Vintage Green

Remember Me?

2011-11-06T09:04:00.002-05:00

Remember when I used to blog here even if it was only a couple of times a month? Yeah, whatever happened to that? It's been five months already! I suppose you're wondering what the heck I've been doing (you weren't actually wondering that, but it's my blog so I can imagine you were). Let's see... In addition to the three jobs I currently have, we've been doing lots of work in the yard. Unfortunately I have no pictures to show for it because it has mostly consisted of moving plants around and since it's November, none of them look nice enough to photograph. We transplanted all of the nice perennials from that flower bed that cut the back yard in half into our tiny front yard and planted grass in the back. Hopefully in the spring we will have a front yard that looks like a cottage garden and a back yard with enough contiguous open space that you can actually use it!

I've been trying my hand at flower arranging. Though admittedly that hasn't taken up enough time that I could even think of using it as an excuse for not blogging. I've been learning a lot from reading the Flowers A-Z column on Design*Sponge. While doing some yard clean up a couple weeks ago, I gathered some clippings from the yard and put together this arrangement.

I'm really happy with how it came out. Unfortunately it didn't last very long which brings us to the newest addition to our little abode.... KITTY!!!!!

Yes, we adopted a new kitten named Olivia. She's adorable, a bit of a mush and a little terror around the house. As you can see she doesn't stay still long enough to take a picture and she doesn't like to leave anything alone including flower arrangements. She is driving our other curmudgeonly cat nuts.

Also, I've been spending way to much time on Pinterest, like way too much time. You can follow my pins from the button on the top right of my blog. Also I've started listing links for old house renovation resources in the middle of the right hand column. I figure some folks may want to know where (besides yard sales) you can find cool stuff for old houses. I'll keep adding more as I find them.

So, how has everyone else been the last few months? Is anyone still out there? Hello?.... Bueller?...

Wow!

2011-06-08T14:52:00.003-04:00

I usually try not to post too many images from other blogs- partly because I figure you've seen them already and partly because figuring out the original source of an image can be a real pain in the a**. This bathroom however, was too awesome not to share with you. It's from a house call over at Apartment Therapy. I love the vintage tile and the wallpaper that arches right over the ceiling, plus the orange robe (?) hanging from the door completes the 1920s color scheme.

Damn you Ikea!

2011-05-23T12:14:00.003-04:00

One of the things I had planned on doing in our living room was replacing the tv stand with something with more storage and could blend into the backround a bit better. Since budget is tight as always, I was planning on getting the Lack shelf in white from Ikea so that it could hold all of our electronics and dvds and not compete with the other furniture in the room.

Here's the shelf in Victoria's old apartment from sfgirlbybay

A few weeks ago I noticed that there was an error on the page on the Ikea website. Last week I went down to Ikea and discovered that they had discontinued it and they didn't have any left! I can't believe it! It's one of their classics. Now I'm not sure what I'm going to use instead. I want the look of a low white bench that can run behind whatever chairs I wind up getting for the room, and I'd consider making something but I really don't need another project.

Any ideas?

Dining Room

2011-05-02T07:59:00.003-04:00

Here's a few spring changes that I've made to our dining room. A few happy tulips on the table,
a branch I brought in after doing some pruning outside,
and a new/old bar cart that I practically killed my hands stripping and repainting over the weekend.
Is it too early for a drink?

Weekend Finds

2011-03-21T07:30:00.005-04:00

So this weekend I found myself at two of the best estate sales I think I've ever gone to. I say I found myself as if I had no idea of the Saturday morning routine that got us there. Anyway, I got a bunch of paint by number paintings for only $5. There was one more of a seascape, but I gave that one to my aunt for her beach house. The moose (moose!) one is my favorite because it isn't finished so you can still see some of the numbers. I'm not sure where these are going yet, but I'm sure they'll find their way into the rotating art collection in the house. The moose one will probably get stored until next winter since I'm not sure I'll want to look at snowy scenes in the summer (I don't even want to look at the snowy scenes outside my window right now!)

Yes, that is an incredibly large desk lamp, well floor lamp really, but I thought it was too cool to pass up. I'm pretty sure I saw one of these on one of those all white Scandi-blogs recently. The Aalto-esque three legged stool (though it looks two-legged in this picture) was found a another sale. I'm not sure where he will wind up. I have a feeling some major furniture rearranging is going to be happening in the near future.

And yes, I finally found a pair of matching lamps for my office desk. They are shiny, but slightly pitted brass which I'm totally okay with. I like that they show some age. Please ignore the shade, I just grabbed something to see what size will look best. I'm thinking a natural linen drum shade to tie in with the dining room which is connected to the office. They'll wind up costing more than the lamps themselves. Now I really have to get moving with painting the office!

I did get a few other things, an art deco hand mirror, a necklace and an opalescent glass container (which you can see a bit of in the first picture), but they aren't nearly as cool as these. There was also some gardening done this weekend, but now it's snowing so... well... crap.

The story of my life...

2011-03-20T10:46:00.001-04:00

from Maison Marigold via Desire to Inspire

Headboard Ideas

2011-02-14T07:40:00.003-05:00

Here is my crude photoshop job showing what I am thinking for our bedroom. We've needed a head board for a while now, but I've been pretty indecisive on what would work best. I kept hoping I'd stumble across a cool vintage one but so far that hasn't happened. I think an upholstered one would be nice since you can lean against it when reading in bed without fear of having some turned brass spindle making an imprint into the back of your head. I had a hard time finding a fabric I liked- I didn't want a print that would lock me into a look that I may get tired of in a year. I found this woodgrain print which I thought was cute because it's neutral, but has some variation/texture so it's not boring. Plus I thought having a padded headboard that looks like wood was kind of fun.

Here's what it looks like now. I want to remove the shelves above the bed that I constantly bump my head on and reuse one of the pieces of wood to make a shelf up on top of the picture rail. Not for books that we read before bed- obviously that would be a tad inconvenient, but for books that just don't fit on our shelves downstairs. For books that we are actually reading, I want to get those Umbra hidden shelves to use as mini nightstands since we don't have space for real ones. I'm looking for some brass wall mounted reading lights-I found a perfect one at a yard sale, but it was just one, it had no mate. I'll keep searching. Maybe when the yard sales start up again in the spring, I'll find something.

So whaddaya think? Is the woodgrain print cute or cheesy? Any suggestions for (cheap) lamps?

The green is gone!

2011-01-23T19:19:00.004-05:00

Finally! I've been sick of the green in our living room since about two days after we painted it- okay maaaybe that's an exaggeration. maybe. This past week we (mostly Chris) painted the living room gray. It's sooo much better. I no longer feel like I'm inside a container of lime sherbet.

I'm still trying to figure out how to style it up. I need to develop that skill. I think what's wrong is that all of my "stuff" is too small. I think I have too much small, cluttery stuff when what I need is less, but more substantial stuff. hmmm. I'm still working on the pillows. I have some fabric to make new covers for a few of them, not sure what to do about the others yet. Suggestions are welcome.

Don't mind the weird hanging light thingy in the corner. I moved the one with the green fiberglass shade into the office and needed something in that corner. I might put a table lamp there if I can find one that doesn't take up the whole table. Or, I was thinking of finding/making a hanging lamp that hangs from the ceiling instead of from the picture rail. I found an electrical supply website that sells vintage looking electrical parts like fabric covered cords and antique brass sockets. That with something cool to use as a shade may be nice too although my mom pointed out that there is a lot of stuff hanging on that side of the room so maybe a table lamp is the way to go.

In other news, a couple of months ago I found a chair down the street from our place that someone was throwing out. The finish wasn't great and the upholstry was nasty, but it was such a cool shape I had to grab it.

I cleaned it up and oiled it and it looks much better. I used some zig zag fabric that I had bought to make pillows for the living room to recover the seat and I love it. Too bad I rarely see it since it's usually covered in clothes. And yes, I did get myself a flokati rug. I've been wanting to get one, well two actually, for the bedroom (the floor is icy cold in the winter), but was afraid to spend more that a few bucks on something so trendy. After Christmas, I went to IKEA's storewide sale hoping to find them on sale and not only were they not on sale, they were ten dollars more than they were on the website! Bummer.

I started looking on craigslist and found someone who was selling two of the real greek ones, not the made in China IKEA ones. She was asking $175 for the larger one and $125 for the smaller. Not happening. I waited and waited and waited and the price came down to $100 for both! Score!

Not much new here except for new sheets and pillow shams. I'm going to use this photo to do a photoshop mock up of what I'd like to do here once we get rid of the awful shelves. Need a headboard and something to use as nightstands. I have some ideas stirring around. Lets see if they look as good in photoshop as they do in my head. Stay tuned!

Christmas Projects

2010-12-30T19:57:00.003-05:00

Now that everyone's gotten their Christmas presents, I can share with you what we made. Gifts this year we a mix of homemade, homemade by somebody else and store bought. We made a bunch of soy candles in various vintage containers that I had laying around, some tinsel wreaths I found on Creature Comforts and batch of cranberry orange liqueur that I found on the Kitchn. They all turned out really well. The tinsel wreaths were actually the biggest hit and they were the easiest to make.

I had a little fun with the labels on the liqueur. Not the most innovative of designs, but they're cute. I'd love to learn a bit more about graphic design, maybe take a class at a local college, or something. In the mean time I'll just keep playing around with Photoshop. Maybe I'll try to teach myself Illustrator. Anyone know of a good tutorial book?

Looking for Lamps

2010-12-30T19:01:00.004-05:00

I know I've been awol for a while... sorry 'bout that. I'm finally out of Christmas mode and back to thinking about the house. Among many other things that I'm in the market for these days, I've been keeping an eye out for a matching pair of lamps for my desk.

I finally got to the thrift store today after a long hiatus. I've been busy shopping for other people and making gifts for Christmas that I hadn't had time to visit any thrift stores for myself. In the winter, when there aren't any yard sales, thrift stores are my substitute crack. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything I could use. There was a leather "egg" like chair as well as a vinyl lounge chair, but I certainly don't have room for another chair in this house. I was hoping to find either a headboard for our bed or possibly a pair of lamps. I'd love some mid century ceramic lamps, or even wooden ones like the bottom pair. These are all from ebay and way out of my price range. I guess I'm going to have to keep thrifting. If anyone spots something like these anywhere, let me know!

New/Old Door

2010-10-17T18:42:00.005-04:00

I am slightly embarrassed to say that we have only recently gotten the storm door finished. It took the better part of the summer. It is up, it is green and it is a pain in the arse to open. I don't know why, but the knob is really hard to turn. I'll have to get my dad over to investigate. In other news I spent this afternoon cutting out little paper bats that I strung on some bakery like string. I like it, it's kind of like a bat bunting! They flutter in the wind which looks pretty cool. Do you like them?

Over the summer we also replaced the light fixture above the door and cleaned and painted the mailbox. One of these days I'd like to paint our house number on the mailbox. I just can't seem to settle on a font. Even without numbers on the mailbox, it certainly looks a lit better than it used to, don't you think?

Sharon Springs and the Beekman Boys!

2010-09-26T07:38:00.010-04:00

Last weekend we went upstate for a little break from the day to day. It was the weekend of the Second Annual Sharon Springs Harvest Festival started by the Fabulous Beekman Boys last year. As I mentioned the other day, I've become a bit of a fan of the show. I heard about the festival last year but wasn't able to make it because of a conflict. This year I made a point of getting there. It was seriously crowded, I haven't seen that many people in all the times I've been to Sharon Springs --- combined! Like a dork, I waited on line to get a photo with Brent (above) but Josh wasn't there yet. By the time he did get there the line was twice as long and I wasn't ready to wait on it again. (That's Josh in the orange shirt on the porch)

In addition to autographs and photos, there were tons of vendors selling produce, jams, crafts and all sorts of goodies. We bought a jar of spiced pear jam (yum!), some garlic for roasting and some yummy white bean veggie chili in a bread bowl for lunch. There was a line to get into their shop, and I had enough of lines for the day, so I figured I can get something there next time I'm up there.

After we left Sharon Springs, we took a slight detour to try to find the farm. It was just a few miles away and is one of the most beautiful farms I've ever seen. I couldn't get a good shot of the front of the house since there are a number of big old trees, but it is quite a house for it's era. Much fancier than my parents place.

That's all for now. I have some photos from a kite festival in Cherry Valley and apple picking at the Sharon Orchards that I'll post a little later.

Congratulations!

2010-09-20T19:37:00.003-04:00

Congrats to Sammy Ann! Contact me at vintagegreenblog@gmail.com with your mailing address and I'll send the print over to you!

Don't Forget

2010-09-14T15:27:00.002-04:00

to comment on this post to have a chance to win a signed print of my "Apples" watercolor painting- just in time for Fall! Comments must be received by 5:00 pm on Friday. On Monday I'll announce the winner!

2010-09-11T20:51:00.008-04:00

Today was a particularly successful yard sale day. We started out on this street around the corner from our house and there were at least six sales on the one street. I got all four of those enamelled cast iron pots at the first sale for only $10! The two orange ones are LeCrueset, the yellow one with the lid is a Belgian brand I've never heard of and the grilling pan is a newish one. Not a bad way to start the day. A few doors down I found the blue anodized dish, which is one of the coolest ones I've ever seen. It has some mineral deposits on it, but I've read that some vinegar and boiling water can get them off. Anyone have success with that? I'll try soaking it tomorrow and let you know how it turns out. The deer and turtle will add to the menagerie of critters I have around the house and that odd looking thing in the back is actually a letterpress of a site plan of a 1950s ranch house. There were other images, but they were technical drawings of god knows what. Of course I was drawn to the architectural one! Don't know what I'm going to do with it, but then again I don't know what to do with half of what I bring home. Oh well.

100!

2010-09-10T10:15:00.004-04:00

Woohoo! Today is my 100th post and in honor of this most exciting event I will be giving away a print of my apples watercolor. I know most bloggers hit 100 in a couple of months, it takes me almost three years, but slow and steady wins the race, right?...right?... Just comment on this post by next Friday the 17th and I will randomly select a winner!

Some weekend fun

2010-09-04T15:50:00.001-04:00

I hope this makes you smile as much as I did!

Random Updates

2010-08-19T10:23:00.006-04:00

Random things going on these days:

I finally started watching Mad Men. I know, I'm about three years late. I didn't want to jump in in the middle of the second or third season, I wanted to start from the beginning. I kept checking the library to see if they had it but it was perpetually checked out- all three copies. Finally, I put in a request and got a call a few months later that it was in. We've watched seven episodes so far and I'm completely hooked. LOVE the costumes and sets though I wonder if they are exaggerating the extent of drinking/smoking while pregnant/at work/in the car etc. for effect. Either way, I'm loving the show.

I've also gotten hooked on the Fabulous Beekman Boys. At first the reality show format turned me off a bit, but the show has really grown on me. Plus, their farm is only a half hour away from my parents place upstate, so I recognize a lot of the places they feature on the show.

My mom found us a 100 year old wood storm door to replace the hideous aluminum one on the front of our house. We've been spending way more time getting it ready to hang than I expected. Of course it was an inch too wide so we had to trim it down to fit and since nothing with an old house is straight forward, plumb or level, once we cut it down we discovered that it was a quarter of an inch too small on the top, but just right on the bottom. We fixed that problem, but then discovered that the panel with the glass panes that fits into the door itself, doesn't actually fit. It has been painted so many times that it no longer fits in its opening. We've done a bunch of scraping (by "we" I mean Chris) but there's still more to do. We're going to be borrowing a plane from my dad this weekend to get this thing finished (hopefully). Once we're done getting it to fit, then comes time to paint it.

This is the color we picked to paint it and the front door itself-whenever we get there. When my mom asked me what sort of color I chose, I told her a "vintage-y green, but bold." Her reply? "Well that's a surprise." I guess I'm fairly predictable in some ways. As soon as I have some pictures worth looking at, I'll show them to you all.

Geez Louise!

2010-06-19T13:32:00.003-04:00

It's been two whole months since my last post! I've had a bunch going on around here- not like that's anything new, but I guess it's been more than the usual amount. Anyway, I wanted to share some of my yardsaling loot with you. I made out pretty well today.

I thought my score of the day was this cool watercolor painting presumably from the 20s...

but then I found this beauty.

Isn't she sweet! She's a Triumph bicycle from, I'm guessing, the 50s. There isn't a date on the hub like the website says there should be, so I need to do a bit more research to find out.

She's very Eeeenglish, actually. I think every part says "Made in England" on it. She needs some work, the tires are shot and the rear brakes are a bit sticky, but she's in pretty good shape. The only missing part is one of the rubber handle grips.

I guess I have one more project to add to my list!

Seminary of the Immaculate Conception

2010-04-18T21:11:00.005-04:00

More photos that have been lingering on the memory card. This is a local seminary that I got to visit over the winter. I love the multi colored glass in the windows.

Coe Hall

2010-04-18T20:59:00.003-04:00

It seems that I was on a symmetry kick the last time I was at Coe Hall in Oyster Bay. I like to go visit the greenhouses in late winter when everything is dead outside. Inside the greenhouses it's warm and humid and green. I found these photos while emptying my card this weekend.

Old houses

2010-04-18T18:27:00.006-04:00

Don't you love the wallpaper in that last photo? These are just a few photos I've taken in some of the old houses I've had the pleasure of visiting as a member of our local historic preservation commission. Most of the photos I take are for documentation purposes, but every once in a while I get a few pretty ones, too.

Yard Sale-ing

2010-04-18T18:13:00.005-04:00

"The owls are not what they seem" four glasses for $3, not bad

Some bakelite handled cheese knives (and one fork) for $1

Volumes 2,3, and 4 of Audels Carpenter's and Builders Guide. 1923 edition. Need to find volume 1.

I got a few other things too. A galvanized wash tub, a large enameled tray for boots, a green and yellow wool throw blanket from the 40s, and a jar of homemade current jam. Not bad for one weekend.

Foyer sneak peeks!

2010-04-03T08:53:00.007-04:00

Our foyer is almost done! Last week we scraped and stained the edges of the trim that had been painted over and painted the whole room. The medallion still needs a fresh coat of white paint and we will paint the heating pipe that runs up the corner of the room once the heat gets turned off for the season. Plus there's that whole "hole in the wall" thing that needs to be dealt with. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's because I've been very skillful at avoiding it in photos. It's a rather embarrassing hole between the foyer and my office that we opened up almost a year ago after the previous owner had walled it up, but we haven't had a chance to put trim around it yet so it exists just as a large crappy hole between two rooms.

I apologize for the flash photo above. There just isn't enough light in that room for a proper photo. I'll have to bust out my tripod one of these days and play with the manual settings on my camera to get a better shot. I figure I'll wait till the room is actually done to take those shots.

If anyone is wondering why I decided to go so dark (even on the ceiling), I noticed that even when the room was painted white it was still a gloomy room. It is on the north side of the house, the only glass is in the front door that looks out onto the porch which is constantly shaded. Since I wasn't going to paint the trim white, I decided that the room is always going to be a bit dark so why not go all out and paint it a bold dark color that I would be chicken to use anywhere else in the house. This way, the foyer is dark, but every room off of it seems bright by comparison. I'm super happy to finally have my sheet music out of boxes and back up on the wall. I missed them.

So, what do you think? Am I nuts to paint the ceiling charcoal gray? Probably.

Garden Inspiration

2010-03-21T08:11:00.005-04:00

Well I guess first picture is really more patio inspiration, but there are greener ones below. I want the garden to have the feel that it's always been there. There can be some modern items in it to make it a little more interesting, but the "bones" should feel as old as the house (about 95 years old). I guess that's my feeling on decor too. I usually want all the fixed items (bathroom fixtures, tile, built in cabinetry, etc.) to look original to the house, but the furniture and other decorative stuff to be more modern.
I want a patio that feels kind of "old world" like the scene in Chocolat where they have the birthday party in Armande's backyard. Simple, natural materials. More stone, brick and wrought iron than modern pavers or wood deck. Doesn't need to have the wisteria like the photo above- I don't need the house being torn down by a plant- but a pergola overhead would be nice.

I'm not actually looking for two gate houses, but I love formal gardens. I think the style I'm looking for is a formal, cottage garden which sounds like an oxymoron. Formal gardens always feel more old fashioned to me, but since our house is just a little bungalow, I don't want the garden to outdress the house, so a little cottage informality around the edges should help soften and tone it down a bit. I'm thinking some geometry, axes and formality nearest the house and have it breakdown and become more natural as you get further away.

I love gateways. Maybe not as formal as this, but I'd like the feel that you are entering different rooms in different parts of the yard. The problem is, I don't know how much dividing up the yard will make it seem bigger (can't see it all at once, keep discovering new spaces) before it seems smaller (too many chopped up spaces). hmmm

And finally, here's my ultimate veggie garden. I'll never have one even close to this size (unless I find myself in a financial situation that allows me to quit my job and play in the dirt all day) but I love the fence, the gravel paths between raised beds and the chairs for sitting down and just smelling the tomatoes. yum!

sorry I don't have credits for the photos, it seems I picked some of the only photos I don't know where I found, oops.

Spring Fever

2010-03-20T09:04:00.004-04:00

Since the weather has been so nice for the past few days (I'm choosing not to think about the possibility of it getting cold again in the next few days) I've been thinking a lot about planting a veggie garden. Last year we had a small veggie garden in a strange circular planting bed left over from the previous owners. It was okay, we did get a bunch of bush beans and some snap peas, but growing things in a circle is a little difficult. You can't plant in rows, really and the circles diameter was such that you couldn't reach the middle without stepping into the garden itself and potentially on something you are trying to grow. Last years was really just a temporary solution until we could figure out where the "real" garden was going to go. Unfortunately, our yard doesn't get tons of sun, so our options are limited.Above is a picture of our yard taken last August at around noon, when there are the least shadows covering the yard. By one o'clock, that shadow to the right is covering half the lawn between the driveway and the flower bed on the left. Right now I think we've narrowed it down to two options, either in the yard halfway between the circle bed and the picnic table, or in the back of the yard, behind the large evergreen (see the sunny patch back there?) They both seem to get a similar amount of sun, which should be enough for me to grow leafy greens, peas, beans, beets and broccoli, but no tomatoes, eggplant, or squash. The question is which is more practical. Planting in the back makes sense because it's not in the way and it leaves more room near the house for entertaining, however, I'm sorry to admit that I am definitely an "out of sight, out of mind" sort of person. I'm afraid if I don't walk right past it everyday, I'm going to wind up neglecting it. Plus the idea of eating right next to where the food is growing sort of appeals to me.

It would be easier to decide if I had a strong idea of how I want the rest of the yard to be and I could see what will work best with that. I've been playing around with a layout in Cad (yeah, pretty dorky, but I'm an architect and that's how I'm used to working) but I'm not sure that it's the plan I want to go with.

Here's the plan as it currently stands. It's a quick and dirty rendering so I apologize for not having colored every part (please ignore the space behind the garage, that's what I do). The dotted lines are the boundries of the existing planting beds that will be relocated and the edge of the driveway that goes right up to the back of the house. I'd like to build a patio a little bit further out from the house so that there can be some planting between it and the house. I want it to feel like you are in the garden rather than right up against the side of the house or up against the driveway. The brown and green rectangles are the possible veggie garden locations. I have them shown as "starter gardens" that can be expanded if and when I feel that I can handle more responsibility.

So what do you think? Grow the food close to where it will be eaten, or further out of the way so that there's more room for entertaining near the house and patio?

Thanks!

2010-03-10T13:07:00.005-05:00

Thank you to Victoria over at sfgirlbybay for featuring me in her friends & neighbors and welcome to anyone visiting me for the first time! If anyone is wondering, I haven't had a chance to do anything with this chair other than clean it. Someday I will repair or replace the hinge at the base and reupholster the vinyl. I love the color, but it has a lot of tears in it. Anyone know a way to glue or otherwise repair vinyl? For now it lives with a throw draped over it to hide the holes (which you can see in my messy office here).

Formspring Me!

2010-02-13T11:02:00.002-05:00

I've decided to jump on the Formspring bandwagon. You can ask me anything here.

Awesome

2010-02-13T09:12:00.003-05:00

How wacky is this truck I saw while walking home yesterday? Brocade patterns and pick up trucks don't often go together. For some reason this made my day. I apologize for the funky coloring of this photo, I guess I had the light settings wrong, I just had to quickly get the shot before I got hit by a car.

Too Many Grays!

2010-01-31T10:45:00.002-05:00

How am I supposed to decide, they all look good!

Salon Walls

2010-01-31T09:16:00.009-05:00

I love me a good salon wall. I haven't put one up yet in our new place (we had one in our old apartment) because plaster walls make them considerably more difficult to install, and because I wasn't sure where the best place for one would be. I've been thinking about what to do with my office/ library/ art & craft space, and I think it might be the best place for it. Because this room is almost completely open to the dining room I've been having a tough time deciding what to do with it. I think what will be best for this room (though suggestions are always welcome) is to paint the ceiling the same pale blue as the dining room to have some continuity. I think the walls should just be white (probably decorators white by BM) to be a clean neutral backdrop for all of the many "things" in the room. The wall behind my desk I think would make a good spot for a salon wall. That way it will provide some interest when viewed from the dining room and should distract a bit from the inevitable clutter that will be on my desk. Here's how it looks now (see, clutter)

I found this picture in an Apartment Therapy house tour and loved that they had created a sort of salon wall using picture hooks and some sort of cord. Apparently there is hope for my plaster walls! I'm going to try to find a white cord so that it isn't too distracting from the art itself.

When any of this will actually get done is quite another story. With two jobs, bellydance lessons, wedding planning and this intensive leadership program that I am enrolled in. I'm not sure when any of this is going to happen.

Dining Room Ramblings

2010-01-31T08:31:00.005-05:00

Remember back in October when I found these two paintings at different yard sales? Well they still haven't been hung anywhere because, well I'm indecisive, and I've run out of picture hanging hooks from Rejuvenation. When I saw the picture above on a blog a few weeks ago it got me thinking about hanging them in the dining room and looking for others to add to the collection. Maybe I could even paint one myself! I love how they look like lots of little windows to worlds outside. I was thinking of hanging them on the wall where the mystery plate is hanging, but then I though the sunlight there might wreck them over time. Now I am thinking that I can hang them along side the the window facing east because the sun will never hit them and it will look like little windows surrounding a bigger window. If only there was a local place to buy some more picture hooks.

That last photo just reminded me, I'm still not 100% in love with the dining room fixture. Every time my mom comes over, she mentions that I should get it hardwired in, but I'm still not certain enough about it to commit. Though since it's probably long past any return date, I might as well. I think it's because it's still a bit too matchy-matchy for me. I have a problem. My instincts always lead me towards the matchy-matchy, probably because I am a bit timid and don't feel completely confident in my decorating skills, but I am always attracted to the pictures of rooms that look so effortless, where everything "goes" but nothing matches. Same goes for fashion. Oh well. I guess even if I do get the fixture hardwired, the actual fixture itself will be relatively easy to change in the future if I ever find "the one." Having the electrician get the wiring into the walls and connect a switch is the hard part.

Stay tuned for more, I'm feeling chatty today.

kreative blogger award

2010-01-24T08:36:00.003-05:00

I want to thank Liane from Enhabiten for nominating me for a kreativ blogger award! I'm a little behind in posting this - this week has been absolutely crazy busy. But now I am calmly sipping coffee so I will tell you seven things about myself and nominate seven other bloggers for this award.

1. I have a slight obsession with music from the 30s and 40s - the cheesier the better. Right now I'm listening to the Andrews Sisters.

2. I have a split personality when it comes to clutter. On one hand I get agitated when the house is messy and full of stuff, but on the other hand I am usually too lazy to tidy up and have a compulsion for yard saling, thrifting and other means of finding and collecting cool old junk to fill up the house. Frustrating.

3. I love the movie Charade, alot. I mean, I could watch it every week (and sometimes I do)

4. I finally saw Julie and Julia the other day, after everybody else already has, and I loved it! I know many people said that Julie was a bit whiney, which she was, but I could definitely relate to her frustration. Sometimes I want to just sit on the kitchen floor and cry when things don't go right. I'm definitely more of a Julie though I wish I were more of a Julia.

5. I have, and am wearing, a pair of bright orange socks with MCM furniture all over them.

6. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I take belly dance classes and occasionally perform - though, usually at libraries and nursing homes.

7. My family seems to think that I have a very good sense of color and are always asking my advice when choosings paint colors, yet I am completely unable to choose them for myself.

Here are the seven bloggers who I am nominating for this award:

http://www.lillieinthecity.com/

http://www.bromeliadliving.blogspot.com/

http://www.oliversbungalow.blogspot.com/

http://www.gettofixin.blogspot.com/

http://www.noaccountingfortaste.com/

http://www.renovationtherapyblog.com/

http://www.notsoshabbychicshop.blogspot.com/

Thank you Desire to Inspire!

2010-01-18T09:45:00.002-05:00

Yesterday Desire to Inspire featured a round up of pot rack pictures and included our little pot rack from the old apartment in the mix! I'm honored to have our old rental kitchen included with all of the other beautiful kitchens. Unfortunately, our new place has no where to hang a pot rack, so we are back to storing them in an inconvenient lower cabinet. I really miss the convenience of having one.

Photographs vs. Real Life

2010-01-16T09:25:00.003-05:00

Many of the design blogs that I read feature quite a bit pf photo-styling lust. Now I will certainly drool over a beautiful interior photo as much as the next girl, but I wonder how much these photo-perfection-fantasy rooms are skewing our perception of actual places? I look around my own house and all I see are things I'd like to change "Why did I pick that green for the living room, it should be a soft gray" or "how can I arrange the magazines on my coffee table to make them seem less cluttered?" because I am constantly comparing it to places I see online. They appear so beautiful that I don't think that my space could ever match up. Sometimes when I take pictures to post here or on flickr, I realize that the green paint does look soft and pretty in photographs. If my own humble little space can be improved by a well taken photograph (on occasion I do accomplish this), how do these spaces that we lust over in photographs actually look? Are they as beautiful and inspiring as we think they are or are they simply nice spaces, but not nearly what we have imagined them to be? What do you think, are we sometimes too hard on ourselves because we cannot attain a level of design perfection that may not really exist in the first place?

Redecorating

2010-01-03T20:56:00.001-05:00

I'm updating the look of the blog for the new year, so please bear with me while it changes over the next few days.

Christmas Decor

2010-01-02T10:24:00.004-05:00

Oops! I realized after my last post that I mentioned taking down my Christmas decorations, but I never showed you what they were. Here's a few highlights from this year's...

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T09:57:00.006-05:00

A little chilly outside this morning. This fella seems to be all fluffed up and cozy while munching on his breakfast. While sipping my coffee this morning, I couldn't help but take some pictures of my plants all grouped by the window, with the whiteness of snow outside. They've all been moved into the dining room to make space for the Christmas tree in the living room. I've taken down the rest of the Christmas decorations already which is unusual for me. Most years I let the Christmasiness linger for a while into January. This year, however, I was itching to get started with the new year and start styling/decluttering/cleaning the house.

I have a vague sort of new year's resolution this year...

I have a tendency to come up with ideas or start projects and never see them through. I get easily distracted (damn you world of design blogs!) and recently have been getting stressed more than I should. I'm going to try harder to implement some of the many things I daydream about which I am hoping will lead to me feeling a little more positive and productive and a little less down and stressed. 2009 was a tough year and I'm really hoping 2010 will be a whole bunch better. I'm going to have a lot going on this year between work, wedding planning (!) and other personal stuff (maybe resurrecting my etsy shop), so I'll need to stay focused and keep moving forward. I'm going to be taking on quite a bit this year, and I hope it will prepare me to take on more projects in the future without getting overwhelmed, as I have a tendency to do. Here's to a happy, healthy and productive new year!

Snow

2009-12-20T10:40:00.003-05:00

Kitchn Cure

2009-12-20T10:30:00.004-05:00

Well, our AT Kitchn Cure is done. The countertops have since gotten messy again, but we finished painting, installing the shelf for the toasters, installing another shelf for my decorative kitchen-y things, and de-cluttering the cabinets.
We also removed the door to the foyer and are thinking of hanging a picture on the back of the basement door, though there is still some disagreement on this. As you can see in the second picture, choosing a color for the foyer is still in progress. I'm thinking, forget the green and go Down Pipe instead?
This shelf will hold cute kitchen stuff that is still yet to be unpacked. That's a project for another day.

Yea!

2009-12-06T08:56:00.003-05:00

Our kitchen is no longer yellow! I'd give you a sneak peak, but apparently I'm a bit dumb and can't seem to find either the spare battery or the charger for my camera. Smart huh? We still have to do a few touch-ups this morning and need to install the shelf for the toasters, hopefully by the time that's done I can actually take a picture to show you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T11:28:00.002-05:00

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving this morning, while it's still morning. I hope everyone is having a wonderful day enjoying time with friends and family and food! We'll be making a short trip upstate to escape the black friday madness tomorrow and enjoy some quiet time. See you when we get back!

btw, the fellow above resides at the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown and not on an actual farm so I think he is thankful today as well!

Miscellaneous Weekend Updates

2009-11-22T20:28:00.002-05:00

I hope no one is expecting any sort of theme or common thread for this post because, there isn't one.

Above is the extent of our carrot harvest for this year. We planted them late in the season and didn't really care for them in any way except for watering them so I guess we really shouldn't have expected any better. We wanted to leave them in as long as we could so they would have a chance to grow but it's starting to get chilly and we figured they weren't going to grow much more at this point. The colors sure are pretty, though.
I got this shelf at a yard sale a few weeks ago and I've been trying to decide what to do with it. I was thinking off painting it white and hanging it in the kitchen with some of the cute kitchen stuff I used to have on display at the old place. I'm generally in the "don't paint it" crowd, but the detail seems to get a bit lost in the darkness and the shelves are a bit banged up around the edges. I'm afraid to do it though, because you can't really undo it. I don't think it's valuable but it does look a bit tramp art or folk art-y. I don't know, maybe I'll just let it sit on the floor of my kitchen for a few more weeks. I'll probably do that anyway.
And finally, here's my tablecloth. For now at least. I gave up and bought the sheet at Ikea for $5 and hemmed it. It works fine for now. I might stencil a pattern on it if I can decide on one, but until then it does its job.

Tablecloths

2009-11-14T08:37:00.007-05:00

Why are cool tablecloths so hard to find? For the summer I used a white lace tablecloth in the dining room because I wanted to lighten the room up a little. With leaves on the trees outside the windows and dark-ish walls and furniture, things became a little gloomy. I like the look of the lace, but it's not very practical and not very cozy feeling for the winter.

A lot of people tend to leave the table bare when not in use and only put a tablecloth on when they use the table. I understand the logic behind this, you can show off the table most of the time and have a "cleaner" look, then protect it when you use it. My problem is that I have a tendency to not use things if they require too much effort and so far, our dining room hasn't gotten much use except for when we have people over. I'd really like to use it more.

While I don't like having to treat furniture as precious, I don't want to wreck a perfectly good mid century table that's held up pretty well to this point. What I'd like is a fun, modern tablecloth that I can leave on most of the time that I don't have to be afraid of staining (ie. dark color or busy pattern). Apparently these are not easy to come by. Those at the top of this post are from Crate and Barrel and Ikea. Apparently CB@ and West Elm don't believe in table cloths. The C&B ones are too expensive for something you can easily spill red wine on, and the Ikea one is a bit uninspiring.

Then I figured I'd just go ahead and make one. It's just a big sheet, right? Even my limited sewing skills can handle that, but most fabric is 54-55" wide which would make for a somewhat narrow tablecloth. I was hoping to not have to do anything as fussy as attaching a border around the edge to lengthen it, though I may have to. I measured the one that is there now and it is 60" wide. I recently discovered that Ikea fabrics are wider than standard American fabrics due to the good ole metric system. Their fabrics are 59" wide, which after hemming the edges would produce roughly a 57 1/2" wide table cloth. I could be okay with that. I browsed through their various options online and narrowed it down a bit. First there is the Kajastina fabric in gray. I like it, but it may be a bit too "high style" for our house.Then there is the Cecilia fabrics, but I'm afraid the light color may get stained too easily.I like the food-like pattern of the Majken fabric,My favorite (for the moment) is the Gunilla prints. I like the bold, woodland-esque pattern. The black may be a bit dark, bit it will be forgiving. This last Gunilla print I think can work the best, the pattern is smaller and less likely to overwhelm the room, plus with the busier pattern and less black, it will hide stains without being too dark.None of them have colors that match our dining room really well. Do you think they can work anyway? Or will they clash too much? Is there somewhere else I could just buy a cool tablecloth that doesn't cost too much? If I could save myself the effort of making one I'd be happy, there is no shortage of projects around here.

We've got ourselves a chalkboard wall!

2009-11-09T07:00:00.005-05:00

I love the way it turned out. Nice and smudgy. I think I may go with a light gray for the rest of the walls which will help tie it in a bit. I had plans for where I could put some chalkboard paint when we re-do our kitchen, but I realized that it was going to be a long way off and I didn't want to wait! My fiance painted it one day while I was at work then we had to wait three days before we could condition it and write on it. That was a long three days. It seems to work pretty well. Considering that we didn't really do any prep work (we probably should have scraped and sanded the wall first) the surface isn't too bad. It's not smooth, but you can write on it fairly well and it erases well enough- not perfectly, but I like it better that way.Here it is pre-conditioning. The matte black is also a really cool look. I never thought that I could get behind black walls, but they are really growing on me. I'd like to install a shelf up by the ceiling to display my vintage toasters, but I haven't fully decided where. One option is to put it over the two doors to the left of this picture in that little niche, the other is straight across the top of the black wall. I like the idea of putting it at the top of the black wall so they can stand out with a black background. I'd like to paint the shelf black to match the wall so that it blends in and looks more modern. My fiance would rather it be stained to match the wood paneling below. I don't know how I feel about that. I think it may draw too much attention to both the shelf and the paneling. It's going to support it with a pair of vintage cast iron brackets that I have that won't stand out too much, but they will be visible. What do you think? Black, natural wood, no shelf at all?

Style Quizzes

2009-11-07T08:37:00.005-05:00

Glamorous Eclectic I think

Many of you may have already seen this on AT, but there are a couple of fun style quizzes out there on the interwebs. I just took Home Goods Style Scope and Sproost quizzes and they are pretty good. I think the Sproost one hit the nail on the head a bit more than the Style Scope According to Style Scope I'm "Glamorous Eclectic." I agree with the eclectic part and with their recommendations for creating an outdoor room and my need to organize, not so sure about the glamorous part. Though I do tend to be drawn to very elegant rooms (not neccessarily furnishings) with high ceilings, panel mouldings on the walls and tall windows.

According to Sproost I'm:

"44% Vintage Modern
33% Cottage Chic
23% Rustic Revival"

Vintage Modern

I think that's pretty spot on. Also shows how I'm not overwhelmingly one style. If I were 90% of any style I think I'd have an easier time avoiding collecting things that don't really go or that I don't really need. Oh well.

The Revolutionary Costume

2009-11-01T09:01:00.003-05:00

I don't ever wear this in East Hampton.

Here's how my Little Edie costume turned out. Pretty well I think. I even gave myself sun damage on my skin from 50 years of sunbathing without sunscreen and penciled in eyebrows, though I don't think anyone could see that in the dim light of the Halloween party. I tied for the "peoples choice award" with Braveheart. I was surprised that many people knew who I was!

Halloween Yard Sale-ing

2009-10-31T12:48:00.004-04:00

I wasn't expecting there to be any, but we found a bunch of yard sales on Halloween! I found these cool brass candlesticks that are sort of glam but look a little spooky in this picture.
I also found a cute little elephant and a vintage train set which isn't quite as photogenic.Of course I couldn't take any photos in the sunny spot of the house without our kitty getting involved. Here she is posing with the candlesticks.

In sadder news, our local thrift store Northern Thrift is closing. I was there yesterday picking up a few last items for my halloween costume and the store was half empty and everything was 50% off. Picked up some shoes for my Little Edie costume and a cute 70s pillowcase for $4 total. I'll post costume pictures later.
I forgot to mention that I had won a contest on Renovation Therapy! Awesome, huh? I hardly ever win stuff. Thanks Jean for the Julia Child book and the adorable little paper cutouts. I'm going to have fun with those!

Weekend Yard Sale Finds

2009-10-27T09:29:00.002-04:00

Remember how I said I've actually added to my kitchen clutter instead of removing it? yeah, well here it is. Ain't she a beauty? I in no way needed another cast iron enameled pot (I have a few) but she was so pumpkin-y I had to get her. I also found another vintage toaster to add to my collection. I am going to install a shelf in the kitchen to display them soon...hopefully.
Here are the two paintings I mentioned. My mom found the first one at a sale on Sunday. It's from the 1950's, I'm not sure where.
This one I found at the back of a table at another yard sale. There isn't any information on it at all.
Price for each painting? $1. Now I just need to find them a home.

Miscellaneous weekend progress

2009-10-26T12:03:00.004-04:00

Even though I was supposed to be decluttering my kitchen cabinets this weekend for the Kitchn cure, I wound up spending most of my time rearranging the living room. Even worse, I added to my kitchen clutter- more on that in another post. The living room is still not done yet - these are just progress shots, but it's looking much better. The issue of paint color is still out there, but in the mean time I'm trying to get the furniture to work. I moved the mustard colored chair from the office into the living room to replace the little chrome and white leather one which required the couch to slide down a couple of feet to make room. The wacky green table went into the corner and all the artwork got moved around.
In the opposite corner, I replaced the small bookshelf with a larger bookcase with glass doors that fills the space better. I haven't finished filling it up yet. I have to go into the basement to dig up some of the stuff I have that I haven't unpacked yet due to a lack of anywhere to put it. I'll probably drive myself nuts trying to "style" it, but that's okay, I don't have to worry about that yet. The shelf itself is pretty wonky, it's actually the top half of a dining room hutch that someone attached legs to. It's not at all square, but I'll fix that at another time.

Here is my garbage picked chair all cleaned up. I bought some danish oil, but haven't had a chance to use it yet. My afghan is covering all the tears in the vinyl on the ottoman. I looked into the problem of it leaning too far back on hte internet saturday morning and discovered that it's a pretty common problem. I guess these mechanisms aren't meant to last for 60 years. There are replacement parts out there, but in the mean time I'm just going to cut a piece of wood and wedge it in there to stop it from tipping. Right now it's leaning against the wall.Here's one of several cool yard sale finds my mom and I found recently. I'll post more once I've photographed them. This is a cool dish, made in Finland that goes remarkably well with the Portuguese lace tablecloth below it. I also found a lamp for next to the green chair and two vintage oil or acrylic paintings (can't tell which). I'll try to post them tomorrow once I can get a photo with some decent light.

And completely unrelated to anything else in this post, I went to see Handmade Nation this weekend at our local independant cinema. The director was there and there was also a craft fair. It was good to meet some local crafters, I even got some crochet tips!

Not Again

2009-10-21T07:35:00.004-04:00

Hello, my name is Elissa and I have a chair addiction, and I'm a garbage picker.

Hi Elissa.

Yeah, I did it again. I was driving back to the office yesterday and saw this awesome chair on the side of the road. Of course I pulled over and picked it up. Since I drive a mini, it didn't exactly fit too well, one guy walked by and commented "you need a pick up!" yeah, no kidding. So I drive back to the office with my hatchback open, hoping I don't get pulled over. Luckily I didn't and made it back to the office where I found some rope to tie down the back of my car. It needs work (of course) and my fiance has told me that this project is "all me." -as if I didn't know that.

I have no idea what sort of chair it is since the label from the bottom has been removed- anyone have any ideas? I need to fix or tighten the part that connects the chair itself to the base. Either that or I can only use it in the "reclined" position. I hope it's fixable. It also needs to be reupholstered which is a shame because it's currently a really cool green vinyl that I'll probably never be able to find again. The chair doesn't look to bad, but the footrest is pretty shot.

A friend at work told me my house is going to become the chair house. It's true, I have more chairs than I really have places to put them. I have a pair of butterfly chairs that live in the garage (just the frames, not the slings) because I have no where to put them in the house. There is also an Eames plywood chair in my basement that had been pretty horribly "repaired" by a previous owner ( they drilled bolts through the seat back to reattach it to the frame). Other than that it still looks good, but it's kind of low to the ground and I can't find a good place for it.

Yeah, I have a problem. Are there any cures for it?

Kitchen Ideas

2009-10-18T09:03:00.007-04:00

I have quite a few pictures in my inspiration folder of beautiful white kitchens with subway tile, marble countertops, butcher block and other stuff that would require a complete gut renovation of our kitchen to accomplish. I also have a bunch that I have saved because they showed some sort of unique way to give a kitchen style when your cabinets are less than beautiful and your countertop is laminate. I pulled together a number of them here to see if any of these ideas could be applied to my kitchen. I'd like to have our kitchen feel a bit more warm and personal and not like we just moved in without spending a great deal of money.

This kitchen from which was all over the web for a while almost borders on the first sort of kitchen I described, with new white cabinets and new appliances. But what I like about it, besides that they have the same windows as our house, is the open storage and the way they have very kitchy retro stuff displayed in a more sophisticated way, plus the chalkboard wall. I have a large collection of kitchy kitchen stuff from forties and fifties, but I don't want my kitchen to look like some sort of 1955 time capsule with matching red and white ruffled curtains and checkerboard floor. I love how this kitchen has moderns stuff mixed with the vintage items so that it isn't too sweet.
Here I like the warm color for one, and also how there is a mix of items on the shelves so that it doesn't look too forced, but adds some interest and color.
I love the warm black wall in this one and the use of art. Plus the high shelf over the door has given me an idea on how to display my vintage toasters.
Chalkboard wall again. I like them even better when they are messy. They have a depth and richness without having to resort to some sort of faux finish. The variation is natural.
Love, love love the yummy wall color in this kitchen, and the art on the walls, and the mostly neutral palette with the bold fuchsia window shade. Like the crisp white cabinets and the irregular glossy black floor (though I have a feeling in real life that floor would drive me nuts).
I believe this was an entry in an Apartment Therapy contest. I like how the crisp paint job and nicely framed are make up for a rather plain cabinet and countertop.

Love the vintagey-ness of this one. Somehow yellow walls work much better in this kitchen than my own. I don't know how well some of these ideas can work together, or work in our kitchen, but we'll see what happens.

Kitchen Therapy

2009-10-17T07:53:00.011-04:00

I haven't shown pictures of the kitchen in our new house, well... because we haven't really done anything with it since we moved in. I mean, we've filled all the cabinets and cook in there most nights a week, but we haven't really personalized it except for a few decorative items on the counters and my old italian restaurant menu on the wall. It has a bizarre layout where you have to walk around a peninsula to get to the fridge and there isn't nearly enough drawer space. The walls are a pastel yellow, the cabinets are a yellowy colored wood and the vinyl flooring has a creamy tan pattern on it yet the room doesn't feel warm. You'd think with all that yellow, there would be an element of coziness.

Starting this week The Kitchn over at Apartment Therapy is starting a mini four week kitchen cure while the rest of AT is doing the full on 8 week cure. I signed up because I'd like to get our kitchen to be a little more personal and attractive (and efficient) while we are saving up to do a real renovation (which doesn't appear to be happening any time soon). Plus, I have a hard time making it to the end of the 8 week cures.

Here are my "before" pictures showing the current condition of the kitchen and the inside of the cabinets. They aren't too terrible, but I feel like they could be arranged more efficiently. Also, I'd like to have a better stocked pantry so that it's easier to spontaneously cook something with out having to go shopping first.

down below is the pots and pans cabinet that is a pain to get things in and out ofmost of those dishes are cleanmy tea cabinetspices and "pantry" cabinetcookbooks and pyrexbaking stuff, small appliances etc.the table we rarely eat at

Well this is what we have to start with. I'd like to spruce it up a bit. Nothing major, maybe just a little paint and decoration. I'll see what sort of inspiration pics I can pull together.

New Light!

2009-10-05T12:40:00.003-04:00

This weekend, in a rare burst of productivity, my parents and I managed to install a new vintage lamp in our foyer. I found it a few months ago at a yard sale and they also had a version in a reddish orange, but I thought the green would go best in our house. It looks vastly better than the hideous industrial looking thing that was there before. There was a fair amount of weird old house wiring stuff to deal with, but I'll spare you the details of that. Next step, scraping all of that flaking paint and picking a paint color.

Personal style and Living Rooms

2009-09-27T14:12:00.012-04:00

I recently read a post on decor8 and got me thinking about my own personal style and how "all over the place" it is. I've been spending some time looking through my flickr favorites (which I use mostly as a place to collect my favorite rooms) and other images I've saved to try to see what the common elements or themes are. It's really difficult because my taste tends to be.. let's call it eclectic okay?

I've been struggling with my living room since we moved in. I've disliked the color we painted it pretty much since the paint dried (I liked it better wet). My fiance won't let me repaint since it's one of only three rooms that has been painted since we moved in and he says we can paint it once we finish the others. Fair point, but I spend a lot of time in the living room and it bugs me whenever I'm in there. I'm trying to figure out what would make the room more reflective of my personal style and not just whatever trend I happen to be into this week.

These three probably have more in common with each other than would be typical of my "favorites", probably because I picked them out this morning. I've noticed, while going through my favorites, that I don't have too many living rooms picked out. Tons of kitchens and bathrooms and a few bedrooms, but not too many living rooms. I guess I have a pretty strong idea of what I would like in a kitchen (simple, natural materials, classic, has patina, etc.) but not so much with living rooms. I suppose those terms could describe what I like in a living room, but I also like a mix of classic/ vintage and modern furnishings in a "vintage" space. We have the "vintage" space, but I'd like to enhance its vintagey-ness (no, I know that's not a word but I'm using it anyway). Now I need to get the right mix of vintage and modern stuff.

I have the desire to paint it a yummy brown like the last photo, but I think that has something to do with the fact that it's been pretty chilly around here the past couple of days. I'm not sure I'd like that color so much in July. I need something fairly neutral so I can play with color with the accessories and not be too locked into a color scheme.
I apologize for the darkness of these photos. It's morning, the living room is on the northwest corner of the house and it's a gloomy day on top of that. I think it looks better in photos than I fell about it when I'm in there, but these photos also help me to realize what needs to be changed. The lamp to the right of the sofa looks a bit lost while the corner with the Barcelona chair looks a bit cluttered. The white leather and chrome chair looks somehow insubstantial as well, but there's not room for a bigger chair there. The coffee table is on the small side. I found a possible replacement for that on Craigslist (below), but my fiance thinks it's too expensive and too fancy for our living room.Any suggestions? I've got other things around the house and still unpacked in the basement that I can switch out, I'm just not sure what will make it work.

Back from Upstate...again

2009-08-31T19:19:00.005-04:00

doesn't he look somehow regal despite his gobbles?

This weekend we went to my parents place upstate again. This time for four days instead of the usual three. So much more relaxing that way. The weather was beautiful on the way up, but fairly soggy once we were up there. Friday morning, before it started raining we went to the Farmer's Museum which was a lot of fun. I hadn't been there in years and Chris had never been. It's one of those recreated villages with historic buildings from around the county like Old Bethpage here on Long Island, but this one has much more going on. Almost every photo I took was either of the farm animals or of the architecture. I'll spare you most of the architecture shots. I think I took half a dozen shots of door hardware. Yikes!

I call it "Portrait of a Goat"

There was a childrens petting zoo, which of course we went to. There was a calf who had no interest in us, a few goats and a couple sheep who were very cute. They also had chickens that you could feed out of your hand. (see below) I don't recommend this, even though I had my hand completely flat, they still pecked the hell out of it. I don't even think they were eating half of the time, just pecking my hand for the fun of it. Ouch!

We did visit other parts of the museum, not just the childrens part. The photo below is from the vestible of the church. It had really nice light which I think I was able to capture in this shot. There's an apothocary, a doctor's office, a lawyer's office a broom shop, a blacksmith's shop (he was out to lunch) plus a tavern and a few houses. The main building, which I believe is the barn from the Fenimore Cooper Estate, has an exhibit about the history and animals of different regions of New York State, plus the Cardiff Giant- which is worth checking out if for no other reason that seeing how gullible people are.

Saturday was pretty much a wash out, but we did go visit the Farmer's Market (an awesome one by the way) and Hyde Hall. You cant take pictures inside of Hyde Hall (not sure why), but I did get a few of the outside. It's a neoclassical mansion from 1817-1834 and you feel like you are in a Jane Austen novel. The guy who built it was an Englishman and he had it designed with a particularly English look to it. It is still under restoration, many of the rooms still have plaster falling off the ceiling, but it's interesting to check out. Even though the builder of the house's name was Clarke, his grandmother was a Hyde and she was cousins with Queen Anne and another queen that I can't remember. Definitely the more prestigious name in the family - Clarke was merely a governor of New York province.

Isn't his window cool? They wanted the symmetrical look of the windows on either side of the house, but he wanted to use is as a door so his tenant farmers could pay their rent without coming in the front door. Never seen that before. They had the same detail upstairs over the front entrance. Pretty cool. The inside had some incredible rooms for impressing guests, and some more modest rooms for the family. There was a central courtyard which is unusual in this country, but allows the inner rooms to have some natural daylight. It's worth checking out if you're ever in the area. The admission is a bit steep ($10) but you're paying for the salary of the guy who is painstakingly restoring this house and there is a long way to go.

Yard Sale Success, Plate Hanging Fail

2009-08-24T15:56:00.013-04:00

Well apparently it's been a month since my last post. I don't have an excuse really, just the usual combination of laziness and busy-ness. I have found lots of goodies at yard sales that past few weekends, though.When I got this plate I almost ran out of the yard sale screaming "start the car!" like in that IKEA commercial. The plate is hand painted in a sort of Mackintosh style and the back is signed and dated.Not only is it hand painted, but it's Limoges as well. The guy was only asking a dollar for it (surprisingly since most of his other stuff was expensive) and he told me that the plate hanger (one of those cheap fake brass ones) was worth at least that. I happily paid him then left before he had a chance to realize what just happened. I tried contacting the Art Institute to see if they have any idea who M.E.Murphy was, but haven't heard back from them. Hey, even if they never painted another thing, I think I still got a good deal.

(Apologies for the crappy photo)

I made a wire plate hanger for the plate and decided to try to hang it in the dining room. since I thought it would look lost all by itself, I decided to hang it with the wild rose cross stitch that I found at another sale. Since I have picture hanging rails in most of our house and since I hate putting holes into plaster walls, I went the route of hanging them from a bit of cable. Now, I'm pretty sure I've seen pictures stacked two or three high hanging from cords before. When I try, the poor little plate keeps leaning to the right because the cable is stopping it from laying against the wall. It looks stupider (if that's a word) in real life than in this picture. I don't know what to do with it. I could hang it by itself and have it look pretty lonely and if I try to switch them and put the plate at the bottom, the picture will tilt to the side the same way. Grrr.
I did get some other goodies as well like these handmade (they seem to be at least) gardenia candle holders and this Portuguese lace tablecloth. It helps lighten up the dining room which was looking a bit dreary for the summer. I also managed to score a kitchen aid mixer for $20 (yes $20!). It's missing the regular mixing paddle, but I looked online and it looks like you can get a new one for $12 or so. No pictures because it's currently living in a pile of clutter on my kitchen counter. Once I've tidied up, I'll show pictures. That's all for now. I've noticed that I have a bunch of unfinished posts that never went up. Maybe I'll do a condensed posting of them tomorrow.

I heart encaustic tile

2009-07-25T18:53:00.014-04:00

via From the Right Bank to the Left Coast Intelligentsia Coffee via Apartment Therapy

Okay, usually the "I heart" expression annoys me, but today l like it. I have had this recent obsession with encaustic tile. I love the matte-ness of it and some of the patterns it comes in are lovely. Some look Victorian while others are more Mediterranean, there are even more modern patterns. I would love to use this in our mudroom once we get there since that's probably the only room we'd be able to afford to put them in. At 4'-6" x 4'-6" I'm not sure if it even qualifies as a room. Our house was built around 1915 so it's a little late for Victorian style, but I think I could pull it off, especially if the rest of the room was kept pretty simple. I'm thinking beadboard walls, a bunch of hooks and a bench - oh, and a stained glass window I got at a yard sale.
Here are a few more from Villa Lagoon Tile.

So what do you think? Too much for a small mudroom in a small bungalow? Just right?

I Love Upstate!

2009-07-20T12:30:00.010-04:00

(my morning coffee on the porch)

I know that name has been taken already, but I have to share the sentiment. A few weeks ago, on the weekend of the fourth, we went up to my parents' place outside of Cooperstown in an area called Cherry Valley. Even though the weather was substantially cooler than down here on Long Island that weekend and not very summery, we still had a great time.

Friday night we went down to the lakefront park for the fireworks show which was fun (note to self: don't even try to take pictures of fireworks with a point and shoot camera, they just wind up like a blurry version of Lite Brite). Saturday, we went up to Springfield Center for their annual Fourth of July Parade which was a blast. It was classic, small town patriotism. This year's theme was "Red, White, Blue and Green" and they had a lot of the local environmental groups marching along with the veterans and scouts. Apparently going green has a lot to do with decorating your float with a bunch of empty plastic bottles.

(how cool is this?!)

Afterward there was a big barbecue chicken cookout which we didn't partake in (the line was crazy and I don't eat chicken anyway).
But we did walk around the village itself which is incredibly cute.
Driving back, the sky looked ominous and beautiful at the same time, luckily it didn't really rain at all.We had lots more fun up there visiting breweries and trying (unsuccessfully) to get photos of woodchucks and hummingbirds, but three days was just not enough. I can't wait to go up there again!

Snails

2009-06-18T14:43:00.003-04:00

We found this little guy in our backyard this weekend. Sad to say that this is the first time I've encountered a snail in the "wild" (except the kind at the beach). He (she?) has a really cool shell with the black stripe spiraling around the way it does. I didn't want him near the vegetable garden or the flowers, so we put him in the wooded area next to our driveway. Hope he's safe there.

Down the Driveway

2009-06-18T10:35:00.007-04:00

The bushes along my driveway have been so beautiful for the past week or so, but I wasn't able to get a photo of them until yesterday when the sun finally decided to show itself for a while. I think I'd like to plant more white flowering plants along the left side to balance it out and make the experience of walking (or even driving) through that much better. I don't know what type of bushes most of them are. There are honeysuckles which are obvious, but the other two types are a bit of a mystery to me. Does anyone know what these are? They aren't too exciting for most of the year, but in June they are beautiful!
I'm also a bit obsessed with the moss in my driveway. I know it's probably not good for the asphalt it's growing on, but it's just so pretty. It makes the driveway feel a bit more like a garden path than a regular driveway. Look at all the different varieties and shades of green. It would make for an interesting abstract painting, or maybe not so abstract.

Me on AT!

2009-06-15T10:59:00.003-04:00

Well more our porch than me really. Our porch was featured on Apartment Therapy last Friday. Thank you for all the kind comments. I will post more pictures after I make a few more improvements. I will be making a cushion for the wire chair to make it a bit more comfortable and cleaning and/or painting the wooden table between the two chairs. I also have a very old folding card table that I will be sprucing up so that it can be brought out for dinners on the porch. I'll show some before, during and after pictures for that as soon as I get to it.

Better Late than Never

2009-06-10T11:49:00.005-04:00

Well, I know I promised a post over the weekend, but Wednesday's close enough, right? This weekend I decided that my porch desperately needed some sprucing up. My mom had seen a wicker loveseat on sale at Pier 1 that matches my to wicker chairs perfectly. Once we got it home, I noticed that it made the rest of my porch furniture look that much more shabby (and not in a good way). I decided to take inspiration from Anna at Door Sixteen and paint the fabric of my glider chair. I had made new covers for it a few years ago which faded - a lot - and I know that there was no way that I would have the time to recover it again in the near future. I took some old leftover paint and painted right over the pattern of the fabric. I was originally going to put a few coats on to make the color opaque, but when I put the first coat on and saw how it allowed the pattern to show through, I decided to keep it that way. My fiance and parents thought I was a bit crazy, but I like how it turned out.
I may decide to spray paint the rusted steel base to the chair to make it look more like the aluminum of the rest of the chair, but not right now. Here it is with the rest of the porch furniture. I'm going to make a pillow or two to tie things together a bit, and maybe get one of those outdoor rugs.On another note, while at Pier 1, I also found a light fixture for over the dining room table. I know I said I was going to do the DIY one from Apartment Therapy, but this one is more transparent and doesn't have as much visual weight in the room. Sorry for the blurry photo, I didn't have my tripod with me when I took it. My only concern is that it matches too well. I'm trying not to let this room get too matchy matchy and formal, which is starting to happen. Also, there's a lot of brown in the room (especially if I paint the radiator bronze). I think need to make some fun seat covers to brighten things up a bit.What do you think? Is it too much?

I'm still here!

2009-06-04T14:06:00.004-04:00

I know I've been AWOL for quite a while now. I apologize. I've been pretty busy with work and evening review classes for my licensing exam and not focused enough to think of ideas of what to post. I promise I will try to post something this weekend! In the mean time Retro Renovation has a great post with a link to an article by the National Trust for Historic Preservation on window repair vs. replacement, here. I'm a big fan of old windows despite their problems and wish more people would take the time to fix their old windows rather than replace them. Old windows that are properly weatherstripped can be very energy efficient. Part of the reason we bought our house was because it still had it's beautiful old windows. I'm sure at some point I'll be cursing them while trying to strip off paint or repair a broken sash rope, but they add character to the house that no new window could come close to doing.

image credit: Tom Reichard

Dining Room Progress

2009-04-26T07:38:00.003-04:00

We've moved the furniture back into the dining room! Doesn't mean the room is done, just done enough to move the furniture back in. The picture above is a bit of a sneak peak at what it looks like and also a plea for help on picking a paint color for the radiator. It's not a beautiful victorian radiator with lots of detail, it's pretty utilitarian in design, but I'd like it to look nice even so. I'm planning on removing the paint from the knob and the pipe that connects it to the system, but I'm not sure what color to paint the radiator itself. The most obvious choice is white like the trim, but since the rest of this room is so neutral, I feel like something more interesting could be done here. I thought maybe a dark bronze color, but that might look cheezy. I love this yellow one here but I don't have the guts to do something that bold. I don't want to have to repaint the radiator down the road because I'm tired of the color (though I think a green could look really cool).

Checklist of what's left:
patch hinges and paint door trim
sand and stain patches of the floor
scrape and paint radiator (color suggestions?)
scrape and paint window sashes
strip and install sash locks
hang Mucha print
hang light fixture
install missing picture rail, trim
pick fabric for seats, install

Yikes, that sounds like a lot!
At least now there is less pressure to spend every moment working on the room since we can use it now. Before there was no table to eat on because both this table and the kitchen table we're covered in tools and paint cans. Now we have a place to eat and it's just aesthetic things that need to be done, not functional ones. Hopefully over the next few days we can get the mucha print hung on the wall and maybe the light fixture too!

Happy Earth Day!

2009-04-22T09:33:00.002-04:00

I've been too busy recently to come up with a proper post for Earth Day. So in lieu of one I will just say,

Love your mother!

More Grey Gardens

2009-04-17T12:39:00.001-04:00

Speaking of formality breaking apart...
from Decorno
HERE

Gardening on the Brain

2009-04-17T10:57:00.005-04:00

Today's beautiful weather has got me thinking more about our garden. The previous owner of the house was a gardener so we are lucky to have lots of bulbs flowering already around the yard. There are also lots of bushes that will start to flower soon. The lawn doesn't look like much, parts are more moss than grass, which is fine with me, and other parts are mostly weeds. I ordinarily wouldn't mind this either, my feeling is usually "as long as it's green..." but large areas aren't green. I'm not sure what sort of weed has taken over the lawn closest to the driveway, but apparently it dies off early, greens up late and is very sparse leaving large patches of bare dirt. Not an acceptable weed in my book.
Anyway, last fall I signed up for a gardening class through our town's parks and recreation program. During the class I had laid out a rough "master plan" for the backyard. I really want the garden to really fit with the age and style of the house. I'm sorry if I offend anyone here, but I can't stand these Home Depot/ HGTV suburban style landscaping and gardens. I find them to be completely bland and generic. They never look "right" for where they are. The worst ones seem to have an uncomfortable looking bench in a spot where no one in their right mind would ever sit. Why?! Most (but thankfully not all) garden books seem to promote a similar style of garden design with windy swooping paths and curvy garden beds. This isn't my thing at all. Maybe if your house is on 5 acres in the country this sort of style could work, but in a small, boxy urban or suburban lot, it just looks forced and artificial. My taste tends towards hedges and more formal patios. At least in areas close to the house. I think it looks great when things are treated formally near the house but the formality breaks apart the further away you get. Since I couldn't find much inpiration in current books, I started looking at reprints of old books that we had in the office. There was theis great book called "Distinctive Homes of the 1920's" which has a few great renderings of gardens of the era.
This is an English style garden appropriate for the Tudor Revival style of the house. It's a little less formal, but still structured. The rendering at the top of this post is Georgian style garden that goes well with the formality of the house. I find it funny how both of these houses are apparently the only ones in the neighborhood. With my yard I'd like to incorporate a patio (not a deck another one of my pet peeves) with room for a table and chairs for a group as well as a grill. I'd also like to fit a vegetable garden. I'm planting a temporary mini garden this year (unfortunately it's not actually planted yet), but I'd like to make it work better with the rest of the yard next year. I have a plan drawn up, but it's fairly technical looking and not very pretty. As soon as I color it a bit to make it more readable, I'll post it. Any suggestions for sources of inspiration are greatly appreciated.

Grey Gardens

2009-04-07T09:03:00.003-04:00

I just need to thank Jean over at Renovation Therapy/ I Love Upstate for introducing me to the bizarre wonder that is Grey Gardens. I'm not sure how I had never heard of this before having grown up on Long Island, but when I first saw her Grey Gardens contest a while back, I had no idea what it was. I wasn't able to look into it back then, but last week I borrowed it from the library and I watched it last night. All I can say is "wow." It's fascinating. I think I may need to watch it again to get a better grasp. I feel like one watching was only scratching the surface. Anyway, that's all for now.

Yellow

2009-03-25T21:15:00.004-04:00

I'm not sure why, but I'm really into the color yellow these days. Maybe it's because spring is (sort of) here or maybe the sun is coming through my yellow stained glass window in a way that makes it more noticeable and make me want more yellow in the room.The daffodils I got last week are almost done and the forsythia I brought inside to force hasn't bloomed yet. I may have to get some more daffodils to keep my yellow fix going for a little longer. I might get some yellow pillows to put on the sofa too!

Apartment Therapy Cure Week One: Creating Your Vision

2009-03-21T09:29:00.007-04:00

Well, week one of the AT Cure is almost over and I'm already behind. Pretty typical. I did clean the house yesterday (not thoroughly but I'll get into that later) and I think I've sat just about everywhere there is to sit here. Since we're in an old house that we knew needed work when we got it, our list of repairs is way beyond what could conceivably be accomplished in eight weeks. Yeah the door on the upstairs linen closet doesn't close all the way, but when you consider everything else that needs to be done around that house, that doesn't even come close to making the list. Repairs that I'd like to get done (and conceivably could get done) in 8 weeks would be:
Finish installing the dishwasher (it's been been months since we got it)
Install the curtain rods in the Living room
Fix broken doorbell
Get estimate to fix leaky radiators (and fix them if affordable)

While this is going on we will still be working on our dining room so I may not accomplish as much as I'd like in the rest of the house. The plasterer came yesterday and fixed the holes in the ceiling and we are finishing the rest of the spackling today. Tomorrow we will be sanding which is why I didn't bother to clean thoroughly. No matter how well I had cleaned, it would be covered in dust tomorrow.My office "before" shot. The office currently looks like this because our dining room looks like this:I had tidied up the office a few weeks ago, but once we started the dining room and had to move the dining table into the office it all went downhill.

The vision:
There are some rooms in this house that I have a pretty specific vision for (look at my flickr faves and you'll see a definite theme in kitchen photos) but then there are others I have no strong ideas for (my office). In general, I'd like to be able to entertain more and having a dining room will certainly help and I'd like to have a place for doing crafts that is inspiring, not stress inducing.
There are certain elements of my taste that are fairly fickle and other parts that are more constant. Overall I'd like the house to be flexible so that I can mix things up a bit, especially when I find cool stuff at yard sales. I don't want each room to be so rigidly matched and "decorated" that it either looks like a magazine photo or that I can't move a chair from one room into another when I find a new one because it "doesn't go." My taste is a mix of both vintage (early 20th century art nouveau, deco, retro 40's style and MCM), and some more modern design. I'm not into things that are especially girly (a little girly is okay), but I don't do hard edged minimalism either. Anything semi permanent to permanent I want to keep true to the house (1915 bungalow) and have more fun with the more temporal items like furniture and art.
Yikes, that makes it sound pretty complicated. Well I guess that my challenge for next eight weeks.

Yay Spring!

2009-03-20T16:40:00.000-04:00

I'm no photographer (in case you couldn't tell) but when I went outside today and saw all of the bulbs coming up in my yard I had to take a bunch of pictures. I love the tulips popping up out of the moss above.
In this strange round flowerbed in the middle of the yard there were tons of crocuses. A lot of them are still yellow because they were buried in leaves and hadn't seen the sun. I cleared away some of the leaves, but there's tons more to remove. Maybe this weekend if it's nice outside. Despite the snow floating around this morning, it seems that spring really is here. It makes me want to spend every minute outside.

Happy Weekend everyone!

This just made my day

2009-03-20T16:37:00.000-04:00

Read This

Gratuitous Kitty Pic

2009-03-20T16:19:00.001-04:00

Artist "Paint In" this Sunday!

2009-03-18T15:48:00.007-04:00

If anybody out there reading this lives on Long Island and likes to paint, there will be a "Paint-In" in Huntington Station this Sunday. Huntington Station has been getting some bad publicity lately due to a number of violent incidents recently and a local artist Cynthia Grimm of Pixelstick Photography is trying to remind people that Huntington Station is not a terrible place and that good things do happen here. Details can be found here. See you there!

Thrift Score!

2009-03-13T15:48:00.010-04:00

I made out pretty well today at the local St. Vincent de Paul. Apparently they had just put this table out and it was only $28! It has a fairly sloppy paint job that I'll probably strip off to get to the finish underneath, but for now I think it still looks pretty cool. It will be the reverse of all the DIY projects that you usually see that involve taking an old piece of furniture with a decent but not pristine finish and painting it some odd color. I'm starting out with the odd color paint job and will be going back to the wood (probably).I also got my Geninne print back from the framing place where I was having a mat cut. I put it in this scavenged frame and I think it turned out pretty nice. Now I have to find my picture wire to hang it.Here's a few oddball items I found at a yard sale this morning. A book of etiquette from 1922 to go with my 1945 issue of Emily Post, a catchall type thing carved out of a big chunk of wood and a miniature Eames chair. I'll probably never have the real thing, but now I can have a little one to look at.A handfull of drink holders that stick into the ground. I'll have to start having garden parties now.Random plastic tray. I just liked it and figured you can't have too many trays, right (please tell me I'm right 'cause I'm starting to have quite a few)And finally, a Russel Wright serving platter for only $2. Not bad huh?

Decor8 Creativity project

2009-03-10T11:30:00.004-04:00

Holly over at Decor8 gave us a challenge to do something creative this past weekend. I decided to get back into watercoloring since I haven't done it in months if not years. I've been playing around with this idea of doing prints of seasonal edibles in a sort of "Eat Local" sort of theme and decided to start with a couple of veggies. I actually liked the beet a little better before I added blue to the background so I omitted any sort of background for the carrots. I don't know, maybe I'll start a series of these. If I can find a way to make decent reproductions I'll put them in my Esty shop which has long been neglected. Any one know of an affordable place to get prints made?

Spackling sucks

2009-03-08T09:42:00.002-04:00

If you're wondering why there haven't been any update posts on the progress of our dining room it's because there's nothing to show. Last weekend I had a few extra days off and spent them scraping and spackling. Yesterday we spent some time spackling as well. Unfortunately there is still tons more to be done! I'm sure if we did a photo comparison of before and after there would be some sort of noticeable difference, but it sure doesn't feel like it. I feel like we could scrape and spackle for the next three months and still not be done. I guess we'll just have to decide when it's "good enough."

Getting the green back

2009-03-06T16:58:00.004-05:00

I've noticed that this blog has become almost entirely about my house and not enough about green issues or anything else. To try to get some balance around here I'm going to highly recommend reading any book by Michael Pollan. I have a bit of a gardening & food crush on him and his writing. Even though he lives out in California now, he is originally from right here on Long Island believe it or not. If you're not familiar with his work he started out writing about gardening. Not how to books, but about his experiences in the garden. From there his interests found their way to food and our food system. I read his first book called "Second Nature" in college. It is a great read for an amateur gardener out there. His most recent books,"The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food" are about our food system and how we eat. "The Omnivore's Dilemma" is incredibly interesting (to me anyway) but at 464 pages it's a bit of an undertaking. The more recent "In Defense of Food" is a much easier read and in many ways more relevant to how we live. If you interested in looking at your food in an entirely different way I definitely recommend these.

Vintage Finds!

2009-02-28T13:19:00.007-05:00

I think I'm going to start a series on my blog of some of the vintage goodies I find yard saleing/thrift storing/craig's listing. This time of year I don't do as much of it, but during the warmer months we go out almost every weekend. Yesterday my Mom and I stopped by Northern Thrift which isn't my favorite thrift store for housewares, but it is the closest. I got one of those old school office file organizers - you know the expandible accordian style ones? - for $5. Not bad, though more than I would have spent at a yard sale (it is a somewhat pricey thrift store) but I have a thing for old school office supplies so you know...I also found this fabulous vintage modern silk armchair on craigs list! It's really more gold than orange and it will eventually go into my office/ craft space once the dining room is finished. That print is one I just got from Geninne on Etsy. I need to go get a mat for it so I can frame it. Usually Craig's list on LI is fairly sad- lots of bad 80's stuff, but someone in Melville is selling a bunch of fabulous furniture. This Peacock blue silk sofa is still for sale if anyone wants it. It's been covered in plastic for 30 years so the upolstry is in fantastic shape. The cushions may need some new foam, though. I wish I had a place for it it's so great! There is also a coffee table and matching end tables as well.

Itchin' for Spring

2009-02-23T16:25:00.004-05:00

Even though it was pretty mild Saturday, it got fairly icky on Sunday and today is just plain cold! This is the time of year when I'm starting to lose patience waiting for spring. These little snowdrops gave me a bit of hope the other day. I keep looking around the yard to see if anything else is coming up. Usually what I do this time of year is go to the Arboretum in Oyster Bay which also has a number of greenhouses. I like to spend an afternoon in the warm, humid air amongst the flowers getting a "fix" of the scent of lots and lots of living (not dormant) plants. Since I have fallen behind on my creativity exercises, maybe I'll bring my watercolors and try a two for one helping both my creative and emotional side.

And the walls came tumbling down

2009-02-23T11:33:00.006-05:00

Okay, maybe not tumbling, but we managed to completely rip out the closets that had been built in our dining room by the previous owners. Even though they took up less than 1/4 of the floor space, the room now feels twice as big. Besides removing the closets, we got rid of the extra wall that had made the opening between the office and dining room smaller that the original opening. The opening between the two rooms is now two feet wider and about a foot taller. The space feels huge! There's going to be a lot of repair work to both the plaster and the flooring where the closets were connected. The floors had been refinished after the closets were installed so that the floor where the walls were is a completely different color and about 1/16" higher than the rest of the floor (plus full of nail holes). Well, we'll see what we get done next weekend.(action shot of fiance bustin' though the wall)(me hammin' it for the camera)

Creativity

2009-02-16T10:54:00.004-05:00

(a photo of a work by Andy Goldsworthy, one of my favorite artists)

I finally got around to really reading Holly's Creativity series over at Decor8. I'm really glad she's doing this because sometimes I feel like I'm stuck in some sort of creative rut. I read lots of people's blogs and see all of the beautiful crafts they're doing and wonder why I can't seem to get anywhere creatively. Sometimes I say that it's because I have a "creative" job and that it saps all of the creative juices out of me, but I don't really think that's the case. Sure there is creativity involved in being an architect. Sometimes you can spend a whole day just trying to get the layout of a kitchen and mudroom to work (Seriously, it can be harder than it sounds). I don't feel like I'm being creative while doing it, I'm just doing my job, but there is a level of problem solving while keeping the aesthetics in mind that is creativity on some level. I do have ideas for projects or crafts that I'd like to do, I just have a hard time making them happen. There is always some hurdle that I have to get over that stops me from making progress. The hurdle isn't even usually something all that big, usually it's just enough so that something else will distract me and try to do that instead.
So far I've mind mapped, which was very helpful and I just returned from a walk around my neighborhood. I also finished reading the entry about journal-ing. Here's where I might run into trouble. I've never been one to journal. I probably have a half dozen journals somewhere with one or two entries in them. Even keeping up with a blog has been a challenge for me. I am going to try to keep a sketchbook with me at all times in the hopes that I will sketch and make notes more often. We'll see if that works. For now I'm going to put up a list of ideas I have in the public domain in hopes that it will motivate me to make progress on them. Here goes...
1. Organize a class for growing and preserving your own food
2. Look into working with the town to plant edibles in some public parks either through the Public Arts Initiative or through the parks program
3. Design and make a "decorators kit/pouch" for my own use and possible to sell on Etsy
4. Make more "Snoogis" pillows for Etsy
5. Start painting a watercolor a week (maybe I'll move up to one a day, but for now I'm starting small)

Seriously

2009-02-15T12:22:00.008-05:00

Okay. As far as I am aware, and please correct me if I am wrong, the only real skill required of a painter (one who paints houses, not an artist) is neatness. Right?! I mean it pretty much boils down to "stay within the lines." If you are aware that you skills as a painter cannot handle this level of accuracy, the marketplace has even come up with a product to help you known as blue tape. Yes, there is knowledge that is required as far as what sort of prep work is required and can you put latex over oil or oil over latex, but as far as skills go it still really comes down to neatness. Apparently whoever the previous owner of our house hired to paint last time was not up to the task.
90% of the woodwork in our house has been painted over through the years. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I'm a bit of a preservationist and a purist which tells me that the woodwork should remain in its original dark stained state, on the other hand for such a small house in a relatively shady neighborhood all that darkness can make the house pretty gloomy. Anyway, it is what it is and I'm not ready to take on the task of stripping of 90+ years of paint. Unlike the rest of the house, our foyer's trim has not been painted in the 95 year history of the house and I'd like to keep it that way. Even though the trim in the "lesser" rooms of the house is some sort of nondescript softwood, the trim in the foyer is a nice old oak with nice grain. It's not super dark, but not that ugly light 80's color of oak either. However around every single piece of molding that abuts a painted wall there is about a 1/4" of white paint overlapping onto the molding. Everywhere. Every piece of base molding, every bit of door casing, and every piece of trim around the stairs. It's killing me! I want to paint the walls and ceiling a soft dove gray to set off the ceiling medallion and be a sort of neutral core at the center of the house since every room surrounding it will be a different color, but I can't paint the walls until I figure out how to get rid of the stupid 1/4" of white paint! I really don't want to have to strip all of the molding down because, with the exception of the perimeter, it's in pretty good shape. So after all of my ranting, I guess my question to the blogosphere is this:

How can I remove the paint without removing the finish beneath?

aauuggh!

Dining Room Ideas

2009-02-03T15:00:00.004-05:00

I've been figuring out what to do with my dining room. It's been sort of percolating in my head since I first found this image from Domino (R.I.P.). I've been really into the idea of a blue ceiling overhead, sort of glowing like the sky and this picture gets the feeling across perfectly. I've had this very old Alphonse Mucha print for at least a decade. I found it at a yard sale for $20 years ago, but it's been hanging in my parents house because I've never had a place for it. I don't know how old it is, but judging from the look of the old frame and ripply glass, it's at least from the 30's if not before. I'd like to think it's as old as the house. I don't have photos of the furniture that I have for the space, but I have a danish modern-esque dining set that I got from Craigslist and a small modern dresser that I will be using as a sideboard. I decided to put it all together to see how everything works together and I'm really happy with it. I also have a small but growing collection of this turquoise glassware that I think will help give the room a little sparkle. I think I've only bought one or two pieces for myself, but friends and family seem to keep finding them and getting them for me!
The chairs for the dining set are covered with a surprisingly inoffensive brown-ish/khaki-ish vinyl. I may leave them as is or I may recover them in one of the many fabrics above- which will, of course, require more decision making. I'm not sure why I have such issues picking out fabrics! I think I'll decide that after the room is done. Patterns on the chairs might be too much for the room, or it might be just what it needs. I guess we'll have to wait and see!

I think I'm in love

2009-01-08T15:35:00.003-05:00

When I first saw the ostrich feather lamp on Apartment Therapy a little while ago i thought it was cool but a little over the top. Then AT Chicago posted a readers DIY version here and I think that might be just perfect for my dining room. We will be removing the closets that were built into our dining room to convert it into a bedroom soon and I've been wondering what to do for lighting. For some reason there isn't any fixture there now so we would have to bring in new wiring to attach to, plus most lighting fixtures I've seen that I like are way out of our price range. I already have an IKEA paper globe shade so all I would need to get would be the cord and some parchment paper. Now I can't wait to rip those closets out!

Progress!

2009-01-07T16:53:00.008-05:00

Over the holidays we made some progress on the house. I got a bunch of sewing projects done and the two of us managed to cut a hole in the wall between the foyer and my office.
Please ignore the boxspring at the right of the photo, it will be going out to the curb this afternoon. One of the joys of old houses is that when designing stairways, they never imagined the existence of any bed larger than a full size having to be carried up the stairs. We wound up having to get a split boxspring and squishing the mattress to get it up to the bedroom. Having this opening makes the house feel so much bigger. I am keeping an eye out for some vintage french doors that I could put there which is why we haven't put up any trim around the opening. If I find a pair of oak french doors, I'll want to make the opening match the width of the doors. That way, in the future this could be used as a guest room or at least have the option of some sound privacy when the TV is on in the living room across the way.You may remember that the bed was previously looking like this. It's a small change, but it helps the room feel more together. Funny thing is that the pillow cover, even with the yo-yo's took less time than any of the other sewing projects I did.Here are the curtains I finally finished and the painting I got for Christmas by Karen Ponelli. I apologize for the quality of the photograph. There is an incredibly small window of time when there is enough light in the room to get a decent picture. You can see the painting in detail here. The next project in line is to convert the small pantry in our mudroom into a coat closet. I have everything I need to do it, now I just need to set aside some time.

The Original Green

2009-01-02T08:52:00.004-05:00

At times it seems there is a conflict between my interest in old houses and in green building. After all, old houses are drafty and inefficient right? Not necessarily. Though many of them could use a bit more insulation, most were built in a time when energy wasn't so cheap and easy to come by. People had to build houses that took into consideration things like the sun and wind and how they would heat or cool a house. Otherwise, people would die of heat stroke in the summer and freeze to death in the winter. This is the premise behind The Original Green. For centuries people built buildings that used very little energy simply because there wasn't much energy to be had. It developed into styles that were very specific to each region and their climatic conditions. Today green buildings tends to focus on solar panels and windmills and other "gizmos" to reduce their energy use. Steve Mouzon, the creator of the Original Green concept, is trying to change the discussion of green buildings to focus on methods used traditionally to create green buildings and less on the "gizmos" that get all the attention in the media. Check out his website. It has a lot of good information and can really change the way you think about what makes a place "green". Also for those out there on Facebook, join the Original Green cause.

Happy New Year! (a day late)

2009-01-02T08:30:00.004-05:00

I hope everyone had a happy New Year's celebration. Hopefully 2009 will turn out better than '08. I've had a fairly productive couple of days here. I've been off from work for a little while and although the first few days off were pretty much dedicated to Christmas shopping, this week I've been able to get stuff done around the house. I've finished almost all of my sewing projects, plus we cut a hole through the wall between our foyer and office/den. The previous owner had converted it into a bedroom which really cut it off from the rest of the house. I'll post some photos as soon as there is some nice sunlight for taking them.

Another item on my "to do" list that I haven't been quite as productive on, is studying for the LEED exam. For those that don't know LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It is essentially a rating system to determine how "green" a building (or neighborhood) is. Since everyone is looking to jump on the bandwagon to call their stuff "green", this provides a pretty tough standard for actually making it so. There are some other rating systems out there, but they seem to be more influenced by various building product industries so their standards seem to be a bit more watered down (IMO). You may be wondering how one studies for a rating system. Actually, the test is to become a LEED Accredited Professional (LEED AP) which is one way of calling yourself an "expert" in green building. It shows a knowledge of both green building and the rating system itself and how it works. The reason I am rushing to study now is that in the spring they are adopting a new "upgraded" system and test which will be harder and require prior experience in green building before you can sit for the exam. By prior experience, they mean you have to have worked on the certification of a commercial LEED building. The firm where I work does primarily residential projects, so it would be hard to get to work on a commertial LEED project since there aren't too many out there. If you'd like to find out more information about the system or how to become certified, check out www.usgbc.org .

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T08:31:00.001-05:00

Our Beautiful Bathroom

2008-12-13T16:13:00.001-05:00

I haven't finished the christmas decorations yet, or the curtains or the pillow... so I figured I'd share some lovely pictures of our upstairs bathroom in all it's glory.

the wall tile

the vanity, and my favorite...

the flooring!

Beautiful, isn't it? The overall room is actually pretty nice. It has a nice white art deco-ish style tub and faucet and two south facing windows. Unfortunately the 70's were not kind to this room. I'm starting to think I should rip out the flooring 'cause, seriously, could what's underneath really be any worse than this gold and marblized textured vinyl monstrosity? Even if it's avocado green tiles that are popping up off of the floor, I think it would be better than this.

Adventures in Photoshopping

2008-11-22T10:38:00.008-05:00

Here are some of my attempts to photoshop the curtains into the room to get a better feel for them. My photoshop skills are somewhat limited, but I think it gets the idea across.

Curtains from white Varen fabric

Curtains in chartreuese rose fabric

Curtains in Clematis fabric

Curtains in Jasmine fabric

ahh the balance between subtlety and boldness....

Curtain Call

2008-11-18T14:14:00.002-05:00

I'm trying to make a decision on a fabric for our bedroom curtains. The top left pattern is from a set of sheets that I bought on sale that I will be turning into a duvet cover, the other seven are ones I like for curtains, but I can't decide which! I wanted to do full length curtains, but because we have a steam radiator under the right hand window, I figured that would be too much of a fire hazard. I had thought about roman shades, but even when they are open, they still hide the top of your window. I am going with cafe curtains which I know aren't typical in a bedroom, but I think they will work. They will cover the lower 2/3 of the window-I'm going to hang them above the sashlock, aligning with the first muntin (Thought I'd give you some architectural terms). This way they will provide privacy where we need it and let in the morning light above. I hate waking up in a dark bedroom, so I love having the sun peek in above the curtains. Plus, when laying in bed, I can look out and see the trees and sky. I can't decide if I want the curtains be neutral browns similar to my bedspread and duvet or if they should provide some color and contrast in the room. hmmmmm.....

any ideas?

Our Bedroom

2008-11-15T08:03:00.003-05:00

Other than painting the walls blue, I'm a little stuck as to how I'd like this room to come together. I want it to be calm and peaceful with a somewhat modern but mostly vintage-y feel. The bedspread I love, so it is definitely staying. It's a DKNY quilt with an all over daisy pattern embroidered onto it. The duvet however has to go. I got it back at our old place in an attempt to do a layered feel of silky pattered fabrics. However the two silky fabrics just slide against each other and every morning the duvet is on the floor. Eventually we would like to get an upolstered headboard and mount a more attractive shelf over the bed. We need the shelf because there is only a few inches on either side of the bed-not enought for a table. I'm getting some simple, cheap, white, matching, clip-on reading lights for either side of the bed until I can find some pretty wall mount lights. I have also toyed with the idea of either wallpapering or stencilling the wall behind the bed. I won't do that until I have a more coherent vision for the room.

Here are my temporary curtains for the room. I have ordered some nicer curtain rods with rings from Rejuvenation, but I can't decide on what fabric to make the curtains out of. I was thinking of this, but now I'm not sure.

Although I painted the room blue, I'm not really a big fan of the color blue in general. I've just seen a bunch of blue bedrooms on flickr (this, this, even this) and loved how soothing they were. I was hoping to almost treat the blue as a neutral background and have have the other items in the room "go" with blue, but not actually have any blue in them. My initial thought was to have everything be taupey-brown (like the bedspread) white and accents of green (hence the fabric selection), but now I'm not so sure on the green. The dresser on the right is this one so it's helping to contribute to the vintage-y feel. Once I refinish its mate, most of the stuff on top of the dresser will go on top of its mate in the closet, leaving an uncluttered space for some art and other pretty things.

Any suggestions?

Our Living Room

2008-11-11T16:23:00.006-05:00

Here are a few shots of our living room as it looked a few days ago. I've painted the pipe to the left to match the wall since, but I haven't had a chance to take pictures. I can't believe I took a picture with the window sashes all misaligned. I usually make sure that all of the horizontal parts line up.

We painted the room using Olympic Paints from Lowes. I had wanted to use Yolo Colorhouse or Mythic paints or even AFM Safecoat, but there don't appear to be any retailers in my neck of the woods. The Olympic paint seemed to me to be at the crossroads of quality, lack of VOC's, price and convenience. I don't know how tough it will be, we chose the flat enamel instead of the regular flat paint in the hopes that it will wear better. The sheen is actually more of an eggshell rather than a flat so it does highlight some of our wall's imperfections (there are many). I actually had wanted something a little less green than this, something that would be a bit more of a background color, but we don't have the energy to repaint it so it will stay for now.

The curtains are from IKEA. We needed something inexpensive until we can afford to get something nicer. They were $30 / pair which is about as cheap as you can find for curtains this long. I can't say that I love them, I'm just hoping they grow on me. Once I get some real curtain rods, I will hang them from the flat part of the window trim above the window. I know the trend these days is to hang them from somewhere higher than the window to give visual height to the space, I think we have enought height already (the tops of the window are over 7'-6" above the floor), plus the trim is so pretty I didn't want it to be hidden behind curtains. As an architect, I'm a bit of a window nerd and don't like to hide pretty old windows behind heavy curtains which is why I tend to pick sheers for most places. They are probably too summery for this time of year, but I don't care.

I still don't have anything hanging on the walls yet. I don't want to make any holes in the plaster until I'm absolutely sure about what I'm hanging. Plus, once the picture rail hooks come from Rejuvenation, I can hang things without making any holes at all. I think picture rails are one of the greatest inventions. I know some people don't like the look of the exposed wire or cord that it hangs from and you can't do the random collage style of hanging pictures, but it does allow you to move pictures around the room without having to worry about patching holes.

I'm Ba-ack

2008-11-11T08:09:00.002-05:00

I've been a very bad blogger recently, which was unfortunately the result of a two month journey to get my computer up and running and connected to the internet. It's not as easy as you would think! We bought our new old house just after Labor Day then spent a couple of weeks cleaning and painting before we moved in. After we had moved in we couldn't really unpack my computer for almost a month, partly because the boxes were buried and partly because there wouldn't really be anywhere to put it. Apparently when this house was built, one or two electrical outlets per room was enough and the few surfaces that a computer could be placed on didn't necessarily come anywhere close to the outlets. Our old place had a little built in desk that I made in the corner of the living room that we couldn't take with us so I began to search craigslist and the local thrift stores for a decent desk. People in cities have it so easy with craigslist! The selection out here is pretty sad. Eventually I gave up and went to IKEA and got a Melltorp dining room table which I absolutely love. It has a big, clean (well not at this very moment) white surface that I can do crafts on and still have room for my computer. I'm going to be posting some progress photos a bit later and probably be asking for some design advice too.

Living Room Ideas

2008-07-23T07:37:00.006-04:00

This is the first time I've ever designed with a graphic sort of "design board." In my apartment, the design always just evolved. As I found cool stuff at yard sales, the room would change. Occasionally I would find the need to "tie things together" or "mix things up" depending on which way the room is going. Since our apartment has more furniture than it can hold, we shouldn't need to get much more once we move in- which is good since we won't be able to afford it. I'm planning on using most of the stuff that is currently in our living room, but thankfully the walls won't be panelled. This color is similar to the one on my one painted wall in my current LR, just slightly greener and less blue. Right now I'm wanting to paint each room a different shade of green. Something light and fresh in the living room, a more springy yellow green in the kitchen to make it cheery. I'd like a more saturated green in the Foyer since it is a room that you just pass through, plus it has darker trim than the rest of the house, so I think it can handle it and in the bedroom a soft bluish, greyish green- something very soothing. My favorite colors are red and green, but I don't want the house to look Christmas-y. I figure green is more soothing and livable for the walls and I can punch it up (I hate that expression) with the red in the rugs and accessories.

Here's a photo of a part of the living room. Unfortunately I don't have a good full room shot. It has a picture rail towards the top of the wall which is cool. I've always wanted one of those (I know, I'm wierd). I want to get some of those old-fashioned picture hooks to hang artwork from. The rug, sofa, Barcelona chair and pillow by Olive, are all in my living room now and I also have some bookshelves and a tv stand that will probably also be in here. Hopefully this will all work together and I won't be tired of it too quickly. What do you think? Any suggestions?

We're Buying a House!

2008-07-20T11:11:00.003-04:00

We're in contract on this 1914 bungalow. It has most of its original features except for an unfortunate remodel of the kitchen and bathroom in the 1960's or 70's. I'm a little overwhelmed at the prospect of decorating so many rooms, but it should be fun. I'll post ideas for different rooms and I'd love to hear some ideas and suggestions. I'm hoping to go as "green" as possible in a true vintage green spirit.

Yea!

2008-06-05T16:16:00.003-04:00

We don't have to move! For some crazy reason our landlord has now decided that we can stay. We are still looking to buy a house, but at least now we don't have to go anywhere in the mean time. Maybe now I'll finish some of my apartment therapy that I never got to (kitchen cushions and curtains). Our place has become a bit of a disaster since we found out we had to move. I guess I lost all motivation to clean - anything. I did, however finally finish crocheting a lap blanket. Good thing now that it's June! I'll post pictures of it later.

Bummer!

2008-05-19T12:19:00.003-04:00

Friday, my upstairs neighbor and I both got notices from our landlord that they would not be renewing our leases and that we had to be out by the end of our lease which is June 14th. We don't know what the real reason is (they gave some lame-a** excuses) but we think they want to move in themselves or at least move their "children" (they're in their late 20's and still living at home) in while they do construction on their own house. I don't mind them wanting the house for themselves, it is their house after all, but it's the complete lack of courtesy for long term tenants (I've lived there almost 8 years!) and short notice that pisses me off! So, I finally finished my apartment therapy (well, almost) and now we have to move out. At least we purged a bunch of items during the process. We'll probably sell more before we go. Anybody want a red pleather 60's couch?

grrrrrr.