Old Standbys - Bar Keepers Friend

Jared and I received a set of beautiful stainless pots and pans a year or so ago for Christmas from his parents. We were living with a roommate at the time so until recently they have been packed up in a box. I love cooking with them and they are so nice to look at. When I had trouble getting them clean and shiny I asked my Grandmother about it and she went to the cupboard and pulled out a gold can of Bar Keepers Friend.

I must have been living under a rock for my 22 years since I had never heard of it. Now I can't live without it. It's been keeping my Grandma's stainless steels pots and pans shiny and beautiful for about 40 years now and has been a staple in kitchen cupboards since 1882. If you don't have a can under your sink right now you ought to go out and grab one as it cleans just about anything (and I do mean CLEAN).

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.

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.

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.

Holiday Decor: An Open Book

Looking for recession friendly holiday decor this year? One of my favorite cheap and easy ways to decorate for halloween, thanksgiving, christmas or the seasons is with vintage books. Open or closed vintage books are inexpensive and a subtle way to show some holiday spirit. For halloween I love this copy of Eight Treasured Stories opened to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. This book also does double duty for Christmas too since it also has gorgeous illustrations for A Christmas Carol in it. For halloween you can also try and over sized anatomy book opened to diagrams of skulls on your coffee table. When the holidays are over, tuck it onto a shelf until next year and it still looks chic.

Find your own in thrift stores or garage sales OR skip the digging and head on over to the vintage book section of etsy.

Annoucement: Lost & Fawned HOME

New and exciting things happening in the Lost & Fawned universe! This weekend we opened out new branch, Lost & Fawned HOME. Sprouted from our love of all things vintage and hunting for vintage treasures, we wanted to share some of our treasures with the rest of the world! Please head on over for a visit and send some love my way! I'll be listing some vintage linens, books and kitchenware later today, so stay tuned! You never know what's going to end up in there, so keep an eye out. You might find something perfect for you or a loved one (Christmas is coming up soon!).

Here are a few of the treasures you can currently find in our little slice of vintage heaven. More coming later today and of course coming next week!

Gift Registries.

Hello all.

Hope everyone had a wonderful week. I know I did. I'm back again. And just wanted to start the week off my sharing a few pieces from our registry we are very excited about. Naturally, gifts are not what are important to us (I would trade every single gift if I could instead have all our friends and family there with us) but since we do have particular taste we started a couple registries to help people out a little.

We registered at Crate & Barrel, Target and CB2. So far they have all been fantastic and we have been very pleased especially with Crate & Barrel's wonderful staff and selection. They even gave us the sweetest little glass heart bowl as a gift for starting a registry there.

Here are a few things we are really excited about (and will purchase in the end if they are not given to us. Woo hoo for registry completion discount!).

Feather Your New Nest with West Elm

For those of you who are not familiar with West Elm, you ought to check out their website. They are a new chain of stores that carry modern home decor and we just got one last spring here in Columbus. They're prices are comparable with Crate and Barrel and the furniture and decor pieces are so clean and well designed. Unfortunately they are in limited cities and don't currently have a gift registry, but they have a wonderful website. They also have some great vases and serving trays on sale that could be a good deal for reception details.

Domino: The Book of Decorating

If any of you out there are Domino readers I'm sure you already know. If you are not subscribed to Domino, you should be! Regardless, on October 16th they will be releasing their new book which promises to be loaded with beautiful spaces and killer ideas. The October issue has a little preview and it looks like it's going to be a must-have for me.

Domino readers get a 35% discount at Barnes & Noble's website when they pre-order. Head on over today and reserve your copy!