Archive for the ‘Color’ Category

The Great Gatsby and a few other things…

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

Is everyone as excited as me to see Baz Luhrman’s The Great Gatsby? It comes out May 10. I am all about period movies based on classic literature. I think it is my favorite movie genre ever. I’m in love with the clothing from this time period. Have you seen the Prada sketches of costumes for the movie floating about on Pinterest? Every time I watch this Gatsby trailer I want to chop my hair off and lose 20 pounds. LOL I am of course on the lookout for some Gatsby inspired clothing.

I have been extremely lucky in finding some new clothes this Spring that I just adore. They are not 1920′s but they feel vintage and maybe even a little Gatsby to me. They sort of make me want a Mint Julep.

I am just crazy for subtle, feminine detailing in clothing. I also really enjoy clothes that look period or even a little costumey. I get that it’s not everyone’s thing. In some parallel universe, I think I just might be a costume designer for the movies:) This is a 100% cotton eyelet, peplum top with a scalloped sleeve from Ann Taylor Loft. I have to admit that I had just about given up hope on Loft. Their fall/winter stuff was all synthetic materials and no vintage feeling clothes at all. I am so happy I “happened to check them out” again. They are just about the only convenient clothing store (other than Target) to me so I will most likely forever continue to walk through Loft even though I have a love/hate relationship with it.

Here is another one from Loft, 100% cotton, dotted Swiss t with an eyelet panel down the front and 3 little buttons on the back.

This mint, 100% cotton, peter pan collar shift has row, vertical pleats (That isn’t the right word. Granzie, help me out…what is that called? It escapes me right now.) and khaki highlighted, open work/hemstitching (not sure exactly what that’s called either) down the front.

This one is from Boden. It’s 100% cotton, dotted Swiss with a peter pan collar and scalloped button placket. I will most likely wear all of these with jeans.

The shoes are from dsw.com. It’s a brand new to me called Chelsea Crew that does some very vintagey looking shoes. Yay! I saw these shoes and had to have them even though I don’t wear heels. These are very comfortable and great for someone like me who loves the look of heels but doesn’t have the sort of life for heels (they are very low+wide=practical). I’m wearing these to the grocery. With jeans. I don’t care. I’m not waiting to dress up to use them (because I really never go anywhere that I need to dress up). I have always wanted t-strap shoes, they are just so old fashioned. These are synthetic (not leather) and therefor, pretty reasonably priced. The hat was $10 from Target. Oh no! Hats on beds is bad! Thanks Drugstore Cowboy for giving me a hats on beds phobia (Carey, this movie always makes me think of you <3 ).

PS The flower duvet on the bed is a recent consignment find that I’m absolutely crazy for. I got a whole set of Liberty of London for Target bedding from the Consignment shop next to the Farm Woman’s market in Bethesda a few months ago. It was a great price AND my mom was so kind to spoil me and buy it for me

I’ve been messing around with some Masterpiece Theater inspired hairdos in an attempt to feel inspired about keeping my hair long when I see Gatsby. I’m so not kidding. When I walked out of Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge movie I knew I needed a belly button ring. I didn’t even like the movie, but it was so visually inspiring. PS This hairstyle was super easy.

Um….I’ve never posted a pic of myself in the 3.5 years I’ve had my blog. Awkward. I wanted to post this for 2 reasons. #1 My Grams face-timed me by accident last weekend and I was sick and looked awful. I promise I don’t always look soooo horrible, Grams (plus, I was taking a pic of my hair anyway). #2 This is the other shirt I bought this Spring from Boden. It is synthetic, but it has a peter pan collar and horizontal, row pleating/what-sits? And the color is just darling.

OK, so the name of this post should actually be: Holy Cow! I bought five shirts! Such a splurge but I’m happy I did it. Sometimes it just feels good when it’s my turn to be spoiled.

**Pin tucking! Thanks, Nora Those are the pleated what-sits I was thinking of…**

Posted in Beauty, Clothes, Color, Costumes, Movies, Shoes, Uncategorized | No Comments »

More Nesting

Sunday, February 10th, 2013

While Darling was gone for work last week, I rearranged my cookbooks again. I threw all of my misc. papers/bills in this picnic basket (I’ll sort that part out later). I decided to put the flower pots on the small ledge to prevent me from piling papers on there again.

I replaced these knobs again (I bought them at Homegoods. All 8 glass knobs were purchased for $20). The previous glass flower knobs broke immediately after installing them (just poor quality). We haven’t had any pulls on this drawer in ages! It is so nice to attend to small projects sometimes.

While Christian was in NYC last week I also cleaned off this counter top. I thought I had better take a picture of it because it may not last long. I realized that since I am in the kitchen a ton and in particular standing at the sink, looking at a clean surface directly in front of me is wonderfully inspiring. My mind feels a lot less cluttered.

Did I show you this yet? My disco ball (made from dismantling a spinning one from the basement). I am copying Nester of course. Not everyone is a fan of the disco ball. But I don’t care. I am loving it for now. When the sun sets, I have magical polka dots all over the walls. It makes me happy.

Remember this lovely creamer and sugar bowl I got in the fall? I just found the matching teapot ($12.99 at Homegoods). Put a bird on it! LOL. Are you watching Portlandia?

I threw away my rusty bathroom garbage can (yay!) when I brought home this lovely ($20 at Homegoods). It is glass and so lovely.

This is our new door mat from World Market (I think it was around $14 shipped). It’s so happy.

I threw away our old, hot pink bath mat (the kitties had peed on it about a million times before Totoro was diagnosed with diabetes) and purchased two of these at Marshalls ($35 total). I am so happy with them. They really make the bathroom look a lot more put together.

Here was my one real splurge. New sheets. My favorite! They are light blue with tiny white polka dots (Ralph Lauren from Homegoods). They are so precious and mix and match with all my other linens so nicely. I just couldn’t resist. I’m seeing a pink and blue theme today!

I know it seems like I have been to Homegoods/shopping a lot lately. I kind of have. BUT these pictures are really from the last couple of months. I am missing garage sales and flea markets right now. When I go to Homegoods etc, I try to keep it to a minimum and only buy one item per trip, just my favorite thing. Sometimes this is difficult to do but more frequently I walk out of there with nothing at all. I always use cash that I have made from my afterschool care or dog walking (extra jobs) so I feel good about buying these treats. I love working on my home and I often feel like it needs constant updating/replacing of small things that are worn out, rusty, broken or just gross. Right now I am on the hunt for a new kitchen garbage can. We didn’t buy a diaper geenie or anything for Mila when she cam home, we just used the regular trash can (it is 7+ years old anyhow). So yeah…it needs replacing. Yuk.

Today I did some paint touch ups on my pink sewing cabinet and Darling caulked/fixed the gaps in the crown molding in our bedroom. He also finished the patches/painting from where we moved the sewing shelves! YAY. These were small projects that have a big effect when all done together in one room.

Posted in Bed, Cleaning, Color, Decorating, Organizing, treasures, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Baby/Children Clothes

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

I’ve been eating a lot of chocolate and haven’t slept well in about 4 nights, so my thoughts are moving almost too quick to capture today. I apologize ahead of time, I hope this post will be coherent!

Let’s talk about kids/baby clothes for a minute. I love to save my kids’ baby clothes/blankets etc. (For excellent inspiration for saving baby clothes, look at this blog post-it’s to die for! Yep, it’s in Finnish, just look at the pics . For me textiles are as good as (or better than) pictures. When I hold a baby outfit, I can feel and smell and think all the same things that I did when my children were wrapped in those darling fabrics. I have a fairly complex process of going through clothes when Mila outgrows them. 1. I pull out any clothes I can’t part with for a keep sake box 2. I wash/pack up the rest to pass on to our baby neice 3. When the clothes come back, I sort through them to decide what I want to cut up for quilts/crafting or re-purposing 4. I try to consign what I don’t want to keep for crafting 5. I donate what Lucy’s Consignment doesn’t want 6. I cut up the clothes for crafting purposes. Today, I finally made it to this round of step #6. Let me show you some pictures!

(problem posting this pic?)

I am going to cut these pieces into 5×5 squares. This is what I will make into a keep-sake quilt.

I changed my mind and couldn’t bear to cut this one up. It’s Italian travel/landmarks/scooter fabric. I love the colors, I love everything about this.

This is a brim from an 18-24 baby hat (Gymboree 2005 or 2006). I think it will be just darling as a detachable collar (almost to be used like a necklace) for Mila. I will probably shorten it and put some kind of pretty closure on it. I love the detailing/rickrack and fabric/colors. It’s perfect because it already has fabric stabilizer in it to make it a little stiff , it reverses to a co-ordinating fabric and it is basically the perfect shape already. *I think I am going to try and make it into a peter pan collar.* I am inspired to make some detachable collars for her after seeing The Well-digger’s Daughter on Netflix/watch it now (you must watch this one for the clothes, they are so lovely!). I also want to do a crocheted collar for her (like this).

This is the rest of that hat. Hmmmm…Im not sure what to do with it yet. It looks like a cozy for something? Or a pin cushion? Or what? Can’t decide, but it’s too pretty to throw away.

Here are leg elastics from the matching bloomers to this outfit. Look at the details! They made these with co-ordinating fabric trim. I love that. I love the love that goes into that. These type of details are missing from today’s clothes. Or maybe it’s just Mila’s size? Are clothes getting less cute/not as well made the older she gets? I think I am going to make these into hair elastics.

Gap has a new Peter Rabbit line. I would have bought all of this, if they had made it in her size:

Aren’t they just darling? Why didn’t Gap make the Peter Rabbit line in bigger sizes? Why do they assume we want to dress our three year olds like they are teenagers? I feel like emailing them! Are you seeing a color theme here? I think I am loving pink and yellow!

Guess what I ordered for myself from Boden?!?! The scallop trim shirt (in yellow) and the casual cable cardigan (in soft red/pink). I adore the fabric (both are 100% cotton) and details and colors of these two items. They look vintage inspried to me. I just hope they fit properly! I wanted the scallop trim shirt last year and was sorry when I didn’t get it. So I was super happy to see they brought it back this year.

I cut these felt Miffy heads to patch onto Mila’s dirty knees. It was a Pinterest idea of course. I am terribly obsessed with bunnies right now. Like this pillow and this wall decal and this wallpaper (I don’t think they sell this anymore) and all of this bunny stuff from Maileg. Oh and I ebayed this adorable bunny night light but what I really wanted was this expensive Miffy one. I also can’t get enough of fawns and foxes. Thank goodness for Pinterest. If I had my shop or my own children’s clothes line, it would be nothing but bunnies, fawns and foxes right now.

**Have you ever seen Olive’s Friend Pop childre’s clothes (I think I have posted about them before)? I think they are literally the cutest, vintage inspired clothes out there. Way out of my price range, but so inspirational.**

I love the colors, fabrics, details and design. If I had a shop, I would sell this. Look at the bonnet! **After a little research, I realized this company is no longer in business. Isn’t that a shame? I wish I could start a children’s clothing company with clothes like this but priced more like Gymboree!**

***PS***If you want to make some lovely vintage inspired baby clothes, you can find lovely patterns at Oliver and S.

Posted in Clothes, Color, Crafting, Crochet, Etsy, Fabric, Kids, Movies, Organizing, Projects, Sewing, treasures | No Comments »

My favorite trash truck

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

I’m not kidding! It is painted the prettiest, Tiffany-box-blue.

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Pretty inspiration…

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

It is hard to be inspired when you are fighting off Lyme. But I am doing my best to feel inspired again. I have to eat lots of chocolate and drink lots of coffee My doctor has recommended b-12 injections. My vitamin levels are all off and they found the MTHRFR genetic mutation. Does anyone else have this? I am a little confused about it. Anyway, I am hoping the B-12 shots will help me to feel normal again. My sister had one once and said it was the best she ever felt in her life. Wooooohoooooo! Can’t wait!

Anyway, I am working on a bit of an idea…I always talk about having a nice material shop…Actually, I would love half the store to be a coffee/bakery too. So you could hang out and shop for super nice crafty stuff, maybe meet up and have crochet/knitting circles, classes etc. Anyhow, I am not sure how I would open a business like that right now….I looked it up and to order wholesale from Free Spirit, you need to order a minimum $1,800 worth of merchandise. That is a lot of money. Then there is the problem of an actual retail space. I could sell on etsy of course or perhaps get a booth at Chartreuse? I have thought a lot about it. What if I started doing some home parties? I would bake some goodies and have tea and coffee and all my friends can come and bring a friend…I have never heard of anyone selling fabric this way, but why not? Right? My friend suggested that I just order the fabric I like online and pay full retail so I can order a little bit and not plan on making money the first time. I would just sell it for what I paid for it. So I can start somewhere and just see what people like and what works. I would probably sell some nice patterns that are only available online and maybe some other high end crafty stuff like this German Glass glitter or wool felt. Maybe I would make up some craft kits, like fabric cut and ready to make a quilted pillow or something? I will also probably make up some example projects with the fabric etc. Maybe I could build up a client base like this? And in a few years think more about retail space?

What do you think?

I am thinking of trying to do it in February. February is a long, Winter month with little inspiration…what if I had had my fabric party then? Everyone needs color therapy in February, right?

Will you come?

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Fall Clothes

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

Mila’s 3T fall clothes collection is growing. Most of this has been thrifted or bought at garage sales. I purchased a few super end of winter season items from Naartjie and Gymboree (my limit per item is about $7 for new…unless I absolutely have to have it. Like the iris petti-skirt. The color is so rich, it is to die for! It was $15 on sale)…and that is the gray velvet coat I got from Boden on clearance last spring (I kind of wish I had gotten the purple one now…oh well). The colors are so beautiful together. I love seeing all the fabrics in a “collection.” There are some soft pinks, but more blues and purples and even some warm oranges and a sea glass green that seems to work as well. I LOVE fabric. I love mixing colors. I love having a color theme for a season. And then everything mixes and matches in an unexpected sort of way. I know I probably over think it…but I love thinking about fabrics/textiles.

I have a much harder time getting inspired about clothes for me. I have decided to try and approach buying clothes for me the same way I buy clothes for Mila (I have so much fun with clothes for her). So my theme for the fall is “The Edge of Love.” Yep, that movie I always post pics of! If I can think my clothes like I am trying to build a costume collection that is in the flavor of “The Edge of Love,” then I am very inspired. I am not wearing lots of gray and black this year. I want to have fun with my clothes. Even in the fall/winter. I have always loved costumes and vintage/period clothes. But I have never taken the time to dress in a way that reflects this, like I really want to dress. So I am going to work on that (and I’m not going to spend a ton of money doing it). And I don’t care if it is kind of crazy or sometimes it may end up too costumey…that is the only way I will learn what works and what doesn’t. Here is the beginning of my “fall collection” :

The shirt in the front I bought with a TJ Maxx credit ($16) and the one in the back was thrifted at Unique ($4). I love lacey-feminine things. I hope to make these work for the fall by layering them with sweaters etc. I think mixing these with some chunky sweaters and tweeds and fun things will work. I hope. I may fail. It will at least be an interesting failure though.

Posted in Clothes, Color, Fabric, Projects, Thrifting | 2 Comments »

Life

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

I am into spray painting cheap finds.

Getting rid of black in the house.

From my garden.

E and I went to the Luckets’ flea last Sat. This is what I got.

Chocolate cake happiness.

New work shoes (slippers).

Pretty new jammies.

Nigella’s sunblush tomatoes.

Mantel progress.

Finally filled this glass thrifty find.

So here are the pretty parts of the last week.

There have been a lot of not pretty parts here lately. Lots of doctors, lab visits and an MRI. Liam’s Lyme disease seems to be responding very well to the antibiotics and he is like his old self again (truly, I could cry with happiness). Now that he is taken care of, I have some time to try and figure out a list of unusual symptoms that I have been having. After the crash course I have had in Lyme this last month, I suspect I have Lyme as well. Almost 3 years ago I had a mysterious insect bite that the doctors couldn’t decide if it was a tick or spider bite. It looked as though someone poured acid on my arm. In the end I was treated for a spider bite. Some of the symptoms I have go back 2-3 years. And some are from the last 4+ months. Earlier this week I was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor. It is benign and in the scheme of things it is not that bad. The treatment is medication….for the next 15 years? I am fine taking medication on a temporary basis but not for 15 years. It does explain some of the long term symptoms I have had. But not the pain or tiredness or sensitivity to light or headaches or chills or dizziness. But in my research, I have found that this seems to be a common tumor for people who have had Lyme for a while. I have seen 3 doctors so far and keep getting passed on to a different specialist. And mentioning Lyme is like saying a dirty word. Noone wants to talk about it, every doctor says it isn’t their area of expertise and I should see a Rheumatologist, Infectious disease doctor or Lyme doctor. Really? The trouble is that health insurance companies don’t recognize Lyme doctors yet. And an Infectious disease doctor won’t see me because I had a negative Lyme test (this is common if the bacteria has been in your body a while). And Primary Care doctors don’t have accurate info on Lyme. I am having a hard time mustering the energy it took to get Liam properly diagnosed. I haven”t given up. I have two more new doctors scheduled for June that might be able to help. But in the meantime, I have to live with the pain. That makes me mad. Because if someone would just prescribe me 3 weeks of doxycycline, I might have relief within a couple of weeks.

I had Lyme disease when I was 14 yo. I couldn’t get out of bed. I had headaches non stop for over a month. I remember crying and asking my parents to drive me in the car so I could fall asleep. And they did. My parents finally took me to a Neurologist and they prescribed antibiotics for Lyme even though I tested negative (this was in CT so Lyme was not unheard of). I was like a new person within a month.

I give up. For today;)

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Freshening up the house for Spring

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

New door mat. Target $12.99

12 Geraniums for $26 from Costco. I filled all four of my big planters out front!

Kitchen sink rug. I like the pink in it. 50% off at Jo Ann Fabrics. I hope the cats don’t pee on it! What is with them lately?

Posted in Color, Decorating, Flowers, Garden | No Comments »

On my bed…

Sunday, March 27th, 2011

I am CRAZY for this color combination right now. I used to put this blue blanket with all white sheets. I didn’t love it then. Now I put it with these bright pink sheets and I absolutely LOVE it. I can’t get enough of this light blue with bright pink.

Posted in Bed, Color | 2 Comments »