Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Mostly house-y stuff


An old friend gave Nico a really amazing gift this past weekend:



She created this freehand after receiving a bag of colorful scraps that reminded her of the wings of the butterfly from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. (I keep telling her she needs to start an Etsy shop, because this is just one of the many amazing things she's made.) I posted an admiring comment on an early in-progress facebook picture, and she later surprised me by deciding to give it to Nico upon completion. Since Nico doesn't use blankets yet (and won't even tolerate a sheet across his feet when he's in my bed) and since, hello, this thing is AMAZING, I think I'm going to hang it on the wall above his crib. Does anyone have any tips on hanging a quilt as art? It's pretty small as quilts go, only 37" across the top. Some cursory googling indicates that I should probably stitch a pocket onto the back to slide a dowel through, and then use the dowel as support for the hanging mechanism. My friend Rachel suggested using a hollow rod so that I can run a ribbon or invisible nylon line through the center and have the rod completely hidden behind the quilt. Would a piece of small-diameter PVC pipe work? I love this idea because it wouldn't require a lot of hardware on the wall, and because if Nico wants to use it as a blanket someday, it'll be simple to remove the pocket.

Advise me (again), internets

MB and I have been talking a bit lately about what room we want to redo next, on the hypothetical future day when we have a little bit of money set aside. I think we're going to address the living room first since our current couch has a spot the size of a loaf of bread where the upholstery has worn through to the stuffing, but I've also been daydreaming about redoing our little half bath off the kitchen. It's got the fantastic original 1940 tile and sink, which we aren't going to touch, but the wallpaper with pastel blue seashells must go. So what color would you paint a very small bathroom tiled in white, black, and a very light gray? What curtains would you put in there after painting?

Here's the best photo I have of the tile, since I'm too lazy to go take and upload a new one at the moment...the tiles are pretty small:



Gamechanger

I can't remember who, but one of my facebook friends posted a video the other day with a tutorial on how to fold a fitted sheet so it doesn't look like a big wadded-up ball. I tried it tonight, and damned if it didn't work like a charm. I love that the first comment under the video is "Shit...he's already married."



Braggy McBraggerson

Nico "reading" a picture book:



And now, bedtime!


Reading:  The Mermaid Garden by Santa Montefiore (Yes, still, OMG.)

Playing:  Sublime

4 comments:

  1. My sewing level is "Can sew on a button, but not a straight line," so what I did when I wanted to hang a quilt is I bought some little plastic loops (about the size of buttons---I don't remember now what they're supposed to be for, but I found them at a sewing store) and sewed three or four of them onto the top back of the quilt. Then I hung those loops on nails.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm brainstorming about redoing my bathroom too! I think I would do light grey walls, black valance and white miniblinds in that room if I were you! :) I'm going to paint my bathroom mocha, I think, with a darker brown valance, since my tile in that room is shades of brown!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I should've said up front that I'm generally anti-miniblind. Maybe all black curtains would work, though, since it's a small window.

    ReplyDelete
  4. THANK YOU for the fitted sheet tutorial. I knew about that, and then lost it, and then now I have found it again!

    I mean, not that I sit around wishing I could fold more fitted sheets, but every few weeks, yeah, I wish I could do it better.

    ReplyDelete