Meow!

Wishing you a spooky, fun, and safe Halloween!

Come On In

Welcome to our little bedroom. Warm colors; late afternoon light. It's cozy in here. Right now it is anyway, thanks in large part to this wool blanket I bought recently at a local antique shop. I love the colors--yellow, orange, red, dark green, and navy blue. It warms our room right up and looks perfect for fall.


And this is a bedspread I've had for years that also looks nice and fall-ish. I use it all year, but it looks especially fitting now. I think my mom gave it to me.


There's Mr. Hoots peeking up from the bed (another great repurposed sweater treasure from Lorigami). And here's the shutter headboard that I'm, well, bored with. But it actually looks good with the other things in our room right now. And hanging on the shutters is this very interesting, worn out, folk art kitty. I found it at the flea market the weekend before last and loved it. When I saw the heart in its chest and the fish in its belly, I laughed and thought it was so cute. There's also a bird on its back. It was $8. At first I sort of thought I was crazy for buying it. It doesn't have the same look or feel that I'm normally drawn to, but I love it. I asked myself if John Derian would buy it. I love his flea market style. I thought maybe he would like it. Oh, yes, and Andrew likes it too. $8 well spent. Maybe. Mr. Kitty is quite worn out.

I love the embroidered pillowcases on our bed. Lisa gave them to me when she found out I was preggers. They have three little lambs jumping over a fence. Momma, daddy, and baby.

And this is the little corner of our room that I see from the bed. A few of my favorite things: a very sweet framed note, an "L" that Lauren gave me, a silhouette of a little girl that I bought in a thrift store in Zurich, a very small family photo, and a black and white photo that I've always liked.

Our lady head vase holding my wedding bouquet, which is quite dry and crisp after 6 years.

My favorite plant stand. I had to avoid the top or else you would have seen the saddest half-dead plant ever. I keep trying to revive it, but I think it's just time for a new plant. Looks like that glass could use some windex!

One of my favorite pictures of Lois, her 3 month birthday picture, beside the bed.

More family pictures. That's my mom there in the little picture (a very old picture, one that she thinks is silly that I have framed), and a picture of my nephew, Cash. Andrew's side of the bed still looks a little bit like this (except now he has a collection of glass telephone insulators along with his other things).

An old box for holding jewelry.

Mr. Hoots on the orange velvet chair. I wanted to have this chair reupholstered, and still do, but right now, it looks good in its burnt orange glow.

This wire card display is next to my bed. I keep all of my cards and like to read them every now and then.

This soldier stands guard and protects me while I sleep. I had to take his sword away though because it was dangerous. (Really, though, it just fell out and I was afraid Lois will get a hold of it, so I put it away.) I love this lamp. I've had it for a long time, at least 10 years or so, and it's always been in my room. I don't remember buying it, so that likely means my mom gave it to me. The lampshade is painted black, which is why it looks streaked.

A pedestal bowl of seashells under the window. I should probably switch them out for something more fall-ish, but they still look pretty.

And one of my recent little pillows. This one I'm keeping. I think I'll add a door and some smoke (buttons) to the chimney like I did with the other one. Home sweet home.

Hope you enjoyed the tiny tour. Our room looks better to me in pieces than it does as a whole, so it's still not quite where I want it to be, but at least I like being in there right now. Maybe one day it will feel just right.

Headboard Thoughts

I've never been crazy about our bedroom, or our apartment in general. It's a very simple, boxy apartment with few windows and no character. I've had visions of what I wanted for our bedroom in the past, but I never really liked where it was going, so I would just stop. And then when I would stop, it made me not want to be in there. It always seemed directionless and unfinished. I also still have the challenge of mixing my things with Andrew's. I hate the feeling of not wanting to be in my own bedroom. But right now I'm liking our bedroom more than any other time in the 3+ years we've lived here. I think it has something to do with a plaid wool blanket I bought that seems to pull things together in there. Isn't it great when you find just the right thing that pulls everything together? Oh, and then there's a certain, somewhat unusual piece of art I got at the flea market that ties in nicely too. I should show you a peek into our room. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow.

As much as I'm liking our bedroom right now, I still want a new bed frame or headboard. We have some wood shutters for a headboard, which I'm not crazy about. I like the idea of shutters for a headboard, but I'm not crazy about our particular shutters. I'd really like something older and chippy. Ideally I want a mantle like my mom's, or old black shutters, or an iron bed frame (like the one at the top of this post, found here), or something wood and painted like this headboard that I loved at the Kennedy School Hotel. But I've also been thinking of a trompe l'oeil headboard. I love this embroidered one that I saw on Design Sponge. Pretty cute, don't you think?

There are so many great headboard ideas out there. For a headboard I think I'm usually most interested in things that aren't headboards at all--shutters, doors, mantles, etc.--they're just more interesting to me. I like this chalkboard idea, but I'm afraid I'd be inclined to leave honey-do lists there, and, well, that's not very romantic! Maybe for a kid's room it would be perfect, though. (I think I saw the chalkboard picture on SFgirlbybay, but now I can't find the link.)

I love this door headboard. I saw something similar to this in Country Living recently and really liked it.

And wallpaper or paint. One of the easiest solutions. From Flickr someplace (not good a keeping track of links today, but it says Martha Stewart there in the corner, so it must originally be from there).

And a mantle, this one from SFgirlbybay. It doesn't necessarily even matter if it's the right size.

So many great ideas to consider . . . .

Sweater Weather

Even though it's not quite sweater weather here in San Francisco, I've had sweaters on the brain for the last couple of weeks. I love repurposed sweater crafts. Remember all of these great ideas? Well, I wanted to come up with some things of my own out of a few sweaters that I was ready to part with. I thought a little patchwork throw would be cute, but I didn't have quite enough sweaters so I hit the thrift store, and now I seem to have developed a sweater addiction. I've amassed quite a sweater collection. After a warm wash and dry, they're in fluffy, wooly piles on the floor in our bedroom. Instead of making the throw for now, I've been making pillows. Lots and lots of pillows!

Lisa is having a little craft sale get-together at her house in November and asked if I'd like to participate. I wanted to use the sweaters and thought pillows would be fun to make. I think I've made 12 so far, but these are a few favorites. My wool town pillow, remote control pillow, and sweater vest pillow. Last weekend at the flea market I bought a small stack of wool plaid blanket samples. I wasn't sure what I'd do with them, but they were so great I thought I could come up with something. They're the perfect size for a little houses.

Lisa actually gave me the idea for the remote pillow. I have a cute little pillow with a pocket in the back, but I've never known what it was for. It's the size of a credit card, so I thought maybe it was a tooth fairy pillow. I tried to think of some other pocket ideas for pillows and Lisa suggested a remote pocket. It's been quite handy the last few days! That darn thing always goes missing, doesn't it? Like socks in the dryer, it just seems to disappear sometimes. Not anymore! The pocket and back for this pillow is from a super soft cashmere sweater. The remote now has a posh home and won't get lost. (Caroline gave me the needlepoint bunny pillow--it just looks cute with remote pillow.)

And the grey one above is from a really pretty sweater vest. I wanted to keep it to wear, but it was way too itchy. And for this one I made my first buttonholes with my sewing machine! That was so fun. I made them a little too big, but I just ended up using larger buttons, which fixed the problem.

These are just a few of the pillows. My favorite pillow design will have to stay a secret until after Christmas. It's for a few little people in my family. They wouldn't see it on my blog, but their mommy would.

A Suitable Bag

I just saw these cute bags in the new Country Living. They're made from men's suit jackets, using the original pockets and buttons. You can see more of them here on etsy. Made by Clever Scene. Clever indeed!

Laku Take Two

Since Laku is right near our place, and I love it so much, I go in about once a month just to browse and be inspired by all of Yaeko's creations. Every once in a while I splurge and get something cute for Lois. Yaeko does the most creative things with repurposed sweaters. I love everything she makes! I'm working on a few sweater crafts of my own that I'll show you soon, but hers are tops to me. Here are some pictures from my visit last week. You can read my initial little review of Laku here. I feel exactly the same way every time I go in.

















Laku
1089 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA 94110-2405
(415) 695-1462
Tues - Sat 11:30 - 6:30
Sun 12 - 5