I found my telephone bench!

I posted back in February about my hunt for a vintage telephone bench to make-over and after multiple craigslist searches for "Telephone Table", "Telephone Bench" and "Gossip Bench" I either came up short, or found pieces that were $100+. I couldn't bring myself to spend that on something that I am going to sand, paint and upholster myself. I also went out two weekends in a row to various local antique stores and re-sale places and never found anything either. But recently my luck changed...

On Sunday, Dave and I headed down to the southside of Chicago, no not for Chicago's infamous South Side Irish St. Patrick's Day Parade, but to pick up the telephone bench I found on Craigslist for only $45. Woo-hoo.

Here are the pics:

I like that it has a full bench, as opposed to a single seat, and while it lacks the drawer I had hoped for, I do like the crisscross detail on the seat back. Not too ornate, but still eye-catching.

So now I need to sand it with my new electric sander and then... choose the paint color! This is going to be a hard one. I want it to be bold, but not an eyesore. I did buy one yard of green patterned fabric and one yard of orange patterned fabric for the seat, but I'm torn on the wood color. Right now I'm leaning towards a deep aubergine or eggplant color, and I think it would look nice with either fabric choice. But I also like the idea of having an aqua color with the orange fabric Or an orange piece with the green fabric.

Any suggestions?

Mellow Yellow's Mini-Makeover & Reveal

I posted last week about the yellow Ikea HEMNES Linen Cabinet that we purchased and could not wait to put together, and now it's time for the big reveal.

It came is two boxes with three full bags of hardware and a huge book of instructions. Yikes! I usually love putting things together, but I'm not gonna lie, this was pretty daunting.

Luckily, Dave took the reigns and did all the construction.

One thing I was not bargaining for, was the circus tent striped yellow drawers and back of the dresser. So I bought some cute green and white floral contact paper/shelf liner from the Home Depot and am really happy with the results.

Before:

After:

Before and After for the back:

Louie loves it!

And now the bedroom before:

And after:

View of the bed so you can see how it coordinates:

More views:

Ta-da!

I Heart Pepsi Natural

I'm not a huge soft drink person, so when I do have a craving it's only for a fountain coca-cola or vanilla coke. And since vanilla coke is hard to come by, vanilla vodka works just fine as a flavoring agent ;-)

Since I am not a huge soda drinker, and I hate the taste of artificial sweetener, I never felt compelled to switch to diet soda. I honestly would rather go without than drink diet, and even diet is filled with all sorts of chemicals that scare me. Kinda of like zero calorie spray butter, what is giving all of that liquid it's flavor and substance??

I do however have to rave about the new soft drink I picked up at the grocery store this weekend, a four pack of Pepsi Natural. I don't even like Pepsi very much, or bottled/canned soda in general, but this stuff ROCKS!

Now I know this is by no means diet, or even organic, but it is free of artificially derived flavors and contains no high fructose corn syrup, so it's just all natural sugar...yum! I give it two thumbs up!

An Interview, subject me.

I’ve been interviewed. I took the challenge from blogger Sarah, and she sent me the following questions to ponder and answer...

1) What is one food you could not live without?
CHEESE. Hands down. I love it all. I love trying new cheese about as much as trying new wines, and pairing the two is divine. Sharp white cheddar is a fave. I have also grown to like blue cheese & gorgonzola very much. Smoked gouda is gooda (hehe) and for me, you can’t miss with swiss, especially gruyere. Yum. But I’m also not a cheese snob, give me a reduced fat stick of string cheese and I’m also good to go! The ONLY cheese I’ve come across that I am not a huge fan of is feta.

2) If you had the ability to cure one disease/illness/affliction in this world, what would you choose, and why?
Wow. Just one? Ok, I think that there is a lot of attention on physical disease & illness, but there is a scary silence around mental illness. I would love to “cure” depression, anxiety and any personality disorders… those afflictions that so many of our neighbors, friends and family may be dealing with, yet we may never be aware. Curing these common afflictions would not only leave millions of individuals to lead a better life, but would result in a stronger, more productive society as a whole.

3) Where do you find inspiration in life?
I have always been attracted to people, places and things that are different from me. That scares some people, but it inspires me for sure. For me, new settings bring fresh perspectives. I like to pick the brains of people who have lived where I have never lived, or visited where I have never visited. Accents also fascinate me, as well as regional dialects. I like speaking to people with opposing views from me because it either fires me up & affirms my beliefs or makes me take a step back and challenges them, but either way I am renewed and invigorated. I also am inspired by people with talents that I do not have, like musicians (though I have never picked up an instrument) and artists (though I can hardly paint-by-number), etc. because, even if they don’t make me pick up a Guitar or become the next Van Gogh, they do inspire me to be creative in my own right.

4) What is the funniest thing you have ever experienced?
I think everything is funny. I know it’s a cop-out, but this is a hard one! I laugh easily. And often. I was actually voted “Best Laugh” in high school, lol. (see!) I also can laugh at myself quite easily, making it hard to recall truly embarrassing moments in my life, because I’m rarely mortified. I do have one funny story AFTER the fact. Once, I had to have the Heimlich maneuver while on the Warner Bros. Studio lot in L.A. I was on the job, shooting a TV commercial and I choked on a piece of beef. The act of choking = not funny. The events that ensued and the entire story looking back on it = very funny. Since photos of the real Heimlich Maneuver are not funny, here is a useful and less scary dog-version:

5) What is your favorite tradition from your childhood?
One of my favorite childhood traditions is when we used to go apple picking, go to the pumpkin patch and also when we used to go cut down our Christmas tree. I don’t know if I’m allowed to lump those all into one category, but my memory throws these in the same basket so I think it counts! There is something about going outdoors in the cool weather as a family that makes me smile when I think of it. And the festivities that ensue when you arrive home with your goodies is the best part: mom making apple crisp, dad helping us carve a jack-o-lantern and of course trimming the tree as a family. As we got older (I am the oldest of 3 sisters), we ate less hand-picked apples, got our pumpkins from the grocery store and eventually bought a fake tree – maybe because we got busier or maybe because us girls appreciated the outings less as we got older, but now I have fond memories of those younger years.

Thanks for making me think, Sarah! And hopefully you all learned something you didn't already know about me. If anyone else wishes to continue this trend, leave me your email address and I'll send you 5 questions, too.

Mellow Yellow Linen Cabinet

I know I have written about our lovely loft and it's lack of closet-space or storage before, so I have been on the search for a linen cabinet to house our towels and sheets in style. For the life of me, I cannot remember which of the hundreds of home decor blog posts I found this on last night, but it immediately caught my eye and I drug the photo to my laptop's desktop for later review.

Isn't it pretty?

So I set out to do an extensive google search for a place to purchase a similar gem and luck was on my side. I typed in "Yellow Linen Cabinet" and to my surprise the very first thing to pop up was this very cabinet at Ikea!

I present to you the HEMNES Linen Cabinet in yellow:

Wait! It gets better... My wonderful husband, Dave, is working in the burbs at a client this week right across the street from an Ikea and he offered to pick it up for me/us tonight! Isn't he great ;-) And due to Ikea's super cool online feature, I was actually able to check for him if the item was in stock at our store and exactly how many they had left (7). Uber-convenient when it's midnight and you are online shopping. I can't wait to see it.

The room I am putting it in, our guest bedroom/office, is currently covered in a not-so-subtle bird theme in browns and aqua blues/greens, so I think this will add a nice "pop" of sunshine. I also am thinking that I might change out the hardware and buy some cute drawer knobs at anthropologie just to spice it up a bit.

So far I like this Granita Knob in teal:

And this Rosy Knob in kelly green or aqua:

I'll see how the cabinet looks when it gets home tonight and go from there!

I think I got my mojo back.

It has been almost 2 weeks since my last post, and honestly... I thought I had lost my creative mojo. I have been uninspired, a little stressed and somewhat mopey. It's been a combination of work, lousy weather, missing my hubby since it's his "busy season" and really just a bit of a general funk.

So, I decided I needed to get off my booty, get inspired and get another creative outlet! Last night, I went on the search for a class to keep me occupied & otherwise inspired, and I ended up enrolling in a beginner course called First-Time Screen-Printing for Paper at the Lill Street Art Center.

I. CANNOT. WAIT.

No, I have never done anything like this before. I consider myself to have a good "eye" for art & design, and I am crafty in my own right, but I hesitate to consider myself a hands-on artist. But that's about to change! I figure I spend so much of my time searching for awesome artwork to adorn our place on Etsy and other sites, that I might as well try my hand at creating my own!

Wish me luck! The class starts Sunday, March 29th, so I hope to come out of the 5 weeks with some inky hands and maybe even a piece that we can frame.

Five Fab Handmade Finds: Gift Tags

This Tuesday, for my 4th edition of "Five Fab Handmade Finds", I am featuring five fabulous handmade sets of gift wrap tags. I'm a sucker for a handmade or hand-printed greeting card, but these tags make for an even more affordable and unique option to top that special present.

Enjoy!

1. Cupcake gift tags by Esty Seller pinkflowercube -- 6 for $3.50

2. Amy Butler flower tags by Etsy Seller accessoryqueens -- 24 for $5.00

3. test print gift tags by Art Garage Sale Seller 315thomas -- 5 for $5.00

4. BIRDCAGE TAGS IN LIGHT PINK by Art Fire Seller Digital Paperie -- 12 for $4.00

5. Drunken Tags by Etsy Seller Farouche -- 8 for $4.00

Gift tags... not just for Christmas anymore!