#366...beach bum

Sunny skies and cooler weather finally blew in on the Jersey shore, making for a great week of vacation!

#365...greetings from the jersey shore

We are vacationing with family on the Jersey Shore this week. I was hopeful it would be nice and cool here, but thus far the temperatures have topped 100 degrees, which feels just like home.

#364...vintage garden gallery

I spent some time at my Aunt Patty's house this week playing around with updating her living room. Here it is before...

and after...

We pared down her accessories, and hung a gallery wall of vintage flower oil paintings that my great uncle painted in the 1960's. We removed the window drapery, and changed the sofa pillows to bring a dramatic pop of black to the room.

#363...thrifty

Do you see the white lamp atop the vanity in my guest room?

well....I recently replaced it with this vintage beauty that I found at the Goodwill.

I love the wall shadows that the wicker shade makes at night.

#362...friday deliveries

I dropped off a couple of small client projects today. First up, a fabric covered Ikea spontan magnetic board for a little girl's bedroom.

before

after

This was a fairly simple project. First, I appliqued (see how here)  a letter "e" for Ella onto a piece of green dot fabric remnant. Then, I sprayed the front of the board with this repositionable spray adhesive and smoothed the fabric onto the board. Next, I basically wrapped the board like a present and used a hot glue gun to adhere the fabric to the back of the board.

Next up, my client Carrie asked me to paint something on a plain drum lampshade that she had. The lampshade looked like this......

before

The inspiration for the painted lampshade was this scrap of fabric that Carrie made her window treatments from.

after

#361...kate's nursery

A few months ago, I created this nursery e-board for Kate and her husband Don who are expecting their first baby boy very soon.

Kate is a foodie and chef, who writes a food blog, and Don is an accomplished painter, whose work you can see here. The couple had collected some thrifted furniture for their space and was ready to roll their sleeves up and refurbish it. They needed some help choosing colors and fabrics and pulling the room together, which is the guidance the e-board provided for them to create a fantastic nursery. Kate sent along some pics of her finished nursery, and you can see even more shots of the cute nursery here.

Some notes that Kate sent along about her nursery selections:

• We chose Benjamin Moore healing aloe for the walls, and kensington blue for the dresser. The dresser turned out more of a slate blue than expected but I really like it with the gray curtains.  
• We used Joel Dewberrry's Modern Bud Camel for the crib skirt and pillow shams.  
• We used Amy Butler fabrics for the changing pad cover on top of the dresser in martini in mustard and Jenean Morrison's Silent Cinema in Iris Yellow as another changing pad cover.
• For the crib bedding we  used Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow in Herringbone Lake and Acorn Chain in Lake.  
• For the guest bed, I bought West Elm sheets, a plain duvet and had a long pillow made from fabric quarters I've picked up along the way in mustard and grays.
• The curtains were made from a West Elm shower curtain, and we added one more stripe of white fabric to the bottom to increase the length.  
• We spray painted our existing window hardware that was a dark wood to a silver metal to give it a more modern feel.
• For wall art, we bought shelves from West Elm, a print from a local artist Jim Hance, a Wizard of Oz print from a garage sale, a zebra hook from Urban Outfitters, a flag garland that was used at one of our baby showers, and finally an original piece of my husband's work hangs over the bed.  
• I think I may add a magnetic strip to hang up photos next to the shelves to the left (hung vertically).
• We found the perfect hardware for the dresser at Anthropologie. The great part?  It was on sale from $10/piece to $2!

#360...under the big top

The carnival themed baby shower that was hosted here over the weekend was a big hit! I thought I'd share the decoration I put over my dining table for the party. I found this circus mobile tutorial in the the Martha Stewart baby magazine published in the fall of 2002. (You can still find these magazines on ebay)

The tutorial included a page of the paper doll circus people.

front

back

I scanned the pages, and printed several copies out on glossy photo paper. I cut out the dolls and instead of turning them into a mobile, I decided to hang them from wire between the drop down pendant lights over my dining table.

I used picture hanging wire, double sided tape and single sided tape to create the circus garland.

#359...tattooed lion tamer

I've had a crush on fiber artist Mimi Kirchner's tattooed men, since I first saw them on design*sponge a few years ago. I've purchased a few of Mimi's doll patterns like her night friend owl and tiny world, and wish there was a tattooed man pattern to purchase. Mimi documented her process in making her tattooed dolls here and here, and following her photos, I thought I'd try my hand at making a tattoo creature of my own. I decided to make a tattoo lady instead of a man, as I am more familiar with drawing the female figure from my days of fashion sketching. I finished her up in time for the circus themed baby shower we're hosting this weekend, and set her up as lion tamer for my vintage wire lion sculpture....now she just needs a tattoo circus boyfriend....maybe someday I'll get her one of Mimi's men.

#358...sunny so cal

We spent the holiday visiting family in Southern California. It was such a nice cool break from the hot summer we've been having in Houston.

#357...dress turned shirt

I got this embroidered Miu Miu baby doll dress about 8 years ago from a thrift shop for about $6. I really love the embroidery on the top portion, but sadly, I've never worn it because short, blousy baby doll dresses make me uncomfortable.....or maybe I'm just too old to pull them off. I saw it in the attic today, and pulled it out to alter it into a top that I may actually wear!

First I marked where I wanted to cut it off, adding two inches to turn up for an elastic waist hem.

Next, I ironed the hem up an inch and then turned it up another inch to enclose the cut edge. I machine stitched all the way around the hem, leaving about 2 inches on the side seam open to slip the elastic into the casing. I use a safety pin to help the elastic easily guide through the casing.

Once the elastic is threaded through the casing, I overlay about an inch of it, and zig-zag sew the elastic several times so that it does not rip apart when stretched. Then the elastic ends fit into the casing and the 2 inch hole gets top-stitched shut. 

I'm glad I finally altered this garment....it is much more my style 

........and now I have a very patriotic outfit. Maybe I'll wear it on Monday if the weather in southern California, (where I'll be) is not 100 degrees like it is here in Houston. Happy Fourth!