New Chair to Come

Yesterday Andrew and I bought a wonderful upholstered chair for our bedroom from Coastside Consignments, which is next door to The Pickled Hutch. I've had my eye on it for a while, but wasn't sure if the color would work in our room. The color is actually perfect, and I love the chair. It goes great with my new splashes of pink. I'll post a picture of the chair tomorrow (once I the light is better to get a good picture). In the meantime, here's some pink for your fun in the sun weekend!

Salvation Army Sale

Yesterday I went to Natural Resources (a great place for mommies and mommies to be) to scope out some baby products and rent some more birth videos (eek, it's almost that time for me!). After I left, I was walking home on Valencia telling myself to cross the street--that way, I wouldn't be on the same side as the Salvation Army and therefore would be less tempted to go in. But I caved and crossed the street and went in anyway. It turns out that they're having a big sale! 50% off all bric-a-brac (that's all dishware, glassware, decorative stuff, etc.). Also, books are 60% off (they have tons of books), and clothes are 25% off. I got what you see here all for $8.98! 4 off white bowls, 2 decorative little bowls, a tiny blue and white china vase, a pink toned glass vase (for my new bright bedroom that I'm working on--whoops forgot to put that one in the picture), a little glass bowl with a lid to use in our bathroom, and my favorite--this geometric votive holder. I especially like the shape and think it could be used in so many ways: a votive holder, a vase for a large bud (like a dahlia maybe), a container for paperclips, a container for pretty buttons. The possibilities are endless for this $1 treasure! Their sale ends Saturday, so if you're in San Francisco and want to head over there for the sale, do it before Sunday.

Pillow Talk

Here they are--my pillows for my new colorful bedroom! My inspiration came from the pink and brown combo from SFgirlbybay that I mentioned in my last post and from the general way Anna at Absolutely Beautiful Things mixes various colors and prints. The only one I don't really like is the bright pink and purple herringbone print with the green and white dots. That one is kind of ugly! It's not so much the fabrics as it is the way I sewed them on, so I might re-do that one. The others, though, I like a lot, especially the pink floral one with the mustard plaid. There's one on my bed I didn't make and that's the big floral print on the very back row. I got that one recently from Bexcaliber on etsy. Also, I haven't finished sewing up the bottoms of a few, if anyone notices.

The lighting in our bedroom isn't that great, so I brought these out in the den to take pictures of them individually. They're going back on the bed, though.

Front, pink floral with mustard plaid . . .

and back, white and black floral.

Front, black with white floral print . . .

and back, brown and ivory dots.

Front, aqua, purple and bronze flowers on a sage green-ish grey print . . .
and back, mustard plaid.

I just love this fabric (above) so I wanted to show it close! My mom scored it somewhere--maybe a thrift store. She said I could take some home last time I visited.

Then I also got a little bit of this amazing silk to cover the seat of my dressing table bench. It's rust colored, purple, pink and lime green. So pretty! It looks much more vibrant in person though. And I bought this other black and white graphic pillow from Bexcaliber as well. It will go in a chair nearby, but I just thought it looked good beside the silk for a picture.

And lastly, I made this pillow for my nephews' playroom and made another one like it for the baby room. Aqua and green on the front, and yellow and white on the back. Whew, time for a pillow break!

Now that these are done, I want to get a combination of frames and artwork to make my walls look a little bit like this. Really I just need to either spray paint some frames that I have or get a few new ones. I think I can work with what I have beyond that. More to come soon.

Seeing In Color

I woke up a few days ago from dreams of hot pink. Pink everywhere. I spontaneously decided I needed color, specifically I wanted some color in our bedroom which is all ivory, brown and black right now. So I decided to change our bedroom and incorporate some pink with this as my inspiration. (Andrew is okay with the pink--I asked first!) But I can't go all pink. It's just not me, and it won't go with our other stuff. So instead I plan to mix and match a bunch of random, bright colors into our bedroom, including some pink. I'm keeping our bed neutral with just ivory bedding, and I'm going to paint our dark wood dresser and dressing table off-white. The color comes in with a bunch of pillows I'm making and in a change of artwork on the walls. I'll post pictures soon. I still have a few more pillows to make, and the furniture won't be painted for a week or so. In the meantime I have my eye on some artwork from Cathy Nichols that I really like a lot. I love her floral bouquet prints. This heart print would be perfect for the baby room even though I'd like it in our room too. I also like a lot of prints by Penelope Dullaghan. Now, though, I'm off to finish some pillows . . .

Gone Thrifting

Yesterday I went to the thrift store to see if I could find a shelf to go above the daybed in the baby room. I've been looking for a while and haven't found what I want yet. I didn't find one yesterday either so I think I'll just get a cubby style shelf from Ikea. I did find a few other things though! I got these two cute bright yellow tea cups that I'll use in the baby room to hold various little things, or I'll put a little stuffed animal in one of them on her shelf (I have a little bunny that would look adorable in one of those teacups). Then I got these other teacups, acually 6 of them though there are just 4 in the picutre. I really just wanted one to hold Q-tips in our bathroom, but I hated to break up the set, and I could use some more tea cups anyway. I also got a little dark blue plate with painted white flowers to set a candle on and a little pale aqua vase with yellow flowers. I'll think I give that to my sister. The colors are her style.

Then my favorite thing is this heart blanket! I heart it! I can't believe anyone could part with it. I just draped it over a chair so you could see it, but it looks better in person. I'll use it in the baby room as a throw for the daybed. It went straight to the dry cleaners, which will cost more than the blanket, but I have to have it cleaned properly for me to keep it even though it looked really clean and didn't have that thrift store smell. All for $28. Yay, I love thrifting!

Photo Assignment

Every week on Thursday our friends Lauren and Derek do a blog posting they call "photo assignment" where they post readers' pictures based on a word, or theme, they choose. I love photo assignment day! Anyone can participate, and it's not a game, so there are no winners or losers. I love to see how people interpret the theme each week. This week's assignment was "movement." Above is the picture I chose, which I took at Caroline's house on Sunday. Head over to their blog to see what other people submitted. Next week's theme is "stripes."

Snapshots at Caroline's

On Sunday Caroline had a pot luck-cookout-shower get together for me and Andrew. Originally it was supposed to be in the park, but it was rainy in the morning, so we all headed to Caroline's place instead. I realize I'm terrible at taking pictures of people, sorry about that, but it's hard to resist taking pictures of all the interesting and cute vignettes at Caroline and Al's place. Here are a few pictures of things around their place.









Everyone needed a cigarette after pie. No, really, those cigarettes are fake.

iPhone Cozies

I've been having a lot of fun practicing making things with my new sewing machine, including making these iPhone cozies. Most are made with fabric I brought back from Japan, then a few others with some vintage barkcloth I had. They're lined, but I'm no expert yet so the seams inside are rough. With some more practice, though, I think I can get the interior seams right. A nice, soft home for my iPhone--just what it needed!

For Baby From Connie

On Saturday I brought in the mail and set in on the table in a pile without really looking through it. Then I headed to the baby room to put some things away. While I was in there I was looking at some of my favorite cards and thought I should get some frames for a few of them for the baby room. Specifically I was looking at the Beth Mackenzie card. Then I went back to the mail and found a package from Connie mixed in the shuffle of everything. I was excited to see the package because she always sends me the most thoughtful things. In the package was this old book and another Beth Mackenzie card! Connie said she's had the book for 41 years. It will be perfect for the baby's growing collection of books and now I think I'll frame both Beth Mackenzie cards together. Thanks Connie! (Click on the picture to read the card.)

1,000 Photos Scanned for $50

Speaking of getting things done, or trying to, one thing I've also been meaning to do for years is scan all my old pictures so they don't just sit in shoe boxes under my bed. Above is a picture of my aunt when she was little--how cute, right? She had a bunch of old photos put on a disc for me and my sister through her local Wolf Camera, I think it was. I'm sure she paid a lot for it and she did say the process was a pain. Still, I'm happy to have all the old pictures she sent neatly on one disc and also on my computer, and I've been meaning to do the same thing with my own pictures. I might actually get to this project since it looks like I may not have to sit here scanning them a few at a time myself. Andrew's mom just sent me this NY Times article about a company called Scan My Photos that will scan 1,000 photos for $50. Seems hard to believe, but it looks like it's true. The idea of shipping off all my photos makes me a little nervous, but it would be great to have all the pictures scanned for such a good price.

Putting Things In Order

That's what I've been doing lately--putting things in order--or at least trying to. Or rather, just getting things done that I've been meaning to do for months, some things for years. Like cleaning out the storage closet (which is in our garage). When we moved here we just shoved a bunch of stuff in there to get it out of the way until we got settled. It's mostly filled with tools, Christmas stuff, and some random things I'm not ready to part with. But once we were settled we never uncluttered the mess that was the storage closet until a few weeks ago. Now it's much neater and makes me feel relieved every time I need to go in there. Then there's all these other things I've been meaning to do for what seems like forever, and I have this irrational fear (maybe not so irrational?) that if I don't get them done before the baby comes, I will never get them done. So I've made a list of things I want to get in order, and now I feel better. On the page they don't seem as overwhelming or even necessary to get to at all. Sometimes you just have to get your ducks in a row (or great planters like the ones above) to get some perspective on things.

Peek-A-Boo In The Baby Room

The baby room isn't totally ready for pictures yet, but here's a peek. Above is the Humpty Dumpty lamp I got on Sunday along with the ABC blocks I got while we were in Portland.

It took a while to figure out what to do above the crib. Since we're in prime earthquake country, I didn't what to hang anything heavy or even something fairly light like a shelf with little things on it for fear that it would fall off and hurt the baby. So I decided to hang some clothing above her crib that we'll secure to the wall. The birdy onesie came from Old Navy, my mom gave me the kitty apron which came from the flea market near her house (I love the apron!), and the cherry outfit came from a vendor who was selling vintage clothes at the Inman Park festival in Atlanta.

And here's my card rack turned book rack. I need to fill it up quite a bit more, but it's a start.

I had been eyeing the puddy tats at Laku for weeks now, and I finally got one! I really just couldn't decide which one to get. It's so cute--red and hot pink striped. And the tail is adorable. It has a little bell in it. Little kitty lives on the daybed with all the other stuffies and pillows.

Jingle, jingle.

Flea Market Outing

Yesterday the flea market was packed with lots of people and lots of fun stuff. It was a good flea market day, and it was beautiful outside as well. These first few pictures are from William Berg's space. He had a lot of really great things, including this cute old rocking horse among other things. A lot of his treasures are straight from France, where he goes on buying trips. He also had a basket filled with beautiful French linens.



And here are the few things I got. Below a painted watering can for $5. I'm making a small (very, very small) sitting area on our fire escape with an old white wrought iron table and a chair. I thought I'd put this on the table with some potted plants.


The baby room needed another lamp and I thought this humpty dumpty would be perfect. My mom has a handful of these wooden kinds of old lamps (I'm not sure if the style has a name). She has an ark with animals, a humpty dumpty, and a clown that I know of, but she may have more. She was planning to ship one to me, but for $10, I figured I'd just get this one and save my mom about that much in shipping.

Then I got this Mary Poppins book for $5 to add to the growing collection of kids books.

It was a fun flea market day. Look at all this stuff!