What's on the shelf

Posted by Marilee

Recently we did a post about adding fabric behind the shelves in my master bedroom.  We bought 4 yards (2 yards for each side) and Sarah installed it as you saw in the previous post.  She also redecorated the shelves by "shopping the house".  Sarah did a terrific job!  Every time I walk in the room now, I am surprised at what a great change it is.  I love the warmth that it added to the room and I love the way the items are displayed on each shelf.

I love "treasures".  Mostly things I've found in a thrift store, antique store, gifts, etc... and some of the more special items ended up on the shelves in the master bedroom.  I will take a moment and share those items with you and why they might be special to me.

The spool is on a peg board type shelf.  I love the color and texture it adds.  And a good friend gave it to me.

I love all things that come from Illinois, Maryland, or Pennsylvania.  I have relatives in each of those areas and frequently visit. So when I run across something that I love, I try to bring it home - in memory of my visit and my family.  This is a metal box found in an antique store a couple of years ago.  I love that it says Peoria, Ill on it.

I love taking pictures and the camera in the middle was a gift from Sarah when she went back east.  I guess she was the one to start my antique camera collection.  The other two are from a good friend.

The glass piece I found in Montana last year.  I believe it is intended to hold olives, but cotton balls look and smell nicer.  The candlesticks are from local stores in the San Diego area.  The little black thing is an old stamp of an "8", I think that is from Pennsylvania while visiting my sister.

The picture is of Chicago last September when Sarah had a work convention and I tagged along.  I love this photo.  It is across the street from our hotel.  The dark piece in front is an antique bracket.  I love the detail!

The drawers are something that had belonged to Steve's Dad. The silver piece is some sort of antique butter holder.  And that's everything on Steve's side of the bed.  Let's switch to my side:

The weedy plant - Bed Bath and Beyond.  The picture - Illinois and the 2 boxes - a gift from my niece Allison...thanks  Allison - so sweet.  the metal box also has a frame that matches it...in another room.

A picture of Steve and our grandson, Jonathan.  The little blue china - a gift from Tamy back in high school, hand painted by her Mother, Jill.

The gear I got back in Illinois.  The wood ball is off a baluster that our company tore down.  The books I tied together.  The little Mary had a Little Lamb and her 2 Sheep.  A precious gift from my Grandmother back when I was in high school from a five and dime store, but I ADORE them and imagine...I have carried them from house to house and they have never broken.  The dancer is also super super fragile and used to be my Mom's - always hand carried in a move.  The dress is actual lace and breaks easy.  Isn't that called Dresden?



The vase Geneva, Ill.  The photo, My Dad as a small boy.  The picture was made by my grandson.  The spool is from Pennsylvania.

The teapot came from an antique store here in town.  The photo, Steve as a child in his best cowboy attire.  The little box is from Montana.  It is signed, made in Russia and is all hand-carved.

The jewelry box was my Grandmother's.  The peacock is from my niece, Allison.  The rings are from Illinois.

Random books, candlesticks - I don't recall

The yellow cabinet is from here in town and a recent purchase.

The finished project...AWESOMENESS!  My side!

And Steve's side.

I hope you enjoyed all my treasures!

Marilee

Chicago, Illinois

Posted by Marilee

Last September Sarah was attending a work convention that happened to be in Chicago, Illinois.  I tagged along for the trip and while Sarah was attending the convention and classes, I was out and about photographing the beautiful city.

I thought I would share some photos with you, and if you have never been, it should really be on your "bucket list".  I would love to spend more time there in the future.  Enjoy!

We stayed at the historic Palmer Hotel and this was the view from our room.  I can just imagine what that top room must be like.

What you see today was built in the 1920's, but it has history going back before the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.

The lobby elevator:

The original water tower that housed a standpipe to help water flow was first built in 1869 and it survived the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.  One of the few buildings to survive.

This train structure is on the MIT campus and the shell was built to try and keep the noise down for the dorm rooms located on the left.

Frank Lloyd Wright's home.

That great Chicago skyline.

Hope you enjoyed this quick little trip to Chicago.

Marilee

Bookshelf

Post by Sarah and Marilee..

We've been busy!

I introduced my mom to this super neat idea I had about creating some depth and color and over-all awesomeness to the bookshelf in her bedroom.  I know it's been done by others before me but I had already winged it on a piece of my furniture and succeeded so I was excited to do it for my mom as well.

Here's my piece of furniture I fancied up a few months back:

It's fabric.  And was super simple!

And now to do the same treatment on my mom's bookshelves.

This is what the shelves in my bedroom looked like before we made our changes.   In this previous post you can see that Sarah and I went and bought some fabric to put behind the shelves.  The bed is covered with an old sheet because of the dog, Katie.  She loves to sleep up there.  I have a quilt on the bed that I made but goes with NOTHING in that room.. I hope to change that in the future.

The Before:
(on my side of the bed..)

The Before:

(on Steve's side of the bed..)

We took all the items off the shelf and took the shelves down.  They were supported with hooks, for adjustable shelves.

Okay, we are ready to get started.

Sarah starts by making sure that the fabric is straight and then she sprays some adhesive on the wall (a small area) and then uses the credit card to smooth out wrinkles.  Kinda like hanging wallpaper, but much easier, faster, cheaper.  You gotta love that part, right?

Once she had all the adhesive down, she used Mod Podge over the top at all the edges (just to ensure adhesion) and we let all of this dry.

After it was dry, Sarah came back and trimmed off the excess material with a razor knife and we put the shelves back up.

Doesn't this look terrific?  I highly recommend it...run right out and try this project, you will so looovvvveee the results!!!! 

The Mod Podge helped to "stiffen" up and strongly secure the edges so that Sarah would have a straight and crisp finished cut.

Sarah also re-arranged and decorated all the items that came back onto the shelves.  This was a great project,  Sarah did all of it!!  I ran around and watched, gotta love that too!  THANK YOU SARAH  for this terrific gift and it will always be more special since she did it for me .... love that gal!

After moving things around and "shopping the house", this is what Sarah had left for me.

Has anyone else done a similar project? 
Anyone have any bedding recommendations?
Please Share!

Sarah & Marilee

Easy Peasy

Post by Sarah

I recently signed up for a promotion from Spoonflower - they were sending out free swatches with a special code.  So I searched their site and ordered one of my favorite designs. 


And it came!  And it's smaller than I thought it would be..  but it was free!

So I dug around and found a frame I had on hand and popped my fabric swatch in.  Cute, right?

I instantly loved it to pieces and searched the house for a place to put it.

Enter: my dresser.
Which has basically looked exactly the same FOR-EVER!

So, I moved some stuff here and there and ended up with this:

I get too much happiness out of switching things up and moving them around.  I really don't know why I don't do it more often.  I've also noticed that I can only decorate in odd numbers.

And it's always groups of 3.  Am I the only strange one?  Anyone else enjoy quick and easy re-arrangements around the house?

Sarah

Pillow Fight!

Posted by Marilee


I recently changed the fabric on the chair in my guest bedroom (link here).
Here's a quick picture to refresh your memory. 

I loved it so much it got me on a roll to do more fun, bright colors in the guest bedroom.  I decided I could throw something together for free since I had enough left over fabric from re-upholstering the chair.
 

I enjoy the colors and would like to add a pillow to this chair too, but for now, some guest towels work fine.  I had a tiny piece of fabric left over and we talked about recovering a small pillow on the bed.  Well, today I did just did that and it took me a half hour.

This is what the pillow looked like before.  A cute pillow bought on Ebay years ago, but my style is changing now and it needed to go.  I thought that when I took it apart, I would find a pillow form, but no luck, it was only batting.  So I decided to keep the old pillow together like this:

I then made my "pillowcase" and stuffed the old pillow inside like this:

Once I had the pillow covered, I stitched it up, like above

I added a little piece of trim - done!

It now matches the chair pad that we recovered.

Marilee