So it's not rocket science............

So spring break is officially over but my dd is still at home......pneumonia....ongoing. I think she may be ready to go back to school tomorrow, but today was playing Old Maid, Crazy Eights, etc.  
Finally I looked at my newest Somerset Life, talking about clothes hangers, huh? Something I can relate to......I have a bag of wooden clothes hangers waiting for a new life.
And my dd just happened to need new hangers, graduating from the little kid hanger. So I went into my studio and decided to use some things I already had, vintage seam binding, old wooden hangers, etc.
No more irritation with trying to hang her clothes up on too small hangers meant for toddlers.
After all, she's 9 yo now, ready for the full size hanger.
So on this overly stormy, windy, rainy day I kept busy making something very simple and feel good about it......is it earth shattering?
Well,,,,,,,,,,,,NO! But we had fun...... hope you're having fun too!

Hmmmm...now this idea I like!

So I need a new light for my studio....ceiling-type light that is.  Something funky and different, because that's just me, I don't want the predictable or run-of-the-mill, know what I mean?

So I was looking at Anthropologie (who else would I look to for funky lighting?)

And saw this beauty, I guess you'd either love it or hate it, eh? Me, I love a good conversation piece, which this definitely is....now to go about re-creating it because I just don't have that extra $798 (yikes!) laying around....I'll let you know how it goes.....

wish me luck........

Glorious Springtime.....and my best friends birthday too!

What could be more glorious than these springtime cherry blossoms? I can't really think of anything!
We're having a beautiful day here in the Pacific Northwest, warm and soooo much sunshine....and today is my best friend Melanie's birthday. Happy Birthday my friend....hope you're having a super day.
I've been busy creating as my dd is sick at home this Spring Break day, she has pneumonia :( but is on the mend, gotta love meds!

I've been creating some Logomachy banners for my etsy shop...here's a sample, with many more to come. Thanks Mary from Green Paper for the images, they're simply amazing.
Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Sweet and shabby storage boxes........

admittedly they're a weakness of mine. I visited Melanie and we went to Monticello, I found the gorgeous box above, check out the original price tag, .49 at Mongomery Wards, egads! Wish that's all I had to pay for it...but it was worth the price because I get weak in the knees whenever I see these old boxes, this one has lots of fun little compartments inside to house all kinds of little things.The long wallpaper drawers were a Melanie find and she let me buy them instead! Generous, she is! They can either lay the way I have them or set upright in a skinny space, very versatile. I think I'll use it to house my special laces so I won't lose them.This next box was found at Colby Cottage right here in Eugene and it's an old stationary box. There were different embellishments on it when I bought it so I changed it so it's more to my taste. Again, lots of storage in this cute box.

The old clock case is something Melanie found for me when we went up to Battleground, WA. Found a cute store called "Uncovered Ruby", just a gem of a shop. We met the owner's Lisa and Sally, who were as sweet as they could be (they have a website as well with a blog). Great prices and we'll be back for sure!
Well, it's spring break and I'm at home with a sick dd :(. But we're making the best of it, hope you are too!

Ugly bathroom cabinet re-do......

My daughter's bathroom has a very large storage cabinet (built-in) with 4 large drawers below it. We're lucky to have tons of storage in her bathroom, but this cabinet was totally unfinished inside, bare wood and very ugly. I decided to paint it white on Monday, but by Wednesday was realizing the folly of my ways.
The more I painted, the worse it looked....please tell me this has happened to you too!
So I decided to wallpaper the inside instead...at first trying to use my vintage wallpaper (which I have no shortage of!), but then I realized it was just too fragile for this particular project.

So I decided to use the huge pieces from the recent find at St. Vinnies, a huge Mario Buatta wallpaper sample book. These pages are not truly vintage but they look it, and are much sturdier, so I had tons of fun making over my shelves......take a look..
Sorry for the weird order of pics and text in my posts, haven't quite figured out the changes and how to upload properly yet.
Anyway, I now love opening this cupboard because I feel like I'm in a huge hat box! I also love the "anthropologie" look of it.....but most of all I love the fact that no one else in my neighborhood has a bathroom cupboard like mine. At least I'm pretty sure of that :).
What have you re-done lately?

The ugly truth about compromise.....I don't like it...

not one little bit. At least I'm grown up enough to admit that about myself. Sunday afternoon dh was working in the living room and I walked in......he said, "At some point I'd like to talk to you about this room." I said, "How about right now, what's up?" He informed me that he has been less than happy with the migratory nature of items that had been in my studio but that had made their way (escaped, if you will) into other areas of the house.
Now, I try to be very judicial in what I allow out of my studio....taking care to pick items that I hope he won't hate....guess I haven't done a very good job of it. So I started to de-clutter our living room. No more hat boxes and suitcases on top of the armoire (ouch, that one hurt).

Out went some of my antique book collection from the mantel (another hurt). I did refuse to take out my stacks of luggage though, because I love them so.
It's hard when one of you is a collector of "stuff" and the other isn't, but then I know I don't need to tell most of you this! My dh loves antiques, just not always the same ones I do...but I must admit in this case I am enjoying the de-clutter and am even getting rid of a few things that I don't absolutely love.
I guess it's called editing your decor, and it's something I hope to enjoy more of in the future.

Some recent antiquing and thrifting finds.....

So I've been fortunate lately with my shopping (not that I "need" anything, but really what does "need" have to do with it, right?) The album above was found at St. Vinnie's for a ridiculous price and I love it because of the ornate frames inside..............very pretty, a nice alternative to the plain ones.

The egg shaped box was found by Melanie when she was here and she let me buy it because she knows I'm a freak for old boxes...didn't even notice what was written on the back until we got it home. OMG, the "Sugar Plum Candy Shop"? Really now, who wouldn't want to shop there. I googled it but unfortunately came up empty, nothing to be found online about it.The little boy and girl statue was 99 cents at Goodwill, not the type of thing I normally buy but thought the pale blue was so pretty!This victorian era book is stunning, wish I would have taken some pics of the inside, it's just beautiful in all it's taped up goodness.Melanie also found this group photo for me, it's signed on the back with all the students signatures...and the hatbox was so pretty it had to come home with me, I especially love the see-thru ones.

Well, gotta run and pick up dd from school, it's beautiful and sunny (for the moment anyway) here, hope you have some sun too! I'll be back soon with my shadowbox project I'm working on...

Is there a Doctor in the house?

So when Melanie was down visiting one of the places we went to was an antique mall in Springfield that she had never been too. I like it because it has a great range of prices, and we actually found quite a bit there of interest, in addition to meeting "Willie" who took us upstairs (What? I didn't even know there was an upstairs!) It was more a storage unit than anything else and he let us "shop" out of it and gave us some great deals. Mel was on the hunt for certain things, one of them being old Doctor's bags. I must admit I had seen this bag several times before when I had visited this mall but never bothered to look inside it. You can bet I'll never make that mistake again! She nabbed it and I saw it and thought, o.k., it's a Doctor's bag, not really what I'd buy, but whatever. Then she asked me if I had looked inside the bag. I said no.....and so she showed me..........

Then I started crying! OMG, just look at it. So from that moment on I basically made the biggest fool out of myself possible, lamenting the fact that I hadn't found it first, etc. Guess I was good at it because she let me have it. And now it's one of my favorite things I own...I'm now deliberating what to showcase inside it....it is pretty fragile so it can't take tons of "handling" but it's such a great smaller size case and I actually think this was a woman's travel valise based on the floral liner inside, don't you think so too?

Some days it just all comes together in a happy way.....

So my best friend Melanie came down from Portland on Monday and Tuesday...we had our usual great time thrifting and antiquing. Once again she told me (about the 400th time I think) that I needed some kind of comfy seating in my studio. It's not for lack of looking, but more the lack of finding "just the right chair". I'm sure you know what I mean....not too expensive, not too 70's looking, not too big, not too small..do I sound like Goldilocks?
Let's just say I had a "vision" of what I want....and yesterday I found it at St. Vinnie's. They were having a furniture sale and all the chairs were lined up in rows......mine stood out like a flower among weeds. She is so very lovely, great shape and legs, tufted back, muted color, no off smell coming from her. I knew she'd clean up great. Oh, and did I mention she was $14.99????!!!!! HUH? Couldn't believe my luck.
I also found a fabulous Victorian photo album ($3.75) and and huge wallpaper book that I almost passed up because it isn't super old but the papers inside are gorgeous and look hand-painted.
They truly look vintage, if I didn't know they came out of this book I'd think they were old.....
Have you found any fab bargains lately?