Under a Blue Moon

Friday Favorites

Black, Cream and Gold ◊ Untitled ◊ buttons ◊ make a~

Along with my laptop giving up the ghost I lost all my links – including anything I've collected over the weeks for Friday Favorites. So I come to you empty handed today. I am so sorry about that.

It will probably be a few weeks before I am back up to running normally. I like to pay for things as I go. So while I could pop into Best Buy and pick up a new laptop I can't just pay cash for it at the moment. So I'll wait until I can and things will get back to normal scheduling.

I do not have any plans, as of yet, for this weekend. To be perfectly honest I'm feeling a little down about the issue with my car, and now my laptop and various work worries. I know they are completely superficial but still they do have me feeling a bit sorry for myself. I'm feeling like I just need a quiet weekend where I can regroup.

I can't just leave this on a negative note so let's end with some gratitude. I had a lovely dinner with my father last night. My youngest son was there as well (along with Rick and I) and I made red snapper and we had a lively conversation. One of the many things I'm grateful for is my father's health and sound mind. He is 92 years old and just as sharp as ever.

My sister and her husband are on a once in a lifetime European vacation and she is sending daily missives on their travels and it is so fun to come along, vicariously. She includes dozen of pictures with each email so it's almost like being there. Although I'm sure the gelato tastes better in real life than it does digitally. I've been printing off her emails so I can share them with our father. He is getting a real kick out of them too.

I hope you have a splendid weekend planned. Happy Friday everyone!

RIP Laptop

Just as Mercury was coming out of retrograde he took a final swipe and took out my laptop. It served me well for four years but the hard drive just gave up. I did have some warning and was able to frantically back up my files before it completely quit on me.

I even had a repair guy come and spend an hour and a half trying to resurrect it but to no avail. He didn't charge me for the visit. I think he felt bad for me.

So until I get a new one posting is going to be a challenge. I'm writing this on an 8 inch tablet which is kind of like texting you a blog post.

Photos will be the trickiest because I can't edit them. I can manage to transfer them from my camera to my phone and then email them to myself and then download them to my tablet. Just typing that wears me out.

Bear with me while I sort this out.

Match bottle

I want to share a fun thing to include when giving someone a candle. I love giving (and receiving) candles. It is a perfect hostess gift or if you are trying to keep your budget low but want to up the special-ness of a gift.

I have seen similar bottles of matches for sale at the likes of Anthropologie and Sur la Table for $15.

Oh heck yeah I can make that. I think this should be a new blog series.

I created the labels using images I found on the Graphics Fairy website and printed them up on plain printer paper. I altered the colors using Photoshop Elements. The fonts I used are Swistblnk Banthers, Dagerotypos and Traveling_Typewriter. I am mentioning them because I love fonts and always appreciate when they are listed in projects. So for my fellow font lovers they are linked below.

I mocked up the labels in MS Word. I suppose I could have done it easily in Photoshop Elements but it doesn't play nicely with my printer so I used Word instead.

I ordered the match strike stickers from Etsy and bought the bottles at a craft store. I liked the square bottle the best. Made them look less crafty to me.

The caps on the square jars were turquoise so I first primed them and then painted them to match the labels.

You can order colored matches on Etsy but they are pricey. For full disclosure I faked the pink and green matches for photographic purposes. I did find white tipped matches for a reasonable price though, and I think that would look prettier than red tipped matches with the pastel labels. Just make sure your bottles are an appropriate size for whatever matches you use.

Here is the list of resources:

Friday Favorites

Summer vignette 03 ◊ sew-easy-close-up ◊ Pretty Plates ◊ LADUREE TRUCK

Isn't this a feminine house. I am fairly new to Leanne Ford (last to know anything…) but we did just start watching the show she does with her brother. Some of her designs are a little out there (maybe for TV dramatic effect?) but for the most part I like her aesthetic. Her house I simply love.
Isn't this a lovely kimono? I have a thing for them – I have a full length vintage one I wear as a dressing gown but it is rapidly falling apart (those darn big sleeves catch on EVERYTHING). I also like the idea of them as a light outerwear piece. The lavender one is pretty too.
LOL! Oh how I love Celeste Barber
A Sunday Dinner From c. 1913 Recipes. Okay – this is a longer video than I usually share but you just need to stick with it. A young woman (early 20's) who has quite the following on her vintage sewing YouTube channel, decides to recreate a Sunday dinner menu from a 1913 Women's magazine while in period appropriate clothing (she even whipped up an apron the night before, for crying out loud). To her own admission she only possesses a modicum of cooking expertise but she gamely attempts ten different recipes. It is hilarious, intentionally or not, to watch the kitchen become increasingly a disaster as she works her way through each recipe. In the end she pretty much accomplishes everything she set out to. She is adorable and honestly now I want to attempt to recreate an entire meal from another era. Wouldn't that be a fun Sunday dinner concept? Here's the accompanying blog post with recipes

Happy Friday the 13th!

Are you superstitious? I'm semi superstitious. I don't exactly believe but I skip the cracks just in case, you know.

We have a no plans whatsoever type of weekend this week. The weather is going to be Springy – sunny and low 70's so perhaps a nice drive somewhere. Although we did drive all over the place last weekend. I thought the rain was going to prevent us from going to the architectural salvage yards but it let up enough to make a run for it.

There are a couple of architectural salvage yards in Berkeley. One is just stupid expensive and the other is getting up there. I want to build a greenhouse out of salvaged pieces and not have it turn into one of those million dollar projects. We looked at both places and then went out to the parking lot and got on Craigslist and found a pair for sale in nearby Benecia so we drove out there and bought them for $100. We still need a few more pieces for it to come together.

Anyway – that was a segue – back to the weekend. So no plans but that is generally my favorite type of weekend. Oh yeah – I still have to fertilize the roses.

Guestroom

I find that I tend to take pictures in the same location in my house. Kitchen table anyone? The light is fabulous there so it's my go to spot to take photos. I thought I would move into a different room today. I know I showed the guestroom in the house tour I did when I started up the blog again but it's a pretty room and I thought it deserved a closer look.

Look who made it home with me yesterday. I couldn't resist. I've always loved brass. He's just as handsome in person as he was online.

This room is pretty much the same shape and configuration as our master bedroom. Both are a decent size and have a lovely bump out where the window is. We have a comfy loveseat in this room where in the master we have my vanity and an arm chair. This room has the added advantage of an attached bathroom which I think is nice for guests.

The nightstand on the right used to be my dad's. At some point in my teen years it was moved into my room and I painted it blue. When I moved out I stripped it and just had the bare wood (a fabulous mahogany or cherry) for years. When we moved here I painted it white. And what a chore that was. No matter how much primer I put on it bled through. Even though the other nightstand is white it isn't exactly the same white so I want to paint it to match. I like how they are mismatched in shape but I want the white to be the same. Which is the same as the headboard that came out of some hotel. Annie Sloan Pure White. Absolutely the perfect white.

I hope you can read that – the pillow says "beloved" on it. Just how I want every guest to feel when they come visit us.

This drawing is just about one of my favorite things. When I first started dating Rick (39 years ago!! Sweet flipping Buddha…) his mother had it hanging in her hall and oh how I coveted it.

I mean look at him! That hat! Here's a closer look. Can anyone identify the artist? I can't quite read the name.

Edited to add: Mystery solved thanks to my friend Kimber. The artist is Vincent Capraro.

She gave him to me a couple of years ago. I think two of my favorite possessions are this drawing and the painting she did (above my piano if you want to go search back) when she was 18 years old. Those are my "if your house was on fire" items.

This is one room I am totally satisfied with. I'm itching to update other areas of the house but this room I think is really lovely just the way it is.

If anyone wants to visit just let me know. :)

Sunday week prep

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was trying to use Sundays as the day I prep for the week ahead. During the week I live and breathe in my bullet journal. I track everything I need to accomplish for work, personal appointments, anything and everything I need to focus on for the week. But come Saturday and Sunday I don't even crack it open.

I generally have good intentions of getting things done but let's be honest I'm more a fly by the seat of pants kind of person on the weekends. For example I have been meaning to fertilize our rose bushes for going on three weeks now.

There is something about having my daily to do list written out and checking it off that just makes things get done during the week. I suppose that is the entire concept of keeping a bullet journal. Write it down so it isn't forgotten or that you aren't vague in your intentions.

So what do I want to get done on Sunday? Well I want to set up my bullet journal for the upcoming week for starters. I want to do my breakfast prep for the week. I want to water the house plants. I want to meal plan. I want to put fresh linens on our bed. All of these things make me feel like I can face the week fully prepared.

You would think that if I have the same to do list every Sunday it would just become a habit and I wouldn't need a list to go by. But that's not the way my personality works. I get all enthused about a routine and then three weeks later it is out the window. I'm hoping by using my bullet journal on the weekend that I'll get these things taken care of. It's very satisfying making those check marks.

So my plan, and goal, is to have my regular chores listed along with the various things I hope to accomplish over the weekend. They needn't necessarily be chores – it could be a lunch date with Rick, or a birthday celebration, a visit to some interesting place. Make the time for things and they will get done. Especially if there is a check mark involved

And of course there are the miscellaneous chores like fertilizing. Which I still haven't done yet even though I'm on here yapping about it.

« Previous Page