ikea!

Now that Oscar is going down at bedtime easily and staying asleep, I have a little time for myself in the evenings. The other night I went to Ikea to get the Antilop highchair since Oscar will be starting solids soon, and of course got a couple other things that caught my eye as well: this super cute house print fabric, and a wool throw with a lovely graphic pattern. I haven't figured out what to do with the fabric yet - any ideas?

a little more crafting

Some recent little projects completed: fabric storage buckets for the baby room (i roughly followed this pattern), and re-upholstering an old chair our neighbor was trying to get rid of. I bought the fun yellow fabric on our honeymoon in Stockholm.

















And look what I found at Kinokuniya the other day! I've been eyeing all the cute masking tape that has been showing up on Etsy, and am thrilled that I can find them locally now.

Cubbyholes

It's hard for me to get work done when the space I'm in is messy and disorganized. My studio is in need of a lot of work, so I was happy to finally have the first major piece: the Ikea Expedit bookcase. I love shelves, cubbyholes, boxes, and basically anything that helps me organize and contain loose objects. I can't wait to finally be able to have a proper place for things in the studio. Here is Charlie, trying to take a nap and wishing I would quit pointing that camera at her already!

Settling in

The first project in our new place is completed, thanks to my handy husband! The master bedroom closet had just one rod across, so to accommodate all our clothes, Irving raised the rod up a few inches so that he can have a second rod on his side, and shelves on my side (per my request). Since part of the closet had to be repainted anyway, we decided we might as well pick a color other than white. It's such a relief to not be digging through boxes for my clothes every morning. And since the master bedroom is also not a construction zone anymore, we're now sleeping in there (rather then the guest bedroom) with our new queen-sized bed and new sheets.



Trips to the thrift store to drop off random stuff gave me an excuse to look around as well. Here are some finds from this past week. The ceramic canister at the bottom is perfect for storing ginger and cloves of garlic in the kitchen. My favorite is probably the little yellow cup at the top left.. it feels a bit Scandinavian to me.

A new place to call home

I wanted to wait until I had some decent pictures before I shared the news, but I still don't have decent pictures, and I just can't hold it in anymore. We bought a house and we just moved in this past weekend! So yes, that's why the posts have been few and far between. Packing, unpacking, and cleaning has been taking up much of my free time in the last week or so. The place is still a mess with boxes everywhere, so all I've got is a boring shot of the front door.



This new place is actually smaller, but we'll have a yard, and I'm actually looking forward to small space living challenges. It'll be good to be forced to de-clutter and not have stuff hanging around just because there's the space for it. And of course, I'm looking forward to decorating and making it feel like home.

And Charlie has been growing like crazy! She's more than 5.5 lbs now - more than double her size when we first got her. Here is the little sleepy-head this morning.

Ottoman re-done

Irving had an Ikea ottoman from before we were married that he really wanted to keep. It was covered in this faded blue canvas and just looked very "college-y". So of course it had to be re-upholstered. It was tough deciding what to use, but I finally decided on an Amy Butler home decor fabric. I wanted something that wasn't too loud or colorful, but still modern and interesting.



I love that this ottoman is really a box: the top comes off like a lid, and the inside is great for storing throws and blankets. The upholstery is attached using Velcro all around the edges of both pieces, so it's pretty easy to remove it for washing. (I discovered that Velcro is not cheap, especially since I needed about 5 yards of it -- so I ripped the Velcro from the old cover to sew onto the new one.)



The trickiest thing about this project is the shaping. I had naively thought everything fit together like the sides of a box with right angles, but realized later that some of the corners are actually rounded or angled... so I resorted to some quickie not-so-elegant fixes rather that ripping and re-doing. I tend to be a little lazy when I'm making things for myself. I think it's also a little looser than it should be - I should've taken my measurements in just a bit so that the fabric would stretch over the frame and fit more snugly. The Velcro edges allowed me to stretch it more tightly though. Good lessons for future projects.

Design House Stockholm

It makes me happy every time I look at these sitting in our cupboard. They are Design House Stockholm cups from our honeymoon in Scandinavia.
















I think the patterns are absolutely gorgeous - simple but striking.
















So imagine my surprise when I saw this while flipping through the Crate and Barrel catalog - exact same thing, also made out of bone china, except with handles! It turns out Design House Stockholm does make a version with handles. I'm pretty impressed with Crate and Barrel (though I guess with their Marimekko stuff it's not unusual for them to bring good Scandinavian design into their stores), but wonder why they didn't credit them the way they do Marimekko. Also, it's a bit less than what we paid in Stockholm (maybe because of the exchange rate) - go get yourself some!

A new year

Ah, it's been a good break. I had the last week and a half off and it's been the perfect mix of rest, fun, and productivity. The Christmas dinner we hosted for our families was great. I got to clean and even make some pillows for our naked couch. I've been really into gray and this citron-mustard-yellow, so couldn't resist these two finds in the clearance bin.









I also did a little decorating and decided to pink and pre-wash most of my fabric collection. It's taking awhile, but I think being able to just pick up a piece of fabric and sew will keep the laziness at bay when inspiration strikes. I really want to get better at sewing this year!









Just before the weekend we flew out to New York to visit my college buddy and her parents in New Jersey. We only had about a day and a half in the city and besides all the good food we ate (always central to reunions with college friends!), one of the highlights was visiting Takashimaya. Unfortunately the online store is bit sparse, but everything there was just so beautiful and unique. In New Jersey we rested, played games, cooked, and of course ate! If we had more time I would've loved to visit the Lotta Jansdotter store in Brooklyn amongst other cute shops I always hear about.