light

See this hanging lamp, in my sister's kitchen?

It used to be in our house growing up.  Then I was a little jealous that she got it, but it's cool, because I got my own (in green), at the recently defunct Astro Vintage.  Score.

Bad news is, the one I bought gave out some pretty serious shocks when you touched any part of it. So I bought some  new, old timey cord from Sundial, and this weekend we (my dad and I, but really my dad) rewired it. So now I have my own lamp.

I guess this is a lesson/blog post in copy-catting your family members, thrifting, safety, and lighting. And some kind of a joke about "isn't it funny how my sister's kitchen looks exactly like mine?"

I'll blog about something real sometime soon. Like the Batman maybe, or the Olympics.

fireflies (but not really)

Dedicated readers will remember a couple months ago, when the Craigslist Fairy dropped hundreds of tiny jars into my life.  Ever since, I'm always trying to work out good uses for them.

Here's sort of a "Recollections-of-Your-Childhood-Summers" fun time activity:

(in the light)

(and in the dark!)

A + I spent a few nights making these (with a little glow-in-the-dark paint, tiny paint brushes, tv, and some internet inspiration).  Firefly jars, minus the catching, the accidents, the dead bugs in the morning.

Now just to figure out what (if anything) goes in them...

spark

Nothing is summery-er than having a camera full of sparkler pictures, right?

I'd like to be able to say my form has improved since I was a kid, but I don't really think it has.

kantha

Here's MLB on this Kantha Sari quilt I got from Fab.com.  He (obvi) likes it, I like it, and it came in TWO DAYS, which is way better than what I've come to expect from Fab.  Made of two vintage saris (so no two blankets are alike).  They're not always available on the site, but pretty often.  The reverse is a faded yellow print with equally crazy stitching.  Pretty good.

Part of the trick with them (Fab) is that I wasn't even in the market for a blanket, then I get all these credits stacking up, and then I buy something like this that I didn't even mean to.  But! It's nice, and I like it. The hand-stitching is intense, the colors are cool, and it covers a clawed up chair pretty well. Okay.

switches b+a

(Here's one of those boring posts that Elizabeth likes).

I had a few switchplates and outlet covers in my house that were pretty yucky and had seem better days.  Like...probably when electricity was first installed in the house.

I've been looking around to maybe replace them, but did you know cool switchplate and outlet covers are SUPER EXPENSIVE?

Instead, I landed on this probably temporary, kind of silly solution using Anthropologie wallpaper samples and a couple round-the-house tools and products.

They'll send you free 4x6 samples of wallpaper*, which is perfect for doing a single switchplate (but not enough for a double).
Some of them are pre-pasted wallpaper, so you get it soaking wet, "book" the wallpaper (fold it in half - no creasing - so the edges touch each other.  First horizontally, then vertically.  Leave it that way for a minute or two, it activates the glue!).

Then stick it on!  I used a good X-acto, and folded all the edges under.  I screwed it back on while the wallpaper was still wet, so it dries with everything tucked in and in place.

So much better, right? In case you can't tell, it's the tail end of a bunny hopping.  Whatever, I like it.  I also cleaned up the wall a little.

I did another switchplate with this "Stacked Paperback" wallpaper, which turned out only okay.  That paper is unpasted, so I went a much more decopauge route with it (paintbrush, watered down craft glue), which was much messier, and might end up sticky and unusable.  We'll see!  The good part is, I can always switch out to plain white jawns in a flash.

*regarding requesting wallpaper samples:  first, you should know - I really was/am on a wallpaper train, so I wasn't just ordering free samples for free samples' sake. I'm doing research.  But I'm glad I did request them, and you can too.  Keep in mind you might find that you don't know which part of the picture you're going to end up with!  (See rabbit butt).

NF

I went to Niagara Falls last week with my mom, and here's what it looked like:

(click on any of the pictures to make them bigger.  I think.)

from far away, and up closer, and all-up-in-it.  We rode the Maid of the Mist*, which I hadn't done since I was a kid, and walked across the Rainbow Bridge to Ontario**.  Sounds good, right?  If you (like me) haven't done this trip in a million years, get on it.


*a great boat ride that takes up right up under the falls.  You get wet.

**it's really a car bridge, but you can pedestrian it too.  It's funny because when you cross it, you have to go through customs, both ways.  "What is the purpose of your visit?", and a 50c toll.

heirloom lurking

I recently did an (8 day!) vacation to WNY.  I spent the first day hitting Buffalo hotspots, and then assessing my mom's antiques, so I can nab the best ones when she dies.  (That's kind of a joke. Maybe better to say, "so I can get the best ones when she gets a smaller house someday"?)

There are probably like ten or twelve good pieces I want.

Like this whole bedroom set (my mom's great grandmother's.  So...my great-great grandmother's?).  Headboard, footboard, big and small dresser.  They're all pretty good.

And this penny quilt with this kind of scary clown, and lots of other good panels on it.  (Which was a grandmother's but not a great.)

Is it morbid or regular to treat visits home like shopping trips?  My mom mostly seems glad about it (she likes that someone else likes the pieces she's kept), so for now, I'll keep mentally tagging items whenever I go home (which is very infrequently).  It at least makes me feel like when I'm a grown-up, I'll have a lot less to do with Ikea.

There were other parts of my trip to.  Natural Wonders, wishing lanterns, sparklers, etc, but I'll maybe get into that stuff later.