Saturday I devoted my whole day to thrift shopping/antique mall-ing in search of a dresser for the studio. Mission accomplished!
If you'll recall, it was on my Complete the Studio to-do list. Also on the list is Paint the dresser. I'm tired of painting at the moment, and it's been raining for four days, so painting is not going to be a high priority for awhile. I can live with it like this for a good, long while, actually. It would be better if it was a brighter white, to match the walls, but I can deal for now. The shape is just what I wanted, and the size is perfect. I love the handles, and, while I didn't really want anything too shabby chic or distressed, the little painted swags on the drawers are kind of sweet.I also didn't think I needed a side table, but when I saw that little white one for $45 I kind of had to get it, and it turns out that it's really coming in handy.
I managed to thin out my yarn stash, and fit nearly everything in the bottom drawer. There are a few balls of sock yarn in one of the top drawers, and it's so nice that it's all safe from those pesky cats. I decided to display part of my creamer collection on a tray on top.
I need to find some small projects for the odd balls of yarn. What do you do when you have leftover yarn or orphan skeins?
Once the dresser was organized I was so inspired by my pretty new space, I worked on some treats for the shop. There's a couple peepers in there right now, and I hope to have some pincushion/needlebook sets by the end of the week. It's so nice to work out there now. It's a small room (barely 10'x14'), but I've got so much of my junk organized and cleaned out that it's just so easy to work.
And, since you haven't seen this fuzzy face for awhile, I leave you with the one and only Winston:
I can't take it when he looks at me like that. I had the day off today, and spent it in the studio with the rain and then snow blowing and blustering outside, and I had to let this muddy thing in because I felt sorry for him. I hope my carpet will come clean.
Now the progress on the studio is slower as I do little things here and there. I feel like I worked so hard this weekend, and there's not a lot to show for it. I still have a lot more fabric to sort through and fold to go in the left bookcase. The baskets up top need some tidying up as well, but it's looking much nicer than it did before.
I solved my light switch problem, although I didn't, perhaps, choose the easiest solution. I changed out the switches altogether for new, white paddle switches, and found this sweet little switch plate at my favorite Ace Hardware for only $4.49. It had an antique finish, so I painted it white.
Changing out the switches isn't too hard. Each one had two wires, so I took the top wire out of the old switch, and put it in the top hole of the new switch, then did the bottom wire so there was no chance of messing it up. The main thing to remember is to shut off the power!
I also installed the hooks, which were on sale at Anthropologie. They didn't come with any visible way to hang them, so I improvised by nailing picture hangers on the backs and hanging them from sturdy nails. They're mostly for holding my knitting project bags, so they didn't have to be super sturdy, although they are quite solidly in place, I must say.
I picked out a doorknob while I was there as well. The deciding factor was the fact that this one was on sale for $14.95. It helps that I do love milk glass.
It, too, was a little tricky to install, but that's the great thing about Ace, you go in with your problem, and they walk you right through the solution. I had to get screws to mount it, and there was a little grumbling and growling as I tried to fit everything together. A third hand would have been helpful, but I'm now quite confident in my doorknob installation abilities.
One last project was to place grommets in this quilt design wall I have (it's really just a piece of thick flannel or felt, my husband bought it for me from Keepsake Quilting, I believe) and then put cup hooks along one wall so I can easily hang it up and take it down. This was one of those projects that was a tiny bit harder than I expected, but came out exactly as I envisioned, so the frustration was worth it. Cup hooks are not easy to screw into wood.
The grommets are actually plastic, and I found them at Joann. You just cut a circle out of the fabric and snap the two halves of the grommets together, no special tools needed! They were a little pricey ($10 for eight), but I had my 40% off coupon, so it wasn't bad.
So here's another cheap decorating tip: sales and coupons are your friends! This takes patience, and it's also good to have a plan. I tend to think very carefully about how I want a room to look, and realize that I can't rush it. Once you've figured that out, you can accumulate the things you want over time rather than going on a crazy, expensive shopping spree. When I try to get too much at once I tend to make costly mistakes. So bit-by-bit, and watch for sales and coupons. If you're in the U.S. and not on the Joann mailing list, get on it! They send coupons regularly. For California residents with a Beverly's fabrics nearby, ditto that. They do theirs via e-mail, and it's not as frequent, but still worth getting.
I have lots more fun projects coming up, and I'm going to need some opinions, so I hope you won't mind if I ask what you think over the next couple weeks. I actually made myself a to-do list for this year in lieu of any formal resolutions, and the majority have to do with this studio project. I'm posting it here for reference:
To-do list for 2009
Grow mushrooms Make Kheer (Indian Rice Pudding) Clean the microwave Get some new chicks (2 Araucanas, 2 Cuckoo Marans, 2 Rhode Island Reds or 2 Barred Rocks) Make myself a sweater Finish my studio:
Slipcover chair
Make window coverings
Find a dresser
Paint the dresser pink
Collect and frame art to display
Install shelf above work table
Find vintage metal stool
Hang plate collection in an artful display
Paint ornate picture frame and turn it into an inspiration board (turquoise?)
Train Winston to do tricks or herd sheep Vacuum every week Lose 30 more pounds Learn to make creme brulee (not sure how the previous two items will work together) Take more pictures Make a quilt Design a pair of socks (knee socks! with Scandanavian-style colorwork! I can picture them in my head) Clean out and paint laundry room Make more things for my Etsy shop Make French Macarons
And one last thing, completely unrelated to all this, I wanted to share a music video. This is my brother, and the song is from his new CD, which you can pre-order at www.caryjudd.com. I've been lucky enough to hear the songs as he's recorded them, and this is, by far, his best music ever. I'm pretty sure it's going to be my favorite album of 2009, so you really should think about getting it. I guarantee you won't be disappointed!
I have lots to blog about, but no time to do so. Painting is mostly finished, except for the ceiling, but I can do that any time. I'll just throw some drop cloths over stuff and paint away. I actually ran out of paint, so I'll pick up another can later this week. The painting was the hard part, now I get to do a lot of fun little things, but it will be some time before I'm done. Right now I'm busy moving stuff back in my OCD fashion, and thinning out and organizing.
One bookshelf is full of books and things, and the other is filling up with fabric. Eventually I will have curtains covering this end of the room to tidy things up and add lots of color. In the meantime, I'm trying to arrange everything neatly. I also need to find a triple switch switchplate. The old one was cracked and disgusting. I'm leaving it off until I find a new one.
I mentioned in a reply to Sara's comment that I am all about decorating on the cheap, and she requested some tips, so here's tip number one: Paint! Not only is paint fairly inexpensive (except when you need three cans of primer before you can even get to the paint), and obviously a new color on the walls transforms a space, I find that when I have to clean out to paint I see all the Stuff in the room in a new way, and I tend to edit and move things around. Et voila! A whole new look, just because you changed up the color.
And, for some other nice things (hence the post title), I'm currently reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and I am loving it so much! I haven't even finished it and I have to recommend that you get yourself a copy and read it right now. I also went and saw Gran Torino last week with a friend. It wasn't my first choice of movies to see, but the show time worked out the best for us, and I was so pleasantly surprised. I really loved it. It's a drama, but I laughed so hard through most of it and then I bawled like a baby.
I didn't quite mean to disappear for ten days, but I've been busy. I finally started painting my little studio. And I painted some more and then I painted even more, and I'm still not done. I've gone through two cans of primer so far, and I started on a third can tonight. I knew this was going to be a big job, but I didn't know it would be quite this big. My studio is actually an old tack shed that a previous owner finished off inside using whatever leftovers they found laying around, so it's sort of a quirky little space. Sometimes we call it a guesthouse, which sounds much more glamorous than it could ever be. A previous owner (I'm not sure if these are the same owners that initially gussied it up) walled up one end to make a very narrow space in which they built a workbench. Based on some remnants of foil stapled to the walls and ceilings, and some chains which looked like they were for some hanging fluorescent lights, I'd guess they used the space to grow some plants. I'm not saying what kind of plants, I'll leave that to your imagination.
Anyway, the point is that for six years I've wanted to paint it, and I finally got started. There are lots of odd little bits of wood, so I decided to paint everything white so make it look fresh and bright and clean. It is also painted in patches of five different colors, so some of the darker colors require a little more priming than the lighter colors. I can't bring myself to post a before picture here, because it was just so ugly, but if you must know what it looked like, go here. And now, after two cans of primer, it looks like this:
I still have more priming to do on the other side of the room, I think if I work on it for the next two nights after work I'll be able to actually paint on Saturday. I decided to treat myself to a new doorknob from Anthropologie for that door when I'm done painting. I'm thinking something like this one, or maybe this one. And how much do you love that lamp? I think it's going to be adorable in here. It's from Target, of course. Last Fall I even made up a style tray of inspirational ideas for the space. In case you missed it:
The Vika Artur trestle legs and table top were on sale at Ikea this past month, $10 for each set of legs, and $30 for the table top, so I've got them all ready and waiting to be assembled. I'm not having much luck finding an inexpensive vintage metal stool, but I can be patient. I also hope to find some green fabric similar to what's on the chairs in the top right photo to re-cover a wing chair. There will be a lot of little projects to do in the room before it's complete, but it's going to be lots of fun, if I ever finish painting.
I've been in making mode for the last couple weeks. I suppose it was the fact that I was on vacation for a nice little while that got me jump-started, but I'm back at work now, and I just can't stop. I've made scarves and socks and done some quilting. I even made a dinosaur out of some weird gooey stuff. I have been wanting to make the doll from the cover of Stitched in Time ever since I first saw one on Alicia's blog. I finally got to get started on Sunday. She's still in progress, I just have to finish up her hair and add a couple little embellishments, and she'll be done.
I really need to get a speed light for my camera, so I can take pictures at night. I got to play around with my sister's last week, and it was a lot of fun.
Back to the doll. I made her legs out of a red and white striped fabric. I love them. Her face and hands are linen.
I started writing the story of my Christmas Day saga, but it will take a little more time to really do justice to the nearly tragic tale. Here are a few of the things that happened: an emotional breakdown in front of an entire airplane full of people, a brush with fame, a first class lounge, a bus ride around LAX, and maybe even a real-life guardian angel. You don't want to miss it!
This photo has nothing to do with the rest of this post. I just bought some orchids at Trader Joe’s this weekend, because they were so pretty (and cheap!).
Because I’m the oldest of five, I have to give out advice, solicited or unsolicited, even though it drives me crazy when my mother-in-law tries to give me advice. I try not to be a know-it-all, but sometimes I can’t help myself. I don’t think I know everything, of course, but I do have a lot of trivial bits of information floating around in my head, most of it useless, but there are a few little gems knocking about in there. Anyway, my point is, the purpose of this post is to give you advice, even if you didn’t think you needed it. But Colleen made an interesting comment in the last post, about writing in a blank book, and that is not the first time I’ve heard that, and I have often felt that way myself!
If you are like me, and I suspect a lot of you are in this way, you love blank books, moleskin notebooks, paper and pens, back-to-school supplies and all that kind of stuff. But what do you do when faced with a brand new blank page in that pretty new journal you just had to have? You don’t want to ruin it! So you just keep collecting those pretty blank books, and they gather dust while you try to come up with just the right things to put in them. The thing is, I think pretty blank books are even prettier when they start filling up with stuff-so don’t be afraid!
Here are some ideas for getting started:
1. Don’t start with the first page. It’s so intimidating, because you think it has to set the tone for your whole journal/notebook/whatever book. Just choose a page, the second page, maybe, or a middle page, or even the last page, and just start writing or sketching, or whatever you feel like doing.
2. Use a pencil, that way, if you hate it, you can just erase it! Once you’ve filled a few pages, switch to pen. Just be sure to find a pen you like to write with, and try to keep it with your book at all times. I use a pencil all the time for sketching in my book, and write notes and lists in pen. I love a good, fine, black rollerball pen.
3. Find a picture that inspires you, and tape or glue it onto one of the first pages of your book. You don’t even have to write about it, just putting it in there and looking at it every now and then can inspire you.
and I am loving it so much! I haven't even finished it and I have to recommend that you get yourself a copy and read it right now. I also went and saw 
