Sunday, January 29, 2012

Bedroom Corner Nouveau

Wednesday, I bought myself a little mid-winter pick me up, thanks to my favorite flower shop in town.


Our little set-up in the corner of our bedroom keeps getting better and better! The $5 garage sale chair was joined by a $5 garage sale lamp. Then last weekend, we went to Columbus to buy something for the dining room project on Craigslist, and the lady threw in this antique table for free. But what's that on the table?


Wednesday I also picked up a repro antique hand-and-ball paperweight on sale at TJ Maxx for $1.50. And then Saturday, I spied the Art Nouveau solid brass framed mirror at our favorite local antique shop for $5!




Under $20 for everything in the corner so far!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Sunday Antiquing

Sunday, two friends and I went antiquing in Columbus. We had a whole itinerary planned for the day, but all of us didn't want to leave our first stop: The Greater Columbus Antique Mall. It was absolutely amaaaaazing, and I could go back a million more times and still not have explored the whole place. I left with a few things...

A nifty cake tin with an almost Mucha-esque look for $5. I also couldn't resist the larger plastic Prince Albert tub for $1.50


I'm a sucker for a beautiful book. I guess that's no surprise, since I work at a library. The front cover of this one was too much to resist for $8.



And this one was a lovely steal for $2.


But my favorite purchase of the day was this Queen's Silver Jubilee cup from 1977 for $3. It still had its tags on it and everything!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Aladdin

One of my husband's Christmas presents to me was an amazing new 3-dimensional diorama silhouette book of Aladdin by Niroot Puttapipat, an artist of masterpiece quality (I know I’m prone to exaggeration, but truly….his work is exquisite) I’ve had the acquaintance of for a few years online now. He lives in England, and this new book of his was only available from a UK publisher, so Tom ordered it through Amazon.co.uk and I was thrilled!

I downsized the clutter on our étagère, and put the book on the top, spread open to a favorite page with two lovely tumblers I found at TJ Maxx with very Moroccan-looking gold scrollwork on them holding it in place. Tom pointed out that the book could get damaged in the bathroom steam, and I of course agreed wholeheartedly that I would check it regularly for any signs of the slightest bit of damage. But a book that gorgeous should NOT stay closed on a shelf. It just shouldn’t. And can’t. If it ends up I can't display it here, I'll display it elsewhere instead.



Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Procrastination Station


Well the holidays are officially over. Time to put away the holly and mistletoe for another year. It's also time to look at the year ahead and reflect and self-motivate. My New Year's resolution this year was quite simple...even though the year ahead may possibly be a rather full and intimidating one, with the possibility of going back to school in the fall for my MLIS (Master of Library and Information Science), I only made one resolution: to complete the dining room murals I've wanted to do since we moved in in February.

And yet...and yet. I told myself it was a perfect winter project, and I would start on it when the holidays were over. And now that they're over, I find myself procrastinating...finding one thing or the other to focus on other than my sketches and plans for this project. I find that it has grown to epic proportions of intimidation in my mind. It will be the biggest mural I've ever painted on a wall, and I've painted a few of them.

So I wonder, dear internet....how do you work past intimidation and procrastination to start a project? I sure could use the motivation.

Who knew a small room could loom so large?