Author Archives: CT

Stitch and Bitch Success!

Posted on March 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

** Content Warning – This is not your Grandma’s crafting! **

Working as a commercial interior designer is a great profession, but it’s not as hands-on as what you see on things like HGTV.  We work in AutoCAD, do Photoshop rendering and pick out materials.  But we also do ceiling plans, coordinate with mechanical/electrical/plumbing, do tedious room finish schedules and even more tedious shop drawings. 

So sometimes we designers want to get hands-on!  Together with some of my designer friends from college, we dreamed up what was at first called “D.I.Y. Day” to be sort of politically correct but then turned quickly into a “Stitch and Bitch” (way more fun).  JT preferred to absent himself (can’t blame him) and us girls took over the Thompson house for a Saturday of crafts. 

I was excited to get further in my New Year’s resolution of “bringing brunch back” so I went to town on that.

I found these great napkins at Ikea that matched the “stitch” theme and also had my beloved blue in them.  And yep, that’s a new rug hanging out in the kitchen — bought for under $30 online.  Sweet.  Ignore the horrible soffit, there’s a new light fixture going in this upcoming weekend . . . .

The girls pitched in with food (and cocktails!) and off we went . . . .

JT had set up the new Ikea Strind coffee table for us before he vanished into thin air and it came in handy having so much more free space in the living room now that the big ottoman has moved on to my brother and sister-in-law’s new house. 

I didn’t get a good before picture of it but Miss K came in with a busted up mirror from Hobby Lobby she scored for $8.  She had a big bag full of stuff and she took her frame to the horribly weedy front yard and made some magic with it.

She made a gorgeous little picture display for her little girl, Mila’s room.  She texted me a picture after, and I think the pictures of Mila with her mommy and daddy are what make it extra cute.  I love the fabric and ribbons and really, the overall pink and brown scheme they did for Mila’s room – very sophisticated but fun.

With all that she had to do, somehow Miss K even finished up first and came in to give us a hand . . .

Miss E had found some great inspiration images on Pinterest and wanted to do something spring-y for her front door.  Several yards of felt and some hot glue later, her wreath came out so great.

One of the nice things is that the felt flowers are wired on individually so she can change it out for the season if she wants (red flowers for Valentines day or orange and brown hues for fall . . . )

Isn’t it sharp on their black front door? I love it!

Now to me. . . . everyone I know seems to be having a baby girl.  So baby presents were in order.  I saw this adorable felt bootie pattern on Purl Soho’s website and wanted to try it out. 

I was the slowpoke of the group.  By the time brunch had wrapped up, I had only one unadorned bootie to show for all my effort.  I persisted in my hand-stitching and thanks to an extra long finale of The Bachelor, got one pair all the way done. 

 

Now I only have two more pairs left!!  All in all, the Stitch ‘n Bitch was great fun — it was nice to work on a project and be able to catch up with each other, drink really good cranberry-champagne mimosa-things and enjoy a beautifully sunny Saturday.  This might end up being a recurring event, but I think next time instead of starting off on a whole new project, I need to use these D.I.Y. days as a time to finish up all the ones I have started all over the house . . . .

Thanks to Miss K and Miss E for letting me share their projects!  Cheers – CT

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Posted in Around the house, Design Diversions, Hand Crafted

Dog Days

Posted on March 8, 2012 | 2 comments

You may have noticed from the radio silence that things are crazy over here.  Or maybe your own life is crazy too so you totally get it and don’t really have time to read my boring blog posts about which wall I painted today, which I totally get.  At any rate, things are so crazy over here that I think both JT and I feel like we’re running around with our hair on fire most days.  Not pretty and scorched hair definitely doesn’t smell good.

You know who isn’t running around with their hair on fire?

These two.

Yep monkeys.  This is Sophie assuming the “Long Legs” position.  Also “Crazy Bat-wing Ears”.

Guess who thinks our new(-ish) bed belongs to him? 

Shenanigan.

Day after day, we find him laying in JT’s spot.  World’s largest dog bed.

Shenanigan ends up being photographed the most because he does the weirdest things.  His little lab/corgi body is so weird with his long long body and short short legs.  Sometimes, he hugs his pillows with those little legs.

Sometimes, he uses his pillow to cushion his feet only . . . .

And then Sophie uses him for a pillow and the world makes sense again . . .

I have my fingers crossed that I will have some design/home related updates next week.  I’m having some girlfriends over for a “Stitch and Bitch” craft day so I’m going to have some projects to share!  Have a great rest of your week.  (It’s going to fly by, especially if you’re running really fast because you hair’s on fire!)

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Posted in Dogs

Lights Out!

Posted on March 1, 2012 | 4 comments

Dejected by a long week of short days and high stress at work, it seemed like we needed a little unwinding in the evening.  Ally at From the Right Bank had posted a sweet blog letter (you can read it here – note her blog was hacked and she has been having some trouble with images) from Heather describing a power outage and I took inspiration.  We decided Tuesday was “Lights Out Night” and grocery shopped accordingly. (Salmon and lobster pinwheels with baked potato, steamed broccoli and a broccoli risotto, so good.)

And husband bought me some flowers.

We didn’t really go all the way “lights out”, we just said no TV or internet.  We made a nice dinner, had some red wine and settled in on the sofa to read Steinbeck (The Pearl for me, East of Eden for JT).  All in all a great night and I think this is a tradition we will keep.

While digging through the box of candles for ones to light up, I inadvertently brought one upstairs that had a little history attached to it . . .
 Yep, that may or may not have been the high school dance that started this whole crazy thing.  We didn’t actually burn it, but put it out on the table for grins.  Also, JT’s cousin made those incredible turned wood candle holders as wedding gifts.  Love.

You guys may think we are just wine drinking slackers over here but some progress was made.  The kitchen is now bluer.

The ironic thing is that when we bought the house the kitchen was painted a soft blue color and had this lovely blue plastic laminate countertop (prepare your eyes for a hideous picture . . . )

Oh the horror.  It’s come a long way baby.  I’ve got my mind set that March is going to finish this one.

Another little kitchen item was installing some more functional storage solutions – #1 a Grundtal rail system from our last IKEA trip.

I’m noticing red wine was involved in this project as well.  Hey, it’s good for the heart and I am all about heart health.  Also, while I understand the mechanics of power tools, I try to avoid operating them at all costs as I am left-handed and convinced one will kill me.   JT is kind enough and right-handed so he’s the power tool man.

Since we have a grand total of 8′-6″ of countertop with accompanying under-counter storage, having a nice way to store some of our pots and pans is something we really appreciate.  It’s still simple, clean and miles away from that tower of clutter shelving we used to have but gives us a way to really maximize our tiny kitchen.

So that’s it for this week.  We’re just hours away from another weekend and I’m hoping to get some more Grundtal installed but also have some family moving duties to attend to.

Don’t forget – life is what you make it.  If you want more evenings drinking wine and reading classic literature with your high school sweetheart, then take Nike’s advice and JUST DO IT!  Or maybe you want something else like more time playing Scrabble.  JUST DO THAT TOO.  Maybe a project might not get finished as quickly, maybe you’ll have to wait one more night to pay some bills but it will all be worth it in the end.  The blue kitchen will just have to wait (although I am absolutely loving how that kitchen of mine is  coming together! . . . )  All in due time.

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Posted in Around the house, Design Diversions, Kitchen, Miscellaneous Diversions

Grow where you’re planted

Posted on February 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

So many new(ish) vintage/thrift/retro stores are popping up all over St. Louis right now, that it’s making my weekends busy trying to get out and visit all these places (First world problems).  The next shop I was targeting is MoModerne, an antique/retro store down on Cherokee Ave (also spotted through Mr. Modtomic’s blog – he keeps me up to date on local shopping hot spots!).  I started following them on Facebook a while ago and they have been posting beautiful images of beautiful furniture.  I’ve wanted almost every item they’ve posted.   So, out of fear for my wallet, I stayed away for a while.  Then an opening in our calendar popped up this last weekend and I dragged JT down to see the place.

What did I find but a little bullet planter waiting to come home with me. (I’ve been dreaming about them for a while – see my posts here and here.)  Perched high up on the shelf, I didn’t notice it until a second perusal of the place prompted me to snatch the tag off of it before anyone else in the store could make off with my find.  When I checked out, the guy said they used to have a bunch of the big ones too.  Why, oh why did I wait so long?

I don’t know what kind of plant this is and it’s one of the few in the house that I haven’t named, but it’s looking pretty gosh-darn happy in its new home.  It feels pretty good to wish and wish and wish for something and finally find it. 

In related plant news Little Walter, the tree, seems to be doing better.  He finally stopped dropping leaves and seems to have stabilized.  I potted him in the IKEA wicker woven basket/planter I snatched up on our IKEA trip the weekend before last.  It was the only thing like it in the plant area and even the check-out lady seemed a little intrigued/puzzled by it.  All I know is it had a plastic liner for plants but a nice woven white/blue-grey pattern I couldn’t resist.   I keep moving him around the living room, but for now he’s living here:

The height isn’t quite right so he’s perched on one of the Target Alto stool knock-offs.  We’ll see.

What else.  Well, since we were down on Cherokee for MoModerne, we also checked out the Mud House (found through Third Story(ies), another STL blog).  I had a yummy chickpea salad sandwich.  I never would have thought of chickpea salad but I sure am glad the Mud House did.  They also had great interior space and some fun, funky artwork.  Another plus — they play good music.  It can be hard to not run out of a restaurant screaming if they play bad music.  There have been times where we have considered leaving the grocery cart in the aisle and abandoning our grocery shopping because the store used to play such bad music.

And the Oscars!  I made “murder” cupcakes (red velvet) complete with Ryan Gosling’s little face as an inside joke for JT’s movie-watching dudes. They were actually pretty easy to make with my handy 1″ diameter punch (plus toothpicks and some good old-fashioned Elmer’s glue).

All-in-all a good weekend.  On to a great week, right?  I had a small epiphany this weekend.  A little late but here’s what I realized:

Life is what you make it.  So be sure to make it what you want.

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Posted in Around the house, Design Diversions, Hand Crafted, Miscellaneous Diversions

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Who’s Ready for the Weekend?

Posted on February 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

(Warning – Gratuitous dog pictures ahead.)

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.

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Posted in Dogs

Another (little) project

Posted on February 23, 2012 | 4 comments

My sewing machine and I are getting better acquainted day by day.  Soon, very soon, my sewing machine and I will be learning how to do zippers. 

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!

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Posted in Design Diversions, Gifts, Hand Crafted

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Feels like Monday . . .

Posted on February 21, 2012 | 1 comment

JT and I took a little “staycation” day yesterday.  Being neither government employees or educators, it was not a work holiday but rather our personal holiday from work.

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)

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Posted in Around the house, Dogs, Hand Crafted, Miscellaneous Diversions

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And more sewing . . .

Posted on February 16, 2012 | 1 comment

I’ve had my trusty old Kenmore out and rigged up and ready to go for some sewing work sessions this past weekend.  Let’s see what I battled out . . .

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!

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Posted in Around the house, Hand Crafted, Kitchen

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Snow Day Sewing

Posted on February 14, 2012 | 1 comment

Last year we had a big snow day and inspired by Anna at Door Sixteen, I started on dog sweaters for Sophie and Shenanigan.  Because, you know, it’s natural for dogs to want to wear sweaters when it snows . . . .

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 . . . .

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Posted in Dogs, Hand Crafted

Weekends are for Thrifting, right?

Posted on February 13, 2012 | Leave a comment

JT and I hit up the Green Shag Market this weekend.  After seeing it on Mister Modtomic’s blog and realizing it was a mere 2.3 miles from my house, there was no resisting.  With an open span of time on Saturday I could have spent on all of my 50 ongoing projects, I couldn’t ignore the siren call of a new and unexplored antique mall so gosh-darn close by. 

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.

 

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Posted in Around the house, Dogs, Furniture, Thrifting

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