Deals, Window Shopping & Inspiration
The Cat House
As of last week, my parents officially live in Richmond. This rocks for several reasons (free babysitting) so we’re excited to have them (as free babysitters) just about 15 minutes down the road (close enough to easily babysit for free). Plus, you’ll probably get some peeks at their new digs as they settle in (between babysitting jobs) and as we help them tackle some projects around their house (perhaps in exchange for all of the free babysitting). And if you follow us on Flickr, you’ve noticed that we wasted no time breaking in their community pool as soon as the moving truck was returned:
Three days after closing on their new house, my parents also celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary (days before my mom had a birthday- May’s a busy month for us celebration-wise). Since 39 years doesn’t have an assigned anniversary gift theme (35th is coral or jade and 40th is ruby), my sisters and I planned something to commemorate the 32 years they spent at their old house (seen below). This was in addition to the painting we gave them last month as moving gift.
My mom has always collected “The Cat’s Meow” keepsakes, which are small wooden blocks cut and painted to represent specific buildings, landmarks, and even people. My mom is particularly fond of the meaningful ones that represent places that are special to her – like the Dolles taffy shop in Rehoboth Beach, DE (our traditional family vacation spot) or the West Virginia State Capitol (her home state). So when I discovered that they accepted custom orders, we jumped at the chance to commission this:
Using the photo above of the house, they created this custom wood block of my parents’ place. It’s a service they call “My World” and it took roughly six weeks and was about $99 for two (we got one for their new Richmond house & one for their beach house). Hundred dollar gifts are kind of the sweet spot for us kids since there are four of us (and we each toss in $25). Oh and do you see that little black cat sitting in the window? That’s in every figurine that they make (it’s their signature) but it acts as the perfect stand-in for our family’s black cat named Duncan (who now lives with my little sister Carrie).
They did a great job with it (though it’s a bit bluer than in real life – it’s actually grey – but maybe our photo is to blame for that). They even let you customize a message for the back. Their standard collection usually includes the name of the place and some historical facts, so I wrote something to sorta summarize the “history” of their house.
In case you don’t feel like squinting – it reads:
This lovely residence in Burke, Virginia became home to Tom and Kathy Petersik in 1979. Their four children, Katie, Emily, John and Carrie, loved growing up here – from playing with the other neighborhood kids in the cul-de-sac to eventually pushing their own children on the swings behind the house. In their 32 years here, [their street number] played host to Christmas mornings on the stairs, Easter eggs hunts in the backyard, and countless family feasts.
(To explain, we had a tradition of making the kids gather on the steps on Christmas morning before running to open presents. We didn’t actually try to open gifts precariously crammed onto the staircase.)
As we hoped, the two wooden replicas of their former home were a big hit with my parents (who opened them this weekend while we were at the beach). I think they’re excited to have this small reminder of their “kid-raising” house to display at their new “grandkid-babysitting” home (my words, not theirs).
The Ones That Got Away
Well, it’s more like they’re in the act of getting away. Because they’re still readily available so it’s not like they got away yet. But they will. And I’ll be sad. And then I’ll get over it.
The fact is that I’m obsessed with these West Elm curtains (in oregano/clay) for the living room and the sliders in the adjoining hallway with the balcony that leads to nowhere (seen here).
The reason I want the same set of curtains for the slider in the hallway as well as the sliders in the living room and the big window in there is just because the hallway is so open to the living room and vice-versa (so I think it’ll tie everything together in a nice way). You can see what I mean in this old house tour video (even if you mute it at work you should get the idea).
And these curtains used to be waaay out of my budget at a whopping $512 for eight panels (I want two for each of the three sliders and the window). But they recently went on sale for $49 a panel, which took them down to $392 for eight panels.
With free shipping to boot.
But alas. We’re still too cheap to spend almost $400 on curtains. Oh man but I can just picture them in here (I’m writing this post from my little chaise lounge and squinting at the sliders and I can totally see them). I think they’d add two things that the room desperately needs: sophistication and softness – all without being too bright and crazy (since the big green shag rug has that covered).
Oh well, if I really can’t forget them maybe I’ll hunt down some affordable fabric and try to stamp it with fabric paint and a stencil to create a similar look. Or I’ll just find something else entirely to obsess over (which is likely- I’m an all over the place kinda person). I bet by the time you’re reading this I’m already well on my way to my next curtain crush.
I guess it’s kind of a good thing that I can fall hard for something but if it’s not in the budget I can bounce right along. I’m a rebound shopper. On to the next thing. We do have a trip planned to one of our favorite fabric stores (it’s about five hours away) in a few weeks. So maybe I’ll just wait for that and cross my fingers that I find something perfect there. Either way I’m convinced that curtains will completely change the entire vibe of the living room (along with upgrading our media cabinet to something heftier and aged to balance the giant honking console table that we built on the other side of the room).
So I guess it’s fitting that curtains are taking us a while since I think they’re going to be such room-makers. I’m not even a betting woman but I’d bet $1 (what? we’ve already established that I’m cheap) that curtains will make more of a difference than paint in this room. Even though we painted the dark trim, which can be pretty dramatic. I just think that hanging the perfect curtains high and wide on the window and the sliders will kill it. And I can’t friggin wait. Oh perfect curtains (or fabric) – come to me. I will love you forever and whisper sweet nothings to you every night. You think I’m kidding but I’m not.
UPDATE: Just heard from two people who got these that they’re brown and even a little blue-ish (and not as gray and green as they look in the West Elm photos) which isn’t what I’m looking for with our soft gray walls. So in the end it looks like they weren’t meant to be after all. On to the next ones…
Giving Them The Slip
Remember back when we got our conference room slash hotel-ish parsons chairs on Craiglist for $25 a pop?
We always envisioned cheerful apple green ones (and even tried a crazy chair-painting project with limited zero success) so in the end we admitted that slipcovers or reupholstering would be the way to go.
And after a long a$$ time spent going back and forth between the merits of slipcovers and reupholstering we decided that slipcovers would ultimately be the best choice for us (since we love the idea of tossing them into the wash). But we didn’t want anything fussy and long for fear of taking the dining room from hotel conference room to hotel banquet hall. So first we did some serious slipcover seeking and found a silhouette that we both liked. We landed on this no longer sold Pottery Barn option because we both appreciated the clean-lined mostly-fitted look and the short skirt for that show-me-some-leg effect:
But alas, they weren’t the green tone that we wanted and they weren’t the right measurements to fit our chairs. Oh yeah and they weren’t even sold anymore (and when they were they weren’t in our budget anyway). After a bit more digging we came across some off-white ones from World Market with the same basic silhouette and they were a lot closer to our chair’s measurements. Although they didn’t come in a happy apple green color (and instead were off-white) I’m no stranger to dyeing things (like my wedding dress), so I thought it might be fun to give green dye a shot.
But of course being the cheap-o that I am, I hemmed and hawed and didn’t even show them to John at their original $60 for two price tag. I know, I know- $30 per slipcover isn’t a bad price but for some reason I was just too scared to pull the trigger. So that tab remained open on my computer for a while without me taking any action- not even just the show-your-husband-and-see-what-he-thinks kind. Then I got an email from World Market saying that a lot of their dining stuff was on sale. Dining stuff? Does that include slipcovers? Off to that always-open slipcover tab I flew, and hit refresh. Bam, $20 off!
Instead of $60 for two they were marked down to $40 for two (just $20 a pop). Heck, I doubt I could have bought fabric and thread to DIY my own slipcovers for that price (especially if you factor in a laaaaarge margin of error and hours spent screaming into a pillow). And my nightmare was ending up with eight slipcovers that were wonky and abnormal (since repeating the same steps eight times would surely yield some being looser or longer or weirder than others).
Yup, $23 slipcovers definitely sounded like the perfect complement to my $25 chairs. So I did that little tap-your-man-on-the-shoulder-and-tell-him-you-found-something thing and then waited to gauge John’s interest. And he proved that I know him well, but not that well. His response? “We should get ten instead of eight. That way if we have any dyeing issues we have extras on hand and if we don’t need them we can return the extras to the store to avoid shipping fees (World Market is nice like that).”
I’m used to him saying “we don’t need that.” So I can’t argue with a man who wants to buy more of something. Especially such a practical man with such good points about dyeing and returning the extras if we didn’t need ‘em. Alrighty then. Ten it was. The total for all 10 slipcovers including shipping and sales tax came out to $232, which made each slipcover just $23 a pop (with a possibility of recouping $40 if we didn’t have any dyeing issues and returned the extra two to the store – for a total of $192 spent).
So we ordered them and waited what felt like forever for them to show up (in reality it was probably around 2 weeks) and then I excitedly unwrapped one to slip it onto our chairs to judge how good the fit actually was…
Talk about a wop-wop moment.
I realized I could probably attempt to tailor them myself to get a better fit, but that’s still waaaaay outside of my beyond-beginner skill set (I know someone will tell me it’s easy and I can do it but I’m all about working up to stuff like that and messing around with idiot proof projects like pillows and runners while I build up my confidence). So instead I decided to take the easy way out and wash one in hot water to see how much it would shrink up. Just as an experiment. Into the wash it went and I waited for the beep to signify that it was time to toss it into the dryer about a half hour later.
As I went to put it into the dryer I decided to check the tag to make sure it was ok to put it on high heat (for maximum shrinkage). That’s when I saw that the tag said “dry clean only.” Whaaaaaat?????? Who the heck sells slipcovers that have to be dry cleaned? Isn’t the whole point of slipcovers to be easy to just toss into the laundry pile?
Perhaps in an act of defiance (or sheer lunacy) I decided to high heat dry it. I had already washed it in hot water so I just went for it. I was hoping it would come out fitting really well and then I’d know that I could continue to machine wash them at home (because dry cleaning slipcovers isn’t an option for someone like me – I mean I can machine wash my sectional’s slipcovers, so why would my dining chairs be allowed to be high maintenance?).
When it came out of the dryer it was all warm and delicious and it didn’t look like the cover for a dollhouse chair or anything so I was semi-enthused. I ran over to one of my chairs and slipped it on. Holy bananas, it was almost a perfect fit. Still a tiny bit loose on the sides, but perfectly fitted nearly everywhere else and the slight imperfection of the semi-loose sides didn’t bother me (we’re down with the casual lived-in look, and actually worried that the dining room would feel too formal, so it was a pretty great place to end up).
This story will probably perpetuate the we’re-perfect-and-nothing-ever-goes-wrong-here-in-YHL-world stereotype (we’re so not – more on that here) but it was one of those “ahhhhhhh” sound effect moments where angels sang and the clouds parted and a beam of heavenly light shined down on the amazing little slipcovered chair. I have no idea why it worked, but I guess it was just one of those crazy risks that paid off. Whatever, I’ll take it. And just because I love a little side by side comparison, here’s a slipcover before I washed it (in hot water and high heat dried it) next to a newly washed and dried version of the same one:
And the great news is that the covers are super thick- so none of that crazy pattern beneath them shows through – even on the chairs in front of the window with the light shining down on them. Whew.
So although I definitely still have plans to dye them apple green down the road, it’s immediately nicer not to have all that crazy hotel pattern going on in there. Although with the white walls it’s all a little… white.
We’re actually thinking that we want to paint the walls before we dye the chairs, just to be 100% sure that once the walls get a soft gray coat of color that we won’t want to keep the off-white covers for some reason. We don’t expect that we will (since they look dingy in comparison to the crisp white trim and built-ins thanks to their off-white coloring), but you know, just in case. If there’s anything that this post demonstrates, it’s that I can take my time when it comes to pulling the trigger (and then I can snap and defy the washing instructions of said item with a devil-may-care attitude while furiously biting my nails the whole time). Lookout world, I’m a wild child.
Pssst- Oh em gee. Who watched Jersey Housewives last night? What do we think about the new girl (Melissa I think) vs. Teresa? Either way, Momma Manzo is always my favorite (I love to watch her & her boys hang out in that kitchen, throwing cold cuts and talking jibberish).
Two Heartfelt Letters
Letter #1:
Dear Non-Pinterest Users,
Pinterest might just change your life. And I know what you’re thinking. You’re rolling your eyes and saying “Great, something else to keep up with.” “Something else I have to learn how to use.” “Some other time suck.” I know because I thought these things too. I gave myself every excuse in the book not to get involved (“I already spend enough time keeping up with Facebook”, “I keep inspiration in a binder and in a folder on my desktop – who needs another place?”). And then I talked to Katie B who held a gun to my head persuaded me to quit whining and just go over to pinterest.com and request an account. So I did. And then about two weeks later a verification email showed up in my inbox. And then the “ahhhhhhh” angel sound effect kicked in (you know the one when the clouds part and a ray of light shines down?) and I. Was. In. Love.
Seriously, you know how people say to find your happy place if you’re in a bad mood or feeling uninspired? Pinterest is my happy place. You think that’s enough gushing? I’m not sure it is. Let’s just say I have more ideas than ever. Thanks to all of the amazing inspiration that’s shared every second. I have more ideas for Clara’ birthday party, our house, future art projects, sewing projects with Clara’s weekly photo fabric.
Basically every piece of eye candy that speaks to you can be “pinned” (added to your board) with a note, so you can even remind yourself things like “I want to do this with green balloons for Clara’s party” or “I hope our console table has the same rustic and amazing finish as the stairs in this pic.” So there it is, my invitation into a world full of inspiration and excitement and eye candy as far as the eye can see. Hope to see ya on the flip side. And by the flip side, I mean Pinterest.
- xoxo, Sherry
Letter #2:
Dear Pinterest Users,
Oh my gosh. I know some of you told me about Pinterest months ago and I’m SO LATE on this bandwagon, but I can’t believe how much I love it.
So you were right. Picture me tipping my hat to you. Anyway, here’s a direct link in case you want a peek into my crazy decor/party/baby obsessed mind. Oh and I’m still learning my way around so please forgive me if I commit some giant Pinterest faux pas and don’t follow you back or write back if you write me. It took me way too long to get over there and it’ll probably take me a while to get my “sea legs” when it comes to anything other than pinning and repinning (which is my favorite thing ever!).
In fact I gotta go pin something right now. See ya.
- xoxo, Sherry
Psst- I know this whole post sounds like a big ad for Pinterest but we weren’t paid or perk’d for it. I am just DIE HARD OBSESSED. So pardon my in your face enthusiasm. I’ve had two Pinterest themed dreams since Sunday. It’s a sickness.
