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!