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bedroom remodel part 2

Awhile back we decided to paint our bedroom and give it a spruce up.  Initially I planned on a gray and yellow color theme .... BUT then I realized that I can NEVER keep to a minimalist theme of any kind.  I like color way too much and everything I own and love is pretty much in bright happy colors.

So, yellow and gray turned into anything goes!  Like usual.

We found this cotton quilt at Marshalls and I fell in love with it.  The mister is so dang sweet he just lets me have my decorating way without putting up a fuss.  Then we got in silk chindi rugs at moxie and I had to have one of those (all of those colors = awesome).  

My favorite vintage suitcase mirrored the flowers in the quilt and then in a stroke of luck we found just the right curtain panels at Ikea with similar mod floral motif.  And while at Ikea we also picked up the birch blinds for the windows.  

The two chest of drawers were picked up at an estate sale about 3 years ago and were a grayish drab brown color.  We obviously painted them a marigold and I love them much more now.  I wish I could say that they were filled with clothes but instead can reveal that they are filled to maximum capacity with vintage books and ephemera.  Waiting for future projects.  The red and blue floral is one of my favorite vintage paintings.  I've had it for about 10 years.  It has lived in various rooms of the house and will probably move a few more times as the spirit moves me.  

The jewelry holder is just a lamp base that I painted after realizing it had been sitting in our basement for about 14 years waiting to get re-wired.  It used to be dull gold.  You can transform just about anything with some paint!  

You can probably tell that we don't like a lot of pillows on the bed.  We are just weird like that.  The first thing I do when traveling is take all of the pillows off the hotel bed and pile them up and put a note on them saying please do not put back on the bed.  Too much clutter for me.  They look good in theory ... put really just get in my way.  On the subject of pillows ... my man and I are totally addicted to Tempurpedic pillows.  Best 120 dollars each (Yikes) we've ever spent.  I wouldn't have believed it until I tried it but always had big problems with neck pain and now none!

So the room is pretty much complete.  We are still looking for a matched pair of danish modern bedside tables and a low Danish modern credenza/dresser for the wall not shown in these photos that will actually hold clothing.  Right now all clothing is stored in a dresser inside of the closet and we each have our own closet since we live in a big ol house and it's just the two of us.  We got rid of the tv we had in here (I won that battle) and I can say I don't miss it at all. 

Thanks for letting me share my photos.  Have a happy week! mm

the bedroom remodel continues

A couple of weeks ago we decided it was high time our bedroom got a facelift.  We painted it celery green 15 years ago and it was looking scuffed up and just plain lifeless.  Not a very good feeling for the master bedroom.  Initially I thought a gray and yellow with a bit of black and white color scheme was the direction I wanted to go in.  And I still love that idea but somehow we got off on another track and now the train is moving quickly into the world of color.  So be it.  As much as I love looking at pictures of rooms done in a somewhat limited color palette I just have a hard time keeping to that.  When I look around at all of the things I fall in love with and keep for our house, they have one thing in common.  Color! Bright pops of color just make me happy.  So I'm not going to fight it. The room is fully painted and we are starting to hang art on a couple of the walls.  It is still a work in progress.  We found the cutest quilt for the bed and some pretty floral sheers for the windows.  I'll take some snaps of those soon.  

The wooden standing heart is one of my favorite vintage finds of late.  I purchased it at a cute antique store in Rochelle (Priscilla's Parlor).  Sadly the store recently closed.  I just wonder where it came from and what its original purpose was.  Definitely looks like an old store display.  Whatever it was doesn't matter but it is fun to imagine the past life of cool old items like this.  

I better run ... the mister is calling me to get back to the task I just escaped from.... painting dressers.  Ugg!  I really hate painting but it is another project for this room so I should get back to it. Cheers for now!

first project for 2012

Mr moxie has been on me for awhile to give our home some attention.  The cobblers kids have no shoes... or something like that.  I will admit to putting in long hours making sure the shop sparkles and then not having enough energy left to do the same for our house.  So in the spirit of new year ... new me... I've decided to spiff up a room or two.  

Our bedroom has had nothing done to it in the 15 years we've lived in the house so it seemed as good as any place to start.  Lately I'm really into gray so we decided to do a darker shade of gray and do white and yellow accents.  I hate painting more than I hate cleaning bathrooms so I get design duty and the Mr. gets to do the painting.  He got two walls done today and I'm liking it so far. Hoping to get the other two walls painted tomorrow.  I took a couple of bad phone photos that don't show the color that great but will have to do for now. The color looks olive in the picture but is really a nice dark gray.  The room used to be a pale celery green.  

The fun part will be finding curtains, pillows, rug etc to pull it all together.  I'll post again as the project progresses.  How about you???  Any projects for 2012?

Oh, and please note .... the bouncy bar stool.... yes, that is my husbands version of a safe ladder.  I kid you not.  He is just that kind of guy.  Livin on the edge!

A Few of My Favorite Things

It's been pretty well documented on this blog that I like stuff.  All different kinds too.  Lots of vintage but also handmade artisan pieces as well.  Basically if I find it beautiful and or amusing it might have to live at my house for awhile.  

I took this photo a couple of months ago after my dad and stepmom gave me one of dad's works of art as a thank you for helping them with their estate sale.  I was blown away by the gesture.  It is a piece that hundreds of hours went into creating.  I'd coveted it for years and never dared hope it would someday be mine.  It is the bird house on the center of the console table.  It has a hand cast bronze owl perched on the top of it.  My dad is a nature/wildlife fanatic to say the least.  Most of his works of art have a nature theme in one way or the other.  This piece is a "birdhouse" but not a birdhouse you'd ever dream of putting outside.  More like "birdhouse as art."  The front is all one huge piece of found burled wood and the top has been carved into the shape of an acorn.  The delicate v shaped piece at the top that the owl's branch balances on is part of the acorn top.  I can't even imagine how careful you'd have to be to carve that piece out of the larger section without snapping it off.  

I don't know much about bronze casting but my dad told me that the owl and branch were first sculpted in wax and then a casting gets made and then the cast is filled with bronze to make the owl....or something like that.  Take a look at the owl close up.  He's mighty handsome.

I love the knotty burled front of the piece.  It looks great in it's natural state.  

I've always loved and appreciated artists of all kinds.  They see the world differently.  They share their visions and art with us, their humble audiences, for often very little in the way of money or even recognition of their talents.  Having known many artists close up and personal I can definitely say that they create because they must.  I'm so glad that they do!   Can you imagine a world without art?  I can, and it scares me.     

 

Spotted Tomatoes & an Upside Down Tree

So as I was pulling out of my driveway this morning I was shocked to see that a very big branch was almost but not completely broken off of one of our old beautiful trees.  It had cracked in such a way as to flip upside down but not break off. 

I returned home 12 hours later and it is still hanging on by a thread.  My upside down tree reminds me of my childhood when I would spend hours outside laying under our huge old willow tree dreaming up  new ways to entertain myself and my six siblings.  There was always something peaceful about looking up into the branches of a swaying willow.  Then when I was a young adult someone told me that willow trees attract snakes and I freaked out a bit about how close I possibly came to death by gardner snake.  I don't even know if the snake thing is true...but I've never been able to sit under a willow tree again.  Overly dramatic scaredy pants that I am.

In other outdoor news....Bob and I planted tomatoes for the first time ever.  We have not had much success in the outdoor/gardening arena so far in our adult lives.   So this was a big deal to us.  We've watered and put those cages around them and faithfully look at them everyday to see if tomatoes have magically appeared overnight.  Well, recently the green ones started popping out and then today I noticed that they seem sickly.  They look like this..............

Can somebody tell me if this is normal or do they have worms or some other dreaded disease.  I'm so bummed.  Any advice is welcomed.  But if your advice  is to just buy some tomatoes at the grocery store then you are just mean :)

And lastly, I promised a few pictures of our landscaping projects begun this spring.  Here is a photo of one of our newly built columns and some of the urns I planted.  We've still got a ton of work to do in our yard and no matter how many hours we put in we can't seem to keep up with the weeds.  And when I say we I definitely mean Bob.

I've Been Waiting 11 Years For This!

Ever since we moved into our old dream house (read as neverending money pit) I have almost been brought to tears many times by the overwhelming mess that our yard is.

I can truly say that neither Bob or I is remotely good at anything to do with landscaping or gardening.  And I will admit that I don't even want to try.  I just don't like it.  Bob has tried and I love him even more for that....but please refer back to sentence one of this paragraph.

So...after 11 years in our home we are finally getting a couple of things done that will drastically improve the sorry situation.  One of my old antiquing friends' husband is a landscape architect and I have always loved his style and personality so I am happy to be working with him on this project.

Basically as it turns out, a lot of what we need is the removal of old scraggly stuff.  There are old hedges that run the perimeter of our corner lot and we have tried everything to get them looking ok.  They never do.  They are about a hundred years old and they are tired and raggedy.  Can you blame them?  So out they are coming..to be replaced with a new fresh hedge ( I'm so sorry old hedge...you did your job so well for many years but now it's time to say goodbye).  Here is a picture of the removal mid-stream.

We had also tried to do a corner planting near the sidewalk ourselves.  It never amounted to much.  Jim recommended we build a jumbo corner planter out of brick which will really define the space and make it easier for us to have a foundation to work with.  I agree and here is a snap of it in progress.

Behind the corner planter they are currently working on making a wide brick path around the tree and creating a nice little area for a bench.  I am not sure if I will ever sit on the bench in the corner of my yard with people walking by....seeing as I am so shy....but I know that it will look nice and who knows....maybe other people will sit on it.

It makes a big fun mess when you work in the yard....

In other parts of the yard the very saddest part of the project is going to happen soon.  We have a very dead old tree in our yard.  We were told when we bought the house that it needed to come down.  We couldn't do it.  It breaks our sappy tree loving hearts to even think of such a thing.  But now we are told that it could come down any day and most likely right on top of my van which is always parked right next to it. 

We had 11 wonderful years with you old tree and we will miss you dearly.  We promise to plant a new tree friend in your place.

Rest in Peace old friend.

It is probably wrong on so many levels, but I actually am a little teary eyed right now even writing this post.  But what do you expect from the girl who could not once make it thru an episode of Little House On The Praire without blubbering at some point during the show.  Oh Pa......

I will be excited to show you all a few more pictures of this project when it is completed.  Wish us luck!

Ice Cold Shower

Considering the fact that the house I live in was built in 1898, and that half of the essential equipment in it was brand new way back in the late 50's early 60's,....it really didn't come as much of a surprise that the dinosaur we call our water heater finally gave out for good. 

I knew it was risky last month when we had Steve (our know him by first name) plumber come out to service it and even he called it a relic.  But last night it konked out for good.  I'm declaring it to be for good because my optimistic husband Bob will keep paying 125 dollars to get things serviced over and over again without really adding that up in his head.  Sometimes old and broken just needs to be replaced. 

As I just wrote that I realized that I am getting older and definitely more broken down and definitely don't want to be replaced with a younger shinier model....what should I do?? I will have to ponder that philosophical question some other time because right now I am still cranky from my ice cold shower.  With this being a holiday weekend, I can look forward to at least 4 or 5 more days in a row of ice cold showers.

So this morning I warmed up 3 pots of water and poured it over my head in between standing in the ice cold of the shower spray to try to make it better.  It worked out ok.  It took a little of the edge off.  The upside was that I realized I could take a shower in about 1 minute if I try.