I made this pillow from a large piece of vintage barkcloth that I found at America’s Thrift Store in Chattanooga ($2.50!).  I used a pillowform that I already had, so this was super-quick and easy.

Also worth noting: I replaced the TV tray we were using as a side table with our old TV stand.  Notice a theme here?  Anyway, it provides tons of book storage and looks much more finished in the corner.  Plus, we can adorn it with our very most pretentious books and look Smart.

Now.  I would really like lamps that are round and squat.  And maybe red.  Or glass.  And totally not squat at all.  Oh, I don’t know.  Maybe a swing-arm lamp would do the trick.  What do you think?

Our living room is in desperate need of some tender love & care.  It doesn’t have much style to it.

I love the green (or gold?) couch, the grey-blue walls, and the hardwood floors.   And I do enjoy watching the giant TV, although it isn’t exactly an art piece.  And that’s about the limit of my living room love.

So what I hope to do this week is show you a project each day that spiffys the room…

And to get things started, here are some silhouettes of the babies.  My friend, Mardel, and I made these one night last week while our DH’s slaughtered zombies together.

Evan helped me hang them over the TV, and in return, I helped him write a short script for work.  Quite the trade-off.  It took him 3 minutes to hang these.  And it took us about 6 hours to write the script.

But it was fun! :)

Tomorrow: Pillows?  Embellished lampshades?  Come back and see!

P.S. Check out Evan’s new blog, Brink of 30.  I’m still thinking about a big project I can do to get in on this!

Yesterday I mentioned that my friend Mardel brought me doilies on Wednesday.  A week before that, she brought buttons.  And in the past, Mardel has brought me a colorful thrifted sheet, pretty upholstery fabric, a petite Wedgwood dish…

She’s the Queen of Estate Sales.

And she is an Amazing Friend.  Always thinking about others.  She even listened to me carry on about the various incidents of the day for about 45 minutes.

Thank you, Mardel!   Love ya.

But maybe not as much as this guy does. ;)

Happy Friday!

This week I want to show you how I’ve been updating my wardrobe for the spring.  I was particularly inspired by a dress I agonized over and finally purchased while we were on vacation.  I love the shape, color, fabric, etc., so I decided to use it as my muse.

I can’t afford to buy a new wardrobe each season (or even each year).  But I can fix and/or refashion what I have and make clothes from scratch.

Today, I’m sharing an old cardigan that, unfortunately, was moth-eaten while in storage last year.  I’ve had this handy piece for nearly 7 years!  Other than the hole, the sweater still looks brand new (a testament to buying high-quality pieces to start with).  I appliqued some birds onto it today while listening to Arcade Fire.  Somehow that seems pertinent.  [I used the bird pattern from Lena Corwin’s Printing By Hand.]

The fusible webbing didn’t stick particularly well to the knit wool.  (You can see one of the birds sticking up in the next picture.)  So I hand-stitched around the edges with some silver embroidery floss (Thanks, Tracy!).

Here’s the backside of this little birdie:

I will probably darn the hole just to be certain it doesn’t get worse.

And here’s the final product:

This may not seem particularly spring-ish, but it coordinates with some of the other pieces I’ll be sharing this week, including the aforementioned dress.  And it’s always good to have a cardigan in your spring wardrobe!

This took a couple of hours start-to-finish, and (most importantly) I think I’ll actually wear it. ;)

 My side of the bed:

I’m sharing this today because this is where I was all day yesterday… when I wasn’t hugging the toilet or lying on the couch.  Yep.  Stomach flu.  Or roto virus.  Or something.  It doesn’t matter much what you call it.  What does matter is how quickly you recover from it.  (36 hours total to recover from nausea and weakness.)  Anyway, I like to keep it real around here, so I thought I’d share. :)

Here’s Evan’s side of the bed:

And here’s a recent vintage acquisition on our dresser:

Now, onto another matter.  I want to apologize to anyone I offended when I bad-mouthed the color beige.  I don’t hate it in every context.  In fact, maybe it is in fact taupe (which is defined as “brownish-gray” by Merriam-Webster) that I truly hate.   And, yes, gray can be dreary too.  It totally depends on the shade of gray.  What I like about it is that so many other colors look nice against it. It just fades into the background.

This is the gray that we have in our living room and office (Benjamin Moore’s Iced Cube Silver):

It has a slight bluish cast, and I love it.

The grays I’m looking at for the bathroom are indeed different.  Here’s one that several of you guys pointed out, although I’m not sure that it looks gray in my photograph.  It’s called “Woodsmoke”:

Here’s one called “Bunny Gray” that I just stumbled across:

And “Sea Foam.”  I never knew sea foam was gray:

And this is “Lily White”:

And “Tackroom White” (what is a tackroom?):

Do your eyes hurt yet?  The lighter the color, the more confident I feel about it.  What do you think?  I appreciate all your thoughts!

Especially on my walls.  I don’t mean to offend anyone, but beige reminds me of dead grass.  And I’ve been searching for an alternative on our bathroom walls for the past 2 years.

Thus, I now present my shoulder, the shower curtain, the ugly walls, and some paint chips.  The pink one is not an option - it’s the color of the bath tile.  It’s only there for context.

So what do you think?  Light grey?  Dark grey?  White?  Something else?

New to me, anyway.  My dear friend, Mindy, is moving and needed to get rid of this hand-me-down.  It was me or Goodwill.

So I asked Evan and his friend to pick it up on Sunday.  When they brought it home for me, they were both confounded.

Evan: You really wanted this?  It’s so ugly!

Craig: At least you can recover it.  Is that what you were thinking?

Um…

Evan: Did you know it was this color?  You like it?

Um.  Yes.

Evan: Oh.  Well.  At least we have a sleeper sofa now.  

Yeah!  We really needed a guest bed.

The truth is, I like this weird little loveseat.  I like it a lot.  If I have to, I’ll put it in the garage and build a space around it just for me.  Just so I can enjoy my vintage, pea-colored, velvety seat and be judged if I must.

Welcome home. :)

This is still a work-in-progress, but I thought I’d share the breakfast nook today.  It seems to be welcoming a new week, don’t you think?  Below the chairrail - that’s what I painted last week.  I didn’t bother taping because I don’t have any blue painter’s tape.  And I didn’t bother using a paint roller either.  I just went to it with some brushes, primer, and paint.  I cannot recommend this approach, but it worked for me.

Evan was playing Call of Duty for about an hour and a half before he came in and realized what I was doing.  He said he thought I was scrubbing the floor.

In my mind, scrubbing the floor seems like a much more shocking venture for me than painting a wall on a whim.  ;)

Apparently, Japanese crafty-types like to make their own scrubbies for the kitchen sink.  And the bathroom.  And their faces.  And everything else!

1. DSCN4111, 2. Japanese tawashi book, 3. Bear Tawashi 2, 4. Tawashi scrubbies in cabin, 5. 978-4-7747-5118-4, 6. 978-4-05-605157-5, 7. 978-4-277-17210-3, 8. tawashi flower, 9. Tawashi - scrubbies, 10. 978-4-8347-6460-4, 11. tawashi, 12. 4939459804029

I was alerted to this trend in the latest issue of Craft.  And so… I now present…

My Very First Tawashi!!!  (Extra exclamation points make this feel more authentic, don’t you think?  And I’m not sure how to pluralize “tawashi,” but I actually made two…)

I made a plain blue one and an orange one that was begging to have a leaf added to it.  They now reside prettily on the windowsill above the sink.  And are just aching to get egg and cheese ground into their fresh, acrylic fibers.

These were quick to make and quite satisfying.   Thanks again, Narumi!

…which is on my bed. :)  How about some yummy crafting in bed?

I found this tray at the Quality Thrift Store for $2.98, and it’s solid walnut.  How awesome is that?  So it has become my Portable Crafting Room.  Perfect for corralling all those little bits and pieces, and perfect for moving from dining table to couch to bed… while you watch things like election results, ya know. :)

From the tray, can you guess what’s on my mind?

With Halloween, the time change, and Election Day behind us, are we ready to talk about Christmas yet?