Hot Weekend in Brooklyn

A toasty (100 degrees plus) weekend in Brooklyn, in pictures...

I loved all of the beautiful ironwork on the brownstones.

Brett looking REALLY thrilled to be drinking iced coffee and heading to the Brooklyn Flea. I was thrilled for reals.

The following are things I would have brought home, if I were not taking the subway and the train back to Virginia:

One gigantic metal squirrel. LOVE. We toyed with the idea of this being a weathervane, but decided it did not have the cardinal directions on it so it must just be a giant metal squirrel.

Prettiest old window ever. I would have put screen on the back and used it to display my earrings. OR just hung it somewhere as decoration on a wall.

I took this picture because of the HUGE sawblade, which is amazing. But on reflection, that old phone is pretty cool too.

What I actualy did bring home was 2 "Giant African Porcupine Quills" for my hair of course. And in case I needed a weapon.

Then we had ridiculus Venezuelan food at Caracas Arepas in Williamsburg. Yes we went all the way over there just for this restaurant and yes it was worth it.

Frankly I was a little bit afraid that Brett was going to leave me for whoever made these little balls of heaven: yo-yos. They are fried dough balls with fried plantains and cheese in them. Then you dunk them in molassas. Mmmmm and I had fresh watermelon juice.

This baby is an arepa. They are shells of polena (or cornmeal, or whatever you want to call it) around delicious fillings. Mine was avacado, white cheese, and plantain. Brett's was pork. The sauce on the side was some kind of guava sauce that tasted like a cross between a curry, a mustard, and a chutney. And just for shits and giggles, here is a shot of the sidewalk bathtub flowerbeds. :-D

Have a great Sunday! Tomorrow we are off to Maine...

Third Anniversary

Happy Anniversary B! I love you, and can't believe all that we have done in these 3 short years. xoxo Charlotte

Ongoing projects goal--MET!

Well, we decided to go ahead with the bookshelf project, AND I GOT 12 of the PROJECTS DONE!!! That was pretty darn close to my goal of 13, no?

1. Replace overhead fixture in art/spare room.
2. Finish painting art/spare room.
3. Finish painting guest room.
4. Add homemade diffuser to bottom of drum shade a la here.
5. Sew cute dog crate cover.
6. Sew waterproof covers for outdoor furniture
7. Make unflattering Forever 21 dress into pretty skirt
8. Finish blanket for project linus
9. Finish chocolate brown crocheted pillow cover I blogged about
10. Turn all of my stretchy crew neck gap tshirts into Vnecks
11. Totally redo shoe storage
12. Revamp weird hexagonal lamp/table from For the Love of Jesus Thrift
13. Buy new knobs for my bathroom
14. Turn huge candle from TJ Maxx into pretty wooden fruit bowl
15. Revamp necklace storage
16. Make wedding shadowbox
17. Restore antique pew
18. Add handle to freestanding Ikea Pax pantry for laundry room
19. Replace hideous kitchen cabinet hardware
20. Attach legs and casters to storage ottomans to fit under our trestle table
21. Add magnetic closure to antique vanity drawer
22. Reupholster vanity bench
23. Finish subway art
24. Turn large body painting into tryptich.
25. Turn brass sections of Nana's navy lamps silver.



You guys have already seen the dog crate cover and the necklace holder, but I have a lot more to blog about now! I crossed off a couple of them, even though the project kind of morphed. For instance, I got the brass parts of the lamps covered, but am totally not satisfied with the look. So the project is technically "done" per my earlier goal, but to B's dissatisfaction it is still taking up the dining room table because I don't like how it turned out. More about that later.

I didn't add the casters to the ottomans...but I did buy decorative upholstery nails to add to them as well...so that project got bigger instead of done.

Also, I didn't exactly add magnetic closure to the vanity drawer...instead, I had my dad take a look at it and he said adding the closure might decrease the value of the antique. So instead he removed some little stop blocks someone had added to the inside of the drawer along its life, and greased up the current hardware, and it works like a charm.

ANYWAY...The BOOKSHELVES LOOK AMAZING!!! We went with Hemnes from Ikea, three without doors and two with, and they fit perfectly along the wall. We haven't "styled" them yet, but I am just so happy that there are no longer books EVERYWHERE.

Sorry no pictures today, but I promise some juicy ones soon.

xoxo

Charlotte

I've been busy...making prints!

These photos are from the studio. I'll let you know when this edition of 30 linocuts will be available on my Etsy shop!

Poltergeist OR How Dominion Power Skeered the Little Green Kittens Out of Me

SCENE:
B and I are happily getting ready to warm up some blueberry muffins left over from the weekend first thing Monday morning. The coffee is done brewing (thank god). Then all of a sudden--FLASH, FLASH, FLASH, *powering down noise*. The scent of electricity (that makes your little nose hairs tingle) fills the air, followed by burning plastic.
END SCENE

No folks, our house was not built over a native american cemetery, so I immediately decided the wisest thing to do was cut off the power to the entire house and call George the electrician. Before breakfast. I asked him if he dealt in electrical mysteries, and happily he agreed to come out to our house on an emergency basis at 10am.

It turns out that the neutral wire from the transformer to our house broke, and that happens to be the one that regulates how fast power comes into your house.

After the utilities man came out, dug in our yard, dug in our neighbor's yard, and replaced the wire, here is what we ended up with:

NO oven (new, thankfully still under warranty)
NO microwave.
No bedroom TV
No cable
No internet
No bluray player
No dvd player
No fan in the bedroom

Thank the lord the power surge fairy did not bother our a/c, fridge or freezer or some heads wouldabeen rollin.

So the Fios people are coming out to look fix our cable/internet this afternoon, and GE is coming to fix the oven Monday.

George the electrician called me back Monday night and said, "well sweetie, you make'em pay for that!"

Here is one time when that Bar card will actually come in handy!

xoxo

Charlotte

One Point for Organization: Coarkboard Necklace Display

I got them all up on the wall where I can see them! Can I even tell you how much better it is getting dressed in the morning when they aren't a tangled mess??

The beautiful framed coarkboard was $30 from Home Goods, and its huge.

Now if only I could do the same for earrings and bracelets! But that, my friend, is for another to-do list...

Dog Crate Cover for Mack

Allow me to introduce you again to Mack, our rescue dachsund/border collie/who knows what sweetie. He sleeps in a crate in our room at night, and loves it to be covered with blankets like his personal little cave. It kind of reminds me of when you were little and wanted a fort under the kitchen table.

Here is a "before" photo of his crate with blankets draped over it per his liking. HOWEVER, not to my liking! I think it looked so sloppy and we needed our blankets back. (Don't worry, he normally has a pillow in there to sleep in, it was just in the wash when I took these pictures.)

So I decided to sew something nice and tailored to cover it up in a little bit of neater fashion. Voila the finished product:

I picked out this really cute, thick black and white dog-print fabric from our local fabric outlet U-fab, and went to town with the sewing machine.

I measured the back, sides, and top of the crate, and leaving a 1/2 inch seam allowance all the way around, I pieced it together and pinned it right-sides together.

Here you can see it partially done, with the back and top sewed together and one side pinned on.

And here is the almost-finished product: at that point I just had to sew it into a 3D shape. I left off the front so he could see out.

Then I hemmed all the way around the edges...

Here the crate is all nekked:

And here it is as the finished product.

I'm pretty sure he doesn't know the difference but I think it looks so much cleaner. The basket on the top is where we store his and Lolly's treats, brushes, etc. She sleeps on a dog bed on the floor (not so much of a fan of the crate as her brother!)

It was super easy! Let me know if anybody wants one as a christmas gift!

xoxo

Charlotte