little messes

my prints made their way out to my swapping co-horts last weekend and i’ve been so excited to see what’s been popping into my mailbox in return. i was mostly happy with my first gocco attempt. i can’t wait to start experimenting more.

on friday jeff and i got out of town for the day and made an impromptu trip to meet dear friends from another coast who we wish we lived just down the street from. everytime i see these two i spend nearly every minute laughing. and even thought the antiques were crazily overpriced it was nice to take a day’s road trip. we avoided late friday afternoon commuter traffic by taking the long way home. which if you’ve ever tried to drive through dc on any weekday afternoon, is probably not as long as sitting in traffic on the beltway.

and now today we’ll add another trip to our list. we’re off to tucson for a short week in the desert with friends and family. when next you see me i’ll most likely have enchilada sauce dried to my chin and a round happy belly to boot.

or is it wired… well i forget but i’m here in austin, tx working on both. it’s my first time in austin, (although i’ve been to a few other texas cities) and i’m enjoying it immensely. i’ve already eaten enchiladas three times and i see no plausible end in sight. i’m an enchilada junkie afterall.

i’m here for a conference for work… flash forward. aka web animation geekfest. i love it. i am celebrating my inner geek this week in style. we arrived early afternoon sunday too, so i had some time to shop and explore (although not enough by far) and on wednesday i’ll be meeting my favorite catalog enthusiast see here if you don’t know what i’m talking about… love her. it’s the first time i’ll be meeting a blogging friend in the flesh and i’m so very excited.

so until then i’ll leave you with some pictures of my trip thus far…

our trip last weekend was so great. equal parts hilarious and inspiring. it’s quite an incredible thing to drive through these tiny little towns in both ohio and west virginia… nevermind driving through in a 1920s model t. we made stops along each of the routes, first stop, a private collectors vintage hearse collection. um, huh?? actually it was pretty impressive, albeit bizarre. then we hit a doll factory where jeff and i almost lost our gourds. more about that later… first i want to show off some of the thrifty finds we picked up on our travels (you have to leave room for antiqueing no?)

::feedsacks::

::20 dresden quilt circles all made from vintage fabric/feedsacks::

::some hand-printed linens and some homeade pie::

some fabric i picked up in a quilt shop in marietta, ohio. the top fabric was sent to me by the lovely and ridiculously talented stephanie! thanks so much steph! i can’t wait to make something with it.

ok, seriously craigslist is my new best friend. i’ve had an insane run of luck lately with various furniture finds that i’ve been dreaming of for years.

need a coffee table? oh here’s one. it’s exactly what you want (oh except maybe for the river rock/resin decorative center slab — seen here and here for the curious birds out there — yuck!) and it’s only $20.

yehaw!! i’d been waiting to find the perfect way to use the incredible hand-printed fabric adrienne had given me and voila, coffee table complete.

but what about an entertainment center?? well what about this old metal media cabinet… $30 please and thank you.

it’ll need a new coat of paint but holy cow i’m almost giggling myself into a bellyache i’m so excited.

it’s funny, we’ve been living in this house now for just over a year and we’re always on the lookout for great furniture finds. while it might be easier to go into a traditional shop and furnish the house from top to bottom, we have neither the funds, not the interest to do it. there is something about the search… the sometimes long and exhaustive search that makes each new piece we bring in through the front door so special. it has a story instead of a receipt.

like this chair that we found in upstate new york on a venture out of the city.

we got it for only a few duckets at a yard sale. a few weeks later my parents came for a visit and my mom nearly fell over when she saw it. it turns out that it was part of a set of living room furniture she and my father had purchased when they first got married. this was when they were living about 5 miles away from where we found it upstate. so crazy. they had sold it when they moved from ny. i love to think that it’s the same one they started their life together with. and although it wasn’t passed down in the traditional way, the chair somehow made it back to the family.

we even found the metal bookcase behind said chair at a yard sale just down the street from our current house before we’d ever moved from nyc. we crammed it into our little car. so little in fact, that henry had to sleep inside one of the shelves (on his pillow of course) in order to fit it all home.

you just can’t beat a good find.

just a little update to yesterdays post. not only did i find that crazy beautiful sofa… i came home and immediately listed our uncomfortable ikea sofa with the torn slipcover on craigslist and within three hours it was taken to a new home. the best part is i sold it for more then we paid for the new sofa so technically we got our new beauty for free!! with a bit left over for a new coffee table ooooohhhhhhweeeeeee! best swap ever!

not only was yesterday a day of bargain madness, i also dropped off a few more skirts and bags at doubledutch to see.

this was based on a great idea that adrienne had to make a reversible wraparound skirt with two completely different sides. i guess i should have taken a few closeups but you get the idea:

and today, well today is chock full busy. first i have my water ballet cast party (for which i have to whip up some kind of summer casserole… um, huh? i have to get baking friends) and then i’ll ride home and shower up for my friend’s wedding this evening at a great little restaurant downtown. loads of fun all packed into a single day. oh this weekend is just getting started!

oh geez! i’m so excited right now i’m almost shaking. i’ve been patiently waiting for well over a year now to find the perfect sofa. it’s been a long road mostly because, well, i’m super picky, i don’t want to spend any money that i don’t have (credit cards are out!), i wanted something old/mid-century please and most of all something that is far more comfortable than our current sofa. which actually wouldn’t be so hard to beat.

i have been obsessed with this search. i scour craigslist every night after work hoping i’ll find a sofa. and then today i walked into my favorite second hand furniture store, i hit this place almost every day… you never know… and there it was. apparently they’d only put it out five minutes before i walked in. can you say karma?!! seriously i am giddy.

it seems to have garnered henry’s seal of approval!

sure they’re handy when you looking to keep your soup warm but have you really looked at your thermos lately??

i’ve recently become obsessed with thrifting old thermos’. i’ve picked up three so far. value village had the tall blue one there in the back, love that one. and a few others at yard sales.

at first i didn’t quite know what i’d do with them. the first two were missing their tops, but the graphics were so great. i couldn’t pass them up. and especially not for a quarter. the other night i picked some flowers from the garden and couldn’t find the right sized vase for them…. and then i saw thermos. he was just the right size.

other thrifty finds of late have been this skinny aqua skateboard. it’s an old plastic one. it’s well worn and such a lovely color.

and another fun new item from value village (oh they have been good to me of late) is this new yellow bike.

i have another schwinn just like it, only it’s way heavier and more of a cruising kind of bike. it’s also covered in rust and hasn’t seen any street time in a while. so then i find this. ok, i already have a bike, but dude! check out the coordinating yellow tape on the handle bars!! i love this bike. hopefully chris will be as excited as i am to fix her up. i mean look at these shifters!

we were up early saturday for some yard sale-ing when we came across the motherload… a community yard sale that included about 40 families!! holy moly. it was insane. for the next four hours jeff and i walked the streets looking for deals.

we got so many great buys, a tripod for $1, an old fisher price schoolyard for $1 (this will go to a friend), multiple terra cotta pots for free (nice!), 78s, picture mattes, records,

a nice plate, .25¢

some pyrex, .50¢ (we really do not need any more pyrex, but we also have no willpower)

and the best buy of all (for those of us suffering from obsessive-compulsive gardening, a big ol’ planter for the front of the house, $5.00:

i of course ran out to get some plants to fill this baby, we’ll be seeing delphineums, nepetas, creeping something or others (with blue flowers) and oodles of echinacea cone-flowers. here’s a look from the street.

i thought that this would curb my obsession, but really it just looks lonely out there, no? hmm.

and in the back, we’ve got a few bloomers on our hands, some lovely allium

the peaches are just begining to show their white fuzziness and the limes are coming back

and look who’s getting closer to showing her pretty little face:

this weekend was a lucky one. not only because our lovely friends luke and hanna were here for a visit, but we hit some great yard sales and came home with so much good stuff for only a few duckets. check out this booty!!

a huge (seriously) art cabinet/workspace with a separate file storage cabinet. this was for jeff’s office/studio and is so large it actually won’t fit through the door of the room… so it’s new home will be in the basement with the other art supplies until we can figure out how or if it’s a good idea to tear apart a doorframe.

can you draw this moose? next up, this again HUGE chalkboard. it’s four or so feet tall and five or so feet wide. also it’s all slate so this sucker is HEAVY. i think it will find it’s home in the dining room. so fun!

then we got this wonderful wooden folding chair bench. it’s from an old movie house i think and it’s sitting pretty in the garden.

oh and that iron sign on the bench was another find. it says “loyal”. this is my favorite…

next up another great chair which seems to like being under some of the art in our family room. Five dollars people!! insanity.

i thought i’d round out the photos with a shot of the big white tulips that have opened up this weekend too. so incredibly beautiful and they smell sumptuous. oh i love the spring.

well i’m back anyway, i’ve resuscitated my sinus’ and emerged from beneath my bedsheets. yikes, that was a doozy of a cold.

eh-em. ok. when i left you i mentioned my friend linda’s ridiculously amazing yarn shop in brooklyn and so that’s where i’ll start. yarn. how i love thee, especially this beautiful plum alpaca i got from linda. it’s frog tree sport weight and is addictive.

i can’t wait to knit my sweater. in fact, i got started on saturday night. adrienne came by bearing ice cream and warm baked apples and after we finished my garden layout for all the new plants that will be arriving some day soon, we started working out our new knitting projects for the train. i’m so excited. here’ s the start of the back bottom border.

in other news, henry sliced up his little paw pad on some glass in the park. he doesn’t seem to mind in any way but it’s quite a gash and we’ve been experimenting with all sorts of ways to keep in covered and non-edible as mr. henry has a way with his teeth. he’s sneaky. every time we left the room the first few days, he come bobbing after us with the bandage off. so sunday night i sewed up a nice little tube for coverage. it’s made out of one of my dad’s socks. the one’s i always sneak away with when i visit. they’re brown and ribbed and every time i wear them i think of my daddio. so now henry has his own mr. business man sock to show off at the park. nice eh?

and last but not least, i scored this great dresser at a local thrift/consignment shop on sunday. super cheap and a bit larger than i thought. but i love it.

i’m off to dinner… it’s good to be back. and thanks for all the well wishes my lovely lovely friends.