what I'm loving right now.

These gorgeous photos Evane took of Hannah's room at our old apartment.  I love that wall of concert posters more than anything.

This (blurry) shot of my genius mama walking across the stage to receive her nurses pin (I think that's what it was.)  I couldn't be more proud of her; she's the only one I've ever called when not feeling well and the best nurse I know.

I finished the last episode of Freaks and Geeks the other day and I'm sad.  Seriously, people... this show is amazing.  Funny and touching and full of people you know.  I spent the whole time going, "Oh! That's that guy that's on that show!" or "She's on this?"  Watch it.  Now.

Loving this shot from my old living room.  The brass, tarnished silver, white ceramic, hobnail glass, old wood and screws, and the patterned wool rug...  Love.

Every year when the kids get together to decorate my mother's Christmas tree, my brother puts random things on it.  He wasn't here this year, so I did a bit of guerrilla decorating for him.

not that my iphone isn't a perfectly professional camera...

Evane (the middle sister) has been in Texas for the summer and we've been working on a few photo shoots.  Nothing fancy, just good quality pictures of things I've done for future interior design relating job hunting.

I know she wants to edit these, but I was really excited to have a better shot of my living room than my iPhone camera, so here you are...

$25 Goodwill rug.  Coffee table made out of a stolen pallet from the outlet mall parking lot, a few cheap casters and a piece of plexi glass Lowe's cut to size for me.  The ultimate $350 Craigslist find, my vintage Chesterfield leather sofa.  My precious home-made bookshelves, full of all of my favorite books, art, and vintage trophies.  (This un-edited picture doesn't show it well, but the coral pillow matches the rug perfectly.  Thanks, Target!)

Ikea's ubiquitous $70 Expedit.  Vintage mirrors my Granny gave me.  Owl print from B. Lambert's Etsy shop; $8 people, art doesn't have to be expensive.  Lots of (mostly from thrift stores and Half Price) books.  $5 coffee filter/cupcake liner/thumbtack "flower" installation.  Vintage needle package art in Ikea frames.  (Post on those to come; they are some of my favorite artwork in the house)

I'm a big fan of these billy buttons (or Craspedia if you want to get technical) and they last forever!  This might be the laziest/cutest arrangement I've ever made: chop them off all the same height and throw in vintage water glass.

(Side note:  I found this picture when I was googling the Latin name for the flower.  Succulents and billy buttons in a wedding bouquet?  Sign me up.  Cutest wedding ever.)

Chris and Kelly's wedding, shot by Erin Hearts Court

It's not hard to style bookshelves.  Lots of books, placed horizontally and vertically, to give it interest.  Art (This particular piece is a page from a calender that I framed in my good ole' standby, the Ikea Ribba.)  Knick knacks; tchotchkes; things you find pretty.  Whatever you call them, they don't have to be expensive.  Every single thing in this shot came from a thrift store; I just pop in when I'm close to one and have a few minutes and just browse the "accessories" aisle.  When I find something I like that's priced right (read, only a few dollars) I buy it and throw it in my "When I need to decorate something" box.  That horse bookend was an ugly fake marble color, so I spray painted it high gloss white.  The wooden artist's model was $10 at Ikea.  The gold dinosaur was $.99 and is the best thing I ever placed anywhere.  (I wrote that sentence and all I can hear is Peter Griffin saying, "That's the smartest thing I've heard anyone say about anything."

I love my vintage trophies.  I also love paperbacks printed in the 60's. (The best cover design!)  I love these two things stacked up beside each other even better.

There you are.  My living room, hopefully a little prettier than you've seen it before.

a map! and a lamp! (that doesn't work!)

I headed over to Austin's City-Wide Garage Sale a few weeks ago and found this gorgeous, vintage, pull-down map.  I don't remember exactly how old the lady told me it is, but it is older than me.  (Some city is on the map that changed it's name in the early 80's.)  It has beautiful, bright colors and is pretty giant - a perfect addition to the sadly neglected dining room.

I love the graphics on the bottom.

back in the U.S.S.R.

I've also been working on some sort of ceiling lamp for the living room.  I got the idea from Amanda at Our Humble A(bowe)d and she stole it (I mean, borrowed nicely and gave credit) from some $600 British lamp. (I actually really like that one and I think I'll add it to my "for when I win the lotto" folder.)  

(the $600 version)

I took a heinously ugly $2 lamp shade from Goodwill and took the shade part off leaving only the frame on top.   I looked for the biggest one I could that had a flat top, so the bulb would hang at the top of the lamp, not be recessed down to hang in the middle.

(the part I ripped off)

I took some wire mesh (called hardware cloth, like this from Home Depot) and replaced the shade I took off.  It took a little muscle and finagling to keep it straight and secure it on, but it wasn't that hard.  So, for about $7 total, I had a new lamp shade.

Then, I forced Larisa to search for sticks with me outside (I'm a horrible sister, it was pretty much in the middle of the night) and then hung them, mobile style, inside the shade.

I bought some little birds from Michael's for a dollar or so apiece and used hot glue to attach them to the sticks.  Then I took a cord (with a wall plug on the end) and a bulb kit and forced Campbell to do a little electrical work.  I used a few hooks to hang it all from the ceiling, taped the cord going down the wall (so I could paint it) and plugged it in.

(the pictures I took before I hung it up came out a little blurry - I'll try to get up and take a level photo)

I'm pretty proud of my cord hiding job... I put it up against the molding of the front door and I think it's about as unobtrusive as I could get without rewiring the ceiling.

So, there we go... If you're interested in the details, I'd go back to the original tutorial from Our Humble A(bowe)d.  She took much better pictures than I did.  And... she probably didn't trip a breaker when she plugged in the cord with live wires at the end so she could measure exactly how long to make that cord and the live wires touched each other and sparked and now that outlet doesn't work anymore and the problem is she lives in an apartment so she has to get the maintenance people to come and do it for her and so she doesn't even get to enjoy the light.  

I mean, I didn't do that either... I'm just saying she probably didn't do that.

thumbtacks, cupcake liners, and coffee filters, oh my!

The wall behind my tv has been crying out for some sort of decoration.  It's sitting on the ubiquitous white Expedit and has a few vintage mirrors behind it.  Those mirrors create a bit of an awkward space to arrange things around, but I love how they look so I thought I'd work with it instead of change it.

Crappy iPhone picture... Sorry!

So, I've thought about doing a gallery wall around the tv.  When you make the tv fade into the decor on the wall around it, you get to pretend that you don't spend way too much time watching it.  (Right?  It fools people, doesn't it?)

gorgeous living room from atlantahomesmag.com

tv/gallery wall from westelm.com

I've shown a million pictures from this house... BECAUSE I LOVE EVERY SHOT OF IT!

photo from Design Sponge's sneak peek of Emily Henson's home

Now, this is a great idea, but most of the smaller sized art that I own is already hung up around my apartment. And, it takes a lot of energy to arrange such a thing.  Does this make me lazy?  Probably.  But, from laziness comes great ideas.  (That's the old adage, right?)  So, when I saw this photo on curbly.com, I thought that it could be the perfect treatment for this wall.  Something organic and flowing can balance out an uneven space - perfect when you have a large piece of furniture or tv that isn't centered on the wall.

photo: CityPix 

So, the littlest sister came over for a night of Getting Stuff Done! TM.  We got coffee filters and cupcake liners in two different sizes.  We took some thumbtacks, painted them orange, and we were ready to start...  (By the way, this project was so cheap - less than $2 each for the filters and liners, 99 cents for the thumbtacks and a tiny bit of paint and painter's tape that I already had.  Even if you had to buy those, you're still looking at less than $10.  Nice.)

Then I took some painter's tape and "sketched" out the design I wanted. Awww.. that was back when my flowers weren't dead. (and my entertainment center was messy)

I just started placing the different sized liners and filters in a random pattern, generally following the lines of the tape.  

I layered some of them on top of each other, but looking at it now, I would love to add in a few paper doilies.  

I love the organic, textured feel it gives to the room.  It fills up the wall, but it's light and airy so it doesn't compete too much with the bookshelves directly opposite it.

Love it.

Thanksgiving to do list, revisited.

A couple of months ago, I planned on hosting Thanksgiving at my house.  Not only did that mean I had to plan/cook a giant Thanksgiving meal (though, because of last years triumphant success, I wasn't very stressed out about that part,) I had to get my house together.  I gave myself a to do list and two weeks.

None of it got done in time.

That's probably due to the fact that we decided to move the hosting to dad's, leaving me with just the cooking and non of the getting ready.  So I didn't get anything ready.  Well, some, but few.  (Those are the things crossed off the list in black - green is the new stuff.)

LIVING ROOM

- Couch
  * Buy
  * Stain legs
  * Drill holes for legs/attach (Ok, seriously, I worked on this for DAAAAAAAYS.  The holes where legs are supposed to go are too big for the new legs I bought.  The wood where a new hole could be drilled is chipped off and practically impossible to drill a new hole into.  I gave up on it for a while because it almost made me cry at one point and working on it required me to jack up my couch on two chairs like a car at the mechanics and I wanted to sit on it.  Luckily, my brother promised to help with me with a project for my Christmas present and I've decided he gets to figure this freaking thing out.) 
  * Get/sew some pillows (couch is cute, but a bit uncomfortable without any pillows) - i.e. decide color scheme for whole room.  No biggie! (Actually... my new rug already decided the color scheme for me.  Awesome!)


- TV stand/bookshelf
  * Have
  * Arrange/decorate shelves
  * Get TV (Hannah's job)  (Yeah!  And a Wii!  And a sweet cable/internet/dvr deal with Showtime so  we can watch Dexter!!!!)
  * Arrange/decorate surface (after TV is bought) (I've got my two old mirrors up there now, but I need to fix up the rest.)

- Bookshelves
  * Conceive of/buy materials for/build in a generally bad ass way
  * Stain
  * Unpack books and load them on shelves
  * Arrange books/stuffs (Oh.  I did this.  I. Did. This. Awesomely.)  My dad helped me figure out the size/kind/all that jazz of the wood we'd need and we searched all over Home Depot for the perfect (cheap/unobtrusive) brackets.  It wasn't that hard to put together.  It just took a little math, a stud finder and a laser level (which of course I had, thanks to my father's awesome birthday/Christmas presents!)  Then I just stained and sealed them, screwed them to the wall brackets, and got to arrangin'.  Most of the good pictures I had of building the bookshelves were on my camera (whose location is unknown to me) but I've got a couple of iPhone pics.  

Brackets up and painted the wall color.

Pretty stain!  Those sawhorses are actually the legs I bought for my desk.

(That's actually kind of what the desk will look like if/when it ever gets made.)

While I had on my painting/staining clothes, I did a little spray paint makeover on a few items for the shelves.  I had a ceramic pig from Goodwill with a little country paint job and a (fake) marble horse bookend.  I gave those a glossy white coat of paint and their chic quotient went through the roof.  Even better than the white ceramic animals was a little green brontosaurus that I covered with shiny gold spray paint.  It couldn't have been more than fifty cents, but it might be my favorite thing on the whole wall.  I'll have a picture of it in a second.

So, what do you do with boxes of books and three giant shelves, a white Expedit bookshelf/media center, and lots of tchotchkes?  It can seem kind of overwhelming to put it all together in an attractive way, but I tend to do the same thing every time I arrange my bookshelves, so I've got a bit of a system.

First, I put the books on the shelf just so I can see how much shelf space I have to work with.  This let me know that I had three quarters of a shelf free, plus the entire white bookshelf.  Then, I put all of my decorative objects all in one place so I could see exactly what I had.  I always like to do this, because it lets me distribute all of my pretty things evenly among the space I need to decorate.  There were a few things I knew I wanted to put together (vintage trophies) and some things I knew where they had to go (only space for the vintage globe on the top shelf), so that's where I started. 

Progress shot!

These trophies might be some of my favorite possessions.

 The horse bookend...

 What is that you see on the bottom shelf?

The gold dinosaur!

 I really love the whole wall.  It's got such a presence and brings so much instant interest, color, and texture to the room - definitely my second favorite thing in the room besides my couch, of course!)

- Coffee table - I've done none of this.  so bad.
  *  Either buy already made/built coffee table and tailor to needs OR
  * Get pallet
  * Stain
  * Buy/cut Plexiglas/glass to fit
  * Attach casters/metal and industrial doo-dads (that's the technical term)

- End tables
  * Dude.  I've got no idea. (I did it!  Goodwill, of course for 15 bucks total with the cat lamp!)
  * Maybe a stump table for one of them?  I saw a house in Hyde Park today that had a whole tree cut down and lying in pieces in the front yard.  I might just knock on the door and be like, "Can I have one of those pieces?"  I'm also thinking of hitting up the firewood people.  I'll buy their wood and save them the trouble of cutting it up1 (I don't know whether or not I need one for the other side.  I might just get a floor lamp for that corner if the overhead light isn't enough.  If I need a table, however, I still like the stump idea.)

- Lighting
  * Dude.  I really need some.  Our living room is daaaaark.  (I got one!  It looks like a puma and a puma baby.  I love it.)
  * Floor lamps are uuuuuuuugly!  (Imagine that in the whiniest voice you can think of.) (I'm still kind of looking for one.)
  * I'm working on an overhead lamp, which is about 1/3 of the way done.  I've got all the supplies and I've started constructing it.  I'm gonna need a bit of the padre's electrical know-how to finish it off.

This isn't mine, but mine is inspired off of a lamp that's inspired off of this.

- Curtains
  * Put back up those mini blinds I accidentally tore down the first day we moved in.
  * Or don't.  We've got a fence around our porch and you can't see in (especially if you had curtains up!)  Hannah will kill me if I don't get something up though.  (Screw those blinds.  I'll just do the curtains.)
  * I've sewn a million curtains and I know I can do a set for this window.  I'm just trying to figure out if/when I'm gonna get a rug.  They're so expensive that I kind of want to find one first so the curtains can match/go.  I might, however, just go ahead and let the curtains be the star and just find some neutral rug (easier/cheaper/more boring.)  (I've decided to go for either bright white curtains with a bit of weight to them - maybe a linen?  I think it'll go wonderfully with the pale gray walls, colorful patterned rug, and forest green couch.  The other option is a darker gray textured fabric, but I worry that might be too dark for the room.)

- Rug
  * See last bullet point above (Done.  Twenty-five bucks.  Awesome.)

- Art
  * Acquire a ridiculous amount of art and mirrors and random things to go on the wall.
  * Actually hang them. (Another work in progress, I've hung a few things and bought the supplies for a few other wall art project.  This might get it's own post when I'm farther along.)

Whew!  All done.  Though, I must say, I'm kind of proud of myself!  I love it all, like I love this photo (and frame, bought as a housewarming present by the hottie in it.)

I swear, I've been posting on this blog (and other Christmas promises.)

But, my stupid blogging app ate all my posts.  There was one about Christmas present wrapping ideas that magically disappeared.  (I was going to rewrite that one, but then I spent an hour brainstorming on the phone with Loryn about how to wrap her gifts.  I was all idea-ed out.)

After that, I wrote a post about my decorations from last year and my plans for this year.  I would refuse to rewrite that one, but I've got such pretty pictures.

So...  last year, I saw this gorgeous felt garland in Anthropologie.  It was about 14 million dollars.  Of course I, as usual, felt that I could totally make it myself with about $10 worth of burgundy yarn, jute twine, and 3 shades of green felt.

I did.  (You'll see more of it in this year's decorations.)

I also wanted to go in a warm, cozy and neutral direction for the tree ornaments.  I bought a bunch of cheap matte and pearly white ornaments from the dollar store, but they were just a little too boring.  So, with some white yarn and two thrift store cream sweaters, I had a tree full of revamped ornaments.

One of the sweater ornaments.

 I made a bunch of these ornaments and still had so much yarn left over.
The cheapest cover up ever.

My last living room had this cool gray and blue scheme going on and I just couldn't add any blaring red and green stockings to it.  What's a girl to do?  Make her own, obviously.  Gray, so chic.  (or weird and un-christmasy if you ask my brother and father)

Stockings are actually really easy to make.  I went over to Loryn's and traced the shape of hers, bought some some felt and sewed them up.  Felt is really easy to work with because it doesn't fray, so you can get away without hemming it as carefully (or at all.)  I used the fancy stitches on my sewing machine in a contrasting colored thread along the border, embroidered everyone's name, added a little loop to hang, and finished all six in a few hours.

The only thing that might count as a failure was the tree skirt.  It wasn't really supposed to be so ruffled around the edge - my sewing in a circle skills are sorely lacking.  I just pretended that it was supposed to look like that.

That totally looks like it was intentional, right?

The finished project: Christmas 2010

Cost?  Maybe $50 total?  Oh yeah, I'm good.

EDIT - plus however much the giant tree cost.

I swear, I'm being productive on my house.

I've done quite a lot lately with the house, well, the living room mostly. I've just been bad about taking pictures. I took a bunch of pictures of my bookshelves, but they're on Hannah's camera, so I'll post about those when I'm all done.

I did get the supplies for a bunch of projects this week, so as they get finished, I promise I'll share them.

On Wednesday, the littlest seester and I went thrifting and got some serious booty. I got a lamp, which she hated, but whatever and a side table. The table was the perfect size for my low couch (and only $8 at Savers!) and the lamp is awesome. Lemme just show you.



I like the warm wood tones and the metal legs will tie into the coffee table (if it ever gets made.). I'm trying to take in my succulents now that it's getting cold, but I love the way they look in my house so much that I'm worried I won't give them back to the porch when it's warm again. But let's take another look at that lamp, shall we?



It's a cat! (Well, some sort of feline, a panther or a leopard or something.) It gets better: hiding behind that succulent on the left is...

A baby cat! (or panther or whatever)

I'm trying to decide whether to paint it or not. I could always use more glossy white in the room, now that I have such a colorful rug, but I like the way the soft green looks with the couch. We'll see.

Yes, you read that right. I got a rug! The concrete floors are gorgeous, but come winter, they would be freezing! This might be one of the all time great Goodwill finds for me... $25!



As soon as I get the couch's legs attached (which will be never because I've been to Lowe's three times for different tools and I can't get them to stay on!) I'll put the rig in place. Even now, though, it makes me happy when I walk I the house.

It's all coming together, folks.

Next on the agenda, a ceiling light for the living room, giant wall art for the kitchen with Beatles lyrics, and a dozen or so of these...




Try to figure that one out!