Stuff I’m Loving

Here are a few things that I’ve bookmarked and am I’m loving now:

Positive messages from CB2:

I want to wake up to YES every day

I’m loving yellow and gray, like in these few bedrooms:

From the show "Enough Already"

Yellow black and white room from Apartment Therapy

I’m liking bright antique  industrial touches, like this orange phone from Martha Stewart via The Happy Home Blog.

Orange phone!

Awesome Edison chandelier from Pottery Barn:

Edison Chandelier

And this totally girlie beautiful organized entryway, from now defunct blog, Room Remix:

Girlie Entry

So that’s what’s inspiring me right now. That and drum shades and all shades of gray. And succulents too.

Random. That’s what I got today. I’m off to help paint a friend’s new old house, and I’m hoping to get some good pictures with her!

-Liz

Garden Curb Appeal

Last weekend Brentan and I spent some time doing some heavy labor–landscaping. The garden that runs along the front of our house has always been a mess, especially when we moved in. Though we cleaned up the jungle that was there (see below), it still lacked any kind of curb appeal, with dying mums and no scheme to tie everything together.

It was a jungle out there

The crazy "before"

 

After the jungle was bushwhacked

As you can see, we did a bit of landscape eliminating, but that left the front of the house a little too minimalistic. And still messy. Grass was growing over the brick border, weeds were creeping in, and there wasn’t enough vegetation. So last weekend was part 1 of project clean up the front of the house.  (And this weekend would be part 2, but it’s pouring out today!)

So we pulled out the brick border to reset it, dug out all the stumps of the old jungle trees, weeded, and cleaned!

Brentan was in charge of removing stumps, and he did a good job. Do you see how big some of those plants were in the first picture?

 

Brentan digging out stumps

Stump hole!

I was in charge of removing weeds/grass and the bricks.

 

Weeding

Then Brentan and I both re-set the bricks for the edging. We made sure the trench that was already there was straight, poured in some sand so the bricks could settle in nicely, and then pounded the bricks in the right place with a rubber mallet. I used this video from the diy network to learn how to do it, but it was much harder to get the bricks straight and even than I anticipated.

 

Setting the bricks straight

Then, ta-da, after a weekend of hard work, we had a nice clean border around the garden.

Clean Brick Edging

As I mentioned before, this weekend was supposed to be part 2: buying and planting some native California plants. But it’s raining raining raining, like it has all week, and that doesn’t make a pleasant day gardening.

Maybe you can help me though… how would you hide/camouflage those ugly sprinkler valves by the house? The only thing I can think of is one of those equally ugly fake plastic rocks. Also, any suggestions about plants? It gets morning sun and afternoon shade, and they should be very hard to kill, and need very little attention.

-Liz

I Made a Pillow and You Can Too!

Do you like how easy I made it seem in the headline? I swear you can make this pillow cover.

But first off, let me tell you that I finally finished the bench that I’ve been working on since… November? Remember my fabric saga (here, here and here)? And remember what the bench looked like before? Yuk.

The finished bench turned out cute, but a little lumpy. I probably should have put new stuffing in, instead of reusing the 50+ year old innards. I had to sew the piping on, which also is a bit uneven. But I notice all my little details.

I painted the legs too, with leftover bronze spray paint from my coffee table.

Geometric Upholstered Bench

I had a bit of leftover fabric, and decided to make a quick pillow cover, for an old Ikea pillow that I don’t use anymore.

Here’s a super easy way to make a new pillow out of an old one. All you just need is cute fabric and matching thread, and some velcro or a large button if you like.

• Measure the size of one side of the old pillow cover.
• Cut out one piece of your new fabric that is 1″ larger in length and width than the old pillow cover. This will allow for a 0.5″ seam.
• Cut out two pieces of your new fabric in the same width (plus an inch), and length divided in half plus 4 inches (0.5l+4 if you remember algebra). This will give you enough room for a 0.5″ seam and a bit of overlap so the pillow cover is like an envelope. For example, if your original pillow cover was 21″x16″ these two pieces will be 21″x12″. The back will eventually turn out like this:

Detail of the back of the pillow

• With the right side facing down, fold over about 0.5 inches on the long side of the smaller pieces. Then fold it over again. Use an iron to get the creases to stay.
• Unfold one of these creases and sew straight down the piece of fabric to create a seam. Fold over the fabric (where you ironed it before) to hide the seam. Repeat with other small piece of fabric.
• Pin the 3 pieces together with right sides facing each other and the two smaller pieces overlapping so it makes a rectangle as large as the largest piece of fabric.
• Sew all the way around this rectangle.
• Turn inside out and place on pillow! Here’s where you could also sew a piece of velcro or button onto the back of the pillow cover to hold it together, rather than it gaping open. I would have, but didn’t have either of these notions on hand. (Don’t you love the word ‘notions’!?)

Ta-da! New, custom pillow!

Are my directions clear enough? I basically figured it out as I went.

New geometric pillow!

I did learn a few things, namely that my seams were not 0.5″, and the case turned out a little large. No big deal though. I’ll probably change my mind on the pillow in a few months anyway. Any sewing projects that you have coming up or just finished?

-Liz

Alameda Antique fair

Liz and I look so happy in this photo because we are at the HUGE and famous Alameda Antique Fair in Alameda, CA. The weather was perfect, the husbands were cooperative and Liz and I were in bliss. The fair stretched for what seemed to be miles of vendors selling all kinds of old stuff. we walked and walked and looked and looked. I was not in the market to buy anything but I got all kinds of ideas and inspiration to get to work on some new projects. Elizabeth found an ugly lamp straight from the 1960′s.  What do I know? Everything seems to come back in fashion after a while.  We kept the guys, Jay and Brentan fed and in exchange, they patiently walked with us…as long as we got home in time for the Super Bowl!  To my surprise, Jay almost bought an antique map and a plate from the World’s fair in 1965. He considered buying them but he just couldn’t! Here are some photos of some of the finds at the fair:

Junk Rooster

Magnet boards

In the antique linen booth

I have an iron bed in my barn just like this one! I better sew some cushions  for it when I get home. Look at that price!

This couch is upholstered with French feed sacks. They left all the mends and holes…a little of this look goes a long way.

I love this burnished, metallic painted finish on this desk. I am going to try it on a desk that I have at home.

We saw all kinds of people at the fair. There were lots of middles age people like me along with young urban professionals like Liz and Brentan. I saw many tattoos and crazy vintage outfits. There were hipsters and a new (to me) style that Liz informed is called Steam Punk. Here is a photo that I found on the web of a steam punker. I saw a guy wearing this exact kilt.  It was a fun day – peg

Steampunk

Big Sur California

Jay and I continue our 2 month winter escape trip to California and we find ourselves along the beautiful rugged coastline of Big Sur.  We checked into our home for the week and are settling nicely into a quintessential California spa like cottage/cabin called Glen Oaks.  I quickly took photos before we moved in so you can see how it looked in its pristine condition. It has some nice  details that I noticed right away. I think about my real home and how I would like to tweak to make it more spa like. Here are the photos, let me know if you like it. Oh, to add to the spa like feel, I am playing my sister Barb’s CD of relaxing music as I write this…I feel so calm…

Our cottage in the Red woods

The photo above shows our  sitting area and redwood door.

Very earthy and warm yet modern

Liz, you will like the orange chair.

The door to the bath has real twigs pressed between two pieces of frosted glass.  The stone floor is heated and the vanity is laminated wood – very serene.

The Buddha Board is like a grown up etch-a-sketch.

I love the gas fireplace on the wall!

A close up of the twigs on the bathroom door.

the communal firepit

 

Next up, our day at the Alemeda antique fair. Liz posted some of her finds already and I will get posting soon. I just had to share this special spot first. -peg

Look What I Found: Multigenerational Flea Market Finds!

Oh happy day! It’s been absolutely beautiful here in the last few days.

My mom and dad are back in town this weekend, and this morning we went to the Alameda Antiques Fair, which my mom has been looking forward to for months!

So look what I found this morning:

Vintage teak candle holder. It bends every which way, and fits perfectly on the coffee table.

This picture is pretty bad, but adding to my teak collection, a teak and marble lamp. I don’t love the shade, I think I’ll replace it eventually with something that relates to the big drum shade attached to the ceiling. My mom said that she didn’t like this when I bought it, but I think it will grow on her. It also looks stellar in my living room.

I also got these cool etchings from the 1820′s of a water wheel and a steam engine.  I was looking at pictures of butterflies, and Brentan said, ‘how about something more mechanical?’ So I went over to the science and technology section (of this huge booth full of prints), and found these instead.

My mom didn’t find anything small enough to take back to Minnesota that she liked, but perhaps came away with some good inspiration!

Now watching the Superbowl. Great day!

-Liz

Candle Chandelier

Outdoor Candle Chandelier- Sunset Magazine

My mom is ahead of the trends sometimes. Mostly with chandeliers. She put a gilded chandelier in my bedroom when I was in high school. And then she found some neglected chandeliers on the side of the road and spray painted them for my wedding, before all these designers started painting chandeliers to put in houses. See?

So I think I might have inherited this chandelier gene. I’m inspired to find or make a candle chandelier for my outdoor garden eating area, like the one (way) above. Do you know of any good how-tos on making something like this? Or a cheap version I can buy? The one in the picture from Sunset is from Ikea, but I can’t find it on the website! I need some inspiration.

-Liz

Just Put A Bird On It

I think you will enjoy this video, especially if you read too many design blogs, like me.

So go ahead, and put a bird on it. Prettify!

-Liz