House Tour of Huron, South Dakota

I have no reason to not have been posting on the blog since the return from my vacation (other than I got engaged and have been seriously preoccupied!), so I do apologize for my lack of attention to this space.    I honestly can’t promise that it’s going to get better either…but I did take a lot of great photos of the houses of Huron, South Dakota while I was there.   I love looking at houses…and I hope you do too.

This one looks like the Brady house, no?   “Marsha! Marsha! Marsha!!”

This house needs a paint job, no?

They’ve turned this beautiful old Victorian into a museum.

Note the little tiny church in the front yard of this house.  Weird, right?

For such a small town, there was a shocking amount of variety here.  Anyways…I found it rather enjoyable checking out their houses while I was visiting.  Oh, and Mt Rushmore, the Black Hills, and the Badlands were all great too!

The perfect sofa

Oh sofa…I’ve searched & dreamed of you for years.   And now that I’ve found you, why must you be so expensive?

If  I had $5000 to spend on a sofa (which I do NOT), this wool Oscar sofa from Matthew Hilton would be the perfect one.  Thanks to Mrs.  French for posting about it.

Off to South Dakota

I’ve been pretty slack in my posting of late.   I apologize.  First of all, I was preparing for major birthday festivities…and also to head off for vacation in South Dakota.  N’s family is from there, so we’re doing 9 days of what I’m calling my Wild West Adventure.  We’ll be hitting up Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota and Minnesota in our journey.  Hopefully I can show off lots of fun pics when I return.  For now, you’ll have to settle for this postcard.  See you soon!!

Spring flowers for a little garden update

Today I’m having a little pre-birthday bbq.  So in preparation I’ve been tidying up the house and doing little things to make it look more inviting from the outside as well…such as add some new flowers.  Here are the pics.  I love all of them so much…especially the blue salvia.

These are some hilarious lawn ornaments that Nick found.  I thought I’d put them out as a laugh.

Patrick Dougherty’s newest sculpture at the Morris Arboretum

Last week while doing some work at the Morris Arboretum in Chestnut Hill, Philadephia I got to see Patrick Dougherty at work setting up his new installation.  It’s basically a cocoon-like abstract sculpture made of twigs and sapling branches.   It makes me think of hobbits & gnomes!!  Anyways…check out his work at stickwork.net.  I would love to see more of his work in person because they look absolutely fabulous…and of course, this one is jaw-dropping in person.  If you get a chance, you should definitely stop by the arboretum and check it out!!

Meanwhile, it kind of reminds me of the treehouses that the Junior Society is currently featuring on their site.  Head over there and check those out too!!   Here’s a taste of their stuff.  They have FOUR different features so…do your due dilligence!

photo via Junior Society

Cockroach plate: Love it or leave it?

I just saw this cockroach plate on Etsy.  I’m strangely drawn to it, and repulsed at the same time.  What’s your verdict?  (This plate is made by Etsy seller Catherine Reece.)   You know…I think it would be best as a platter.  That way, once the food starts to disappear your guests would be shocked and a conversation would naturally erupt.  I’m just saying…

New banner illustration from Lauren Pope (Lavatican) on Etsy!

So I don’t have much time this morning to write this post (it looks like I’m going to be late for work again), so I’ll come back and update it later tonight…but I’m thrilled to have worked with Lauren Pope to create an illustrated banner for the blog!  She did an amazing job and was the best to work with.  Our original design (shown below) didn’t really end up working with the proportions of the blog (big lesson learned for both of us!), so she quickly photoshopped a previous sketched idea she’d had for the one you see above.

I can’t tell you what a wonderful person Lauren was to work with!  And I hope anyone who wants any artwork or illustration done will head over to her Etsy Store and show her the love.  She’s absolutely wonderful.    (And obviously ridiculously talented!)   Thanks again Lauren!!!!!!!

White Stains on the Coffee Table Be Gone!

Several months ago, my lovely boyfriend put a hot porcelain teapot & tea cup down on our teak mid-century coffee table, and the result was heart-crushing white “burn” marks.

He didn’t realize what was going to happen by that hot teapot, but nevertheless I was soooo upset!  I tried several different things to get the marks off to no avail.  I was mentally preparing myself for having to sand down the whole thing and re-do the top.

However, while visiting my family in GA this past week, I flipped through an old issue of Ready-Made magazine and they mentioned that an iron + cotton towel could solve all my white burn mark woes!

Lo, and behold they were RIGHT!  After holding the hot [dry] iron on each stain for only about a minute, the marks were gone!!

I’m beyond thrilled right now!  I feel as if I accomplished something really big tonight!  Haha.  I hope someone else out there has this same problem, and I make your night just the way that Ready-Made made mine!

Who says places like Brooklyn get to have all the fun?

Philadelphia’s art scene is always buzzing with something new, and on May 16th the NKCDC will be hosting it’s 3rd Annual Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby.   Go to their website to enter, see previous derbies or become a derby sponsor.   If you don’t live in Philadelphia, it makes you want to move here, doesn’t it?  (I knew it would.)

Craft Corner: Old Window + Etched Glass = New Wall Decor

After writing a post about Thomas Kral’s cut glass designs, a commenter Sarah pointed me to a Martha Stewart craft idea for etching glass.   I really loved the Martha Stewart idea, but don’t need homemade cannisters, so I decided to use it to etch a quote into an old window that I had in the basement.  Here’s how it all went down:

We took an old window that I happened to have in the basement…and looked up a quote that I wanted to use to etch onto the glass.   The quote I decided to use is one by Chuang Tzu that states, “Look at this Window.  It’s nothing but a hole in the wall, but because of it the whole room is filled with light.”  I loved the quote and how it related to the old window…so it seemed perfect for our project.

After much driving around to find a Michael’s Arts & Crafts (in which I was cursing myself for not having an iphone in which I’d be able to look up directions while in the car), I finally managed to purchase all the items I needed to do my first glass etching project which were:  1)  Armour Etch Etching Cream. (Available in Michaels stores, but not online apparently)  2)  A cheap set of paintbrushes  3) Several packs of monogram stickers.

I used tweezers to help carefully place each letter, and the sticker packaging to help create a straight line.  The tweezers were my life saver.

After putting on all the letters, I spread a layer of etching cream over the surface of the glass…covering each letter as well as possible.  You have to wait at least 5 minutes for the etching cream to take effect.  Also, note that Martha recommends vinyl letters, however I found no difference in using paper stickers  In fact, rinsing the etching cream off the mirror surface will wash away 95% of the stickers anyways.  (So in my opinion it’s better to use the paper versions.)

So in the end, I finished with a very subtle piece of “DIY artwork” for the newly renovated guest bedroom.  I’m pleased with the results, but I do feel compelled to call out that the etching is quite subtle and depends on the light for you to really see the design well.  Also,  if you wanted to do this with just the stickers themselves and forego etching, that would also look really good.   N and I even discussed not going through with the etching part because it DID look so nice…but in the end wanted something really “quiet and peaceful” for the bedroom.

I hope you liked it!   Now maybe you can try glass etching yourself.  One last tip:  Make sure to wait at least 5 SOLID minutes before rinsing off the Glass Etching compound…make sure you’ve put a thick layer of etching cream on.   Early tests came out sketchy if you didn’t wait long enough or the cream wasn’t applied thick enough in spots.