#254...time change

I bought this clock at Ross Dress for Less for $15.

It is about a 20" diameter, made of plastic, and really light weight. I decided to take it apart and make it over for a client's kid playroom. 

I wanted to change the look of the clock face and numbers, so I measured face diameter, and cut a circle of canvas for the new face.

Next, I spray painted the frame and cut canvas face with yellow spray paint (hard to tell it is yellow in this pic)

I faux painted the clock face to have a pinwheel-like, pie-shaped design on it. Then I printed out numbers, and cut them out with an Exacto knife, creating stencils that I traced onto the painted face.

I used an oil-based Sharpie paint pen (not the same as a marker) to fill in the stenciled numbers. I put it all back together and here is the clock's new look.....just in "time" for the Daylight Savings time change next weekend...ha ha!

#253...thomas o'brien reflections

I recently transformed this distressed wood mirror........

into a simple silver beauty using latex paints, a metallic glaze, a paint brush, and a sea sponge.

It is going to hang over a dresser in a client's guest room, sort of like this picture scanned from the pages of Thomas O'Brien's book American Modern.

I bought O'Brien's book on half.com......my favorite discount book buying site.

His book is filled with pictures of rooms in soothing neutral palettes, with an incredible blend of old American pieces used in modern layouts and unexpected ways. His style is polished, sophisticated, and the pictures offer lots of ideas for creating interesting wall arrangements and vignettes of beloved items. If you are a traditionalist at heart, this is an inspiring design book for your collection.

#252...bacon & egg breakfast

A bacon and egg taco is my favorite breakfast. It is quick to make and really filling.

Here's how I make mine:

• a whole wheat tortilla
• a few sprinkles of shredded cheese
• two slices of Hormel Pre-cooked bacon that heat in the microwave
• a scrambled egg seasoned with salt and a few drops of Sriracha sauce
• a shake of dried cilantro

#251...to florida we go

Tyler and I are in Florida for a few days visiting his grandparents. It's warm and breezy and really lovely. I should be appreciating the sunny weather and ocean breezes more, but being from Houston, I am really over summer weather, and am pining for a cozy sweater, some hot cocoa and vistas of fall foliage.

#250...spicey birthday

For Tyler's birthday this year, I decided to organize our spices. (Last year, I made him these oil pourers). The spices were formerly housed in our pull-out pantry; however, all the bottles were crowded in and he could never find what he was looking for.....which is why I found multiples of all sorts of strange spices when cleaning them out.

 spices before in pantry

My plan was to move them to a drawer in our new kitchen cabinet. I wanted to label the tops of the spices, so that it would be easy for him to reach in and grab what he needed. I thought long and hard about buying matching little spice jars for the drawer, but the idea of moving tiny powders from one bottle to another nixed that idea, and I just ended up using my handy Dymo letra labelmaker to label the tops of the bottles. It took me about an hour to complete this project, and I think it is going to make a world of difference to my chef!

spices in drawer after



#249...creeping fig, friend or foe

A few years ago, I went to the garden center for advice on what type of ivy to grow on my chimney brick. I left sceptical with 4 tiny 2" plants of creeping fig, wondering how long it would take to cover my brick. It took about 6 months to grow from the ground into a thick carpet of green extending up about 9 ft. And as you can see from the above picture it does not stop creeping. Every two to three weeks I have to trim it to keep it in shape, otherwise it looks like above, which is about 6 weeks of growth.

Here it is after I spent 1.5 hours trimming it

and here it is again before, spreading onto the house. While trimming it, I wondered if others have had issue with it, and if there were any tricks to keeping it trained. It was wishful thinking, but I did find this funny article by a local Houstonian, who describes it as a plant for the wealthy....or those wealthy enough to hire gardeners to trim it weekly. He made the point that if kept up with, it would only be a 10 minute job....and I do like how it looks when manicured, so I guess I just need to be more diligent and a better slave to my plant. Here are some more examples of creeping fig on buildings.

To trim my creeping fig, I use small clippers and hedge trimmers. I am fairly disappointed with how rusted my Corona hedge trimmers got within a few months of ownership, as I store them in the garage. They were the more costly of my two choices at my neighboorhood hardware store, and I picked them because they are light weight.

#248...feathery pillows

The same client who ordered these monochromatic pillows, brought me some cream feather-like, checkered fabric and requested more button-tufted pillows. They are actually pretty busy looking for having no color. I'm showing them here with the yardage of vintage "parfum de printemps" Schumacher fabric that made its way to my fabric collection this week.

#247...speech bubbles

There is something so juvenile and funny to me about speech bubbles. I got this pack of stickers at the dollar store and have had it on my inspiration board for awhile.

They inspired me to paint a speech bubble on this old shaker style basket that I got at the thrift shop for $3.

We keep our pool towels in this basket. I'm thinking of doing some over-sized speech bubble paintings, I just don't know what I want them to say yet.

#246...Austin City Limits 2010

I spent this past weekend at Austin City Limits Music Festival with family and friends. Three days of sun, music, eating, drinking and lots of walking, and I am really feeling my age this morning. As always though, it was a great time.

#245...chair inspiration

I love the color palette on the cover of the Oct/Nov edition of ReadyMade magazine. When I saw the chair on the cover it reminded me of this chair and tiny round ottoman that I found at the thrift store for $30.

I know the style of the chair is not quite the same as the mid-century one on the cover, but the wood color and low profile feel is reminiscent. I don't know where I want to put this chair, but I want to cover it with this fabric by skinny laminx

as seen here on design*sponge, upholstered on this awesome couch by spruce in Austin, TX.

#244...gold feather for fall

I was cleaning out one of my closets this weekend, and came across this black suede Via Spiga hobo-style purse that I bought a couple years ago, and barely ever used. It was plain black, so I decided to embellish it and give it some personality with a painted feather. I really like to paint feathers, and I did it in gold, as gold and black are two of my favorite colors and seem to be popular in the fashion world this fall.

I really like how it turned out, but since it is not going to fit my birthday gifts that I carry around in my bag, I have decided to sell it, and hope it can go to a new owner who actually takes it out around town! I listed it in my etsy shop here, and it comes with its original duster bag. The pics above and below of me holding it are to give an idea of its size. It would make a nice holiday gift for the fashionista on your list.

#243...floors & art & photos, oh my!

I don't have any of my own pictures or projects to post today, but I do have three beautiful things to share with you that I found while blog traipsing in the wee small hours of the morning.

I could stare all day at these bottle images by Johnny Miller.....via Seesaw

I am giddy over these Land Rugs by Florian Pucher which offer up aerial views of the countryside for the floor........via decor8

I'm loving the artwork of Michelle Armas......via Olive & Joy