Pushing Daisies

Pushing Daisies is my second favorite television show ever. I have probably watched the entire two seasons through at least a half dozen times in the past year or two. So of course when I was thinking of what we could add to our second geek / pop culture silhouette wall...

...I had to do one inspired by Pushing Daisies.


Click to see larger, but that's a pie between them with a daisy coming out of the top.

Sunset Tea

Monday night, I took tea in a field of grasses at sunset. What a life!

This image will likely have to be framed somewhere in the house.

Monday Minis

A few mini updates for a Monday.

We stopped by Hobby Lobby and the local antique mall this morning (we're on a two day mini vacation from work) and got some dried flowers for the bottle on top of the new cabinet, and a piece of antique postcard ephemera I couldn't resist.


The postcard, seen in the montage above, was more than I could resist, because the figure on the left has been written in as "Grace" as you see here. I suspect the postcard was probably purchased at a later date and written on...perhaps the original postcard is from the early 1900s, and the notes were written on there in the 40s or 50s? In any case, they are hilarious...they are captioned things like "Just look how happy Grace is" "I am glad they are together...I guess Mame and I will have to go & get some one else to go with us Ha Ha." "They are going out boating."
The second wall of silhouettes has begun at CCC. I can't seem to go a single evening any more without itching to make another silhouette, so this time I painted Corvin's kingly profile on a little wooden plaque I had on hand, and hung it up on the second silhouette wall to get things started. Tonight I hope to work on another silhouette for this wall as well.


Also at the antique mall, I found another antique tin. It was a little more expensive than the other ones we've purchased, but it was perfect and I couldn't resist it.

Purple Aster

As summer starts to sneak into fall, that means one thing at our house: New Plants!!!

Okay, that's what *everything* means to me right now. ;)

I picked up four small blue-purple Aster plants at Meijer yesterday, and I love what a pop they give to the landscape in the front. It's sadly hard to tell how much pop they add from these pictures, but I love love love them. Might even have to go back for more.

It's hard to see from my pictures of the front sometimes what's going on in the flower beds. Left to right, we have Rhododendron, Aster, Hosta, Salvia/Columbine/Balloon Flower, Hellebore, Salvia/um...some stuff I've forgotten...Hosta, Aster, and Rhododendron. :)

And just for fun, here's another silhouette I did last night...a Selkie. On Etsy.

Should You Need Us

The newest pop culture silhouette is from one of my favorite movies, Labyrinth, and is available on Etsy.

:)

Cabinet for the Dreaming Room

When Tom and I stopped by the local craft and antique mall on Sunday, there was another item that also caught my eye. However, since all sales are final at that shop, I had to take measurements and go home to make sure it would work in the space.

So yesterday, after verifying the measurements would work, I stopped by and picked it up. What is it?


A beautiful wood record cabinet! I've been wanting a piece of furniture for this space in the Dreaming Room. I was looking for a chest of drawers for extra storage space for my art supplies, but I couldn't resist something with a bit more character when it came my way.

Especially for $43.

A little vignette I just threw together and put on the top of the cabinet. I'd like to get a glass cloche to display something fae and mossy on top of here, and of course I want to put more on the wall as well.


In a bit of a tongue-in-cheek move, I've put my Bose iPod stereo/dock inside the old cabinet. Notice the carved arches on the inside of the doors. The shelves have plenty of space to hold my art supplies.

Just look at all the beautiful detail on this piece! Some family was proud to display this cabinet, I'm sure. In fact, since our house is circa 1938, perhaps there was once a cabinet quite like this displayed here somewhere at some point.

New British Tin

I love this little local antique market here in our city. When things are quiet on the weekends, I enjoy running over there to see what we can find. Every time I think we're about to leave empty handed, one of us finds something. This time it was this antique toffee tin with an old portrait of Queen Elizabeth on the top. It's perfect for our Anglophile kitchen, and was just $2!

More Silhouettes

I've started making pop culture silhouettes for sale. The top one is titled "Hello Sweetie" and was purchased by a friend. The bottom one is titled "Mr. Bubbles" and has a buyer potentially already lined up before I even put it on Etsy! This is the best sort of hobby...one that is both fun and lucrative.

More soon!

Free Advertising

I decided to try making a couple more of the framed book page butterflies I made for the Dreaming Room. They are up for sale on Etsy, soon to be followed by a selection of the first few geek silhouettes I'm making for sale. I'll post again when those are up. :)

Link to purple page

Link to blue page

The British Invasion

So this weekend I was looking around our kitchen, which was supposed to have an Art Nouveau theme, and discovered something amusing. The British have invaded. Without conscious effort, our kitchen has become Art Nouveau AND British themed. Consider the evidence thus far:

A crowned cat above Corvin's dishes:


A print of a poster for a Pre-Raphaelite exhibit in England:


A splendidly awesome tea towel from a friend in England:

A crowned cat food bowl, castle turret salt and pepper shakers, a tea pot:

Prince Albert in a can:


And the newest and most solid piece of evidence, we have finally joined the ranks of those who have a Keep Calm poster in their homes. My Facebook friend, Dylan Drummond of Son of the Sea Photography put this up as his profile picture, and I was smitten with it. I've seen a million Keep Calm parodies, but none of them ever made me want to display them until this one:

(In case you don't know, Tom and I are tea addicts who have to have our cuppa every night at around 8:00-9:00 in order to "keep calm" ;)

So there's nothing to do but embrace the invasion. I'm already brainstorming a Union Jack bunting for above the cabinets. It's a good thing we're enthusiastic Anglophiles.

Moroccan Bathroom Painting

So, I knew I wanted to do more to our tiny little full bathroom nestled into the eaves upstairs. I painted it purple when we moved in, acknowledging that when you have a bathroom that small, there's no point to using a light color to make the space seem larger...there's no denying it's tiny. Instead, I wanted to make it seem like the inside of a jewel box from Arabian Nights...something full of color and jewel and magic.

The ceiling slopes, and there are almost no full walls in the small room, so figuring out what sort of pattern I could stencil on the walls was something I pondered for a long time. And finally about two weeks ago, I doodled out a pattern I loved. Saturday, I climbed up on a ladder, and precariously painted the design.


This bathroom drives me up the wall when I try to take pictures of it. I just can't!! It would take someone more talented than me to figure out the right angles to get everything in the shot. It's hard to tell, but this pattern wraps around two walls. This picture shows the wraparound better, but the flash makes the colors look bad:

Anyhow...

The Toran window topper also arrived from ebay, shortly after I posted the 6 month anniversary post last week. It looks great!!!

I also went to Hobby Lobby and got more exotic-looking knobs to replace the ones on the medicine cabinet, etagere, and folding door:



Still to do: I'd love to either paint bold designs on the frame for the medicine cabinet mirror, or even tile it. I also need to put a Moroccan hanging lantern I own in here hanging from a hook. And I still plan to buy the Aladdin shadow puppets and put them on display.

Thankful on a Thursday

Last night I went out to the yard and weeded the flower beds for an hour, never breaking a sweat. The weather yesterday, and so far today, has been stunningly gorgeous...the high yesterday was 77, and the lows last night were in the 50s. We slept with our windows open in the bedroom for the first time since we moved in.

Today I am thankful for...

Breezes through the open window.


Lavender, cut and drying in the kitchen.


A huge beautiful tomato given by a neighbor.


Evidence of faerie mischief in the garden.

It's the Little Things

We bought our wreath for the front door way back in April when we had our housewarming. At the time, it was the perfect wreath for the door. ...At the time, the door was bright red. The total lack of blue or purple flowers on the wreath had been bugging me for some time, but I especially noticed as I posted pictures yesterday of the new plants we have bought (especially the planter by the door) that the clashing wreath just seemed jarring to me. So this morning, I bought a clump of lavender silk flowers at the store and traded out most of the reds for purples on the wreath. I'm really happy with the result, and I think it looks much better on the door.

Welcome to the Family!

Welcome to Catty-Corner a few new members of the garden family. First, we have an exciting yet bittersweet purchase...a gorgeous hanging basket purchased at 50% off. It's hard to tell scale in pictures, but this annual basket is just absolutely enormous, lush, and was only $8. No idea what sort of flower it is...the tag didn't say. But the bittersweet comes in that it was purchased to replace the Lobelia that was on the wicker stand. The lobelia was a big part of our inspiration for the front door color, but its time had just come. It has been retired to the back porch now, to live out the remainder of its days in relaxation and luxury.



A shot of one of the hospital row plants I bought at Lowes last weekend, doing much better, thank you. Behind it, you can see the Siberian Delphinium apparently has seed pods on it. Maybe I'll get another year out of that plant after all...


Another of the hospital row plants was purchased as just a little green thing, and it has developed blooms.


Yesterday, while buying the mystery hanging basket, I also picked up this Balloon Flower:


And this Anise Hyssop that tucks in nicely between the Hydrangea and the Rhododendron, and can be moved once they start to grow too large.


I know my posts have been very flower/garden-centric lately. Work continues on the inside of the house, and in fact I'm hoping to start a project this weekend that I look forward to sharing with you all when it is further along.