Hey everyone. It’s TGIF which from henceforth will be an acronym for “Thank God I’m Fabulous”.
And for a little Friday funnin’, here’s a photo I shot while we were on vacation in Clarksdale, Mississippi earlier this year. It is the front porch of Ground Zero Blues Bar, photographed from the car as we zoomed around all three blocks of downtown.
Have a great weekend y’all and whatever you do don’t make your mamma cry. Or write on your sofa. Cheers – CT
Posted in Furniture, Miscellaneous Diversions
Alright y’all. I’m done pouting about my Dream House. Maybe. No really, I put my big girl pants on and started another project.
On two separate occasions I found a pair of these chairs in the alley (put out by someone who was de-hoarding only to be re-hoarded by me). So along with the MCM walnut chair, I have another project in motion to bounce back and forth between. I was planning on painting them white except for the bottom five inches or so of the legs (which would be left natural). This plan derailed when JT pointed out we weren’t keeping them, they’re going to the “list”. He thought Craigslist browsers of our antiquated ass-backwards town might not appreciate my design sensibilities and he’s probably right. So instead I’m going to work on doing a light restoration. It won’t fix everything (one has the letter “r” carved in the seat) so they’ll still be a little rustic but that look seems to be pretty popular-ish. . . so we’ll see. I’ve started in on two of the rougher ones and it’s looking pretty good although I need to get them out of the basement and into some natural light for Round Two to make sure they’re not streaky.
In unrelated news, here’s a cute baby bunny JT unearthed while mowing the backyard over the weekend (it was really tall – the yard, not the rabbit.) He took his time hopping off but seemed to get used to his legs and made it out through the fence and safely away from our dogs.
Look at his little ears!! (Pretty much every animal gets a male pronoun with me. Is that normal?)
Posted in Around the house, Furniture, Thrifting, Yard Work
Well, in a fit of frustration the other night that our house didn’t have enough space for a good rehearsal/recording/band space, I took to the interwebs in search of more square footage. And then I found our dream house. A little more room and an MCM pedigree. A house I could easily picture us living in for the next 30 years while lovingly restoring/updating every last inch.
We made a fatal mistake. Not only did I ogle it online, we contacted the realtor and went and saw it yesterday. It needs a lot of work but I’m in love.
And even though it’s not that expensive, it’s out of reach. I’ve alluded to it before but I’m saying it now. Our finances are not where I thought they would be at this point in my life. Due to bouts of unemployment for both the husband and myself, car repair bills, vet bills and just everyday spending, we’ve managed to wrack up a good bit of credit card debt.
We finally have gotten organized and started to take control. After reading Suze Orman’s “Young, Fabulous and Broke” (of which we are maybe only the broke part), some meetings with our financial planner and also meeting with a non-profit debt counseling service, we will have one of the credit cards paid off at the end of the month. With a big chunk left to pay down, I don’t really see any way we can get into that MCM house of my dreams anytime (realistically) within the next two years.
As a next step we have decided to sell our baby, “Something Else”. She’s a 1966 Ford Fairlane 2 door sedan that has been garnering cobwebs in our garage. The Craigslist ad is here and there’s a YouTube ad here.
We’ll miss “Something Else” (so named after an Eddie Cochran song) but unfortunately the timing wasn’t quite right. I bought her as JT’s 30th birthday present a few years ago and really an undertaking like her would be more suitable for us in our retirement years.
I’m not writing this post for sympathy although if there are any empathizers out there, I’m with you. More I thought I would post this up as a reality check. For the last year or so I’ve been buying a lot of new things for around the house and that is coming to an end. We’ve made a commitment to bunker down and finish this credit card debt up once and for all. On the good news flip side, I’ve dedicated myself to finishing up all the 500 projects I’ve amassed in the basement (like the MCM walnut chair I posted about the other day — it’s been down there since 2007!) And as much as we love our little brick bungalow, a little more square feet in an MCM dream will be like the light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully when the time comes we’ll be able to find something like it.
Posted in Fairlane
This self-imposed bathroom deadline (that I didn’t quite meet) got me to thinking . . . maybe these deadlines/goals/whatever you want to call them could be used to help me finish up all these pesky little projects that I always start and NEVER FINISH! So September is bringing a new project/goal/deadline.
This chair:
Purchased in 2007. Yup, 2007 and festering in the basement. With matching ottoman all for the low,low price of $30.
Poor thing hasn’t seen the light of day for five years. That should be illegal – chairs have feelings too.
So this is my September project: MCM Chair & Ottoman Restoration. Here’s what it needs:
1) Tung oil frames (they are sanded to bare wood currently)
2) New straps like we did to the Baumritter chair
3) New Upholstery! — This is the step I’m a little nervous/excited about. Not only am I going to make a box pillow cover with welting, I’m going to tackle zippers too!!!
Step One is already underway and the fumes are beginning to drift up to the main floor. . . .
The $13 Man’s Chair in Living Analog’s living room got a little bit of a spiff up. The straps that the seat cushion sat on were permanently warped down, down, down and they were old. So old that they no longer had any flex and were now hard, brittle and flaky. Time for new. Right Shenanigan?
Did you break one? No worries. I turned to my trusty old friend Amazon and ordered this black webbing. Then JT wrestled with the chair (it rocks so it was kind of hard to hold it in place) and staple-gun strong-armed in the new straps. Much better.
The chair also had a bunch of finish runs and blobs. I decided to try out the Howard’s Restor-a-Finish since I had seen it work so many wonders on Mr. Modtomic’s blog.
And wonderful it was. We picked it up from the paint and stain aisle at our nearby Home Depot. I just grabbed the first one I saw and it worked out but if you try this one at home be sure to check — the Howard’s Restor-a-Finish comes in different colors depending on the wood finish you’re working with.
So we’re back to sittin’ pretty.
Next up for this guy will be upholstery. But he’s low on the list — first I have to do the Danish Daybeds I have languishing in the basement. And another project in the basement has also been started . . . .
But if and when Man Chair does get new upholstery, I’m thinking a leather/vinyl might be nice since our leather sofa is going bye-bye soon. Something like this . . . but maybe in white?
Image via KRRB.com
Enjoy your short week everyone! Cheers – CT
First, cue the music.
Okay. Now let’s take a look back shall we?
I don’t have before before pictures of the bathroom’s state when we first bought the house but even our first stab at the bathroom was a little lackluster to say the least.
Kinda boring.
Not very functional.
Small.
Small we couldn’t change (well unless we blew out the wall and took over one of our two bedrooms but that hardly seems worth it.) Instead we upped the ante on function and storage.
Here’s some “after” views from the hall. Remember this is Phase One — Phase Two and Three will include a new floor, new toilet, vanity top, faucets and shower retiling. Phase One was more the lipstick on the pig if you will.
The dark color on the walls and ceiling has made the space much more dramatic. I also raised the shower curtain up to just below the soffit. The curtain I snagged at Target for $10 and then added a dark, grounding band to the bottom.
Want some more?
The clunker shelf was removed and in its place we put in not one, not two but three acrylic shelves from The Container Store (aka organizational heaven). They store so much but hardly take up any visual weight like the old clunker. And while they look decorative and pretty, they also hold a lot of our daily use items like cotton balls, extra toilet paper and even the hairspray. Don’t see hairspray?
It’s hiding in the vase I faux mercury-glassed at the last Stitch ‘N Bitch. This was an item we had a hard time storing before the renovation. We kept it in the giant medicine cabinet before but it just barely fit and sometimes if you pushed on the mirror or shut the cabinet door too hard, you would hear the hairspray hiss out and spray all over the cabinet.
Now for the one “wah wah” moment of this light renovation.
No mirror yet. The new light fixture is still waiting patiently to go in. However one good thing we did to increase the function of this bathroom was to add a hand towel ring (picked up for $7.99 on my last Ikea run) by the door. Previously the hand towel hung from the bar under the clunker shelf. When you washed your hands, you had to drip your way over the stainless steel trash can, and dry off next to the GFCI outlet. Now you just turn towards the door, hands still dripping only on the sink top, dry off and you’re on your way. Much better.
The one downside of giving myself a one month deadline on an unplanned project was I didn’t have the funds set aside to do everything right away (hence the delay on the mirror.) We did a lot of “unseen” work — changing out all the wood trim, recaulking the bathtub, texturing the walls, changing out both light switches and the GFCI outlet for new white ones — the money kind of burned out fast. JT and I have been trying to clear up some credit card debt and so I wasn’t willing to charge anything to get this one done. The mirror should be in place soon though!
But on to more good stuff. Really good stuff. My favorite part.
Hello boys.
Of course Keith was the hardest to hang. A few of these frames we already had on hand. The rest I snagged for under $3 each (even the big on with Bowie in it — that one was actually $1.51) and then I hit them all with Krylon Satin Nickel spray paint. One sheet of 32X40 mat board from Hobby Lobby and a bunch of images printed from the Internet on nice paper and a bathroom themed haircut/makeup/toothbrushing “art wall” it was.
What’s going on below the art wall? Hooky goodness that’s what. And Turkish towels.
(Don’t forget a new floor is coming. Picture a 2″ hexagonal Carrera marble floor there.
So all in all, Phase One is wrapped up. For now. Back to a long, lazy holiday weekend . . . I’ll be pondering the next project to tackle as we hide out from Isaac’s rain. Cheers – CT
Posted in Bathroom
We’re floating in space?
Yes, that’s my man Wayne Coyne in the giant ball at LouFest. Yes I jumped up and down for two hours in the mud and took terrible iPhone pictures. Yes it was amazing. Yes I am still hobbling around two days later because my legs were not ready to be jumping up and down for two hours. Yes it was worth it!!
Because half of you may be scratching your heads right now at my cryptic ramblings, please amuse your ears with this amazing song. I hope it gets played at my funeral.
Do You Realize by The Flaming Lips
Meanwhile back at the ranch, Shenanigan helps me with a sewing project:
So helpful. I needed a giant furry paperweight just then.
And, the music room gets taken over by thrift store picture frames, soon to make their way into the almost finished bathroom! A lot has been happening in the littlest room of our house — new trim has been installed, caulked and painted. Shelves are up. Hooks are up. Turkish towels are up. And soon, I’ll put a blog post up! Cheers – CT
Posted in Bathroom, Dogs, Music related
A while back, one of the Stitch N’ Bitch girls brought me a new plant.
So far, all the other plants have received masculine names but I think this one may be a girl. I think. So I’m thinking Joan, like Joan Jett due to the plant’s spiky hair. Joan’s been living on the mantel for a while now in the paper wrapper and plastic pot she came in. I decided it was time for something more permanent and wanted it to look nice but didn’t want to spend any money.
I had the following materials on hand that allowed me to make Ms. Joan a new home without spending any money: terracotta pot, white spray paint, hot glue and jute yarn/string (left over from the ZZ plant’s snuggie and Shenanigan’s doorbell).
The rest, as they say, is history. 
Oh, and I also had a white saucer in the kitchen that wasn’t getting a whole lot of use, so that became the base. Now Joan’s rocking out permanently on our mantel and she adds a whole bunch of spiky green goodness.
Mainly I’ve been working on the now top-secret bathroom. It seems to keep jerking me around, first suggesting I do things one way, then the next day recommending something else. My own indecision is about to make me crazy. I went out last Saturday and braved the aisles of Target, Hobby Lobby and Hancock Fabrics trying to nail down some of these final details and may have come home even more confused.
However I didn’t come home empty handed. These things (above) may (or may not) be making their way into our soon-to-be brand new and improved bathroom! Well actually we have already tried out the black and white striped Turkish towels and they are really great. Nice and thin but absorbent and as an added plus – aesthetically pleasing. Win, win and win. The towels actually came all the way from Turkey via The Anatolian on Etsy. Go figure.
Countdown to One Month One Project completion is now at T minus 9 days (or however that works). And I still haven’t ordered the mirror. Yikes.
Posted in Around the house, Bathroom
Along with the incense that I buy from Etsy, I also head over there when I need a specific vintage item I don’t have the time to search the antique malls high and low for.
Case in point: clock. In order for the kitchen to be “finished” (I say in quotation marks because nothing is ever really finished in our home) I had a specific item I needed — a clock to cover up a small wall outlet and also tell time.
It’s a little hard to see, but in the image above I pointed out where the outlet is. Off to Etsy I went, and with a quick search of “wall clock” I came across this little gem from Zane Leigh’s shop.
(Image above courtesty Zane Leigh).
I knew what dimensions I needed (or a max I could fit) and it was also vintage enough to actually need the outlet it would be hiding. As an added bonus, it is lighted! So I just gave away one of my secrets — when I want vintage but have a more specific need in mind, a lot of times (read always) I’ll take to the interwebs to hunt it down a lot faster than I could find it trolling the local thrift stores. It’s a win-win to me – I get my vintage fix and someone else gets paid to carefully seek and curate great vintage items.
For fun, I dug out a picture of the clock hung up before I painted the walls. (Yes I have had the clock for that long.)
And then here’s the real after.
You can see Miss Sophie our sofa monster dog in all the house shots, ironically enough. That’s pretty much “her” spot, although she is content to share with the husband as long as she can have her chin or foot or some part of her on top of him.
We’ve been living with our “finished” kitchen for a few months now, so I forget what a difference the paint color is, but looking at these images I’m so glad we went for it. A $30 (or less) can of paint can have a huge impact and can be (semi) easily changed again a week later if the mood strikes. So that’s Secret #2.
Moral of the story: Find a good “junk” supplier and invest a few pennies in a can of paint and big changes can be yours! Cheers – CT
P.S. There is also a hilarious website called “Regretsy” with an apt subtitle: “Where DIY meets WTF”. If you need a little laugh, check it out here.
Posted in Kitchen, Miscellaneous Diversions
A while ago Holly Becker over at Decor8 had done a post about each home she visited having its own signature scent. I thought about that recently and wondered if our scent is dog scent. Not cool and not really what I want people to be overwhelmed with when they walk in the door.
These little furry mugs might be cute, but their “eau de dog” is not. Especially Sophie. She can stink it up like no one’s business. So for the last year or so, we have been buying incense sticks from DivineScentsations on etsy. Spice Orange flavor to be exact. It’s the only thing I’ve found that seems to combat the dog smell but not just layer another stink on top of the dog stink (kind of like the bathroom sprays — I don’t really think they help.) Also these sticks don’t burn up immediately like some of the cheapy ones you can get at the big box stores which is nice. You get a nice slow simmer of smell.
For a while, I had a wood incense tray on the mantel but inevitably some would ash out of the tray and I would be left with a mess. The other day I had a brainwave and decided to try out my houseplants as incense holders instead. Here we have “Jazz Hands” the little tree/plant (not sure what it is, a co-worker gave me a cutting which I almost killed and then nursed back to life).
Jazz Hands is holding my incense stick so nicely and all the ash just crumbles into the dirt and you don’t have any mess!
And here’s the little stink bombs themselves as I tried to snap photos of the mantel this morning – hanging out and living the life. The “I’m so spoiled I have my own pillow and toys and things and I’m bored with them go get me some more” life.
So long story short, I would say that our home’s scent is “Spice Orange”. It’s nice and subtle and not too sweet or sickly like some of the home sprays or scented candles I’ve come across. Although, for variety we have also tried some other flavors from DivineScentsations like Butt Naked, Balsam Pine (around the holidays), and Gemini and Libra (the husband’s and my zodiac signs, respectively. Oddly enough, we each seemed to prefer our own Zodiac scent.)
Does your home have a scent?
Anyone else ready for the weekend like I am? I’ve got some more bathroom projects up my sleeve and the husband and I have been discussing some changes in the music room as well. Enjoy yourself – Cheers, CT
Posted in Around the house, Dogs, Miscellaneous Diversions
Living Analog 