Sophie’s ready for the weekend!  She got a manicure (pedicure? pawdicure?) the other day.

We were relaxing on the sofa and she had her feet stretched out and placed on my leg just so — so, I decided to paint her little toes. (Yes, I do realize this is an extreme sign I need a life.  Help.)

Shenanigan on the other hand, couldn’t care less.  He has a new pillow donated from his grandma.  It is one of those long body pillows, which shows just how long little Shenanigan really is, because he takes up almost every last inch . . .

What contentment.  What relaxation.  Have a great weekend everyone!  Party it up like Sophie and relax like Shenanigan.

Another new baby has come into our lives, this one is the son of one of JT’s band mates.  He is named Harrison after the best Beatle and I couldn’t resist a little Beatles’ inspiration.

“Here comes the sun. . . ” Little darling.  Harrison is pretty darling.  His nursery is all grey and yellow which is very sophisticated and fun.  Methinks the Eames rocker might look pretty good in little Harrison’s nursery as well.  I was digging the yellows together when I photographed it.

It started out the same way I did my monogram pillow (see instructions here) – normal acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium.  This time I used three different shades of yellow to give it a “beachy” feel.

The best part was how the sun really started streaming in when I was taking these photos.   I think George is somewhere up there smiling down on little Harrison . . .

May everyone have a little sunshine in their life.  Cheers!

Really, I kind of needed a couple of days of recovery and rest following a Saturday “Ikea-or-bust” road runner trip. 

There’s more info on what I picked up at Bolingbrook to come (see the new home for Little Walter on top?) . . . some of it is making it’s way into the kitchen, which is slowly making it’s way to blue . . .

It kind of looks like a Smurf was murdered in there right now.

One little project I did tackle was some “T” hooks gifted to us (once again — did I mention they give good gifts?) from JT’s brother and sister-in-law.  I had them hanging around for a while in their original orange . . . .

And then got all “crafty” on them and went for two shades of blue . . .

It didn’t really do it for me, I wanted something simpler and cleaner so I undid my blue handiwork and painted them with the Sherwin Williams Shoji White instead.

Much better and now Sophie and Shenanigan’s leashes are always on the ready.  Pretty much just like Sophie and Shenanigan themselves whenever we put on our running shoes and grab a plastic bag . . . “The shoes and the bags!  They mean business!”  (My very poor  memory of a Patton Oswalt stand-up about the dog figuring out it’s going for a walk)

Cue scary music for “before” image of kitchen — specifically the back door.

Can’t you just picture ax murderers lurking in the dark, waiting to kick in the door and cut you into pieces as you do dishes?  No?  Me neither, really — there’s a sun porch outside the back door so the ax murderers can’t get too close.  But we were getting a little “too close” to the neighbors who could see right into our kitchen (and vice versa – but actually from our kitchen door we can see into their bathroom . . . .)

So (sew!) cafe curtains were born!

I found a nice polka dot at Hobby Lobby and bought 1-1/2 yards.  It was a little light so I also bought a light white cotton to use as an interlayer.  Since, in theory, we will use the sun porch (right now it is a storage room for fun things like firewood and weed wackers and recycling bins), I wanted both sides to be nice.  I doubled up the polka dots and added in the interlayer and sewed a pillow case (for all intents and purposes).  Then I folded up and ironed both of the open ends of the “pillow case” (really the bottom of the curtain here) and finished it off with a heavy zig-zag/interlock stitch in white. 

I wish they were a little fuller and had a little more movement, but they’ll do for now.  For about $10 in fabric and a curtain rod and clips I already had lurking in my Hoarder’s-style basement, it’s a nice privacy solution. 

As you can see from the photos, the kitchen is about to be “smurfed” into the same blue as the music room.  I struggled along for a while, thinking I would keep it white one day, then convincing myself to go for blue on others.  Finally I couldn’t handle the indecision any more and emailed some of my college classmate/fellow designers for advice.  They steered me right and we’re going for broke with blue.  (Thanks Erin and Kristin!)  Even as a design professional myself, there are some decisions I will just over-think and over-think until nothing happens. 

So I’m excited to kick off the next phase of kitchen reno – painting, painting and painting!  First the walls, next the cabinets and finally the doors and trim.   The cafe curtains may have to get moved out of the kitchen temporarily to avoid being splattered in blue, but we’re enjoying them for now!

I had picked out two 100% wool sweaters at Goodwill a long, long time ago.  I remember the pickins’ were suprisingly slim — I was kind of hoping for a Cosby-esque sweater for Shenanigan but those were all blends.  The reason for the 100% wool is Step #2 — I felted them.  It was simple, I just washed the two sweaters in as hot water as my washer would supply and dryed them at high heat as well.  Twice.  The result was little doll (and dog) sized sweaters.  Since they are felted, you can now cut them up without any unraveling at the edges. 

Step 3 involved butchering the sweaters and terrifying the dogs while chasing them around and trying to fit these pieces together.  I jazzed Shenenigan’s sweater up by adding a hoodie component made out of a Snuggie he had destroyed. Sophie’s has a fold-down collar/neck.    And then it was spring and there was no need for dog sweaters.

Fast forward to more than a year later and St. Louis received another brief but pretty snowfall last night.  The dogs hadn’t yet been able to wear their snow day sweaters because I had never finished them – they didn’t have belly bands or any fastening system.  (The story of all my craft projects – half baked.)  I garnered some inpiration from Young House Love’s “Dude Get On That Already” challenge and last night I whipped out the sewing machine, attached the belly band and sewed on some velcro.  Project complete.  They’re kind of a mess but I don’t really care – they’re done!  Neither does Sophie, she loves hers and Shenanigan just kind of tolerates it.  It makes him look like a hobbit, poor guy.  But he bravely wore it out into the snow.

PS – I promise this blog hasn’t gone to the dogs.  I have a few little house projects to share and JT has some guitar news as well so we’ll get around to posting those up too.  Those little furry faces are just so hard to resist . . . .

And it was worth it . . . .

There have been many-a-time that I have browsed through aisle after aisle of an antique mall (junk mall in my mind) and come away with nothing that just needed to come home with me.  This weekend I found two things — an amazingly non-smelly Pendleton wool blanket and a vinyl ottoman I’m pretty sure my grandparents owned at some point in the 70s.

What with it being a bone chilling 10 degrees out, a wool blanket seemed like a no-brainer.  I loved the colors and pattern and then I saw the little blue tag.

See, you don’t have to go to Target for designer names.  And it was $30 less than a nearly identical one I found on eBay. 

Shenanigan quickly proved himself the world’s best circus dog by trying out the ottoman.  I think because of his short little stubby legs, he likes to have a higher vantage point and gets up on everything.  We even find him laying across the top of the sofa sometimes like a 55 pound tabby cat.

I had been eyeing all the knitted poufs that seem to be all the rage now (see this one at cb2) and considering trying to maybe D.I.Y. one of those so I’m glad we stumbled upon this ottoman instead.  I don’t really have time to finish all the current D.I.Y. projects I have going on, let alone start a new one.  For now both thrifty picks have found their way into the music room but at this house, things move around . . . a lot!

We had some friends over for brunch on Sunday (yay New Year’s resolution in action!) and one of our friends said “Where do you FIND all this stuff?”  It was interesting to step back and look at our house through the eyes of others.  While JT and I are thoroughly enmeshed in a world of thrift and vintage, not everyone shops that way.  I like to think of it as being environmentally conscious and trying not to buy something new when a used version exists that might find its way into the landfill. 

Underneath it all, I think I nurture a strange pride at being able to pull together inexpensive items and make our home feel warm and inviting and not cheap.  There’s also the thrill of the hunt.  It’s fun (for me) to “pick”.    (I must clarify though, I’m a mid-level scavenger.  I’m willing to pay a little more to people who have already done some of the digging and leg work for me.)  And so while it may seem strange to some people, I still find it a compliment when people marvel at all the miscellaneous items in our home.  We’ll call it eclectic and everybody wins.

Update: After I published this, I realized it was our 100th post.  Since gratuitous pet pictures are our thing, I thought I would add one of Shenanigan the circus dog giving me a low five as a small congratulations on #100.

Things “respectfully” designed by Jonathan Adler.  I must be a media-marketing sucker.  I bought into the Target/Missoni craze.  Now I’m buying toilet paper covers?  And they didn’t even come with rolls of toilet paper in them, FYI.

Images from Cottonelle's marketing campaign

But I just love the pattern.  Green and blue.  And trefoils?  Yes please.

Since they have not yet touched toilet paper, I’m thinking they might live in the kitchen to hold dog treats for the spoiled-ass dogs.  Because even my dogs love designer things.

Is anyone else as big a sucker as I am?  Probably not, but now that I’m aware of my weakness for random cheap designer items made for the masses I can get help.  Have a great weekend everyone.  I’ll be at my therapist’s office.  (aka Target.)

When Paul had his coming out party yesterday, I didn’t mention his new accessory — the lamp.

Paul came home with us on Friday night and I had done a quick scramble around trying to find just his right accessories.  I tried out the Ikea “globe/blob” lamp on him but it was too bright.  The other lamps in the house were too tall.  I knew I wanted some big artwork there as well so I hit a few area thrift stores to see if there were any large frames or canvases I could McGuyver into something better.  No luck. 

But I did find this naked little white ceramic lamp base for $2.52 and a very sad country-style lampshade for $1.21 in two different aisles at Value Village.

One visit to the backyard “spray booth” later . . . .

And things are much happier.  All for $3.73 and a can of spray paint I had already used on another project. 

The artwork next to it was something we had picked up on a family trip to Memphis a few years back.  It’s an old flyer for a concert or something. . . As a happy accident, it contained the blue color that is now starting to pop up all around the house.  I propped it up on a little Ikea (!) easel.  I still have some ideas in mind for the big “statement piece” that will go behind there, but whenever that is ready, it will have a little light to light it up.

I went there with an ulterior motive.  I went there to meet Paul.

Hi Paul.

Or would you prefer to be called Mr. McCobb?

No?  Paul’s okay?

Well, Paul, I think you were meant to be a desk of some sort, but you don’t mind being a bar do you?

You display bottles so well and can hide them away when our friends come over.

You have handy little drawers for all our accessories and an unopened bottle of wine fits perfect into the cubby holes that used to be meant for office supplies.  That’s not a coincedence, right?

And you have so much space for all our wine glasses below . . .

Welcome to our house Paul.  We hope you like living here.

So, that’s our big furniture news.  After plotting and planning about glass shelves and hutches and tall cabinets, we ended up with this.  I guess the joke’s on me.  I took down the artwork that was hanging on that wall but have yet to finalize things there . . . now I’m looking for a large statement piece to finish up that piece of wall.   Paul’s already doing a pretty good job and we couldn’t be happier with him.  Check out Vandeventer Vintage’s Flickr photostream for more items in their store . . . . I may be headed back for the marble coffee table so leave that one for me please.  Thanks!

Sophie and Shenanigan (and JT a little bit too) were included in Desire to Inspire’s weekly “Pets on Furniture”.  See the post here.

Kim and Jo of Desire to Inspire cull the interwebs and pull together great inspirational images but my favorite part is definitely every Monday when they do “Pets on Furniture”.  As an animal lover AND a furniture lover, it doesn’t get much better.

Speaking of furniture, we have news . . . .