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it’s so fluffy!

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As you may know, I’ve been trying to update my place a bit by adding a touch of mod here and there.

Recently, I fell absolutely head over heels in love with this long, curly-haired wool pillow from Pier 1 Imports…

But at $39.99, I just couldn’t begin to justify buying it, let alone buying more than one.

Fortunately, fate intervened, in the form of my sister inviting me to go to Target on New Year’s Eve, where I was thrilled to find these fabulous cream-colored flokati knock-off pillows for a mere $12.99 each!  Of course I bought two of them to mod up my couch a bit.

Here’s what my couch looked like before…

Nothing wrong with it.   Just lacking punch.  In a word…dull.

And now…

Definitely increased the mod factor and the fun factor.  Plus, every time my 17-year-old daughter comes anywhere near the new pillows, she shouts the line from Despicable Me, “It’s so fluffy!”

The old green pillow covers are removable, so I will try to find some funky fabric to make new pillow covers to add to the fun.  Of course you’ll hear about that here when it happens.

And, I want to get new throws although I’m not quite sure what kind yet.  I’m thinking something nubby and textured, perhaps with yellows and oranges in it.

What kind of throw would you suggest?

touch of mod

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Recently, I’ve been trying to add a touch of mod to my vintage-pottery barn-shabby chic style.  Not a major makeover.  Just a hint, to mix things up a bit and add something unexpected to my decor.

So, I went shopping in my basement, where I found a totally fab brown acrylic lamp that was in my home staging supplies.  Bought it on clearance for a steal at Target – a mere $13 – and all I had to do was add a lamp shade. Bought a $15 shade, also from Target.

Here’s what it looked like before…

Nothing terrible.  OK, so the shade does still say “90’s,” but other than that not too bad.  At some point I’ll probably try to find a small drum shade for it and find another place for it.

(And in the keeping it real department, see if you can find the blue laundry basket that tried to hide for the photo…it’s like the decorating version of finding Goldbug in a Richard Scarry book!)

New and improved, with a touch of mod…

Ah, sweet decorating relief…welcome to 2011!

I’ll be adding more pops of mod throughout the house and will post them soon.

Be sure comment about how you’ve modernized your style.  And share some links too!

my mother’s dolls

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My mom has 3 older brothers, all of whom are quite a few years older than her, ranging from 7 years older to 16 years older.  When she was a girl, one by one, they all went into military service.

As they traveled throughout their service, they began to send my mom dolls from all over the world.  And so her doll collection began.

My grandfather created a cabinet with a glass door that was built into the wall in my mother’s room.  That is where all of the lovely dolls lived.

When I was a girl, we lived with my grandparents for several years, and my mom’s room became my room.  I would gaze at all of those lovely ladies every day, and even though I was only 5, I never dared to touch them.  Not even once.  Not even the beautiful Serbian doll with real gold earrings, just like the Serbian ladies at our church wore.

Eventually, the dolls moved to my mother’s home when my grandparents passed on.  Then when my folks moved from a house into a condo, my mom said it was time to divide up the dolls between me and my sister. While I thought we might have to duke it out over the dolls, my sister only wanted 2 of the dolls and let me have the rest of the collection.  I was amazed and grateful to have this collection that meant so much to me as a girl.  It was especially generous of her, since I lived in California at the time, and she lived in Ohio.

A couple of years later, I ended up moving home to Ohio, and now live 2 doors down from my sister.  She can visit me and the dolls, who now reside in my living room, whenever she wants to.

How’s that for provenance?

Showing off my doll collection at the Collections link party at Funky Junk Interiors.

thanksgiving table

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This Thanksgiving I hosted the Thanksgiving dinner and had a total of 11 guests.  Not a huge production, but certainly more than my usual 3 person deal.

As always, I wanted to create a special tablescape, but using things that I have around the house.  Plus, this year, in addition to making it budget friendly, I wanted it to reflect the more austere times that we and many families are experiencing.  Not too sparse, but nothing extravagant either.  So, I went with a combination that I frequently rely on…shabby chic with a touch of whimsical & mod.

As promised, I used the same tablecloth as last year and the year before.  And no, I didn’t iron it…I’m not that kind of girl!  Besides, that’s part of the “shabby”!

I mixed 2 sets of dishes and tied the dinner and salad plates in fun ribbons that I’ve had since forever…

The ribbon takes care of the whimsical…

…and the mod…

The delicate blue glasses are vintage – they were my mom’s from before I was born.

The “centerpiece” is comprised of repurposed Classico pasta sauce jars, filled with a tealight and topped with ribbon, further contributing to the shabby chicness…

But best of all were the family we were blessed to have joining us at this table…

Here’s wishing all of you a warm and wonderful holiday season, filled with the love and laughter of family and friends!

sign language

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Sometimes it’s just easier to post a sign than to try to explain everything.

That’s what I was thinking when I created this piece for my coat closet…

A coat closet sign.  Pretty ingenious, huh?  I thought it was important for my guests to be able to find their coats.

OK, who am I kidding?  I rarely have guests!

But irrespective of the number of guests I do or don’t have, I thought this coat plaque would be cute.

I took an unfinished wood plaque, painted a base coat of yummy midnight blue, followed by coats of light gray and a hint of taupey beige.  Then I cut out a coat graphic and decoupaged it on to the painted plaque.  Distressed the edges a bit with sandpaper, to reveal the yummy midnight blue, then topped it off with a layer of non-yellowing polyurethane, attached it to the door with non-damaging 3M picture-hanging velcro, and voila!

Now go hang up your coat!

Showing off this project at the link party over at Funky Junk Interiors.

easy art

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When I redecorated my teen daughter’s room almost 2 years ago, I placed 3 frames on one wall, because she really wanted to hang pictures of her & her friends.

Well, because after 2 years I got tired of waiting for her to add the pictures and looking at this…

…2 of the frames with the original picture that came with the frame and the 3rd frame on the floor collecting lots of dust and hair product overspray.

I finally took matters into my own hands and decided to remedy the problem, since it doesn’t look like the friend photos are happening any time soon.  So, I removed the picture frame girl photo and replaced with 3 different scrapbook papers that match the colors in her room, and that I already had on hand.

Here are the closeups…

Super cute & easy! And cheap, since I already had the paper on hand.  Plus, my daughter likes it!  Good stuff all the way around!

(If only I could show you pics of the rest of her cute room, but I’m afraid the Health Department will recognize it and condemn it!  Maybe after she goes off to college next fall…)

lights + birdcage = birdcage lamp

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I have a little birdcage that I decided to fill with mini-lights.  Mine is a decorative birdcage, but you could use a real birdcage as well.  However, the bird should probably not be still living in the cage.  And it’s just a recommendation, but if you’re using a real birdcage, you might want to remove the newspapers, bird seed, and of course the bird poop.  But you knew that!

So, I bought 2 boxes of white mini-lights – 100 lights per strand, for $2.49 each…

Because the plug on the mini-lights was too large to fit through the bars on the birdcage, I fed an extension cord through the bars.

To give the mini-lights a little height, I placed a glass jar (upside down) in the base of the birdcage, then messily placed the 2 connected strands of mini-lights into the cage around the jar and on top of the jar.  An alternative to using the jar would be to use an additional strand of mini-lights.

I put the cage back together and voila!

\

A quick and easy birdcage lamp!

Now for a couple of tips…

First, although you may be tempted to try LED mini-lights since they use less energy, I recommend using the traditional mini-lights.  The LED lights are super-bright, and not in a good way.  More like in a migraine-maker kind of way.  Ask me how I know…yup, I tried them, and the glare and color of the lights was way too harsh, then had to go back to the mini-lights.

Also, I have the birdcage lamp plugged into an outlet that turns on with a light switch on the wall, which is convenient, so I don’t have to be plugging in the lights.  Just flip the switch and the birdcage lamp is on.

If you don’t have the luxury of a plug controlled by a light switch, you can use an extension cord that has a foot switch.  No need to bend and plug!

Showing off this lamp at the White link party at Funky Junk Interiors.

numbers & letters

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Oh how I love numbers & letters!  So when Donna over at Funky Junk Interiors posted a link party about numbers, I was inspired to share my little obsession.

No matter the font or the size, I just love them!

Last year at the Country Living Fair in Columbus, Ohio, I found some fabulous wooden printer’s block numbers.  So I searched until I found my house numbers…

They look vintage, but I think they’re reproductions.  Either way, they’re so cute hanging all wonky next to my front door in the foyer. Follow the yellow arrow to find them next to the door…

(Someday soon I’ll paint the inside of my front door an interesting color.)

Then there’s the number 4 on my mantle…

It took some serious convincing to get my dad to believe that the number 4 had no real significance to me, but that I had it just because I liked it!

But it’s not just numbers I like, but letters too!

Like the letter “a” my sister bought for me last Christmas, since she knows about my numbers & letters thing.

I also like putting letters together to make words!  One of my favorite words…

Dream!  I like it so much I have it in more than one place…

Numbers & letters & words!  Love them all!

twig decor

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A great low-cost decorating trick is to use twigs & branches that you can gather up on a walk in your neighborhood.  Imagine that – decorating as exercise!  That’s my kind of workout!

I picked up the large branch in this vignette after a windy fall day in our neighborhood…

The birch branch above our entertainment center holds some sentimental value for me, since I cut it from the lovely birch tree in front of our old house in California, because I wanted to take a part of that home with me.  Now it adorns our family room and I can see it every day.

With 2-story walls, the birch branch serves more than just a sentimental purpose. It also “caps” the vignette on the entertainment center, and grounds the whole thing, otherwise your eye would go all the way up to the ceiling, where there’s not a whole lot to see, aside from an occasional dust web.

And hey…don’t be too jealous of my Sauder entertainment center!  I keep fantasizing about replacing it, but a replacement entertainment center never seems to make it to the top of my grocery list!  Maybe some day a beautiful piece will find me when I’m out garage sailing or dumpster diving!

Don’t forget that you can also create a tablescape using twigs & branches.  This was from a past Thanksgiving, when I spray painted some gnarled roots & branches for a free but lovely holiday table display.

OK, I probably should have ironed the tablecloth before creating the tablescape, but it was all about the juxtaposition of sophisticated mod and rustic!

So don’t think you have to spend big bucks to adorn your home…just take a walk on the wild side and bring some nature indoors!

Showing off my twigs & branches at the sticks, twigs & branches link party over at Funky Junk Interiors.

benched

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Because I live in a land where backpacks, purses, viola, suitcase-sized-5th-grade-zipper-binder-almost-as-large-as-said-5th-grader, and other various & sundry items litter the kitchen table and the bar stools and the breakfast bar, I need some sort of storage solution.

We do have a coat closet with a shelf for each person, however, that is MILES away from the kitchen table! Well, probably only 12-20 steps away, depending on your size, but it sure seems like miles!

So, when blogger Ruth from A Trip to Holland came up with a backpack storage solution I was inspired, but still a little stumped.

Then I remembered the butcher block style grocery display counter tops that I have had sitting in my garage for a couple of years.

Got them for free from the grocery where my ex-husband works, and I’ve been contemplating how to use them for a couple of years.  Finally figured something out.

So, I purchased 4 legs & metal brackets to attach the legs…

First I drilled some pilot holes.  I marked the drill bit with tape to ensure that I didn’t drill through the wood.

Then screwed in the metal brackets…

Then I stained the legs…

When the stain was dry, I screwed the legs into the brackets, and voila!

A great looking place for all of that after school miscellany!

The only drawback with this project was that it wasn’t as cheap as I thought it would be.  The butcher block was free, but the legs were $4.88 each, and the brackets were $2.95 each, plus the stain was $4.95.  So it ended up costing around $36, which is more than I would have preferred to spend.

But it’s adorable, isn’t it?

I’m showing off this great bench at Funky Junk Interiors.

Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special