I've Been Pinned!

No, not by some college freshman, unfortunately.  Waaaayyy too old for that, oh, and taken.  No, someone liked my office chair enough to repin it onto Pinterest.  If you've been stuck in the Dark Ages (which is where I usually reside), then you're probably wondering what Pinterest is.  Well, it's like a virtual scapbook of images.  Once you join, which is really easy, you download a thingy which allows you to pin any image on the web and stick it into a virtual folder.  It links to the original source which makes it easy to go to that image website in the future.  It's very addictive, so be warned.

Anyhow, here is the original pin.  Which was then repinned 25 more times.  Those repins were then repinned and so on.  I think I managed to track down atleast 76 repins and counting!  Wow,  people really like my chair.  This is great, because I don't get any feedback here, unfortunately.  It's a bit of a lonely road, so this little pat on the back has been good.

I even repinned the chair myself to see how this whole pinning thing works.

On a related note, I was chatting with one of the cool mums of a kid in Callum's class, and she mentioned Pinterest.  Before I could tell her about my chair, she said, "You keep seeing all the same old crap on there i.e. chevrons, yellow & grey interiors."  Oops.  I almost wanted to say, "wow you've been on my blog then."  But thought better of it.  

And, as I've been compiling this post, I've had a number of conversations with the Urban Outfitters people regarding the zigzag rug.  I knew it was too good to be true.  Yesterday, a woman from Urban left a message on my phone asking for some clarification for the order.  When I called back the number, no-one could trace the order, or find the rug, or locate the woman who made the call, or anything.  Agghhh!  Boo Urban for getting my hopes up and then dashing them.  What a drama!

Chinese Dragon Mask

I had hoped to share with you a picture of something I purchased last week from Overstock.  But unfortunately they sent me the wrong thing.  So instead, here's a little project that I've been working on with Roman.

And here's what it started as.

Some cardboard, egg carton, papier mache, paint, fur, googly eyes and a party blower, et voila.

Oh, and U2 was awesome last night!  We managed to score some cheap general admission tickets for the floor and it was well worth the wait.  And congrats to Sheila for getting her Irish passport signed by Bono!

More Chevron!

Do you believe in The Secret?  What's that got to do with chevron or design, you're probably thinking.  Well, sometimes I'm not quite quick enough pulling the trigger on something I want (which can be a good and a bad thing).  Many a time I've put something in my virtual shopping cart only to find out at checkout that the item is sold out.  Has that ever happened to you?  It's a real bummer and when it happens, it just makes you want that item even more.  Well it happened to me last week regarding a rug.  My design board for the office originally had a grey and white striped rug on it.  I had planned on buying a white rug from ikea and painting stripes on one side and chevron on the other, so that I could switch it up from time to time.  When I got the rug from ikea and tried it out at home, it didn't quite work because of the type of material (it would bunch up all over the place).  So back it went.  I'd forgotten all about putting a rug in there until I spotted this beauty.

image from here

You're probably thinking, just as my husband does, not more bloody chevron!  But it's so Madeline Weinrib, I can't resist.  Plus it's only $69! So I popped it into my virtual shopping bag, not worried that it said it was on back-order, hey a girl can wait for something she really wants.  Anyhow, I decided to actually checkout a day later, and horror of all horrors, it was SOLD OUT!  Aghh.  So I called customer service, and they said they couldn't find it on their site, then after a few clicks they said that a number of stores had one including Salt Lake.  So I called all the stores and no one had it!  But I'm a persistent kind of girl, and it's paid off in the past.  I emailed customer service and explained my dilemma.  They told me it was still on backorder, but that I could call customer service and they should be able to order me one.  Umm, well I wasn't convinced, but thankfully when I called this morning they could indeed order it for me.  Instead of doing it on the computer, the costumer service rep had to write my information down, which seems a bit archaic and fishy, but she said that the item would arrive sometime in August.  Fingers crossed, I'm still half expecting to receive another email saying that the item can no longer be sent.  My thoughts are that this is so close a copy of the Madeline Weinrib rug pictured below, that they've put a cease on Urban selling it on their website.  Just a thought.  I think the same thing happened to West Elm and Pottery Barn a few years ago with one of their tile rugs.

image from here

So I'll keep you posted, and hope that my persistence pays off.

It's All in the Details {how to prettify Ikea magazine boxes}

When in Pottery Barn the other day, I spotted these pretty sticky notes by Cavallini Papers & Co.  

 

I decided to snap them up, hoping that they would work for a little project I had in mind.  

Thankfully they did!  And they fit in nicely with my plan to make the home office exceedingly girly.

I'm sure that everyone that lives within 100 miles of an Ikea has these generic Kassett storage boxes.  They're really handy and cheap if a little bland.  

The sticky notes add just a touch of colour and interest to the all white boxes.

You can also get them in different styles, if butterflies aren't your thing.  And had I known they came with birds on them, well...

You can't get them on-line at Pottery Barn, but Touch of Europe has them.  The thing is, they look so pretty, I don't want to spoil them by actually writing on them.

Small Changes

I still have quite a few things hanging round the house, in random places (getting in the way), that used to be in the old office.  In my attempts to clean up said pieces, I had an ah-ha moment and realized that one of the old notice boards would be perfect in the back room as somewhere for the never ending bits of paper that we get from the boys' school.

The British flag is left over from the royal wedding celebration, but look how perfect it looks propped in the corner like that.

The old notice board was way too small.

Here are some more random shots of the mud-room/school-room/laundry-room.

And if you're wondering what's behind the chalk board/ french door, here's a little peek.

Lemonade!

It's been a sad week around here.  Roman's 2nd grade teacher passed away suddenly on Tuesday evening. As a memorial, the school has decided to purchase some benches to be placed underneath the 2nd grade classroom windows.  The children were asked to donate anything they could afford from as little as pennies to a couple of dollars.  Roman initially wanted to give $5 of his birthday money (he's been saving all year) but came up with the brilliant plan of holding a lemonade stand.  People were very generous with their tips, and Roman insisted on giving all of the money to the fund.  He raised $23.  I'm so proud of his entrepreneurial and generous spirit.

The weather was perfect.

Roman's sign

Callum's sign

I knew that that old Open House realtors sign would come in handy.  (Yes, I used to be a Realtor).

Even though it was lovely and hot, there were occasional and unexpected gusts of wind.  Here the boys are trying to batten down the hatches.

notice the flowers!

Add caption

Problem flowers solved with attractive pot.  Callum desperately trying to make sure the umbrella doesn't fly away.

There was quite a bit of waiting around for customers to show up.

Callum had the brilliant idea of passing the time by playing the guitar.

He also ended up drinking his fair share of the lemonade.

Callum playing "Let it Be".  Mystery money cash register bursting with dollar bills.

Home Office Inspiration Board

I wanted a large inspiration board for the office but couldn't find one big enough that was in my budget.  So, not being afraid of a bit of DIY, I decided to make my own.

I didn't want to start messing around by cutting pieces of wood and trying to make a frame, which would have probably been the cheapest option, instead I decided to use an artist canvas.  Fortunately Michaels was having a 50% off sale on their canvases, and they had a huge one at 40x60 inches.  Perfect size.  Not!  I couldn't get it in my car, and my car isn't even that small.  I tried & tried, and looked really silly in the process.  I didn't want to stick it on top of the car, because that's the kind of thing husbands do, and he wasn't around.  So back to the shop it went.  Fortunately I had my thinking cap on and decided that I would join 2 canvases together.  Sure it would be a bit of work, but not as much effort as calling a friend with a mini van to pick up the larger canvas.

So I started with this:

I pushed a pin into the canvas and decided that it needed some sort of backing that would hold the pin in place.  So out came some foam board which I had to cut in half to fit into the frame.

Next came the tricky part.  What should I use to attach the two canvases together?  After wandering around Lowes aimlessly, I stumbled upon these fastener brace thingies.  They seem to do the job nicely and the board passed the wobble test.  Next step was to cut the fabric to size and staple in place.  I'm getting very good with stapling, but wish I had an electric one to save my poor handie.

After the fabric had been attached, I decided to add some nail heads.  I completely cleaned out JoAnns & Hancock Fabrics of their stock and still didn't have enough, so that part will have to be finished later.

Final step, attach picture hangers and hang.  Fortunately it's level.  You never know with these old houses how things are going to look once hung.  If it's not the floor that's sloping, it's the ceiling, or the door frame, or just about anything else that could make something look wonky!

The fabric I used is called Silhouette by Thomas Paul from Calico Corners.  I wanted to inject another colour other than yellow into the scheme, so I chose turquoise.  I also wanted the print to be organic & graphic at the same time.  I think that this notice board would work equally well with a plain linen fabric.  Maybe when I tire of the print, I'll do something like that.

Home Office Progress

Pictures and gigantic glam mirror are hung!  We're getting there.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope all you mothers out there enjoyed a glorious Mother's Day filled with chocolates, pampering, home made cards & pressies.

These are things I'll treasure forever. 

Roman's card made me laugh, though.  On closer inspection, you'll notice that Callum is tied to a kite!  Poor Roman has never really gotten over having to share mummy & daddy's attention.

Chef Dingley cooked up a glorious supper of Salmon en croute with asparagus & fingerling potatoes.



He loves to play dress-up

And here's a cute picture of all three of my boys.