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Please Fence Me In

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It’s been really quiet here on the blog… but in real life it’s been anything BUT!  I don’t know about everyone else but spring is my favorite season and I find myself full of energy, motivation and in general the happiest of happy!  Take note of the beautiful skies in these pictures.  We had days and days of this with temps in the 70′s.  It was heaven!

Thanks to daylight savings time and Richie getting a week out of school for spring break we have accomplished some pretty good stuff in the last 10 days.  Of course I’m covered in scrapes, cuts, splinters, and even have a bruised butt (can’t remember what I backed in to but I do remember thinking “OH, that’s going to look lovely!)  So yes, the Advil bottle is empty but the smile on my face makes up for every ache I feel.

New Fence Pickets

It seems like yesterday we said “we need to replace our rotten fence”.  Oh wait… that was like 4 years ago. Time really flies when you’re having fun, doesn’t it?  Apparently it does even when you’re NOT having fun.  HA HA!  So let there be more fun.  Lets build a fence!

I tried and tried to find some really good pictures of how horrible our fence was.  The fact is that I didn’t take that many simply because it was so embarrassing I realized that I purposely would “crop” the fence out of photos.  I did find a few little gems from the day we got the house and these will definitely give you an idea of what we had to deal with.

The one above is a view of the back fence standing at the fire pit.
The one below is after we cut out vegetation and trees.

You can see how much jasmine had been allowed to grow on the fence and cause it to rot and deteriorate.  The first big task was to pull all those vines off of there and actually kill the jasmine to keep it from coming back once we built a new fence.  The neighbor behind us said “do whatever you need to do”.  So for the next 2 years Richie battled all that stuff and finally killed it all.  Jasmine is EVIL!

We were then left with a rotten fence that was literally being propped up with wood scraps and tarps.  It was pretty trashy.  But it was low on the list when you have no walls in your house.  You know how that goes… “we’ll get to it”.

So with the help of his father (who is the finest man on the face of the earth!) They tore that sucker down and built “me” a new one.  They love saying that —  ”We built YOUR new fence”.  Why is everything MINE? MEN!  (later I caught them beating their chests and saying “LOOK WHAT WE HAVE CREATED!”.  It was a Tom Hanks “Castaway” moment.

Okay… back to our Island….  Check out that nasty fence.  I seriously have no idea how it was still standing.

backyardfence1

With the help of some manly tools the fence came down.  I had to giggle because I went out to help start hauling the fence off and I was literally pulling it down with my hands.  I think Richie just looks for a reason to get out the power tools. (LOL)

backyardfence2

Every once in a while we get some really lucky breaks and we were quite happy to find that most of the posts were still in excellent condition.  We decided to use what was there and only had to replace 3 posts.  That saved so much time!  Unfortunately they weren’t all plumb so we had to do some adjusting by digging around them and moving them a little.  No big deal, really.

New Fence Pickets backyardfence3

You can see below some of the posts being pushed into place and held while new concrete was poured.  This evened all the posts up.  Such smart men!

backyardfence5

Once the cement dried they began running the rot board and the stringers.  The pretty stuff was about to begin.  I’m happy his dad helped with this because Richie is a stickler about everything being level and plumb.  My patience runs thin… so thank you to my father in law!!!!!

backyardfence4 backyardfence6

After the stringers were all up Richie and I finished it up by hanging each picket and doubling up so there were no gaps after the fence begins to expand and contract …. with the help of a massive nail gun (more power!!!)  That thing scared the crap out of me.  It blows air out at you with each drive and I swear it feels like it’s going to blow you over.   It is a life and time saver, though.

After the pickets went up Richie topped it all off with some trim at the top.  I love how that looks… so finished and neat.

New Fence

LOOK WHAT HE CREATED!  Okay, it’s not fire… but it sure lights me up!

New Fence

I look forward to it aging a bit.  I’m not super fond of the new look.  I much prefer that grey weathered patina. NOT ROTTEN, just weathered.  :-)

backyardfence8

So hello you pretty new fence.  I love you and I know how good you were built.  May you live a long and happy life!    Now only two more sides to go.  More fencing this summer….

I also want to take a minute to thank all the new subscribers in the last few weeks.  There’s been a wonderful flurry of new blog followers and I’m so thankful to have you here.   I probably don’t say it enough but I truly appreciate having so many kind people watching and cheering us on.  So many of you are doing your own renovations so it’s great to have such a terrific support group. I look forward to meeting you all.  Please feel free to leave comments or drop me an email any time.  Anyway… WELCOME new followers!

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Christmas Card Cheater

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I cheated this year!  I don’t even feel bad about it.

Every year I enjoy making Christmas cards for friends and family.  It always gets me in the Christmas spirit.  Last year I did some ribbon trees and sewed them to colored card stock.  This year will be no exception… but I’m running out of time.  With over 50 cards to make…. I’ll have to cheat to get it done.

I’m not a traditional girl… I think that’s pretty obvious.  Although I love traditional reds and greens during the holiday season I tend to always want the opposite.  Doesn’t black, turquoise, yellow and pink just SCREAM Christmas to you?  HA HA!

I decided to keep it simple and whipped up some vector images using photoshop and shaped them as needed.  I chose a “Christmasy” font called Channel and started to put the front of the card together.
This is definitely where I cheated… by letting the computer do all the work for me.

I also used a blank card pack complete with pre-cut cards and envelopes which really saved me time.
Once the design was made I printed all the cards in solid black print.  I love the way basic black looks on paper.

printed christmas cards

Even though I’m cheating I really wanted the cards to look “handmade” so I chose some paint colors and picked some matching decorative tape.  I watered down the paint to give it a very transparent, barely there tint on the paper.  Each “ornament” got a swipe with a paint brush.
Yes, I can now say “Oh, I totally painted these myself”.  CHEATER!

Painting cardstock

painted christmas cards

It was actually really fun to brush the color on and see them come to life.   After each card was painted I let them dry a little and then began using the tape across each folded half.  I had several decorative tapes that matched the colors I was using so I mixed it up.

Handmade Christmas Cards

I then cut waxed linen for the ornaments and glued the string to the card.

TA-DAH!  Cards for everyone!

Christmas Cards

And now for some Christmas Music!  I told you it put me in the spirit.

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+ Design Cross +

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Have you ever run across a design trend that just knocks you over and you don’t know why? Then it just sticks with you no matter how much you resist being “trendy” and you can’t let go? It has definitely happened to me and I’ve been fighting it for over a year now. I decided to just give in and get over it…. and apparently that is SO MUCH MORE FUN!

I’m talking about this whole design cross trend. Or maybe it’s called Swiss Army or Swiss, or Red Cross or what I like to call design cross. Lets face it, we’ve all seen this symbol and I’m sure something immediately comes to your mind when you see it. The Red Cross, the Swiss Flag, Swiss Army watches, First Aid, … maybe all those things. I just think it looks cool because it’s very graphic and somewhat industrial. It’s simple and it says so much.
Here’s a sampling of how the design cross is being used in today’s interior designs. I totally dig it!


+ bag, blanket, faucet, jewelry, wall +

Of course now that I’ve “gotten over myself” I could end up with crosses all over the house! I may need FIRST + AID before it’s all over.  Lets ease in with a pillow.  Hummmm, that’ll work!

I had some left over linen because I usually keep it around to make home decor.  It’s so soft and I love the texture.  It works for everything.  I also always have felt in many colors, especially black, so this was one of those easy projects that took less than 30 minutes.  (the kind I like.. quick and easy).  I used photoshop to just draw out a perfect little cross then used the paper like a pattern to cut the felt.

The pillow form I had was 16×16 so I cut 2 squares from linen and then pinned the black cross to the center of one square and carefully sewed closed to the edges.  I actually love to sew and use to sew all my clothes, especially skirts and dresses.  Before the internet tall people were just shit out of luck.  I can’t thank my mom enough for forcing me to take home economics in high school. “Oh how dorky… I don’t want to do that”.  I also didn’t want to play the flute, tap dance or play tennis, but I ended up making my clothes, was first chair in the band through school and went to state finals in tennis.  THANK YOU MOM!  (okay, that was off topic.  moving on…..)

Here’s the front and back of the panel after I finished sewing.  I then put the front sides together and stitched a 5/8″ seam around leaving a small opening for the insert.  I usually like to use zippers but didn’t want to fight the BLACK Friday shoppers at the fabric store.  It’s seriously insane.  Richie voted NO on piping around the edges – so this project went FAST!

I recently saw a pillow with this design cross on Jonathan Adler’s website selling for $98.00.  WTF!  Okay, it’s probably really nice, but this one cost me $14 and it was way fun.  Now Richie wants me to do some REALLY big pillows for in front of the TV.  He has his own design ideas about that.

The big problem for me is when I do something like this I end up loving it and don’t know where to put it.  Guest bedroom or living room?  See… I will need FIRST AID.

I do have a few more pillow projects in the works.  You can see the fabric I’m using next on my INSTAGRAM PAGE here on the site.  It’s the orange and gray mod stuff.  I’m thinking a button in the middle and some piping on the edges.
SO that was FUN… and I may have to make a cross necklace or some dishtowels or some place mats, or just paint a big cross on the fence in the front yard. Now that would get my neighbors talking. Or I may get a few ambulances pulling up in the driveway. Hey, I know CPR!

Thanks for reading. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I only have 3 weeks left of work and then I’m off until the new year. OMG, MORE CROSSES!

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Nice Legs!

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When something doesn’t go the way you planned… just put some hair-pin legs on it… and everything is alright! Nothing beats a nice pair of legs, right? Long, short, skinny, thick… metal, wood, or concrete…. there are so many kinds to love. Of course I’m talking about furniture and particularly the little tables we planned for our bed side.

These pretty legs arrived a week ago after I realized the little “box” tables that Richie built for our last platform bed would not work in our new master bedroom. The tables are suppose to hang and “float” on the wall but unfortunately there is not enough support in the wall behind it to hold them. Our last house had shiplap walls (solid wood) so you could hang ANYTHING, ANYWHERE…. it was fabulous. But I really wanted to use the “boxes”, as I love that you can put your books and magazines in the opening instead of on top of the table. We both enjoy reading in bed.

I got these beauties at www.hairpinlegs.com and we ordered the raw steel so we could paint them the same color as the bed legs. They also come in stainless steel (more $$). We just screwed them into the bottom of each “box” and they are now the perfect, small, modern little side table. (no holes in the wall, no crying, no screaming, and no frustration. It was an easy and hip solution.  I don’t know about you but a set of these makes anything look better!

Here’s my side.

Each side got an aluminum letter that I have been saving for years. They came off a dentist’s office building that was going out of business. We collect all kinds of letters and numbers from old buildings, schools, and estate sales. I couldn’t wait to use these!  (update: The little metal thing is a gyroscope (spinning top) and you can see a video of it in action down in the “comments” section.)

Here’s Richie’s side.

It was great fun to be able to pull some of our little collectables from boxes and cabinets.  When you haven’t seen them for a while it’s great to put them in the room and remember.  I know, I know… we have weird stuff.  But we’re strange people!

So the little tables turned out nice and now there’s nothing left to talk about.  HA HA HA!  So when all else fails just show some pictures!  At least that’s what I’ve decided. So … here’s a look around the room and a sigh of relief that aside from some throw pillows and a new curtain track to install… I’m home.

Love Richie’s carved bird (Eames inspired).  The little clay pot I made for one of my tiny air plants.
You know me… a room isn’t a room at Stacey’s house without at least 3 or more plants!

This room is fun because there’s lots of vertical space to put stuff. Since the closet isn’t built into the wall it has a nice top to display things we love.  Of course the red arrow and Richie just found another monkey last week.  I swear there are a lot of monkeys around this house.  I think I have one in every room.

And a great picture of Richie!  We rarely if ever display personal photos in the house.  I don’t know… I guess I just don’t like it for some reason.  I love seeing other peoples pictures at their house but we just don’t do that.  I do, however, LOVE this of Richie.  When we were younger and he was always playing gigs with his band and we traveled a lot from one dive to the next I did take lots of photos.  This is one of him on stage TOTALLY in the moment… right in the middle of some guitar solo, no doubt.  HOT GUY!  So this one is perfect for our bedroom.  Who doesn’t want a hot guy in the bedroom.  (gasp!)

This little guy on his airplane is some sort of antique toy Richie found 2 weeks ago at a huge antique warehouse sale. He came home looking like he had just been rolling in the dirt.  Talk about a dedicated “picker”.  I found an old block of wood in his pile of crap, stuck a wire in it and bent it to hold the little guy.  He’s super cool, I think.

And a few more shots…
The Jens Risom chair made it’s way under the vanity area and my George Nelson bench now resides at the end of the bed.  The bench will be perfect for extra blankets, pillows, books, or putting your shoes on in the morning.  I love it there.

So I’m pretty pleased.  Happy to have the little side tables done and look forward to just getting creative with some handmade throw pillows.  My plan was to bring the color green into the room so I’ll be focusing most of the fabrics with a green theme.  I love green and black together… so we’ll see how it all goes.

Looking back at my inspiration board so many months ago I’d say I did pretty good at sticking to the plan.  Although lots of things changed, the room still feels just as I hoped it would.  Bright, clean, simple, and full of things we love.  We had to special order a mattress so it will be shipped to us in the next four weeks.  Good thing we’re patient.  Or at least we have learned to be!

master bedroom inspiration

Thanks for reading and welcome to the many new subscribers.  I appreciate you following along and please feel free to join in on the conversation.  I love chatting with visitors!

Richie and I have been taking a break and enjoying the FABULOUS weather here in Texas.  We’re talking 60′s and 70′s people.  Unheard of, really!  I’ve had my butt parked on the back patio in my butterfly chairs and it’s been heavenly.  Next up…  I guess the master bathroom.  I’m still trying to muster up the strength!  We’ll see.

Stacey

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Closet Doors

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As August pushes it’s way through..(way too quickly)…I’m trying to wrap up projects like the bedroom closet. When we rebuilt the closet I left the doors as they were with the intention to refinish them. It was the last major project on my master bedroom list. Glad to say they’re finally finished. Wheewwww!!!!

 

 

The first order of business was to order up the special laminated shoji screen paper and tape required.  These special papers are amazing because they’re very thick and then they’re laminated to keep them clean, strong, and very easy to work with.

As usual this project has taken on a life of it’s own.  Much like every project we take on.
I thought it would be so good to go back and look at where we started, as it always makes me feel better about taking so damn long.  When we bought this house the master bedroom closet looked like this…..

Lovely, isn’t it?!  The curtained area to the right is the closet.  Pull those curtains back and it’s pretty much an unfinished mess.  I knew we would have to completely tear it apart and rebuild it.  You know you would too!!! This was just YUCKY! (sorry no pictures of the inside)

The project went through many stages… which can be see here, here, and here. But we basically tore it up, put up sheetrock, installed lighting, and then built in sections for clothes and shoes.

Yes, it’s magic!  Finished in a snap.  Don’t you just love blogs!  (who’s kidding who… this took forever)  But yes, big improvement!

The doors that would replace the old curtain were found at an estate sale about 8 years ago (maybe more… who’s keeps track!)  We found 5 shoji screen doors for $5 each and couldn’t pass them up.   We had no idea what we would do with them so we hinged a couple together and used them in our old house for a while.  (see them behind our couch…… years ago)

We got sick of them (they were huge) so we wrapped all 5 of them up and stored them in our attic for the next 8 years.  When we moved into this house we knew they would be perfect for both my closet and the closet in the guest bedroom. It also meant we didn’t have to buy anything.  YAY for repurposing!  Richie cut the bottoms of the doors off and reattached the frames.  They were a prefect fit… unfortunately their condition was really poor.  The wood needed refinishing and all the paper had to be replaced. So I got to work.

I carefully removed the “grid” insert from the door so I could tear out the paper.

All the wood… (yes, every little tiny square!) was sanded smooth and even.

After the door and the grid insert were all sanded (damn, it was a pain!)
I decided to use a rub on polyurethane, as the parts are so small I didn’t want a lot of drips or built up areas in the corners.  If you’ve never used a rub on, it’s great and so easy.  It’s best for small jobs, detailed furniture, stair banisters, etc.  It dries super fast, too!

Once the finish was dry I began applying the special double sided tape made especially for shoji screens.  They fit perfectly on all the thin pieces of the frame.

The new paper was pressed back into the door and the newly refinished grid insert was tacked back on top.  So many freakin’ steps!!!  But it looks so much better.

I did this for 3 doors.  Once I was done Richie says… “it doesn’t look any different”.
Okay, at this point I could either cry, beat him to a bloody pulp or just hang them in delight and move on.  I decided to proceed with all three.  And all three felt amazing! (laughing)

Of course I had to disagree with sweet husband who makes me crazy, because clearly they don’t look the same.
(left-new, right-old).  The anal retentive in me could not leave them as they were.

So here they are all hung and looking fresh and new.  I’m satisfied and I guess that’s all that matters.  After Richie recovered from his wife beating he agreed… they looked better!

We also got our new TV for the media cabinet in the living room, which allowed us to move the old (much smaller) one to the bedroom.  We got it all hung up with a nice wall mount stand.

I told Richie I was beginning to feel like we were turning our bedroom into a resort hotel room with the new king bed and the wall mount TV.  I have never used a wall mount for a TV before and I have to say “it’s so cool”!  Has anyone else used one?  It’s nice to have it up and out of the way.  It extends and swivels.    ROOM SERVICE PLEASE!
It’s a 36 inch but it looks so tiny on the wall.  I’m diggin’ it!

We’ll eventually hide all the wires in the groove of that beam that runs down the wall and then cap it so you won’t see it.  We ran the cable so it comes out of the wall right behind the TV.  A plan we made 3 years ago for this room… and it finally came together.  If we’re anything… we’re patient!  Three cheers for progress!!

Okay, I know that was a very long post but I’ve found that I’m doing fewer posts (which gives everyone a break!) but they are a little longer…  (sigh) ……..

Hope everyone had a good weekend!  We’re also still working on painting the back of the house and it’s looking so good.  Can’t wait to share that in the coming weeks.  The search for a new mattress is still on… hope to wrap that up soon too.  Thanks to CT over at Living Analog, as we are challenging and encouraging each other to finish projects X,Y, and Z by the end of August.  So far so good!  We’re both kickin’ ass and burning incense!!

Have a good week… and thanks for reading!