Shiny and New!

July 22, 2015 venicepup

And seriously, almost finished.

But the hard part is over… well, for the painters that is! Now I need to get my butt in gear and finish up. But at least I can show you where I’m at right now with the exterior!!

Before –

And NOW!!!

Did you notice that tiny peak of color on the ceiling? I wanted something that was a fun surprise for our ~~mailman~~ guests! We’re a young family, I HAD to interject some color! It’s not a favorite of Ed’s but oh well, I love it!! (I had the color custom mixed at Dunn Edwards.)

Isn’t this the cutest doorbell that you’ve ever seen?! I had to wait a few months for it to come back into stock, but so worth it! Check out the options I looked at here and get all the details.

Before – It was just bad.

Now those garage doors look brand new!

If you are in the LA area and looking for a painter send me a message and I will get you the details – They were fabulous to work with!!

I’m just so thrilled with how everything turned out. It was an ordeal for about 3 weeks, but in the end, it was one of the least stressful updates we’ve done!

**Exterior color used was Benjamin Moore’s Briarwood translated into a custom color at Dunn Edwards into their Evershield flat paint. The paint looks amazing! It coated the stucco fabulously!

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Bette Davis Eyes Pillow

July 14, 2015 venicepup

I’m totally smitten with the quirky Jonathan Adler needlepoint pillows! Aren’t we all?!

They just spell fun! Well, actually some spell Acapulco and Anger and Sparkle.

But the one I really fell hard for is the Eyes Pillow or let’s call her, Bette Davis Eyes. And I totally thought that Savannah would get a kick out of having such a unique pillow in her room. She’s fresh like that.

But $100 buckeroo price tag? Hmm… I figured that I could whip something up for less and not get all cray on her for actually using the pillow. Not that I ever get cray or even know what cray means. Wink.

So first things first… I printed out the actual copy of Jonathan’s eye pillow design. (Is it ok if I call you Jonathan? Especially if I’m literally ripping off your fabulous design???) And I cut out the eye portions, keeping them whole so that I could “transfer” the design to my pillow.

Using a pencil, I simply marked the areas that would be stitched in black.

Make sure it’s straight! Well, unless you like that sorta thing.

Grab your embroidery floss, an embroidery needle and check out this brick stitch.

Brick Stitch

That’s all I did. For like a million hours… ok, not a million, but maybe 3 in all.

You can see where my marks were and how my brick stitch was… not perfect in the least, but it was fine! It made it look like the design was drawn in pencil.

Once I finished up, I pulled the pillow inside out and put some fabric glue on the stitches so they would hold up in the wash. Although I’d probably still wash it in a mesh bag.

And then for fun, I put in a few tassels on the ends. You can find the ones I used here… they’re leather and truly adorable. They say I love you in teenager.

So cute! So easy! (Especially if you are like me and found the pillow already made on clearance. Damn, I’m good.)

And yes those are a peek at Savannah’s polka dot sheets which I found at Kohl’s and can’t find on-line for the life of me! They were $40 and super perfect. They say, I like to party but only after I do my homework… also in teenager.

How do I know? Well, even though my body has aged my brain hasn’t. It comes in handy.

The pillow is so cute that I’m seriously thinking about making one for myself. A few ideas that have crossed my mind… “Vogue,” for my favorite song, or “Just Don’t,” cause that would be hilarious with my boys, or maybe just a bottle of tequila…

Got any ideas?

Happy Creating! Tootles, Jessica

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Wicker? Rattan? It’s all Reed to me!

July 8, 2015 venicepup

We’ve all seen wicker furniture, right?

And I’ve always been a bit of a fan of the woven stuff.

But just two weekends ago, I rolled on over to the Pierce College Flea Market and found the cutest little wicker chair. For 15 dollars, y’all!! And besides the fact that I have 99 projects, I can’t help myself to one more like this! My dear, where shall we put you?!?!

And it was funny as I was trying to tell my GF what I bought because I said, “You know wicker, or rattan or woven something or other!” My brain just got all twisted up about the stuff. So I kinda figured that maybe that may have happened to you too!

Wicker is like the mother category – it’s a piece, usually furniture or baskets, woven from branches, roots, stalks, and now, plastics made to look like the plant stuff. Pretty wide spread category, huh?!

(Wanna check out this nursery? Here and SO fabulous!)

Anyway, so wicker has been around forever. Seriously. Since pharaoh times.

Here are some quick examples of different kinds of wicker; Reed, Bamboo, Rattan…

Rattan refers to a special category of palms that have thin stems. The plant looks more like a vine than like an actual tree and it’s not hollow, like bamboo. Is any of this important? Probably not, but it’s cool to be smart.

Rattans are used to make furniture and that furniture is called wicker. Phew!