Give peace a chance

I finally got some sewing done that had nothing to do with our new house, and it felt really good.

A new tote!

The fabric store had a yummy display of new corduroy, and I just couldn’t resist. Hello Autumn.

This will go in my Atomic Holiday Bazaar stockpile, because the big, bad craft fair will be here before I know it. I can’t wait, but I have a lot of work to do. A lot. I don’t want to think about it.

In the meantime, this tote is for sale in The Boutique here.

Guestroom after and…after

I’ve been working on decorating our guestroom, and while I would normally show a “before” photograph, the room was basically just a small white box. So picture an empty room with white walls, and you’ve pretty much got it.

Since the room was a blank canvas and all we had to go in there was the bed, that meant I got to start from scratch and do whatever I wanted in the there.

Our guestroom is small — about 9 feet by 10 feet — and the queen bed is about 5 feet by 7 feet, so we really only had room for the bed and side tables.

I love how this room turned out. It came together very organically, one piece at a time, each piece chosen based on the piece before. When I decided to paint the side tables that minty shade of green, I thought that red would be a good accent color. But when I tried it, the red was just too harsh for the room, so I decided to go with a soft peach instead.

We still need a few more things for the room, specifically lamps for the side tables. But I don’t want to rush it and buy something we don’t love, so the lamps will happen when they happen. 

I found the side tables at the Salvation Army and painted them “Cool Aloe.” I made the curtains and the throw pillows — the green and blue flowered fabric is Amy Butler. I’ve had the two small shelves for years. They were white, and we painted them with the leftover pale aqua paint from our dining room and guest bath. The white duvet cover is from Ikea.

Atomic Holiday Bazaar

I’m in! I’m in! I’m in!

Fat Orange Cat is officially a vendor in this year’s Atomic Holiday Bazaar!

I had so much fun doing this show last year, and I was THRILLED to find out that I’ve been accepted as a vendor again this year.

If you’re anywhere in the Tampa/Sarasota area, you must come to this show. Not even just to see me (although I wouldn’t mind if that’s why you came!). Atomic attracts the best and most creative vendors from around Florida, and I guarantee, you will be wowed. I’m honored to be a part of this show for the second year in a row.

So…um…I guess I better get sewing, eh?

That’s more like it

Now THAT’S what I’m talking about!

I took the green bowl back to Home Depot and picked out the matching paint color with my eyes, rather than relying on their color-matching machine that let us down the first time. It’s a perfect match, which seriously makes me giddy. It’s the little things. You know.

Alex and I painted both guestroom nightstands with the “Cool Aloe” paint, and we absolutely love how they turned out.

I also found an Amy Butler fabric that matches the tables that I’ll use to make throw pillows for the guestroom bed, which is an easy way to make the bright green look like it belongs without overdoing it.

It’s a beautiful color, but I think too much of it will overtake the room. So I’m mellowing it out with punches of red and aqua.

Once the room is finished, I’ll post pictures here, but it’s definitely the sort of room that is being pieced together, little by little, over time.  My favorite kind of room.

Going green

We’ve been in the new house for about a month now, and two weeks ago, finding nightstands for the guest room became a bit of an obsession for me. That’s nothing new. It’s how I work. I get something in my mind that I must have — a pair of gold sandals, a pink peacoat, red plastic retro chairs for the dining room, a white vintage kitchen table — and finding the perfect one becomes a mild obsession for me until I’ve found it.  

So for the past two weeks, I’ve looked through every local thrift store, vintage store, Salvation Army, Goodwill and Craigslist listing for the perfect side tables for the guest room. There were specific criteria, of course — less than $50 for the pair, no wider than 24 inches, couldn’t be too girly, etc.

I finally found this pair of rather interesting tables at the Salvation Army that I fell in love with, even though they’re pretty beat up and definitely need a coat of paint and some TLC. I knew this would be one of those purchases that I would have to explain to Alex with, “Trust me. I have a vision.” 

 

Luckily, he does trust me, because I’m pretty sure I saw him cringe when I dragged these puppies out of the back seat of my car.

So the next step was to choose a color of paint. I decided to go with a jade green to perfectly match a bowl that I purchased at a vintage store several years ago.

Unfortunately, the bowl’s shiny glare messed with Home Depot’s paint matching machine thingy, and I ended up with this dull, muddy, boring version of the beautiful minty shade of green I had in my mind.

 

I’m going back to Home Depot, and I’m going to try to find — with my own two eyes and not with the assistance of a machine — the shade of the bowl from within the paint color samples. If I can’t find the right shade, I’ll play it safe and paint them red.