my little stool.

Recently I decided to try and make myself a (very) simple vanity for the bedroom. It had to be pretty narrow, medium wide, and most of all, simple. The vanity remains a work in progress (built, but not painted yet). When I saw the scraps, I decided that I should make myself a litte upholstered stool.

How I made it:
1. two scrap pieces of 1x12 pine, cut to square (top and bottom, two rectangles of even length for sides (I think they were like fifteen inches long?).
2. Screwed them all together with wood screws.
3.I used an old cut up towel across the top (although if I were being proper and not cheap I could have used batting), and stapled three sides down. then I stuffed some batting under the towel to make it cushiony, and stapled the fourth side down
4. Arranged fabric across the top and around the sides, held in place with thumb tacks while working, and whip-stitched all the seams using strong embroidery thread.

The fabric was some that my friend Aaron brought back from Africa as a souvenir, and has been sitting unused in my fabric pile for quite some time. I think it looks pretty cute.

Total cost for this project: $0.00.

Imagine my surprise then, the other day, when I was perusing the offerings of Anthropologie and stumbled upon this:



not exactly the same, but pretty darned close. total cost for this ottoman: $200.00.

not bad for an afternoon project!

silver arrangements

One of the things that I see ALL The time when I go thrifting is old silver-plated serving pieces. Of course, when I get them they look pretty horrible...


but If I see something that's nearly black and fairly heavy, I have a hard time not buying it. As a result, I now have a pretty impressive silver collection.
(same piece after some elbow grease)


One day when we have a real dining room, I'm planning to use my collection of silver-plated platters and serving dishes to make a gigantic disco-classical-fabulous arrangement on a wall



Imagine this, but less big, and SHINY. It would reflect light around like a mirror, but without making me stare at myself throughout an entire dinner. Sure, it would require some elbow grease a few times a year to take everything down and clean, but it would look awesome. Which is a justification for many, many things.

I'm thinking I could make a decent sized arrangement for about $100 if I trolled the thrifts for a few more pieces (plus the cost of silver polish).

Another pretty option would be hammered aluminum. Hammered aluminum serving pieces were popular in the 1940s and 1950s, and although less popular, they are still made today Ethan and I started a collection when we got a large platter for a wedding present. I have bought two more pieces since, and I love them.

They are readily available on Ebay and I've seen a few in the thrift stores. If you buy a piece new, it's super shiny, but over time they get a dull patina. I think these would also be beautiful hung on a wall. Or anywhere, really.

fabric stalking success

It may sound weird to some people, but I have habit of stalking yarns and fabrics online without actually having a specific use in mind for them. Recently (as in the past year or two) I've loved Ikats. I know they're really trendy and they're probably going to be uncool in a few minutes, but I still think they're fun. they are soft and graphic at the same time. I also love the varying color combinations that have come out. I am pretty picky about what colors types of fabrics I will put in my house; I don't really do any traditional toiles, checks, or florals, because every room in our house is used equally by both myself and Ethan, and I think that rooms used by both of us should be balanced masculine vs. feminine.

Anyways, lately I've been stalking the Robert Allen Khanjali fabric in
Peacock

and Glacier:


The other day I went with my Mom to Jo-Ann's to go look for fabrics for her to re-cover a chair in her bedroom. and guess what I saw peeking out from the red-tag sale remnants area? six yards of the peacock colorway for $6 per yard. This stuff is usually $16-$20 if you look for it online! so I bought it all. I think I'm going to use some to change out some pillows on our sofa... and save the other five yards until I think of some good way to use them. I may have to go thrifting to find something that needs to be re-covered. because what we really need is more furniture in the garage waiting for a re-finish.

little pretty things

A couple of things that are making me happy right now


My jars of vintage buttons- each jar was $7 at an antique store in Cleburne. the local yarn store charges about a dollar for a SINGLE vintage shell button. So $7 for a whole jar was an awesome deal.


Part of my jewelry collection; I keep all my cuffs and bracelets in a bowl next to my jewelry box. The pin is one that was my grandmother's.
I know the idea of displaying jewelry is not a new one, but seeing this colorful little pile makes me happy.

not mind-blowing things, just small parts of my house that give me joy. and no, I have no idea what to do with all the buttons. I probably need to figure out how to make a button hole on the sewing machine I have permanently borrowed from my sister. if anyone has any hints, they are welcome.

things I make

here are a few peeks of things that I've been doing with yarn:

1. Crocheted Tea Cozy! I didn't use a pattern besides knowing how to do basic increases and decreases, and tried it on my tea pot as I was making it. It is crocheted with Stitch N Bitch wool, which I like because it is affordable, has non-fugly colors (lots of them) and it has nice stitch definition. Seeing this makes me happy and it keeps my tea hot when I'm using my thrifted china teacups.


2. squares in squares in squares blanket. I first bought the yarn for this when we were in Austin last September from a pretty little store called Hill Country Weavers. It was the first fancy yarn that I have ever bought (Blue Sky Alpacas worsted weight organic dyed cotton) and this blanket is turning out gorgeous. I used a ton of colors in this (I think they were: dandelion, wasabi, pickle, azul, aloe, sky, mediterrenean, periwinkle, thistle, poppy, flamingo, and shrimp. The background color is Honeydew)

I am waiting for some more of the honeydew to come in so I can finish the blanket. It will end up being 8 squares by nine, plus a border. It's hard to get an honest picture of what the colors look like, since they look so different in different lights. If I had to do this blanket over again (which I won't any time soon, since we have to buy food as well as luxury yarn) I would have chosen a different color instead of sky blue, and then used a really pretty icy gray as the background color. unfortunately the icy gray was too close in color, so I couldn't use it. I like the honeydew, but I think I would have liked gray better. c'est la vie. I'm going to use the leftover cotton to knit either a striped scarf or a striped cushion cover.

And this is where things get made. I am trying to block out the area below the desk because it's pretty disorganized (multiple tote bags full of yarn and fabric and oil painting supplies I inherited from my Grandma when she passed but I don't know how to use yet). Please note the awesome yarn winder that my in-laws got me for christmas (along with an umbrella swift). I've even been winding my cheaper balls of yarn using it, so that they look a little more swank.


The column prints are from somewhere in Italy but I don't remember exactly where I got them. The frames are from Sweden (Ikea).

back

(dancing at Central Market when we were in Austin)

yeah I know I haven't posted in a long, long time. Things are busy, and my life is so repetitive that if anyone read what I have been doing and my thoughts have been for the last 5 months they'd probably need a prescription for some Prozac. I have been working a lot. except for the month of November (when I was doing a PM&R rotation which was beautiful), I've been on call every third or fourth night. that means every third or fourth day I stay overnight, come home, and then sleep till the late afternoon when I'm post-call. I've made it to church approximately 3 times since my job started, because I work most Sundays, and the ones I don't work often come after 12-15 days straight of working. So I sleep in and figure God's not mad about it. Here sre some of the projects that I have been working on during my short and sweet days off.

1. TV cabinet. I bought this at a small-town antique store in Whitney, Texas. it was originally a drab oak color (in an unfortunate 60's-70's way) and the hardware that is now brass was so dirty that it matched the rest of the piece. I sanded it, primed it, and spray painted it with Rustoleum's Safety Red. Then I covered it with poly to make it durable and shiny. I tried Brass-o on the hardware and nothing happened, so I broke out the big guns and used some Bar Keeper's Friend. That will dissolve ANYTHING, including my own skin. I stole this idea directly from Little Green Notebook. And yes, I was watching Toddlers and Tiaras, because I am on vacation and therefore entitled to watch trash.


2. I got this bench at the thrift store near my house. it was originally a kind of awful gold velvet, and I really liked the legs. I re-covered it in black and white stripes, because I am a little obsessed with them. I didn't have a staple gun, so it's on there with plain old paper staples. we'll see how long it lasts. probably not long.


3. This is a sneak peek of a birthday present that I'm making for my sister. It's also a Christmas present because I took a while to get it going. It's a basic zig-zag crochet blanket, using Bamboo-Ewe wool.


Let's have another look at it, shall we?


ziggity-zag! I hope she likes it.

4. This is something I really want to try using one of the suzanis that I brought back from turkey (the black one). I know that the whole ethnic-fabric-on-a-classic-shape thing is very trendy, but I honestly don't think I would ever get tired of this, or outgrow the trend. I think it would be really special to be able to remember drinking tea and haggling with the owner of the carpet shop for my suzani every time I saw a chair upholstered with the fabric.


My incredibly late new year's resolution is to do more posts. one of my favorite things is to read other people's blogs and see their ideas (who needs magazines anymore? there are five thousand bloggers out there full of wit and wisdom free for the taking!)

pillow talk

this post is not going to be as racy as the title may suggest. But it's still thrilling. I went to Horchow Finale today and scored a sweet deal on a really pretty hand-embroidered pillow!

It was originally $212.00 (who in the world spends over $200 for a PILLOW? that's insane. It's a pillow. The Finale price was $140.00, which is still insane. But then I looked... was there a smudge of green on the tag? That would mean 75% off! I took it up to the register. My hopes were trampled by a discontented-looking old lady who DENIED the green smudge, then walked away and left me at the register without ringing me up for my other purchase:

A younger, kinder salesperson came to the register. I explained my dashed hopes of green smudginess, and she took pity on me. Long story short, I got the pillow (down-filled, hand-embroidered, feminine loveliness!) for $34.00. If you come over, I'll let you touch it, but only if you wash your hands first. That pillow is technically worth more than my couch.

everything's coming up chrysanthemums...

Today was my last day of enforced dysfunctionality. It's been a heck of a ride. In case you're wondering, yes, my grade did stink (I wasn't getting my hopes up), but so did the other student's and we have addressed the powers that be to appeal and try to fight the woooaahhh...man.
The good news is, I got to sleep for SEVEN hours last night even though I was on call, I got finished today at around 10 AM, and then I got to go home. Then I went to Lowe's and bought some terra cotta pots and a bunch of plants to make myself a container garden in front of my front door. I of course called my sister to ask her what I should plant (and by that what I really meant was what can't I kill?) and she told me to get something tall, something short, and something viney that droops/spreads. I took her advice, and this was the result:


Charming, no? of course after I finished I read the back of my bag of dirt and it said "NOT FOR POTTED PLANTS!!! KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN. ALWAYS WEAR GARDEN GLOVES WHEN HANDLING THIS SOIL"... after I had happily been digging my hands into it for like twenty minutes. Oh well, my hands aren't burning just yet so I think I'm probably safe.
My sister told me I should be careful about what I'm bitching about on this blog... looking back, I haven't used any names, and I haven't said anything that I didn't also tell to my course director, resident, and other classmates.
This weekend is for fun only. Next Monday I start at the VA... on a team by myself. I'm already dreading the undivided scut!

dorky confession

I had to go to the Dr the other day to get a bunch of prednisone (a hardcore anti-inflammatory drug) to stop the neuropathies and tendonitis that I sustained as a result of using my hand too much to study. I haven't been able to pick up a pen for a week. In fact, I used a wrist brace for three days before my test to prevent it from hurting any worse. so... yeah. dorkiest athletic injury ever. I wish I could call myself a mathlete because it sounds fun but really I'm a random-scientific-factslete. in other news, I split a pitcher of margaritas (aka misbehavior popsicles for adults) with my sister and my mom after helping my sister and her husband to move and unpack all day. If anyone is ever on the East side in Austin, I reccomend going to El Azteca and ordering chicken chalupas ( which my sister felt the need point out to me aren't that amazing as they are just flattened tacos). But really, they were amazing. And the restaurant has pictures of scantily clad Aztec boys and girls all over the walls. And you can get delicious pralines after dinner, although I think the Pralines available at Ojedas in Dallas are even better, but the food itself may not be as good. Ramble ramble ramble. I'm going to bed.

I love Salvation... Army

I went to the Salvation Army on Harry Hines and Inwood the other day to look for a headboard and although I was not successful in my search, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of quality home furniture they have. Examples: sets of wing chairs for less than $200, giant sturdy armoirs for $250 to $3o0, and sofas for under $300. They did have some things that were a bit vegas (matching faux-marbelized bed set- the headboard had two attached night stands and an overhead light!) but they also had a lot of cute kind of granny-ish furniture that would be really pretty if painted. I got a giant 60s beach housey lamp for $8.00:


My sister, Ben and Anna visited this weekend and they brought me a chair that they won't need at their new house. It's upholstered in a way that was very stylish in 1993 and there are a few cat scratches decorating it it, so I decided to rig up a makeshift slipcover using an extra sheet and then threw a scarf on it that I will have to borrow next winter because I usually use it on my neck and not on my furniture:

I'm not sure what to do with the trunk that I have next to it. I need the trunk to store my winter sweaters, and it doesn't fit under my bed. But it screams college like nobody's business. I doubt that I'll ever be ambitious enough to actually paint it or cover it with paper, but I wish that could somehow just happen automatically without any effort on my part.
This is my office closet. I have a very big closet (it even has a window!) that would otherwise have held a vaccum and little else, so I decided to make it into a study nook. I haven't used it yet but I hope to in the future.

Here are some pictures of me and my cutie niece from this weekend. She thinks I'm the funniest person ever. or maybe it's just how I look.

apartment pictures (mostly for Shannon)

Here's what my apartment currently looks like. I still have a few things to do but it's mostly put together.

from top of stairs: I think it's required for every Texan to have either a giant metal star, a state flag, or a pair of longhorns somewhere inside their house. At the very least, they should have a large collection of Mexican crosses (I have 5). The coffee table is from Ikea and I put it together myself! the wall unit is older than I am--It's built for VHS storage. And yes, I do love books.

looking from dining area into living room. I got the architectural poster from the Uffizi in Florence--It's a plan of the duomo. I got the Uzbek Suzani in Selcuk, Turkey from the man who owned our hotel. To hang it up I had to stand on some molding that decorates my staircase. My mother refused to watch and told me that if I even ATTEMPTED to hang the tapestry that way, I would DIE and then my dream of a career in surgery would be OVER!!! (Seriously)

Here's my bedroom-- this is the other Uzbek Suzani I brought back from Turkey (this one is silk... ooh la la!) the bedspread is from Pottery Barn a few years ago, and the "vanity" is composed of a desk that I had to screw a leg back onto and a mirror that my mom didn't want anymore. I'm thinking of getting a headboard from World Market that's dark wood with a subtle floral motif painted onto it.

The kitchen.. I couldn't get it all in in one shot.

I love my cow-shaped butter dish. It's from Target. I was tempted to buy the matching cow-shaped creamer, but I already have one creamer that I don't use and I don't need two of them.


My next step is to get some black and white photos of friends, family, and pretty places I've traveled to and hang them up like an album next to my kitchen table. After that I think I'll really be finished.