Easy Art (and a Facebook Plug)

If you're a fan of `a casarella's Facebook page you probably know that I went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market this past Sunday.   (And if you're not a Facebook fan, I'd love it if you'd become one.  You can find my FB page here.)

Anyway, the flea market was amazing and will definitely require its own post.  It's going to take me a few days to digest the whole thing, though, so that post will have to wait.  (That's really code for, "I took 500 pictures and need to sort through them all...)

Anyhoo, I did manage to do a small flea market inspired project that I can share with you today.

It started at a booth that had a table full of these:

What are they, you ask?  Good question.  Originally they were some sort of fabric samples.  My best guess is upholstery but I could be waay off.  Anyway, the moment I saw them I envisioned them as framed art.  Each one was only a dollar so I found two that I liked and went on my way.  (Of course in hindsight I wish I'd gotten more but, oh well...)

These were the two I picked.  I just love the colors.  They remind me of the ocean:

I could tell they were fabric samples by the holes in the top...

 ...and the labels on the back.

The project itself was pretty simple.  I picked up a couple of Ribba frames from IKEA... 

 ...and popped the fabric inside.

My only dilemma?

Should the stripes be vertical...

...horizontal...

...or should I do one of each?

I'm leaning towards two horizontal since you can see more of the colors that way.  I'd love your input if you'd like to leave a comment. You could even leave it on my Facebook page!  (Oh I am shameless...)

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Linking:

http://www.thecottagemarket.com/2012/10/junkin-joe-vintage-thrifty.html

http://blog.capscreations.com/

http://www.apinchofjoy.com/2012/10/busy-monday-week-of-october-28/

http://stylishonceagain.blogspot.com/

http://stylishonceagain.blogspot.com/

A Broken Commandment

You know that commandment that says "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house?"  Well, I kind of broke it.


And by broke I mean that I smashed it to little bits.

You see, this weekend I visited my sister-in-law's house and oh my goodness is it ever beautiful (totally worth breaking a commandment for).  In fact, one of these days I'm going to do a full-on John and Sherry style house crashing tour but today you'll just have to settle for a sneak peek of some of my favorite elements.



Element #1 is the giant chalkboard in her kitchen:

(I had a hard time getting a good photo so I'm including two...)

My sister-in-law had the idea and my father-in-law helped her execute it.  He built a frame out of molding and attached it to the wall.  Then they filled in the center with magnetic chalkboard paint. The picture really doesn't capture the fabulousness of it.  It is huge and usually sports the artistic stylings of my three-year-old niece.  (Are you starting to feel a little envy?  I know, right?  A total commandment breaker.)  

Honestly, I would love to have one of my own.  Unfortunately, I have a weird thing about chalk dust.  (It's right up there with pumpkin guts in terms of giving me the heebie-jeebies which is a strange thing for a former teacher to admit....)   I do have a similar idea in mind though, and if I ever execute it I'll let you all know.  

Speaking of similar ideas, I wanted to show you another one of my sister-in-law's projects.  This one is in her dining room:

Again, she made a frame out of molding.  She then proceeded to wallpaper the middle.  The project isn't exactly complete; there will eventually be a console table and a mirror resting against the wallpaper.  I will definitely post a picture when the room is done.  I just know it's going to be fabulous.  

  

Here's a close-up so you can see the frame a little better:

Another room that I love is the kids' bathroom.  I wish there was a good way for me to capture the whole thing in one shot.  For now I'll just show you this:

It's only a tiny corner but this little built-in suggests just how charming and whimsical the whole room is.  Don't you love the striped paint and the punchy green color inside the niche?  I mean, who wouldn't want to be potty trained in there?

The last part of this mini-tour focuses on an adorable craft that I spied in my nephew's room.  It was made by his babysitter who also seems pretty awesome.  (Is there a commandment about coveting thy sister-in-law's babysitter?  Just call me a sinner...)  

She pinned the idea here.  (Original source and tutorial found here.) 

It's a hot air balloon mobile that hangs in the middle of the room.  The top is a painted embroidery hoop...

...and the balloon baskets are made of corks.  (How cute is that?!)

 

And if you're admiring the rest of the room, wondering about the pretty painting or the fun architecture, don't worry.  I really do plan on doing a full house tour some day.   

Until then you'll just have to covet this tiny bit.

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Linking:

http://www.funkyjunkinteriors.net/2013/01/sns-171-link-up-your-charming.html

'Tween Room

My eleven-year-old daughter just upgraded from a twin bed to a full and overnight her bedroom went from Pottery Barn Kids to Pottery Barn T(w)een.  (But without the Pottery Barn price.)

I'm kicking myself for not taking a before shot.  I need to start thinking like a blogger.

Things aren't as pink as they appear in this Instagram photo.  (The bed and the furniture are actually white.)

She loves it and so do I.

I Interrupt This Tour of the Living Room for a Tour of the Balcony

I'm bored of the living room.

So today I'm going to digress and take you on a little tour of our most recent remodeling project: the master balcony.

(I can do that.)

(Because it's my blog.)

(And apparently I'm drunk with power.)

Where was I?  Oh yes, the balcony.   Last spring my husband and I decided to paint the exterior of the house.  One day, as we took a walk around trying to figure out colors, etc., we found ourselves standing on the master balcony.  As the name implies, this is/was a small wooden balcony accessible from our master bedroom.  It had probably been more than a year since we'd ventured out there which is is a shame considering that it has a beautiful canyon view.  Unfortunately, the balcony itself was narrow with an ugly metal banister and even uglier plastic lawn furniture.

Uglier yet was the giant mushroom we found growing out of a rotten floor-board.  My husband joked that he could probably put his foot through said board and, after convincing him that was a bad idea, we decided to rethink the whole painting-the-house thing.  Instead we discussed expanding the balcony.  It was a project I had envisioned when we bought the house, not so much because I wanted a bigger balcony but because I wanted the shade it would provide below.  The fungus-among-us was just the kick in the pants we needed tackle that project so painting went on the back burner and construction began.  Here is what the back of the house looked like before the demo.

At the time I had no idea I'd be doing a blog post so the pictures won't tell the whole story but you can see that the balcony was narrow and unattractive.  (Unfortunately, I didn't think to photograph the giant 'shroom growing out of the floor boards ;)

So as much as I love a good remodel, I'm not such a fan of demolition.  For that reason, our contractor (who is also a family friend) kindly did the demo while the family was on vacation.  When we came home, the old balcony was gone and the new one was framed out...

The next step was cementing over the wood.

Then the guys ran electricity for the can lights and the fan:

In the pictures below, the cement has been stuccoed over, the lights & fan are in, the tongue & groove ceiling is complete, and stone has been added at the base of the columns.  

In the next picture you see the final product.  A Trex handrail has been added above (no mushrooms will grow in those babies!) and outdoor blinds hang below:

And then the fun began: furnishing!  For the balcony itself, we went with this set from Target.  I wanted something that was almost bed-like (since it's an extension of the master bedroom).  I looked at many other sets (from Pottery Barn to Walmart and everywhere in between) and couldn't be more thrilled with what we bought.    The poufs were from The Company Store.  They were on sale when we bought them and match the Target cushions perfectly.  (#winning!)  The green umbrella also matched and was repurposed from down below (where we no longer needed temporary shade).  

Did you note my pineapple sconce above?  Love that thing!  Got the idea while staying at this hotel in Ft. Lauderdale.  After spying a similar sconce in their entry, I Googled "pineapple sconce" from my ipad in the room and bought one just like that.  (Because I'm sassy that way.)  

Furnishing the covered patio was equally fun.  I fell in love with this set and managed to buy it on sale as well.  I'm pleased to say that we've been able to enjoy it all winter including Thanksgiving and Christmas!  I can't wait to see what the summer will hold.

Now about that painting...

The Highest Form of Flattery

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm going to be taking you for a spin around my living room.  This is a room which, when we first moved in, was completely unfurnished.  As in, we had no living room furniture. None.  Nada.  Zip.

We moved to San Diego from Chicago six years ago.  Our house in Chicago was a 100+ year-old Victorian.  It was a beautiful house but very different from the one here in California, which is kind of a cookie-cutter, suburban tract house.  Don't get me wrong, I love our current house and am enjoying making it my own, but in terms of character, the Chicago house had this one beat.  One thing the Chicago house didn't have, however, was a "family room."  Instead it had one living room which served as a family room, TV room, den, as well as a formal living room.  (Well, as "formal" as you can get with a baby and a preschooler in the mix.)  So when we moved to California, our well-loved living room furniture immediately went into the informal family room leaving the formal living room empty.  This meant I got to start from scratch which was both exciting and overwhelming.

I didn't really know where to begin.  I knew I didn't want it to be too matchy-matchy so I set out to find pieces that coordinated with each other but didn't need to be bought as a set.  One of the first pieces I fell in love with was Restoration Hardware's now defunct Estate Coffee Table, pictured here:

And here...

It was beautiful, and although it's kind of hard to see in the pictures, the top is actually a removable tray.  Although it's a lot more formal than the things I typically gravitate towards, I was in love.  The only problem?  It came from Restoration Hardware.  Which meant it cost roughly a bajillion dollars.  Believe me, if I had bajillions of dollars, I would not hesitate to get some Restoration Hardware up in here, but I don't, so I kept looking.

Imagine my surprise when one day, while browsing JC Penney online, I found this:

That is my coffee table, in my living room.  It is also an exact replica of the Restoration Hardware piece pictured above.  The difference? It cost about an eighth of the price.  It's also a bit smaller, but in the context of my living room, that's a good thing.  Of course it's from JC Penney, so the quality isn't quite what I imagine the RH table to be, but frankly, I don't care.  

Next up in the tour of my living room:  the pouf that launched a thousand Facebook comments.  Stay tuned!

Decorating (my) World

There's an exchange  in "Dirty Dancing" that goes something like this:

"Max, our Baby's gonna change the world."
"And what are you gonna do, Missy?"
"Oh, Lisa's gonna decorate it."

It comes at the beginning of the movie, the exposition if you will, and the intent is to contrast the brainy and idealistic "Baby" Houseman with her vain and ditsy older sister, Lisa.

Of course you're supposed to sympathize with Baby.  You're supposed to want to be Baby.  And in 1987, at 18-years-old, I did.  I envisioned myself growing up to do something big, something to change the world.

Um, so yeah, about that...

Now, don't get me wrong, I love what I do--staying home to raise my kids--and I believe it's very, very important.  If I didn't, I wouldn't be doing it.*  However I also acknowledge that I'm not exactly changing the world.  (Talk to me in 30 years when one of the girls is running for president ;)

And the truth is, Lisa's desire to "decorate the world," to make a sometimes difficult place a little nicer to dwell in?  Well, that doesn't seem quite as ludicrous to me anymore.

Decorating, designing, feathering the nest--whatever you want to call it--has become a hobby of sorts.  I've done a lot of work on this house.  It's the second we've owned, and the one that we hope will be our "forever house."  I waited until we had this one to invest in furniture and decor and I'm having a lot of fun doing it.  (So if you're looking for a blog about changing the world, you're in the wrong place.)

As time goes on I will be giving "tours" of the house.  A logical place for me to start is with the living room as it is more or less "done" compared to other areas of the house.

Here are some pics of the living room.  I should say right now that I am not a photographer nor do I use a fancy camera or photo editing software.  I do have an SLR camera, though, and learning to use it is up there on my New Year's resolution list right under start a blog and an Etsy store.  (One out of three ain't bad..)

I find it difficult to capture the room all in one shot but you get the drift.  

Now you may disagree, but I find it to be cozy and inviting, especially given the 20+ foot ceiling thing we've go going on.  And while I'd love to have all white (or gray) walls and mid-century modern furniture with fun pops of colors like pink and blue, that just didn't feel right for this space.  

So I'd like to spend some time dissecting the room and discussing what we did/bought and why.  I'll be doing that in the next few posts so stay tuned.  First up will be the coffee table, which could easily have been featured in Copy Cat Chic.  Should be a good time.

* author's note: Please do not think for a moment that the comments at the beginning of this post were in any way meant to disparage working moms.   I am personally of the belief that one should do what's right for one's self and her family.  Not all women were meant to be stay-at-home moms and I would not want to live in a world where that was the only choice we had.  Just wanted to put that out there...