Modern nursery dresser named – “Josephine”

By on February 10, 2014 in Furniture Makeover

These past few weeks have been grueling, but exciting.  I have been working on this nursery dresser for quite a while.  We have had some extremely low temperatures in our area and my drying times have been extended..even with extra heaters in my work space.  It was worth it and I hope you all think so too!

A very dear friend of mine (I will call her “C”) entrusted me to makeover her childhood dresser for her first nursery.  “C’s” personal style is very specific. It’s modern and vintage, but think “Eames” vintage.  After talking with her and looking through some design boards she put together, I drew four-five designs for her to choose from.  Drawing up different designs for her was really exciting for me.  I had boundaries, but the boundaries were unique enough to leave room for me to really experiment.  I hope to use some of the designs she didn’t go with in the future.  Here is the before picture…

Josephine before picture

This little darling had been painted quite a few times and needed to be fully stripped of all the old finishes. It took three different applications of stripper to get through everything.  See those curves on the bottom portion, I cut those off, because “C” prefers straight lines. You will be able to see that in the after photo’s.  “Josephine” is the perfect combination of classy, modern and vintage.  I think this furniture makeover will surpass the nursery stage of  baby “C” and carry him/her through the teen years at least.

Josephine modern striped dresser

Vertically striped dresser

Dresser with vertical stripes and a peak a boo green on the side of the drawers

The drawers aren’t lined with paper, but I did paint and seal the drawer sides with this fun pop of green.

Art deco arrow pulls

The hardware is awesome and “C” picked them out, before I did the designs.  They are solid brass  pulls in the “Art Deco” style.  They really complete the design.  If “C” had picked round pulls or rectangular pulls,  I don’t believe this design would have happened.  A little advice, if you feel inspired to do vertical stripes after this post:  Take your time, and measure, measure, measure.  If you have the choice, go with a piece that has inset drawers.  Trust me!  The vintage books, red hippo (I absolutely adore it, love it, covet it) , and bow were provided by “C.”  The modern “You are my sunshine” print is from The Motivated Type.  Hanging light is from Ikea, and the wood vase’s are from West Elm.  I’m also redoing a child size table and chairs for “C” and I hope to have the before and after pictures up this friday.

Meg

 

 

 

Madeline Tosh yarns: my first expensive yarn purchase

By on January 20, 2014 in Knitting

Yes, I knit. And no, I am not old. I like to knit because it’s something I can do while watching a movie or spending time with my family and friends. It keeps me from planning projects in my head and thinking about work . Anyone else ever do that? If so, you know what I mean. It’s strange, but I actively listen more when my hands and part of my brain is engaged with knitting. Since, I haven’t been knitting very long (almost two years), yarn from Walmart or Hobby Lobby always worked just fine.  Especially since, I frequently had to undo my project, because I would mess up and not know how to fix my mistakes without undoing everything. Things changed after knitting this cowl a few times.

Madeline Tosh CowlVia my pinterest board

It’s a Free Honeycomb Cowl Pattern from Madeline Tosh. I initially made the cowl using yarn from my stash. The cowls looked great, but mine were missing something. I couldn’t quite figure out “what” they were missing.  So, I asked my husband to stop by a yarn shop in Kentucky and pick up some of Madeline Tosh’s yarn. The yarn was about $20 a skein and the yardage varies per type…for me that is expensive. At first, it didn’t feel right buying yarn at that price, but once the yarn was in my hands, I knew it was special. Not only is the yarn beautiful, but’s its super soft and luxurious! Her yarns are hand dyed in small batches and have layers of delicious colors. After making the cowl using her yarn, I figured out what my previous versions were missing…”the drape.” Her yarn drapes absolutely beautifully!!!  Since, I still consider myself a newbie to knitting, the difference yarn makes to the finished product astounded me.  It shouldn’t have, since I know how the right materials when painting can make all the difference.

Here are the colors I purchased.

My Madeline Tosh yarn stashColors left to right: Venetian, Cousteau, and Tart

This is the perfect yarn to knit up a super special gift for someone in your life.  The hand dyed yarn makes any project a work of art.  I’m hoping to make myself something special with the venetian.  This yarn….

Madeline Tosh Yarn Venetian

Do any of you knit?  Please feel free to share your favorite yarns in the comments below!

xoxo,

Meg

New year and new goals

By on January 13, 2014 in From the Heart

2014 is already in it’s second week. WOW!  Time flies!  I had full intentions to post more in 2013, but due to a few things that happened, I was unable to post as much.  I apologize! I really didn’t mean to go MIA for so long. Now that I got that off my chest, I won’t spend any more time beating myself up over my lack of posting.

It’s a new year and it’s going to be a great year!!! I can feel it!  Last week I spent a lot of time setting goals, brainstorming and drawing furniture designs for potential clients.  It felt wonderful to get back into the swing of things.  Now, I’m not really a new year’s resolution kind of gal. I work better with goals. Goals motivate me to be my best. I  would like to share some of those goals with you.

One of my goals is to post more content. I love designing furniture, but my ability to photograph my finished work is regulated by my partner, my husband. I work from home and that allows me to manage the household while my husband travels for his work. He is my only partner and since my workshop (my basement) is not where I  shoot my final photo’s, I always need his help to move my furniture. Which means I may have to wait four days before I can even begin a project or take pictures of a final project.  So, I thought that I might share with you more about my life and things I love.  Knitting is one of those things.  Now, I’m not a professional, but I really enjoy it.  Knitting helps sooth my soul and gives me time to think things through.  So, I hope some of you like to knit, because I plan to share more about it.

I also have a weight loss goal for this year.  Back in March 2012, I quit smoking.  Now don’t fret.  I quit and I don’t have any desire to pick it up again.  I did however pack on 59 pounds since then, and it’s time for that weight to go away.  I never thought I would share something like this with you, but I really want to keep myself accountable.  I’m not sure how I will go about it…maybe share workout pictures on my instagram and a few posts about my progress.  My weight gain has started effecting how I see myself (too many negative thoughts), and I don’t want that to be the case.  I want to be healthy and have more energy.

Another goal is growing a small garden.  For the past four years, I have wanted to tackle a garden.  I fondly remember snapping green beans with my grandmother and the freshness of her garden veggies.  I want that for my son. So, it’s time to make it happen.

These are just a few of my 2014 goals, so I may add in some content I haven’t mentioned.   On a side note, if you have emailed me in the past fourteen days via my contact page or directly, those emails are currently unavailable to me.  I didn’t remember to back up the old computer before I turned it off and now it won’t power up.  I meant to respond before I set up our new computer, but I was too excited.  So please email me again!!!  It will be a few more days until my old files are recovered.

Today I leave you with my first photo edited in photoshop.  I have wanted to learn photoshop for four years and I finally have access to it.  Hopefully, you will see improvement in my photography skills and blog design this year.

Flower Recipe book and my new terrarium

arrow embroidery

I picked up the terrarium this past weekend while shopping with a friend.  The Flower Recipe book by Alethea Harampolis and Jill Rizzo was a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law (she is awesome).  The size 50 knitting needles, and the arrow and ampersand embroidery are gifts from my lovely friend Jordan.