Umbrellas!

Yesterday was my lucky day. I wasn't expecting to receive either of the umbrellas that I bought on Etsy just yet and what did I find when I got home? Not one but TWO vintage umbrellas waiting for me! I was in heaven. After ripping open the boxes I proceeded to dance around with each of the umbrellas telling each one that I thought they were gorgeous. Don't tell the beige one but my number one umbrella love is the scrolly one with the orange edge. I'm obsessed. I want to pet it and hold it and ....imagine something like the scene in Tommy Boy where Chris Farley is in a restaurant petting a roll and eventually smashes it into a million little pieces. Well I was like that with my umbrella except for the smashing it part. I love it too much to smash it. Now the hard part is that I am going to have to mutilate the beautiful umbrella. I need to removed the handle in order to hang in from my ceiling. Sigh. It makes me so sad because I would love to be seen around town on a rainy day under the most gorgeous umbrella ever known to man but really I'm a native Seattleite so when do I use an umbrella? Yeah never. Either way my beautiful umbrella love isn't made from waterproof material so using it wouldn't work anyway. Luckily the beige one does appear to be waterproof so that works out well. I can't wait to get this project completed and spend my nights falling asleep under this gorgeous thing! 

During a break from dancing around with it.

Ahhh. I love you umbrella.

Birthday present

Have I mentioned I love flour sack towels? Well I do and I love an excuse to make something with them. My sister's birthday was last week (I know, I know) and I bought her a really cute Day of the Dead apron so I figured I should make a couple stamped towels to go with her present. I used really tiny letters to stamp LULU all the way across the towel. It just looks like a design from afar but when you look closer, I'm hoping, you can tell it's actually her name.

A closer look...

Vintage Umbrella light cover

A few years ago I ran across a decorating idea using umbrellas by hanging a few of them from the ceiling. This got me thinking that it would be cool to put a light behind the them and have a light shine through the umbrellas for an interesting and unique light fixture. Well I had completely forgotten about this idea until I ran across this heavenly little thing on Etsy yesterday.



Sigh. I am in love. So I purchased this beauty last night! My plan is to get a basic bare two bulb fixture and install it in the existing junction box over my four poster bed, install 4 tiny hooks in the ceiling from which I will suspend the umbrella. Removing the handle is a necessary evil but once removed I can tie the umbrella to the hooks so it dreamily hovers just below the bare light fixture. I think the soft color of the the umbrella will cast a warm pool of light over my bed. I am so excited to receive my lastest purchase and see this project come together. Stay tuned to see the finished product.

Update: I may have also purchased this one. Once I get them I'll decide which one will become the light cover and which one will have a different use. I need help.

A post on being lazy

Ok well as you can tell I haven't exactly been mainting my little blog very well. I am working on getting back into things so I thought I would make a post about projects that I've been thinking about. Out of fear for my bank account (ok maybe I'm being a bit dramatic) I took a break from looking at Etsy.com everyday. I have come back to the site and I am trying to just look for inspiration and the very occasional purchase. So in no particular order here are somethings that inspire me.

1. For some reason I love pillows and felt. So you can see why this project appeals to me.
The possibilities are endless. Colors, shapes, stitching,  buttons or beads.


http://www.etsy.com/listing/62278543/yellow-poppy-pillow


2. I have a two vintage fruit crate labels that I need to frame up. So there's another project. I just love these. They are inexpensive and colorful.


http://www.etsy.com/people/LABELSTONE?ref=ls_profile

3. I have four dining chairs that I picked up at the Fremont Sunday Market years ago. My mom and I recovered the seats which was fairly easy but I think they are in need of refreshing. Perhaps a yellow and white chevron pattern like this. They would go beautifully with my recently repainted very bright yellow den.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/76511356/free-us-shipping-designer-decorative

I could really go on forever about all the projects that I ponder for my 750 sq ft condo. Recovering my couch, painting a bench I have in my bedreoom, repainting and finally putting on the already purchased beautiful bright blue pulls on my dresser, putting up black and white striped wall paper somewhere in my condo.....really for such a tiny place I have way too many things I want to do. Here's to ending my lazy streak!

Flour Sack Towels

My new/old stamps arrived yesterday and they are very cute. Over the weekend I bought some washable fabric paint, sponges and flour sack towels so I was all ready when the stamps got here. It took no time at all to get my towels stamped, although I did try it out on paper before putting it to the towel. I am happy with how they turned out. They aren't perfect and that makes them seem more vintage. I will definitely make more of these in a variety of colors once I find a good deal on towels.

Vintage Stamp Project

So I mentioned Etsy.com in my last post but I didn't mention my outright obsession with Etsy. I love it. I need it.  Etsy is fabulous. There are thousands upon thousands of vintage items on Etsy that are just waiting for me to purchase and love them. Most days I am fighting my urges to buy items from Etsy but the other day my pointer finger won out and I ended up purchasing two vintage rubber stamps. I mean just look at them. How could I possibly turn down vintage rubber stamps from a old citrus packing warehouse? That's right. I couldn't and I didn't. The stamps should be here on Monday and I can't wait. My plan is to buy a stack of flour sack towels (my favorite), some stamp pads and make some new vintage looking kitchen towels.

Here is the link to the Art Floozy's Etsy shop where I found these awesome stamps. http://www.etsy.com/shop/theartfloozy?ref=seller_info

First Things First

I am currently in a love affair with all things vintage. To me vintage can mean antique and it can mean 'mid-century' and it definitely can be anywhere in between. Using vintage, old, garage sale and well loved items is satifiying to me. The character of items that are twice or thrice loved is generally far greater than anything you can buy brand new not to mention I really enjoy telling the story about how I came to own these certain items.

Vintage and antique items have long since been a love for me. When I was about ten my mom, sister and I drove to a family friend's cabin in Montana. Along the way we stopped in many antique stores and in one store I found a vintage metal lunch box. One of those lunch boxes that I imagine a metal worker used and carried around his ham sandwich at 20 stories high (Similar to the above one I found on Etsy.com). Anyway I loved it and bought it. It started off as black but it was pretty beat up so I had my dad take me down to his shop in Ballard where he had a sandblaster.  I put my new lunch box in the sandblaster and quickly removed all the paint. I chose silver as it's new color and in an afternoon I had a brand spanking old lunch box ready to haul my mom made lunches every day. I would venture to say I had the most interesting lunch box in my class and probably the school. So that was my start in the vintage world and still today, at the ripe old age of nearly 27, I love taking on projects where I get to mix old and new to make something that is completely me.