Author Archives: CT

From crochet to Eames

Posted on December 27, 2011 | Leave a comment

Now that Christmas has come and gone, I can now show my crochet project.

I made the crochet chain loop necklaces for my mom and sisters. They’re a lot of work!!! (See the tutorial here.) The orange one I did as my trial run didn’t finish out quite right so I made it into a fun cat toy for Squiggy, my father-in-law’s cat.

I realize now it seems like I blogged up a lot of crochet angst for three things but there was actually 5 more I forgot to photograph before sending on their merry way.

The crochet necklaces are hanging out on JT’s birthday present . . . an Eames Herman Miller shell chair on a rocker base. Beautimous. (As I post this I realized my pictures as still sub-par even with the new camera. It was dawn at the T household and we were on our way to family Christmas. Sorry peeps.)

Has everyone seen the Eames PBS special? It aired last Monday on the American Masters series and it was really engrossing but also (because it was only an hour and a half) touched only briefly on a lot of topics I would have been interested to hear more about. JT got this great gift from his brother and sister-in-law and they had scored it from a local thrift store. It used to be on a desk chair base which they switched out so JT could be a rocker. I’m lucky my husband is a man of style and good taste so he can appreciate such an awesome present.

In unrelated and random news and amusements, I got back in to the office today and had a postcard waiting in my mailbox.

Yikes! “Upholstery humor!” I’m about to have some “upholstery humor” as I pick out fabric for our new daybeds. Wish me luck.

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Posted in Furniture, Gifts, Hand Crafted, Miscellaneous Diversions

Christmas Fail

Posted on December 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

Christmas Fail #1: Two words: Olan Mills. OR – Matching Dresses.

Merry Christmas from the early 90s!!!!! (or was it the late late 80s? Not sure). At any rate, I’m the one in the white dress with the horrified expression.

Christmas Fail #2: I’m not going to finish 3 of my Top Secret crochet gifts. One will live on as a January birthday gift but I gave up on the others. Threw in the towel. Since they were extra “stocking stuffer” type of gifts, I’m okay with that. Two of my bestest friends live out of state and the girls are in town! I’m not going to be saddled to the sofa with a crochet hook when there is life to be lived and drinks to be drunk.

Happy Christmas from Living Analog (and Olan Mills) to you!!!

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Posted in Family, Gifts, Miscellaneous Diversions

Christmas Update

Posted on December 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

It looks like Santa has been here . . . .

(Or JT and I finally got busy and wrapped some gifts . . . )
And the cards have started to come in so I double-stick taped the photo ones up on the mirror.

The one present I am most excited about is not wrapped . . . . and it’s for the dogs (of course.)

See it peeking out there, hanging out with the Grinch?

It’s the Y Bowl from a great designer in Chicago — Doca Pet. The dogs will now be drinking their water in style. (Because you know they are very concerned about being in style . . . or maybe just their owner is).

Sophie and Shenanigan actually received their very own Christmas card yesterday and thanks to a little peanut butter, Shenanigan opened it himself while Sophie looked on and hyperventilated. I guess this is the point where most people tell us we should just go ahead and have kids. Yikes.

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Posted in Around the house, Dogs, Gifts

Christmas with Monograms and Sheepskins (the essentials)

Posted on December 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

I have a major thing for the letter “T”. It’s my last initial (now that I’m married of course) and I can’t seem to stop collecting them. I worked as a graphic designer in college and still do a lot of graphic work now inadvertently for our school clients. So a part of me has always loved fonts.

I was meandering around Hobby Lobby the other day, when lo and behold, what did I see but “T” ribbon. It was perfect and I bought all the rolls they had.

Now it’s making an appearance on our Christmas presents for the other “T” family members.

And no, there’s not coal in that bag — it’s gift cards! I saw it at Schnucks and couldn’t resist. I have been wrapping all the gifts in simple brown craft paper and I pulled out one of my faux-fur sheepskins for the tree skirt.

On a side note, I saw this sheepskin blanket and fell in love. Love.

Soft, turquoise goodness.

It’s $800!! From a store in the mall!! I promised JT I would wear it as a coat every day (even in the 100 degree humid STL summers) and sleep under it every night but no dice.

So there you have it. Although I’ve been trying to do some Christmas good deeds (I donated blood on my day off on Monday!) I also suffer heavily from the “I wants” and other such first world problems. I’m no stranger to the green-eyed monster. Just trying to keep it all in perspective.

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Posted in Around the house, Gifts, Miscellaneous Diversions

2011 is going out with a bang.

Posted on December 20, 2011 | 1 comment

You guys, I’ve done something crazy.

I’ve been working towards a bedroom remodel and also had my sights set on the kitchen in 2012. Yesterday JT and I took the day off work and I bought living room furniture instead.

Yikes.

So here’s the living room as it stands now.

It’s working pretty good except we only have one sofa, two people and two very spoiled dogs. All four of us end up crammed into the couch every night and it was starting to get old.

Then I saw an interesting blog post pop up on Mister Modtomic’s site about some Danish Daybeds. Two. A matched pair. One for JT and I and one for the damn dogs.

(Image above from Mr. Modtomic’s blog)

I couldn’t resist. I was helpless in the face of more leg room and vintage modern furniture. Yesterday JT and I trucked up to North County in the trusty Saturn and loaded her down.

We were once again able to surprise people with what we can cram into this car (like the queen bed before). Luckily the legs came off and the backrest piece disassembled so it was pretty simple.

Now — upholstery. Almost the kiss of death for a designer because it’s so hard to choose. Really hard. We put our current sofa on Craigslist (for a pretty good price if you know anyone in the market – ad here) and the ottoman needs to go too so our new floor plan can end up looking like this:

Yep that dashed in circle is the round coffee table I’m on the hunt for next. And the squares are more FLOR area rug. It never ends people, it never ends. And my last batch of insanity has killed my crochet gift scarf pace. I have three more to start and finish in about 5.5 days. It’s like the bros before hoes rule – Furniture first, life later.

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Posted in Around the house, Furniture

Happy Friday!

Posted on December 16, 2011 | Leave a comment

E-mail cards seem to be all the rage at work. I received this one the other day from J&J/Invision (a contract carpet company) and it reminded me of my good deeds post and it was super cute so I thought I’d share.

Have a great Friday and an awesome weekend! Wrap all those presents. Make all those cookies. Take a nap on the couch with the Christmas tree lights on. Cheers!

PPS – the “I’m a Giant” dollhouse challenge was extended to February 1st. Maybe the ol’ dollhouse still has a chance after all.

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Posted in I'm a Giant (doll house) challenge, Miscellaneous Diversions

Is this a dog blog or a decorating blog?

Posted on December 15, 2011 | Leave a comment

Y’all I know things have been a little heavy on the dog pictures lately but as I learn to use my new camera, it’s so hard to resist photographing their little faces. My new camera (early Xmas gift) has a cool feature called “Burst” where it takes multiple quick shots with only one push of the button. It’s great for photographing a moving subject — like, you guessed it — a dog or two!

Sophie and Shenanigan posed for their photo shoot after a nice brisk walk last weekend. Since I go to work when it’s dark out and then come home in the dark, weekends are pretty much the only time I have to do any photos.

I’m getting further along on my secret crochet gifts. I now have 5 complete and one has already been mailed. Unfortunately I still have 6 more to go. I’m surprised my fingers still work for typing actually . . .

(Sophie and Shenanigan also want to say thank you to their auntie for coming over and taking care of them so frequently. Sometimes Shenanigan’s way of saying thank you may be kicking you in the ankles, but thank you is still what he means.)

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Posted in Dogs, Gifts, Miscellaneous Diversions

Santa Came Early!

Posted on December 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

I guess I was good this year — Santa came early! A brand new (used) camera arrived from Montana the other day via Amazon. I love it already and I don’t even know it that well. It’s technical name is “Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5S 9MP Digital Camera with a 10x Wide Angle MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom”. I might call it Lover for short.

I tested it out on the tripod the other day. First I put up the old camera (a CoolPix? I’m not even sure. It’s in the drawer forever now. It’s dead to me.) Then, keeping the tripod in the same spot, I put up Lover. See how much more the Wide Angle lens will get ya?

Christmas is here at the Ts. We put up the tree the other day and have been slowly decorating the room. Can anyone count the number of Elvises we have in our living room? (What is the plural of Elvis — Elvi?) It’s like Where’s Waldo but, you know, with Elvis.

So far all our (2) Christmas cards have matched the color scheme. Those lucky guys get displayed on the mantel. (Little Jack man, so cute!) The others will be banished to the refrigerator (fair warning, folks).

We definitely went the faux tree route — it has a narrow profile so it takes up a lot less room in our tiny floorplan but sill looks like, well, a Christmas tree. Someone told me the other day they were surprised we put up a tree at all, you know since we don’t have kids. That took me back a little bit — are childless couples not allowed to decorate for Christmas? Guess we’re breaking the rules.

We do have these two helpful mutts, who posed on the new fleece blanket all day.

JT joined some kind of Maker’s Mark club, so a little sweater arrived for his whiskey bottle the other day. How nice. The wreath on the console table is made of white plastic grocery bags. I had found a little metal stand at Goodwill a while back for $1 and it turned out to be just the right height to be a nice wreath hanger for my free wreath. Pretty sweet.

Looking at everything through my new camera lens, I already see a few things for my list in 2012. #1, the accent wall behind the fireplace is history — in 2012 it will be white! #2, something needs to be done with the fireplace — it had a horrible brass and glass surround on it that we promptly took down but the concrete is stained where that used to be and #3 I will be painting the heating vent over the white floating shelves to match the wall color because it sticks out like a sore thumb now.

Back to my new camera manual I go. Have a great week everyone!

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Posted in Around the house, Dogs, Gifts, Miscellaneous Diversions

Has everyone done their Christmas Good Deed?

Posted on December 6, 2011 | Leave a comment

With all the celebrating that goes on this time of year, I realize again and again how lucky I am. When the holidays roll around, I always wish I had more time to volunteer — maybe that will be one of my resolutions for 2012. However, I still like to find other ways to give and do my Christmas Good Deed.

This year’s Christmas Good Deed is sending a twelve-year-old girl in Foster Care to the City Museum. If you’ve never been to the City Museum, it’s amazing — a visual wonderland of junk crafted together into a playground for kids of all ages.

So when I saw that the Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition was granting children’s “Little Wishes” (their big wish is to be adopted), and that one little girl was interested in the City Museum, I was all in. They still have a lot more wishes to fill — it’s fun, being someone’s fairy godmother in a way.

Another great charity to consider supporting is the one where we got our very own Sophie dog (once named Butterfinger, you can read her rescue story here), Stray Rescue. Not many animal shelters actively feed and rescue street dogs, have a hospice program to give dogs a quality end of life and help nurse so many animals back from death’s door.

This is Daddy Lab (before and after), a rescue from a few years ago. It’s amazing the number of animals Stray Rescue brings in that are so emaciated and ill like this — and they all turn out to be happy, healthy dogs who make great pets. Stray Rescue has received a $100,000 matching donation from an anonymous “fairy godmother” for the Stracks Fund.

The Stracks Fund goes to cover medical expenses for dogs like Daddy Lab. Stray Rescue spends up to $150,000 PER MONTH on medical care for their animals — they get the best care possible. So as our second Christmas Good Deed, we are also donating to the Stracks Fund.

What’s your Christmas Good Deed? Mine is definitely small fries in the grand scheme of things but it feels like my cosmic thank you to the universe for all my blessings. (Cheesy but true).

On a Christmas Crafting update, I am stalled. But, I may have invented a new crochet “thing” to be revealed at a later date that will make me a fortune. Probably not. But if it does make me a fortune, I will be able to do so many more Christmas Good Deeds!! More updates soon — the Christmas tree went up! Going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark has not made for any good picture-taking time at home.

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Posted in Dogs, Family, Gifts, Miscellaneous Diversions

Reading up this weekend?

Posted on December 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

Still under wraps with the gift crafting/creating thing. Since there’s nothing to look at here, I thought I would point out all the design beauty going on around the interwebs. The new hot thing seems to be online design rags powered by a pdf-ish program called Issuu. Here’s a round-up of the ones I have in my favorites bar.

Lonny
Somewhat filling the void left by Domino, this is always an inspiring place to browse.

Rue
Hello Brad.

Kinfolk
So far they have only launched one issue, but I really like this one — celebrating the idea of getting together with your loved ones for quality time over food. What’s not to like?