Decor, cooking, organization, all the pretty things
Aquamarine earrings (lust lust lust) Kahili Creations
Vintage bird barrettes – Sakura Kitty Creatives
Vintage blue buttons – Vintage Sew and Sew
Vintage earrings – Vintage Aspect
Teacup – Emily Lynch
Vintage hankie box – Swan Song Antiques
I work at the dining room table and in the morning there is a half hour period where the light coming through the glass doors is just blinding. As soon as the leaves all fall off the trees it is only going to get worse.
The way the room is situated (when I am sitting at the table) there is a big window behind me and the glass doors to the left of me. I have sheer curtains on the window that go all the way to the floor but nothing on the glass doors. I think I originally put the curtains up to see if I liked them before committing to do the entire room in them. Then, as I am wont to do, just never got around to finishing it.
I'll never match the curtains now so I decided to just move them from window to the doors. They are sheer but they should cut the light enough. Plus our neighbors house is on that side and they can see right into the dining room so I'll get some privacy too.
I took them down and jiminy were they ever disgusting. They looked all innocent, hanging there, but they had accumulated about four years of dust. I hand washed them in the laundry room sink and let me tell you that water was grey. Ick. And they had that weird smell screens get. It's a perfect day for drying outside because it is quite breezy and sunny.
I also washed some unmentionables but I'll spare you that visual. I had a scary moment when a blouse blew off the line and Rick said that my undies were in the neighbors yard (he was kidding).
Yesterday I had the day off. Actually, let me back up a bit. I was SUPPOSED to have the last two weeks off. It has been a busy Summer at work and my big project was winding down. I scheduled to take the first two weeks of October off. No big plans ~ just working around the house and not logging into work. Just time to unwind.
My partner on the project was set to back me up on the last few items that needed finalizing. And two days before I was set to be off he got appendicitis and had to have emergency surgery. He has been out ever since. So much for my vacation.
I have managed to work just a few hours each day but it's just not the same as leaving it all behind for two straight weeks.
But back to yesterday. I did manage an outing. I worked for a few hours in the morning then picked my cousin Claudia and my sister Trish. We drove down to Monterey and met Nicki at Tarpy's Restaurant in Monterey.
Tarpy's has an interesting history. The restaurant is in old house in the area known as Tarpy Flats. Named after Matt Tarpy, an early rancher in the Monterey area, who was lynched in the 1870's when he was arrested for the murder of his female neighbor over a property line dispute. He claimed it was an accident but he was hauled off to jail and during the night he was lynched by the town folks.
We had a lovely lunch (mixed greens, apple, candied pecans and Gorgonzola for me) and then poor Nicki had to go back to work but the rest of us headed into Carmel for a little window shopping. Carmel Plaza has a fabulous Anthropologie (and great sales going on right now).
I left my camera at home so the pics above are courtesy of Flickr Favorites.
Of course I'm feeling a bit cheated about my vacation, especially since I already turned in my time card for the time off. I also have to take a lot of time off between now and the end of the year or I will lose the vacation time. I'm thinking of taking every Friday off until then end of the year. I just have to see how that flies with my boss.
Think of all the projects I could get finished if I had three days off each weekend.
I've started working on my Halloween costume. I can't say what it is because someone likes it to be a big surprise (sorry for the glimpse, Kate).
I will say it involved dying garments black. I love how the different fabrics (with their different fabric contents) took the dye. It was exactly the effect I was going for. I want it to be various shades of plummy greys.
I never realized how stinky Rit Dye is and how hard you have to scrub your sink to get it off after you are done.
One last hint about the costume – It started with an accessory. The Nicole method of coming up with a Halloween costume. I found this perfect object and am creating a costume around it.
I finally got around to putting out some Halloween decorations today. Didn't I say I was going to do that weeks ago.
I had to take a trip up into the attic and poke around in my Halloween box. I had stored the crow away and some wonderful black and orange harlequin candles. Here's a tip for you – don't store candles in the attic if the temperatures routinely get over 100 degrees during the summer. At least I had them in a plastic bag.
I did find replacements though. Sparkly pumpkins!
This morning when I woke up at 6:00am my son was still up. He suffers from terrible insomnia but that's not what this post is about. I asked him if I could make him some breakfast and he said bacon and eggs sounded really good. So I hopped in my car and drove to our little local market.
While I was there I spied these great oil cloth bags. I've been eyeing the 'green' bags that every grocery store has but they just didn't appeal to me asthetically. I'll be the first to admit that if I'm going to be a good global citizen I'm going to be stylish doing it.
So I threw this one into my cart along with my bacon, orange juice (and Diet Coke which is the real reason I was at the store at 6:15 in the morning).
When I got to the check out the store manager rang me up and he handed the bag to the bagger. I explained to him that I need to actually PURCHASE the bag before he started stuffing my groceries in it.
I actually am well ahead of the curve on this trend (and let's all hope it's not a trend – but a way of life) because I used to walk to the store with this bag all the time:
I like these bags because they have a little pocket sewn on one side that you can throw your wallet into.
They are a bit pricier than the bags the supermarket sells and honestly we just want to avoid putting more plastic and paper in the landfills so they don't have to be pretty.
But is sure makes me more apt to use them when they are. This is the next one I want to get:
I've seen them in various stores and boutiques but here's the website if you're interested (the website prices are cheaper than I've seen in stores but you have to pay for shipping). Another thing to note is that they are bigger than the average grocery store "green" shopper bag. And they are very sturdy. And very fun.
Project No. 8 of the online art retreat was a simple embellished card. The small flowers were supposed to be made using rick-rack but I didn't have any in the colors I needed so I decided to make little ribbon flowers instead.
The little flowers remind me a bit of flor de fuxico only on a teeny scale. I found the directions on some website and now I can't find it again. I wanted to show you how they are made so I had the bright idea to do a tutorial.
Ribbon Flower Tutorial
Step 1. File fingernails and trim off ragged cuticles so it doesn't look like you work on cars for a living.
Step 2. Cut five 1-inch lengths of ribbon. I am using 1/2" wide craft seam binding from the Martha Stewart Crafts line. Have a threaded needle ready.
Step 3. Fold ribbon, making a mitred edge.
Step 4. Fold mitred edge in on itself, so the ends of the ribbon line up together (this was hard to photograph…). Don't worry about the ends of the ribbon being the same length as we are going to trim them anyway.
This is how it should look:
And this is what the back looks like:
Step 5. Thread the petal on the needle just slightly below the triangle top of the petal.
Step 6. Trim the ends of the ribbon about 1/8" below the needle.
It will look like this:
Step 7. Leaving the first petal on the needle, repeat the steps with the other four pieces of ribbon.
Step 8. Now pull the needle through and gather the petals as tight as you can. Pull a stitch through the first petal so you make a circle of petals and stitch down in the back. I'm really sorry this picture is blurry….
There you have it. A little ribbon flower.
Step 9. You can stitch on a few beads or a teeny button in the center to finish off your flower.
