Quilt finished!

We got the quilt finished and we love it! The quilt pattern on it is a skyline, but it is subtle and done in variegated thread.

Two New Pillows for Couch

We got a new couch recently and I had been trying to figure out what kind of pillows to put on it to make the couch a little less "elderly folk" and a little more "us". I converted one of Alec's band t-shirts into a pillow. The other pillow mimics the pattern on the couch, but in a more modern interpretation. I like them both very much. I also learned that Wonder Under is a fantastic product. It makes anything into an iron on, which is fantastically useful.



Yes, I do still have Christmas decorations up from Christmas season. Don't laugh. I'll take them down, I swear. This is my first vacation since January.

My favorite colors

These are mostly kitchen, but they are ending up all over my house lately too.



This is a fun place to play with color, as was suggested by Amanda.

Things I Made This Week

I got quite a bit done this week in spite of not feeling super well. The first project was spray painting this little metal basket to hold keys, wallets, sunglasses etc. at our by-the-door landing place. The basket came as the base of a gift basket, but red was a little more my style.



I finished both Alec's and my stockings this week. I forgot to take a photo before I stuffed his full of stuff so the ankle looks a little wonky. He has mine hidden away somewhere so you'll just have to appreciate his and know that mine is a variation on this theme. They're made of fleece so they'll stand up to all of the heavy gifts inside!



I had seen a wreath like this awhile back on someone's blog, but I don't remember where. I thought it looked pretty easy to do. I used my old streetfinder map that is obsolete with the advent of GPS. That makes me a little sad because I bought streetfinders shortly after learing to drive so I could find my way anyhwere. Now it seems too easy. Working to find things was part of the fun! I cut the map into strips and applied them to the wreath form using mod podge. What a fun craft! You get to have glue all over your fingers just like elementary school!




I wanted more room than what I had for hanging Christmas cards so I chain stitched two colors of yarn together to make a pretty chain. I hadn't chain stitched since i was about 8 years old and luckily it came back, just like riding a bicycle. Back then I chain stitched an entire skein of yarn and never learned how to go back and forth to make it into a blanket. Did anybody else do that?




Hopefully more crafts to come after Christmas!

Needlework from Travieso

My awesome friend Travieso made us this awesome needle work as a wedding gift, but it took us forever to figure out to how to frame it! I ended up sewing black fabric around all four sides so it now has a fabric mat in the frame. You can't even tell when you look at it! Anyway, Travieso is so cool. He knows tons about astrology and he made us this artistic interpretation of our star charts combined into one. We love it! It is now displayed on the mantle above our fireplace.

Estate Sale Finds!

It's pretty amazing how many folks will turn up to an estate sale in the pouring rain. I found two super cool things to bring home. I got another pretty Pyrex to add to my collection towards my goal of having a turquoise and red kitchen and a cool old globe.

One Year of Marriage

Traditionally for your first anniversary you are supposed to give a gift made of paper and for once in my life I decided to be traditional. I got Alec this awesome custom portrait of us done by the totally awesome Ashley G.

We love it!

Awesome Quilt Wedding Gift

Alec's cousin made us the most awesome and thoughtful wedding gift. I have been wanting to post pictures of it but a day of sunshine and my memory and schedule haven't coincided for awhile. Anyway, she made us a lap quilt in the colors we had for our wedding with a monogrammed message on the back along with a really cool red stripe for interest. I love the back just as much as the front. Just in time for cooler weather we have a blanket with style! We keep it on the back of the couch, but we never have any natural lighting indoors because we are surrounded by so many trees so I took it outside so you can see it better. I love love love it!






Thanks, cousin!

Black and White Afghan

I wish I had time to learn to make this and actually make it.

More Living Room Upgrades - Record Player Time!

We always had the record player itself, but it stood on a different stand before. You may see the before picture here. This picture shows the old entertainment center and the old record player stand next to the TV. This picture was taken before one of the glass shelves mysteriously shattered while we weren't home. Thank goodness none of the heavy components were on that shelf! Anyway, my awesome friend Jana gave us this record player stand when she moved into a different house and Alec refinished it to match the entertainment center he built. The living room looks so much better and warmer now! I also love having our records alphabetized and accessible. Now I just need to make some cool dividers for them.

New Desk!

I study ALL of the time so I sit at my desk TONS. My old desk, while cute, was not very ergonomic. Since I already have neck/shoulder/wrist issues I really needed to get something that allowed me more leg room to rotate my chair and a place to put my keyboard at a better height. I found this awesome used office supply store in Austin called Cox Office Furniture and they exceeded my expectations by a mile! They had tons of old really cool desks and other office supplies as well as newer stuff. I was in love with this All-steel tanker desk from the 50s but my goal was to get an articulating keyboard tray. The man who works there took the lap drawer off, put an articulating kayboard tray on and now I'm set to go with an awesome desk that is MUCH more comfortable than the old one! YAY!

Old Desk:


New Desk (shown here in an ad from retrooffice.com with the lap drawer still in place:



My actual desk with my ergonomic adjustments:
1) articulating keyboard holder
2) elevated laptop stand





Now I need to find a way to hide the cords that is compatible with a steel desk but still keeps my cords accessible for when my laptop is on the go. hmmm...

Maybe I also need a cool retro phone and/or typewriter.

I'm dreaming of storage...

Someday when we finally decide to "settle down" and own a home I want to have so much storage. Alec is a collector of books and CDs, and we jointly collect records. I would love to have them all attractively displayed like these inspirational images I found.



from Dwell



from Living Etc




from Unplggd

Kitchen Appliances

I have some of the cute applicances, but now I need a shelf to put them on so I don't have to hide them!



I love it!

Red and Turquoise Kitchen

I already have a couple red and turquoise kitchen items, some of which are vintage pyrex handed down from my Mom. I want more though! I love this kitchen and these other pyrex items I found on etsy.

photo credit

photo credit

The above item was from etsy, but it sold so I can't find the link for the seller.

photo from etsy

More Improvements on the Home Front

We forgot to take actual "before" picture for this specific purpose, but I did happen to take a random shot of the living room when we first moved in. Please note the horrible TV stand/entertainment center made of black yuck and glass. I hate furniture made of black yuck and glass. It screams to me of Nagel's art and I feel like I should feather out my hair and wear neon colors.

In addition to the aesthetic issues the stand has it is also a bit more unstable that I think reasonable for an electronics geek husband to own. I was more than a little shocked when I found out the details.

We happen to have a wood working expert in the family who was happy to lend a hand and all of his tools. The picture below is the unit before Alec did any staining or added the "feet".

Finally, you can see the brand new, finished, and crafted totally by hand entertainment center. Ray and Alec did a fantastic job! Yay!

We still have some more furniture projects in the works so the living room won't be "finished" for quite some time.

Dining Room Makeover - Part 3 - The Whole Room

So you'll see in the first picture that we didn't in fact HAVE a working dining room. Alec had a home office right there in the middle of our living space and I did not like that. It was kinda ugly, and looked a little dorm-like. I was also tired of sitting on the floor to eat my dinner so I wanted a table. Here is the room before the remodel:







Here is the new improved room for actual dining:





I don't love the curtain, but inspiration hasn't struck me on a better solution for that yet.

Dining Room Makeover Part Two - The Table!

We forgot to take pictures of the table before we started sanding. It looked pretty cool just sanded down that I was tempted to leave it that way... but I had already painted the chairs and that would have looked so crazy! Here is the table before and after my paint job:

Dining Room Makeover Part One

Part one will show you just the chairs for the dining room table. We scored these beauties at the salvation army for super cheap. That's my favorite price to pay! FYI - I did not take the arms off the chair, we just only got one captains chair.



Cheap chairs + black spray paint + Ikea fabric = new fabulous chairs!

Chair project

I wish I had remembered to take a "before" picture of this chair. It was stained brown but most of the finish had come off. The upholstery was so faded I couldn't tell what it had looked like. We picked it up on the side of 183 at a junk resale yard. The guy who ran the place told us it used to be in the capitol building in Austin, and I choose to believe it. I decided it needed a high gloss black coating and some cool fabric from Ikea. I love it!