A Little of This That and the Other

Sunday, August 9, 2009

WROUGHT IRON CHAIRS

I frequently have to remind myself that I get the jobs I do because I am able to do them, even when they are a big, fat pain. This job is one of those that I put off and put off because, though not hard, it is a difficult one just the same. The white wrought iron chair above is the 'before' picture. It does look harmless enough.

This is the 'after' seat cover slip.

The back view.

And the close-up of the ties. The bad thing is that the cushion underneath shows through in a couple of places. Oh well. It is a slipcover, not a new cushion. Anyway, the reason this job was such a pain was that my client started it herself. She went to the fabric store, got a pattern and fabric, cut everything out and attempted to make them. Problem was she didn't actually measure the seat size. The thing about patterns for home sewing is there is no such thing as a standard size for most everything. You can't just pick out a pattern that looks like your chair and have any hope that it will actually fit. And that's what happened here. So again, this was one of those jobs where I was fixing what someone else had done incorrectly. In the end, they weren't nearly as bad to fix as I had made them out to be in my mind. Still, starting from scratch is ALWAYS the preferred way to work.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

IN THE PROCESS

I thought I'd show you a little of the process of making my girls. I've really got to think of a better name for them. Any suggestions? Anyway, ever since I posed the question "Wouldn't an all white one be pretty?," I have not been able to stop thinking about it. So I ordered more tulle. In the white, though, I ordered organza. I thought it would be really pretty. Well, it may be pretty but I've torn up my fingers tying the pieces to the chicken wire. Turns out the tulle works far better and I don't get blisters for my effort.

This is what it looks like during the tying on phase. What I'm finding with the organza as well is that whereas the tulle naturally fluffs itself out, the organza does not. When I am finished with the skirt, I am going to have to go back and fluff each piece.

Kind of hard to see, but this is a shot of the inside. All those little 'bumps' you see are the knots from tying the pieces. I actually like the way the inside looks when it is all done. Not that you will ever see the inside, but it looks cool. It also shows all the work that went into making the girl.

As with everything, this is a learning process. I am trying to get it down so that I can offer a class at Paper Tales.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

VIGNETTES AROUND THE HOUSE

All these pictures are various 'vignettes' in my house. You can see the different things that I collect and that speak to me in some way or another. A lot of you asked what my house looks like now, after seeing my ex-house. Well, it isn't anything like that house in Chicago. For one thing it is about 6 times smaller. My ex third floor work space is probably larger than my entire house now. But I do live on Coronado Island and I'd would much rather live here than in cold, gray Chicago. Had I been smart, when I first moved in, I would have painted the walls more to my liking. It just never occurred to me that I would still be living here 8 years later. I do have a nice backyard and a two car garage which Grazelda has never seen the inside of. It houses all my stuff that doesn't fit in my little house. And because I essentially live in a work space instead of working in my living space, there is no need to take pictures of the rooms. All you would see is fabric and sewing machines and all the other 'stuff' that goes along with making slipcovers and window treatments.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

I MADE ANOTHER ONE

This girl is actually hot pink, but is looking more like red. In any case, she is smaller than the first one I made (15 June post, if you didn't see her) and took only 125 yards of tulle. She also took far less time. Partly because I kind of know what I am doing now and partly because I used half as much tulle.

I covered the body with black and white toile and then used silver glitter. I maybe could have used a little less glitter, as you cannot even tell what is underneath it. I wanted to use a black and white paper, but just couldn't find one that was what I wanted. I found a couple of black and cream sheets at Paper Tales, but I really wanted white. The fabric seemed the best solution.

To tie the bodice to the skirt, I used hot pink pearls. You have to see these girls in person. The impact is much greater than in a photograph.

Wouldn't an all white one be pretty?

Saturday, August 1, 2009

SPREAD THE LOVE AWARD

What can I say? I just love getting awards! This one comes from Julie at Idyllhours. I like what she said on her post about blog awards, so I am going to say something similar. It seems that some people like getting awards and like passing them on (that would be me) and some prefer not to, for whatever reason. So if you fall in the first category, by all means post the award and pass it on to whomever you wish. This one didn't come with specific guidelines, so make up your own. If you are in the second group, don't feel bad about not 'playing.' Just know that I passed it on to you because I enjoy your blog and that's enough for me.

I pass this 'Spread The Love Award' along to:

So, thank you Miss Julie Marie. I really appreciate this award and once I figure out why I can't get my sidebar to cooperate and allow me to put new things on it, I will proudly put it there.

Friday, July 31, 2009

CASA MARGARITA - PART TWO

This was the master bedroom. My closet, the size of a small room, was tickle-me-pink. My ex's closet was rubber duckie, the same color as the walls in my workroom on the third floor.

Bidets are great for washing your feet. This bathroom, once a bedroom, was huge, but the space was all in middle where nothing could be done. The house originally had 4 full bathrooms and we added this one because everyone needs 5 full baths!

The color in the bathroom was lilac. I wanted the bedroom to be lilac and the bath the aqua that's in the master. My ex wanted the bath to be lilac because the apartment we lived in before this house had a lilac kitchen with white fixtures and he just really liked the way it looked. Since I liked both colors in both rooms, I agreed. To this day, though, I would love to have a lilac bedroom.

Again, bathrooms (normal size, that is) are hard to take pictures of. This bathroom is on the second floor and has the original hex tile floor. We found a bathtub that was from 1913 in a salvage place. The house was built in 1920 (I think) so the tub fit right in.

My ex workroom. The floor was screaming green and the walls rubber duckie. The bathroom, which you can't see, was cerise. The colors on the third floor were much more intense. After a while, even the brightness of the colors seemed to fade and I remember thinking, "We need to repaint and punch up the colors." Yeah, right! This work space was about 24' x 12'. My cutting/work table was 12' x 6' x 43 1/2" high, the perfect height for me. We built the table in the room so there was no getting it out when I left.

The laundry room with under-the-counter washer and dryer. I also had another laundry room in the basement with large capacity appliances, so I could wash and dry fabric.

Exercise room.

The view out the master bedroom window. We had a fairly large yard for a city house. Of course, putting a three car garage took up a lot of that space, but with a house as large as this one was, a single car garage was silly. The house was approximately 6000 square feet. We paid $230,500 for it and then did the gut rehab, which took a year and a half and cost another $100,000 or so. Can you imagine what this house would cost in California?

Thursday, July 30, 2009

CASA MARGARITA - PART ONE

This is the outside of my ex-house in Chicago. It is in Rogers Park, which is as far north as you can go and still be in the city of Chicago. It was named Casa Margarita because of the color. In some light it looks more green; others, like this shot, it appears yellow.

The front, enclosed porch. It was only place in the house I could use the Mexican tile and not have it look ridiculous. This is a prairie-style house and Mexican tile is definitely not in keeping with the style.

This was the library/living room. The fireplace was some hideous color, so we painted it teal. What you can't see is the entire wall of bookcases and the original pocket doors.

This is the bathroom on the first floor, with the original green and white tile. This shade of pink was truly the only color that looked good with the tile. Then I found a fabric for the shower curtain that allowed me to have more than just pink and green in the room. The shot is a bit blurry. It was a very hard space to take a picture of.

The family room, with the area to the left and the kitchen to the right.

Can you find all 5 cats?

The fireplace in the family/dining/kitchen area. The flash is making the walls look less green than they really are. See above picture for the green color.

My dream kitchen, even though I don't like to cook.

Another view.

An old chest and curio cabinet I painted.

Close-up of chest top. I painted this all by hand, with no taping to make sure the lines were straight. I think I did a pretty good job, especially since I can't really paint or draw.

As I said before, when you live in Chicago and the sun tends not to shine very often and winter lasts about 8 months (or so it seems) you have to do something to brighten things up. My way was to paint every room a different tropical color. All of these were crayola colors. These pictures are of the first floor, though I left off a couple of rooms. The house had 3 floors plus a full basement that was also painted using the leftover paint from the rest of the house.

Tomorrow, I'll post the second and third floors.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

GRAZELDA

Okay, here is my car, Grazelda Golf. She is one of the rarest Volkswagens ever made. She is a '96 and there are only 70 of her version. They made a total of 280, 4 different versions. As you can imagine, I get all kinds of comments about her. As far as I know, I have the only one in San Diego, which is both good and bad. Good because who would steal her? It's not like she blends in. And bad because everyone always knows where I am. I can't sneak anywhere.

So tomorrow I'll do the post with my ex-house pictures.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

COLORFUL LIFEGUARD HUTS

Colorful! And creative! They are all different shapes and sizes. All these huts are on Miami Beach. I took these pictures in 2000, but I'm sure they are still as pretty. At least I hope some city official didn't get it in his head that basic, boring, all the same color and design was better.

In case you didn't already know this about me, I LOVE color. There used to be an ad for a paint company (I think) and the tag line was, "Life is too short for beige." I couldn't agree more.

Next post, pictures of my ex-house, which was painted in all tropical colors! Hey, when you live in Chicago and it's gray more than sunny, you gotta do something to keep from going mad.

Monday, July 27, 2009

YIPPEE!!! A BBF AWARD

Julie Marie at Idyllhours created this award and her very first recipient was Karyn from French Charming. BBF stands for Blogger Favorite Friend or I think it can also stand for Blogger Favorite Find. The rules for this award are similar to all those other blog awards floating around:

Copy the award and post it on your blog.

Link it back to the person you received it from.

List 10 things you love about blogging.

Pass it along to 10 other blog pals.

What I love about blogging:

(It's hard to not just copy Karyn's list and claim it as my own.)

1. I love that I now 'talk' to people all around the world.

2. I love all the new friends I've made locally.

3. I love the support that bloggers show each other.

4. I love the inspiration that each and every one of you brings to my life.

5. I love sharing my work.

6. I love that posting can be serious or it can be silly - anything goes!

7. I love that I look forward to turning my computer on each morning so that I can catch up with all the blogs I love.

8. As Karyn said, I love that people read my blog.

9. I love how willing everyone is to share ideas.

10. I love knowing that the possibilities are endless with blogging.

Thank you, Karyn.

You have been, and continue to be, an inspiration in my life. I look forward to your next 100 posts!

I pass this award to the following blogs:

I also want to thank everyone who commented on my last post. It means a lot that you took the time to wish me well. I am happy to report that, although I am still rather sore, my back to definitely better. I've been resting it and using my next door neighbor's jacuzzi on a regular basis. I do believe another massage is in order, as well.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

I LOVE SANDALS AND FLIP FLOPS

I was going to do this post on Friday morning but I hurt my back and I can't sleep. I may have a broken rib or it is somehow out of place and your guess is as good as mine as to how this happened. All I know is I am in major PAIN. So to entertain myself, I took pictures of all my sandals. I couldn't take the pictures with my feet on the floor because I tan the color of my hardwood floors and it was hard to tell my legs from the floor. Weird, I know, but then again, so is this post!