wise craft

another use for rocks

We've made many projects with the rocks that seem to grown in our yard. Here's yet another use. A project I've had on my pinterest board forever, Danny Seo's rocks painted with glow-in-the-dark acrylic paint. I don't think we will get the full effect until tomorrow night, after several coats, but it was a fun after-dinner activity.

bathroom redo details

More bathroom talk from yesterday.

The wall color is Ben Moore "Forest Moss". If there was ever a color meant to grab my attention, Forest Moss was it. I had spent the weekend at my sister-in law's house recently and slept in a room painted a similar color, and that sort of sealed it, I think its a wonderfully deep shade of green. Even though the walls in the rest of the house are getting lighter and white, I like this room being a little surprise. With adequate amounts of coffee and time, I can double coat this room in one day (the trim wasn't painted). I was excited, because the transformation was dramatic as soon as paint hit the wall.

The next big visual change was the shower curtain. This one is from Urban Outfitters. I love the graphic punch of the big black silhouette flowers, which seems to work against the green for me.

I'm primarily a bleach-white towels kind of girl, but I found these dark graphite gray towels and thought I would change it up. I made the hand towels for the former British Invasion decor, plain white hand towels with borders of a London map-printed fabric I found years ago at SuperBuzzy.

The graphite towels work with the new mirror. A medicine cabinet used to hang here, but its been empty for years, so I took it down (why did that take so long?). A $6.99 frame, thrift store find, that I spray painted a metallic graphite. Once it was dry I had a mirror put in for $27. I like the little bit of fussy it adds to the room.

This is a small cabinet I bought for this bathroom when we moved in. The fabric behind the glass (double stick taped) is my favorite print, Clippings Passion from Anna Maria's Loulouthi line. It seems to pick a little bit of the colors from around the room. The knobs I found at Anthro on sale, $2.50 each. It was at this point I realized that the bathroom was taking on an animal theme.

The prints on the walls are very tongue in cheek, prints by German artist Michael Sowa, and if you look closely you can see them hanging above Amelie's bed in the movie (one of my favorite movies of all time). I adore that quail's face!

Rene, do you remember that you gave me those "S" towels?

The paper mache head is from Anthropologie. The porcelain tags are by Diana Fayt (if 3 is a collection, I now have a small hoard of Diana's pieces, I love them so much.)

A calfskin rug that was moved in from another room completes the look (Gracie has a strange love of this rug).

And that is the jist. It all makes me smile.

another bathroom redecorated

Our main floor bathroom has needed some attention for a while. This room is now enjoying its 3rd reinvention since we have lived here.

a) Bird wallpaper was version 1 (you can see just a tiny glimpse here in this post from 2005), done in 2002 shortly after we moved in. There was some dreadful wallpaper up on all the walls when we bought the house, and we couldn't change the paper fast enough. We chose a lovely Thibault paper that we happily lived with for a long time.

b) The British invasion period in 2008. This era was really all Peter, he removed the wallpaper, did the painting, sprucing up, etc. It was a little more dramatic, which I liked, and besides, freshly painted walls feel clean and new.

c) 3rd times a charm? I don't know, but here is what the bathroom looks like now.

 

In order to keep this post from being so lengthy, come back tomorrow and I'll give some more detail. While I'm no decorator, there are things in this room that were thoughtfully chosen and meaningful to us.

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I wanted to let you know that my friend Katie is teaching a class at The Quilting Loft here in Seattle on August 3rd, all about adding a zipper to your pillow. Katie is a fabulous teacher, and if you're ready to move on from making those envelope backed pillows, you want to take this class. Details for this class (Add Zip To Your Pillow) and all the other classes Katie is teaching can be found on this page.)

 

right now

- Admiring the newly polished family silverplate...

 

- fighting a losing battle with a $6.99 frame from Value Village for a DIY project gone overboard...

- listening to Nouvelle Vague (which Peter calles our generation's easy listening, meaning it in the best way,)...

- anxiously gathering the fabric the mailman brought each day this week in preparation for a new quilt...

- wanting to have at least a little bit of summer here in Seattle (we've really had none at all)...

- trying to enjoy at least the pace of summer, if not the weather...

- thinking about Mint Julep's for our Friday night cocktail treat (a new tradition here at wise craft), although we keep wanting to go back to our favorite, Molly's Pimm's Cup...

- thinking I must have been a stuffy British woman in a former life...

- finishing another bathroom painting project (I'll share with you soon)...

- wanting to make these. Right. Now.

- loving Emma's feather and flower Fascinators. Maybe she was the British woman in a former life.

Have a fascinating weekend! xo

summer stitch progress

is s... l... o... w...

but pretty, no?

It occurred to me while I was stitching this that I have a brand new appreciation for art, as it applies to all its early American forms in particular.

Just when did those early Americans have time to do this??!!

For those unfamiliar, this is the "Woodland in Wool" crewel project in Alicia's book Embroidery Companion. I have shown it in its earlier stages before. I work on this almost every day, even if only for a few minutes. I am so excited to see if finished. But man, its taking a long time.

Disclaimer, I'm no crewel expert by any stretch. But that's why I take on projects like this. As I work, I am learning to make my stitches more uniform and even, but yet I'm trying to appreciate each little section for whatever was happening around me while it was being made.

For instance, that big blue flower at the top, all those stitches? During the Tour de France.

Did anyone see Home by Novogratz on HGTV this past Saturday? I really like their playful style, mainly because it reminds me to always have fun with our decor and create liveable spaces that make my family smile. On this first episode, they had grafitti artist Matt Siren paste paper images of his "Ghost Girl" all over the master bedroom walls like wallpaper.

I think Peter just did something like that.

Cool!

gracie's nose

That's it. Boom.

Killed by the cute.

Emma is taking a photography class this week. Nothing and no one is safe from having their picture taken. Especially Gracie. Emma was inspired to follow Gracie around for most of the afternoon, waiting for her chance to get this shot, after being inspired by this one I'd pinned on my pinterest inspiration board for Emma's room.

So crazy cute! I have some plans for this image, stay tuned.

excellent mail

Roz, the creator of the lovely Rosie Flo's Fashion Show coloring kit was kind enough to send a kit for Emma to enjoy. Even though I was excited to tear it open when it arrived back at the end of May, I've been keeping it hidden, waiting till school was out and hands were idle. Emma spent 2 days straight coloring and kitting out this lovely fashion show. The set even comes with invitations! Sadly, this kit is not available in the US, but there are other Rosie Flo coloring books available through Chronicle.

Yesterday's mail surprise was Lizzy's book 1001 Peeps. This is a gorgeous book, with 4 completely original quilt patterns and one lovely crewel pattern. Lizzy's illustration work is really lovely, and these quilt designs show it all off beautifully. I don't know where to start first! Read Lizzy's thoughts about Midnight At The Oasis, Spice Route, and The High Seas, 3 of the patterns in the book.I really love Lizzy's whimsical illustration style and her use of color.

Back to our total lack of routine, I'll peek out again soon.

 

 

key organization

We used to have one of those simple but cute IKEA key boxes in our old house. It was inexpensive, and we hung it in the kitchen and painted it to match our cabinets. It was the perfect place to keep our keys, we never had to search for them.

Silly how much I loved that key box.

Sadly, I have not seen that keybox for sale at IKEA in ages. However, I did see this on sale at Urban Outfitters for $19.99 -

Same idea, but the color wasn't right and I didn't want a glass on the door.

So I did what is commonly referred to in this house as "Blairing it"-

A couple of coats of cream spraypaint and a piece of favorite piece of vintage fabric behind the glass.

It's been Blaired.

I am leaving the knob as is for now, but I have been known to high tail it to Anthropologie for needs less than one knob.

just pillows

As I started writing this, I was thinking how great it would be to have some fantastic quilt project to share with you, or to little snippets of the tons of new projects I am working on.

Sorry to disappoint.

But hey, I have pillows!

I decided to make these for no other reason other than we needed something bigger and squishier than what we had on our family room sofa. They were not comfortable at all, and as much as I hate that sofa, I hate wimpy pillows more. There's a Harry Potter movie marathon to watch! There is Le Tour! We must be comfortable! Actually I love this fabric, a long-ago hand me down from my friend Neicy. This fabric adds just the right amount of new around that room.

Other than that, I have some failed DIY projects I won't take up web space to actually show... I've got some things lying in wait for me to regain my DIY courage and tackle them.... I polished the family silverplate... the kids tackled their bookcases, sorting and purging, and boy do we have a Goodwill load this week...

Apparently we are on summer vacation.

What are you guys doing?

 

love the maersk!

The kids "assisted" Peter with assembling a Lego Maersk model for our Story Trading office, and I got a whole morning of sewing.

Happy day all around.