Kids stuff so adorable that it will make your womb hurt…

I don’t normally post on children’s stuff, so this is a little off-topic.  However lately the cutest kids items have been popping up onto my screen, and I couldn’t help but point them out to those of you that kids of your own!  These kids gifts really tugged at my heartstrings.  I absolutely must figure out who is getting The Tickle Monster Kit…. (Hmmm?)

The Tickle Monster Kit by Josie Bissett.

The kit comes complete with Tickle Monster Hands!!!

More ridiculous cuteness after the jump.

Oooh, hello Wisteria sale section! I see you have some gems for me.

Wisteria sent me a lovely little email today telling me to check out their sale section.  And they have a few things that I would love to have, but certainly don’t need.  (Especially since we just committed to a visit to Wyoming to stay with friends.)  Therefore, I feel like I absolutely must share these with you.  Hopefully you’ll benefit from my inability to purchase these goodies for myself.

Lord knows that I’m a sucker for kitschy dishtowels.  You can buy these HERE.

I have some vintage French linen sacks already, but this is a good reminder to myself to remember to sew them into pillow covers, stat.  You can buy these HERE.

These military insignia pillows are adorable.  (Although personally, I would NEVER suggest styling with all four of them at once.  Remember that editing is key.  Mix one with the french linen pillows above, and this pillow from West Elm…and that would be a sofa makeover that I could live with!)

Happy sale shopping!

My current favorites

Iron (Antique) Bed Love, Part 2

Well, I guess by the title you know which choice we made for our master bedroom!  Although we liked the quality of Charles Rogers’ beds, we didn’t really like any of their king size styles.  (Definitely have to give them props for making quality beds with iron & real brass versus aluminum and painted brass finish like the competition though!)  So that just left one last option — hunting for an antique bed frame that we could convert to a king size…and someone to do it.  After a lot of digging I discovered that there aren’t that many people who are willing to take on the trouble to convert an antique bed.  Who knew?!  My search only turned up just a couple of people across the nation!  The perfect choice for us was Hobnail Antique Beds in Pawling, NY.

Look at all those gorgeous antique beds!  I had a wonderful afternoon with the owner, Jerry.  In the two hours I was there chatting with him and choosing the perfect bed for us, I was extremely impressed with the quality of the finished product and thrilled to meet someone who took so much pride in his craftsmanship.  Jerry strips, cuts, welds, and paints the beds himself.  I got to look at some of the beds he was currently working on and as well as a few he’d just finished and his craftsmanship was beautiful.  You couldn’t even tell these beds hadn’t always been a queen/king size.  Also, he made some beds for a few famous folk, including Cyndi Lauper and Kevin Bacon.

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the bed that we chose.  It’s actually two twin beds that are going to be put together to become a king! ( Sorry about the terrible quality of the photos.  I forgot my normal camera and was using the iphone.)

Here’s a closer up version of what the bed looks like.  There is a brass bar on the headboard and footboard.  One of the big reasons we liked it, was the simple style of the castings…and how close together the bars are — which is good for making sure your pillows don’t fall back behind the headboard!  (Some people like to read in bed, y’know!)

Jerry was kind enough to pose with my new beds…and in about a month they’ll be done!  I can’t wait!!!!

So if you’re looking for a quality iron bed that’s converted to your modern-day queen or king size, I can’t recommend Hobnail Antique Beds enough.  (Oh, and his prices are competitive with new beds…what more info do you need?!)

I have to admit that Pottery Barn’s newest catalog sucked me in!

Ever since Country Home came to shoot at my house, I’ve been considering my style more closely.  Often I’m bad about lusting after something that I am bound to get sick of in a month’s time.  Usually I don’t buy these things, but occasionally I end up with random stuff that was “cheap and cheerful”…however they begin to slowly transform the overall look in my home in a way that I never intended.  Sample sales, flea markets and thrift shops will do that to you.

Meanwhile, I grew up in Georgia where decorating your house “country” still reigns supreme.  As a kid that meant duck figurines, cornflower blue, dried flower arrangements, and 1980’s Home Interior parties (remember those?).  Needless to say I wasn’t a fan.  But as I grew up, I began to learn the difference between good country and bad country.  I like to refer to good country as “Farmhouse Chic” now.  (Think painted pine floors, antique iron beds, pickstitched quilts.)  And although I’ve not been a fan of Pottery Barn for several years now because I felt like they lost any point of view and personality whatsoever, they have now captivated me with their newest catalog called “Farmhouse Style.” The mix of old and new looks reminds me of what’s good about “country.”  I love the homey-ness of it and the layering.  Of course, I always like mixing a little modern into it so that it’s not completely “one-note”, but overall I’m thrilled that PB has taken branched out into something interesting and it makes me go back to them to look for newness again…

Meanwhile, I’m on the search for a new bedframe for the master bedroom.  I’ll fill you in on that later in a separate post.  (Oh, and p.s. Sorry I’ve been gone so long.)  Head HERE to check out Pottery Barn’s newest look.

Ebay for rugs? Who would have thought?!

Some of you may already realize that you can find amazing rug deals on ebay, but I had no idea until just last week.  Rugs are one of those things that many of us need/want, but it never ceases to amaze me just how expensive they are.  Well, seeing as how I’ve been looking for a rug for my guest room and hadn’t found anything that I liked that was in my price range at the normal retail haunts (my price range being…as little as possible…on a rug as nice as possible), I decided to start looking outside the normal retail arena.  I started keeping my eyes peeled at antique & thrift stores, craigslist and discount places, however nothing was coming up that was both really nice and bargain priced.  So, as a last resort I decided to look on ebay… and I don’t know why it never ocurred to me before.  After figuring out the best way to weed out the crap, I was able to discover some really beautiful rugs there.  Just to prove that I’m not talking crazy, here’s a picture of the 8×10 wool Nepali rug that just arrived for the guest room.

I have to say that I absolutely LOVE it!  N and I were more than pleasantly surprised at how nice it is in person.  The wool is super soft, and oh did I mention that it came with FREE SHIPPING!  Anyways…I’m gushing.  I love it so much.

At any rate, if you’re looking for a great rug too…definitely give ebay a try.  Although here are a few helpful tips that I found useful.  1) Hit up some rug stores first to see what styles and/or countries you might be most interested in, for example I knew that I was most interested in rugs from Iran or Nepal because I liked the way they felt and I liked many of their patterns.  2) Start with a fairly generic search like “Wool Rug Iran” and then whittle down from there in the filters on the sidebar.  It will help cull down the mess that you don’t want.   3) Stick to your guns on price.  If you only want to spend $150 or less on an 8×10 Persian rug, don’t worry…there will be quite a few that come along!

I did a little more digging tonight to show some of my other ebay finds.  Here they are:

As of the time of my posting, this 7×8 rug is only at $9.50 and has Free Shipping to boot!  Here’s the LINK.

This wool 9×12 rug is more expensive at $275, but is still a great price for that size!   Here’s the LINK.

Okay, so it’s a 5×8 Pottery Barn rug…but I sometimes still kick myself that I never bought it when they were carrying it because I love the Moorish pattern so much.  Anyways, it’s HERE for $299 Buy-It-Now with Free Shipping.

This 4×7 is at $235 with Free Shipping, but they’ll take a lower offer!  Here’s the LINK.

Anyways…these are just a couple that caught my eye.  As you can see, I have a thing for geometric patterned rugs.  Good luck rug shopping!  P.S.  If you have great pics of your FABULOUS bargain rugs (and how you used them in your home), I’d love to see them!   Email me at houseobsession [at] gmail.com

Playing catch up

I haven’t had a lot of time to post anything lately, so this post is going to play catch up to get you up to speed on where we are at the moment with all things house-related.  Here goes in short order:

I never showed pictures of the final framed versions of the vintage Cuban posters I bought before Christmas.  So here’s what they ended up looking like on my wall.

I bought Ikea frames, but had professional mats cut at the local frame shop.  It saved alot of money and I love how they look going up my stairs!  The one BAD thing you’ll notice is my un-finished paint removal on the stairs.  It’s been a super slow painful process.  Trying to get paint off the curved bannister is trying my patience.  I was considering trying to remove the bannister itself and just get it sent out to get dipped, but I think that would end up damaging it…so in a few weeks I’m going to have to hit the paint removal tools again.  This time, I probably WON’T be using Peel Away.   If any of you have tips [specifically] on removing paint on curvy surfaces, I’d love to hear it!!

On a separate note, N and I upgraded some household tools, finally!  While we were in NYC last week, we went to Home Depot for something completely un-related, but ended up getting a new power drill & saw combo kit.   This 18V set was on sale for only $89!   The  guy working in the tools department was both really knowledgeable and extremely helpful and he recommended it highly…so let’s hope we’re happy with it once we actually get to using it.

Also while away last week, a friend gave me 2 rolls of Graham & Brown wallpaper!  I’ve decided to use it in the back of my dining room wall cabinet.  (Photo via Graham & Brown website.)  Don’t you just love it!!!?!?!

Then on the fun side of things, we went flea marketing today at our favorite haunt!  Cedars Flear Market in Skippack, Pa.  It’s small and local, but I always manage to walk away with a few good things.  Here’s today’s bounty.

For only $30 we got four vintage 50’s refrigerator dishes, a sweet little yellow creamer, and an awesome stitched deer in a carved wooden frame.  I was thinking about Shauna’s post on thrifting when I was buying these items, and proud of myself that all my items went together in color scheme.  Lots of fun bright colors!   (And as a side note, I’ve been looking for refrigerator dishes like these for ages, so I’m thrilled that I finally got a set!!)

Lastly, I’m on the hunt for a rug for the yet-to-be-finished guest room.  We drove all over the place today looking for rugs for both me and N’s mom, but neither of us could find anything.  We’re both picky and cheap.  Haha.   So after a day with no reallllly great deals, I decided to hit up Craigslist and ebay.  So far I’ve found some really great stuff.   I sometimes forget just how great Craigslist is.

Okay guys…that’s it.  I’ll try to be better about posting and not wait so long until next time.  Until then, don’t forget that it’s spring time and you need to start planning for those monthly flea markets!

New Matte Stephens Pillows

I’m loving the new Matte Stephens pillows at Urban.  I ran across these the other day while looking for something completely different on their site.   This particular one of a little tweeting bird is definitely my favorite because it’s just so whimsical.  I also like that they’re including a feather-fill insert with the pillow cover.   That’s definitely a bonus since poly-fill inserts seem to be the standard these days.   (And in my opinion are way inferior in comfort & aesthetics.)

What’s the consensus out there?  Do you prefer poly-fill or feather inserts in your throw pillows?  Am I the only one who heads straight out to replace any poly ones that come with a pillow?  Would you rather save money by just buying the pillow cover with no insert?

(Oh, and for anyone looking for cheap feather inserts…head over to Ikea.  They have them at bargain prices!)

Economy causing big box retail to slash prices?

This is the second time this week I’ve heard about big sales at some of the big box retail home stores.  Apparently Ikea is having a 30-50% off rug sale this weekend.  And NPR just reported that Home Depot is going to be slashing prices on tons of goods to try and get an increase in cash flow to reduce their debt b/c they’re freaked out about the economy.

Of course, none of this seems to bode well for both big & little retailers, but it is good for anyone who is looking to save money in the short term.  I’m in the market for windows myself, and it made me wonder if I should wait and hope they go on sale…or go ahead and buy them now when I know they’re already 10% off.  Hmmm….??

Anyways…here’s hoping the U.S. weathers the economic storm without too much more turbulence.

photo via Lia on flickr

An ode to the Department Store Dinosaur

When I first graduated college back in the late 90s, I got a job as an Assistant Department Manager at Macys.   It certainly wasn’t my dream job, but I figured I had to start somewhere.  Growing up I’d always loved going to the big department stores at the mall with my mom.  We shopped [the sale racks] at the best department stores in the South –  Richs, Belks, Davidson’s, and Macys.  I loved walking through the cosmetics area trying on perfume samples, examining each handbag as if it were going to be mine, and wishing my parents would buy me a pair of Guess jeans.  The department store represented a place where my mom and I could understand each other and have fun.  It was also a place where I could be alone, yet not feel by myself.  Perhaps then, it wasn’t a big surprise that I ended up working there.

But by the time I began working at Macys, the age of the department store was coming to a swift end.  Most of the big ones were closing.  Discount stores like Kohls & Marshalls were popping up everywhere, and Target offered similar items such as Calphalon, and branded home items.  Even when I worked at at Macys, I always referred to it as a “department store dinosaur.”  And now, I’m surprised that they’re still hanging on at all.

However, last evening I happened to be in a mall (which is extremely rare for me these days), and I felt that age old feeling of calm rush over me.   It’s an odd feeling.  After so many years of working in a mall, I find it relaxing now.  And so I wandered until I made it back to my old stomping ground – Macys.  They always had good sales after all.  Why not?  I was interested in finally checking out Martha Stewart’s line of housewares in person.  It was hard not to buy anything considering how much I liked her stuff.

(As an aside, and as a topic for a future post…I LOVE Martha!  I think she’s a savvy business woman, and I also happen to like a lot of her products.  Although I didn’t buy any.)

There was hardly anyone in the store as it was getting close to closing time, but it made me wonder if anyone shops there anymore?  I constantly hear cheesy ads for Lord & Taylor on the radio, but it’s not a place I think of my peers going.  (I did notice last night that Macys still has great housewares markdowns by the way.)

Anyways, do any of you still shop at department stores?  Where are those places that you can’t help but spend money when you go in?  For me, it’s my favorite thrift shop in West Philly, any mom-n-pop hardware store and Target.    In fact today I got a vintage creamer & sugar that is the exact color of my dining room.  The glaze was too gorgeous (in person) to pass over.