baths and books

every night this week I have taken a bath around midnight... I know that's a random thing to start with, but my last papers, homework, packing, moving, and preparing for finals has really been getting to me lately... so my solution is to take nice hot baths and then go to sleep warm and relaxed... as I'm preparing for tonight's bath, I thought I would share a bit about my day...I turned in the last paper of my bachelor's degree :) so good to have that off my mind!
My lovely husband took me to my first #D movie :) we saw Clash of the Titans. I really enjoyed it.

Then we wandered around the Mills a bit, and I found two new design books.
Then I met with the ART group I started on my college campus for the last time... bittersweet. We took a bunch of group pictures :)
Today has been a good day :) and I'm glad, I really needed one of those.

Tomorrow my goal is to finish my kitchen cabinets... I need to put the last coat of paint on the fronts of the doors, paint the insides blue, and then put in the contact paper... Saturday is the town-wide yardsale, so I'm spending the night down at the house tomorrow... and after the yardsale, I'm going to a friend's wedding... can't wait. It's shaping up to be a good weekend too :)

ok, off to my midnight bath :)

tutorials to try

So lately I have been looking up diy projects because I love doing them. Here are a few of my favs that I have discovered recently...

1. Eames Hang-It-All Inspired Tutorial
2. Pipe Shelving Unit
3. Modern DIY Outdoor Planter
   
4. How to Hang 30' of Curtains for $40
5. Wood Veneer Butterflies
6. Chain and Branch Hangers
7. Moroccan Pouf

I hope you enjoy :) Let me know if you've tried any of these

more are to love :)

Today while blog searching I found the most wonderful artist! Laurageorge of Chicago's prints are so happy and whimsical, I can't help but love them. These two remind me of my husband and I...































He is a mustache man and fan, lol.































And I have worn glasses since kindergarten... when they fortunately dicovered that I could not see two feet in front of my face. "Clare look at the board"... "There's a board?"

Yay for art on etsy! I think these prints might find a home in my living room :)

Trash Love!

So, I've been working on my paper unceasingly for three days now, and I had to make an emergency trip to the library for two more sources and to three-hole punch my project which is due tomorrow. (ugh... l...o...n...g... couple days) Needless to say I needed a pick me up.

WELL!!! On my way back from the library to make dinner, I found these in one of the dumpsters by my apartment!
They are two mid-century style chairs (possibly teak?) that are actually in pretty good condition. Since it is raining out, I had to take a picture of them in my backseat, but since they are a guaranteed future diy upcycling project, never fear, there will be better pictures :) The upholstery on them is really stained and yucky, but I have been wanting to to some crochet upholstering for a while now... so these are perfect. They are even labeled.

I have never heard of Benny Linden Design... does anyone know anything about them? I did a quick search and they are teak, and Benny Linden is a Danish designer... woot! and squee!

if I don't write them down now, I won't remember...

source

Ideas:

I had two good ideas last night as I was falling asleep. By a miracle I still remember them now, lol.


source

1. For my kitchen, I want to make a cafe curtain. I've been playing around with all kinds of stuff, but have recently been really inspired by Feeling Stitchy's Blog. I think I just want to make a plain white or creme colored pocket curtain and then add little embroidery doodles as I feel so inspired. I might make the doodles tell the story of our house, our love, and our future kids. So I'll stitch important dates, pictures, quotes, and memories. I like the idea that it will be an ever changing curtain, and it will make me happy to have something so sentimental in my kitchen. It's gonna be kinda like a embroidered curtain scrapbook :)
   *I may or may not use the little boxes... I like the idea of a more organic and free flowing curtain.
   

1. 
2. I have a "Florida Water Birds" poster that used to be my Grandma Hilda's. It hung over her hat rack. She would always make us grab a hat to wear to the beach... she had a ton of hats, but they were all kinda old ladyish, so I hated wearing them. I would do anything to go to the beach though, so I would just grin and bear it. Grandma's house was full of wonderful things. She had that "museum of natural history" style that's so hot right now down. She had pinned butterflies, jar collections, and picture books everywhere. I loved that about her house. I'm so glad to have this poster because it reminds me of all those good times. My mama had it mounted to protect it from further damage, it got a little beat up on it's way to me. (I think it actually looks even cooler now.)

BUT ANYWAY, the idea! Recently I acquired this huge print and frame. I have been looking for

a frame big enough to put my poster in for a while now... and this one is big enough... and a little too big...

I was pondering where I would go to get my costume mat... which I new was gonna be really expensive, but i was willing to bite that bullet because I got the frame for free. But then a light bulb went off. I used to do photography and we learned to cut mats. There are always scraps :) I think I want to collect a bunch of white, creme, blue, green, and brown mat scraps and upcycle them into a giant mat for my giant poster. It looks really good in my head... so after we move I think I'm gonna go to all the places around town I know who do custom framing and ask if I can have their mat scraps to recycle. :) Hopefully they will let me have them :)

OH, and as a bonus, I think I'm gonna reuse the black and white print in a decoupage project I'm dreaming about.... Ok, enough dreaming, I need to get down to business and work on my last paper... *trudges off to the less fun part of her day*

I'm really moving...

Today, I need to pack... I've made a good start :)



And, I really need to write my paper! (Also, I think there are tornadoes headed my way... not all that conducive to either of the things I need to do, lol. If I survive I'll post more...)

I survived... That was a crazy storm though! There was hail, fierce winds, rain so thick I couldn't see across the street, lightning, and thunder. I actually had a really cool experience...
source of crazy pink lightning picture

Lightning stuck so close to my apartment that I could actually hear the electrical buzz. I have never been that close to lightning before! It was pretty crazy!

Paper log: Paper two of three is done. I just need to put it in a binder to fancy it up a bit. Tomorrow and Monday I will be slaving away on paper three. I have one more week of class... and everything is due... of course!

upcycling ideas

Mostly Nursery Related:
(source)

I lead an Art group on campus, and our art show is tomorrow :)

I can't sleep, I'm too excited, lol.

So what am I doing... googling upcycled projects :)

Here's some of my favs!

I want to make a penny rug for my nursery out of recycled wool sweaters :) I love the white background and crazy mix of colors :) (source)

For some reason these just really crack me up :P (source)

I've actually made a tie skirt before, but since ties are so heavy is wasn't that comfy to wear... I love how it looked though... This is making me want to resurrect it and add a top making it into a dress... oh the possibilities.

OK, so I've gotten off track... google does that to me... before I go I will share one last nursery idea. So far these are the must have for my nursery.

Berkley Illustration- He is a genious... I love all his work. My second favs after the ducks are his skunks and rabbits. He puts up new stuff a lot, and they are all so cute. These are definitely going to be in my nursery. My DH likes them too... our first date was feeding the ducks.

Nursery Ideas

• handmade toys
• books, books, and more books
• quilts
• recycled rugs
• bird mobile
• convertible crib
• rocking chair made by Justin's grandpa
• cute storage bins
• upcycled dresser
• very vintage feeling, nostalgic
  

That's all folks :)