my friend Carroll

A new mid-century portrait has joined my collection, and it's of someone who was actually quite dear to me! When I was 10 years old, I played Annie in the musical Annie. The man who played Daddy Warbucks was a really sweet older gentleman named Carroll. I loved Mr. Carroll and he was always very kind to me:) He even bought me and my husband a wedding present when we got married, even though he was a widower and getting on in years at the time. He passed away last year, and his estate was recently sold.

My precious Aunt Becky and Uncle Mike went to the sale and bought me the most amazing gift: a portrait that was painted of Mr. Carroll when he was about 18 years old. Isn't that just the most perfect gift? I'd love it even if I had no idea who it was a portrait of, but the fact that it's of someone I knew and cared about makes it so special:)

They also got me several theater posters from plays that he either directed or acted in, most of which were signed by the cast and crew. It's so fun reading what people wrote on them! Thank you again, Aunt B and Uncle Mike, for the incredibly thoughtful gifts! I love ya'll!

Speaking of the guest bedroom, I've just about finished my credenza that I made for free using pallets. I'm still working on making a sketch with the dimensions so you guys can make one of your own!

My favorite part is the mason jar knobs.

And last but not least, a quick shout-out to some recent visitors:) Danica and her hubby Jason stopped by our place last weekend during their Comic Con trip.

And my husband's little sister Giselle and two of her sorority sisters spent a full week with us earlier in the month, and I had so much fun showing them the sights of SoCal:)

Happy weekend, everyone!

a year later: the guest bedroom is finally just how I want it

 I'm breaking from my usual tradition of updating along the way of a room re-do, and going straight to the finished product pictures. The guest bedroom is finally, finally ..... FINALLY finished!  And I am so happy. See the pillows in the photo above? I dyed them myself:)

I bought a cheapo bedskirt from Target and dyed it as well in a stripey, splattery pattern.

This project inspired me to start collecting color samples by dipping card stock in paint, coffee,  or whatever else I think is a pretty color and something I might like to remember. Weird, I know, but I like it!

Just about the only thing in the room that hasn't changed is the location of the bookcase and Picasso prints above it. 

The credenza on the right I built myself. It has a loooooong way to go before it's all done, but it already provides a great work surface and tons of storage. See the giant gold knobs? I made them out of mason jar tops:)

This picture of me and my mama was my inspiration for the big blue painting on the far right. I put the canvas on a wall and used the projector to trace the image, and then embellished it with shades of blue paint.

I'm finally content with the room, and I don't think I'll be changing it for a long time. I hope you enjoyed the reveal, even though you didn't have to wait for it!

I went to Pat's today, and I thought I'd share a few things that I got while I was there:) I got this frame with the awful duck print in it, and an instructional book on the art of collage-making, which is full of adorable illustrations!

Like this little boat, which I put in the duck-print frame. Isn't it cute?

The best part about the collage book is that on the backside of every color illustration is the black and white instructional side, so I don't have to choose which illustrations to frame, I can frame them all if I want:)

These three below are my favorite.

My husband laughed when I pulled this big, dusty, bull-fighter print out of a pile of frames, but I think he's awesome!

And he only cost 50 cents! 

I'm back with a few wedding pictures!

An adorable couple who just happen to be my parents-in-law:) I did her hair and make-up!

Me dancing with the handsome groom, Matt:)

I reactivated my husband's old Facebook just long enough to steal all these pictures from Michelle, then I deactivated it again, ha! Thanks, Michelle;)

 The whole ginormous family!

And now for some random updates ...

I got a new 20th century portrait for my collection a few weeks ago. Isn't he awesome? I love his glasses.

And my friend Zoe noticed how much I love black and white sketches, so when I told her that I'd love to own some of her art, she was kind enough to give me this gorgeous sketch of the woman in the evening gown:) Thanks, Zoe!

Whenever I have a bunch of random stuff I want to display, but there's no rhyme or reason to it, I just throw it all on a tray and suddenly it looks like a collection!

This picture is here for two reasons. One: because I upgraded my compost to an actual compost container instead of the gallon water jug I'd been using.

This cute white container came from World Market, and it has this charcoal filter thing on the top that seems to really help keep the bad smell at bay.

And the second reason for the picture? Because it has my little birthday girl in it! Jemima is 4 years old today:) Happy birthday, Jemima! I love everything about you!

Even your underbite.

laundry, lamps, linen, and line drawings

First of all, thank you from the bottom of my hardwood-floor-loving heart for all of the helpful advice I received in the comments of this post! 

Option A (our current home) won the votes in a landslide, and I think we're actually going with the votes on this one. On Tuesday we measured all of our "must keep" furniture, like our sofa and our bed, then went to the house and marked out with tape how much actual space in the rooms our furniture would take up. We were willing to part with more than half of it, but even putting less than half of our furniture in there would still make for a VERY tight squeeze. Like, turn-sideways-and-shimmy-across-the-wall-to-get-into-bed tight. And hearing so many of you say what a frustration it is having to go to the laundry mat definitely got me re-thinking giving up having a washer and dryer at home. So, long story short, we're going to pass up on this little place and pray that something else equally charming, old, and hardwood-floored comes along. Only this time an extra bedroom and laundry would be nice:) I can't say I'm not a little sad to let go of the idea of moving into that place, though. It was just SO DARN CUTE!

In other news, I recently realized that I never posted about that lamp makeover I mentioned! Well, it didn't turn out that great anyway. I started with the turquoise and floral lamp you see above, which was already a makeover of the original lamp.

I painted the base white and re-covered the shade in ikat, but I'm sorry to say that my lampshade re-covering skills are um .... improvable. I couldn't help but laugh at myself when I got it all finished and realized how horribly lopsided the fabric is. Why is it so much harder to recover a lampshade than anything else?

I'm lazy and I don't want to waste any more fabric, so it's staying as-is for now. Another little project I did recently is the art above the bookshelf.

All you need is scissors, a pencil, a marker, card stock, 8x10 matted frames, and a computer to look up Picasso line drawings to copy, and you too can have your own little Picasso art gallery:) I even forged his signature on them so they'd look extra official.

And one more thing before I go! I've been intending to blog about this forever ... check out this gorgeous mid-century chair my parents bought me when my family came out to visit for Easter! Isn't it fabulous? I can't wait to get it all fixed up.

I think I'm going to have it recovered in some sturdy white linen, to coordinate with our sofa. I just love the look of wood and white furniture, accessorized with colorful throw pillows or blankets.

The stain and finish are pretty worn, so I think I'll strip it and stain it to match my other mid-century chair.

I think that's all for today! Jemima says "hi"  :)

out with the old, in with the new-ish

I don't know what it is about spring-time that makes me want to shed all the extra layers, clean out, throw away, give away, and simplify, but I love it. This time every year I find myself full of energy and inspiration to organize, garden, eat better, and clean! Here are a few projects I've been working on lately.

Composting! I confess: I've never done this before. I read that before you go out and buy the supplies to make a large compost pile, you should start with "container composting" to see if you'll actually keep up with it. I sort of followed these directions, then piled in some not-so-fresh bread, fruits, veggies from the fridge. So, (bonus!) beginning composting also prompted a much-needed fridge clean out session. So far all I can say about composting is this: it's gross, but it's gross in a fun way ... like the green slime from the old school Nickelodeon game shows.

I've also been stripping away layer after layer of paint and rust off of this old trunk my friend Becca found out on the street, awaiting the garbage man.

I know this might sound crazy, but I actually asked her if I could re-furbish it for her. It's just so old and awesome and has so much history, I wanted to get my hands on it and fix it up as well as I could, for the trunk's sake:) It's made entirely of metal and wood, no laminate or plastic to be found. I felt a bit like an archeologist as I started working on it.

I know it's hard to tell from the picture, but underneath all that white paint, the inside was once lined with this adorable pin-wheel pattern art deco wallpaper. Under that was cheesecloth, I guess to even out the lines between the wood.

And underneath the turquoise paint on top were green and yellow stickers. I tried so hard to remove the paint without scraping off the stickers, but it was nearly impossible. All I could make out was an R, L and a P (I think) on the top row, an A, L, and L on the middle row, and F, S on the bottom.

Here's the trunk in it's current state.

Not exactly picture-perfect, but it's coming along nicely and I'm having fun doing it!

You may recall that just last week I was blogging about my love for art, well, I have two new additions to my collection! This awesome line drawing (I just adore line drawings) of Greta Garbo came courtesy of one of my favorite stores in San Diego, the Newport Avenue Antique Center.

She didn't look like much to write home about in that cheap, ill-fitting gold frame, but it's amazing how much better she looks now that I've found her a new home in a nicely matted black and white frame:)

I'm also pleased to introduce a new addition to my 20th Century Portrait collection!

Isn't he handsome?

He needs a name, and suggestions are welcome! I couldn't have been more impressed with all of your excellent suggestions for this gentlemen, who ultimately ended up being named Colonel Milton Edgar Randolph III (AKA "Milt"), which was a compilation of as many of your suggestions as I could fit into one man's name!

But back to the original point of this post, I wish I could say that my back patio always looks like this, but that would be a lie. It currently looks like this:

The first thing on my spring cleaning list is the back patio. It's been neglected over the winter, and the fence and furniture need to be scrubbed, the seat covers and pillows need to be washed, and the floor needs to be thoroughly vacuumed. Another patio problem has already been addressed: I pruned back the palm, the impatiens, and I replaced some other dead and dying potted plants.

But that's just the beginning of my spring cleaning list! What's on yours? If you're having trouble getting started, check out this list my mother emailed me recently. It's handy!