Woven Art

I've been going through my house and cataloging all of the objects/ art that I have made over the years...

I created this piece while I was in the process of getting my Masters degree.  I don't know what I was thinking as it took me months and I should have been focusing on school. 

It's my take on a tapestry/quilt, but a little more architectural.  I took a rectangular chicken wire and wove strips of roughly cut fabric through the openings.  I sparingly painted a 4'x2 1/2' sheet of Oriented Strand Board and mounted the wire to this sheet with metal washers.  It was a simple, but not quick, project.

Basement Game Center

It's funny how basements seem to have a mind of their own and, against all my attempts to the contrary, try to revert to this base being of storage and mayhem.  What I have found that works to combat this bad behaviour on my basement's part is to create designated activity areas.  I created this Game Center to force some order in the basement and provide a bit of game storage as well. (Don't forget to look at my simple directions on the last photo!)

This game center has worked really well at focusing a portion of our basement towards something other than storage.  The pegboard works really well as a cheap and easily customizable backdrop for the darts game, and hanging storage for our pool table goods, and other  games.

This Game Center has actually been hanging in our basement for 3 years now, but I don't think it has aged badly at all.

New Light Installed

New Dining Room Light

Old Dining Room Light (We kept this for way too long!)

With the light on

As mentioned in this post, I bought a couple of items for our house and it only took my husband and I a couple of months to install!  We removed our old chandelier that came with our house (we've been in the house for 5 years now) and installed our new light that is a hardy plastic form that took a  couple of hours to put together while I little son slept.  The light reminds me of a ball of white ribbon candy.  It is a, much needed, improvement in our dining room.

Birthday Party- Fall Theme

My son just turned 18 months old, but I never did share some of the things I made for his 1st Birthday party, because I started this blog after the party.  I thought I would share a couple of things now.

I created this invitation using Adobe Photoshop and had it printed at Walgreens for next to nothing.  It fit neatly in a standard invitation envelope.

Wilton has this cupcake shaped cake form that I used to create my son's cake.  I whipped up my own blue icing and decorated with lollipop sail boats that ended up being too heavy to sit on the cake.  You can by the cake form here.

You can see a fall theme with the colors and I took advantage of my son's October birth date to gather a number o fpumpkins and gourds to decorate the party.  We enjoyed them for weeks and the house stayed festive until Thanksgiving.  I couldn't believe some of the gourds could stay fresh for so long!

I saw this crepe paper streamer idea at My Paper Crane.  The idea was to sew the streamers together and create a ruched look.  Turns a $1 streamer into a really nice looking decoration.  I made yard after yard and it took me about an hour to make all of them.  I added a few craft paper  garlands as well that were my own creation.

Finally, I bought cheap paper lanterns at the Paper Lantern Store to decorate our new deck outside, but the foul weather changed my plans and we quickly strung them up over the buffet table.

A Slideshow of Inspiration

images via Stefano Buonamici for The New York Times

I am craving outdoors spaces at the moment because our weather has been perfect for the last week.  You can go here to see a couple of photos of our exterior deck that we added last September.  I have been getting a lot of lunch time use out of it for the past few weeks.  I love tile flooring in exterior applications, shown udner the table in the top photo, but it does not work well in freeze-thaw environments.  I can only dream!

A new slideshow has been added to the NY Times Styles section that shoes a great multiple story home that I could just drool over.  I currently have boxes of books in our basement just waiting to be put on a bookshelf like the one above.

Happy Birthday to ...ME!

Created by Anthropologie via Anthro membership

It's my Birthday today!

I have received numerous fantastic gifts from loving friends and family.  I have, also, received the inevitable Birthday postcard from my dog's vet.  Hmmm.  However, one of the biggest surprises was the gift I received, shown above, from Anthropologie because I am an Anthro member.  It is a fantastic necklace with a little candle on it.  How cool is that?

If you are yearning for your free membership to Anthropologie, go here!

Great Gift Ideas

via little bit funky on etsy

oh my! handmade goodness has a great list of Mother's Day gifts and images here.  

I think one of my favorites is the towel shown above.  I believe that the shop name says it all.  (I'm a little but funky too, so I can relate!)

Paper Cup Labels

Have you noticed that I changed the design of my blog a little bit?  I decided to give it a bit more punch.

via the kitchn

The kitchn on Apartment Therapy had a little post about the many uses of cups for parties.  They have this great link to a free and downloadable paper cup label.  I think you should try it out!

Mail Anyone?

via Ohdeedoh

This is so cool.  I love the simplicity of it.  You can go here to learn how to make this great wall mounted mailbox.  How fun would it be to have a mailbox for each family member?  You could put important information in the mailbox for the kids so that they won't forget to take forms back to school.

Breezy Anthro

via Anthropologie.com

Something about this outfit really drew my eye.  I tend to be a bit obsessed with the crispness of white pants, but  too terrified to buy them.  You can see the whole catalog here.

It's a Shower!

My Mother-in-Law hosted a bridal shower this last weekend and I helped with a few tidbits.  We dined at Club Soda in Fort Wayne, Indiana and enjoyed a scrumptious meal with a few cocktails.  We were surprised with a couple of free desserts at the end of the meal.

Place Holders

I used the sidewalk chalk eggs that didn't quite work to hold each name tag for seating assignments.  To do this I simply cut a slit in the top of a half and egg with a serated knife.  I then created each name card using the same style that I had used for the invitations shown here.  Since we had this party on the day before Easter we took advantage of the holiday and had little ceramic bunny/ egg holders by each setting.

Club Soda

Bride-to-Be (Sarah) with her Grandma

The Party-goers!

We had a blast at this party and I felt like it was a nice and relaxing way to celebrate with an intimate group of girls.  Little preparation required with a lot of atmosphere as live jazz music started on the floor below us at around 9:00.

Small Style

 "architecture is the great book of humanity,
the principal expression of man in his different stages of development,
either as a force or as an intelligence"

-Victor Hugo The Hunchback of Notre Dame

I wrote my architectural thesis on modular and demountable architecture, so I really love this idea.  IKEA has teamed up with ReadyMade to show "how your style can fit any space".

via ReadyMade

This is a traveling exhibit that you can see for yourself by looking at the cities and dates here.

Recycle Cards

via stephmodo

I saw this post by stephmodo in my google reader today and had to pass it on.  It is exactly the inspiration that I have been looking for on how to recycle letterpress or other types of cards.  For the past few years I have been saving my favorite Christmas cards to do something with.  I have memories as a child of collecting especially gilt and intricate cards to stare at.  Now am inspired to create tags for presents from these cards!  It recycles them for more that one use and cuts them down to a more modular size for storage.  I am nothing if not thrifty and orderly.

If you need some fancy punches you can go to your local craft store or online to a plethura of sites.  Additionally, Impress Rubber Stamps is having a sale online for 20% off anything in their store. Enter the code “annual sale” to receive your discount; this sale ends on April 11th.  I fancy the Extra Giga Scallop Circle that is available here.

Ho Hum Day Inspiration

Dealing with a bit of sickness in the homefront and in need of some inspiration.  I think these will do nicely...

via Layers of Meaning & Ohdeedoh

Favorite Posts via Other Blogs

via Warby Parker

Design Mom had a post about the Warby Parker site where you can order mutliple pairs of glasses to try on at home (for free) and ship back (for free) and order your favorite pair (with lenses) for $95.  I can't believe the price.  There is so much demand, however that they can't ship you the try-ons right now.

via Oh Happy Day

Oh Happy Day posted these fantastic save the date balloons.  I love the idea and I love the letterpress as my letterpress obsession continues.

via handmade charlotte

handmade charlotte showcased a concept car for a soapbox derby kit.  Does this come in an adult size too?

LEGO Chick

via LEGO.com

LEGO stores have free mini model building session each month.  This month you can build a LEGO chick and take it home with you for free!  It is on April 6th at 5:00 pm and lasts until they are all gone.  I wish we had a store nearby as my husband is obsessed with everything LEGO. (But really, who isn't?)

See details here.

Little Chair Makeover

via Rambling Renovators

Here is a great post about making over a chair here.  I love the colors and you have to check out the before pictures.  It's a great transformation and makes me want to go to a flea market in the near future.