Category Archives: D.I.Y.

Who’s Schmoopy?

Posted on June 11, 2013 by CT | 2 Comments

A while back we started calling my sister and her then-fiance “Schmoopy”. Why? Well because they were. Googly-eyed and smoochy, they were so disgustingly in love that the only appropriate descriptor was “Schmoopy”. And it stuck – somehow it became their pet nickname for each other. As the Matron of Honor (do I sound old or what!) I gave a toast for my sister where I wished her a lifetime of Schmooopy-ness. And I think they’ll do it!

(Another wedding picture I snagged off Facebook. The Schmoopies are Smiths.)

As a shower gift, I made a little something for the Schmoopies.

With my handy computer and a little Photoshop action, I used an 11×17 size paper to create some diner-style paper placemats. There’s a cute little print shop near us in South City called the Ink Spot. I used them for the placemats, the bachelorette invites and also for the wedding programs (fans) and guest book cards I designed. They’re super close by and I can upload the files online and call them and work through all my issues. And when I went in to pick up my stuff, I fell in love with the decor.

Above are some pictures I furtively snapped with my phone while picking up the placemats. Call me a design snob, but I totally prefer to give my business to a place that gets my aesthetic. MCM daybed with cute pillows and molded fiberglass chairs? Sold. I’ve got no skin in this game, I just thought I’d pass along a great local source for any STL people needing a printer out there.

Sister asked about framing one so I think she likes it. And I still have the file so if Schmoopys’ Kitchen Cafe ever runs out of placemats, we can reprint some more. Now that the wedding craze has passed I think I should whip some up for Living Analog as well. We just need a handy slogan . . . .

→ 2 Comments

Posted in D.I.Y., Gifts

Back with a banging backdrop!

Posted on June 5, 2013 by CT | 6 Comments

Hey everyone! The wedding of 2013 (my sister’s!) was last Saturday and I’M BACK!!!!!

So, I teased you guys a little while ago that I was trying to make this:

And . . . I did! But in purple and green (of course):

Yep, the only picture I could find (thanks to my cousin’s husband via Facebook.) Since there were two photographers following our every move, I didn’t break out a camera once. Hopefully I will have some better pictures I can share with the interwebs once my sister gets back from her honeymoon (Cozumel!) and meets with the photog. (Also, the backdrop was pretty tall but that’s my youngest cousin back there who is also the tallest person I know. So I think it looks a little smaller in the pictures than it really is. And those are a bunch (not all!) of my cousins and of course my sister in the other purple dress. Aren’t we a handsome bunch!)

So here’s how it went down, with bad iPhone pictures for illustration.

1. We picked out five different fabrics – one dark green, one light green, one dark purple, another light purple and a final one in solid purple. I cut them down to various widths ranging from 30″ wide down to 12″.

2. Spray with fabric stiffener (I used 3 bottles total of Alene’s Stiffen Quick to make all these). Spray again and again. Then iron into zig zags and glue closed after throwing a few stitches in the very middle to hold it all together. (I went back to Alene and used her fabric glue pen – super fast and quick).

3. Repeat over and over. I think I ended up with ten fabric fans and one didn’t make it onto the final product (good to have some back-up, just-in-case stuff).

4. Sweet talk husband into making you the world’s largest easel. Paint the easel white. Staple gun fabric to it. Staple gun pieces of metal hanger to it and sew your fabric fan to it so it will stand up straight. Spray everything down with the rest of your fabric stiffener and pray for a miracle.

4. Make easel legs easily dissassemble-able (we used threaded screws and nuts) for transport. Rip the rest of the fabric into long ribbon strips. Bring extra everything – thread, glue, stiffen spray, double stick tape, staple gun and cross all your fingers that the dang thing will stay together at least as long as the ceremony.

5. Sister gets married. Backdrop stays together. Everyone is happy!

(This picture is from before the ceremony at a little park nearby.)

So that’s what I got. Everything went off without a hitch – except for the intended one! (thanks Jess for the joke) I’m so happy for my sister and also so jealous she is on vacation right now! What’s been going on with you guys? I feel like I was gone forever!!! I have some more wedding fun stuff to share and then it’s off to the races with some house projects. Cheers – CT

→ 6 Comments

Posted in D.I.Y., Family, Hand Crafted

Tutorial Quick & Easy Tissue Paper Pouf

Posted on April 25, 2013 by CT | 7 Comments

Hey everyone. . . I’m slowly emerging from under the rock that was my huge deadline at work. Between working long days and still attempting to stay health-fully nourished and rested, I am afraid much has fallen by the wayside. I am not one of “those people” who can do a lot, e.g. thrive while they’re super-busy. I go into survival mode. Them’s the breaks.

What’s been going on with you? Last weekend was my sister’s first bridal shower which is very exciting and also very crazy — the wedding is now around 40 days away and I have a lot to get done! So why not detour into a quick tutorial, right?

Well, it’s wedding related. I had wrapped up one gift already with some cute green chevron paper (from Target) and purple ribbon only to realize I was out of purple ribbon for the second gift. That was not happening on my watch! So with minutes to spare until my ride arrived, I grabbed some tissue paper (only thing I had in purple) and went free-form with it.

#1 – Cut your tissue paper into as close to the same size rectangles as you can get and stack together. I probably did about 3″ x 5″ or so. If you cut your pieces really small it might not work as well. If you cut them really large, you’ll have to do a lot of “fluffing” later to get any fullness . . . .

#2 – Gently fold/crease in half and staple.

#3 – Cut equal-ish strips out of each side of your creased and stapled tissue paper stack.

#4 – Fluff, crinkle and pop your way into a tissue paper pouf. Use double stick tape or a loop of tape to attach to your package and you’re ready to go!

See how well it all “goes” with her invites? Purple – check. Green – check. Chevron – double check. This is nothing super fancy folks but it does give a present a little extra “pop” I think. (Also wrapping it in electric green, burn-your-eyeballs-until-you-can’t-see helps as well).

And I took the chevron theme forward onto the invite I made for another wedding-related party — the bachelorette party!!

The theme is Cinco de Mayo and I can’t wait. Ten bonus points if you can properly identify the movie quote on back (Disclaimer: you can’t play this game if you are either a) my sister or b) my mother). Here it is bigger for you:

“There’s a difference between like and love. Because I like my Skechers but I love my Prada backpack.”

“But I love my Skechers.”

“That’s because you don’t have a Prada backpack.”

We’re headed up to Iowa this weekend for another shower. More to follow!

→ 7 Comments

Posted in D.I.Y., Gifts

Another one about homemade art

Posted on April 6, 2013 by CT | 6 Comments

One more post about artist canvases. I’m not a painter. I never had any formal training in painting. I did have to take one drawing class in college and it was miserable. I hated the critique days and having to put my deformed and pathetic sketches up next to my classmates beautifully rendered images. But sometimes you need artwork for your house and you’re cash-strapped and you resort to painting it yourself.

Let me rewind for a minute. A few months back I picked up a little canvas at the local St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop. I searched high and low for the original images but to no avail — when I bought it, the canvas had a lavender background with white flowers painted on it. It looked like something I would have presented in college had I been required to take a painting class (a little amateur-ish to say the least). I felt a little bad when I jesso-ed over the canvas until I remembered it had been consigned over to St. Vincent de Paul.

Part two of this long-winded and potentially underwhelming story has to do with the brassy arc lamp I picked up at the auction at Vandeventer Vintage. I was considering giving it a new coat of (spray) paint, maybe in black to help it fit in with the living room a little better. (Read more of my angst here when we brought home a second lamp). I decided instead of painting this great vintage gem, I would bring in more brassy/gold goodness to make it feel at home.

Back to the painting. First I jesso-ed it, then I applied a few coats of a gold spray paint I had on hand. I found a cool example image on Pinterest that had large blocks of color and used that as my starting point. At first I had taped the canvas off with some 1″ painters tape we had around the house but the proportions felt weird so I “had to” order some washi tape from Etsy.

The washi tape didn’t perfectly keep the paint inside its boundaries so I had to do a little touch-up once I removed it. I took over the tulip table and spent a couple of days mixing up paint colors like a mad scientist. I used the kitchen blue color, the living room accent wall (SW Urbane Bronze) in its full hue and also lightened a few shades with white and a few new colors. JT requested “light red” and I told him he just asked for pink. However I was able to mix up a nice red-orange that seemed to satisfy his request.

The brassy/gold undercoat plus the paint colors from around the house really work to tie things all together in the living room.

Also, white fingernails! Because Easter was last Sunday, I feel like we’re in the clear for white shoe season and I celebrated by putting one of my favorite colors on my nails. Yesterday (Friday) was one of the first days it really, really felt like spring around here and everyone fled the office for City Garden at lunch. I had lunch at Lulu’s, an all-vegan food truck (so good!) and took in the sights. I know I talk about the Flaming Lips a lot, but this sculpture struck me as being very Wayne Coyne-esque.

On to the weekend everyone! I’m taking Cameron to an adoption event today at the Kirkwood Wal-Mart from 11am to 1pm. Stop by and say hi to the old guy! Cheers – CT

→ 6 Comments

Posted in Around the house, Arty, D.I.Y., Dogs, Living Room, Miscellaneous Diversions

Living Analog @ Lansdowne Life!

Posted on March 27, 2013 by CT | 4 Comments

Hey everyone! I know it has been quiet over here . . . .

But I actually put together a guest post (a tutorial!) over at Lansdowne Life while Erin is out spending time with her new baby girl.

Check it out here.

(In a weird twist of fate, one of my Stitch and Bitch girls Erin is also at home with her new baby girl! Welcome to the world Lily and Etta. Thanks to having such creative mamas, I think you’re going to have a pretty beautiful world to live in.)

I recently added a new sidebar of all the STL area bloggers I’m reading. We’re a small but mighty group. If there are any others you would recommend, send them my way (the more design, DIY, or MCM-based the better). Be sure to click around and maybe you’ll find some more blogs to add to your daily reads.

And (random transition) . . . . I put in an order for some more Flor carpet tiles . . . area rugs and runners to come. Here’s what we ordered:

Where do you think it’s going! I can’t wait (but it might not arrive until Monday so I will have to wait!) Cheers – CT

→ 4 Comments

Posted in D.I.Y., Design Diversions

Spastic and Sporadic

Posted on February 6, 2013 by CT | 4 Comments

Things have been a bit spastic and sporadic over here at Living Analog. I have about 500 projects half started and zero finished. We’re getting ready for our “Sweetheart’s Dinner” (AKA Valentine’s Dinner Party) and I’ve been really been looking for ways to amp this up and squeeze some juicy blog content out of it. So that led to more projects . . .

So what have I done (besides whining and bellyaching)? Well Pinterest is the devil and sidetracked me with some recipes: baked cinnamon apple chips and homemade cheese-its that I just had to try:

The apple chips were eat-them-right-now-and-then-make-more good. The DIY cheese-its were a little meh. I think I left the dough in the fridge too long and need to roll them thinner. It was good enough to give it a second try — plus it’s nice to make these and know what four ingredients are in them versus the chemical smorgasbord you buy at the store. Off my soapbox now . . . are you on Pinterest? I’m mildly addicted and sometimes majorly annoyed. I’ll pin something and later go to click-through to the original source and . . . nothing. Or spam. Right now my policy is to only repin items — Pinterest is still a gray area for makers and artisans — do they want their items pinned for all to attempt a duplicate? Maybe not. So by only repinning, I’m sort of off the hook when it comes to the point of putting someone else’s item on Pinterest without their permission. The exception to that is items for sale — I totally have a pin board with a crazy expensive purse that I want. I figure if an item is available for internet retail, they only benefit by having it on Pinterest. . . .

That’s me, if you want to meet up over there. I should figure out how to put a linky-thing up for that. I probably also need to start watermarking my photos but that’s for another day . . . no time, too many projects!

Oh yeah . . .another Pinterest project . . .

(Pardon the bad iPhone picture). This is my plan to tie in the arc lamp and all its brassy goodness. Add some more gold/brass! This is a thrift store canvas I picked up for a few dollars and have spray painted metallic. Next step paint like this cool pin:

{Image via this blog}

Now that I look at my version versus their version, I think I am going to retape. I like how this canvas has one major vanishing point . . . back to the drawing board . . . and onto other projects . . .

Here’s something for the dinner party:

I found this little cookie cutter at World Market and it will make little shortbread cookies that sit on the edge of a coffee cup. And I just got new coffee cups that nest into a little serving tray from my mom for Christmas so I know that will be getting used. . . next?

Here’s my view from bed last night. A little progress on the art wall . . .

A project with less progress is the pile ‘o paperwork I dug out of the hall closet for filing, shredding and other such pain in the ass handling. I need to get this sucker finished.

So that is a random wrap-up of the random goings-on at the Living Analog abode. It’s all kinds of spastic and sporadic . . . I’ve got project A.D.D – hopping from one to the next back to another . . .

Speaking of spastic and sporadic, or maybe just neurotic . . . does anyone else sort their M&Ms by color or is that just me . . .

Yep, officially into crazy. Back to the races, I mean projects . . .I mean work. Cheers – CT

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Around the house, Art in Analog, D.I.Y., Design Diversions, In the Bedroom, Miscellaneous Diversions

Super Bowling.

Posted on February 4, 2013 by CT | 4 Comments

What did you during the “Big Game”? Watch the commercials and cheer for the Murder Birds? JT and I decided to build some shelves! (This is the normal activity during sporting events, right?) I set the plan in motion by picking out a bunch of lumber and once we dragged it home, it seemed best to just go ahead and put it together right away since otherwise it would be still junking up the music room.

We got the plans/idea from Ana White (originally found via Young House Love), carpenter extraordinaire and we used the living room as our workshop.

The dogs cowered in front of the TV while we worked.

We’re not really a sports house, so we sawed and glued, clamped and drilled during the game and paused for the commercials. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the familiar curly grey locks of Wayne Coyne early on in the broadcast. See the commercial on YouTube here.

{Image via Google Images from here}

I immediately imagined the hipster revolt to follow. ”The Flaming Lips sold out!” they will cry. Here’s my take: with the sad state of current music being marketed like lunch lady slop to the masses, if the Flaming Lips go quote unquote “mainstream”, isn’t that a good thing? Wouldn’t this signal a return to good taste – to true artistic expression and not contrived trite designed to sell records? And while, by definition, the Lips did “sell out” by allowing their song to be used in a commercial that is selling a car, this clip is pure Flaming Lips. Robots, confetti, inflatable hamster-wheel balls, galactic travelers . . . methinks the Lips had complete artistic control if not a huge say in this video.

I listen to Pandora at work occasionally and they have a really well-written bio of the Flaming Lips — my favorite part is the beginning: “Even within the eclectic world of alternative rock, few bands were so brave, so frequently brilliant, and so deliciously weird as the Flaming Lips.” {Jason Ankeny, Rovi} So even though we didn’t have a team in the “Big Game” race, I still feel like we won.

(And more pictures when we get these shelves sanded, primed, painted and hung. We originally got enough lumber to make three but one of the 1x4s was so warped that we didn’t end up fabricating the third shelf. These ledges are destined for the new music “listening station” I’m creating in the living room.

Cheers – CT

→ 4 Comments

Posted in D.I.Y., Hand Crafted, Living Room

Decorating for Christmas, Part Two

Posted on December 11, 2012 by CT | 2 Comments

Our first Christmas card arrived the other day and I was so excited to put it up on the mirror like last year. I’m hoping more are on their way . . .

OVERALL MANTEL

If they’re not it’s because we haven’t sent out cards at all, mainly because it’s just the husband and I, and no one wants to see our mugs year after year. But we wanted a picture to sent to JT’s grandma this year and came to find that really we haven’t taken many of just the two of us in the last almost eight years of marriage. . . . something that will need to be remedied soon. The photographer who did my sister’s engagement photos was really great . . . .

Also some presents are wrapped! Sticking with my “white and bright” theme, I picked up a roll of plain white wrapping paper. I still need to add some embellishments in the form of tags and ribbon and then they will be all done! I wish I could say we’re all done with shopping but that’s never the case. There’s always someone a little trickier to buy for. (You know who you are.)

While putting up our decorations this year, there was one spot that felt a little bare. While browsing through my daily Google Reader feed a few days ago, I saw a wreath that reached out of the computer screen and pulled me in. I HAD to have it. Immediately. I haven’t felt the urge to acquire something that strongly in a while. Check out this post on the Nesting Place here and see if you can spot what I spotted.

BARE SPOT

Or . . . I’ll just go ahead and show you what I did!

THE WREATH MAKES IT COMPLETE

I figured rather than buy, why not make! I still had some paper left over from my punched dots garland and off I went.

TO MAKE

At first I thought I needed to get a wreath form or something more round to attach my paper leaves to but I still wanted the wreath IMMEDIATELY and didn’t necessarily want to start spending money on something I had already started for free. So I used a large bowl and a little dessert plate to trace out my circles on cardboard.

HOT GLUE WARMS THE SOUL

My sisal rope from Home Depot is still going strong so I used that to hang it in what I’d like to consider a simple-yet-casual arrangement. There was one spot on the wreath that was a little flattened out already from my learning curve as I glued the leaves down so I looped the twine around that section.

I also had a couple of sections of white twinkle lights left over from my teenage years when Leonardo DiCaprio was Romeo and Claire Danes was Juliet and I listened to Sarah McLachlan a lot in my bedroom. You know, the nineties. I wrapped them up into a little white light twinkle ball and nonchalantly set that on the window ledge to complete the holiday decorating.

I still had one other task at hand — that pesky green painters tape I used to rig up the mantel. After a quick trip to Target (kidding – when is it ever a quick trip!) I had my white duct tape and fixed up the mantel.

WHITE DUCT TAPE SAVES THE DAY

Doesn’t it look like I photoshopped that picture or something! It’s magical! And then . . . I saw something else I could use the white duct tape for . . . at guess where . . . . The Nesting Place. Check it out – this is next. Watch out mantel!

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Around the house, D.I.Y., Design Diversions

Let’s Get Large

Posted on December 3, 2012 by CT | 2 Comments

Large art I mean! Art that will cover walls and have a “presence” (said in a singing Oprah voice, right?).

Back in 2010 I got a crazy idea that I wanted a very large art piece for the bedroom. We made a trip across the street (almost literally across the street) to Home Depot and picked up some simple trim lumber, angle brackets and a canvas dropcloth. It was fairly simple to put together, although once we stretched the dropcloth around the frame and stapled it into place, the outer frame bowed in slightly. We added a few more intermediary members to try to straighten it back out (to mostly no avail).

IN THE BASEMENT #1

A few coats of gesso later (which you can get pretty much anywhere that sells craft paint like Michaels or Hobby Lobby) the Home Depot canvas dropcloth became a bona fide canvas. I experimented with a few different paint layouts before deciding I liked none of them and just went with a simple brush coat of our living room wall color. (All pictures from the basement of shame.)

IN THE BASEMENT #2

While it was hanging in the bedroom which had white walls from the previous owner, it worked out. But the furniture shuffle started once again when new owners came and took away the dressers Friday after work. That left a big blank wall in the living room. We can’t have that! So I looked around my piled-with-furniture basement and pulled out a low slatted Nelson-esque table and brought it upstairs. It’s twin was under the tree (Little Walter) so I swapped that out for a stool and voila . . .

SIDE BY SIDE

A new place for the large art. We’re about the start painting the rest of the bedroom walls so the canvas needed to be relocated temporarily. Now it was maybe 9pm on Friday night (I know how to party, folks) and JT was out at a gig. The tone on tone color was so boring . . . .

DURING

So I did what any normal/impetuous person would do and I painted it. (Sorry for the middle of the night no lights on in the living room picture. All I got.)

FINISHED 1

I did the bottom band in the Urbane Bronze of the living room accent wall and the middle band with the paint color for the bathroom (and I already can’t remember the name or if it was the first one that we discarded . . . I’ll have to check the can). The top band I left the wall color which is Amazing Gray (Sherwin Williams genius). Here it is by the light of the next morning and I think Sophie likes it. Or she’s concerned about what’s going on at the back door. Who knows what that dog is thinking. (And yes, if you look really close Where’s Waldo style, you can see that our kitchen counter is a mess. Real life things like cooking and coffee-making and giving the dogs their vitamins take place in this house.)

Here’s a sneak peek of the canvas yesterday, after Christmas decorating had hit the house. . . .

FINISHED WITH WREATH

More on the rest of the holiday decorations soon! I finally got to string up my little punched circle garland and I was so happy! Cheers – CT

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Art in Analog, D.I.Y., Dogs

Only a few more hours of work left . . .

Posted on November 21, 2012 by CT | 2 Comments

And then a nice four day weekend! Filled with tofurkey!

You don’t eat tofurkey? You’re probably not missing out. Even though Turkey Day is impending, I seem to have other holidays on the mind . . .

With the help of my trusty sewing machine, some thread (I’ve done both lime green and dark gray), a 1″ hole punch and some left-over paper I trimmed off a presentation at work, we have garland. (There have been a lot of good documentaries on PBS lately — the garland has given me a way to get in a little TV fix while still getting something done. Husband hasn’t complained about having to watch the TV on loud to compensate for the whir of the sewing machine. Yet.) I’m kind of ready to get this non-turkey eating day over with and on to hanging up my miles and miles of garland!

As we race towards the end of 2012, I’ve been trying to get going on the “big change-up” I so carelessly promised my loyal readers (all five! I love you guys!)

So the other night I spent pushing around all the larger furniture items in the house on towels. Good times. Right now it’s still craziness so no photos (and it is PITCH BLACK when I get home from work and pretty dark when I leave in the morning too. Boo. And not good for photo taking.)

Here’s where things are headed:

The dressers will eventually be making a big exit and making room for some more changes . . . .

What else. I know you guys like my “furniture funnies”. I got this email today.

Yeah. What they said. . . . (Don’t you want to meet the person who had to sew a turkey costume for a chair?)

Have a good one guys!

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Around the house, D.I.Y., Design Diversions, Furniture, Hand Crafted, Miscellaneous Diversions

Category Archives: D.I.Y.

Who’s Schmoopy?

Back with a banging backdrop!

Tutorial Quick & Easy Tissue Paper Pouf

Another one about homemade art

Living Analog @ Lansdowne Life!

Spastic and Sporadic

Super Bowling.

Decorating for Christmas, Part Two

Let’s Get Large

Only a few more hours of work left . . .

Lately at Living Analog . . .

Subscribe to Living Analog

Search

Tweets . . .

Everywhere Else

STL-ish

Follow “Living Analog”