Monday, February 28, 2011

nest

I totally want one of these in my lush secluded backyard that I will have sometime in the future. But not over water. That's not relaxing.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

reminder

I want to frame this sweet little message and hang it in my house.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

brown bag it


These little bento lunch boxes have captivated me. They have neat little compartments so that you don't have to use baggies.

Friday, February 25, 2011

cat vs. internet

This is the battle Danny and I wage with our furry children about 20 million times a day. I have complained that Tilda won't cuddle, and lately now all she wants to do is cuddle. She tries to sneak into our laps- and ends up on our keyboards. It's so annoying- and so so cute.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

speaking of libraries,

How cozy is this one? I love bookstores like this. I can spend hours just gazing at all the books, running my hand across the titles, imagining all of the lovely stories and characters.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

no card needed

By the time we have a house that has a library, I will have enough books to fill it up.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

oh, charlotte

These tiny berry Charlotte's are making me crave summer more than spring.




And they look so much simpler that a full sized Charlotte. I've never made one- it's too intimidating. I've also never even tasted one, it's a dessert that I never see at restaurants.

Monday, February 21, 2011

the wilderness downtown



This is so cool. If you have some time, you should totally check it out. Note: you will need Chrome and Google Earth to view it.

This is my absolute favorite song by Arcade Fire.

You type in the address of the home you grew up in, and the interactive video uses google maps street view and google earth in the video.

Remember how my parents remodeled their house a few years ago? What's neat is that the street view and the earth view are years apart- so the street view is the house I grew up in, and the earth view is the new house.

Danny and I had fun viewing the house in Florida that he grew up in. It's the only house on the block that hasn't been torn down and re-built. Danny remembered how his school was so far away- it's actually only 3 blocks away.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

made in china

Awhile ago I found this amazing shop on Etsy- vivi1981ken.

She's from China, and her shop is full of little miniatures and gorgeous jewelry.

So of course I bought a ton of little itty bitty cute things for my miniature shelf.

The chairs are my favorite.



And these bottles. Now I just need to put something in them...



These are perfect for necklaces.



How about a mini kitchen full of these jars?



I love cameos! And these colors are so unique. I have no idea what I will do with them yet...


The shipping took almost 2 months! But it was well worth it.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

rag-a-muffin headquarters

This post is all about how and what I did to redo my sewing room. So it might be kinda boring unless you want to know the nitty gritty.

As I was ripping the carpet out, I was thinking "What a great before and after this room will be! Such a transformation- with only a few simple changes!"

Ahem. You kinda have to take Before Photos to really get it. I was so ashamed of that room, that I don't really have any. But there are a few random pics throughout this post that kinda get the message across.


So This is What I Did:

  • Ripped the carpet out. A utility knife with a sharp brand new blade is essential.
  • Ripped the pad out. A good pair of wire cutter pliers gets the staples out of the floor with a little effort.
  • Pulled up the carpet tack. I had to buy a nail puller/pry bar so I could get underneath the tack and yank up the nails. This was the hardest part, and the hardest to clean up- even with gloves!
  • Taped off the moldings and put paper down to protect the floor from splattering paint.


There is this weird cupboard/closet space in there- we use it for the litter box. So there's Tilda sitting at the entrance. With piles of crap under the window. And this is where the chunk of carpet had to be cut out.


Tilda likes "help" when I am sewing. This is what the carpet looked like.



I took this photo last summer to document the freaking messes I make while working on more than one project at a time. Isn't it awful?

Can you find Kobe cow cow all cowed out in the middle of the mess?


  • Edged and cut in with primer. We like Glidden, you can get it at Home Depot. 2 coats do the trick. Also- my favorite tool to get this done really well and easily is the Edge N Roll. It made edging so easy and fast- I was in disbelief that I was finished already!



Here is all the furniture shoved into the middle of the room. Painting like this sucks! When we painted the rest of the house- we hadn't moved in yet so it was blissfully empty.


  • Rolled the primer on, then after an hour, rolled the second coat on.
  • The next day, I applied the paint. Same as the primer- edged in 2 coats, then rolled 2 coats. This took pretty much all day, since I had to wait 4 hours between coats. We also chose Glidden paint- in eggshell.
  • I took the sliding doors off of the kitty closet, cleaned them up, took the knobs off and primed them. I only did the front, since you never see the back.
  • I painted the doors with a high gloss paint that I had matched to the furniture in the room. I was going to just use a bright white- but then realized that my furniture is not bright white. Luckily I had a shelf that I could take into the store so they could match it. I really think that bright white would have looked better with the blue, but what I ended up with matches the ceiling and trim, so it's better that way.


Here is the wood floor. This is a spot that's pretty nice, actually.

  • Time to take down the tape! Yea! I swept the floor and vacuumed up the dust and little bits of carpet.
  • Put the furniture back, and out of the way so I could finish the kitty closet.



The ledge of the kitty closet was a mess- painted chipped and gouges here and there, and what is the point of re-painting when it will only chip right back off? So I sanded it down with our little orbital sander. I used 60 grit paper first, then 100. It's not perfectly smooth- but it works.

I also learned that I can wield power tools- meaning I don't need to beg and plead and demand that Danny do it for me. Project done when I want it done, and not making my husband grouchy. Win/win.

  • Primed, then painted the ledge with the same high gloss off-white as the doors. I chose high gloss so it could be cleaned easily, since it gets so much kitten traffic on a daily basis.

  • Then I put everything back together- shelves, the stairs, installed the new knobs and re-hung the little doors.



  • Off to Ikea to buy a few things. I already had my desk and 2 sets of shelves.



I got another set of shelves to fill up the wall.



I also got some new lights- I already had the ones above the desk so I just got 3 new ones for over the cutting table. I got new shades for all of them because I wanted them to be white and plain. At $3 each, I really like the ones I got!



  • I hung some floating bookshelves in the only wall space left- next to the kitty closet. I love those bookshelves, and we haven't had a place to put them until now. I love having all my kid's books in my sewing room- I often flip through them when I hit a creative wall, it's a great little time out!
I had a yellowish small dresser/nightstand that my mom found for me at a antique shop. I loved it, but it just didn't match all the new colors. So I painted it a charcoal grey. It was really easy- a lot easier that I thought painting a dresser would be. Probably cause it's so small!


(before- photographed at my mom's house for the boutique we had last October.)



(after- oh it just looks amazing with the blue walls!)


  • I was excited to not have carpet in my sewing room- until I realized that sweeping the old wood floor was impossible. It needs to be sanded down, filled, and re-varnished. Since we rent, refinishing the floor is out of the question. So I began a hunt for a cheap rug.

Ikea had a 8ft x 10 ft rug that fits perfectly where I want it to. It's brown, so it goes really well with the rest of the decor. And may I just say that it really ties the room together?! Ha!



  • Then I filled the wall space on top of my shelves with all the framed artwork I have done over the years. It's not really fit for the rest of the house, so putting them in the sewing room is perfect.



I also displayed my vintage sewing machine and the miniature shelf I got for my birthday.




I want a table area tall enough to cut fabric in, so that I don't drag my mess into the kitchen when I need to cut. Danny's dad has a 6 ft table that he is willing to part with, and re-working that to be counter height will be the last part of this wonderful project. It will go where the trunk is now.

Phew! Did you doze off? I did!

I have decided to call my sewing room Headquarters from now on. So. Just a heads-up. I don't want my massive reader base to get confused, okay?