wise craft

preparing for summer cocktails

The wise craft household has upgraded the bar. Or at least the bar cart. The first one served us quite well, and was perfect our cocktail Fridays, but when Peter recently moved into a new office,this cabinet came home when there was no longer a need for it in the new space. I wasn't totally sold on its art deco style and kind of pretended it wasn't in our dining room for about a week- until I thought, what the hell? Let's just move all the nice glasses and liquor bottles there and call it a bar cabinet? I spent part of last Saturday cleaning the glassware that I could move in there (everything from wedding registry crystal to vintage glassware that used to be available in detergent boxes).

Erica, I would have rolled the old bar cart to your house if I'd known you'd be interested, or at least tried to.

Front and center by the libations is Peter's 3rd grade ceramic sculpture of Nixon. I just love everything about that piece- that a 3rd grader was so moved by a president to render him in clay, his hands in the classic up-in-the-air-pose, that his mouth was used as an ashtray when I first met Peter, everything. (Plus it always starts a conversation, perfect over drinks, right)

To our new improved bar service I've also added a collection of orphaned silver spoons we own that I've never known what to do with. Let's stir drinks with them! I polished them and put them in a mint julep cup.

I am laughing-we have not used nearly enough of that liquor since the last time I photographed it! Since I've been deep in editing and pattern writing, I'm thinking it's high time to do something about that. My bar board awaits! Although I always seem to go to the old favorites over and over again- Pim's cup and the classic gin and tonic.

What about you? What's your favorites?

 

recent instagrams and otherwise

Instagram is a pretty constant companion to our days. Here are some recent ones-

 

Rock doodling...

 

Coffee near Peter's new office...

 

When my dream of a light-filled studio was real for a moment...

 

Dinner table flowers...

 

Gracie, unable to find a lap, decides to rest on the back of the sofa...

 

Dinner on the beach (Ian is always the one who grabs a big stick)

 

Emma and I examining, well, everything...

 

dyeing...

 

walking...

 

and just being...

making it merry

Christmas feels very simple and good right now. We didn't put up every single decoration we have this year. Sometimes putting every single piece of it up just feels like clutter. This year it feel like just enough.

I did make one more ornament though.

I purchased some wooden disks from Modern Needleworks on etsy. These are laser cut wooden bases for cross stitching and embroidery. I embroidered a simple geometric pattern, but when I was trying to decide whether or not this would become an ornament or a necklace, I added some sparkle with some Swarovski crystal beads.

Adding that little bit of sparkle suddenly made it seem perfect for the tree. I covered the back with a piece of leather to hide my crazy stitches and added a jump ring at the top.

I have another base I'd like to stitch up, if I could only remember where I put it.

I am going take a blog break for the holiday season. I plan to spend some time with family and finish the writing I need to do for the book. There's some movies to watch, some presents to open, an eggnog habit to kick, some family to see.

Thank you for being out there, for stopping by this space, for being excited about what I do, and for being the awesome people you are. I wish you peace this holiday season.

See you in January!

Love,

Blair

emma's upholstered headboard

 

I wanted to do a post about the headboard we made for Emma's room. A little history first- Emma has slept in a great wooden sleigh bed since she moved out of crib (here's a post from 2006 that shows this bed). It is well-made, really lovely, but the footboard definitely created a visual barrier in a room that stays pretty messy most of the time. I thought it would be fun to change her twin bed to a simple, metal bed frame and make an upholstered headboard ourselves, to give that corner a cozy feel. Luckily, she was game (win for mom!). I wanted it to feel like a statement but still be neutral. Teenage tastes change and this needs to work with the favorite color of the month every month.

For the fabric, I turned to my favorite linen-look (100% cotton) hopsack fabric. Its the same fabric I used for our family room curtains and it just works so well with so many different looks. A great weight, neutral color, textural. Its cost has gone up at Joann's ($9.99 a yard I think) but use your coupons to get it for a little less. I would keep bolts of it here at home if I could.

We started with a piece of MDF and drew out the basic shape we wanted, tracing around dinner plates to get the curves at the top. After we cut and sanded, I applied 2" foam over the entire "front" of the headboard, using spraymount to adhere it. Next, I applied a layer of quilt batting over everything and used a staple gun to attach it to the back (just a few staples is all that's needed because eventually it will get stapled down with the final fabric).

 

From there, I used a sharpie to mark where the buttons would be (I wanted to create a faux tufted appearance, something pretty but not too fussy). Once I'd marked the holes, I drilled a hole through all layers, from front to back (a little tricky through foam, but it works). I pulled out some extra foam around each drilled hole to help the buttons sink in a bit more. Last step before applying the buttons was to smoothly place the hopsack fabric over the front of the headboard. (Don't staple the fabric and secure it to the back until you've put all the buttons on.)

The buttons are a covered button kit from the craft store. I covered them using some periwinkle blue fine wale corduroy for contrast. To attach the buttons to the headboard, I used a a tapestry needle threaded with crochet cotton yarn. The buttons are pulled through from front to back of the headboard, securing the yarn on the back by stapling it into place several times on the back. By pulling a little of the foam out around the holes I drilled, the buttons seemed to easily settle into their position (thankfully). Jenny of Little Green Notebook has a great tutorial of how she created an upholstered headboard and has photos showing this step, which is exactly what I did.

Peter attached the finished headboard to the metal bed frame, and now it only awaits a bedskirt of some sort. Which could be a long wait.

You can see Emma's entire room redo by following the links on this post. The other DIY projects we completed for this room are listed on this page.

A footnote- I did not give away her former sleigh bed frame, I have daydreams that it will one day be used in my imaginary cabin.

Check back tomorrow for a fun giveaway!

 

emma's teenage bedroom redo on design mom today!

It's done! (Actually its been done for a few weeks now.) The bedroom redo collaboration between teenager and teenager's mom was, in the teenager's opinion, a complete success. The birdcage around the ceiling light in the photo above was my favorite of all the projects Emma and I did to make this room come together. And there were plenty. I'll be talking a little more about those coming up, but today you can hop over and see the finished room on Design Mom. Gabrielle did the sweetest q & a with me about the whole process of changing this room over. And when I tell you I cried answering those questions, I honestly did. Its exciting and bittersweet to watch my kids grow up.

Go take a look at the before and after over at Gabby's blog.

Happy Tuesday!

diy easy tabletop redo

I stole a few minutes to myself the other day and went thrifting. I came across this oil painting and found myself buying it. Wasn't exactly sure why. I don't see it on our walls, and don't even particularly like it as a painting. I do like the colors a lot, and the composition isn't bad at all. The price didn't hurt either.

summer house

- Making fudgesicles using Stephanie's recipe from my worn, dog-eared copy of 3191Q Summer 2010.

- Walking to the library to check out as many books as we can carry home.

- Getting kids prepared to head off to summer camp (having lessons in "Sunscreen 101", things like that)

- Enjoying how excited Emma is about the vast amounts of space in her newly cleared room.

- Watching Ian enjoy the tons of hand-me-down Lego's from Emma.

- Me, enjoying the coolness of my basement studio and stealing away a few minutes to sew up quick projects on my new sewing machine (like a Star Wars pillowcase for a boy who's patiently waiting for me to tackle clearing out his room).

- Meeting friends by bodies of water as frequently as we can.

- Playing games and watching movies.

- Finishing a quilt and starting a new one.

- Sleeping with the windows open, pulling up extra covers in the cool morning air.

- Watching the Tour de France and gearing up for the Olympics.

- Realizing I am lucky, life is full.

the diy project i can no longer put off

Last year Peter and I talked with Emma about redoing her bedroom, but time got away from us and it just never happened. There was some much-needed purging and cleaning out, but that was it. She's now 7, I mean, 13, and I lavender paint and sweet birdy paintings, nice as they may be, are not quite her style anymore. Far from it, actually.

summer break's art and leisure

As we were getting ready for the coming week (a week of both kids back to school), I was glancing around at the "work" that happened here at home, when my kids got down to the busy business of doing "nothing". My kids are just like most kids- they would love to do minecraft, or play wii, or watch Dr. Who all day, and are usually pretty bummed (and at times indignant) that they can't. I try to remember that they need time and space to figure out what to do on their own. Suddenly the productivity comes from out of the woodwork.

Emma spent some time listening to music and painting down in the studio-

my week in instagram

I am addicted to Instagram. Have you tried it? I love the immediacy of it. The snap a photo with few words aspect, its addictive. I know a lot of folks are unhappy about Facebook acquiring Instagram (even though apparently the company has never made any money and weren't ever quite sure how they would make money). I don't love the idea myself, but I've always had a suspicion that all of these companies make their money from the collection of data from their users (us) how we each use our account. Data equals money. And I'm talking about pinterest, facebook, and twitter. If they would like to market to me, fine, its the price I pay, and I don't have to look.

Anyway, back to Instagram. I find that I snap many pictures with my phone and post to instagram, many that I probably wouldn't take otherwise with my big black camera. My Iphone 4s takes amazing photos, I hardly need to these days, the phone photos just blow me away. Mainly I'm just happy that these moments get captured. Of course, they could get captured the same by snapping a picture and posting it onto facebook, but for whatever reason I prefer instagram (which, by the way, my instagram feed goes directly to the wise craft facebook page).

All of these pictures were taken by my phone and put up on instagram this week.

 

Today's crochet assembly-

 

labels on things-

 

The wall above my desk-

 

Gracie finding respite from 10 year old boys in my studio-

 

Ian and me at the Science Center-

 

My owl embroidery progress-

 

One of Emma's scupley clay birds found while cleaning the studio-

You can follow my instagram updates here.

Its been two weeks of kids home from school for Spring Break (Emma's break was last week, Ian's was this week). Work and productivity always take a bit of a backseat when that happens. Even though we were bummed that the kids had different breaks this year (no big spring break trip to Florida like usual), I have to admit I've really enjoyed having some individual time with each of them. They each had a week with a little down time, and a little fun. That's good.

Although...

I am looking forward to next week. I am going to see the Gauguin & Polynesia exhibit at the SAM, I am going to browse secondhand shops without needing to make deals with my offspring involving rewards for letting me go there.

I know you hear me...

Oh! And I'm still posting over at habit through the month of April. Stop by!

Have a great weekend!

Blair