Today's entry is just a little peek of a project that stayed for a long time merely imagined and today came to be with the help and encouragement of Lauren, she of the awesome last name. What you see is an up-cycled, slightly over-sized women blouse I thrifted with the intent of cutting into.
I will not get into much details about this project here for two reasons:
1. my pictures are not styled or lit properly, I finished the project at 4:45 pm as all good light had gone.
2. I am going to visit Chicago for a few days! Alone! to visit a girlfriend. Did I mention I was leaving the boys behind and therefore going alone! very exciting business. On the last day there I will attend a Bernina seminar. We the attendees were prompted to bring something to share and after a moment of abject panic I buckled down and sewed the blouse. Nothing like a deadline to make you create. Finn gave it an "authentic" grade. I think he is trying the word out for size.
Much more about the shirt, pattern, alterations when I come back from the windy city next week!
Here you go, my buffet is finished and I convinced Thomas to help move all the furniture in the office around. I needed a place not backed by a window for a photography set-up and the Ikea furniture we bought six years ago needs either a face lift or a trip to better pastures. I used Valspar paint + primer in Woodlawn Colonial grey in super matte. On other projects I had no problem with peeling and lifting paint but this time around I should really have sanded the piece thoroughly before painting. If you so much as graze the paint with your nail you run the risk of a large flake coming up. A good thing the finish is rustic ( liming wax and clear wax) and can be touched up really easily or I could say goodbye to the piece. But as it is now, sitting pretty and renewed it's just lovely.
My wish for a nice neutral background/shelf to stage photographs came true, you win some you loose some I guess. This post will therefore be long and picturesque! Starting with the calligraphy project above. I have been writing many notes to family and friends since taking up calligraphy again. For hours I work on envelopes that I cannot show here, which is a pity really since I am so passionate about improving this skill. The solution presented itself while listening to a fabulous audio-book with Finn. The story of Edward the china rabbit completely took us by surprise and I spent a long time after the sound had gone out meditating on the story and working on this little piece. Next I would like to try my hand at Sherlock Holmes, Eloise, Harry Potter. If you have any suggestions for interesting addresses don't hesitate to comment.
I took advantage of the camera set up to shoot a few antique and thrifted items I have had laying around. The handful of keys came back in our suitcases this summer; I store them in a tiny crystal glass picked up from Goodwill. The sterling inkwell is a gift from my aunt. I am afraid to use it, that the acidity of the ink would pit the metal forever...
The little Royal Copenhagen porcelain medallions also came back from a thrift store expedition, they might be one of my top 10 luckiest finds. They were covered in dirt and pencil marks and lost amongst the dog bowl shelf!
Another item always on "the list" is a good container to transform into a planting pot. The brown and white german tureen is well aged and little brown veins mar the inside, much like the white dish with flaking gold feet. They make the best paperwhite vases in the winter or orchid planters the rest of the year. The hand painted example was my lucky find last week. I have been admiring these 'cachepots' at Cactus and Tropicals but with prices raging between $100-$300 depending on the size, I refrained. My aunt in fact wisely talked me off that cliff, guaranteeing that one day one would be found for peanuts. Lesson here: listen to your aunt/mom/cousin and whatever you do refrain!
To wrap up this overgrown blog post, I will share the humblest of find, a moule à gâteau from yesteryear re-purposed as a bulb planter. I meant to add some the the narrow green candle but they do not blend well with the moss. Something to keep an eye out for on the next goodwill/savers/DI excursion...
The garden is looking more and more like a winterscape this week, but some roses keep enduring. I stole most of them to bring and enjoy inside. They are wondrously scented. The little myrtlewood vase, thrifted from the DI comes from Oregon. I love the word myrtlewood, it sounds Tolkien/JK Rowlings made up...
The boys gave me 6 bushes of these Moondance floribonda for mother's day this year. They looked so promising on the Lowes parking lot. Later I realized that we should have waited and procured the bushes from Western Gardens, but as luck of the beginner would have it they did very well and bloomed the entire summer. To hoping they make it through the winter!
This weekend was spent mostly in my pajamas (again!) with all ten digits covered in ink or paint. The large mirror and the frame for the skeleton keys were warm-up experiments to what has begun: the systematic refurbishing of our beat-up Ikea office furniture. Feeling fairly confident with the matte paint and liming wax antiquing, I have attacked the "buffet" first, as it is the most interesting piece, if you can say that about Ikea pine furniture. Painting an already assembled item is not the fastest way to go about this; it will take about three days before it is two-coats-ready for the liming wax, and then another if I decide to add a coat of clear wax too.
Then it's on to the twin shelves and the horrible desk. The shelves I actually like and feel (maybe wrongly) that they should come together in less time than the buffet... The desk is hopeless but I will gift him new hardware anyway, just to be nice... The end game is to be finished by December 12th, with bonus points if I get it all done in November! About the paint: Valspar super flat paint and primer in one in Colonial Woodlawn grey.
Moving on to the other kind of stains on my fingers... Higgins Eternal Black. After receiving warm words of encouragements from a fabulous florist, I have decided to take calligraphy seriously, practicing everyday so that by next summer I might be accomplished enough to potentially make a tiny living addressing envelopes and such for brides. I am permanently anxious that only Thomas is gainfully employed and worry about what would happen if this or that, you get the idea... Even if those around me do not share my angst I want to see this through. It's interesting and challenging.
The first one of you to find the (mild) profanities above (I broke two nibs in 3 days) wins something!
Maybe it was the rough day finally looking up at 4:30pm but I felt the sudden urge to take a few pictures and write this entry. Of course by then I had exactly 10 minutes to capture the last of rays of sunlight. Daylight savings is not kind to the procrastinator. It's been all up and down at La Maison Lanvers and seeing Finn sick, in pain and clutching his belly all day is just heartbreaking. We are all better now, which is a huge relief for everyone. Hence a little frivolous posting...
First and foremost I finished Quitterie's white baby hat. It is much larger than I anticipated but her little head is certainly growing. It is made of the most wonderful Cotton-Wool mix from Rowan. Very special and never itchy. It only took one 50gr skein which means I could probably make another smaller version pronto. I always feel that any present needs a custom bag, and sometimes one is already there waiting for the perfect gift, convenient! The pattern and my Ravelry notes can be found here.
This strawberry Liberty of London print is just lovely, I might have to make a diaper wallet with the leftovers.
Moving on now to the little things we picked up during the veteran's day sale at the thrift-store. Books mostly, an English deco book and a collection of Nature Science books for children from the 60's by Dr. Glenn O. Blough. The illustrations by Jeanne Bendick are to die for, so are the titles: Not only for Ducks, the story of rain. The concept reminds me of an uber popular independent French nature gazette called La Hulotte. It is written by a former elementary school teacher who is also an exquisite illustrator. It is completely possible that most of my plant and wild creature knowledge came from those pamphlets. They have a facebook page ! it feels all wrong but I am liking anyway!
The little house was unpainted but strangely compelling and cheap ($.99). I am giving it the usual treatment of grey paint. At this stage only the first coat is on. The little gilded box came from a closet somewhere in the house. It was still Ikea meeeh and as I was considering letting go of it the idea struck to make use of the pot of gold used for the bamboo frame. It's considerably more regal now and Finn thinks it's "very beeeeautiful!".
