modern thrifter

[ CHANGE OF PACE ] I’m still here, I promise—still...

Sun, 27 May 2012 22:12:05 -0700

[ CHANGE OF PACE ]

I’m still here, I promise—still thrifting, too. I haven’t picked up any big “wow” pieces as of late, but I am quite pleased with some of my smaller finds—a shiny white Karlsson alarm clock, a book by the very funny David Sedaris that I’ve been wanting to read, and the perfect pair of italian leather sandals for summer, to name a few.

Projects around the house have come to a stall, mostly because we’ve been spending our spare time working on design projects, but also because we’ve decided to get really serious with our budgeting in order to build up a larger emergency fund/savings. It’s amazing how quickly we can settle into “comfortable” and start letting extra income flit away one dollar at a time.

It’s hard for me to not be constantly working on fixing up the house, but I’m taking this as an opportunity to find the neglected, tedious, and free things that need to be done. Yesterday we spent most of the day outside tidying up our yard [ivy jungle]. You may not know this about me, but gardening is just about my least favorite activity—cleaning moldy food containers wins the prize for most dreaded household chore, in case you were wondering.

Yard work really isn’t that bad once I get started, and it’s not the manual labor that I don’t like. It’s the creepy crawlies that I could do without. It would seem like being a mom of a little boy would have desensitized me to that by now, but, no. The only thing that eases the anxiety about plunging my hand into an overgrown patch of patch of mystery weeds is my pair of elbow-length leather gloves (I’d get shoulder length if they made them).

The other free chore that yields instant gratification is organizing, which is how I plan to spend the better part of this coming week. If I wasn’t so embarrassed about the current state of some of my closets, I would post before and after pictures to keep myself motivated. Maybe I’ll muster the courage to put them on twitter.

[ ADRIFT ] We’ve been anxious to get out of the city...

Wed, 02 May 2012 21:40:00 -0700

[ ADRIFT ]

We’ve been anxious to get out of the city lately, and since last week was Alden’s spring break, we decided to head to Long Beach. Nope, not that one. Long Beach, Washington—a cold, rainy, windy beach this time of year. The kind of beach where swimsuits are only donned in the hotel bathtub and flip-flops are passed over in favor of rain boots.

I am normally not a proponent of sites like Groupon and Living Social (I’ll save you the rant), but we made an exception for a deal offered by a hotel that we’d been on the fence about trying. Adrift Hotel was recently remodeled by husband and wife owners with a vision for a modern, fun, and affordable beach hotel.

The deal we purchased was for a two-night stay (we upgraded to a larger room), a four-pack of micro brewed beer, a wood-fired pizza from the hotel’s new restaurant, a picnic breakfast delivered to our door each morning, and a box of chocolates. All total—including tax and the upgrade—we spent $210.

Our room was in the East building, which is separate from the lobby and restaurant. Though, this building wasn’t remodeled as nicely as the other, we chose it because it has a few rooms with extra bedrooms and bunk beds. There are bunk beds in the other building, as well, but judging by the photos on their site, there is only one small rail on the side of the top bed, which pretty much guarantees one of the kids would end up with a broken bone. The room we chose had a queen bed in the main room with a twin/full bunk bed combo in the second room.

I would warn anyone planning on staying at the Adrift, the walls are extremely thin. We were thankful to be a corner room on the top floor, but we pity whoever was next to/beneath us. Our kids are kids after all, and there is only so much tiptoeing they can do. They also like to wake up at 5:45am on Saturday mornings.

The noise problems weren’t enough to keep us from having a great weekend. The hotel staff was friendly and helpful, there were plenty of beach cruiser bikes available to borrow at no charge in the lobby, and a decent collection of games and movies to take back to the room. We had a nice ocean view from all the windows in our room, and we appreciated the organic shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and soap that were in eco-friendly refillable containers instead of wasteful, single-use plastic ones.

The food in the breakfast basket was delicious, and though meant to feed two, with a little extra fruit that we brought from home, it was plenty to fill all four of us. There is also complimentary fresh-brewed organic coffee in the lobby nearly around the clock, which was especially helpful for those early mornings. The wine, beer, and snacks available for purchase in the lobby were also nice quality and reasonably priced.

In the end, I would say that the hotel has a few kinks to work out—housekeeping standards and noise issues being the most prominent, but bearing in mind this is there first year open, I think they are off to a good start. Adrift is not a luxury, boutique hotel, a fact they’ve fairly reflected in the price. It is a friendly, stylish, and affordable place to roost for a few days while bike riding and kite flying on the beach.

What family vacation is complete without family photos? After leaving Long Beach, we took a little detour in Oregon and stopped at the Astoria Coffeehouse and Bistro for lunch. The food was amazing and our table was right in front of their beautiful tin-tiled wall—a perfect backdrop for a few snapshots.

I took a plethora of photos over the weekend because I purchased a great new app for my iPhone that was just released last week from Visual Supply Co. It’s their mobile photo editing app, VSCO Cam. It’s lightyears beyond the capabilities of Instagram, and it was really fun to use while we were at such beautiful locations.

[ SUMMER LIST ] It’s that time of year again where I get...

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:01:00 -0700

[ SUMMER LIST ]

It’s that time of year again where I get antsy to start some big(ger) home improvement projects. The days are finally getting long enough to tackle outdoor jobs, and the reprieve from the overcast skies brings newfound motivation.

Unfortunately there are a few things from last year’s list that didn’t get completed, so they are getting carried over to this summer. Here’s what I’m hoping to accomplish:

1. Fence - we really wanted to have this done by now, but last summer we did an unusual amount of travel which ate up a ton of our savings. I’ve been pinning a bunch of fence pictures, and we’re looking into some alternative materials like polycarbonate and plexiglass that we could incorporate to let in more light while still preserving privacy.

2. Window Trim - All of the interior window trim needs to be sanded and primed, then we plan to paint it black to match the ceiling beams and doors.

3. Bedroom Floors - We were able to paint all of the floors in the main living space last summer, but we didn’t finish the bedrooms or bathrooms. We’re now debating whether we should paint them white like we originally planned, or look into carpeting them (not the bathrooms, of course).

4. Master Bedroom Walls - We have so many black closet doors in our bedroom and I’ve come to the conclusion that painting the small areas of wall around them black will simplify the room. I won’t do this until the floors are lighter, and I’d never do this in any of the other rooms in the house, but I think the dark moody walls will look nice in our bedroom.

5. Kitchen Cabinets - This is another carry-over from last summer, but in my defense, I did predict last year that it would get bumped. I’ve given up trying to fix the upper cabinets, since we plan on ripping them out anyway. I had hoped to do the open shelves this summer, but I think the fence will take priority in our budget.

So, I’m hoping to at least address the lower cabinets. They need to be sanded and repainted because they were never primed and all of the paint is peeling off of them. I also plan to replace the hardware. The current handles are hinged and so the noise of the metal clanging on itself every time a cupboard is opened or closed gets really annoying. Also, it’s a horrible design for a kitchen—there is a spot at the top that catches crumbs that is impossible to clean. When the handle is lifted, the space becomes completely enclosed and the crumbs just get compacted even tighter into the crack. It makes me crazy. I think I’ll end up going with something like this instead.

Everyone is confident I can get it all done, right? Yeah, I’m not. But, it’s good to write down goals so that next year I can look back at the list and feel crappy about all of the things that didn’t get done. Sometimes, though, it’s worth trading a finished list for a few extra days playing at the beach and eating ice cream.

[ HE IS RISEN, INDEED ] I can only remember one or two sunny...

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:40:45 -0700

[ HE IS RISEN, INDEED ]

I can only remember one or two sunny Easters in the past twelve years or so, making today a special treat. We spent the morning sipping coffee, watching the kids race around the house looking for eggs, and getting all dressed up for church.

Uh, wait, that’s never how it works out on Easter morning. Actually, the kids scarfed down more peeps and chocolate than I could count while I was rushing around trying to iron my last minute wardrobe substitution. There were tears about pajamas, socks, and snacks, grumpy words uttered my me, coffee spilled, and a late arrival to church. Thankfully, Jesus died and rose for all our sins, even the ones committed on Easter morning.

The rest of the day was mostly lovely, minus the hour long fit from a boy who had the rest of his peeps taken away for the remainder of the day and the dog poop on his shoe. We enjoyed a meal with good friends and played outside in the sunshine—girls on swings, men playing basketball, and Alden working tirelessly digging a big hole in the dirt.

I even managed to snap a few photos before their carefully planned Easter clothes were grass-stained and dirty. This year I gave each of them a little something homemade to wear. For Tula, a felt flower hair clip, and for Alden, a bow tie that I made out of the bottom of a thrifted vintage silk skirt that I hemmed.

I hope that everyone’s Easter was fantastic!

[ HAPPY EASTER ] The kids have been sick all week, but yesterday...

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 09:23:27 -0700

[ HAPPY EASTER ]

The kids have been sick all week, but yesterday they were finally well enough to return to school, giving me the chance to run some errands. I picked up some wheatgrass and a some of my favorite easter candy from the bulk section at the grocery store. These candies are as delicious as they are beautiful—chewy caramel and rich chocolate coated in a pretty turquoise candy shell. They only sell them at my local store during the Easter season, so I always treat myself to a tiny bag of them.

One of Tula’s preschool teachers taught us how to make little paper bag nests by trimming the top half off of a paper lunch sack and rolling it down. I cut the corners off of the wheatgrass and stuffed it into a milk glass vase, then tucked the nest and candy down in the middle—easy, cheap, and colorful. I can’t guarantee that there will be any eggs left in the nest on Easter, though.

[ PUPPY LOVE ] Did you know that Jonathan Adler created a line...

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:08:00 -0700

[ PUPPY LOVE ]

Did you know that Jonathan Adler created a line of products for Barnes & Noble? It’s actually really old news, but it was a surprise to me because between our proximity to the public library and the ease of using Amazon, it’s been about three years since I’ve even been in a Barnes & Noble. Truthfully, the only reason I even know about this now is that I came across this adorable dachshund paperweight, still in its packaging, on the shelf at Goodwill.

This paperweight isn’t available any longer, though they do have the dachshund in a bookend version. I don’t think there is anything in the current collection that I like as much as my little thrifted dog, so I’m happy to have found it second hand.

[ AURORA ANTIQUE PAVILION ] Wow, sorry about all of the cobwebs...

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:13:23 -0700

[ AURORA ANTIQUE PAVILION ]

Wow, sorry about all of the cobwebs over here on the blog. I’ve been doing a bit of design work the past couple of weeks, so thrifting and blogging have taken a back seat for the time being. I’ll share the projects with you all when they’re done. I’m pretty excited about them and it’s been a refreshing change to get my hands back into drawing and designing. Just to clarify, those are Patrick’s hands in the picture, though, not mine.

In the middle of all of the busyness I did find time to take a quick peek inside the Aurora Antique Pavilion with Patrick. It’s been about ten years since the last time we’d been inside, and I sort of forgot about its existence until a friend mentioned it recently.

Let me tell you, this is the type of place that you need the better part of an afternoon to explore. We only had an hour and we tried our best to scan it all, but I know we missed plenty.

My overall (quick) impression is that this is the place to go if you are looking for Pyrex or other kitchenwares. The prices on most of the Pyrex pieces weren’t much more than Goodwill has been charging these days. Also, I saw a ton of Hall china, but it was priced pretty average.

I was tempted to buy this vintage poker chip set, but our game collection (ahem… it’s almost an entire closet filled with games) is overflowing, so I passed.

Furniture was mostly pre-1950, but there were a few pieces of Mid-Mod scattered around. One area that is definitely worth a look is the furniture warehouse. This section felt like it was off-limits to the public, but apparently it is not. I guess it’s just “proceed at your own risk.” A lot of the furniture was already sold and awaiting pick-up, but there was still plenty for sale at pretty steep discounts.

So what did I buy? I’ve been working on upgrading my cheap pots and pans to a mixture of All-Clad and cast iron. It’s been an expensive and slow transition, but every time I swap out a teflon-lined piece of junk for a heavy, even-cooking beauty, I know it’s worth it.

I found this vintage Le Creuset 22cm saucepan with a clever skillet lid, and I scooped it up. Well, actually I admired it for a while and walked away. It was Patrick who talked me into going back across the store and claiming it. I suppose his reasoning was two-fold: one, he loves me, two, he gets better food when I have tools for the kitchen that make me enjoy cooking even more.

I wonder how many local folks have been to the Antiques Pavilion? Is it just me who forgot about this fabulous place so awkwardly situated above the Burlington Coat Factory? I can’t wait to get a free morning to go back and dig through it all again.

[ STAIRWELL LIGHTING ] One by one it seems as though the ikea...

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 23:24:53 -0800

[ STAIRWELL LIGHTING ]

One by one it seems as though the ikea light fixtures that the previous owner had installed in our house have failed. First it was the wire track lighting in the bathrooms and kitchen, then each of the upstairs bedroom track lights went bad. We had planned to replace them all for aesthetic reasons anyway, but the the fact that they were shorting out made me nervous enough that I didn’t really want to wait for the transformer on the stairwell track light to go bad before getting rid of it.

The tricky thing about swapping the light fixture was that the junction box was located at the bottom of the stairs. You can see it here in this photo:

The previous owners then ran the wires up the wall and to the ceiling at the top of the stairwell.

Our plan was to tap into the wiring at the switch, located at the top of the stairs, and run a new wire up inside the wall to the ceiling. Since there is no gap between the tongue and groove ceilings and the roof, metal raceway would need to be run along the ceiling to carry the wires out to the new pendant.

Here’s the great part—we had seen the David Trubridge wood pendants in several magazines, but knew they were out of our price range. But remember me mentioning a great find at the Velocity sale? I happily scooped this Trubridge Floral pendant for half-price right after walking through the door.

Patrick prefers the Coral version to the Floral one, but for the price, he’s not complaining. Personally, I don’t mind adding a bit of floral to the house. There aren’t that many things in our decor that are overtly feminine, and I think this is still a far cry from doilies and ruffled bedskirts.

I’m guessing there are safer ways to reach the ceiling in a stairwell, but the project was completed with no major incidents.

One of my favorite things about the fixture is the beautiful shadows it casts on the walls. Also, the exposed bulb has a nice soft glow and doesn’t glare. The mood at the top of the stairs is exactly what I was hoping for, but we knew we’d need a bit more light at the bottom, so we opted for a single can light where the old fixture had been.

There are lots of other plans for the stairwell—next up will be the window trim—but it already feels so much more simple and pretty.

[ WHITE FLOORS: UPDATE ] It’s been about seven months...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:58:00 -0800

[ WHITE FLOORS: UPDATE ]

It’s been about seven months since we painted our dark wood floors white. I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about how they’ve been holding up, so I thought it was time to give an update.

First off, let me say that I have absolutely no regrets about going white. Our primary goal was to lighten our space in order to make the dreary Seattle winters more bearable and it really has helped (maybe not as much as sun would, but it’s the next best thing).

The second thing we had hoped to achieve was simplifying the color palette. The ceilings, floors, and baseboards were all different shades of wood. Add to that white walls, black doors and beams, and burnt orange painted window trim, and we had quite the hodgepodge. By painting the floors and baseboards the same white as the walls, we’ve eliminated a lot of competing elements. We’d still like to paint the window trim black, but that will probably be a spring or summer project.

If white floors sound like they are high maintenance, I can assure you, they are. But here’s the thing, they are no more difficult to care for than ultra dark floors. They both require daily sweeping and frequent mopping. We still have dark floors in the bedrooms and bathrooms, and I clean both colors at the same time. When I’m done, the white looks considerably cleaner than the dark.

I don’t want to be misleading—they have had their share of faults, too. One of the first problems that we ran into is scuffing. We are a shoes-off type of house, but there are always the random times where someone does come in without removing their shoes. Not all shoes scuff, but there are plenty that do. It’s not just shoes, either. In fact by far the most problematic scuffs have come from toys (presumably cars being raced at ghastly speeds). Most of the scuffing is very light and only really noticeable in bright lights.

The other problem we’ve discovered is that the paint is chipping in the cracks between the boards. The wood is an engineered click-together bamboo with about 1/8” dip between each board. When we sanded the floors before applying primer, we weren’t able to sand down into the cracks, so I’m assuming that’s why the paint didn’t adhere to those areas as well.

The chipping and scuffing are both confined to the heaviest trafficked areas—the hallway and the area near the entry between the dining and living spaces. The rest of the floors look almost exactly the same as when they were first painted. We’d still like to finish the other rooms this summer, and when we do, we might just add another coat or two on the damaged spots. Also, I should point out that most of the chipping occurred in the first few months. We really haven’t seen much change since then, so I would assume that it won’t get that much worse over time.

In the end, I guess I would say that white floors are not for everyone. But for us, they were an inexpensive solution that has made a huge impact on the ambiance in our home.

** Note: both of these photos were taken today in different areas of the house. The second photo is of the most heavily trafficked spot.

[ VALENTINES ] The kids and I have been making handmade...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:10:26 -0800

[ VALENTINES ]

The kids and I have been making handmade valentines for classmates for several years now, and we always have a great time getting crafty together. This year I came up with the idea to make little spinner cards. If you never made something like this, the concept is separate images glued on each side of a stick. When the stick spins, the images combine like a very simple animation.

We decided to draw a heart on one side, and the arrow on the other, then glue them to sucker sticks that I purchased at Michael’s. When spun, the arrow appears to be going through the heart.

To make these a little cuter, I typeset the words with a rubber stamp printing kit that I found last year at the thrift store. This tool has been really handy, though changing out the letters can be somewhat frustrating. The kids each stamped their names on all of the cards, and then I made the mistake of letting them play with the stamper for a while. This is what the case of letters looks like now:

I had hoped that the kids would be able to do several of the steps involved in making these cards. But honestly, they turned out to be just a little too much for them to tackle. Instead, I’ve spent the last two days assembling fifty of them for their classmates. Not to worry though, I get plenty of enjoyment out of making things like these.

Happy Valentine’s day everyone!

[ GEORGE NELSON EXHIBIT ] There are still a few days left to...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:09:38 -0800

[ GEORGE NELSON EXHIBIT ]

There are still a few days left to catch the George Nelson exhibit at the Bellevue Arts Museum (it ends this Sunday). We took the kids last friday for the free admission night, and I’m so glad we went. Though we would have been able to spend more time taking in the amazing furniture and architecture without the kids, it’s always nice to see how much they actually enjoy art museums.

Alden was particularly fascinated with the show, and couldn’t wait to get home to sketch some of the clocks that he’d seen. The next day he asked to get out some toothpicks and marshmallows, inspired by Nelson’s Marshmallow Couch, so that he could construct his own furniture.

Alden’s creation:

Clearly he’s more concerned with form than function—ouch!

[ OPEN SHELVES ] If you follow me on Pinterest, you might have...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:01:00 -0800

[ OPEN SHELVES ]

If you follow me on Pinterest, you might have noticed that I’ve been pinning a lot of photos of kitchens with open shelves lately. Our plan is to (hopefully this summer) tear out most of the upper cabinets in the kitchen and replace them with simple shelves with possibly a short cabinet at the very top.

In the meantime, I’ve been anxious to try out some of the support brackets from Ikea to see if they will be up to the task of holding our dishes. We made the trek to Ikea last Saturday and picked up some wood brackets and a couple of shelves from the As-Is section. All total we spent $16 for this project.

I’m the type of person who would rather have completely bare countertops and surfaces. I had previously been storing my cookbooks and radio on top of my refrigerator, and my counter was starting to get cluttered with various dishes and bowls, so having a nice organized little space for everything makes me quite happy.

These are some of my favorite things in the kitchen: My new Jamie Oliver cookbook that my mom gave me, Meals in Minutes, which I highly recommend (really, this is such a great concept… three or four course meals with the recipes integrated so that everything finishes together), a pile of snack-sized cloth napkins that I’ve been creating out of fabric scraps, my Anri teak bowl, a butter crock that my in-laws gave me for christmas, my new little honey jar, and a cute radio so that I can listen to All Things Considered while I cook dinner.

I’ve mentioned before how much I dislike our travertine counters and backsplash. They have been on the demolition list since we’ve owned the house. When I was editing the photos, I thought I’d take a look at what the counters would look like without the backsplash (this is about a two minute photoshop job, so please don’t judge).

Though I’d still rather redo the entire thing, taking out the backsplash would be a huge improvement.

When it comes time to tearing out the cabinets and putting in the new shelves, I’d like to go with white brackets and thick wood shelves like this:

Do any of you have open shelves in your kitchen? Do you love or hate them? I’m guessing the top shelf gets a little dusty, but I’m hoping that having a cabinet at the very top will help a little with that.

[ DATE ] It’s rare for Patrick and I to get to spend time...

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:09:00 -0800

[ DATE ]

It’s rare for Patrick and I to get to spend time together during the day without the kids, so when he said he would be taking a half-day off this week, I quickly suggested a morning when both kids would be in school.

So, what did we do on our mid-week morning date? We spent the morning sipping coffee (purchased with a Chinook Book coupon) and browsing aisles of used sinks and toilets, reclaimed windows, and old light fixtures at the ReStore, of course. This is the type of place that is hard to get through with two kids in tow, and perusing the shelves without being distracted by the kids was a fun treat.

We went in with a long list of things that we’d hoped to find, but it’s not like shopping at Home Depot, and sometimes not a single wish list item can be found. We did find two boxes of really great click-together Marmoleum in a rusty red color that would have been nice in our office-turned-art-room, but there was only enough to cover 1/5 of the space, and purchasing additional boxes at full price would have set us back about $600. Sad.

In the end, we walked out with new drip pans for the stove (the current ones were here when we bought the house and have rusted beyond cleaning), some drawer pulls for a mid century kid’s sized desk that I scored for free from the curb, and some heat vent covers that we have now discovered are the wrong size and will have to be returned.

I’m sure this date sounds horribly mundane to most people, but I’m incredibly blessed to be married to someone who gets just as excited about used building materials as I do. And, tomorrow night we’ll be going out for a little more traditional dinner date.

[ MR. CHAIR ] This chair, the Mr. Chair by George Mulhauser for...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:05:50 -0800

[ MR. CHAIR ]

This chair, the Mr. Chair by George Mulhauser for Plycraft, has owned the top spot in the chair category on my “maybe someday” list, for quite some time. Look at those arms and tell me you don’t want one, too.

Imagine my surprise when I received a text one evening last week from a friend who had just stumbled upon one at the Goodwill near my house. Here’s the photo that she sent me:

Granted, this wasn’t the gorgeous black leather that I’d been swooning over, but I was willing to compromise. The chair was in the collectables section and priced at $299—not cheap, but far less than we’d pay at a mid century shop.

My friend had warned us that the upholstery and wood were in very rough shape, but we were optimistic, and headed over right away. After examining the chair, we knew that we could restore the wood, but the upholstery was a different story. It was dirty, badly faded in spots, and it made a weird crunchy plastic sound when it was compressed. It was obvious, there was no saving the fabric. And with all of those tufts and buttons, it wasn’t a project we felt even remotely skilled enough to complete.

If we could have paid to have the upholstery done professionally, I think we would have brought it home, but there was just no way to live with it the way it was until we could save up to have the work done.

So, Mr. Chair, I do hope we meet again under better circumstances.

[ VELOCITY BRICK & MORTAR - CLOSING! ] Just this week...

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:53:00 -0800

[ VELOCITY BRICK & MORTAR - CLOSING! ]

Just this week Velocity Art & Design in South Lake Union announced that they will be closing their brick and mortar store and transitioning to an online only company. While this is sad news, there is a silver lining. Everything in the store is 50% off until it’s gone.

I made a quick trip into the shop this morning, and was surprised at how many great things were still left. It was hard to resist a Blu Dot Buttercup Chair at half the original price, but I persevered. I can’t wait to share what I did buy, but I’m keeping it a secret until we get it installed.

[ TWELVE LITTLE SPICE JARS IN TWO STRAIGHT LINES ] Okay, there...

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:17:41 -0800

[ TWELVE LITTLE SPICE JARS IN TWO STRAIGHT LINES ]

Okay, there may be a little too much Madeline happening in my house (books, movies, music boxes) but when I was setting these spice jars out yesterday to photograph, I couldn’t help humming the little Madeline tune.

I picked these up yesterday at Goodwill for 50¢ a piece. I couldn’t believe that there was an entire set of twelve still on the shelf. They had obviously been there a while because they were half off when I bought them.

They aren’t in perfect shape—there are a few dings and paint chips—but all in all, they are still pretty fantastic. The undersides of the corks are stamped “Sam Mann Designs” but I haven’t been able to find out much more about them.

My plan is to get a thin ledge shelf to set them on so that I can enjoy them instead of hiding them in a cupboard like my current messy spice heap. I’m also brainstorming how I can label them. Ideally, I’d get little vinyl words cut for them, but I haven’t checked into whether it would be budget-friendly or not.

On the shelf right next to the spice jars was this ceramic sugar/honey bowl. I already have a Franciscan sugar bowl that matches my teapot, so I plan to use this for honey. I’ve been buying my honey in bulk for a couple of years, and I’m excited to be able to keep a little of it out in something pretty.

I’ve been spending a lot of time in my kitchen the last few months (um, years), and now that the holidays are past, life is settling back into a more normal routine. January is always the time of year I get the urge to overhaul my whole house and it’s very likely that a little set of spice jars could lead to some cupboards being ripped off the wall.

[ THRIFT WRAP ] Yes, I’m one of those crazy meticulous...

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 20:23:00 -0800

[ THRIFT WRAP ]

Yes, I’m one of those crazy meticulous people who like to have all of the wrapping paper coordinated under the tree, but the cost of fancy wrapping paper and trim can add up quickly. This year I came up with some inexpensive gift wrap—thrift wrap, if you will—that I think looks pretty great.

Here’s what I bought:

5 yards of kraft paper in both brown and white from Paper Zone; $3 total

15 doilies (red and cream) at the thrift store; 75¢ for all

Giant spool of bakers twine (this thing will last for years to come); $10

1 sheet of scrapbook paper that I cut into gift tags; $1

Grand Total: $14.75 (and most of that was the twine, but seriously, I plan to use this for quite a while)

[ ICE CUBE CELEBRATES CHARLES & RAY EAMES ] I know this...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:22:13 -0800

[ ICE CUBE CELEBRATES CHARLES & RAY EAMES ]

I know this video has been all over today, but how could I not post it here, too? Ice Cube may just be the perfect tour guide.

[ GARLAND ALTERNATIVE ] I have been wanting to trim my tree...

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:32:00 -0800

[ GARLAND ALTERNATIVE ]

I have been wanting to trim my tree with wool felt garland (like this) for at least the last three Christmases. I’ve looked into buying it and making it, but neither option is very affordable, and I just can’t justify spending that kind of money on trim.

An idea occurred to me while I was at the fabric store picking up some halloween costume supplies— red pom pom yarn! While it’s not an exact replacement for the wool felt, it still has a similar feel. I paid $6 for 50 yards of “Pomp-a-Doodle” yarn (enough for two trees!). Compare that to $15 for 8 feet of felt ball garland at west elm, or $38 for 15 feet on Etsy, and I think I found a pretty good deal.

[ THANKSGIVING NOSTALGIA ] Nothing makes me remember the...

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:24:29 -0800

[ THANKSGIVING NOSTALGIA ]

Nothing makes me remember the Thanksgivings of my childhood quite like the sound of the ball bearings spinning in a Foley rolling pin. Every year my mom would spend hours rolling out crusts for the many pies needed to feed our pastry loving family. Last year I found a beloved Foley of my own at Goodwill, and I can only hope that it gives my children the same warm memories.

Happy Thanksgiving.