-six-seconds magic, I won them! I feel like kind of a jerk bidding like that, since it keeps the price pretty low, but whatever. The chair still went from 3 to 17 bids in the last hour or so of bidding. Whew!

That alienating thing where I don't post for a long time and then post WAY too much

2010-01-18T17:58:00.001-08:00

So, Justin had the day off work today, and called a plumber I found on Kudzu. His company is called The Plumbing Detectives, which I find quirky and charming. He had lots of lovely reviews on Kudzu and is very very local, so it seemed like a good way to go. Justin called him this morning and he showed up at 12:45pm (after originally saying he could come at 2:00pm; that's right, an EARLY contractor...). He was able to fix our funky smelling kitchen problem for $80, which apparently consisted of some kind of rag or steel wool being tangled up in the disposal. This would have happened before we moved in, and explains why it smelled so funky in there... So now, our dishwasher and disposal work, although the plumber says they are "temperamental," which I'm guessing translates to "cheap." We plan to use the disposal next to never and the dishwasher seldom. At some point, we want to re-do the kitchen, so we'll hopefully be able to replace those appliances anyways. I'm already dreaming about finding some mid-century metal cabinets somewhere... Maybe some white Youngstown cabinets??? Lovely.

In other news, we've picked up a few odds and ends since my last post. We haven't done any substantial work on anything, since we've been busy doing things like dealing with our terrible two year old and her tantrums, and I've been trying to finish up my graduate school application (barf). I'm posting some photos below of the new-ish additions.
The newest items are Roxanne's Heywood Wakefield school chairs. We bought them as a pair for $30 at a local antique shop, which I think is a great deal. They are a super cute dark orange color and they weight a million pounds and are virtually indestructible. I looked around a little online to see about getting another pair to make an even set of four, but the only ones I could find were $135 a piece. Stupid. I realize this first photo is oppressively dark, but the flash just makes everything look awful, as you can see by the second photo. In any case, we love these chairs. Now we just need to find the perfect dining room chairs. I e-sniped some cheap Eames shell chairs on ebay, but the auction ends in the middle of the night tonight, and I'm pretty sure the price will go insane before then, so I'm not hopeful. But it would be nice... Those chairs are just WAY TOO EXPENSIVE considering most dealers find them in dumpsters or in random closets of institutional buildings...
Below is the print I found at Value Village in Roswell for $6. I really love it, although I have no idea what or who the print is of/by. Justin thinks the frame looks too 70's, but it doesn't bother me. I was just excited to find something that was the right size for that spot that wasn't a million dollars... And I genuinely do love this print. I'm not sure why though. It just speaks to me...
To fill another awkward spot on the wall, I painted some thrift store frames red, filled them with shiny red wrapping paper and some super fun images from 1960's Coca-Cola "magazines" my mom handed down to me. They are basically advertisements, but veiled as guides on entertaining, with each "issue" featuring a special flower arranging section. My favorite is the one with the graceful lady who used a plant stand as a food display. As always, you can click the image to make it larger. Our camera is so bad...

My mom handed me down this super cute bear bank. He's now part of the kitchen display that is still looking weird. But he's so cute.
Our friends Jesse and Jacquelyn gave us this fabulous IKEA kitchen cart for a super generous and thoughtful house-warming gift. It is insanely practical, and I think it looks perfect under this wall cabinet. I have pipe dreams of painting the bottom part of it, but that will probably happen in like five years...
And here's where my infamous photo ended up. The hallway. It looks nice there though. I won't grumble about it too much. And you can see it from the kitchen, where the photo was taken from...
In context, here's the view looking down the hall from Roxanne's door into the living room. Sorry for the dog booty. She's always trying to sneak it into photos. Oh Katie.
And last but not least, here's a photo of the newest member of our family, Boo Boo. She was a barn cat living with my parents, but now she's ours and we are going to spoil her rotten. She's perfect. Please note the extraordinary restraint I displayed in not saying "purr-fect." Proud? I thought so.

It almost looks fancy...

2010-01-10T18:34:00.001-08:00

We've had some snow since last Thursday. It's not enough to really make much of a difference, but it's pretty. And it almost makes the house look pretty. Aside from the weird landscaping...

We are on the hunt for dining room chairs, but with a teensy budget, we haven't had any luck. We found some we liked at West Elm, but after going there today and trying them out, it was obvious that they were in our price range because they were awful. Note to retail furniture stores, please make sure that your floor models aren't wonky. It doesn't speak well of the merchandise... But I guess we should just be thankful that it was so obvious that they were cheaply made. I guess we'll just keep hunting for the Eames shell chairs that we would really like for the table. They are just so expensive! I keep hoping to find some kind of fluke great deal on them. I'd also like to find a side table for the space between our sofa and wall. We looked some today while looking for chairs, but we don't want to spend any money on a table until we find the chairs... Of course, if I found one at the thrift store, I'd be set. I found some serious jewels last week at the Goodwill, but nothing that I was looking for. They had an AMAZING mid-century stereo cabinet with the record player still in tact, but it was pretty scratched up, and I'm fairly sure the wiring would need some work. Too much of a project for me, but it was only $20. They also had a lovely 1940's deco dresser in a really dark wood with cove drawer pulls. If I had a car that I could jam these things into, I probably would have bought it. But it was still $40... At Kudzu Antiques today, I saw a vintage cookie jar displayed in a booth that I saw at Goodwill last week, and it furthered my aspirations to someday open a booth myself. In the mean time, we are holding steady and not doing much very exciting. Oh, but look at this ADORABLE 1950's Marx dollhouse we gave Roxanne for her birthday. My mom found it in an antique shop in Roswell. I just love it. We aren't really letting her play with it yet because it's made out of tin and the interior is lithographed on, and would probably scratch easily. But she has PLENTY of other toys... (you'll probably need to click the image below to actually see the dollhouse, but I assure you, it's worth it)

First Christmas at the Lilly Ranch

2009-12-30T10:09:00.001-08:00