Estate Sale Treasures - Part Five

Well, this isn't an estate sale find this time, we actually found this on our local craig's list. I was perusing the antiques section and as soon as I laid eyes on this vintage filing cabinet I knew we had to make it ours. It was a little on the pricier side for our purchases, but it's a huge piece (over 6' tall!) and is in really lovely condition.

Some of the drawers need to be forced open and I still need to clean it all out. I put new cardstock in the labels though I think we might tea stain the paper or somehow make it a little softer and then once it finds a permanent home and use I will use my typewriter to label the drawers.

Also, note the lamp on top. That was also an estate sale find I'm still debating on what to do with. I wish it were white (anyone know how to paint glazed ceramic?) and I need to find a nice shade for it.

Desk Chair Project - Part Two

Remember that chair I got at the estate sale for $2 I was working on re-upholstering? Well I have the bottom cushion finished after I took it apart and re-padded it (which was messier than I ever expected since the original cushion had completely disintegrated). I just pinned some fabric to the seat back for the photos, so I plan on centering that pattern better when I finished it.

I love the way it's looking! The wood on the base might need a little bit of attention, but once the back is finished I think it will be gorgeous!


PS: Still loving my Sea Pinks pumpkin pincushion. Thanks Jenny!

Estate Sale Treasures - Part Four

Forgot one last thing I picked up last weekend at the estate sale. I had my first successful try at haggling and landed this pair of brass deer for under $10. They are pretty big, about 11 inches to their ears. The doe is a little wonky since one leg is a little shorter than the rest, but a little ball of epoxy under one foot should fix that. I haven't found a good spot for them yet. I wish I had a fireplace. The would be lovely on the hearth.

Finally got the pictures up in my studio.

Took an hour or so getting the pictures up on the wall above my desk. Got the two paintings and baroque mirror at estate sales. Also snagged that vintage photo at a thrift store and put up a photo from our wedding reception my brother in law took during the beach bonfire (my dress smells a little smokey to this day). Also put up my linen calender after I threw a hem around the edges. Didn't take a lot of time but it really goes a long way in making the room feel more like a room.

Currently I'm working on a pillow sham for our sofa made of felt and one of my granny's vintage doilies. It's nice to take a day getting all the projects done I have been meaning to do for ages. More progress photos tomorrow.

DIY - Vintage Plate Wall Clock

I finally got around to finishing some projects up today that I've been wanting to do for awhile. A couple years ago I got this vintage plate at a thrift store for 30 cents. I loved the folk inspired farm scene and lovely yellow color. I used it to hold keys in my dorm and decided I wanted to find a more useful purpose for it.

I got out my handy Dremmel and bought a ceramic and glass drill bit for it at Lowes for a couple dollars. Picked up a clock motion at Walmart for $6 and once I found the center of the plate it just took a few minutes of drilling and screwing the motion into place and voila! I have a wall clock! Here are a couple more photos:


If you have any questions regarding this project, feel free to post them and I would be happy to update with the answers.

Desk Chair Project - Part One

So I'm starting my journey on my first real upholstery project. In the past I have recovered chair cushions, simple new padding, cover and staple projects. This time I decided to try something a little more advance. I'm getting a pile of books out of the library and I think the office chair I got from the estate sale will be the perfect simple job to practice on.

This morning I bought yardage of Amy Bulter's Primrose in grey from her Nigella line (which is a medium weight decor fabric) and I'm waiting for a good sale to buy padding from Joanne's. I think the fabric will look really beautiful with the wood base and seat back.


I'm pretty excited. I hope it works out and I have a feeling it will take awhile to finish (I'll wait weeks for the right price on the padding) but I'll keep you posted on the progress. Anyone out there do any upholstering? Share you tips and projects!

Estate Sale Treasures - Part Three

This next treasure I almost missed! It was in the garage and had a pile of tins stacked on top of it. The stencil on the inside is dated 1943 and it's a military (most likely Ammo) trunk. There are a couple partitions on the inside and at only $7 it's been added to our vintage trunk collection. I don't know where we are going to put it yet, but for now it's in the dining room corner.


One more set this afternoon! I told you we found a lot of stuff.

Estate Sale Treasures - Part Two

The next piece we found was Jared's discovery. Within the year he will hopefully be working from home and we're slowly buying pieces to build him an amazing home office. We found this fire-proof vintage filing cabinet for $35 and though it took a couple minutes to figure out how to open in (I wish I could show you the mechanics of how the drawers work) it's a pretty amazing piece. Plus, you can't get a new filing cabinet for under $50 these days and this one is built to last. I love the Telefacts emblem on the front as well.

We also got that drawer organizer on the coffee table in the foreground at the sale this weekend for a $1! It holds our remote control, coasters (from Peppersprouts) and library books and DVD's.


PS: Remember the lamps I got at an estate sale last fall? One is on top of the filing cabinet in the first photo. For now it just has a linen drum shade from walmart on it and it looks infinitely better.

Estate Sale Treasures - Part One

This weekend Jared and I hit up another estate sale on Saturday and got some fantastic deals. I figured I would share them today in a series of posts.

The first one is this amazing office chair. I am currently using a $12 Ikea desk chair that I got in college and is just about on it's last leg. We found Jared's amazing mid-century chrome and orange velor desk chair at an estate sale and have been on the hunt for one for me. We found this one this weekend for (wait for it....) $2! I love the chunky solid wood base and giant screw. It needs to be reupholstered and new padding (which I plan on doing myself) but it's in great condition otherwise. It looks to have been owned by someone named Alice at some point. I think I'll leave the label right where it is.


More estate sale finds coming throughout the day! We really made out well this weekend.

My Oh My Cavalier Fox

Ordered two prints from Julianna Swaney of Oh My Cavalier! and I could not be more pleased. I got the Fox Tea print and as soon as I got it in the mail I knew it needed and oval frame. I found this one at Big Lots (who surprisingly has great frames for CHEAP) and have it in the entrance right now. It is so charming and makes me smile every time I see him.

Check out Julianna's shop for more beautiful prints and brooches (which I have my eye on) or her blog for more of her drawings.

Happy 2010!

Happy 2010 everyone! I hope you all had a lovely holiday and weekend! Jared and I spent the weekend at home on the sofa playing Monsters, eating sweet mints (on Christmas sale) and filling frames with art.

I wanted to share our first wedding photos to go into a frame. Our photographer, Christina Gilchrist took some Polaroids as props for photos and after the wedding she was sweet enough to send them my way. I couldn't resist hanging one up. I found this shadow box at Big Lots of all places for $7 and cut a map out of a vintage atlas and put it in instead of the mat it came with. I'm quite smitten with it and I'm now in search of the right place to put it.


Anyways, thank you for your continued support and comments! I hope the next year is filled with exciting adventures for our little family. Have a wonderful new year!

Holiday Decor - Our Apartment

Jared and I bought our first tree last weekend. Everyone was sold out of lights so we finally got some the other night and decorated. I made some little acorn ornaments from acorn tops outside our apartment. I think they turned out pretty cute. Jared loves them.

Our stockings came out pretty well. I used the left over Skinny Laminx fabric from our telephone table and backed them with linen. I also made some felt garland for the kithen window (see it in the background of the photo below?).

I also finally got around to hanging our letterpress type drawer and start filling it with my little knick knack collection. I need to find the rest. They seem to have gotten misplaced in the move.

I'm pretty happy with our quiet christmas decorations. Our new furniture should be here this week! Then it will really feel like a home. I'm having new danish modern legs made for the sofa in January. I'm really excited about it.

Setting up my new space.

I've been busy busy busy moving into our new apartment and today I am nearly finished setting up my new work space. I need to sew a new cover for Logan's "den" as well as a new cover for the birdies but generally it's coming along quite well. I think I have set up a nice spot to photograph pieces and it's pretty well organized (with the exception of the closet which I'm setting aside for another day).

Meet my shipping and handling "department". A pear crate I found at an estate sale fits shipping envelopes and jewelry boxes quite snugly.


My cheering squad has been moved to the office from the bedroom and they seem to be pretty happy with their new home. Logan is learning to leave them alone and loves watching them (sometimes he gets a tad too excited and needs to walk away for awhile).

Meet our flock of finches, 3 of which we hatched ourselves). Pictured are Fred and Ron (the boys with the red cheeks) and Jane and Lydia (the two light colored girls in the left photo). I believe that is Olive's tail that is poking into the frame. They were very curious about camera.


My fabric collection needs to be organized as well. Right now it is on my cart in the corner covered with a sheet of linen I use to photograph. I haven't decided how to organize it yet. Perhaps I need another shelf. Any ideas?


So that's about it. My desk is a mess so it was omitted from this photo drop. Back to work for me! Have a lovely afternoon everyone!

Successful Ikea Trip

Jared and I trekked down to Ikea in Pittsburgh this weekend after we picked up our new keys! We got there before they opened on Sunday morning and they were serving free breakfast for black friday weekend. We knew we wanted the Nordmyra chairs and were unsure how many they had left so as soon as they opened we raced through the marketplace and into the warehouse. We grabbed out chairs packed them in the car and then made our way through the store more leisurely.

We managed to also get the Bjorkudden table as well and got the "seize the deal" for the day grabbing up a gorgeous kitchen caddy that was originally $60 for $20!
To set our table we picked up the Dinera set in gray-blue as well as the cups and saucers to match. We also grabbed the Fornuft flatware set and some glasses. We have all the basics now and I can't wait to pair them with my new mid century place mats and trivets I treated myself to.
My fabric should arrive this week from South Africa for my telephone table. I'll be sure to post before and after photos as soon as it's finished. I'm so excited to get it finished. We are trying to decide what to do about a sofa. Our living room may be a little empty for awhile. We'll see.

I'll be sure to post pictures when everything is moved in and ready!

New Lamps & a New Apartment

Just wanted to share a recent estate sale find that is one of my new favorites. We found these lamp bases at an estate sale for $4.50 a piece! I love the buttery yellow (they will go with my new felt pillow!) and the shape. I'm trying to decide if I want to put a crisp white shade on them or something with a bold contemporary pattern. I think they will probably go in my office or maybe in our bedroom. We'll see.

Also, Jared and I got approved to move into a new apartment! We went looking this weekend and found a little place that takes dogs and is in our price range so for the time being we will be there until I find a job. We are pretty excited. We'll be moving in the first weekend in December and will be driving to ikea to furnish a couple rooms the weekend after. I am so antsy and would move in tomorrow if we could! I'll be sure to post photos when we're all settled in.

I want to learn to crochet for two reasons.

(Photos from Yvestown Blog.)

First I'm tempted by those adorable amigurumi animals I'm seeing everywhere right now. We just bought a giraffe for our niece. I was looking at amigurumi books last night on amazon and when I wake up this morning and check my feed I find this tutorial from Yvestown. It's a sign. I hear if you are bad a knitting, crocheting comes easier. Any personal experiences? Tips?

DIY Results - Felt Rosette Pillow

So I finished my felt rosette pillow I mentioned yesterday. It was very time consuming, and I ended up making the rosettes a bit more dense (probably used more like 80 circles instead of 60) but I love how it turned out. It was a nice project to do in front of the TV since it was so repetitive. I also added a pillow sham overlapped back instead of a zipper. I can't wait to put it on the lounge chair in my new studio. I may save this idea for a gift this Christmas for someone.

It probably took about 5 hours total and I worked at a leisure pace. I used vintage felt from an estate sale so the whole project cost me maybe $2.50 (including the DIY pillow form).

The tutorial can be found here and check out Kathleen from Twig's & Thistle's version here. If you give it a try I would LOVE to see how yours turn out!


I also didn't have a pillow form this size handy so I made one out of an old sheet and some stuffing. It turned out just as cute! Since the felt is so thick you can use a pattern underneath and it doesn't show through.

Today's Project: Felt Rosette Pillow

I saw this tutorial from Anne Kyrrö Quinn on Etsy's Storque awhile ago. It's a project featured in her fabulous book Felt Furnishings. I thought it was so beautiful and this morning when I woke up and check my feed I saw Kathleen of Twigs & Thistle's version and was inspired to give it a go myself. I happened to pick up a box of vintage felt at an estate sale a few weeks ago and just pulled out a lovely buttery yellow that will go beautifully with my new lamps I picked up this weekend. I think I'll modify it to be a sham rather than a zippered cover and I'm considering backing it with a pretty print.

I'll make sure to post photos when I finish! I've already got half of the rosettes cut out and hope to have those sewn on by the end of the day. I'll need to pick up a pillow form next weekend.

DIY Update: Lounge Pillows

Just another DIY project update. I had extra fabric from the photobooth backdrop so I threw together a few pillow shams (one embroidered and one with the green fabric on the front). There are going to be some adirondack chairs in the yard in front of the beach so I think these pillow will be really cute on the chairs and make it feel a little loungier.


I did in fact finish the napkins (throwing my back out in the process from hunching over a sewing machine all weekend) and they turned out really cute. I'm working on finishing the bunting this afternoon as well as some shoe bags for my girls and some table runners with the rest of my extra fabric.

My dress fitting is saturday, make-up and hair trial on Thursday and other finalization meetings next week. I also found out my SUPER talented step-brother and his girlfriend will be doing the music for our ceremony. It will be acoustic guitar and harmonica. I'm so excited. More updates coming soon.

Our Napkins.

Just wanted to show you the finished product of our DIY napkins. We still have about a third to go, but thanks to the help of Jared's amazing mother and her sewing machine they are turning out beautifully. They will add so much color and pattern to our tables. All the fabrics were purchased from etsy suppliers on sale and cut and sewn by my future mother in law and myself. We will be encouraging our guests to take them home and what we are left with we will keep and maybe make a small quilt out of.



I had some fabric left over so I bought some cotton rope and threw together some simple bunting for the either the breezeway or the staircase down to the beach. I think it turned out really cute. I'll need to starch them when I get out to Portland so they hang nice and flat but it was super easy to make and cost me about $6 for 25 feet.


I've become a DIY addict lately. If you have any questions about how we did any of these, feel free to contact me and I can give you a hand.

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