One change that only a stalker would notice in this picture is that the ombre dyed curtains have been hemmed.  I wasn’t crazy about how they pooled on the floor originally.  So in November my mom came down armed with a sewing machine to whip them into proper floor-grazing shape.

On the same weekend visit, we also did some shopping in Clinton, TN, where my interests were piqued after their fall festival.  We made a great find in this vaguely mid-century style dresser.

Clearly kitty likes it.  I do too.

We were looking for something that was kinda leggy like this one, because the air vent is right below it.  I also wanted something that was clearly old and antique-y without being too ornate.  My mom spotted this one under a pile of other junk in the very last store we visited.  Good eye, mamasita.

Sitting atop the new dresser right now is this jewelry box, a Christmas present from my sister and another new addition to this room.  I haven’t gotten around to actually storing my jewels (er, friendship bracelets) in here yet, but plan to.

Ah yes, this little sad corner.  I did add this colorful $7 carpet from World Market, but other than that it’s rather unsightly…cardboard boxes, old K-mart kitchen chairs, and some pictures that I’ve gone to the trouble of framing but haven’t hung.  Let’s face it, it’s going to be months before I actually hang these up.

And you can file this one under lazy too.

This would be a half-assed attempt to disguise the ol’ boob lamp without actually installing a new fixture.  I removed the glass dome, and screwed in this $12 shade from the Target clearance rack.  I used a (very) abbreviated version of this process and haven’t actually gotten around to covering up the bottom opening.

I’m not really sold on this yet, because the shade isn’t actually a round drum shape, it’s kind of angled.  Thus it just looks like an upside down lampshade in the middle of the room.

What do we think?  Chic cheap solution for getting rid of the boob light?  Or “what’s the upside down lampshade doing up there”?

Exactly one year ago I wrote a long list of “resolutions” that was really just a disguise for my general to-do list.  Let’s see what kind of progress I made on each of these 4 goals:

1. Make the Living Room Attractive and Functional

This one is legitimately complete.  The living room has gone through a lot this year, and we get to enjoy it everyday.  When I think back to what a stark mess this room was 12 months ago, get damn proud of the progress we’ve made.

Among the dozens of individual improvements I’ve posted about this year, the highlight for me is this kickass sectional sofa that I’m sprawled out on as I type this sentence.  It was a joyful purchase.  It’s bliss.

Really, the only remaining to-do for the living room is that damn barn door.  I still really want one, but I’ve been stingy about spending $300+ on the hardware for it.  Plus after the coffee table building, I wasn’t ready for another half-assed woodworking attempt.  But I still really want to get that thing up in 2012.  Oh and throw pillows.  Need more THROW PILLOWS!

Okay, what was next?  Oh jeeze…

2. Paint the Downstairs Bathroom

Did.  Not.  Happen.  Not even close.

3. Make the Guest Room More Comfortable

Okay, we’re good on this one.  Starting this summer I have made a TON of progress in here.  So much that we’ve taken to sleeping down here all the time now since it’s more convenient, comfortable, and efficient for heating/cooling purposes.

The only thing left to do in here is add some lamps and accessories, and hang some art on the walls.  I haven’t given y’all a proper update on this room in a while, so stay tuned for that next week.

4. Tackle Some Minor Outdoor Improvements

At this time last year, I was fantasizing about the 2011 vegetable garden.  We put a lot of time and effort into it this year, and overall I’d say it was a success. Full mid-season report can be found here.

The main lesson learned was that we can’t fight the grass.  The grass will win. Next year we’re just sticking to the established beds and not bother with the tiller.

As for all the other lofty aspirations of re-screening the porch and such, no dice. Any and all hard labor this summer was devoted to the tree massacre cleanup. It still looks like a shit dump back there, and the screens on the porch have only gotten worse.

SO WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO IN 2012?

1. Get Married.  Yes, it’s true!  After much procrastination and six years together Danny and I are getting married on February 18.  Albeit a small party (<30 guests), planning it will consume all of my free time for the first part of the year.  It’s going to be completely awesome.  I’ll tell ya more later.

2. Finish all this shit I wanted do in 2011.  That’s right, no additional aspirations for progress in 2012.  If I could finish my 2011 to-do list by December 31, 2012, I’ll be a happy woman.

This was made just for me by my metalworking friend Eric.  You might remember him from the kick ass hairpin legs from my DIY coffee table.  Eric is super awesome for making me these fun things in his spare time.

I originally made a very simple drawing for him of what I had in mind, but he took it and made it much more stylized and unique by cutting these curvy shapes.

The longer we’ve lived here, the better I’ve gotten about keeping plants alive.  The small one you see here in the little white pot has now been alive for 12 months.  (12 months!)  It’s the christmas cactus I got last year around this time.  It still hasn’t bloomed yet, but I forgive it.  And the snake plant in the corner has been there since last May, still kickin’.

One of the main problems with plants in our house is our dumb cat.  She likes to chew on the leaves.  Not actually eat them, just sink her needle-y little teeth in and chew.  So they have to be strategically placed around the house at heights she can’t reach.  Thus, the idea came up for a hanging planter here in this corner of the room.

When I saw this project a few months ago, I was completely sold.  I love the simple knotted technique for hanging any pot or planter.  So I bought some inexpensive synthetic rope and started tying some knots.

The instructions were very easy to follow and leave a lot of room for experimenting with different lengths and stuff.  I’m planning on trying a few different variations for outdoor use this summer.

The actual planter I’m using is not a planter at all.  It’s a bowl from my sister’s Etsy shop that I got from her this summer.  I think it’s a great use for it.

The plant itself came from my parents house.  They’ve amassed many houseplants over the past few years, and now that I’m responsible enough to keep them alive, they brought a few down in November.

Rather than re-pot the plant directly in the nice bowl, I just kept it in it’s light plastic container and dropped it in.  Fits perfectly, easy to swap out later, and less heavy than filling the whole thing with dirt.

This was one of the last few things on my list of to-do’s for the living room.  So close I can taste it.

Now to go figure out that sliding barn door….

But this year I felt a little more compelled to put some things up to remind us that yes, it is December.

I bought a few tree shaped things in natural and red tones, added a wire basket with glass ornaments, and put some seasonal type stuff in the vases I already had around the house.  Plus I tried my hand at making this bunting garland with fabric scraps I had lying around.

The bunting doesn’t exactly scream “Christmas” in these particular fabrics, plus it needs to come down when we light an actual fire.  But it was very easy project that I just wanted to experiment with a little.  I just cut out many of these diamond shaped pieces of fabric and glued them around a length of kitchen twine.

If you’re only using this for a temporary seasonal or party decoration, I would recommend doing it with paper or card stock instead.  You’d get the same exact look, but it would be lighter and easier to cut.  It would be cute in different colors for a kid’s room, or a birthday party or something.

For whatever reason, one single solitary stem of holly started growing in our front garden bed this fall.  Rather than nurture it into a tree, I snipped it off and put it in a vase.

The red berries are also from a larger bush out front.  Last year I used them in a wreath for the door.  But as they started drying out, they started falling off every time the door was opened.  Then the dog started eating them, and it caused some… issues.

So this year, I went way more minimal with the wreath.  This is an idea that (of course) came from pinterest, that I thought would be a good use for this grapevine wreath that I already painted white last year.  I used lengths of fuzzy red wool yarn and just wrapped it neatly around the wider branches on the wreath.  I like it though, kind of minimal and cool, but still stands out on the red door.

So I’ve progressed a little in my holiday spirit since last year.  We’re getting a little closer to acting like normal festive adults.  Maybe next year we’ll go all out… no promises though.

Happy holidays to everyone out there!

Last week the December holiday issue came in and I was enchanted (yes, enchanted) by this felt slipper project in the handmade gifts feature.

So cute, right?  Not even considering to do this as a Christmas gift, I selfishly needed a pair of these ASAP for my own feet.  I ordered the suggested 3mm felt from filzfelt.com for $20, as recommended by Martha’s peeps.  This really wouldn’t work with regular craft felt.  The rigidity of the thick 100% wool felt holds up the structure of the slipper.

I chose this mustard yellow color.  I don’t know why.  But it matches the rug in the office, apparently.

It wasn’t until I had cut out the little template pattern that I remembered something important.  I’m terrible at sewing things, and I kind of hate doing it.

Oops.

But I sucked it up, and just started in on the simple stitches around the edge of the cut pattern.  It’s really very simple, if you’re patient and take a little extra care to keep your stitches nice and even.

By the end of the day, I had not just two, but three sewn felt slippers:

Three?  Yeah, three.  The first one that I made was way too small.  I could kind of shoehorn my foot in there, but it gave me sausage-foot and was cutting off the circulation to my toes.

So with a zen-like calmness, I started over.  And #2 and #3 came out much better-fitting.  Plus that first throwaway one helped me realize the ideal length/distance for the stitches, so the second try was much neater and more even.

Before starting, I had it in my head that the contrasting thread color was the way to go.  But that was before I considered my child-level sewing skillz.  So in retrospect, if I had chosen a yellow or lighter colored thread, I think they’d look a little more polished, maybe a little more “handmade” and a little less “homemade”.

But I’ll tell you what… they’re cozy as all hell.  Seriously, they’re super soft.  And because they’re pretty snug fitting, it kind of feels like a big wooly sock.

These would be cute and easy to do in little kid sizes, but I think the pattern is a little too dainty for the mens sizes.  Also, if you plan on making these, I would recommend being generous with the size of your pattern.  I usually wear a size 7.5 shoe, and my first way-too-small attempt was cut according to the women’s size 8 from the printed chart on MarthaStewart.com.  I don’t have unusually wide feet, but the original pattern wasn’t wide enough at all to fit me.

They are pretty slippery on the wood floors, too.  There’s probably something I could put on the bottom to make them more non-slip, but I’m not sure what. I’d say you should definitely look into that if you’re doing kids’ sizes.

They are pretty neat, but the problem is that they’re just a plain frosted glass sitting on a white shelf.  So they were basically invisible.

I kept forgetting they were even there, so I would never turn them on.  And even with 40 watt bulbs, they were still a little too bright for “accent lights”, especially since they sit right above the TV.

I kept tossing around ideas in my head about how to jazz them up, but I couldn’t come up with anything I liked.  Until a few weeks ago, when I looked to Pinterest, the infinite source of inspiration.

I found this fun idea for spray painting vases after wrapping them with string or rubber bands. (Sources: #1 and #2)

This looks pretty sweet, right?  Plus it would help cut down on the brightness problem since much of the surface gets painted over.

I just grabbed a $.69 bag of rubber bands and randomly stretched them over each lamp.  Then I added a bit of painters tape around the rim and cord to keep things neat.

To avoid matchy-matchy, I got two different colors of spray paint (both Valspar from Lowes).  Navy blue satin finish for the taller one, and metallic silver for the shortie. The blues are a loose theme around the room, and I hoped that the silver metallic would look kind of quirky and eclectic with the big gold frame that shares the top shelf.

Two thin coats seemed to do the trick.  After an hour or two of dry time, I snipped off the rubber bands with scissors.  Yes, they went flying everywhere and scattered little flakes of spray paint.  But it looks good!

Lights off:

Lights on:

The effect is real nice.  Now they look interesting and different and modern, and I won’t forget that they’re there.  Plus they function as a much more practical light source now.

However, let’s just say that I’m glad they’re not at eye level.  Up on the top shelf they look great, but when you look up close there are a LOT of imperfections.

You see, spray paint is a very inexact tool.  It goes everywhere you let it go.  And with a not-perfect square shape, many of the rubber bands were not laying flush with the glass.  So the lines kind of disappear in the middle of each side (especially on the lil’ guy).  Plus the metallic paint seemed to flake off around the edges of some of the rubber bands.

This would be much less of a problem if you were working with a cylinder or a round vase or jar because you could get all of the rubber bands to lie perfectly flat.  Some of the tutorials suggested using yarn or string instead of rubber bands, but I’m still skeptical of that.  I feel like it would be hard to get the string/twine/yarn to be spun tight enough to get nice thick lines.

But all in all this was a fun, cheap, and quick technique that you could apply to any number of things.  Now let’s just hope that it’s safe to put spray paint this close to a compact fluorescent bulb…

The time had finally come for me to try my hand at it with the guest bedroom updates I’ve been churning out over the past few months.  And perhaps I should start calling it the “downstairs bedroom” now because since it’s been spruced up, we sleep down here all the time.

After being inspired by several examples (here, here, and here), I ended  up following a video tutorial from HGTV Design Star season 5 fan favorite, Dan Faires.  I liked the rustic individual nailhead style he used here, rather than the standard silver or brass nailhead trim.  He suggests using a painter’s drop cloth as the fabric, but I didn’t want mine to be white (or white-ish).  So I found some black canvas at Hobby Lobby for about $8/yard.

My good camera was out of commission last week when I actually made the thing, so I only have Instagram progress pics.

I had a piece of plywood cut to size at the Home Depot, brought it home and stapled down 4 layers of batting followed by my fabric.  I also used spray adhesive in between the layers to make sure it stayed smooth.  Once the fabric was all stapled down tight, I laid it down flat and measured out one inch increments along straight lines 4 inches in from each edge.  On each dot, I nailed in one black carpet tack.

So obviously the nails didn’t all go in at a nice flush angle, but I decided to just go with it and not be obsessive.  Each one is sort of hammered in at a different angle and the carpet tack nail heads are kind of irregularly shaped, so it creates kind of an interesting effect.  Rustic, but almost sparkly because each one reflects light at a slightly different angle.

I was VERY concerned about hanging this heavy ass thing on the wall.  I bought this long bracket kind of thing from Lowes that is labeled as worthy of hanging 200 pounds.  I was still skeptical.  You screw one side of the bracket into the thing you want to hang up, and the other side into the wall.  And when you put the thing on the wall, it kind of catches the lip of the other side and holds it up (supposedly).

Here’s the piece that attaches to the wall:

And here’s how we had the other side attached to the back of the headboard:

Pretty flimsy looking right?

Well, the problem wasn’t the bracket itself.  The problem was that the area directly above the bracket was puffy from the batting, and we couldn’t slide the thing flush with the wall to make it catch on the other side.  So the headboard bracket was just grazing over top of the wall bracket.  [Is this even making sense?  It doesn't even quite make sense in my head so I don't know why I'm trying to describe it.]

Take two.  We found some scrap wood in the garage to make a little extra ledge for the headboard bracket to sit on.  Danny had some carpenter-y term for this that I can’t remember.

So this extra girth pushed the bracket out further away from the puffy upholstery, and we got it to catch on the first try.  And the weight of it didn’t rip out a chunk of the wall.  YAY!

Plus, adding those extra layers didn’t push the headboard out too far from the wall. It still looks flush.

And I’m in love with it!  It really makes the bed feel more substantial.  I like that the nailhead trim is subtle, and you almost can’t see it from certain angles.  But it adds a little more texture than if I had just left it plain.

And the best part is that is still came out pretty cheap:

• Plywood cut to size: $22
• Black canvas: $23
• Batting: $18
• Wall mounting bracket: $11
• Staple gun: $9 (clearance!)
• Spray adhesive: $5
• Carpet tacks: $2
• TOTAL: $90

A day later I found this scrap, did some googling, and found out that the commercial must have been for the Clinch River Fall Antique Festival.  It felt like a small victory to have reclaimed this info from the depths of my short term memory.  So I figured I ought to take advantage.

I headed out to “historic downtown” Clinton, TN at 9am on Saturday in hopes of some good pickin’s, or at least a good old fashioned East Tennessee cultural experience.  I had never been to Clinton before, and my hopes were not high. Previously my knowledge ended with a portion of Clinton Highway, lined with questionable businesses like a sports bar called “Beer:30″.

Once again, I shouldn’t have been so quick to judge, because I was charmed by downtown Clinton.  Year-round, the streets are lined with antique shops, little cafés, and other olde-timey storefronts.

There was A LOT of cool stuff here.  It was about six or eight blocks of downtown streets blocked off from traffic, lined with booths, plus all of the regular storefronts running specials and sales on their regular merchandise.  Tons of great deals to be had and a lot of haggling going on.

As with any antique situation, you have to weed through lots of wagon wheels, fishing lures, and doilies  before you get to the cool stuff.  But I think it’s fun.

I was mainly looking for items for the downstairs bedroom.  Out of many possible table options that I came across, I finally settled on the curvy black wicker side table, snagged for only $25.

I also bought an Italian botanical print from a weird little shop.  Ironically, the print was the same price as the table.  The chatty shopkeeper wasn’t the bargaining type.

But I do like this a lot.  I think the colors will look pretty in the guest room with the blue-green curtains.

So all in all, a successful trip.  I could have bought a lot more, but laziness actually won out on that one.  I didn’t feel like making multiple treks back to the car to haul in my loot.  But for $50 total, it was completely worth the trip.  I just hope I can remember it in 12 months and visit again next year.

[NOTE: Apologies for Instagram city today.  Our real camera seems to be broken, but luckily still under warranty.]

I stayed in the posh Maritime Hotel which I could only afford on the company dime. God, I love luxury hotels.  This one was super cool too, and it had a fantastic restaurant downstairs.  I can confidently say that the only thing I miss about New York is the food, namely pizza and bagels, both of which I enjoyed thoroughly during my visit.

And although I enjoyed seeing old friends and meeting new co-workers in person, this visit reminded me why I left.  It all felt like a dream.  Did I really used to do this everyday?  How could I have possibly lived here for three years?

The first time I was back on a subway train, I could feel my blood pressure rising. Despite the outrageous wealth of Manhattan, life for ordinary people there is squalid. People are all up in your bubble everywhere.  The commutes are ungodly. The streets just reek of garbage on any warm day.  And the cost!  Not just your overpriced shithole apartment, but the cost of everything.  Food and drinks cost so much more everywhere you go.  Once again, thank god for being on the company dime.

I had the best intentions to do a lot of shopping while I was there, but underestimated the time commitment involved in doing so.  I didn’t have the time or patience for H&M or Uniqlo, both of which I miss dearly since moving away. I did manage to snag a new Brooklyn Industries handbag in the yellow wheat print.  I’ve been rotating between two older BI H Bags for the last 3 years.  Best bags ever.  And only about $70.

The other must-see destination on my shopping list was the Marimekko Shop in the SoHo Crate & Barrel store.  As mentioned a few weeks ago, I had my eye on some magenta sheets from their current Marimekko bedding collection.  And I got ‘em!

Love.  I think the color really complements the blue/green dyed curtains.  And I also like that it’s a pop of outrageous color without overpowering the room like a busy duvet cover would.  The white quilt keeps it somewhat understated.

These pictures are showing how badly I need to buy new pillows.  These are pathetically old, flat and misshapen.  Think how sharp those printed pillowcases will look on fluffy new pillows.

It’s still looking pretty spartan in here.  I found that little side table this morning at the thrift store, but I still need a second nightstand and a dresser.  I’m on the hunt for those starting… NOW!

It’s the Wavering Ombre Curtain from Anthropologie.  I thought they were really awesome, as they should be for $168 per panel.  Seriously?  To do two windows you’d be looking at almost $700.  Who is this even for?  What’s the target demo?  If I were rich, I would have custom window treatments sewn.  Not drop $700 for some flimsy panels from over-hyped, over-priced Anthropologie.

But seeing these gave me the idea to try my own version at home.  I didn’t really care about the embellishments on the Anthropologie version, just the bright ombré color scheme.  So I bought a few bottles of Rit Dye and spent a rainy afternoon trying my hand at it.

As I was outlining this game plan to my mom over the phone, she added a great idea that saved me a ton of time.  Rather than go and buy white fabric, just go buy white cotton flat sheets.  Then when it comes time to hem them up, you can cut the sheet in half and only have to hem one edge instead of four.  Very wise, Mamasita, very wise.

So I don’t have any pics of this part of the process, but I basically filled a big bin with about 4 gallons of very hot water and mixed in a bottle and a half of Rit liquid dye in Teal.  Then I dipped the bottoms of the panels first and gradually let more and more of the fabric fall into the dye bath in an effort to have the bottom much more saturated than the top.

For fear of making a mess, I did this part in the basement.  The problem was that we don’t have a sink down there, so I used the washing machine for running water to rinse out the dye.  And basically I ended up not rinsing nearly enough of it out.  You’re supposed to rinse in cold water until the water runs clear, then launder the fabric as normal.  Since it still had tons of dye in it when I washed it out, the whole ombré effect was kind of washed out because the lighter tops got washed with tons more dye.

So this is what I had after dye effort #1:

The bottom was ever so slightly darker than the tops, but I basically had two aqua colored sheets.  Not quite was I was going for.

Although this was a failure, it made me realize a key component of the original inspiration that I wasn’t taking into account.  I needed a second color.  The effect I wanted was never going to be produced from the teal dye alone.

So the next weekend it was back to Hobby Lobby for a another bottle of liquid Rit, this time in Navy Blue.

I did round 2 in the bathroom for easy access to plentiful running water.  For fear of navy blue splatters all over the place, I tried to cover as much as I could with a plastic drop cloth.  Also this time to create a more even horizontal line, I bound both sheets together, so all 4 panels would have basically the same proportions of blue and teal.

I used the shower rod to hold up the top and let the dye flow down towards the bottom.  Pro tip: don’t underestimate the weight of two soaking wet bed sheets.  That shit is heavy.

After rinsing it out FOREVER, carefully making sure not to get dye on the upper portions, the water finally started to run clear and they were ready to get washed up.  And when they came out of the dryer, ta-da!  Much closer to what I had intended.

Now to turn two flat sheets into four curtain panels…

I laid each one out on the carpet upstairs, folded them in half long-ways and cut down the fold.

From here I just used the no-sew Heat ‘n Bond tape to finish the one raw edge.  It’s the same process I used on the dining room curtains back in the day.

For the tops, I used the existing wide hem on the sheets to form a rod pocket.  Just a little slit on the back layer of the hem, and you can slide a rod right through.

I had to buy one new curtain rod, but was able to re-purpose the smaller one from another room.  I’m trying to keep the black curtain rods standard throughout the house, gradually replacing the ones left here by the previous owner.

I’m digging them.

Not exactly the same as the $168 version, but good enough for me.  I’m keen on the way the colors come out.  If I’ve learned anything about fabric dying it’s that you’ll have no idea what the colors look like until they’re dry.  So there is a lot of guesswork involved.  I’m sure there are others more patient than I am, who would do a test swatch to time out how long it should be in the dye to achieve your desired result.  I’m not that kinda girl.

There is a lot of variation in the mid-section of each panel.  Being bundled together during round two created vertical lines throughout the less saturated part.  I like it.

I think they would look killer with some magenta sheets on the bed.  Anyone?  Magenta sheets?  I’m thinking THESE!