Wednesday, July 30, 2008

erie basin

1900s onyx D signet ring

1880s coral cameo ring

Lee Hale bronze bird feet candleholders

1890s silver boar brooch

1890s silver paste crescent brooch

Erie Basin in Brooklyn for some beautiful old-timey finds.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

thieving

I stole me some ideas today.

The springs! How inventive and cheap. Fugly ugly and I love it. Plus I like me some shag (rug. And that's what she said.)


This isn't modest at all.


Craptacular mirror from a 'charity store,' featured on Apartment Therapy LA.


This pattern. It's been around for a while. I saved it to decoupage on a switch board. I got so fucking excited when Lillian and I saw it at the warehouse Discount Fabrics in SoMA. Only in a few lame colors. I want mustard. Which is apparently, the Fall color.

Monday, July 28, 2008

etsy sunday

Browsing Etsy.

Series of 5 prints by Kellie Schneider.


I freaking love this.


This dude does prints on books. I like - so clever.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

MoMA mia!

I just MoMA Store-browsed for like two hours. Fucking amazing favorites:

For my pet pig obsession (or porky stews), the Pig Cooking Lid from Marna Inc.:


Dozi Paperclip Holder by Mika H. J. Kim in two adorable colors. It would make even more sense for the prickly guys to hold sewing pins.


Lillian bought an all-white wall clock that was featured in Domino similar to the Riki Desk Clock by Riki Watanabe (what a fun name). Is the orange too Ikea? Oh yes, there is definitely such thing.


Omg efficiency:


Cork Notebook from DCI. Vary from the conventional cowhide, moleskine, and cardboard.


Beloved Hug Salt and Pepper Shakers (Alberto Mantilla), from a previous post:


Napkin Notebook. I can and will do this.

branching out

Birch - safe to say - was a trend.
This is interesting though yeah? I would never want to wake up and walk into this bathroom, especially because I've had a repeat dream in which I'm stuck in the Forest of Fangorn with angry Ents. Imagine how scared you'd be if you went to pee in the middle of the night and you think you see a face in the bark. Also, how scary would it be if the trees blew in the wind when high.
I like the marble counter top. Gold detailing with gold mirror.


Birch planters from Etsy, and a lot of other places.

I don't care much for the planters holding flowers, but how about a little mound of moss atop a fat and stout little birch planter?

The planters and the bathroom I don't mind, but the Macy's window installment on Stockton is incredibly ugly.

In a monochromatic room, this hand-built frame would be perfect. I would hope that sleeping in this would not induce Ent-filled dreams.


Easy DIY if you find the right branch.
The bug wall appliques are fugly.


From the MoMA Store:
It's certainly striking, but not very good on the Tempting Fruit appeal.

Branch Spoons by Jean Pradelle:

Friday, July 18, 2008

total defeat


This Olga girl is amazing. I suck butt. Even though my name in German class was Olga. Super sad suck inferiority.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

bed, bath and beyond


When I am older (and obscenely wealthy), I want a crazily multipurpose room. The space: bedroom that continues into a full bath and closet. Absolutely no walls - only furniture for natural barriers. A giant room like this would be all yours and very much private. But with no conventional dividing walls and an open floor plan, it's dangerous and incredibly sexy.

The v ladylike bathroom above is from Domino.

Lovely black toilet lid. Lid or seat would be v funny with the horrified face from my decoupage post. I have a chair in mind in my house that would be perfect for this. New project!!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

my new chest

...Of drawers! Meh heh hehhh


I've been wanting to do this for a long time. My room needed something black for sharp contrast and general sleekness. Enter my grandma's old chest of drawers.

Anthropologie has some lovely, severely overpriced, knobs. I got two red coral ones for contrast, but at $6 and with such intensity, I worried about over-doing it. I don't know, maybe I should have gone with something less severe? Simple, matte brass? The dangly one I got on sale for under $3.
I suppose the knobs will all be mismatched. I think the whole thing would look better with mismatched brass and clear glass knobs. Ah. Stupid qualms.
My favorite is this beautiful Sea Blossom Knob: mother of pearl and brass. Maybe just one.


So - what happened:

It was really beat up. Gashes like these across surfaces everywhere.

Puttied:


I had to sand it much more than I'd hoped. By hand and by hand-held machine. It's probably halved in size since I started.

My dad gave me whatever black paints he had (he had a lot). I didn't want the surface to be too reflective, so I started with a matte exterior paint. Two coats while sitting in my unventilated attic. V dizzy but how I love the smell of paint!

I didn't use the normal polyurethane to finish it. Still too shiny, so I used a layer of wood finish. It's actually tinted for oak, but you can't tell at all on top of the black.

It turned out perfectly slighty shiny.

I'm just a little afraid of the coral knobs. Too severe?

Putting recent buys and old mainstays to good use:

My neighbor had a similar chest that had really ornate brass handles covered with a thick coat of white paint. She was going to sell it to me for $10, but I resisted. When I went back outside an hour later, it was sitting at the corner. I didn't have time to stow it into my garage. By the time my cousin Lillian drove over, it was gone already!
I really wanted to sand it down and paint it a matte red and reveal the brass with lots of paint thinner. That would have been fucking lovely. Chinoiserie!

love thy neighbor!

I always judge a book by its cover. Easy enough with these:

Don't you love his face. What a pretentious badass.

STELLLLAAAAA!!

My neighborino was having a little sidewalk sale. I scored two framed prints and a metal vanity chair for five bucks. (Although I may or may not have pretended to be a genuinely nice person by helping her move a stereo.)

The Ziegfeld Girl poster is an original (now I have to watch the movie). Carmencita is a remake, but I love the frame.

It's actually really sturdy.


I rearranged my above-bed. My cousin Lillian and her husband Tim's place has four framed album covers that are really beautiful together with super-saturated colors. Since my wall color is so toned down and my room is mostly pastels with shots of color, I decided to keep my four covers muted and understated (with a vulgar undertone, of course).


Julio!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Egotism



My coworkers (who are very charming, humorous, attractive, intelligent, lovable, and also happen to read my blog) found this video. Had a laugh!

But make no mistake, comrades and cohorts - I am a Phenomenon. Virtually!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

lepidoptera + chrysanthemum

Fourth of July block party flowers. I didn't have time to go to the wholesale market in SoMA, so I overpaid at a florist in North Beach next to work.

White chrysanthemums in a teapot. I love the tea and I like the ironyfullness of it, of course.

SoMA. Is it South of Market Area or SOuth of MArket? NoPa is Northern Pandle but the New York SoMA is otherwise.


Most of Northern California is absolutely nothing but a crapload of Green and Pretty. Some adventurous family members and I took a trip up to Oregon: Crater Lake, Big Bend, and various mosquito-infested sites.

Mosquitoes love my delicious blood and those little bastards carry DISEASES! I have been ravaged, and not in the kinky way.


I saw this caterpillar at a truck stop. I can't find the species. Probably something common. But OMGAH check out this Saddleback Caterpillar. OMG so cool. Such a bad little demon.

My little lepidoptera:


I know it's evil, but we brought home some frogs. I know it's terrible and they're probably going to die very soon, but I've prepared a really really nice terrarium for them and gajeebers, for nostalgia's sake? And they're FUCKING CUTE.

"Question. Where can I put my terrarium?" Heh heh hehhhhh.
((Really though, where the hell should I put my terrarium? I doubt any other herpetology enthusiasts read this, but anyone know? Would a greenhouse be okay? Because it's perfect temperature and combination of direct/indirect sunlight during the day, but I don't want to warm their water too much because they're from a lake and the lake water was frigid. But then their soil (I found them bordering soil, gravel, and lake shore) was warm. But then the greenhouse is too cold at night and I don't want to disturb them by moving them up and down the stairs all the time. So for now the terrarium is in my room on my floor. The difficulty with this is the fact that I can't turn on my lights past sundown because that would disturb their day/night patterns. And the dust! I also didn't bring any soil from the site and now they can't burrow!! I'm fucking nervous because we haven't been particularly wise with our other frogs (RIP, dudes).))


By the way, there is such thing as a city called Weed, California and KFC buffets.