Homemade

Way back in the day when I first started my blog, one of my first posts was on these chairs that Aaron bought and refinished, and for which I made chair covers.  Well, it's been almost three years and they have finally made their way out of our downstairs office and into our living room.  Since the old green covers clashed with our new couch, it was definitely time for some new covers!  While I was taking off the old ones I couldn't believe they even looked halfway decent - I really tortured those things while I was making them.  This time around things went much smoother and I made much better-fitting cushion covers.  I don't know when it happened, but sometime in the past three years my sewing skills improved!  Yay!

I know- we went with a kinda boring off-white.  We couldn't decide on a fun color, so we just decided to go with a safe neutral and I bought some fun fabrics for future accent pillows. 

So I sewed away this weekend.  It may sound funny, but I love being indoors on a super beautiful day, in my pink sewing room with the warm sun shining in through the windows.  I can appreciate a lovely day just as much as if I were outside.  :)

Thrifted

I'm not really sure what this is.  Some sort of panel, obviously, but it also has lighting attached to it.  I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I saw it and knew I had to have it.  I'm a sucker for some mid century panels.

 

Mr. Man is going for an industrial look in his office.  He found this chair at the thrift store last week and the printer stand this week.  He also got that Fisher-Price record player.

 

I love looking through old books at the swap meet.  They are so cheap and you can find some really good stuff!  I picked up a French Dictionary and some French visible vocabulary readers - one is from 1936 and the other is from 1893!  I also got some more vintage cookbooks to add to my collection.  I'm going to start experimenting with these soon!

 

I never shared the wonderful presents Aaron gave me for Christmas.  He gave me this pretty mid century magazine rack and sewing stool.  I'd been wanting a magazine rack, but I never even knew a sewing stool like this existed.  I love them both so much!

 

I love the holidays, but I'm glad they are over so I can get back into my normal routine of treasure hunting every weekend! 

White Christmas

First of all let me start by saying I've never, ever, had a fake Christmas tree before.  I've always turned my nose up at them, having been raised in a home allowing only the real deal.  However for the past three years or so, I have been longing for a fake pink Christmas tree.  I saw one in a magazine once and fell in love.  Someday it will be mine, but it's not in the budget this year.  And also, I think it might clash with my pink walls.  So I got settled on this pretty white number here. 

One of my major Christmas tree dilemmas was always to pick out ornaments that didn't blend in with the green tree.  Now I don't have to worry about that -- everything looks good on white!  I love the way the colors pop.  (p.s., like how bright and sunny it is?  Gotta love San Diego.)

Notice those owls nestled in there?  Well today I came home to a bunch of turned down branches and a missing owl.  I have sneaking suspicion as to who took it.  It's not this one below, but her sister.  She is a little mischief maker.

So, I'm not turning my nose up at fake Christmas trees anymore, but I do miss that wonderful fresh pine Christmas tree smell.  Life's tough... you can't have it all ;)

Time for "New" Things

Sheesh It's been a while since I've posted anything new.  I don't know if that is because I'm boring or busy ... or busy with boring stuff.  I think that's probably it.  Well whatever it is, it has really cut into my fun weekend activities.  I did get out to a thrift store a couple of weeks ago and found this lovely mid-century dresser. 

Which, by the way was like meant to be.  I saw it, then went to go find Aaron to show him; he saw it, then went go find me.  He did a quick search to see what mid-century dressers were going for and he found the exact same dresser online for $350.  This one cost us $130.  It's in pretty good condition.  Also, my Ikea dresser was on its last leg.  The drawers were so stuffed that the bottoms kept falling out and the drawers wouldn't close all the way.  There is a down side to this dresser though - small drawers.  People must not have had many clothes back in the day.  Or maybe not so many band t-shirts that they were emotionally attached to, that they never wear, but can't let go of ... ?  Anyway, the dresser sat at the end of our bed for a couple of weeks until we couldn't take it anymore and made the switch.  It was a nightmare condensing all of my clothing, and sadly there were a lot of casualties.  But it's pretty.  And our mid-century furniture collection is growing.  Slowly. 

It's About Time

We bought this vintage starburst clock in an antique mall in Bellingham, Washington. My family finally mailed it to me and I couldn't be happier to have it in my possession.  (Along with my favorite pair of flats that I also left there...boo!)  The clock is so beautiful, we love it so much. 

We hung it in our living room, next to our tribute to Disneyland.

We also made a trip on Saturday to some antique malls in the North County.  They didn't have a ton of mid-century stuff, but I did find a couple of neat things.  These canisters are pretty awesome.  Bummer we couldn't get a whole set.

A set of three super cute little deer figures that I've already distributed around the house.   It's not much, but I guess it's good enough for one weekend. 

Before and After

Out with the old, in with the new.  I was getting tired of our damask wallpaper, as it didn't match anything else in our home.  I meant to decorate around it, but that didn't work out too well.  I still think it was super pretty, but it had to go.  I've always heard taking down wallpaper is a nightmare and I was happy we only had half a wall to de-wallpaper.  But it actually wasn't so bad.  We just sprayed some wallpaper remover stuff on there, waited 15 minutes and peeled away.  Sure, there are a few spots on the wall that have a little extra texture now, but it's a textured wall anyway so you can't really tell.  This picture was taken after Aaron ripped off the chair rail and we peeled back a little wallpaper just to see what it was like.

We painted a pretty new color ("aqua bay"), added some paintings, and presto change-o, dining room makeover.  We finally put up our paint by number paintings.  There was some debate (mostly with myself) about the framing of the paintings.  I thought all the different frames would be cute and eclectic - but then again, our home isn't really the most eclectic place.  In the end I decided the paintings themselves were kitschy enough and stuck with the same black frames that house every other picture on our walls.  Gotta keep it consistent girl.  We have a few more paintings to frame, and lots of wall space to expand.  Now that I can compare the before and after, I think the damask looked a little boring.

It Was a Slow Thrifing Weekend

I did pick up this cute owl clock.  I haven't checked to see if it works yet, but that really doesn't matter.  I also got a metal wastebasket that is pretty trashed (pun intended).  I tried to clean it, but it was a big chore and I hate the way rubber gloves make my hands smell.   The whole basket is made up of metal flowers, so there are lots of tiny grooves for dirt to get into.  Maybe Mr. Amerine will be so kind as to try to clean it up for me.

We went to an estate sale that sounded promising, but it was a bust.  I got some more vintage buttons, but that's it. Oh, and one more thing:  You never know what you're going to see at the dirt mall.  I guess someone really likes ... Christmas?  And a lot of crap on their car.

Vintage Treasures + Home Organization

I'm happy.  I had a super fun day yesterday shopping with my mom.  She wanted me to go with her to pick out two new pet rats and, while we were in the area, I wanted to go wander around the swap meet.  Unlike me, my mom likes the new booths and when I pointed out a large area with vintage items, my mom expressed her dislike for such things.  However, to my surprise, she dove right in there in pursuit of old books, enamel brooches, and other knickknacks.  She even said she had fun!  And she still spoils me, just like when I was little.  We found a 1950's version of Alice in Wonderland, three vintage brooches, and a pair of clip-on earrings.  I've liked thrifting since high school, and Sir and I go regularly, but I think I want to go a lot of more.  It's so exciting finding that diamond in the rough.  The enamel brooches really make me happy for some reason.  I think I see a collection in the works...

 

The rest of the weekend was spent organizing my craft room.  I feel like I'm always organizing and reorganizing, and never crafting - maybe organizing is my craft... I also worked on organizing our downstairs office since it was a mess (it's where Mr. Man spends his creative time).  Well, here are some random pictures of my home organization progress.

Caramel Corn + More

I am SO sad this weekend has to end.  It was nice, calm, and relaxing -  I spent a lot of time baking, making, and creating - going at my own pace, doing whatever I wanted.  Saturday night I went to a friend's house to watch the UFC fight, which was pretty uneventful, not like I care one way or the other- but I got to spend time with her and her super cute baby.  I also made this caramel corn.  I've made it once before and it's super yummy and easy to make.  Check it:

{Caramel Corn}

2 bags (regular sized) popped popcorn

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, cubed

1/4 cup dark corn syrup

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp backing soda

Place popcorn in a large bowl (remove any unpopped kernels) and set aside.  In a medium saucepan combine brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, and salt.  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a rolling boil.  Cook and stir until the temperature on a candy thermometer reads 238° (soft-ball stage).  Remove from heat and stir in baking soda.  The mixture will foam.  Quickly pour over popcorn and mix until all popcorn is coated.

Spread popcorn evenly over two large greased baking sheets.  Bake at 200º for 45 minutes, stirring once.  Transfer to waxed paper to cool.

- - - - - - - -

I also spent countless hours making pom poms.  I didn't know what I was going to do with all of them, but then I found this pom pom wreath on another blog and decided to make it.  It's kind of retro looking.  I like it.  I ran out of yarn (5 skeins) so I need to get more to finish it.

- - - - - - - - -

I also wanted to share my swap meet find from last weekend.  This stool was only $5.  It was a little rusted, but with a little elbow grease, Sir and I got it looking decent.  I had to do some spring cleaning this weekend.  I have five chairs in my pink room now!  I love buying:  chairs (Sir loves them too!), side tables, plastic cups from Target, milk glass, knickknacks, and little dessert plates.

Bookkeeping

Maybe I have too much time on my hands... OK, I do have too much time on my hands. But that's a good reason to keep things organized. For too long I had kept all my ticket stubs in an old makeup bag kept inside a shoebox. But I'm one of those people who actually likes to look at all my old trinkets, so keeping them hidden away wasn't really working for me.

Who knew that you could buy albums to keep your ticket stubs in? Like this Ticket Stub Diary. Well, obviously not me. I bought this book for business cards and turned it into my own ticket stub keeper. At the time, I thought it was a pretty ingenious. For some reason it only occurred to me afterward to see if such a thing actually exists.

I filed away all my little ticket stubs by year: concert, plays, comedians, and authors in one, and movies in another. As you can see, I went to see the band Incubus a lot in 2002. I was a little obsessed.

Turns out, I really love books... and magazines. But a couple of years ago, I realized I didn't like combing through dozens and dozens of magazines to find that one article, picture, or recipe I liked. So I turned my magazines into a book. Well, two books now. I call them my "magazine books." I know, imaginative, huh? A lot of the content is from my favorite magazine, Bust, and the now defunct Jane (so sad.) It seems like all the magazines I like eventually shut down: Jane, Blueprint, Domino.

I love having all of my favorite magazine clippings in one place. And because it's all stuff I love, I never get tired of looking at it, and I reference it frequently. Here are a few pages.

Shrine Time

Being that it was the first weekend in October, I was really excited to start my Halloween decorating at home. I really wanted to put up a Dia De Los Muertos shrine for my Grandma and my kitty, Miette, who died last Halloween. My shrine isn't that great, but it's a start. I'm not a very good Mexican - It definitely needs more color! I will keep working on making more paper flowers and papel picado (punched paper). Cutting the papel picado was the most time consuming, but they turned out really pretty. I also made some more felt skeletons, Halloween colored ranunculus, and black crepe paper roses to take to work. I love Halloween so much!

Home Improvement Weekend

1. Top I made, 2. Second top I made, 3. New Bathroom floors, 4. Pink Sewing Room, 5. Tea & Cookies, 6. Sugar Cookies.

This weekend was a busy one doing stuff around the house and whatnot. We have been in our condo for about a year and a half now and we are still not done doing everything we want to do. We were really gung-ho in the beginning, but then we got tired and ran out of money, you know how it goes. Then of course, I change my mind a lot. I've painted the kitchen twice and I feel another change on the way... I really like color, so I pick out all these colors and then I freak out because I feel like there are too many colors going on. So basically right now most of our interior walls are a really light blue/green, which I love. Our living room is light pink, the same color I just re-painted my sewing room this weekend. I love it. The room was blue and gray before. Now it feels so nice and warm and inviting. Which is good since I was trapped up there for five hours yesterday while we got new carpet installed on our staircases. It was a ugly beige before and now it's a dark gray. It is my firm belief that all carpet is hideous, however, it was our only option for the staircases. Speaking of ugly flooring, we also removed the beige linoleum in the bathrooms with some pretty white lacquer-ish flooring. Thank God that is gone and the transformation is almost complete.

Being trapped upstairs wasn't a complete waste of time though. I hung out with my kitties, made two tops, had tea and cookies, and watched countless episodes of "A Haunting" on the Discovery Channel.

Sadly, there was one casualty during our home improvements this weekend. While I was removing everything from the walls before we started painting, an antler on my fake deer head slipped from my hand and shattered on the ground. I will have to get a replacement when funds permit, but this one was a gift from Aaron and he even spray painted it pink for me. It was a sad day. RIP my deer.