Bins and Baking

Today was grey and snowy outside, so it was filled with baking and sewing inside.  Since it's only January and I'm still trying to stay true to my resolutions (just give it a few more weeks!) I finally finished a project that had been collecting dust on my ironing board (...and then on my bookshelf...and then on the floor of my closet...) since September.  I've been meaning to amp up my bathroom storage for a while (read: come up with some kind of storage system at all) and these little fabric bins were just the ticket.  They were pretty simple to put together, and certainly helped tidy up my bathroom shelves a bit.  I'm working on a start-to-finish tutorial, which will be posted soon, but here are my lovely new bins, in all of their organizational glory...

The rest of the day was spent baking bread and my favorite lavender cookies.  Not bad for a Monday, I say!

*The tutorial is now up!  Click here to see it and make a bin of your very own!

I'm baaack!

Hello, world!  I know I've been gone for some time, but the truth is...things just got a little too busy, and a little too crazy, and I took a little hiatus.  Okay, it was an I-dropped-off-the-face-of-the-earth-for-a-few-months-hiatus, but I'm back now and I'm full of ideas!  I spent this lovely Memorial Day in Pennsylvania making some great big plans for the coming weeks, checking out the new fabric store in town, and hanging with the family (and quite a few pugs, of course!)  Here is my day in a nutshell:

 

I jumped in head first with some new projects this afternoon (which, of course, means that I spent the afternoon washing, drying, and pressing the fabric I picked up today) and I just can't wait to get behind my machine tomorrow.  I hope your Memorial Day weekend was as relaxing and family-filled as mine was.  And it's great to be back, I've missed you!

Nesting

Goodness, it has been cold in Cleveland this week.  With the wind chill in the teens and the blustery wind rattling the windows, all I feel like doing these days is nesting.  Nothing beats the chill like a cozy spot to call home.  What this really means is a whole lot of baking and decorating, and a fair amount of spontaneous craft projects.  One such random project was inspired by this tutorial and a bathroom with open shelving.  I took a couple cheap glass containers (each about $1 at Wal-Mart) and treated them to my heart's content (and my family's discontent, as the lovely scents of spray paint and vinegar wafted through the house.)  Here are some before and after shots:

It was seemingly impossible to get an "after" shot without my camera-clad self reflected in the shot, although I suppose that's to be expected, when using a spray-on product called "looking glass."  At any rate, this project was quick, easy, and left me with a burning desire to use up the rest of my can of "looking glass" paint on random household objects.  I held off for now, but I'm sure this project will have a reprise sometime soon.

In other news, our (read: Ollie's) new futon arrived yesterday, and my roommate and I dragged it up the barely-lit-and-also-disintegrating staircase to our third-floor apartment.  With only one legitimate near-catastrophe, and considerably tired forearms, we got it up into the apartment and set it all up.  Needless to say, we were pretty proud of ourselves.  Now that our living room is finally furnished, let the pillow-making commence!  My return to Cleveland has been pretty chilly, but it sure is great to be back in the land of productivity (and cannoli.)  Happy Saturday!

Table fancy

Dearest blog world: I promise I haven't forgotten about you. I know you've heard it all before, but I've just been so busy at school. Not only have I been doing lots of musical things, but I'm officially working my post at the library, as well. That's right, folks, I'm a real, honest-to-goodness reference librarian, complete with thick-framed glasses and a wheeled chair in which to pretend I'm doing actual work.  Life is good!

On the home front, I've been dealing with some minor behavioral "incidents" with Oliver. These have mostly involved raucous trash parties, and some presents of the #2 variety in the living room. I usually call them "incidents" or "on-purposes," because I just know they're not "accidents." But who can stay mad at that face?

I also finally got around to re-upholstering the folding table and chairs in our living room.  This card table and chairs was a wedding present to my parents thirty-something years ago.  I took it with me to Boston when I lived there a few years ago, and my mom helped me re-upholster it then.  While I still love the funky prints we found, they were looking a little worse for wear:

 
I took all of the seats and seat-backs out of the chair frames, and spray painted them gold. This part of the process did not go quite as I had planned, largely because of the plummeting temperatures and blustering winds on my back balcony in Cleveland. I wound up almost completely covered in gold spray paint (as did the back balcony) while the chairs are spotty, at best.  As luck would have it, the set was a golden-beige color to begin with, so I'm hoping I can get away with a shoddy paint job.  Fingers crossed! 

For the upholstery, I used navy blue cotton ($2/yard at Wal-mart) and a sheer pink polyester blend ($1.50/yard at Wal-mart.)  I covered all of the chair pads, as well as the table top, in the navy blue cotton.  For the chairs, I covered the navy with the pink, and I left the table navy.  Cutting out the fabric was simple enough (and I used the previous upholstery pieces as general patterns) but getting the new pieces attached with the staple gun was a battle.  Thank goodness for reliable (and strong-armed) help...I just knew Sean wanted to help me with a project when he visited!  I love the combination of the dark navy, this peachy pink, and the gold frames.  It was just what I had in mind!  Overall, this project was pretty simple: just dissemble the table and chairs, cut out the pieces of fabric to cover the pads, staple them on, and re-assemble!   My favorite part of the new setup is this lacy vinyl overlay that my mom found for me at a local craft store in Pennsylvania.  My original intention was to cut it so that it fit on the table top, but I have yet to do so.  I sort of like the way it looks as a table cloth, so I may try this out for a bit before I snip off the ends.  It sits just under the glass top, and the white lace patterns contrast with the navy table top perfectly.  Since it's vinyl, it wipes clean easily when I (inevitably, and quite often) spill food and/or coffee on it.

Happy Holiday Season, everyone!  I hope you're feeling better than I am today (I'm suffering from my annual "the-semester-ended-so-I'm-immediately-sick" cold.)  But this is giving me some much-needed time to do a little bit of catching up, and Ollie is certainly an adorable sick buddy.  Happy Monday, and thanks for stopping by!

Tablecloth curtains

In keeping with my last couple of projects, I finally finished the curtains that I started a few weeks ago.  I had gotten rather used to them sitting in a semi-folded pile on top of Oliver's crate, but I do think they look better hanging!  They were just so simple, and I'm glad I finished them before the weather really turned to winter here in Cleveland.  Curtains just make everything seem a bit cozier, don't they?

I made them out of some white cotton lining fabric I'd been holding onto for a couple of months, and a teal tablecloth that I found in the clearance section of TJMaxx.  I'm not quite sure what the the tablecloth is made of (it was shelved sans packaging or tags) but I just loved the embroidered detailing...and for around fifteen bucks, it was quite a steal!  Since it was a large rectangular shape, I simply cut it into four pieces (two panels per window) and hemmed the unfinished edges.  To make up the difference in length (since the tablecloth wasn't quite long enough to cover the window) I cut four rectangles of the lining fabric that were about the length of the windows, but with some width to spare (as you can probably tell, I'm not exactly nit-picky with measurements.)  I hemmed the edges, and folded the top edge over two inches to make a casing for the curtain rod.  I picked up some double curtain rods, and that was it!

I just can't get enough blue these days, so I'm loving the added color in my bedroom.  I'm slowly but surely working through my list of home projects...so on to the next!  Happy Friday!

Joy of cooking

As promised, I snapped a few photos of my Pennsylvania adventures, which today consisted of practicing and cooking (pretty crazy, hey?)  Contrary to previous home cooking experiences (I can't even recall the various assortment of "I-just-don't-know-what-happened-I-swear-I-followed-the-recipe" dishes I've served to my family over the years) I spent this afternoon in the kitchen without any major catastrophes.  I made these braised short ribs with this herbed polenta, along with a salad topped with a cumin salad dressing (recipe courtesy of my sister.)  La pièce de résistance (in my humble opinion) was this lovely apple tart.  Mine doesn't look quite as good as hers, but it tasted pretty dang good.  So without further ado, here is a mini recap of my day:

 Okay, technically I took this photo in Cleveland before we embarked on our trip home.  But finding Ollie with his head on a pillow and the rest of him under a blanket (just like a person!) was just too cute to not share.  Just look at that mug!

The view from my morning practice session.  Look at that plant stand my dad whipped up yesterday!

 Mid-afternoon raspberry latte treat made just for me by my lovely sister.

My crowning achievement for the day: apple tart with salted caramel.

 And although he's a bit blurry, nothing says home like a little pug love.  Here, my sister's pug, Abraham, is saying "go to bed and stop trying to take my picture!"  (this was the last of many failed photo attempts.)

With that, I will heed Abe's advice and turn in early for the night.  Happy Monday, and thanks for stopping by!

La maison

Greetings from Cleveland!  My oh my, grad school is busy.  Between practicing, lessons, rehearsals, classes, and homework (what's that again?) I haven't had a lot of time for projects.  But I have been trying to come up with some ways to spruce up the apartment a little bit, and I popped in today to share one.  We don't have much on the walls as of yet, so I hopped onto Google the other day, and sought out some vintage images that I could print and stick on the walls.  Lo and behold, I came across an arsenal of copyright-free vintage advertisements.  (Jackpot!)  I picked out my favorite food-related ads, printed them at the drugstore, and bought some basic black frames at Wal-Mart.  I staggered them diagonally on the wall, along the slope up to the ceiling.

Once all was said and done, each picture cost about $1.25, and the whole set cost about $11.00 Can't beat that!  It was cheap, quick, and easy (right up my alley!) and it really brightened up our little kitchen.

Other than general scholastic busyness, I've been enjoying the beautiful (albeit few and far between) sunny fall days, and finding time to spend with my favorite little buddy, Oliver.  Here is one my favorite photos from this week: Oliver (of course) with two of my favorite fall treats (roasted sweet potatos with cinnamon, and a strong cup of coffee.)

 
It certainly looks like Ollie has an idea about those sweet potatoes!  I've got some more projects up my sleeve for the coming weeks (I'm just itching to get behind my sewing machine again!)  so I hope to be back with more soon!  Thanks for stopping by!

Home sweet home

After spending some time this weekend with beautiful friends in their beautiful apartments, I was overcome with a serious bout of home envy.  As a remedy, I hit the web in search of some new wares for my new (and sparsely decorated) place.  While I didn't make any purchases (yet!)  I thoroughly enjoyed "window" shopping, and I can't wait to plan some projects to spruce up my apartment.  Here are just a few favorite finds...what do you think?

one, two, three, four, five, six

I must just be in the mood to buy kitchen accessories, because that's all I wanted to look at this morning.  (But there's nothing wrong with that, right?)  There's just something cheerful about colorful kitchen accessories, and they make cooking and baking all the more enjoyable.  I've also got a few ideas for home sewing projects forming in my little head, so I hope I will have time to get to them soon.    

After a wonderful weekend, it's well past my school-night bedtime.  I hope you had a wonderful weekend, as well!  Thanks for stopping by!

Yard sale goodies

Since we moved into our house in May, we've been meaning to pick up a couple of stools for the little breakfast area off of the kitchen.  We struck gold this Saturday when we found two wooden stools at a yard sale for $5 each!  What a steal!  Since the fabric on top was a little worse for wear (and plain white, which just wouldn't do) we made a pit stop at Hobby Lobby and picked up a staple gun and some Ikat-printed canvas.  These days, I'll use any excuse to make a run to Hobby Lobby (I can't believe I had never been to one before this summer!)  It's my new favorite place.

All we did was pop off the seats, staple the new fabric onto the bottom, and they were done!  (I didn't even do any sewing.)  They're just what we needed!

We sure lucked out with this canvas...I love the print!  I certainly haven't gotten the Ikat bug out of my system yet.  Other than a few projects here and there, I've been enjoying my last few weeks of summer before I make the move back to school in August.  But for now...back to a lazy Sunday!
  

(Pink) Covered Couches

Hi friends!  I know I've been a little absent lately, but the past couple of weeks have been crazy busy for me!  Aside from a busy work schedule, I spent some time working on covering the couches in our living room.  We bought them from a nice woman in Orlando who wanted to upgrade her living room set.  While they were in pretty good shape (and we got them for a great price!) I had been dying to cover them since we picked them up.  So without further ado...allow me to introduce our couches!

Since couch covers are so very expensive, I decided to cover the couches with sets of sheets that I found on sale.  Since I wanted to buy the sale sheets (which meant I had to mix and match brands, sizes and colors) I decided to get all white sheets and dye them myself.  Sean and I decided on red, since we have a red fireplace on the opposite end of the room.  Here is where the project got a little complicated: it turns out that it's almost impossible to dye such a large amount of fabric red.  After many runs through the washing machine with boxes and bottles of red dye, my sheets turned out a lovely shade of cotton candy pink.  Oops!  So in an effort to minimize the pink (because it's a whole lot of pink) I added some strips of blue fabric across the arm rests and seat cushions, and I covered the back cushions and pillows in contrasting blue fabrics.  Since I mixed so many fabrics, it distracts from the pink, and it looks so fun and festive!  While the pink is still taking some getting used to, we love our new couches!  

Happy Wednesday!  I hope to be back with more to share soon!

Holiday morning snapshots

Happy 4th of July!  I hope your plans for the day include food, friends, sunshine, and sparklers.  Since my day includes working, I took advantage of my morning off by bumming around the house.  But since it is July 4th (and since red, white and blue is one of my favorite color combinations) I'm sharing some of my favorite red, white, and blue photos from around our house.

 

Happy 4th of July!  Go have fun!

Literature lamp

Happy Monday!  I've been spending all of my spare time trying to get our house put together, and I have a pretty long (and perhaps overly-ambitious) list of things left to do.  First on the list was "living room lamp makeover: take two"  We got these lamps as part of a living room set, and they were a little too "beach hotel" for my taste.

Now that's a lamp, right?  So for my first attempt at a lamp makeover, I tried to do some color-blocking, by dividing the lamp into three sections, and painting one grey, one yellow, and one shiny gold.  I thought this was a genius idea!  Until I realized that the beachy hieroglyphics underneath were really highlighted by the colors, and the finished products lovingly became known as the "cheese lamps."

So my second (and hopefully final) attempt at a lamp makeover involved a book, some scissors, and some Mod Podge.  I wanted to choose a classic book, so I hit the local Good Will, and found the perfect book: James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl (one of my all-time-favorites!)  I cut a bunch of pages into strips, and stuck them on with Mod Podge.

So after this super-easy (and perfect for sitting in front of the tv) project, we have our new "literature lamps!"

I love catching glimpses of this classic book on my end-table, and I just had to include some snippets of the illustrations.  I love our new lamps!

I've been working on some other home projects, which aren't quite ready to be shared yet.  But I had to share this photo of my favorite buddy, and it's a little sneak peek at another project to look out for this week!

Isn't that just the sweetest little face?  Happy Monday and thanks for stopping by!

Happy Easter!

Hello, friends!  I hope you all are having wonderful and relaxing Easter weekends.  I saw this marbleized egg-dying technique on the Martha Stewart website, and have been wanting to try it ever since.  My mom and I had decided not to really dye eggs this year, but when I mentioned I wanted to do these, she ran out and bought some white eggs and a color kit.  They were so fun to do (albeit rather messy!) and they actually came out sort of like the pictures on Martha's website (which is a miracle, considering my track record with Martha's projects.)  Here are my perfectly imperfect marbleized eggs:

  

Aren't those little bunny candle-holders adorable?  These eggs were the perfect festive project for me today, and I love them so much I don't want to crack them and eat them!  Now if only I could get enough of the dye off of my hands so that they resembled human hands again, I'd be one happy girl.  I'm sure that will happen eventually.  Anyway, happy Easter weekend!

Easy-peasy heat pack

I'm back today with another simple project to share (can you tell I'm avoiding my big project?) that I made the other day.  My mom and I put together a little care package to send to my sister in Rhode Island, and I stuck in a rice-filled heat pack that I made from some leftover batik-like fabric.  Here is how my little project turned out:

I made the actual heat pack from some lining fabric, and created four rice-filled compartments.  I sewed up the pack completely (to prevent from rice spilling out all over the place) and I made a little slipcover that can be removed (in the name of cleanliness!)  and closes with a strip of Velcro.  I just love the leaf-like print on this fabric!  This project was so simple, quick and cheap...I may just have to make some more this week!

I'm planning on devoting some time today to re-building my project gallery (the blog tab formerly known as "Things I've Made".)  Through my technological prowess, I magically (and quite accidentally) deleted the entire tab yesterday.  So that's definitely on the agenda for today, along with the conclusion of what I like to call "Project Procrastination."  Now that I've successfully cut out all of the pieces for an adorable dress pattern-and let them sit on my ironing board for at least one week-it's time to tackle that project.  Wish me luck!  Happy weekend!

Ruffled-up duvet

This was one project that I never really thought I would finish.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I bought the fabric and started this project almost two years ago.  Yikes!  Time flies when you're...procrastinating?  While keeping up with my spring cleaning initiative, this was the mother of all spring cleaning projects.  It's been eating up space in my sewing room, and it's been on my to-do list for an eternity.  If you don't believe me, take a peek at this post, in which I posted a teaser photo of my beloved yellow ruffles and implied that I would finish it soon.  (Maybe I wasn't right about the "soon" part, but better late than never!)  So without further ado, I present my labor of love: the ruffled-up duvet cover.

 

I was inspired by this duvet cover from Urban Outfitters and in a moment of ambitious insanity, I decided to copy it.  I hit up a major bedding sale, where I purchased a bunch of sets of sheets for around $20.   What a steal!  And two years later, I finally have my duvet, and I'm thrilled and relieved!  I'm also thrilled that I'm now (more or less) caught up on my started-and-then-abandoned projects.  So now it's time to start something new and exciting!  And in case you didn't notice from the first photo, this duvet cover is puggle-approved.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, and I hope to be back with more soon!  Thanks for stopping by!