Friday, November 13, 2009

Her Highness



Still dressing up daily as Cinderella, Beanie kicked her imaginary world up a notch today.

Cinderella: Where's my necklace?
Me: It's upstairs.
Cinderella: Will you go get it?
Me: Not until after we finish lunch.
Cinderella: {with a devilish smile spreading across her face} OK...Stepmother.


Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Yummy Fabric


Since deciding to take an upholstery class I've been hunting for fabrics high and low...I came across these beauties. I'm. In. Love. Too expensive for a chair, however I really want to use one of these in a smaller project.

The company is






You can stop drooling now.
{seriously that's gross}

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Over the Weekend


We scored the following items while thrift store shopping this weekend...

side table

set of chairs*

and a rocker for the princess

Quite a successful trip--and all from one store!

I'm all about getting pieces with 'potential' these days. Every time I go thrifting all I can think about is reupholstering all these amazing pieces and how awesome they'd look. I've actually become a little obsessed with the idea. So I think I'm going to take an upholstery class this winter and actually recover one {and eventually both} of the living room chairs! I'd also love to re-do Beanie's little rocker as well. I'm very excited at the prospect of learning to reupholster. When you're on a fixed budget but still want a one-of-a-kind look in your home, thrifting/antiquing is the way to go. If you can re-finish them after that, even better. I'll keep you posted on any refinishing work!

*after purchasing these chairs I woke up at 4 in the morning dreaming about bedbugs--a somewhat new phenomenon in Cincy. I couldn't go back to sleep until I crept downstairs with a flashlight and checked the chairs thoroughly for the little critters. I think we're safe {knock on wood}.

Friday, November 06, 2009

A Good Grief




Molly and I met through our blogs a few years ago. She knew my husband in college and we were both new moms of adorable little girls. I lived in New York at the time and she wanted to live in New York--we were a good match. We checked each others blogs periodically and left comments here and there. Shortly after Mother's Day in 2008 I sat down to the computer and I remember feeling a very strong pull to check Molly's blog {I don't think I've ever mentioned that to her}. I checked her blog to discover that her daughter Lucy had been in an accident and was in the hospital. A couple days later Lucy would be taken off of life support and Molly and her husband Vic's lives would change forever.

Since that day I along with thousands of others, have followed Molly's journey as she grieves, remembers, celebrates, and embraces her life and the loss of Lucy. There is no easy way to experience and endure the loss of your child, but Molly has shared her heart through this painful journey and in the process has become a person who personifies hope, resilience and yes even joy, for many of us her devoted readers.

Molly's latest accomplishment is her new website A Good Grief. A place where others who have suffered loss can come to read, share and deal with grief where they know they won't be alone. Personally I think this is going to be huge. This is so needed--in a world where computers have replaced people and isolation is a common feeling, people need to know they're not alone... especially when dealing with something as overwhelming as grief. Molly will be the main writer for the blog, but will have guest writers galore including NieNie and Cjane themselves. I'm telling you...this is going to be big.

Please take a minute to look over A Good Grief. Read Molly's story {tissues in hand} and check out her cause {inspiring!}.

Good job Molly.
You have no idea how much I love and look up to you my fake internet friend.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Shop Update



I finally got some new fabric magnets in the shop. Get 'em while they're hot.
{I'm also working on a custom tent for Christmas--if anyone else is interested I have time to take 1-2 more custom orders before Christmas...just convo me on etsy!}

Monday, November 02, 2009

True Up



I recently stumbled across this great and new-to-me fabric blog called True Up. I lOVE it. It's not a sewing blog {in fact homegirl doesn't even sew} but a blog strictly devoted to fabric. Kim Knight, the fabric guru behind True Up, recently covered the Fall Quilt Market in Houston and has posted very generously about all the wonderful new lines of fabric coming out...she's got the old stand by's like Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Anna Marie Horner, Robert Kaufman, Michael Miller, etc. But there are also a bunch of new faces and brands I've never heard of...







True Up is a great resource for people like me who are always on the hunt for new fabric. Additionally, she also has interviews with fabric designers like Joel Dewberry and Lizzy House and educational posts to enhance your fabric knowledge--check out Know your linen and How to care for vintage fabrics.

Three cheers for True Up!



Sunday, November 01, 2009

Trick or Treat


Saturday night may have been the best trick or treating experience of my life-- yes, even from my own childhood. First of all, the weather was great. Chilly yes, but no snow {Boo Colorado and Utah!} and plenty of leaves everywhere...all in all the perfect Halloween back drop.

Next the neighborhood. Oh boy, the neighborhood. We just happen to live pretty close to a very popular trick or treating street. We started to realize the popularity of this street when we saw cars upon cars filled with kids ready trying to turn onto this street. We even heard about a 15 person passenger van that dropped off a small army of trick or treaters. Of course as folk lore has it this street "gives out full sized candy bars!" {Wasn't there always a neighborhood with that rumor?} Yes some houses were rather generous, but mostly the candy quantity was pretty normal. It was the actual houses and the candy-givers themselves--these people took their jobs very seriously. They didn't stay inside and wait for you to knock on the door...oh no. Most of them had elaborate set ups and parked themselves on the front door step to watch and enjoy the parade of cute and often scared little ghouls. One house in particular was so good in their set up that we watched kid after kid run from the house screaming as soon as they got their candy {only for the older kids, they were good not to scare the really little ones}.

our jack-o-lanterns

mom and cinderella

dad and cinderella


look at those leaves!


the best scary house...see the clown and coffin?
yeah real people jumped out scaring the pants off kids left and right.
so funny.

luckily they were nice to the little princess...she was still scared...

this is how she approached the house.

I also saw this guy send a few kids screaming from his house...classic.

Good job Cincinnati, good job.