technology genius

look what i did! over here! ------------->

pictures on my sidebar with links to previous projects! FANCY!

this grand technological accomplishment means there's hope yet for the world. indeed.

a quick fix & miscellany

guess who has two thumbs and is back on the blog train? this guy. this gal. you know.

and i'm back with a bang! ok, not really. i'm back with a really quick and easy project that i did like 6 months ago and just thought to share. but you know, still awesome.

if you live with another person, be they spouse, sibling or roommate, you likely frequently grapple with The Great Dishwasher Mystery: is it clean or is it dirty? nothing is more annoying than accidentally putting a dirty dish in a clean dishwasher or pulling out a dirty utensil that you thought was clean. maybe in your house you always immediately put the clean dishes away after running the dishwasher. around here, we are lazy. so this is a real problem. i got irritated about it one day over the summer and decided to stop the insanity once an for all. enter an old save-the-date magnet that was still on our fridge and a few scraps of paper:



flip it to clean when you start the dishwasher, flip it back to dirty after unloading. easy peasey.

thus begins the miscellany.

you won't believe this, but i bought a piece of furniture this weekend. a finished piece of furniture. from a store. that doesn't need any sanding or painting or updating. bizarre, right? i saw it saturday and passed it up on account of the price tag and my penchant for redoing things, but i couldn't get it out of my head. i raced back to the shop yesterday after work to scoop it up. meet the new plate rack chez stone:


the carved detail at the top gives me heart palpitations. it's going on my dining room wall. immediately. because you know what? i'm not modifying it. at all. but if in the future i tire of the distressed look, i can easily give it a fresh coat of paint. this baby will also work in a kitchen, hallway, even a kid's room in a future house. and i'm pretty sure it will always give me heart palpitations. good investment.

another fabulous find this weekend was this pair of sconces:


they are metal with a mirrored back. the pieces at the bottom fold down to hold pillar candles. gorgeous. a gift from my sweet mama. thank you mama! they are also slated to hang in the dining room, where candlelit sconces will add great ambiance.

and finally, i was right. look how cute:


anna kohler's minneapolis apartment, featured in the early spring 2010 issue of renovation style. high five, anna kohler. high five.

excuse our mess

hi, hello, remember me? we had our big annual event for work last week/weekend, i'm on deadline for multiple publications this week, and i'm going out of town for a conference next week....so i have barely done my laundry, let alone accomplished anything blog-worthy recently. but there are plenty of supplies waiting at home and ideas marinating in my head, so never fear, i'll be back!

and since a post is no fun without a picture, please join me in enjoying this eclectic-yet-unified gallery wall:

(via a perfect gray)

i want one.

quadruped

i'm sorry, but i think this is clever and adorable.

if not also mildly creepy, because is that chair going to start walking around and growling at me?

those legs come on stools and other forms of chair as well. also, a resin bench:


all from oly. i wouldn't outfit a 12-seater dining room table with these, but i think one piece would be a great quirky accent to a room. what do you think, whimsical or weird?

operation festive living room: go

hilary has inspired me. to punch up my living room. so here is the plan...

make drapes out of this festive linen:


it speaks to me. loudly. so there's the distinct possibility it'll become an upholstered stool or throw pillow too. there will be pom-pom trim involved. on the drapes. in yellow? undecided.

speaking of throw pillows, i'd like to make a borderline ridiculous amount of them for the couch and chairs. contenders include:




depending on how the colors look in real life (i have only viewed these on the interwebs).

this fabric is also in the room, recall. on the chairs i redid a while back:


here is the couch. featuring our dogs, as usual. and jacob's dog. and the shams from the guest room that we use when we watch teeeeeevee (i've been told i say it like that, and that it's weird):

see the side tables that i got a while ago? still haven't redone them. surprise, SURfrigginprise. i know. anyway they are either going to be painted creamy and distressed like the aforementioned chairs, or they are going to be stained/painted rill dark. either way, imma outfit them with something like this:

but in gold or bronze. or maybe even, if i'm feeling REALLY festive, this:

because he looks like marley bear. see the resemblance?


he is part lion, part grizzly bear. all awesome.

i digress. the couch. i'd like to reupholster it in a nice neutral, burlapy-woven fabric that i found on saturday. the clincher: it's OUTDOOR fabric, so it's durable. but it looks faintcy. booya.

but first, i must complete the chairs. at present, chair numba one looks like this:


because i'm a slacker slash busy person. eventually, it will resemble this in color and nailhead detail:


also on the docket - a pleated slipcover for the hand-me-down coffee table, like this one from much to do with nothing:


i am pumped. you?