A Place More Kind Than Home

My friend Aileen and I have been trading writing exercises as a way to sharpen our dulled writing skills. This week's, chosen by moi, was for us to write a Dear John letter from our favorite piece of furniture.

Please keep in mind that I took poetic license with elements here, so this is merely based on some facts (Sorry, Mom, I'm sure the Barrister wasn't really disappointed to be in your room. And there really haven't been any actual close calls, just many imagined ones that have made me a bit sick to my stomach...).

Dear Hanna,

I loved your grandmother very much even though I was not the center of her life. She brought me in to her home many years ago. I thought I was on my way to displaying valuables or even holding her husband’s important ledgers; however, to my disappointment she put me in your mother’s room where I housed your mother’s and aunt’s doll furniture like some sort of giant dollhouse. I came to accept this as my lot in life; at least I was out of the way of your rowdy uncle’s ever bouncing soccer ball. 

Things began to look up as the children left the nest and your grandparents made the long move to Vermont. They kept me even as they got rid of some of the lesser furniture (I was relieved that some of the coarser elements in the household were sold off. That bookshelf had always leered lasciviously at me from down the hall.)

I had hoped that I would have a more prominent placement in the new home and was thrilled to hear that I would be placed downstairs in the dining room for all to see. I looked forward to holding your grandmother’s beautiful wedding place settings or some of the lovely blue glassware she collected on lamp buying expeditions with your grandfather.

It was sadly not to be, however, as I was placed in the front entry hallway between the dining room and the living room. It took me years to realize the full disappointment of this placement. The family always gathered in the kitchen, and visitors did not come to the front door but to the side door down the hall. The hallway was merely a passageway between two destinations. Only children seemed to linger by my side with all others walking purposefully past without a glance in my direction.

I tried to find the bright side to my situation. I now held exotic, one-of-a-kind dishes and goblets. I had the company of a whole menagerie of animal serving dishes and pitchers-chickens, ducks, moose, a kitten, and even a bunny or two. I was safe from the clumsiest of newly walking grandchildren as they did not usually venture to the uneven slate floor on which I rested. But I could never quite see what was going on in the household-it was always maddeningly just out of reach, around the smallest of corners to my left or right.

I was devastated for your grandmother the day that your grandfather died, and devastated for myself when I discovered that your grandmother had died (I contend that it was of a broken heart), but I held out hope that I would go to one of the grandchildren who would care for me as your grandmother did. I had high hopes when I discovered you had claimed me (though immense trepidation to find how far I would have to travel to get to you). It was a terrifying and very bouncy ride though thankfully your father is a very thorough packer, meticulously wrapping each of my glass doors.

It was a happy few years at the center of your home, as I was able to continue displaying much of your grandmother’s dishes and even continued to have one of my chicken friends keeping me company. Yes, I had to get used to the hustle and bustle again (your house is much louder than your grandparents’ had been for many years), but I have not survived the past 100 years by being entirely inflexible. These old wood slats can still bend a bit.

However, I come to the point of this letter. This past year has required too much from me. There have been too many close calls as you have been distracted with broom and mop handles. There have been too many moments of frozen panic as a chair pushed quickly back from the table has nearly toppled into me, and there have been too many instances of last second snatches of that damnable wooden xylophone mallet from your feral toddler as she headed directly toward my delicate glass doors. (Pardon my language; I must take a moment to collect myself.)

Do you know how many years these curved glass panels have survived? I have not made it this far to see them smashed in a moment of mayhem! And let me point out that nearly every moment in your once quiet household is now filled with mayhem. I cannot live like this. My blood pressure is as elevated as my once exalted status as the best piece of furniture you own. Now, however, instead of being a source of pride, I am merely a liability.

Don’t think that I don’t know you now gaze at my pristine glass with dread. You and I both know that you would have a nearly impossible time trying to replace one of these panels should when your little hellion darling finally destroys me. I can no longer just sit and accept my fate. I am leaving for safer accommodations. I’m sure there’s a racetrack or bowling alley somewhere that requires a trophy case. Lord knows they’ll be quieter than your dining room.

Best,

Barrister Bookcase

Hello/Goodbye Neighbor

We are close with a number of neighbors who now love Eleanor nearly as much as we do. The bookshelf in her room is decorated with things given to her from various neighbors. She has an antique stork figurine from one, a Japanese doll from another, and rainbow beads from her "uncles." She's so lucky to have them all in her life.

Recently our 94-year-old neighbor, Kathleen, moved to Vegas to live with her daughter. She told Eleanor how sad she was that she wouldn't get to see her grow. It broke my heart a little. Her family is selling her building, so Nathan, Sarah (our summer nanny), and I have been cleaning and cleaning and cleaning to take care of all the things her kids left (such as a refrigerator FULL of perishable food)!? Nathan's even pulling up the carpeting that's been there since the '60's at least.

Maybe a third of the jars she had stored in her cabinets.
This is a full size trash can.

Emptying the huge pantry, we've found some ancient canned goods, a nearly antique box of Club crackers (1986), and lots of really fun items that I will post about later. Kathleen was in the Japanese internment camps here during WWII, so she is very frugal and careful with her things as a result. She is the ultimate recycler, keeping everything to use again and again from the netting from her onions to toilet paper rolls and EVERY instant coffee glass jar she'd ever bought.

It certainly teaches me two lessons, one about how she was able to live happily with things that were decades old, not feeling the need for lots of material possessions (I'm not sure how long that lesson will stick though-sorry Nathan). And the other about weeding out your belongings periodically so you aren't one day pulling 15 bags of dried mushrooms so old they're nearly dust out of boxes in your pantry.

Barn Project

A few of my Indy friends were in town earlier this fall, and I took them to a neighborhood-wide garage sale. Poor things, they ended up carrying some of my purchases back. I hadn't yet told them that I was pregnant, so my purchase of a wooden barn (along the same lines as a dollhouse) struck them as puzzling. "You could use it to hold your shoes," said one.

My plan was to fix it up and give it to my dad, a farmer and occasional cowboy, to have at home for when his someday grandchildren visited. It looked pretty sad when I bought it, a bit mildewed and weather-beaten, but I had a vision.

One weekend before my dad's birthday, I sat down and got to painting. I used acrylic paint I already had on hand in a dark red, black-brown, grey, and white. It took about 3/4 of a small bottle of each to paint the whole surface, which was lucky because I have no idea if I could have matched that paint in a store since it was leftover from other projects long finished or abandoned. I used scotch tape to make the straight white lines around all of the openings and hand painted the curves.

You can see the paint bottles behind the barn.
I also used the masking tape to keep the red paint off the roof and
floor and to keep the roof color off the walls. I painted the lightest
color (the floors) first so I could be messy with that one.

 

I even bought some tiny plastic farm animals from a market in Italy to help populate the barn and found an old tractor online. I also found some tiny hay bales at Michael's, which I just couldn't pass up. They were super messy though, so I finally covered them in glue (which dries clear) so they'd stop leaving hay everywhere. We took the barn home to my dad on Thanksgiving, and I'm pretty sure it was a hit. (The cats loved it, anyway!)

My little barn cats.

Saturday Project

We rearranged our bedroom recently, and with the new layout I no longer had a window ledge to use to hold my stuff. I needed a bedside table. At a recent neighborhood yard sale, I found a cute little beat up bedside table. It was missing some hardware and very scratched, but I realized that with a little paint and some replacement knobs, it would be better than new!

This Saturday I got to work. I picked up a quart of Valspar Sea Wave Semi Gloss from Lowe's and found some small knobs from Anthropologie for $6 each.

I got to work with my sandpaper, sanding down every part of the lacquer on the table so the paint would stick.

I had a little "help" with the sanding.
There was an offer to help paint, but I kindly turned them down.

Luckily the sun was quite strong and my paint dried quickly. I did at least 3 coats on everything, though there were probably five on the top. I screwed in the knobs and soaped up the bottoms of the drawers so they would slide smoothly (you can also use wax), and my project was finished!

I'll post a picture of this table in its new spot soon.

Changing it Up

I decided our living room needed a change. My youngest sister painted me an abstract of poppies about 5 years ago in bright reds and yellow, but I felt that it didn't really fit our living room anymore. I looked at a variety of art for quite awhile, but I kept running into two large obstacles. 

First, I was having a hard time finding something the right size for the space over the mantle. If I found something I loved, it was invariably too small or tall and skinny to look balanced in this space.

And, just as importantly, everything that I really loved was either too expensive or Nathan hated it.

Finally, I had a flash of inspiration. When coming up with an idea for my office wall, I realized that I could buy a scrap quilt topper and use it for two projects simultaneously: the office wall AND our new mantle art.

I found a piece of sturdy cardboard to fit in the same frame our abstract poppies were in and covered it in a simple muslin fabric to act as a backing for the quilt. I used a little bit of spray glue to adhere a couple of strategic blocks to the muslin, just enough to hold the whole thing in place, then I wrapped them around to the back of the cardboard, cut of the excess, and secured the edges with more spray glue.

 

 

Lovely Discovery

I came across GrittyCityGoods on Etsy when I was looking for one more thing to hang in my office. I loved so many of these, it was hard to choose.

They are modeled after old educational scrolls that are often biological in nature, which are now incredibly expensive to purchase.

I finally decided on this one, (I loved the tie-in to marketing!) and it is even lovelier in person, incredibly well-made.

One of Each, Please

I absolutely love this! A New York designer started a curated project where fifty designers created prints around the fifty states' mottoes. A few of my favorites...

New Mexico by Jon Ashcroft

 

Florida by Two Arms

Wyoming by Seth Neilson

Fancy Headbands

Use a vintage necktie, lace scraps, ribbon, or embroidered fabric to make fancy headbands. Photo tutorial below.

Cut piece of tie long enough to go 2/3 around your head (mine was 15 1/2 inches).
Tie elastic cord into figure 8 measuring approx. 7 1/4 in. (I colored my elastic cord with permanent marker to match.)
Fold in ends of tie and position cord. Pin and (carefully!) try on. Adjust cord if needed. Sew.

Office decorated? Check.

You may remember back in March (Really? That long ago?!) when I was trying to decide what to hang on my office wall. The frames and photos arrived, and I finally got building services to drill some holes in the wall for me. I was a lunch break purchase of an electric drill away from doing it myself.

I added part of an unfinished vintage quilt to my wall, a few new frames for some of my art, and an antique lamp I just bought this weekend, and now I feel like it is finally done. Balanced, colorful, and just a little bit cluttered...just like home.

My Favorite Summer Cocktail

This vintage English cocktail is the most delicious, refreshing summer drink that, to my surprise, includes gin! What really makes this perfect is the cucumber, so don't leave it out.

Pimm's Cup

3/4 c. gin
1/4 c. Pimm's no. 1
1 lemon, cut into half slices
1 orange, cut into half slices
1/2 cucumber, cut into half slices
1 c. strawberries, cut into small chunks
2 large sprigs of mint, muddled

Add just before serving:
2 cans of sparkling lemon soda (I used La Croix Lemon and added a few tablespoons of sugar)


Add all to a pitcher and stir well. Let steep for an hour, and then add the sparkling lemon soda. Serve with ladle so that you get all of the fruit bits in your glass too. If you have any Pimm's Cup left over, cover the pitcher with plastic wrap and reuse it later in the week. Time only makes it better. Just add a bit more gin and lemon soda before your next pour.

New Use for an Old Thing, Vol. 2

Sugar Canister twine dispenser ($0.50, Goodwill)
I can't take credit for this cute idea; I originally saw it on Pinterest. I love that I can leave my twine out with some of my other crafting supplies (see below) because they look good.

Salt shaker as straight pin storage ($1, local thrift store)
When I found this old salt shaker, I didn't have a use for it yet; however, the easy to screw off lid made using it as a sewing pin holder a good choice. Whenever I need to use a handful of pins, I just turn it upside down and shake a few out.

Straw holder for washi tape ($8, eBay)
I had seen these straw holders used to store ribbon on Pinterest and loved the look. I have a giant box of ribbon though, and I realized that finding spools that were small enough to fit was actually going to prove to be unrealistic. With my sudden collection of varieties of washi tape, I knew I had the perfect storage place for them.

Desk lamp wall sconces ($15, eBay; new cord-$5, Home Depot)
We needed some extra light in the living room and in the bedroom, but we didn't have any table or floor space to spare. I had the thought to use a few old shop desk lamps as wall sconces. Once I rewired them, they were the perfect solution.

Toast stand mail holder ($3, hometown antique mall)
I needed a place to put all the paper odds and ends we save on our desk. The few paper bills we still pay, flyers for upcoming events, etc. now go in their little metal organizer and keep our desk top looking neat.






Picture frame mirror ($7, local junk store; mirror-$8, hardware store)
Buying a large mirror new can be very expensive. I found a shortcut by purchasing a large wooden picture frame and getting a piece of mirror glass cut to fit it at our local hardware store. (This strategy came in very handy when I was collecting mirrors for the mirror wall in the dining room.)

Almost to Etsy

I've made a few fun pieces of jewelry in the past few months with the plan to finally get something new up on Etsy. Happily though, before I could, I sold them!

I wanted to share them somewhere since I went to all the work to take pictures of them...

How I used the cool vintage metal pressings from Paris I found:

Laure Necklace

Frances Necklace

Now I'm working on some pieces with small colored vintage glass domes:

Stanton Earrings in Emerald

Sweater Pep

I just bought this sweater on sale from The Loft. I like its subtle details, but I decided that I wanted to pep it up a bit and make it truly unique.


With the addition of some vintage buttons and colored stitching, this sweater went from this

to this:

Dark red orange buttons with purple thread

Hello, My Name is Hanna, and I am a Font Junkie

I am not a graphic designer, which is what makes this confession even more necessary: I cannot stop downloading cool fonts. So far I haven't taken the step of actually paying for any fonts, which would probably put the whole situation right over the edge into an obsession.

The main issue is that I rarely get the opportunity to try out the awesome fonts I have added (and added and added) to my collection. So here I am, confessing my addiction. The first step is admitting you have a problem. And my problem is that I don't have any projects that require fun graphic fonts. (Not, of course, that I need to stop collecting them.)

Here are a few of my favorites:

Pompadour Numerals* by Andy Mangold

Marketing Script** by FontShop

Home Sweet Home*** by Ray Larabie

Ranger* by Evan Huwa

karabine.** by Jonathan Paquette

And here are all of the lovely sources:
*Selections 1, 4: Lost Type Co-op
**Selections 2, 5: Fonts2u
***Selections 3: My Fonts

Not mentioned, but equally great: The League of Moveable Type.

Why I've Been MIA

My younger sister's bridal shower was this past weekend. We decided that her shower would have a nautical theme,* and I may have gone a bit overboard on my decoration projects.

I tackled homemade frosting and cupcakes that I topped with handmade international code flags of my sister and her husband-to-be's first and last initials (J, A, and H).


 I sewed international code flag buntings that said the couple's last name-to-be and the bride and groom's nicknames.




I made yellow and white tissue paper pom-poms to hang from the ceiling.

I sewed over 100 foot of crepe paper ruffle. 

My youngest sister made the book page banner (out of pages from an old copy of Little Women) that says "You float my boat."




I made tiny red, white, and blue paper buntings for the miniature origami boat regatta game we invented. (My mom made the 50 small origami boats.)

*Funny story, part of my gift to my sister was two WWII signal flags that I found on eBay. I initially bought them without realizing what they meant. After discovering that there was a different flag for each letter, I was first disappointed that I had given her two flags that stood for the letter "p" because that letter really doesn't have any significance at all. However, I later discovered that while the flag stood for the letter "p," it also means "About to Sail," which is so incredibly fitting for someone getting ready to get married! And better yet, two p's together mean, "Keep well clear of me" which will come in handy on all sorts of occasions after the wedding. I just love a multi-purpose gift, don't you?

Dear Photograph

I love this concept by Dear Photograph. Some of these will surely bring a tear to your eye...

Dear Photograph,
Her love was my chemo. I beat cancer.
Eric Richter

Dear Photograph,
Thank you for everything we had.
@jonathanstampf

A Strategy for Our Home

I just read this post and it resonated with me because I have never truly given my design style a lot of thought. I know I have a couple of places in our house that don't particularly feel right. Our guest room has always felt a bit more disjointed than the rest of the house as has our smallest "bedroom" at the back of the house. This year may just be the year for planning what I need to do to improve these spaces, with actually getting down to action might have to wait until next year.

I feel pretty good about our bedroom. We recently rearranged, and I think it's working. It's a pretty small space to work with, but cozy with our choices of furniture. I have one more piece of furniture to add, so I'll go into more detail about that later when I've incorporated it into the room.

Our living room lives up to the hodgepodge style that we love: colorful, lots of vintage mixed in with some new and some natural. I think I might be ready to change out the art above our mantle. I think I want to head in a more architectural direction; perhaps some sort of mirror. I just rearranged the contents of our glass-fronted built-in bookshelves, and they feel more coherent now. I have a project percolating that will probably end up requiring me to rearrange again when I get it done.

The kitchen has some details that aren't exactly what I would have chosen for myself, but those details are too high end to warrant spending money to change them. Perhaps I can add some elements that will tie in the countertops with our style better. I'm thinking slate as a backsplash might be a good direction.

The dining room is an eclectic focus on the farm table, mis-matched chairs, and mirrors and glass, which I feel is a strong design. I do think I'm going to extend the mirrors up the wall higher in the center to take away that straight line that currently runs across the top. Our desk is also part of this room, and I think it adds to the space without crowding. It's not perfect, but Nathan says he won't use it if we put it in the back small bedroom. I am considering refinishing the desk or even painting it, but I'm not quite ready to tackle that yet. The finish isn't really in great shape, so I do feel that it needs some work.

Our guest room needs a little work still. It also serves as my craft storage room, so I have to be careful about keeping it from being overrun with supplies. I've recently added some fun storage that helps keep the fabric, buttons, and myriad other supplies contained while actually adding to the look of the room.

The small back bedroom is the room that needs the most work. It's quite small and meant to eventually be the baby's room. However, I'm not prepared to be readying that nest yet, so I need to come up with something to make the room feel settled and complete without spending too much money on a design that may change in a year or two.

It's a bit odd to be in this frame of mind. I honestly don't think I've ever experienced needing to edit because we've always been in the process of buying/finding pieces. We're finally at the point that we don't have holes waiting to be filled. It's a little overwhelming to try to make a whole house work together, but I think getting it right will give me a huge level of satisfaction with our home.