A tray and a little inspiration

New project alert.  I finally finally finally figured out what to do to the unfinished wood tray I bought at a craft store a few months ago.  I have been beating my head against the wall trying to figure out what to do with this tray...because I want to use it.  I don't want to put in any effort unless I am committed to the result, however, because I don't love painting.    I have been considering everything....gluing a fun piece of fabric to the tray...painting it solid colors...painting it a few different colors....painting a pattern...etc.  Then it hit me today.  I love when inspiration almost literally slaps you in the face.

Inspiration fascinates me.  I love seeing the inspiration behind someone's creation..to see how someone's mind interprets an image or an object resulting in something totally new in a new medium.

Here is how it all happened for me today.

Marimekko fabric, Joonas Black

This morning I was reading this post on Small But Mighty Interiors and saw the above sofa.  I don't love the picture of the piece of fabric but I love how it looks in the picture of the sofa.  It is because the angle of the photo breaks up the pattern and makes it look random.  That then caused this image to come to mind almost immediately:

from the Hundreds

I loved this the minute I saw it years ago.  It was my desktop background for a long time.  I love how jagged and edgy it looks....but it also looks like you could make it in Paint.  The randomness of it is was really gets me. 

So....I am going to take these images and the reasons I love them and paint a tray.  Excited.  

(I am posting this without the after because I need a little shove to get started.)

Delayed Made it Monday: Soft Roman Shades

I am sitting, writing and watching American Idol results while Sean hangs the Roman Shades I finished earlier this week.  I would feel bad but I spent a lot of time on my feet making those shades.  So I deserve a seat!

(Standard disclaimer:  I suck at photography and I am impatient to wait for daylight.  I sincerely apologize and feeling obligated to apologize for my poor photography is slowly motivating me to get better.)

BEFORE

AFTER

Using the sage advice of my Mom and this book I made soft roman shades for our play room.   It was my first time working with what I would consider to be a large volume of fabric.  (my Mom is probably laughing her "you have no idea" laugh...I have seen some of the window treatments she constructed....and this is nothing...but it was a lot more than a 24x24 pillow's worth of fabric, Mom!)  I know myself and I knew at some point "done is better than good" would seep it's way into my work.  I can only sew so many straight lines before I get bored and just want to be done.  I find that the better plan I have laid out the longer I can ward off the boredom.  Having steps in a list to check off excites me unfortunately.  

When I hemmed the sides I got lazy and didn't check to make sure I got the width exactly right and went ahead and hemmed the bottom (which involves walking upstairs to press the double hem before sewing it downstairs....and I am extremely pregnant...so it was especially lazy not to check)  When I did end up checking I discovered I was about 1/2 an inch too narrow on each shade.  Cursing ensued.  Seam ripping ensued.  There was a tornado of annoyance and strings in our living room....but I got them to the right width.  I won't talk about the bottom being slightly uneven on one of them.  I decided the blinds would be open most of the time so it was ok.  

So that's my story.  

The fabric is Chipper (Corn Yellow/Slub) from Premier Prints and I love it.  

The front page of Etsy is killing it today

I also want these....so cool.

siren jewels

Ay yai yai....I like.

artoncrafts

I want this bag. I want this bag. I want this bag so badly.

Happy Hump Day

Candidate

Mobiles

This Monday's Made It Monday project is delayed due to a baby with a fever and an exhausted Mom.  I am so close to being done with my project....so excited.

Sean and I made a list of things we need to get done before the new baby arrives.  o.ver.whelmed.  Of course, I am only interested in the pretty things and not in the more practical things.  I have been looking at mobiles.

I know there are all these expensive motorized mobiles that play music and flash lights.  Something about those feels unnecessary to me.  Maybe they are magic and my life would be better if I had one but I am probably not going to get one.  For B I got a cute dinosaur mobile made of stuffed felt dinosaurs from Etsy.  It's toast at this point because once B could stand and reach it...well, the dinosaurs became separated from the mobile.

Here are few cute mobiles on Etsy.

I like all the colors and varying shapes of this mobile.

I think this is a wall hanging more than a mobile to hang above the crib but I love it.  It is so stinking cute.

 Something about this mobile is absolutely sweet.  The colors, the shape of the elephants and the fabric used on the ears.

I love the shape of these owls.  You'll see an owl mobile at the bottom which I think is sweet but I am a little tired of that owl shape.  These owls look kind of sly.  

I like the silhouette idea of this one but I wish it had color!

 Cute little owls with lots of color.  Adorable.

I might attempt to make a mobile...add it to the list.  I have come across a few DIY mobiles that would be fun to try.  Now to just find those projects I came across.  I wish I could make adorable felt critters.  Maybe one day.

A beauty

Today I found two great things in blog land.  First, I found Gorgeous Shiny Things blog.  She loves lots of color.  I love it/her.  I will be spending some time this Easter Weekend reading old posts.  Thanks to Danika, writer of Gorgeous Shiny Things, I then saw this beauty:

The shape is so interesting.  But the part that really gets me is the hexagonal tufting.  I have never seen that.  I liked tufting.  Now I might love it.  The chair is by Taylor Llorente.  I have only glimpsed at his site but he has some pretty incredible looking furniture.  

A post worth reposting: Danielle Oakey Interiors

I am catching up on all the blog posts I have neglected to read while I have been addicted to The Hunger Games.  I finished this afternoon and I am going through some withdrawal.  Fortunately, they are super fast reads so the time you spend with the characters is not as long as other series...I hate the feelings that come when you finish a book or books you have really enjoyed.  Sad.

It's ok though.  I was totally cheered up by Danielle Oakey Interiors' post today....well, she didn't write it today...I read it today. She featured products by Trina Turk.  COLORFUL AND EDGY.  I love.  Check out Danielle's post and check out a few of my favorite Trina Turk fabrics.

this not fabric but a rug.

All fabric photos from Decorator's Best.  Rug photo from Danielle's post.

Made it Monday: Pillows, pillows, pillows.....pillows..pillows...

First of all, I wish mental exercises burned more calories.  I would have had quite a workout this weekend.  

Second, this post is so late because I started the Hunger Games books this weekend and this is the first day I haven't looked at my Google Reader in months.  I am afraid of how many unread posts there are.  How many good ideas and pretty pictures I have missed!  But Katniss Everdeen has my full attention until I finish that last book.  I am half way through the second book...addicting.

Finally, what this post is about....Since buying all my beautiful Kaffe fabric I have been dying to get them in use in my living room....but most of what I got is going to be used on things that take time, planning, tools, and my Mom.  So I have to wait until June.  I can't wait so I decided to make some sofa pillows.  You are probably wondering what kind of mental energy goes into pillows...but I forced myself to learn something new with almost each new pillow....  My goal was to build my skills up to get the most professional looking pillow possible.  I am getting there!  

Thanks to my friend Laura who lives near a shop that deals my sewing machine brand I got a zipper foot.  Step one...check.  I am on my way now!  My first pillow after the envelope pillow was an exposed zipper across the back of the pillow.  I have progressed to a zipper along the bottom seam with welt.  Woot!  No one reading this probably cares but I am patting myself on the back...and about to pass out.  That last one was a mental work out.  I am pooped.  I was so proud when I finished the first one last night that I woke Sean up.  I love him.  He HATES sofa pillows but he reacted so well considering that fact and the fact that I woke him up. 

So only three of the 7 pillows are Kaffe fabric....Here goes!  The pictures are TERRIBLE.  But I am so tired from learning new techniques that I don't care as long as they aren't blurry....sorry.

My first zippered pillow adventure was the back pillow.  The fabric is from Ikea and there are little orange accents that you can't see.  I realize at this moment that close ups and maybe a picture of the back so you know what I am talking about with the zippers might be nice.  After some sleep maybe I will do that.  I made two of these Ikea pillows.  

The pillow in front was my last zipper across the back pillow before I jumped into the zipper along the seam.  The fabric is from Joanns.  

This is a Kaffe fabric.  Big Blooms.  My favorite part of the fabric isn't visible in this picture.  The background is blue with orange dots.  The contrast is great.  I kind of regret the pink on the side and back, though.  It's just loud.  I think it would be hard to not be loud with any of the colors in the print....but....it's good for now.  This wasn't my original plan.  This is attempt #2.  My first attempt was a square pillow that involved some trim.  The contrast of the green trim made it seem incredibly juvenile and it was the last time I made a pillow where I cut the fabric the same dimensions as the pillow form.  I learned that I do not like the very stuffed look. So now I cut the fabric one inch larger than the pillow form for both height and width.  I also learned that when working with thin fabric like this quilting fabric...lining is important.  So I did my first sewing project with lining ever.  Double the cutting was daunting but it amped up the quality of the pillows so much that I will never lett extra cutting get in my way again.  

These two pillows were the most work.  The back pillow is pink and plum (looks kind of brown here).  I wanted a stripe but couldn't find anything I liked so I made this one out of two broadcloth fabrics from Joanns.  The colors might not seem to make sense....but they will.  (The colors are in Big Blooms...but there is so much going on with that fabric that the striped pillow probably still seems out of place) I was the least sure about this pillow...how it would look...but it turned out to be one of my favorites.

The little pillow is the last pillow I made.  I FREAKING LOVE IT.  It's not perfect.  But I feel so accomplished, I love it's cute size and this fabric nearly made me cry when I saw it in the store.  It is a Kaffe fabric.  There are two of these little pillows.  The back is a solid corduroy.  I didn't make the welt...that might have blown my mind this weekend. I bought the pre-made stuff at Joanns.  

My next big learning experience/project is Roman Shades from scratch.  I was going to start tonight but I need a break.  I have learned everything I (think I) need to know to get started from talking to my Mom and from House Beautiful's Decorating With Fabric.  I highly recommend that book for any one that wants to learn to make any basic fabric projects.  Pillows, shades, curtains, slip covers, table cloths/skirts.  

Happy Marathon Monday!

Etsy Find

I am usually luke warm about anything made of zippers but this is cool.

It's the little things...

About a month ago Sean requested something better to hold coffee than the zip locks I was putting our bulk coffee in.  I didn't want to end up with a tupperware like solution which (no offense Sean...if you ever read this...) is what he probably what he would have defaulted to.  So I jumped on it.  I stopped by Pier One.  I wasn't overwhelmed by anything they had but they were having a good sale to I picked my favorite in the sale section.  Turns out...this little container brightens my day every time I see it.  Who knew?  I love it.  I don't know exactly what it is but it makes me so happy when I see it.  I think it is the shape that makes me happiest.  It's just cute.  Anyway, it is surprising how the little things you add to your home can make such a difference.  This is one I really didn't expect.

Cool fabric site.

I love discovering/being referred to new fabric sites....especially when they have tons of fabrics I haven't seen over and over and over.  I spent the latter part of B's nap exploring Fashionable Fabrics.  I am mostly looking for fabrics I can use in B's room...or just some inspiration for B's room.  I am having a tremendous amount of luck.  Here are a few I bookmarked:

Similar to my feelings about the plates picture from this post, I think this is sweet and pretty but it probably wouldn't make the final cut in my home.

I guess I got the small thumbnail of this one.  I love the color yellow and the pattern...so I guess I like everything about it!

I love the combination of colors in this fabric.  

I really love this elephant fabric but I don't have any commitment to elephants...I just love how they have patterns in the silhouettes.  

How cute is this pillow?

While searching for ideas for Brady's bedroom I came across this pillow.  It is adorable!

sukanart on Etsy

So I was thinking

I have a large amount of space between the top of my kitchen cabinets and my ceiling.  I want to do something interesting up there.  Right now it's just a haphazard storage space for serving pieces I don't use every day.  I saw this space:

I love the layers created using only white and glass.  Simple.  Love it.

Done with a little color :  

above three via www.littleredshop.blogspot.com

I also like this idea:  Plates!

urbangraceinteriors.typepad.com

This is one of those ideas that looks great to me but I can't picture doing it myself.  I wish I was that person b/c it looks cool....but I am not.  Bummer.

Anyway.  As I was looking up inspirational photos for kitchen cabinets and I, of course, saw a bunch of the below style and here are a few things I have been wondering about kitchens with open shelves.

kitchenbuilding.com

I think it's so clean and crisp but....what does it look like when its picture isn't being taken?!  It can't be that great looking.  I mean, half or more of my dishes are always dirty/in the dishwasher/being used.  Also....kid's plates?  Not cute to display...not mine anyway.  That is my first concern with open shelves in a kitchen.  

kitchenbuilding.com

Second concern...that is a lot of pressure to have cute dishes.  I would feel pressure to get rid of everything I own (not everything) to get all beautiful matching dishes.  My coffee cup collection...it's a collection not a set....would have to go.  PRESSURE.

remodelingguy.net

Third concern...how would this type of kitchen affect resale value?  I wouldn't say this style is happening enough to not be considered a trend.  I think it would make the house less appealing to the majority of home buyers because installing kitchen cabinets is not cheap!  Right?  Risky.  If we took out cabinets to do shelves I imagine I would feel inclined to store the cabinets in my basement to sell with the house.  

 What do you think about open shelves in a kitchen?

Trim is frustrating!

I just finished my first pillow with trim and I.am.frustrated!  I am taking my frustration out here...sorry.  RAH.  I hate when things don't turn out like I expect.  Terrible.  Disappointing.  I used large ric-rac to get a wavy trim.  Bleh.

I need a teacher.  Volunteers?

Good night.

How to give your house a bad haircut.

One of my favorite courses in college was "Home as Work of Art".  I learned a lot about different styles of houses and how they have developed over time from mud huts to mid century American homes.  This class not only expanded my vocabulary (it was like learning a new language!) but also gave me an appreciation for how the facade of a home looks.  

You have seen this type of roof, right?  It started off as a little pang.  Something irked me. Something feels wrong.  It shouldn't, though.  This is how we grow up drawing homes, right?  Well, the pang wouldn't go away.  It grew.  So I decided I better figure out why my pang was turning to detest.  

screen shot from google maps street view

The difference between the two roofs is subtle but the bottom of the first roof cuts in.  Why does it bug me so much? It feels so much better in the above picture.

What does that cut in remind me of?

I have literally been trying to figure that out for months.  Here is what bugs me.  This house had its bangs trimmed too short.  Right?  Or her bob was cut too short?  It's a bad haircut. Too short.  The eaves cut in and cut off the flow awkwardly.

I have seen these 50s bangs work on maybe a handful of people.  They often cut the forehead off strangely.  Do you see what I am saying about the house yet?  No?  Try this image.

Now?  This 20s bob is actually cute on her, in my opinion, but I SERIOUSLY doubt it would work on me or....most people.  And I would bet money that every time you get it trimmed..it feels too short and wrong....like the roof.  

So that this post isn't just a big complaint...I do have a favorite roof.  I have two.  I love the Mansard roof and the Hipped roof.  I think Mansard's are elegant.  

from Scientific American Supplement via chestofbooks.com

I like to look at a Mansard roof.  I dream, however, of owning a one story house with a low pitched hipped roof.  I think my favorite thing about a house with this roof is that it does as little as possible to interrupt the horizon.  They are low and flat and feel like they occur almost naturally.  It's so peaceful to me.  

via chapmandesignassociates.com

Made it Monday: THE Ikea Rast Hack

If you are a design blog reader you have probably seen this project already.  If you haven't seen it I have two confessions right away.  I copied this project almost exactly from a few blogs (this hack is everywhere...I don't even know where it began) and I made Sean do all the heavy lifting.  My only contributions were discovery of the project, dresser assembly, and hardware ordering and installation.

The dresser is by Ikea and called Rast.  It comes in raw wood with wood knobs.  I copied this project exactly because I was so blown away with how different it looked in the end and how polished looking it is.  Also, I don't trust myself to come up with something better and I have learned that I learn a lot from just doing.  Build a little confidence...then take a risk.  

With a little stain on the frame (walnut..thanks to Sean), painting of the drawer fronts (thanks to Sean) and new hardware we now have two of these:

Oops..that bottom left ring is up.  You can see B's little hand putting some candles up.

I have two thoughts now that they are done and in use.  I might be interested in a different color than white....but I am enjoying it in white right now.  Makes me feel like a grown up.  Why is white scarier than any other color to me?  Second thought...if I had really thought it through I would have filled the original drawer pull holes and made new ones so the ring pull could be centered vertically.  Maybe if I ever paint it again I will do that...good enough for now.

We hung up the TV!  We ended up putting it on a wall that makes it CLEAR that it's a TV.  There is a doorway on the left and a window on the right.  No disguising it.  But if we watch TV we have a view of B's playroom (off to the left) which we agreed would be nice.  Also, it allowed for the best arrangement of the furniture.  The room feels bigger and there is a lot of floor space in front the TV for B and kid2 to play.  I haven't given up on trying to make it less "TV!!!!" and more "Oh, there is a TV there."  I have some fabric panels I am going to frame and hang above the TV.

I have to admit that when we bought these I had no clue where they would go.  I loved the look so much it didn't matter.  We had something else under the TV and just tried these and they work a lot better.  They are a few inches shorter and just feel more natural than what was there before.

Happy Monday.