SQUEE!

So, I've had this gift card to World Market in my wallet for over a year, right?  I'd used most of it when I got it for (my birthday? Christmas? Spinach Festival Day?), but it had fifteen dollars left on it; and I never could get around to spending it.

I know.  ME.  Not spending money at World Market.  Stand back.

Anyway, I had a great lunch with a friend yesterday, and afterward we went to World Market, and I spent the last of my gift card on two very, very important things:

That is a cute little set of melamine measuring cups, because my very last measuring cup was eaten by my Kitchenaid mixer a few weeks ago, and I've been doing everything with Pyrex 2-cup cups since.  

And below it is one of my very favorite things in the history of ever:  a wooden cooking spoon made from Olive wood.  I used to have several olive wood pieces, but my dog Shelly managed to get ahold of  my very last one (which was also my favorite one) and basically ate it two weeks ago.  Now I have the beginnings of a new collection.  Yay!! 

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Random Pictures from the Thanksgiving Break

While Kress and his mother and I celebrated Thanksgiving, a few small things around the house happened:

This crowded Peace Lily from my desk at work (which I brought home to divide months ago and never did) got cleaned up and separated into two pots:

The two new plants are very happy;  the smaller one in the center is a Chinese Evergreen that was in a pot with no drainage hole, and was NOT liking it.

Because I pretty much detest holidays, I completely neglected to plan any sort of table spread for dinner on Thursday, aside from the food.

This is simple and thrown-together (mostly from our basket of SCA feast gear, hehe), but it worked, and the food was awesome, which was the point. :)

Most of the cats, on the coffee table, scoping out someone's ice cream.  From the white-and-red one on the left, clockwise, that's
Sweet Pea
Rabi
Evie, and
Gypsy

Only Sasha is missing from this picture.

Kress' mom decided that she and I each needed a "little black apron" from Bloodbath & Beyond while we were out shopping Friday.  Lace trim and plastic pearls stitched around the neckline.  LOL!  Adorbs.



Hope everyone had a happy, safe holiday.

Wanna Screw?

Oh, come on - no need to bolt at my bad puns.  You guys already knew I was nuts, right?  Okay, okay, enough with this particular thread of conversation...

OMG LOOK: 

So, a couple of weeks ago, I drug out the frame pieces for my World Market "Studio Day Sofa" from the garage, cleaned them off, and went to gather the hardware so I could put it back together...and the hardware was GONE.  Now, I'm really good about saving stuff like this.  I know for a fact that it was in a baggie with a label.  But all I could find was one loose bolt.

WTF.

I puzzled about it for a week, looked for the hardware, and then finally gave up and emailed World Market last week.  And TODAY a new hardware kit for the sofa came in the mail, free of charge!  World Market IS AWESOME!!!

I'm one step closer.

Now I just have to make a new cushion for it.  The original one was a bit flat and uncomfy, so I harvested the couch cushion from an old couch I was getting rid of and made a new one, which was awesome.  But by the time I decommissioned the World Market sofa, the cushion was a bit doggy and worn, so I just got rid of it.  I have another set of salvaged couch cushions and the fabric I need, I just have to find the time to make the new cushion.

Maybe World Market will send me an eighth day for the week, too.  o_ô


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Bigger & Brighter Bedroom

Maybe Blogger will get its head out of its @$$ and allow me to make this entry on the third try.  Hmph.

BEDROOM YAY!   I spent my Sunday afternoon correcting some issues in the master bedroom.  It was dark, mismatched, the curtains were fugly (seriously, wth was I thinking??), and there was still an old, queen-sized comforter on my king-sized bed.  Also, I was tired of looking at the blue ceiling:  it looked alright with the blue walls, but it was a different tone, too dark for the room, and, er, I had never bothered to go back and touch up around the edges when I painted it.  Whoops.

σ_σ

Fortunately, last week a sale and a coupon happened to me at the exact moment I was thinking about the bedroom issues, and I ordered a new, white duvet cover and shams in the correct size.

Over the weekend I sorted through all the paint in my garage (I have a lot of paint, you guys), and mixed together all my various whites and off-whites, to produce a soft, creamy off-white to use on the ceiling.  I also picked up a white, king-sized flat sheet, and made it into a pair of curtains;  I teamed those up with a pair of those Ikea LILL sheers that I have a frillion of and hung them hiiiigh on the walls under the the new, wide, ceiling border.

Et voila: 

Muuuch better!  The room is brighter, and feels about twice as big as it was before.

I absolutely adore the big, wide border around the top of the room.

And the off-white looks fantabulous with the wall color.

It's hard to see the curtains against the morning light in the pictures;  the white sheet-curtains are on one half, and the sheers on the other half.

While I like the effect, I do plan to get another sheet and repeat the process so that I have two curtains on each window, with the sheers in the center instead, so that it's a bit more balanced.


I also moved that dumb little rattan chair over to the window.  It feels less crammed-into-the-room in this corner;  the dog crate that was here is now more out of the way, and won't be getting doggy dust and grime all over the new white curtains.








Other things to continue working on:

• That dumb little rattan chair.  It's falling apart, and, well, it's pretty ugly.  I really would rather have something comfy and stuffed, like this.  
• Note the obvious lack of an actual comforter in the new comforter cover.  Oops.  Also - the ivory sheets are getting pretty worn, and need to be replaced.  With white, or blue, or gray.  Not sure yet. 
• The nightstands, which are functional, but boring as hell (as opposed to the old ones which were cute, but not remotely functional).  
• The bed needs a skirt to cover those box springs; and I do eventually plan to adjust the old four-poster frame to fit this bed. 

Anyway - yay!  I love it.  :) 

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Ikea Shopping List

It's going to be a few more days until I can get the craft room situated enough to bring you "after" pics, and introduce you to the next project I have lined up.  In the meantime, here's what's on my radar the next time I trek out to my "local" (an hour away) Big Blue Swedish Box:

ALSEDA woven "stool."  Floor cushion with internal scaffolding, really.  Made of woven banana fibers, and I ADORE the smell of them.  I've meant to grab a couple of these for the house/patio forever, but I never seem to get around to it.

BOLLO folding wooden table...which, for some reason, I couldn't find on my last trip, even though I looked all over the place.   Now when I look for it on the website, I can find the page for the BOLLO series, but it looks like all they have left is the chair.  Sad panda!  That would have been perfect for back patio, SCA camping... .  Sigh.

INDIRA woven cotton bedspread.  I want several of these, actually - for camping, for a light summer throw on the bed or the couch, for wrapping up in on the patio on a cool Spring night.  It comes in several colors I really like, and they're starting to go on sale as they get ready for Spring stock.

NARHET stemware.  So cute!  I'm picky about stuff like this - and I really shouldn't be, considering how much glassware I've broken in my life, I'm pretty clumsy - but there's a certain shape and feel that I'm always on the lookout for, and these are it.  Ikea, I love you.  So pretty, and simple.

KVIST duvet cover & sham set.  This is the same fabric as on my big ironing board in the sewing room, and I'm in love with it.  I've always wanted this duvet cover, but it didn't work in my bedroom - so it's going in the guest room...that I'm going to start talking about next week.  :)

RUG!

Hey, you guys wanna see a really crappy photograph?   I thought you did.

ooh, ahh. 

That would be a nine-dollar area rug.  Yup, that's what I said:  this baby cost me a whopping $9.99 at the Goodwill outlet the other weekend.  Are you freaking shocked?  I couldn't believe it.  I couldn't not buy it.  It's practically brand-new, too. There's a bit of wear on one of the short edges, which I tucked up under the mini-couch when I put it in my living room, and that's *it*.  It's gorgeous. 

*see below

Tada.

Believe it or not, I DID actually dust off the ol' real camera for this one, and took some fabulous photos.  And then I couldn't find the cord that connects it to my computer. #&!!#%@*!!!

It took about three minutes after I got the furniture in place and stopped moving things around before two dogs went to lay down on the new rug, and a cat walked over and started sharpening his claws on it.  The dogs I'm okay with, but I'm pretty sure I scared the cat so badly that he'll never go near that rug again.

For at least an hour.

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* Yes, those are the same papers I taped to the wall three months ago in order to test-drive placement for some canvases I'd planned to paint and hang up there.  I still haven't done anything more on them...not even put the ones that fell down back up, which is why there are only three in the picture.  Because I'm (1) lazy and have (2) been doing other things.  
...And I still haven't covered the mini-couch aside from throwing blankets over it, because I suck. 
JUST LOOK AT THE RUG OKAY. 




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Fait Accomplit

My vacation was fantastic.  I got SO MUCH DONE!  Which amounts to a lot of sewing, a curtain room divider in the living room, some insane house-cleaning...and not really much else, hehe.  I'd intended to paint the hall bath and deal with the proto-art situation in the living room, but I ended up not having enough time, between the sewing and all the loafing I did.  That's right, folks - I spent over half the week parked in front of the tv.  As it should be!  Hee.

I love the curtain!

And actually, I did manage to haul all my large houseplants out to the backyard for a much-needed bath.  The large Dracaena in the picture above got pretty sunburned, too, unfortunately. It'd been so long since I'd left it outside for more than a minute that I'd forgotten about that.  It's alive, but over half the leaves are scorched beyond belief.  I feel so awful for having done that.  I have no idea what I'll do with it...stick it in a side room until it's repaired as much as it will, and grown enough to prune back the damaged parts without decimating the entire plant.  :'(

I also went to Ikea - hence the new set of LILL curtains in the living room as a room divider.  I also grabbed a little gray MUS to go with the white one I have on my desk at work (hee),  a pack of four curtain rod holders from the as-is section for like 90c, a little Airplane Plant for $2, a SKANKA saucepan (I'm slowly replacing my old, beat-up cookware), and a NOMINELL swiveling office chair from the as-is section for, I kid you not, TEN DOLLARS.  :O  It's in great shape, aside from being a little grungy on the top from all the hands grabbing it while it was a floor model.  It's getting reupholstered as soon as I figure out what fabric I want to put on it.  :o)

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DIY Shopping, September Edition

Not that there was a previous edition, or ever will be another.  You never know.

Let's! Go! Shopping!

Lowe's

1. 3 packages drywall anchors & screws
2. 1 metal wall-mount shelf rail
3. 3 metal shelf brackets (the kind that hang from said rail)
4. 3 pieces of oak-veneer MDF, 1/4" (unrelated to the shelving parts)

Design*Sponge

Advance Auto Parts
Which is, by the way, my very favorite auto parts store. They're always nice, patient, well-informed and informative - and they don't give me that "Helpless Little Woman" crap that some auto parts places are notorious for with female customers!  Yes, I CAN work on my own car, thank you very much, and I don't need testicles to do it! 

1. air filter
2. gas cap (because mine broke yesterday! WTF?) 

Big. Brass. Ovaries.

Ikea!!!
(Ikea with three exclamation points, because that's how much I love it).

1. 2 packages LILL sheer mesh curtain panels
2. 3 15" SAMLA clear storage boxes
3. linen fabric (AINA), white, yardage to be determined when I see the quality in person

yay!

 Now to DO something with all that stuff! I did put the gas cap on yesterday before I even left the store parking lot.  And I put everything away when I got home instead of dumping it on the dining room table or the garage floor, LOL. 

Got caught up on my sewing last night, and repaired a table that I bought from a friend last week, which I broke the second I got home, LOL.  More on that later in the week. :)





Ok, so I haven't gone to Ikea yet. Thursday! 

 
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Well, FOOT.

...as my mother used to say (in an effort, I'm sure, to avoid using another four-letter word beginning with F in front of the kids). 

As I mentioned, Santa brought me a gift card to World Market last weekend.  Yay!  And tonight I exchanged that nifty little slab of plastic for three dark bamboo shades for my living room windows.  Just think: soft grey walls, billowy white mosquito-net curtains, large, bright windows - and these, filtering the light behind the sheers.

Really, that's just gorgeous.

Warm and natural.  Touchable.  Deep and dark, to bring that quality up off the floors onto the walls - but not so dark as to feel looming.  Light-filtering, just enough to open up the house by day but keep it safe from prying eyes at night...


EEENGHT!!!   <--- buzzer sound


They are perfect, in nearly every respect, and I really do love them to itty tiny pieces.  But privacy?  Hell no.  I clomped around outside in the mud and the cold, and alas, could see just about every single detail of the inside of my house through them.  I knew they wouldn't be opaque, but I was hoping for better than nearly transparent!  I'm sure it's just because the slats in the shades are spaced fairly loosely - I'd bet money that a more tightly-woven shade would offer more privacy. 

My first thought was to just take them back and go back to my sad, sorry, beat-up, old, dingy, metal mini-blinds (yuck).   Any other alternative seemed like too much work.  I mean, I could:

• put up some sort of low-profile light-blocking shade behind the bamboo shades that I can lower at night
• install a double-rod over the windows so I can have my billowy white sheers, but also a light-blocking drape I can pull closed at night (I just can't deal with heavy curtains. They can look lovely, but every time I've tried them in my own space, they just seem too heavy, and I feel trapped).  
• affix some sort of light-blocking cloth or paper to the back of each shade, which is time-consuming, probably a messy process, and completely defeats the purpose of letting light IN during the DAY.  

I'm just not sure.  What do you think?   It's not like I don't have time to decide.  I put the shades in my truck so I could take them back today...which means they'll be in there for at least a week or two before I actually get around to it.  0:)


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Arch, Arch, Baby

Vanilla Ice??  I know, I'm sorry.  Lacking in the creative title department this afternoon, it seems.  (Probably need more coffee).

hallway between living room/bedroom

My house is full of these arches - well, in the common areas, anyway.  I've painted them different colors, I've painted faux molding around them,  I've painted bricks around them...

kitchen/living room pass-thru, 2006

I've painted the insides of them a different color than the walls.  I've hand-drawn little botanical border motifs inside them with a *Sharpie*   (which looked awesome, but took about forty-eight coats of primer to get it to stop soaking through once I decided to cover it up).   I've hung things in front of/behind them:

entry hall into living room

Matching pair in a white/green living room a few years ago...

late Winter 2007

For about five minutes in early 2007, the arches and  the dark "wood" floors inspired me to try go pseudo-Spanish in there.  It didn't last long.  Seriously, it was like a month before I scrapped the whole idea as a "nice place to visit, but wouldn't want to live there" - but that period was when I built my "salvaged wooden beam" fireplace mantel, which I really, really love. 

back when a hollow box was a truly daunting project

So, all of this to say that I'm thinking about doing something with my arches.  I don't know if I'll paint the insides of them again or not.  Nothing's really grabbing me about that lately, even though it's been on my mind a lot.

However, a year ago or so, I cut out a paper template traced from the doorways, sized it to one of the windows in the living room, and taped it up there behind the blinds, to see if I could mimic the look of an arched window to match the doors.  I wasn't expecting much, but I loved the way it looked, and had always planned to go back and try it on all the living room windows, and then take a more permanent stab at it if I liked it.

I may go ahead with another paper mock-up this week.  Especially since it's entirely possible that I'll be getting new blinds in there soon.  Santa brought me a gift card to my very favorite store! :o)


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Happy Belated Birthday To Me!

A friend I hadn't seen in a while surprised me the other day with a birthday gift - a gift card to Williams Sonoma! The day before Thanksgiving, another friend and I trekked out to the maul to spend it - she had one, too - and here's what I came home with:

This Goldtouch pizza crisper pan, with which I'm already in love.  I'd wanted something like this for a while, but I'd never seen this gold-colored non-stick finish (according to the package, it's the best thing to hit restaurant cooking, like, ever).  Haven't put a pizza on it yet, but practically the second I got it home I used it to make some awesome crispy pitas.  :)

This Basil-scented hand lotion...which doesn't really smell like basil (the plant or the spice), but it smells divine, and it's doing amazing things to my skin.  They gave me a pump to go on the bottle, but it was broken - I'll have to put it into a glass pump bottle if I still have an empty one lying around.  

A jar of WS's signature spices - a blend called Tandoori Spice that just makes my TOES CURL it smells so good.  I can't wait to try it out!

And a pack of kitchen towels -  these are similar; but the ones I bought (which aren't on the website for whatever reason) are actually a nubbly, fluffy microfiber - they feel amazing, and they dry SO well.  I have a set of larger microfiber towels for my hair that I got from Bloodbath & Beyond a million years ago that I adore, so I knew these would be awesome.  (Hm, I really do need new microfiber hair towels, mine are so old!)






I have to add, that I was kind of shocked at the entire experience.  I *hate* going to the mall, so, SO much.  It's noisy, it's crowded, and people are just so..grrr...I dunno, maybe I'm jaded by my experience working there when I was younger, but the whole thing just gives me hives. 

Except this time?  It was totally pleasant.  The place was beautiful, relaxed, and not very crowded.  WS' store was *gorgeous*, and the staff was so nice.  After shopping my friend and I had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, which was fantastic - the atmosphere, the food...and our server was hilarious.  :)


P.S. - I walked into WS thinking I'd get a set of  these, but once I saw them in person, I decided not to.  The short ones were freaking adorable, but the larger sizes were just...boring.  My quest for new glasses continues!  In the meantime, I may go get a couple of the small ones to use as dessert glasses, though.

 
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Kitchen B&A: New Dishums

After lots of web-combing, and trips to Target and Ikea, finally Kress and I trekked down to San Marcos to the outlet mall to go to the Pyrex/Corningware/Corelle outlet this week and found the new dishes I'd been hoping to score.

[Interestingly enough, it's 23.9 miles from my house to San Marcos, which is an entirely different city; and 30.2 miles from my house to Ikea...which is actually in Round Rock, also a different city, but going to Ikea doesn't really feel like traveling to a different city, since I have to cross all of Austin to get there and there's no open space in between.  This largely irrelevant digression brought to you by Google Maps.]

Anyway, I didn't take a "before" picture because I was just SURE I had one somewhere online, except, I totally didn't.  Which makes sense, given how crammed full of STUFF my kitchen cabinets were - I didn't exactly want to show them off, you know?  And since I don't have the doors on my cabinets...yeah.  You see where I'm going with that.  So in addition to getting new dishes, I also spent a couple of nights this week culling through the old, storing some stuff away and donating the rest to Goodwill.

Plus I broke a wine glass the other night, so that's even less clutter.  *facepalm*

So that now...

Thaaaaat's better.  :)  I'm not entirely crazy about the end result, but I'm still playing with the balance of things in there. 


The dishes are Corelle "Dazzling White" and "White Flower", at $3-4 apiece at the outlet store  - clean, smooth, simple, and inexpensive.  (The "White Flower" plates have a...wait for it....flower on them, but the soup/cereal bowls are solid white, and a smoother shape than the bowls that went with "Dazzling").  Also practically Laura-proof (shatter/chip resistant).  I bought about half as many as I actually want to keep on hand;  I'll get the rest after Thanksgiving after all the holiday weirdness is over.



Also pictured above:

• the cutting boards I made
• Ikea's VARSAM serving trays in white
• Kitchen cabinet interiors that are actually a pale, muted chicken-egg blue and looked exactly that way against the old sand-colored wall color, but which now appear to be almost exactly the same gray as the walls when viewed against them. Thankfully, I like the effect.  I am SO not painting all that over again.   

action shot!

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Coming Attractions

Things I've Done In the Past Few Days About Which I Have Not Yet Blogged: 

• moved the sari quilt from the wall in the bedroom to a wall in the living room (much, much better there!)
• hung something up on the bedroom wall in its place that I don't like there, which will be coming back down any day now
• [Kress] purchased a *beaufitul*  hand-painted Kali+Shiva fabric wall hanging at the little Indian shop at the renaissance festival on Saturday (called Kala Gurjari, but alas, they don't have a website)  
• (Also purchased:  shoulder bag made from wool hand-woven tapestry from here, pair of green wrap-pants and a deep blue embroidered kurta from here, and some new incense from my favorite incense maker, here (it's pure incense - no stick, so, no burning-stick smell when you get to the end!)  ...None of which has anything to do with decor, but...squee!! :) 
• got off my butt finally and sewed covers for the seat cushions of the couch!  Now all I have left is to make the back cushions! 

More, and pictures, to come, later this week.  Today I'm dealing with MONDAY.  Boooo!  ;)

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Lust: The Ikea Post

Having recently acquired my beloved Ung Drill frame, after which I'd been lusting for over a year, it ocurred to me to share more of my Ikea-wants...in lieu of a "real" post, since I haven't done anything this week except play video games and work on my costume for the renaissance festival this weekend.  :)

I have no specific purpose in mind for any of these items, or any place to put them, really.  These are just things I love, because of their look, their feel, their design, or just for no reason at all. 

Vika "Fintorp" leg,  $10/each.   I'll never buy them, because they're just sheet metal (I will cut myself on these, I just know it), but I love the curvy lines. 

The "Trollsta" sideboard.  I love the look of this thing. I love the magnetic-catch drawers.  I love the versatility.  I love the details at the bottom, and the way they contrast with the smooth quietness of the rest of the piece.  It's also WAY too big for my house.

"Trones" shoe storage system, $40 for a set of three.  They seem like such a great idea...but they look really plastic in person, and I just can't see putting these out anywhere they'd be visible...but they might make great storage for something else, like in my craft room or garage.

"Tanja Brodyr" duvet cover & shams set.   I don't need a purple bedset, and I have no plans to make my bedroom purple.  But I loooooove this color in and of itself, the fabric is gorgeous, and the little star-shaped tucks in the fabric just thrill me.

Alas, I'm not gonna pay that much for a duvet set only to rip it apart and use the fabric for something else. 

"Gravyr" cabinet pulls (which I can't stop calling Gravy-arrr! in my head).  I don't want them, I just like to feel them every time I go into the store.  They're just about the only knob/pull/handle that Ikea carries that isn't uber-modern looking and overly shiny.

"Spraka" spice mill.  Which I would never, ever use (I know this because I don't use any of the ones I already have).  It's just neat. 

"Alseda" ..."stool."  I'm sorry, Ikea, but this is a floor cushion.  A stool is much taller, and usually has legs.  (This is also not a stool, it's an upside-down trash can).   But I love this little thing.  It's pretty.  It's simple.  And it's made of banana fibers, and I looooooove the way those smell.  I actually would buy this - as many of them as I could get away with owning, except that my dogs would probably eat them and my cats would either scratch them to pieces or pee on them.

I therefore admire Alseda from afar.  Sigh.

Aw, they don't have the Ludde throw rug in blue on the website!  Every time I see one in the store, my friends and I are like, "COOKIE MONSTER!  NOOOOO!!!"   Heh.

But, um...no.  Animal skins in my house: not so much.  Ew.








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I-I-Ikea

Weekend To-Do List:

1.   Halloween party:  check (also awesome!)
2.   Friend's wedding: check
3.   Garage cleanup: check!  (not completely finished; update & pics later this week)
4.   Conversion of office file cart to awesome red rolling tool cart:  check! (ditto on the pics)
5.   Ikea shopping trip with birthday gift card: check!

Actually, the first half of the Ikea trip was kinda frustrating.  I'd planned on picking up a cute new set of dishes to replace the old, beat-up, mismatched ones I currently use, only to find that they only had one color left in the store, and it was ugggg-lee.  My second choice? More expensive and less cute than advertised on the website.  I'd also thought about getting a new chair for my sewing table, but once again: more expensive and not as cute.  There was another chair that was on clearance for what I wanted to pay...but it was baby-pink.  Bleh.
 
I did, however, pick up:

The UNG DRILL mirror I've been lusting after for what seems like a million years.  I threw a poster into it and worked it into the art arrangement on my bedroom wall; but I'm really unhappy with the results.  I'll be playing with that later in the week.

This plastic cutlery tray which I'll be using in the newly-painted file tool cart in my workshop.

This cute little microwave dish cover , since I melted my last one several months ago by leaving it on a still-warm stove burner (oops).

A PRESSA ironing board cover in the black/white pattern at the top right of this picture.  I love the fabric, but had only seen it at Ikea in the form of bedroom textiles, which were too expensive to justify buying only to tear up and make into an ironing board cover.  I never could find anything similar in fabric stores, either - but there this was yesterday, already an ironing board cover, and for only five bucks! Awesome!

And, last but not least, another set of brown RITVA curtains so I can finish the couch cover!  The first part, if you're keeping score, happened in July.  Hi, my name is Laura, and I'm a chronic procrastinator...).









These are the weekends where I feel like I need to go back to work Monday, so I can rest.  Whew!


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Peek-A-Boo

Here I am!  Your turn to hide.

I dunno, I'm just slacking this week.  People do that sometimes. :)  Mostly I'm checking out two new computer games that I got, working in the backyard (sprucing up the patio some more, instead of demolishing the whole thing in frustration like I was talking about the other week, and it's going really well), hanging out with friends, and catching up on some stuff in my Netflix queue.  :)

I did, however, have a mini-thriftstravaganza last week where I got some clothes and a purse for like $12, total (I know! Crazy!)  While I was there I grabbed a beautiful and LARGE turquoise scarf covered in paisleys, little tiny mirrors embroidered on, with a beige-black-gold border print all the way around the edges.  It looks like a little sari - and it was three dollars.  Score!

I hung it up on my back door last night as a curtain, just to see.  I think I like it.  It's a BIG patch of turquoise - which is what I've been wanting more of in the room/house;  I can't decide if it's too much, or if it's too much only because I'm not used to going that bold (something I'm trying to learn to do this year).

Anyway...no pictures.  I know, I'm a big tease.  Maybe tomorrow. :)



::Edited to add:: 

1.  One of my new games is The Sims.  Is it weird that I'm having SO much fun building and decorating the little houses?  :)

2.  I'm getting a work table for my garage/workshop and a rolling filing cabinet from work for free, since we're getting rid of some things this week;  the cabinet, I believe, is exactly the right height for my sewing table, to replace one of the wire racks and organize my sewing stuff better.  Woohoo!  I hope it works.  If not, it'll go into my shop, too, and be turned into a tool chest. 


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"Pennies From Heaven" ?

Things I would like to win:

• the lottery
• Home Depot's $5K shopping spree 
• a $50 gift card to CSN, via the giveaway at Anu's wonderful blog, My Dream Canvas!  

I just entered.  How cool would that be?  I don't think I've won anything in about twenty years, lol.

Anyhow, My Dream Canvas is beautiful - Anu's home is just gorgeous, and she's an excellent photographer.
Go see! :)


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Dining Room Update!

Two months later...!  Man, I'm bad at this.  I promise to get better, though. :)

In June I talked about the round table I'd been looking for/thinking about building for my dining room, and the one I found on Craigslist for only $50 which was perfect:

I showed you a couple of my plans for the room...

...Which is coming along pretty well so far:

catbomb!

My heart wants new chairs - the Agra and Rajani (wood, not white) from World Market, in fact - but next on the list is the bay window.  As you can see in the sketch above, and the floorplan I posted in June, there's a window seat missing from this photo.

I waffled for the past two months about whether to build an actual window seat that looks like it came with the house, or to build or buy a cute little bench to stick underneath the window.  I have a bench-top with no legs that I may set up in there for the time being, but I've decided to go ahead and build a "real" window seat, mostly because of the storage opportunities it will offer.

First things first, though: sometime in the next month or so I'm planning a Curtain Excursion to Ikea, where I'll get (among other things) the LILL mesh/mosquito-net-like curtains I want for this bay window, along with the DIGNITET  tension-wire system to hang it across the entire bay (like in the sketch above).

I'm also planning a trip to the hobby store at some point this week to buy some leading for the windows in the china cabinet.  I absolutely adore diamond-shaped leaded windows, and I'd drawn some lines onto the glass windows in the hutch with a Sharpie to test-drive the look:

...and I LOVE it.  I can't wait to make it more permanent. :)   I haven't decided whether to paint the insides of this piece teal yet;  at the moment, I'm leaning towards not screwing up a gorgeous piece of furniture.  But it does need new hardware, and I'm nine kinds of excited about finding something awesome to use.

I'm also on the hunt to find the perfect mirror or artwork for the empty wall opposite the china cabinet.  I have a great frame I could use there, but nothing to put in it...yet.  Onward, to teh internets!


P.S. - Whoa, this is my 50th post!  I'm such a n00b, lol.  ;)
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