Sites that Inspire

Do you ever have those retail sites that stop you in your tracks? Styling so amazing, you could spend a good hour scouring through pics, even looking at many of them several times? That's how mothology.com struck me and thousands of others, I'm sure. (all pics on this post from mothology.com )

Love the hand just seemingly hapharzardly placed in the shot.

Wish I had one (or two) of each of these.

Look closely and you can see the springs popping out of the bottom of the chair. The scale on this one really gets you thinking . . .

This pic looks like it was taken deep in a cellar with the wooden barrel and cool stone backdrop.

Whose tintypes wouldn't look even cooler in one of these?

I might have trouble convincing my toddler to "look, but don't touch," with these.

This site gets a lot of press in some of my favorite mags and it is worth a (much) closer look.

I am Alive!!!!!

We moved at the end of June and I've been busy and exhausted trying to get everything situated, but I'm back!! I did a "before" of these chairs on the last post and here's the final product. I got them on Craig's List and I liked the distressed white, but it just didn't go with my kitchen.

I love the detail on the backs and legs.

And my mom helped me pick out this fabric. Frenchy, yet functional. I wanted a full-on Victorian couple toile, but nothing I could find would stand the everyday wear of a kitchen chair complete with Dashiell and his fruit rollups.

We are really enjoying the house. I was sad to say goodbye to the Cottage on Linden, I shed a few tears as I was scrubbing the toilet out for the last time . . . but I haven't looked back. Here are Dash and Josie Mae, daughter of my dear friend JFlo.

Is this little diva cute or what? She and Dash got along great.

Here's a "before" of the front of my house. I hated the overgrown bushes and shrubs and had them ripped out right away and I hadn't really thought out a plan for the landscaping. I guess you could say I'm impulsive.

But alas, I proved to myself I could plant some stuff and here's a section that I tackled. I even started painting the outside of the house but I don't like the color. It's Light French Gray from Beher and would be great for an interior room, but not the outside of this house. It was more gray than blue on the chip and as you can see, I have a baby blue house.

Stucco is NOT fun to paint. You can see where I started to freak out and stopped.

I've decided to go with a darker, true gray; black gray and not blue gray. That will make the white trim pop.

I picked up some goodies at a sale recently at Urban Miners. This little desk will look great when I have my living room put together.

I got this at a flea market in Paola, KS. I have no idea what it is, but Dash found it and wanted to put worms in it.

I got four of these antique gym baskets on Craig's List. When I got back in the car after paying for them, Brendan said, "Mom! Did you just give that guy $40 for those? You got ripped off!" He just doesn't understand! For the Fall, I'm going to fill one of these baskets with pots of mums and stuff it with my metal Halloween art for the porch. I can hardly wait for the Fall and it's been a very mild summer. My plants are getting leggy and I'm just ready to replace them with mums.

Craig's List baby head, iron from Paola flea market and the wire brush was left behind by workers who did foundation repair on the old house, if you can believe it. My husband just shakes his head.

This old metal trunk was my very first ebay purchase. I thought "SCORE!!!" 10 English pounds is like $20, right? I never took into account that the shipping from the UK was over $200 . . . duh.

I heart flea market, garage sale, and thrift store art. The one of the left is from Maj-R-Thrift on 47th and mission. The other two are from the sale at Urban Mining.

More Urban Mining goodness. These are perfect in Brendan's room. He likes history, like his Grandpa.

I saw this in the window at the DAV thrift store and made Jason swing a u-turn in the middle of Wornall. It's in our bedroom, my new sanctuary where Dash no longer sleeps at the foot of our bed! Believe me, he is just as excited as I am.

I don't mean to brag, but isn't my new dining room set awesome?! I got it at Big Lots! Jason and I went looking for possible family room furniture and wham! Assembly required, but it was worth it!

I put this table in the foyer. I got the little statuettes at Urban Mining. I painted that wooden apple long ago. The silver is from my treasured Curious Sofa.

And I FINALLY made something! JFlo is picking these up tonight. These are not easy to make; my hands are cut up and they are time consuming, but I love the end result.

This drawer pull has special meaning; it came off of my baby brother's childhood dresser.

Don't get a rivet gun; they are addictive.

Bowl of "old" stuff (according to Dash) on my dining room table. The broom and bowl are from Urban Mining, holy water dispenser from Mission Road Antique Mall, candles from the Curious Sofa and I found the pruning shears outside in the yard sitting on the air conditioner!

And finally, a dresser in our room. Lamp from DAV thrift store and the book and kewpie are from . . . can you guess? It's good to be back.

Small Projects

This is just a quick update to show off the finished switch plate (below) that I made for my eye doctor. Switch plates are so much fun to do and add a splash of art where you weren't really expecting one. The magnet above was done awhile ago as a thank you to a gal who was kind enough to give me a cool plate that she had broken. I repurposed some of those pieces back into the maget since her grandmother had hand painted the plate.

I just love this Victorian gent. Real men aren't afraid of wearing pink.

I bought a kitchen table and chairs off of Craig's List and wanted to post this as a "before". I'm painting them black and my mom is currently recovering the seats in a canvas that will be sort of brown paper sack-colored. I then want to stencil something Frenchy on them in black. I looked into covering them with grain sacks but the really cool ones are super expensive and would end up cosing more than the entire set did in the first place. I think a home made version will be fun to do, especially since my mom's doing most of the work!

Isn't She Lovely?

Please excuse the styling in these pictures; we're moving in nine days!!! Isn't this just the most gorgeous dress form?! I found it about three months ago when Dawn and I went junking in Paola. I didn't buy it at the time because I simply didn't have room for it. But now that the new house is in my sights, I called yesterday and found out the flea market still had it. Jason, Dash and I made a b-line south this morning to pick it up. I just love it!!!

I already know where I'm putting it. I'm doing a funked-out French country design style in the living room and this dress form will be perfect.

Here's Jason acting cute. As I was gathering my new additions for the photo, he said flatly, "Wow, this is veritable treasure trove." Ha! As you can see, I picked up a lot more in Paola than just the dress form.

I plan on putting the trunk in the living room, too. The rest will be mixed in here or there. I'll have to find something interesting for the tub.

Jason also made a crack about how this lamp looks like something that belongs in my great Aunt LaRue's house. This was not a compliment. I think my aunt is about 100 years old now and I don't know that she's put anything new in her house since about 1957. We had a productive day not just here, but at the Nebraska Furniture Mart. We needed it all -- washer/drier, a bed for Dash, a desk for Jason. We are just ready to be moved already!!!

A Little of This and a Little of That

I went into the eye doctor today to get some contacts and my doctor is so much fun! If you're in the Kansas City area, go get your eyes checked out by Teresa Larcom at Innovative Eye Care on 82nd and State Line. She was telling me about a room she has painted in a washed-out turquoise and it sounded so cool. I just had to come home and make her a switch plate.

Um, only problem is, we're moving and much of my mosaic supplies are in the garage. So this was my studio, I sat on the ground next to some garbage cans to make my switch plate. I call it "art in a pinch."

I had to show off my fab custom ring by Elle Binder. If you can't read it, it says "The Smiths."

And turn the ring and you have "Morrissey". What could be more perfect, I ask you? I'm taking Brendan into Stuff soon because he wants one that says "Beck." Very cool. Elle can make you anything you want and she really gets it, so go to Stuff and order up.

Brendan just got back from a wonderful trip to France and brought me this great perfume from a perfumery in the south of France. It was hard for him to pick a favorite spot. They went all over. I hope this makes a world traveler out of him; I've never been off this continent.

He brought back some cool plates and told me they were for my mosaics. No way!

And he brought my dad, a total history fanatic, a book from Normandy and some sea shells. He swam in the Mediterranean, ate dinner in a cave, went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, toured the French countryside, and had wine with dinner. He was only gone for 10 days, but if felt like months and I am so happy he's home!!!

All about Mosaics

When I was demonstrating mosaics on the sidewalk outside of Stuff for the Brookside Art Fair, we had a lot of customers ask about mosaic classes. It didn't take long for Casey and Sloane to get some rolling and we've had a great response. Marge (above) and her daughter, Kate (below), were my first pupils.

I enjoyed these girls so much!! Marge and I had a great time talking about home decor because she also loves all things French Country. Katie was just a doll and look how talented they both are!! Their pieces are so different from one another and so unique and fun in their own ways. It's awesome to see someone make something and say, "I did that!!!"

The classes are structured so you can come to glue or grout at a couple of them so while Marge and Kate were grouting, some gals from work came to glue. Here are Alison and Jill digging through treasures deciding how to construct their pieces.

Here's Marge hard at work grouting. She chose a lot of intricate jewelry to include so this was a challenge to grout on your first time out, but she made something fantastic!

Here's Erin digging for treasure. She found some great stuff and has such an eye for putting it altogether. I can't wait to see her piece once it's grouted!

And another shot of everyone hard at work. There are two more classes, one at 6:00 this Tuesday, June 9 and another next Sunday, June 13 at 10:30. It's not too late to sign up! Just call the girls from Stuff at 816-361-8222 and they can take your order over the phone. Hope to see you there!!