Wednesday, November 25, 2009

giving thanks

isn't this the cutest thing you've ever seen?


wait, that's sterling as a puppy. isn't this the second cutest thing you've ever seen?


teeny, tiny urns holding teeny, tiny candles shaped like teeny, tiny topiaries! oh. em. gee. i about died when i saw these yesterday. and immediately purchased them. you KNOW how i feel about topiaries. if you live in memphis, you too can have a pair of wee topiaries, courtesy of rachel's flowers at poplar & hollywood in midtown.

and also, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Monday, November 23, 2009

diy lined bamboo shades

so after we painted the living room this summer, we replaced the white blinds with a lovely bamboo shade. two thumbs up, looked good. except..at night. totally see-through. our across-the-street neighbors probably saw a leettle bit more of us than they'd like, what with those late night snack trips to the kitchen in our skivvies and i-forgot-to-get-my-jeans-from-the-dryer-before-gettin-nekid incidents. oops. something had to be done.

enter target.

on saturday, i picked up a package of blackout drapery liners for $25. in an uncharacteristic act of preparedness, i'd previously measured all of the windows/rooms/doors in the house and stashed it in my purse for just such an occasion, so i figured that two 27 x 60" panels would cover my window, lengthwise.

chez stone, i took the bamboo blind off the window and laid it on the floor. here it is on top of the two carpet remnants we've got home on approval (i think we're going to go with the more neutral one on the left for the living room, you like?). one blackout panel is laid across the length of it.


to get down to business, i moved to the office/studio to be a) closer to my sewing machine and b) further from my dogs' tendency to lie on top of floor projects. i sewed the two blackout panels to each other along their length. the material was thick - kinda suedesque - and i may or may not have broken a needle. so, be careful of that. theoretically.


i wanted the blackout lining to end at the first line of stitching running down the bamboo blinds, so i lined up the hemmed "bottom" (now side) of the joined panels with the stitching on one side of the blind, then folded the excess on the other end to line up with the stitching on that side. below, you can see the "top" end of the panels with the trim meant to attach to your drapes - this is the end i removed. the hem at the other end was 7" wide, so i measured 7" and cut the other side, then sewed it down to make matching hems on both sides. capishe?


now, the liner was ready to attach. when attaching, be sure to place the lining UNDER the ropes that raise and lower the blinds, like so:


otherwise they won't roll up with you're finished. and that would be lame. when my liner was all lined up on my shade, i attached it with fabri-tac, which said it would permanently attach a variety of substances, including fabric (check) and wood (check). sweet deal. totally worked.


i glued along the top edge and both sides, leaving the bottom unglued because i was a) tired of gluing b) aware that it would always be rolled up in the bottom of the shade even when it's all the way down, because the shade is longer than the window. be sure to put something under the blinds when gluing, as it can leak through the slats, and you don't want it to stick to your brand-newly-refinished hardwood floors. i managed to avoid that mistake thankyouverymuch, just wanted to warn you. after everything was sewed and glued, it looked nice and neat, like it was meant to be:


and now instead of this:


(see our pod? it's still there. i'd rather not talk about it.)

we have this:


ta-da!! no more see-through! no more free shows for the neighbors! good news. i actually didn't mind the see-throughness, but it was a serious privacy issue, especially since we converted the den into the dining room and moved the tv to the living room. we'll be spending a lot more time in here now, and we don't want everyone on the street up in our bidness all the time. i've got a curtain project in the works too, so stay tuned.

lagniappe: behold captain fantastic and the big dogs in the guest room (now the studio/office) two weeks ago in the midst of moving all the furniture out. notice the cream wall-to-wall carpet. and the adorableness.


you want more? can you handle it?


gooooooooood dooooooogs. snuggling daddy. aaaawww.

and here, friends, was the new studio/office last week:


look at those floors! ooooooh! aaaaaaah! ignore the midst-of-moving-back-in-detritus littering the place and focus on how that stain looks so gorgeous with the white trim and blue walls. i heart it.

Friday, November 20, 2009

a place to hang my hat

...or set my glasses and cellular-cum-alarm, as it were. the bed, dresser and mirror are back in place chez stone, but we are currently using mismatched old nesting tables as nightstands. our bed is reminiscent of this one:


and has a matching dresser (whose attached mirror we removed and placed on a different wall) and one nightstand, since pre-dating-me captain fantastic didn't need a pair when he purchased the furniture several years ago. i've spent the past five months climbing across my husband to retrieve a sip of water at night, and i'm over it. we experimented the other day, but our enormously spacious roughly 11' square master suite only supports the placement of the bed in one corner of the room, thanks to window and door arrangement. like if the picture above were our bed in place, you'd be standing in the doorway, there'd be a window immediately to the right of the bed and just enough room between the other side of the bed and the other wall to accommodate a 65 lb dog on her bed. we tried turning the bed 90 degrees and centering it on the pair of windows in the middle of the wall to the left, but then there's barely space to maneuver around the bed in the rest of the room, and the dresser doesn't fit. so we are stuck with the corner arrangement, and a big ole honking 4-drawer bedside table that matches the captain's will not fit on my side. i need something fairly petite, either with long legs and one/two drawers or no drawers at all. and i'm feeling an antiquey silver to coordinate with the starburst mirror over the bed. and i'd like to get a pair to break up all the matchiness of the captain's bedroom suite. are you bored of my talking? i am. let's get to the pictures.

from z gallerie:



(ok so that's big and honking...but pretty, no?)

from horchow:






from pottery barn:



from julian chichester:

from wisteria:



whatever shall i choose? most likely, the closest cousin to one of the above that i can find rotting in the corner of an antique store and paint silver. and lo and behold if my buddy get your martha on didn't post this very same day about a silver-leaf-over-gold-paint treatment that would totally give me the finish i'm digging. great minds, friends, great minds. anybody else have a similar big-bed-little-room conundrum? seen a pair of tables on your neighborhood curb? glad it's friday? can i get an AMEN?

Monday, November 16, 2009

yummy

that's how i'd describe the newly-refinished hardwoods chez stone. delicious. we are so thrilled. with the floors. we are not thrilled (and by "we" i mean "me," because captain fantastic is all rainbows and sunshine about "adventures" like this) with how annoying it was to move EVERY. LAST. ITEM. out of the house and camp out at various in-laws' all weekend, then learn that the floors need 48 hours to properly cure so we couldn't move furniture back in until today, which would be monday, the crappiest day of the week. and it's raining. also, six cats-in-law (yes, six) + terrible allergies + varnish fumes make for a sleepless weekend. no rest for the weary though, as we'll be re-painting all the baseboards and at least two rooms before moving the furniture back. so i'll be "sleeping" here again tonight (and i use the term loosely):


blackberry photo taken late last night of the only items in our house: a mattress, a dog bed, a tv and two mutthounds....in the dining room.

BUT LOOK AT THOSE GORGEOUS FLOORS. totally worth it.

Friday, November 13, 2009

woodn't you know

so. all of team stone's worldly possessions are crammed in the attic and the pod monstrosity in the front yard. the nasty, stained, cream wall-to-wall carpet and accompanying creepy, pink-speckled padding are in the dumpster. nails and tacks have been removed. the void from the old floor furnace in the hallway has been artfully erased with identical floorboards salvaged from the neighbor's kitchen remodel (eco-friendly high-five!). the whole place has had a good sanding. our timeline reckons staining and sealing will happen this evening, with drying time all day saturday. we should be back in the house on sunday. fingersfreakingcrossed.

and i've had a revelation:

we will need rugs. several rugs. four rugs and a runner, to be exact. soon.

you may recall our last rug purchase, as chronicled in this post. while i still like the rug, i've fallen out of love with it in the living room and am hoping that it will fit in the den/office/guest room post-floor-refinish. i think the living room should instead have a natural fiber rug of the plain variety, like this from crate & barrel:

or one of these from pottery barn:



but answer me this: will our dogs completely destroy these? i mean our dogs will likely destroy any rugs we purchase, true - that's why we're not shelling out the big bucks for orientals - but the woven nature of these rugs makes me worry about the impact of sterling's large talons more than tufted wool does. anybody out there have experience with combining sisal/seagrass/jute and enormous, spoiled-rotten dogs? how will this shniznaws fare versus the mighty dyson? i have to vacuum on average three times per week, and i don't want my rugs to fall apart in a month. and also, do patterns like those in my last rug post have staying power, or should i stick with more traditional fare?

making large purchases gives me hives. i'm desperately worried that we'll spend thousands of dollars on rugs, then a) end up hating them and/or b) end up immediately destroying them. any advice would be much appreciated!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

all that glitters

i used to be a strictly silver gal, but in recent years, i've expanded my precious-metal horizons. and lately, methinks melivingroom needs the midas touch. in coffee table, occasional table and/or lamp form, like so:

worlds away

the city sage


worlds away




macys

that second-to-last lamp is my faaaaave. but it's quite petite. and i have no use for such a wee lamp at present. i am thisclose to getting a pair of that last lamp to flank my couch on the as-yet-unpainted end tables before macy's 20% off registry sale ends today...what say you?

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

yay! i think.

the good news is that i have finished painting my console table and it looks really good ifidosaysomyself! yay! the bad news is that i haven't found appropriate hardware for it, so no pictures yet. boo.

similarly,

the good news is that we're ripping up the nasty carpet in the hall/den/two bedrooms to refinish the hardwoods underneath! yay! the bad news is that a pod is currently sitting in front of my house, waiting for me to fill it with all my furniture tonight and move into the captain's cousin's house for the rest of the week while simultaneously on press deadline at work. boo.

but overall, i think the consensus is: YAY! or at least it will be next week when things return to normal...until then, the consensus is that i will most likely lose my mind.

here's hoping that by thanksgiving my house looks something like this:

via delight by design

i totally dig that rug, ps. anybody seen a similar one?

Friday, November 6, 2009

mourning, with a dash of celebration

you know what makes me really sad? when a song starts to play on the radio, and i think it's that awesome "werewolves of london song," but then it turns out to be that awful redneck summertime kidd rock song. so disappointing.

what makes me even more sad is that as of wednesday, my parents no longer live in the house in which i was born and raised. the combination of wonderful childhood memories plus my aversion to change and my tendency to get attached to inanimate objects has caused me to have a substantial come-apart this week. i've had little time for blogging in between helping them move, rescuing stuff from the upcoming estate sale and crying like someone died. the good news is that it's giving me a chance to reflect on what a blessed life i've lead and how lucky i am to still have all the wonderful memories and all the friends and family with whom those memories were made. cycle of life, friends, cycle of life.

it's not all woe-is-me around here though folks, because apparently people LIKE me! i was super excited to discover a few new followers this week, and while perusing the lovely get your martha on, i saw that she nominated me for the kreativ blogger award, and i about hyperventilated. blogging will do that to you, you know - get you all hot and bothered over a comment or link or made-up award from a person you don't know. a person you don't know who has a fabulous blog about fabulous projects with way better pictures and more consistent posting than yours. thank you so much for the award and for the dozen new projects i'm now inspired to add to my to-do list! be sure to check out get your martha on for lots of cute, quality sewing projects and humorous commentary from a gal after my own heart.


maybe the best part about the award is that it comes with the requirement that i share seven things about myself. and wouldn't you know, i delight in filling out forms only slightly less than i enjoy talking about myself! so let's get this party started:

1. i have officially been a vegetarian since i was 12 years old. more accurately, a pescaterian. i think it stems from an aversion to all the nasty grisley veiny boney bits i encountered in meat in early childhood. this pickiness from a young age lead to plenty of hilarity at the mcdonald's drive through on family car trips when dad would request a cheeseburger with no meat. imagine how well that went over circa 1990.

2. i sucked my thumb every night until about that same age (neeeerd), but i never needed braces, and my teeth are almost perfectly straight. same with captain fantastic (minus the thumb-sucking). hopefully, our future children will hit that genetic jackpot as well and save us some sweet moola at the dentist's office.

3. i went to the same all-girls private school from age four until high school graduation. i was in the first pre-kindergarten class at the school, and since my maiden name topped the alphabetical class list, i was technically the first student to graduate after attending all 15 years. my dad told that story to everyone within ear shot for at least 2 years. who am i kidding, he still tells that story. and apparently, so do i.

4. i cannot eat pudding, yogurt or anything else with that nasty, mucousy texture. barf.

5. i can, however, roll my tongue into the shape of a clover.

6. i've only broken one bone in my entire life: the summer of 2007, i got a smidge overzealous in my running routine and caused a stress fracture in my hip. i had to rock some crutches for six months, which i'd highly recommend NOT doing when you have a six-month-old puppy and live on the second story of an apartment building. it was always amusing to explain to people how a 25-yr-old ended up with a broken hip. no, i did not fall in the bathtub. or on the shuffleboard court. or at the old folks' home bingo tourney.

7. as a child, i wanted to be a marine biologist and have red-headed twins named alouysious and anastasia. not so much panning out. good call.

and also,

I WILL FINISH MY CONSOLE TABLE THIS WEEKEND AND SHARE IT WITH YOU NEXT WEEK. swear.

Monday, November 2, 2009

profeshinal

i love multitasking. what could be better than simultaneously sculpting your legs and freshening up your living room? observe:




ta-da! home improvement at its finest. TEAM STONE [jazz hands]! let's just pretend i posted these pictures approximately 3 months ago when the painting actually happened, shall we? the good news is that i now have the authority to share that we are still pleased with our choice of "table linen" paint color.

and now, a promise: soon, i will have an exciting transformation to share with you. i am almost finished painting my console table (seen below in its "before" state):


that little round stool from my grandma's old house is getting a makeover too. the leather ram though, he's in good shape. he was the only accessory in captain fantastic's living room when we started dating: a couch, FOUR non-matching club chairs lined up against the wall, a 1970s console record player and the ram. hilarious.

in closing, let me just say that there is little more adorable slash hilarious than a grown man learning to play "heart and soul" on the piano. that baby grand beaut has brought much joy to this household.
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