Under a blue moon

4.9.12

Every Easter I like to make treat bags for all the kids.  Okay the kids are between the ages of 19-32 but who wouldn't like getting a treat bag?

The ones I made this year would work for any occasion, not just Easter.   The blog post I found them on was dedicated to Valentine's Day.  They would be cute for a tea party, a bridal shower, for Mother's Day, May Day, a birthday party; really - just about anything.

I found them on Oh Happy Day!

The were very simple to make and your only limitation is to what color crepe paper you can find.  If I was going to do them for a bridal shower I might skip the yellow stamen and dip the end of the toothpick in glue and then glitter for a little sparkle.  

 

Friday's Favorites

Flickr Favorites (please click link to see the source of these beautiful images)

• Absolutely the most gorgeous DIY Easter Eggs.  I would do them in a soft turquoise too
• Clever Easter cupcakes
• Keeping with the Easter theme - I love this painting by Toshio Ebine
• Some Etsy prettiness for your Friday: Vintage baby brush and comb * Boullion cups and saucers * Teapot
• I'm having so much fun looking at all the entries for the Apartment Therapy Small Cool 2012 contest.  Can you even imagine living in the teeny tiny category?  Yet they make it look so doable

This week went by fast - I've been in class for the past two days which is a definite change of pace for me.  I have to actually get dressed and look presentable to go into the office.  

I hope you have a relaxing weekend and lovely Easter Festivities if you celebrate.  We are doing our usual extravagant brunch.  I have some treat bags again this year (here are last years) that I'll share on Monday.

4.4.12

Just a quick post on a quick project.  I have had this hose-bib hose hanger** for years.  Not sure where or when I got it but I've had it for about 10 years.  It started out white but years of sprinklers and inclement weather have taken their toll.

It didn't matter that it was slowly rusting because it was hidden behind a rose bush.  

When we did the landscaping work last Summer we removed all the plants along the front of the house (where the hose hanger lived). They have since been replaced with lower growing plants and the rusty old hose hanger stood out (and not in a good way).

We also did some work at the back of the house - replacing the decrepit walkway behind the garage.  

I decided the hose hanger could live back there but would need a face lift since it would be very noticeable (no hiding behind a rosebush).

This was an easy fix.  I just took a wire brush to it and scrubbed away at any loose paint and dirt.  Then I painted it with a rust inhibiting spray paint in a dark grey/brown color.  

I ended up putting three coats on the front and two on the back.  My painting skills are really deficient but I am getting a little better with spray paint.  The trick is multiple light coats.  No rushing (as I am wont to do).  

This isn't a very glamorous after shot, it is the backside of the garage after all, but I like how tidy it looks.  The hose was just in a heap on the walkway prior to hanging it.  We will fill the area with some stones to keep the dirt from splashing up on wall.   We just planted some hydrangeas and rhododendrons in the planting bed.  They are joining the azaleas that we transplanted from the front of the house last Summer.  Hopefully they will fill in quickly and provide some color and interest along the backside of the garage.  

 **I've been calling it the wrong thing for years!  It's not a hose-bib (which is the faucet) it is a hose hanger.  Sheesh.  Slinking off now....

 

4.2.12

My sister Kate and I hit up the Alameda Antique Faire on Sunday.  

We met up around 9:30 (after a rather harrowing romp through a very shady part of Oakland thanks in part to a misguided GPS system and in part on my absolute lack of direction) and braved the biting winds. No rain but my goodness was the wind sharp and cold. 

My plan (and $100 budget) was to buy vintage European linens but the two vendors that were there last Summer were nowhere to be found this time around. 

Both of us were rather bewildered by the predominance of mundane items (say - a burlap pillow or a jelly jar) that bore the Chanel logo. It was weird.  Does anyone think that the house of Chanel is really licensing their image to be slapped on a poorly constructed throw pillow made out of landscaping fabric from the Home Depot?  I don't think so.

There was a great selection of chandeliers and dressers.  And one perfectly formed skeleton that Kate was eyeing (it was a little bit out of her budget).

The one thing we did see that both of us loved was a birdhouse that wasn't for sale.  It was being used to keep the vendor's tablecloth from flying away in the wind.  I did take a picture of it.  Kate and I are pretty sure we know a couple of guys that could build us one.

 

I ended up buying a small table that I thought had a pleasing shape and is perfectly sized for a bedside table.  I have one of the those spindly decorator rounds covered with a tablecloth in the guest room that I've been wanting to replace for years.  Not bad for $40.

(sorry for the next two pictures - my camera batteries died and these were taken with my cellphone)

If anyone has been to the Alameda Antique Faire you know it is acres and acres of vendors - and it never fails that I'll find some large, bulky thing at the farthest point from the front entrance so I (and anyone hapless enough to be with me) have to lug it about two miles back to my car.

I also bought a doorbell cover plate.  I don't even know if I can retrofit it so it will work at our front door.  Right now we have a plastic, rectangle affair.  I'll need to see if I can find a round button type doorbell to fit.  

So even though my linen vendors were missing it still was a pretty productive day.  

 

Friday's Favorites

Flickr Favorites (please click link to see the source of these beautiful images)

• These have to be the sweetest spice tins I've ever seen
• Someone with small children needs to do this on Easter
• I've seen this method of shredding chicken on Pinterest and I have to say it totally works!  I did it myself this week. Shredded about six cups of chicken in under two mintues (I did two chicken breasts at a time).  Tip:  Cover your mixer with a towel before turning on otherwise you'll be cleaning shredded chicken off your kitchen ceiling.  Don't ask how I know this....
• Fabulous source for party and craft supplies.  Look at their selection of Luau stuff - not your usual cheesy neon faux leis and plastic tiki cups.
• What a pretty set of bangles

Well hello there.  I didn't mean to be gone for so long.  I guess I just needed some time to reflect on what I was doing with this blog and what direction I want to take it.  Lately it has felt like I was scrambling to slap something up here rather than genuinely having something I wanted to share.

It also felt like I was spending all my time online looking for inspiration and recycling ideas rather than coming up with my own (I realize the irony of this statement on my Friday's Favorites post where I am essentially just bringing you links and pictures I've found online but bear with me...).  

The overall tone of this blog will not change - One of the things I was struggling with was identifying what type of blog this is - is it a craft blog, a decorating blog, a me rambling about whatever nonesense catches my attention blog...and I decided that I really didn't want to pick one single direction - so it will continue to be a lifestyle type blog.  Only a little more organized.  This is more for my sake than anything else.  I find I do better when I have a set schedule or routine.  I feel more grounded and focused and less like I'm just spinning my wheels.

So no glaringly obvious changes will happen around here, just a little more consistency with my posting and hopefully I'll have new and inspiring things to share.  Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Have a fabulous weekend and I'll see you on Monday.

 

 

 

3.7.12

I'm going to take a wee blogging break.  Hope to be back in a week or so.

 

3.4.12

The week in review:

February 27 - F is for Flower 

February 29 - Z is for Zebra.  I skipped 2/28.  I was also experimenting with a black background.  This was the last of the photography class so no more alphabet related photos.

March 1 - New tree swing!

March 2 - Look!  They don't always have their butts in the air.  

March 3 - Old keys.  I was playing with textures and post processing.  The original photo was completely dark and boring.  

No photo for March 4th either.  Sundays are hard for me since I'm usually getting my avian chores done (cleaning the palais and refilling the bird feeders) and getting ready for the trip down to my dad's.  So please excuse two absences this week.

Because I was taking a class many of the photos I've taken over the past month have been more about the camera settings and new photography techniques than about the subject.  Like the camelia and the zebra.  These techniques will serve me well if/when I ever open up an online shop and need to take photos of products.  But for my blog I think I prefer the slice of life (tree swing, rumpled quilt) type of photos.  

Those are the types of pictures I like looking at on other peoples blogs anyway.

It was an eye opening class.  I am so glad I took it.  It made me slow down and learn my camera a little better.  I understand light much better and I learned a few post processing tricks that help rescue a less than perfect photo.  

And, as a bonus, my N is for Negligee picture won a prize!  The instructors gave out prizes in different categories and that photo won in the "best use of natural light" category!  

 

Friday's Favorites

Flickr Favorites (please click link to see the source of these beautiful images)

• Hey!  You can rent the house in Under the Tuscan Sun:  Bramasole - Villa Rental
• I love the sweet simplicity of Alessandro Gottardo's illustrations
• I found this frame on Pinterest and then went on a hunt for the perfect pale chalky beige/pink so I could DIY (the swatch online looks darker than it is in reality.  Trust me - it's a perfect match)
• Two of my favorite collectibles - milk glass and brooches combined.  I saw a few pretty examples used as hair pins for brides.  This is lovely  As is this one (covers that whole "something blue" business
• I'll leave you with a little pulling of your heartstrings.  Poor scared little pup just needed a hug  Edited to add:  Thank you Thelma!  Here is a follow up video

This week just flew by.  My photo a day class is over (but not my photo a day resolution) so normal blogging will resume (I never intended the class to pre-empt blogging but that's kind of what happened).  I have some things to share next week.  Like my version of the pale pink frame, a new addition to one of our oak trees and an updated milk glass collection post.  

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

2.26.12

The week in review:

February 20 - D is for Daisies

February 21 - Q is for Quilt

February 22 - M is for Milkglass

February 23 - S is for Set-up.  The gyrations I go through to try to get my feeble light to cooperate with me.  This is the best spot (morning light comes in through the windows on the right) but I don't always want the view through the window so I put up vellum to block it and then hang sheers over it so it doesn't look like a piece of paper taped to the window.  The spray bottle is to smooth out wrinkles in the cloth on the table.  The foam board is to bounce some of the light coming in from the left onto the subject matter.  The cat is just there to ensure things run smoothly.

February 24 - C is for Chicken Eggs (I found some delicious light in another part of the house - I think some of this photography stuff is starting to sink in...)

February 25 - V is for Vegetable.  It's gotten to the point that I'm wandering around the produce aisle picking up various vegetables and thinking "hmmm - this would photograph well..."  Not the most interesting picture but I was trying to take a photograph of things of various thicknesses and have them all be in focus.  Didn't quite get there but it's close.  

February 26 - X is for Railroad X-ing.  Captured out a moving train.  I do like the small town feel of this picture.  I don't even know what town I was rolling through when I took this. 

 

Friday's Favorites

Flickr Favorites (please click link to see the source of these beautiful images)

• Are you doing anything fun for the Oscars?  We like to do a tapas type party and yell at the television whenever Russell Crowe comes on (my mother disliked him for some reason so we boo him in her honor).  This looks like fun:  Oscar Bingo!
• Isn't this a pretty table runner?  Original photo from the Carter and Cook site
• If I ever had to live in a drafty old garret (What? It could happen) this is what I would want it to look like
• Another one of those graphic-y signs that I like.  This would be cute in a boy's room
• Lovely looking Etsy site: Curate & Love

We have another one of those weekends with nothing planned.  I'm not quite sure how we will spend it.  I think just relaxing around the house sounds like a pretty good idea.  

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!