Fame and Glory

Speaking of mantels. . . Remember my Christmas Mantel?  It is currently being featured on Better Homes and Gardens  in a slideshow along with 18 other great mantels.  It may be Spring, but I am thrilled none-the-less. 

Go check it out!

Welcome Spring! Do Come Inside. . .

Despite the constant downpour, the strewn branches and uprooted trees around here, it is actually starting to look like spring.  My daffodils and hyacinths are sprouting up, and the flowering plums are turning pinker by the day.  But the rain tends to drown out my sunny, spring spirit. . . so I had to bring a little sunshine indoors.

I thought I would start with my mantel and family room.


I picked up some herbs at the store yesterday along with some glass candlesticks and baskets, and a large bunch of lilies--all light and airy, like spring should be.

To add a touch of green, hints that things are starting to grow out there, I brought out my green throw pillow and green wool throw blanket.

And despite my husband's complaints that I have too many magazines, I like having them close at hand for the rare moment when I have time to sit and flip through their pages for inspiration--so I filled a basket with back issues of Country Living, and Better Homes and Gardens magazines (among others), a smaller basket with some vintage books, and (in case one is not in the mood to read) an even smaller basket with the remotes.

The lilies work double magic--they look springy, AND they smell like spring also.

On the mantel I layered my paper wreath over the mirrors (again--LOVE that wreath), potted the herbs and stacked them with the candlesticks, and threw in some ironstone for added white (and my chippy little dove too).  Then, because the middle felt kind of bare, I added a couple empty frames. . .

Come to think of it, it feels a lot like last year's spring mantel:

This Year                                                                  Last Year

The biggest difference is the lack of furniture last year (that and the load of sunshine streaming in the window of last year's picture--wish I could have brought some sunshine home in my shopping cart!).  We had a springer puppy at the time and our rug and anything small and "chewable" was taken out of the room.

Similarities aside, it made my whole room feel more airy and light, and THAT is just what I needed.

White, glass, wicker, fresh flowers and herbs. . . these things say spring to me--what says spring to you?

White Love and a Birthday Sale!

Though some people may argue that white is not a color, I argue that not only is it a really GREAT color, it makes a very powerful statement.  Before we opened our etsy store I had not heard of treasuries.  Almost immediately after setting up shop our items began being featured in treasuries.  The best treasuries make a beautiful collective statement.  But I always get a thrill when we are featured in an all white treasury.  This kind of treasury is speaking my language!

Curator: The Wrap Around Porch

I had to share this treasury because I figured if I could stare at it all day, you might like to also. For those of you with etsy stores, do you use treasuries often?  I have only made one, but when I see our things featured in such lovely collections it makes me want to rush out and make one. . . or maybe go out and buy myself a birthday present! (This curator has created a couple other treasuries worth checking out also.)

Speaking of our etsy store and birthdays (since mine was yesterday), we are having a sale Now through Sunday in our etsy store.  Take 10% off your purchase with the coupon code: Spring.   And if you see something that has already been sold that you would like to purchase, send us a message--we may be able to re-create it and include it in the sale.

Happy Birthday to me and happy shopping to you!

***If you are local, Camas Antiques is throwing its own birthday celebration this weekend to celebrate 7  years in business.  Our items will be 10% off there as well.  Friday and Saturday cake will be served and the first 50 customers each day will receive a gift, courtesy of Camas Antiques. ***

Half-finished Project # 532: Dining Room Chair Slipcovers

Today I awoke with a dilemma on my hands. . . which unfinished project to work on.  I bounced from Signe's room, to the laundry room, to the living room, to the guest room and back again, but every project in progress needed supplies--and I didn't want to run to the fabric store or the hardware store, I just wanted to get to work on something.  I finally settled on painting trim in the kitchen/family room.  Mostly because my husband suggested it might be time. . . since we put that trim up nearly two years ago!  But once I got all dressed in painting clothes I changed my mind.  I wanted something with a good before and after picture, and while I could post pictures of the kitchen remodel, I didn't want to post after pictures until it was actually all done AND decorated.  Which left one other thing I could work on.  Something I bought supplies for 1 year and 4 months ago.  Clearly I need to work on completing the projects I start.  It is one of my resolutions for the year actually--Finish all half done projects!  I am very good at the starting part.

A year ago last November I decided I was tired of the black upholstered dining chairs in my kitchen.  So I went out and bought these fabrics (which I also planned to use for accents in my family room):

I picked them to match my Turquoise Fire King dishes:

And this rug (Jordan, Porcelain Blue, in 9X12) I bought at Pottery Barn:

Then I promptly sewed a slipcover for ONE of my EIGHT chairs.  And though I loved how it turned out, I never finished the other seven.  A year goes by, our family adopts a springer spaniel, said springer chews up the legs to my dining chairs (among other things), and the chairs get replaced without ever being recovered.

But the good news is, the new chairs needed slipcovers.  I bought the new table (Provence) and chairs (Anna Slipcover Chair) at World Market a few months ago, but they were out of the slipcovers I liked.  Luckily I still had yards and yards of Robins Egg Blue Linen (Waverly).  So today I set out to make all six covers in one shot.  Otherwise I feared history would repeat itself.  And I almost made it.  Now I have six chairs that look like this:

Maybe tomorrow I will finish the box pleat skirts for the bottoms of them, and give them all a good ironing. . . or maybe a year from now. Let's shoot for tomorrow!

Juxtaposition. . .

Have you ever noticed how many things can be done with an old frame?  A lot.  Over the years I have framed artwork, framed other objects with an empty frame, created three dimensional artwork within a frame, put mirrors in frames, framed fabric, stacked empty frames on my mantel, made chalkboards, made magnetic message boards (made magnetic chalkboards!), and actually put pictures in frames--a lot of pictures.

But I have come up with a few more ideas of things to put in frames. . . and by come up with, I mean I saw the idea somewhere and put my spin on it (though a few I thought I had imagined up I have since seen elsewhere)! This frame idea I actually saw at a wedding.  The frame was displayed with note cards for guests to write congratulatory notes and words of advice that they then clipped onto the chicken wire.

I happened to have a frame just lying around, waiting for me to do something with it (a few frames actually).  I chose this one because I liked the size and I liked the contrast of the more ornate, silvery blue frame with the bare chicken wire.

And because spring and the revamping of my yard and garden have been on my mind of late (I would will it be spring already if I could), I decked this message board out with fun botanical prints and a few sprigs of dried thyme.  I hung them with the tiniest clothes pin clips.

When spring finally makes an appearance around here I will definitely by ready.

I have another frame of similar size and style in the works, and two other ideas for fun message boards I will be working on as soon as I pick up a few supplies.

Going BOLD. . . and Making it Personal

How do you start planning a room? Where do you seek inspiration?  I often like to find some fabric and jump off from there.  With Signe's room we did have a picture of an inspiration room that got us going, but I knew I would need one fun fabric to plan the rest of the room around.  I was having a hard time finding one for some reason--I think because Signe had picked this raspberry red color that she had set her heart on.  It wasn't really pink, it wasn't really red--but it WAS really hard to find fabrics to coordinate with.

Then I stumbled across this really cool website, Spoonflower.com, that seemed to have endless fun and funky fabrics.  After searching all over the site for well over an hour one night I suddenly realized something. . . you can design your own fabric on Spoonflower.  How cool is that!?  You can draw your pattern and scan it, or design it in photoshop or another design program and upload it.  Then you can choose a scale and repeat pattern, and choose from one of seven kinds of fabric to have it printed on.  This might be sounding like an ad--it's not, I am just all kinds of excited with the idea of making my own fabric patterns.  I think this might be the beginning of a long relationship! 

So I set to work drawing up something.  I didn't think too much about how the pictures looked--I was too excited to order something and see how it turned out.  But none-the-less, I like how it turned out.  Here is my scanned drawing:

and here is a snapshot of the fabric:

I plan to use this fabric as a roman shade on her window.

Once it arrived I made a trip down to Fabric Depot--a HUGE fabric store down in Portland.  And despite the overwhelming amount of options there, I couldn't find any coordinating fabrics that were the perfect shade of raspberry.  I very nearly scratched my fabric and picked a different feature fabric--I had one all picked out.  But Rob (who was nice enough to go with me, despite his aversion to fabric stores), convinced me to stick with my fabric.  So we ditched the raspberry and went with red, which still worked great.  I'm liking it.  Here is a little spread of the general idea I am working with:

What do you think?  

There will be lots of white.  Her duvet cover and one of the two shams I plan to make will be mostly white.  And I have almost decided to paint her current twin headboards white (since Hannah insists on sleeping in Signe's room I have decided to stick with the two twin beds instead of finding a full sized Jenny Lind bed, as I originally planned).

Her dark green dresser and side table, however, may be going turquoise.  Because even though their current green color is very similar to the vine part of the feature fabric, I think we need a little more boldness.  We are taking a departure from the current warm and subtle hues, so we might as well do it BIG, right?

Rain, Rain, Go Away. . .

It may be mid February, but I am ready for spring to arrive.  Winter wonder has always worn off by this time and spring seems so close, yet not close enough--particularly when pots of tulips and daffodils grace the entrance of so many stores these days.  Around here February is known for having a little burst of warmth before returning to winter for a couple more months.  Last year we got one good week of 70-80 degree weather, during which my husband and I finished building our raised garden beds in preparation for spring planting.  I have been praying for another week like that. . .

This week hasn't been it.  Instead, Tuesday morning brought snow and freezing temperatures.  We don't get a lot of snow around here, and so even though it was the kind of day we wished for a couple months ago, the window of excitement has passed (especially since school wasn't cancelled, and my power went out for three hours, leaving me no choice but to fold laundry!).

So if spring won't come to me, I will make a little spring myself.  Last fall, about the time I was making my first butterfly wreathes, I got the butterfly bug.  But they were not particularly fall-esque, so I tucked the urge away.  NOW, however, we all need a little of what the butterfly represents--because where there are butterflies, there are flowers, and sunshine, and warm weather.

Butterflies have been popping up all around my house of late.  First in the cake I baked a few weeks ago:

Then in the butterfly garland I started making last week:

And finally (because despite my general un"craftiness," part of me wants to be a party planner--Lisa too, judging by the party we threw our girls a year and a half ago) in the "Spring" banner I made yesterday:

AND the cute little butterfly tags:

It just makes me want to throw a spring party.

Plus it matched my daughter's room so well, it made me a little sad to be undoing all that lovely cream and pale pink in favor of bright whites and bold colors.

But Signe is ready for a change and I am sure her room will be fabulous once we finish the transformation.

What has you craving spring?