Volume 2 of things I should've bought and now I'm mad, plus seven things about me

I've done it again. I always wait until it's too late:

prettiest little vintage clock from ClockworkUniverse.

The perfect vintage toaster from solsticehome.

Cozy vintage afghan from ginnyswindow.

The most adorable set of vintage mugs from SunnyDayVintage.

Ah, well. They just weren't meant to be!

I also want to say thanks to Amy for awarding me with the beautiful blogger award!

I have to say seven things about myself you might not already know...hmmm...

1. Most days I wear my winter coat from 7:30 a.m. until the time I go to bed. I'm THAT cold.

2. I really hate glitter (sorry to those of you who love it!).

3. I have an unhealthy addiction to Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Crispins in the bacon 'n' onion flavor (croutons in a can!). Also, when I eat salad I sprinkle these on top and eat the salad dry with no dressing at all. I hear that's a strange thing to do.

4. I was pretty much bored to death by the movie Avatar. There. I said it.

5. When I was in elementary school, I wiped out on my bike in a puddle of motor oil in a parking lot. I skinned my knee but it hurt too badly to wash out the oil. Well over 20 years later the oil is still on my knee- a tattoo, if you will. It looks like a cluster of small birth marks.

6. I can't decide which I love more: black olives or green olives.

7. Maybe seven years ago I wrote a gum company to tell them the berry-flavored gum I purchased was really gross and tasted like beef. They sent me a "gum diary" and I had to answer certain questions every time I tried different types of gum over a period of two weeks. After I turned it in, they sent me a whole bunch of gum. I cheated on the diary and filled the whole thing out in 30 seconds.

Wow. Those seven things about me were pretty lame!

I'm passing this award to these seven lovely ladies:

Fallon
Lindsey
Mandi
Leah
Fern
Kathy
Stacey

P.S. A long time ago I got a lot of blog awards at the same time. I had this BIG
post in my drafts to pass along the awards and thank everyone- and I accidentally
deleted the draft and couldn't remember who gave me what awards. :( So, so sorry!!

Progress

My doll-sized afghan thrift store find is slowly, but surely, becoming human-sized. Unfortunately I gave up on finding a match for the aqua- I looked everywhere I could think of looking and nothing even comes close. I couldn't even find a matching cream or brown! Therefore, I will have to finish the afghan with nothing but contrasting colors. I think it looks pretty good so far, and I like that it's big enough to cover me while working on it- cozy!

Paper works of art.

These sculptures by Bert Simons are made of nothing but paper. Paper! See his work along with 100 other amazing examples of paper art here.

Project.

The other day I was at a local vintage/resale shop on my lunch break. They were selling a few "doll blankets" at $5.00 each (the aqua part you see above). The blankets measured 25x20 inches each. I bought the aqua one, and I decided to just crochet a giant granny square all around it to make it a human-sized afghan. I was hoping to be able to find the same aqua color, but I went to three stores and nothing even comes close- everything is too blue and not aqua. I guess I'll just keep the square going with the pea green (I thought this color looked great with it), cream and brown. Maybe I'll think of some other accent colors that would work. I also might go back today and get the other two blankets. They had one that was a dusty orange color and a pink one, I think. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this while it's still cold outside!

The past- in miniature

I am in love with the art of Rick Araluce. He makes teeny tiny dioramas that are little, warn bits of the past. From his website:

"Empty rooms. Barren chambers. Ill-lit crawl spaces. Places where dust settles, the paint peels, the plaster falls from the lath to scatter upon aged floor boards. Places where something happened. Or where nothing has happened for years. There are stories here."





Keep in mind that most of these dioramas are smaller than your open hand! The shop front is longer and the hidden clock is taller, but otherwise, these little guys are TINY! See more of Rick's work here.

Meet Craftydill

Thanks to all of you for the kind words about my new house! It's been kind of rough around here lately and your comments have truly been such a comfort!

In other news, my friend Michelle over at craftydill has started a new blog- she is soooo sweet and I'd love it if you guys would go say hello! Make sure to follow her because she always comes across the best vintage finds! One of my favorite vintage mugs was a gift purchased from her shop. She also is an amazing crocheter- just look at these squares:

I want to learn how to make these! Anyway, do go say hello!! :)

A few more pics...

What I didn't show you before was that my "new" kitchen has the cutest ever walk-in pantry! I like how there is extra countertop space in there, and there's also a pull-out cutting board! See the little glass knob under the counter?

The room I call the "secret" room is not really a secret, but you can't get to it any other way than going through the bathroom. You'd think it was just a closet, but when you open it there is a small room- the one with the great antique linoleum floor! One wall in the secret room is floor-to-ceiling cabinets as shown below (I couldn't stand back far enough to get how tall they go! When you open the cabinets, there are shelves and also two storage compartments below the doors that have little lift-up lids.

Here are the curtains in the secret room...I actually think they are quite charming!

Of course I had to bring some of my rocks for my living room windowsill.

I got four antique chairs with the purchase of the house- I think the detail on them is really pretty:

And here is a photo of what the dining room looks like right now. Disaster area!

Cozy.

It's funny...even though I just went on this rant about how much of a hassle it's been dealing with all the wallpaper in my new house, I came across this image online and loved it. Doesn't this room just look perfectly cozy?! I want to cuddle up in that bed with a book and some hot chocolate chai. It kind of reminds me of the attic bedroom all the kids shared in the movie Nanny McPhee. I LOVE that room. Have you seen that movie? It's for kids but I think it's just as great for adults. :)

Image from here.

Yes, I'm alive!

Wow, I don't think I've ever gone this long without posting! As you may remember, I closed on my "new" house last Monday. I have spent all my time since then making trips back and forth and trying my hardest to update the walls in the house- there is a LOT of wallpaper. Every single room is covered in layer after layer. They even wallpapered and painted over the ceiling, which has been VERY hard to remove. It turns out that the removal of most of the wallpaper is just going to be too damaging to the antique plaster walls. Therefore, even though it pains me to say it, I decided to paint over the majority of the wallpaper. Before you cringe, just know I did major research on the subject and am in the process of doing it the RIGHT way! After all is said and done, nobody should be able to tell it's not just painted drywall. I've hesitated to post "before" photos because there is just so much work to be done and these pictures are not flattering! BUT it's only fair- to show the "after" photos at some point, I just had to show the house before the work began. So, here are some not-so-pleasant shots. I promise, the house is going to be adorable!

It has a gorgeous staircase, but it's really hard to photograph:


Downstairs, all the trim is white, but upstairs all the woodwork is in the original, unpainted condition. It's beautiful!:

The kitchen needs major updating, but it has a lot of charm! All the accessories you see belonged to the seller- they have since been removed:

There is a "secret" tiny room off of the bathroom upstairs, and it has these gorgeous antique linoleum floors! I am keeping them:


The room with the chandelier is the dining room. I love the wood floors. The living room (where I was standing to take the photo) is carpeted but not wall-to-wall; it's just a remnant that is placed in the middle. I am going to remove it:

Here is Julia giving her best "I'm cool" pose. Oh, and here you can see the old sewing machine I got with the house. The chair in the background came with the house, too:

Another view from the living room:

Most of the curtains are now down (I'm going to try and sew my own!). The house is quite the disaster right now, and I'm not actually 100% moving in until that wallpaper is completely out of sight. I just can't do it! hahah

And a great big thank you to everyone who is interested in participated in my mini vintage swap!! YES, I will be organizing this soon! If you'd like to participate, make sure to let me know by this Friday and I'll add you to the list!