Restoration Hardware Megalog

Pity the poor post-person.  Not only is the PO making rumblings about closing sites and cutting hours and services, the carriers had to deliver the new catalog, weighing in at 3.2 pounds with 616 pages!  Clearly this is a new RH - not the company that sold "authentic reproduction" of light fixtures, furniture hardware and paint and stain to replicate antique finishes.  A few years ago RH went down another path - adding unique gift items.  Then the stores started disappearing altogether.

Behold the new Restoration Hardware.  No replacement for antique lamp fixtures, no supplies for refinishing wood, no patch kits for old plumbing.   This is a "new and evolving way to furnish our homes", according to Chairman Gary Friedman. 

There is a slightly creepy photo of Mr. Friedman on the second page, along with some grandiose comparisons to Teddy Roosevelt, but shameless self-promotion aside, who wouldn't want to just move into any one of the amazing rooms?

First, there are the colors - muted neutral naturals.  It's the first thing you notice when flipping through (OK, the second, after you've recovered from sticker shock).  Restful wall colors with neutral colored accessories - clearly Mr. Friedman doesn't believe in the "every room needs a pop of color" theory.

The style of furnishings is a mixture of industrial and architectural elements meet vintage. Steam punk on steroids, if you will.  There are no little tchotchkes.  Size clearly matters here.  The French tower clock is 5 feet in diameter (and costs $ 1195  and as noted in the description, is "non-operational").  The 1595 scrolled map of Florence is 12 feet long (and fantastic):





I can resist the Copenhagen chair ( $1865):

And the 8 foot tall Eiffel tower study model ($1745):

But can we talk about the linens?  Belgian linen that you can almost feel in the photos - soft, faded colors that look like my fantasy of life in an old French chateau. Never mind that outfitting your bed with these beauties could set you back a grand or so - fantasies involving French chateaus don't come cheaply!











And just look at these birdcage chandeliers ( $2525) :

This we might be able to knock-off.  Find a vintage (or a new one shabbied- up), add some twinkly white lights and we could make this for orders of magnitude less.  I'm adding it to my project list!

I know that this catalog is the embodiment of conspicuous consumerism; that no one needs to spend over a grand on a clock that doesn't tell time, or a map that covers an entire wall, or a model of the Eiffel tower the size of Big Foot.   I know that kind of money could feed an entire village of starving children.   But, for a woman who is happy to shop thrift stores, this is heady stuff and I'm smitten!





Finally Made Some Art!

It's been some time since I've spent much time in my studio.   I've been gardening like a crazy person, and while I do think that's a creative outlet, it's not like paper, ink and stamps.

I made this for  Carpenter Son's birthday, using a piece of wood he had sent as protection for some other gift.   I love using wood as a substrate - you can bang it up, nail things right into it , and it takes color well.

I had some trouble getting the background color in this - fiddled with some brown, white and green until I succeeded in making mud!   It needed serious lightening up, so I stenciled the numbers and letters with white gesso, then dry brushed on some cream paint.

I found the old train schedule from his home town at Nancy Dole's Used Books and Ephemera in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.  She has a small shop filled with beautiful old books and all manner of ephemera from the area. 

This is an old family photo of his Papa driving a steam shovel, probably in the 30s.  The smile of recognition at this photo was priceless.

I added a piece of old ruler to honor his carpentry skills.

One of the fun things about using wood is that I could pound these old gears right into it.   

Love this canvas resist clock piece.   The 73 is significant - the year CS was born and the year I turned 10.  How else could it be possible for him to be as old as he is?

It felt so good to be making something again!

DIY St. Patrick's Day Shirts

Both of our grands have Irish surnames, so shamrock shirts are in order.   I found this idea on Pinterest (how on earth did we ever manage before Pinterest?).   There is a detailed tutorial on Jessica's blog.   The technique is pretty similar to the Sharpie mugs we made at Christmas, except we're using paint, not Sharpies.

The hardest part of the project was finding plain white tees !  Target had all kinds of printed ones, a bazillion Frozen ones, and only these two styles in plain white.   I washed and dried the shirts first so they would do any shrinking or other laundry bad-behavior before I painted them.   Washing also removes the sizing used that makes the shirts look all smooth and perfect - it also can prevent the paint from sticking.

First, the shamrock.  Jessica has a template on her bog, or you could free-hand it.  I used her template and enlarged it to about 120% for the larger shirt.  Trace the template on to freezer paper.  Freezer (or deli) paper is key.  

 Position the template on the shirt , shiny side (plastic) down and lightly iron so it adheres to the fabric.

I used two shades of green paint, plus one with glitter to glam up the one for Montana granddaughter.   Since I used regular acrylic paint, not fabric paint, I added texture medium .  Fabric paint, or acrylic paint with texture medium, helps the paint be absorbed into the fibers and be more permanent.

Now, the fancy tool - a pencil with an eraser.  Pencil erasers make the best dots- you can even use them with a stamping pad.  Be sure to slide a piece of paper - freezer or whatever paper is handy inside the shirt before you start painting so the paint doesn't bleed through to the back of the shirt.

Now the fun begins.  Dip the eraser in paint and start painting dots all around the shamrock.  Paint the dots close together at first, then start spreading them out a bit as you add more rows.  The first couple of rows closer together ensure a crisp outline. 

Here is the little shirt fro Texas grandson with all the painted dots and the paper template still in place.  Once you're happy with the dots, peel off the freezer paper.  The magic of freezer paper is that it will peel off without leaving any residue.   Let the paint dry for twenty-four hours.

 For best results, the paint should be heat-set.   You can either put the shirts in the dryer (on hot) for 30 minutes or iron - set them.   I put a piece of paper over the design and  then use a hot iron (no steam) to set the paint.

This is the larger shirt with some glitter paint dots.  I added some to the neckline to girlie it up .

This is fun, easy and really goof-proof.  It would be a great project to do with the kiddos.  Consider the possibilities - hearts for Valentine's Day,  pastel dots around eggs for Easter,  white dots for snowmen on a dark blue shirt - all kinds of fun shirts.

Cleaning out the Inbox and the Mailbox

" You can't invent things like time, Violet said.  You can invent things like automatic popcorn poppers.  You can invent things like steam-powered window washers.  But you can't invent more time."

-- Lemony Snicket

A New Year means being hit by the organization bug.   I decided I needed some strategies for taming the volume of stuff that just wastes time.

First huge time-drain - junk emails.   I get emails on three devices (cray-cray, I know) and while I've synched two to eliminate duplicates, I still spend  waste too much time deleting emails I never even open.   Since the first rule of organizing clutter, even e-clutter, is to stem the influx,  I attacked my email and ruthlessly hit that "unsubscribe me" option! 

Next on the chopping block was the updates from some of my online art groups - the ones on which I like to "lurk" but not participate.  I know how to access these  groups if I want to check on something, but I don't need daily updates.

(Here)

Then, on to snail  mail. We must be on the master-list for catalog mailings!  It takes a few minutes, but I tracked down customer service on several and unsubscribed from the paper catalogs.  Check out this site:  https://www.catalogchoice.org/  to unsubscribe from catalogs, junk mail, and be-still-my-heart, PHONE BOOKS.  We get several huge phone books a year and believe me, I have enough phone book pages for altered art to last a life-time!  Who even uses a phone book anymore??  I love that Tech Zombies lists phone books as "a technology that doesn't know it's dead".  Then there  are the these frightening numbers: 615 MILLION phone books printed last year, accounting for up to 30% of trash.  Can't you just see archeologists several hundred years from now wondering what those strange yellow layers  found in their dig  represent?  Another "unsubscribe me, please".

( Jim Krasinski has nothing to do with this post, but he's just so cute!)

Finally, cleaning up Facebook.  Confession - I've unsubscribed from nearly every application so I only get real news from my FB friends- no game updates, no info about sites visited, no nothing but actual status updates and pictures. 

So what am I doing with all my extra time now?  Pinning things on Pinterest, of course!