white waxflower

not leaving, just moving

2011-08-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

One of my (much) earlier white waxflower blog titles was "Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes" after everyone's favorite David Bowie song. Had I not already used it, that might have been the perfect title for this post.

My furniture-decor-party-refurbishing-graphic design, etc. business has grown from something I did on the side for fun to something that keeps me so busy I can barely keep up ... in a good way! I've loved blogging white waxflower, but I simply don't have time for it anymore. It only costs me $10 a year to keep this site up and running, so I'll leave it up for a year or so for those of you who might want to look up an old craft project or something:)

But as the title of this post says, I'm not leaving, just moving:) Check me out RIGHT HERE at my brand-new, not-even-close-to-finished business site, where there's already a fun and simple little craft tutorial:) See you there!

my friend Carroll

2011-07-30T12:39:00.000-07:00

A new mid-century portrait has joined my collection, and it's of someone who was actually quite dear to me! When I was 10 years old, I played Annie in the musical Annie. The man who played Daddy Warbucks was a really sweet older gentleman named Carroll. I loved Mr. Carroll and he was always very kind to me:) He even bought me and my husband a wedding present when we got married, even though he was a widower and getting on in years at the time. He passed away last year, and his estate was recently sold.

My precious Aunt Becky and Uncle Mike went to the sale and bought me the most amazing gift: a portrait that was painted of Mr. Carroll when he was about 18 years old. Isn't that just the most perfect gift? I'd love it even if I had no idea who it was a portrait of, but the fact that it's of someone I knew and cared about makes it so special:)

They also got me several theater posters from plays that he either directed or acted in, most of which were signed by the cast and crew. It's so fun reading what people wrote on them! Thank you again, Aunt B and Uncle Mike, for the incredibly thoughtful gifts! I love ya'll!

Speaking of the guest bedroom, I've just about finished my credenza that I made for free using pallets. I'm still working on making a sketch with the dimensions so you guys can make one of your own!

My favorite part is the mason jar knobs.

And last but not least, a quick shout-out to some recent visitors:) Danica and her hubby Jason stopped by our place last weekend during their Comic Con trip.

And my husband's little sister Giselle and two of her sorority sisters spent a full week with us earlier in the month, and I had so much fun showing them the sights of SoCal:)

Happy weekend, everyone!

I'm pinterested in showing you ....

2011-07-22T17:39:00.000-07:00

a casual summer outfit

a garden in a gutter

vintage mexican stamps

a home with fabulous art and a great chair

three-cheese mini macs

and a paint-your-own-fabric skirt.

I'm telling you, I just can't get enough of Pinterest! Follow me and don't forget to say hi so I can follow you back!

a year later: the guest bedroom is finally just how I want it

2011-07-13T17:20:00.000-07:00

I'm breaking from my usual tradition of updating along the way of a room re-do, and going straight to the finished product pictures. The guest bedroom is finally, finally ..... FINALLY finished! And I am so happy. See the pillows in the photo above? I dyed them myself:)

I bought a cheapo bedskirt from Target and dyed it as well in a stripey, splattery pattern.

This project inspired me to start collecting color samples by dipping card stock in paint, coffee, or whatever else I think is a pretty color and something I might like to remember. Weird, I know, but I like it!

Just about the only thing in the room that hasn't changed is the location of the bookcase and Picasso prints above it.

The credenza on the right I built myself. It has a loooooong way to go before it's all done, but it already provides a great work surface and tons of storage. See the giant gold knobs? I made them out of mason jar tops:)

This picture of me and my mama was my inspiration for the big blue painting on the far right. I put the canvas on a wall and used the projector to trace the image, and then embellished it with shades of blue paint.

I'm finally content with the room, and I don't think I'll be changing it for a long time. I hope you enjoyed the reveal, even though you didn't have to wait for it!

an end table make-over and an upholstery decision

2011-07-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

This little fella is another one of my roadside-rescue projects. I didn't let the fact that I was out jogging and the top of the table was completely missing stop me from snatching it up and taking it home!

I've been experimenting a lot lately with what I like to call "mixed-media furniture", so weaving a top for the end table made for great practice:) Add some sea-green paint and a bit of light distressing, and I ended up with an end table that would look right at home in a beach cottage.

And now for a before/after project that is still very much in the beginning stages. The last time you saw this half of my living room, it looked like this:

Well, I sold those chairs, and in their place we have this chair:

and this chair:

Step one was to sand the original finish off of the armchair. Time had not been good to it and it was a little rough-looking in places. I'm almost done with the sanding, then I'm going to stain it to match the chair above. The question, then, is what to do about the upholstery! I'd like to re-upholster them in matching fabric, or at least color-coordinated fabric.

Right now it's just covered in this red vintage table cloth, but I've narrowed my options for a more permanent upholstery job down to these three:

A) Wool Blanket: Something stripey like a Hudson's Bay blanket, inspired by the chair above. The smaller chair could then be upholstered in the leftover blanket material, or in a solid fabric that matches one of the blanket's colors.

B) Neutral: This is the route I usually go with furniture, because I prefer to let the accents like pillows and throws "do the talking" (i.e. be colorful and bold). I have a lot of white linen fabric that looks similar in texture to the chair pictured above.

C) Whimsical: I love this chair from anthropologie, and I found similar, Monet-inspired fabrics that I think would look really cool.

It might be a little much to do both chairs in this fabric, so I'd probably just do the bigger chair in the Monet, and the smaller chair in a solid, color-coordinated fabric.

So should I go for A, B, or C?

vote! vote! vote!

I'm just mad about: maps

2011-07-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

Maps seem to be everywhere in the design world right now, and I'm getting in on the trend! Carmen from Life Blessons made this adorable map that I found on Pinterest. I made my own map just like it, and my husband and I had so much fun filling out the little papers to represent some of our adventures together:)

My dear friend Claire gave me this California map print recently. Isn't it adorable? Speaking of Claire, she got ENGAGED this weekend!!! Yayyyyyyy!!!

This is another fun Pinterest find that I haven't gotten around to copying yet. All you need is a piece of paper with a heart cut out of the middle, and a small map of a destination you love:)

And now for the part where you get free stuff! I was at the local library last week, rummaging through a big box of books they were giving away, and I found something pretty cool: a vintage textbook full of beautiful old maps! I scanned a whole bunch of them into my computer and I'm sharing them with you guys:) If you have trouble clicking, downloading or printing them, let me know and I can email you the files!

This is the one I have on the shelf by the matador print. The three below go with it as a set of four.

I just love the colors in these two Canada ones.

Happy Mapping!

I'm just mad about: primary colors

2011-07-01T15:08:00.000-07:00

Lately I just can't get enough of blue, red and yellow. At the rate I'm going, my house is going to look like a kindergarten classroom by the time fall rolls around.

I had some trouble getting the self-timer situation under control, so these pictures aren't that great, but here's some fun primary color clothing for you.

Check out those vintage shoes! They came as a set with this handbag ... an adorable gift from my mama:)

And here's another place where some bright yellow has popped up recently. I started with this rough-around-the-edges coffee table.

It was rusty and the plywood was a bit moldy.

I Oxy-Cleaned, sanded, and stained the plywood, then put on several coats of shiny polyurethane.

I primed the metal part of the table with Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer, then painted it a glossy, bright yellow.

Ta-daaaaah!

I think it makes a very happy, summery addition to home:)

tis the season to get married

2011-06-29T14:01:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in this post, this past weekend I did my very first gig as a wedding coordinator. It was for a dear friend, which made it a lot less stressful, and I have to say ... it went really well:)

Here they are dancing their first dance.

And here's everyone else dancing afterwards! I'm over there on the farrr right, behind the girl in the hat.

Me and my buddies:) They stayed around after to help me make sure everything at the venue got cleaned up properly. They're amazing!

The arch turned out so well:)

And even though I was a very busy girl, I still found time to hop in the photo booth about a hundred times. I have no idea how we managed to squeeze 7 girls into this one:

I had to blur out the third photo so I wouldn't embarrass the bride (any more than I already did!), but I just had to share the other three pictures that I took with the hubs:)

Happy wedding season! Stay tuned this week for three, yes, THREE furniture make-overs:)

2011-06-23T16:30:00.000-07:00

I finished the wall art I mentioned in this post! The frame I built for it is a bit wacky looking, I need to make a better one, this time with wood instead of cardboard and kraft paper. Other than that, though, I really like it:)

Next I want to make one made out of Martha Stewart paint chips, this time with a white frame.

Two of our friends are getting married this weekend, and I am the wedding coordinator! I'm having sooooo much fun doing it. Currently our house has been taken over with everything from arches (which my husband and our friend Sean built!) ...

to 52 coffee filter flowers ...

To little bride and groom paper dolls that I made myself:)

Aren't they sweet? I can't WAIT to share pictures of all the decor!

PS Jemima says hello:)

the latest changes

2011-06-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

I realized yesterday that it's been a while since I showed some of the changes I've made in the master and guest bedroom. With the constant flow of furniture going in and out of this house, things change weekly, if not daily! Our sea victory painting is now over the bed, I hung a vintage lamp from the ceiling, and those "end tables" are really just old cabinet doors on top of TV tables. Ha! We're building brand new end tables this weekend:)

My office/studio has really evolved into something useful for me, that works well for my needs. This week I put up a floating shelf above the desk, to serve as a place to put all my visual inspiration. My small inspiration cork board just wasn't cutting it anymore!

Doesn't the bullfighter look happy in his new home?

The wall above the bed is currently empty, so I'm working on creating some sort of wall art out of all these counter samples. They're from the 70's, and I can't help but love all the tacky burnt orange and moss green!

As I predicted, I never was really able to give up my habit of using the couch and the kitchen counter as a "desk", so this desk never gets used for office-related things. Lately it's just been used as a sort of work bench, which is working out pretty well. Look at all these awesome furniture pieces I found while I was in Tennessee!

I've been experimenting a lot lately with upholstering furniture in custom-dyed/painted fabric, so I also hung up a little clothesline for my samples, so I can keep track of what I've created:)

PS I've been having sooo much fun pinning with you guys! If you're on Pinterest and we aren't following each other yet, add me!

PPS I've updated my house tour.

2011-06-12T19:06:00.000-07:00

I went to Pat's today, and I thought I'd share a few things that I got while I was there:) I got this frame with the awful duck print in it, and an instructional book on the art of collage-making, which is full of adorable illustrations!

Like this little boat, which I put in the duck-print frame. Isn't it cute?

The best part about the collage book is that on the backside of every color illustration is the black and white instructional side, so I don't have to choose which illustrations to frame, I can frame them all if I want:)

These three below are my favorite.

My husband laughed when I pulled this big, dusty, bull-fighter print out of a pile of frames, but I think he's awesome!

And he only cost 50 cents!

mysterious lettters - the cutest idea in the world

2011-06-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

A lot of you may have heard of this sweet and inspiring project before. It's been circling around the blogosphere for a while now, and I think it deserves all the attention it can get! Imagine checking your mail one day, and instead of getting the usual junk mail, Netflix and coupon papers, you got a charming little hand-written letter from a total stranger.

I'll let the creators of the project themselves do the explaining. Here's the description from their blog:

We intend to write to everyone in the world..

In April 2009, we sent a personal, handwritten letter to each of the 467 households in the small Irish village of Cushendall. We hoped these unsolicited letters would prompt neighbourly discussion, spreading across the town, promoting community curiosity.

In November 2009, we sent another bundle of letters, this time 620, to each home in Polish Hill, Pittsburgh, USA.

The art work consists solely of the discussion between the recipients about what on Earth these letters are, who sent them and why, etc.

Lenka Clayton & Michael Crowe

Most of them are very funny. But they're also...

helpful (who isn't missing a button on something?)..

sentimental..

silly ...

and friendly.

I want a letter from Lenka and Michael!

If I can make one, toucan make one, too!

2011-06-07T15:38:00.000-07:00

Yikes. Sincere apologies for that pun, I don't know what came over me! Anyway ... I've proclaimed my love for Vera Neumann before, so I'll just skip over that part and go straight to the point of this post: I made a pillow, inspired by a Vera Neumann sketch of a toucan.

A while back, Anthroplogie did a Vera Neumann-inspired line of products, and the bird tray was my favorite of all the items. I've already copied that cute toucan once before ...

I painted my own version of it and hung him in our very-hard-to-photograph downstairs bathroom.

And even though my pillow isn't 100% done (I'm having zipper issues), I thought I'd go ahead and post the how-to! Here's what you'll need:

glue (I used a glue gun)
sturdy fabric (for the pillow)
three assorted fabrics (for the bird)
about 4 squares of felt
scissors
embroidery floss
fabric paint (optional)
the normal pillow-sewing stuff

I cut my fabric squares 20"x20", and just used scraps for the bird. If you don't have any fabric scraps, you could always go buy 3 fat quarters.

I hand-drew the pattern onto the fabric for the sections of my bird, but I thought I'd do my best at making a pattern just for you guys! So don't go sayin' I never did nothin' nice for ya'll.

I made felt pom-poms for the corners of my pillow. There are already about a million tutorials online about how to make these, so I won't add another one to the mix, but basically I used 3 circles per pom, folded a strip of felt in half, doubled the circles over, scrunched them up and sewed them to the folded-over strip of felt.

My circles were about 3" across.

I painted a random square pattern on to the back of the pillow, and surrounding the bird on the front of the pillow.

I tacked the pieces of the bird down using a little hot glue, then hand-stitched around the edges using contrasting-colored embroidery floss for an extra-handmade look.

In hindsight I wish I hadn't used quite such a bold pink for the poms. I always get carried away when it comes to hot pink! But I'm still happy with how it turned out:) Now I'm hatching (pun intended) plans for a companion pillow or two.

Ta-ta for now! And wish me luck with that zipper.

2011-06-03T11:28:00.000-07:00

I'm back with a few wedding pictures!

An adorable couple who just happen to be my parents-in-law:) I did her hair and make-up!

Me dancing with the handsome groom, Matt:)

I reactivated my husband's old Facebook just long enough to steal all these pictures from Michelle, then I deactivated it again, ha! Thanks, Michelle;)

The whole ginormous family!

And now for some random updates ...

I got a new 20th century portrait for my collection a few weeks ago. Isn't he awesome? I love his glasses.

And my friend Zoe noticed how much I love black and white sketches, so when I told her that I'd love to own some of her art, she was kind enough to give me this gorgeous sketch of the woman in the evening gown:) Thanks, Zoe!

Whenever I have a bunch of random stuff I want to display, but there's no rhyme or reason to it, I just throw it all on a tray and suddenly it looks like a collection!

This picture is here for two reasons. One: because I upgraded my compost to an actual compost container instead of the gallon water jug I'd been using.

This cute white container came from World Market, and it has this charcoal filter thing on the top that seems to really help keep the bad smell at bay.

And the second reason for the picture? Because it has my little birthday girl in it! Jemima is 4 years old today:) Happy birthday, Jemima! I love everything about you!

Even your underbite.

playing "Tennessee" by Marcel on repeat

2011-06-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

We just returned last night from a whirlwind trip to my husband's hometown in Tennessee. His little sister got married on Saturday, and we decided to make a whole vacation out of it! We flew in to the Nashville airport last Thursday night, where my grandmother (Neenah) and step-grandfather (Daddy Jim) picked us up.

They took us to a delicious italian restaurant for dinner, and then we stopped by the gorgeous Union Station hotel.

It was breathtaking!

We spent the night with them at their home in Alabama, then after breakfast we headed up to spend the rest of the trip with hubby's side of the family. It was so much fun!

We took our nephew Max to feed the ducks and geese.

My sister-in-law Michelle and I taught him to do a pretty good goose impression.

I always forget how humid it gets in the southern heat! It was actually kind of refreshing, even though I look like a sweaty mess in all these pictures. In the one below it looks like I'm trying to cool off my underarms. Ha!

I loved being able to hang out with my husband's awesome brother Philippe. He's so much fun to be around!

And even though I'd already been to my husband's old high school, I had him take me back so I could force him into posing for pictures like this one ...

And this one below, which I took at his elementary school. It's a re-creation of one of my favorite childhood pictures of him, which was taken at the same school:)

Say it with me now .... awwwwwww!

There's a LOT more about the trip I can't wait to share, like pictures from his sister's wedding and all about how we scavenged through abandoned warehouses, but that will have to wait for another post. Check back soon!

ootd: one outfit, three destinations

2011-05-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

The Weekend Road Trip

Shirt: Vintage

Shorts: J. Crew

Belt: Vintage/came with the shirt

Shoes: Steve Madden

The Brunch With Friends

Cardigan: J. Crew

Belt: J. Crew

Flats: Forever21

The Country Club

Blazer: Di Vita

Belt: J. Crew

Shoes: H&M

Pearls: Vintage

Clutch: Boutique

I'm pinterested in following you

2011-05-25T19:01:00.000-07:00

It took me forever to jump on the bandwagon, but now that I've been on it for a while, I have to say: I HEART PINTEREST!!! And no, not a cent was paid to me to sing Pinterest's praises. I just really, really heart it. Here are a few of my favorite pins:

I got this pin from my buddy Niki over world in a paper cup.

This is a vintage food mill turned into a planter.

I love everything Karla wears, but this outfit is just perfect.

DIY watering can - so smart!

how cute are these DIY poms?

line drawing of William Faulkner by my one of my current favorite artists, Jason Polan.

Love everything about this room, especially the random rope!

Are any of you on Pinterest? Leave me a comment or send me an email so I can follow you! Happy pinning:)

laundry, lamps, linen, and line drawings

2011-05-19T10:38:00.000-07:00

First of all, thank you from the bottom of my hardwood-floor-loving heart for all of the helpful advice I received in the comments of this post!

Option A (our current home) won the votes in a landslide, and I think we're actually going with the votes on this one. On Tuesday we measured all of our "must keep" furniture, like our sofa and our bed, then went to the house and marked out with tape how much actual space in the rooms our furniture would take up. We were willing to part with more than half of it, but even putting less than half of our furniture in there would still make for a VERY tight squeeze. Like, turn-sideways-and-shimmy-across-the-wall-to-get-into-bed tight. And hearing so many of you say what a frustration it is having to go to the laundry mat definitely got me re-thinking giving up having a washer and dryer at home. So, long story short, we're going to pass up on this little place and pray that something else equally charming, old, and hardwood-floored comes along. Only this time an extra bedroom and laundry would be nice:) I can't say I'm not a little sad to let go of the idea of moving into that place, though. It was just SO DARN CUTE!

In other news, I recently realized that I never posted about that lamp makeover I mentioned! Well, it didn't turn out that great anyway. I started with the turquoise and floral lamp you see above, which was already a makeover of the original lamp.

I painted the base white and re-covered the shade in ikat, but I'm sorry to say that my lampshade re-covering skills are um .... improvable. I couldn't help but laugh at myself when I got it all finished and realized how horribly lopsided the fabric is. Why is it so much harder to recover a lampshade than anything else?

I'm lazy and I don't want to waste any more fabric, so it's staying as-is for now. Another little project I did recently is the art above the bookshelf.

All you need is scissors, a pencil, a marker, card stock, 8x10 matted frames, and a computer to look up Picasso line drawings to copy, and you too can have your own little Picasso art gallery:) I even forged his signature on them so they'd look extra official.

And one more thing before I go! I've been intending to blog about this forever ... check out this gorgeous mid-century chair my parents bought me when my family came out to visit for Easter! Isn't it fabulous? I can't wait to get it all fixed up.

I think I'm going to have it recovered in some sturdy white linen, to coordinate with our sofa. I just love the look of wood and white furniture, accessorized with colorful throw pillows or blankets.

The stain and finish are pretty worn, so I think I'll strip it and stain it to match my other mid-century chair.

I think that's all for today! Jemima says "hi" :)

OOTD: one romper, three destinations

2011-05-17T15:18:00.000-07:00

The Picnic on the Beach

Romper: Forever21

Picnic Basket Scarf: Vintage

Shoes: I can't remember! H&M?

The Afternoon Barbecue:

Ballet Leotard: Sports Store

Bag: H&M

Shoes: H&M

The Casual Date Night

Cardigan: J. Crew

Headband: Anne Taylor Loft

Clutch: A boutique

Don't forget to click here and weigh on our housing situation!

a penny for your opinion

2011-05-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

When it comes to a home, which is more important to you: space, or aesthetics? Assuming everything else is the same (monthly rent/mortgage payments, proximity to work, safety of the neighborhood, quality of the schools, etc.) between two homes, which would you choose?

Space, AKA "option A"

(where we currently live)

pros: Twice the square footage of option B, has a dishwasher, laundry, two bedrooms, 1 & 1/2 bathrooms, plenty of storage space.

cons: wall-to-wall carpet instead of hardwood floors, no architectural details or charm, no yard or space to plant anything in the ground, ugly on the outside, 1 mile from the beach (option B is 1/2 mile from the beach)

You can click here to get a pretty thorough tour of option A, but here are a few pictures of it before it was furnished and decorated to make a better comparison between A and B.

Aesthetics AKA "option B"
(where we're thinking of moving)

pros: Built in the 1940's, original kitchen, original hardwood floors, a small yard surrounded by a picket fence, a large back patio (about 3x bigger than option A patio), lots of room for planting and gardening, lots of craftsman-style charm, only 1/2 mile from the beach.

cons: only 1 bedroom/1 bath, no dishwasher, no laundry, half the square footage of option A, very little closet space.

view of the living room from the front door:

view of the front door from the living room... look at the cute little mail slot!

Teensy little dining area and doorway to the kitchen. And yes, that is a fold-out ironing board in the wall.

I would be re-upholstering it ASAP.

The kitchen. It has a back door that leads to the patio, and (surprisingly) even more cabinet/storage space than our current kitchen. I would hang pegboard above the oven for my pots and pans, just like Julia Child's kitchen:)

View of the kitchen from the back door:

The biggest con this house has ... the tiny little bedroom and closet:

But that little heater sure is cute.

And the bathroom has a floor-to-ceiling linen closet, so that's good!

Okay, I know the patio looks pretty rough here, but imagine it without all the rocks, dead plants, and broken concrete pieces (it's very loose and could be removed with no tools).

Now imagine it with outdoor rugs, flowery vines on the fence and my patio furniture. It could be cute, I promise!

I'm so torn on this one. Half of me says "It's the cutest little house EVER ... Move in TODAY!!!" and the other half of me says "WHERE is all of our STUFF gonna GO!?!"

What would you do? Which would you choose?

2011-05-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

I needed to take a cute portrait of myself for a top secret project I'm working on, so I put on my pretty new Anthro dress, my sparkly "Kate Spade" shoes (wink wink), and enlisted the help of my helpful husband to snap a bunch of pics!

I'm in love with this dress, front and back!

Jemima likes having her picture taken even more than I do, so I let her join in on the fun.

You know how they say that after a while, dogs and their human friends start to look alike? I think the same is true for how they strike a pose. Observe .....

the "gazing at each other lovingly" pose.

the "head turned sharply to the left" pose.

the "arm-to-the-side, looking straight ahead" pose.

and the "head tilted slightly to the right" pose.

But I think I'm just going to use this one for my project.

a tale of two shelves

2011-05-09T17:42:00.000-07:00

These shelves were two of the very first things we put on our walls upon moving in here. They started out pretty sparse, as you can see:

Then they got a little more crowded.

And even more crowded ...

And here we have the crowded-ing-est.:

Over the weekend I took everything off of them and stained the boards a using a few coats of a light, natural stain.

I practically had to do a headstand to get this "after" shot of how they turned out!

Then I had fun filling the shelves back up:)

I added some new items and took some old items away. They're probably still a bit too busy-looking, but they're full of things we love, and I do like how much more colorful they are now.

Coming up this week at white waxflower: An OOtD, a lamp make-over, and more!

biaggi's penne sardi - copycat recipe

2011-05-05T10:56:00.000-07:00

{photo credit}

A while back, while I was visiting my Mississippi family, we went to a restaurant called Biaggi's. I ordered the butternut squash ravioli, but by mistake they brought me the "penne sardi". Well, it was an awesome mistake, because it was the best pasta dish I think I've ever had, and I eat a LOT of pasta. I searched for copycat recipes online, but there were none to be found, so I experimented with my own. This doesn't taste exactly like the restaurant's, but it's pretty darn close! I don't eat meat, so I left the chicken out of my version. You carnivores out there will have to figure out how to copy the chicken part on your own, but I have to say ... it's delicious without the chicken!

Biaggi's Penne Sardi:

serves about 6

Start with the breadcrumbs. Tear 3 pieces of bread into bite-size pieces, then blend them lightly. You don't want them too fine or they'll just burn!

They should be similar to this texture.

These seasonings, plus salt and pepper, are what I used to flavor my breadcrumbs. You'll probably want to use lots of parsley, so make sure you have at least a tablespoon or so on hand.

Spread the crumbs out on a baking dish, and cook them at 200 for about 3 minutes at a time. Take them out, and mix them up thoroughly. The crumbs on the outside are going to cook faster than the middle ones, so you want to be careful to take them out and stir them every 3 minutes! Keep going until they are golden brown and crunchy. This shouldn't take more than about 10 minutes. Now set them aside and move on to the onions and mushrooms.

Take a large pan (a cast iron skillet works best) and melt about 3 tablespoons of butter in it. Slice one large yellow onion into very thin slices, and add one cup of sliced mushrooms. Sprinkle pretty heavily with salt, stir, add more salt, stir.

This part takes about 45 minutes, but it's worth it, I promise! Keep cooking the mushrooms and onions over VERY low heat until the onions go from white and stiff, to clear and flimsy, to brown and syrupy. Use the before and after pictures above as for reference of how much they should cook down! Now you can set that aside and move on to the sauce.

I sort of use this recipe, sort of, but with lots of modifications.

2 1/2 cups heavy cream/ half and half
1 cup butter (I know)
1 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
5 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter and cream together in a large sauce pan, and bring almost to a boil, but not quite. Stir in the cheeses until they are melted, followed by the tomatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste, set aside.

Now it's time for the pasta! Cook about a pound and a half of white penne pasta, then drain. My husband is the official rice and pasta cooker of the house, so I let him take over here. Drain the pasta, then dump it into a large bowl. Now throw in the sauce, caramelized mushrooms and onions, an extra half cup (or more, if you'd like) shredded mozzarella cheese, and stir it all up! Pour it into a large baking dish, and top it off with more shredded mozzarella and the breadcrumbs. You may want to spritz the breadcrumbs with Pam to make sure they stay crispy.

Bake it at 350 for about 20 minutes or so, checking once or twice to make sure the breadcrumbs aren't burning.

Enjoy!

out with the old, in with the new-ish

2011-05-02T13:18:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is about spring-time that makes me want to shed all the extra layers, clean out, throw away, give away, and simplify, but I love it. This time every year I find myself full of energy and inspiration to organize, garden, eat better, and clean! Here are a few projects I've been working on lately.

Composting! I confess: I've never done this before. I read that before you go out and buy the supplies to make a large compost pile, you should start with "container composting" to see if you'll actually keep up with it. I sort of followed these directions, then piled in some not-so-fresh bread, fruits, veggies from the fridge. So, (bonus!) beginning composting also prompted a much-needed fridge clean out session. So far all I can say about composting is this: it's gross, but it's gross in a fun way ... like the green slime from the old school Nickelodeon game shows.

I've also been stripping away layer after layer of paint and rust off of this old trunk my friend Becca found out on the street, awaiting the garbage man.

I know this might sound crazy, but I actually asked her if I could re-furbish it for her. It's just so old and awesome and has so much history, I wanted to get my hands on it and fix it up as well as I could, for the trunk's sake:) It's made entirely of metal and wood, no laminate or plastic to be found. I felt a bit like an archeologist as I started working on it.

I know it's hard to tell from the picture, but underneath all that white paint, the inside was once lined with this adorable pin-wheel pattern art deco wallpaper. Under that was cheesecloth, I guess to even out the lines between the wood.

And underneath the turquoise paint on top were green and yellow stickers. I tried so hard to remove the paint without scraping off the stickers, but it was nearly impossible. All I could make out was an R, L and a P (I think) on the top row, an A, L, and L on the middle row, and F, S on the bottom.

Here's the trunk in it's current state.

Not exactly picture-perfect, but it's coming along nicely and I'm having fun doing it!

You may recall that just last week I was blogging about my love for art, well, I have two new additions to my collection! This awesome line drawing (I just adore line drawings) of Greta Garbo came courtesy of one of my favorite stores in San Diego, the Newport Avenue Antique Center.

She didn't look like much to write home about in that cheap, ill-fitting gold frame, but it's amazing how much better she looks now that I've found her a new home in a nicely matted black and white frame:)

I'm also pleased to introduce a new addition to my 20th Century Portrait collection!

Isn't he handsome?

He needs a name, and suggestions are welcome! I couldn't have been more impressed with all of your excellent suggestions for this gentlemen, who ultimately ended up being named Colonel Milton Edgar Randolph III (AKA "Milt"), which was a compilation of as many of your suggestions as I could fit into one man's name!

But back to the original point of this post, I wish I could say that my back patio always looks like this, but that would be a lie. It currently looks like this:

The first thing on my spring cleaning list is the back patio. It's been neglected over the winter, and the fence and furniture need to be scrubbed, the seat covers and pillows need to be washed, and the floor needs to be thoroughly vacuumed. Another patio problem has already been addressed: I pruned back the palm, the impatiens, and I replaced some other dead and dying potted plants.

But that's just the beginning of my spring cleaning list! What's on yours? If you're having trouble getting started, check out this list my mother emailed me recently. It's handy!

1 dress + 2 sisters = craftiness

2011-04-26T11:24:00.000-07:00

A while back my sister and I came up with a fun idea for a crafty project we could do together, even though we live on opposite coasts! My mother no longer wanted this pretty floral maxi dress, so we decided to cut it in half, right up the middle, and not tell each other what we were making with our half until the projects were completed!

Jemima used to have an adorable little shabby chic bed, but after she totally ignored it for about 2 years straight, we finally gave it away. Naturally, she soon after started wanting a bed of her very own, and began curling up into small, dog-bed-esque things like this box top, as if she were a poor, neglected, bed-less creature that just had to do the best she could with whatever she could find.

I remembered seeing this vintage suitcase dog bed over at Houzz, but I didn't think Jemima would like it being elevated, and I couldn't bring myself to disassemble and drill holes in a vintage suitcase, so I decided to make a simpler, power tool-free version.

I already had this guy re-lined and cleaned up at home, so I decided to use it for my doggy bed. Click here to see the before pictures!

Before I started working on the bed, I threw the fabric inside the suitcase and patted it so Jemima could try it out. I figured I'd see if she'd even sleep in it before I went to the trouble of making it.

Sure enough, she hopped right in and slept for over 2 hours, only moving to switch positions! She just loves tight spaces.

When she finally woke up, I spread the fabric out to start cutting. As you can see in the photo above, she was still a little groggy from her nap.

First I made a little pleated skirt that was long enough to cover three sides of the suitcase. I was determined to make this a no-sew project, so I just pinned the pleats in place, secured them with hot glue, then removed the pins.

Then I glued the pleated skirt to a square of fabric big enough to cover the bottom of the case.

She seems to prefer sleeping on mostly hard surfaces, so I went very light on the fluff.

I covered the fluff in a square of felt.

Next I glued down the top square of fabric. Obviously substituting hot glue for sewing isn't going to make for the most long-lasting cushion in the world, but I figure since she's so tiny it should hold up pretty well, and by the time it starts falling apart it will probably be dirty enough to need to be replaced anyway.

I used a shoulder strap from the dress to spell out her name on the top. I pinned the strap down to make sure I had it centered properly, then hot-glued it in place and removed the pins.

I was going to glue a square of ribbon around the center where the square meets the pleated skirt, but I decided against it because all the ribbon I had on hand was too wide.

She likes to take her naps at the bottom of the stairs, so that's where I put her new bed. She loves it!

I'll let Lizzie do the talking on her blog when it comes to the details of her project, but I don't think she'll mind me spilling the beans and telling you all that she made an ADORABLE little stuffed elephant for our niece that is expected to arrive at the end of June:) Lizzie is far, far more accomplished at sewing than her big sister! She also made a precious little blue and white striped elephant for our nephew Connor.

And speaking of Connor, look who came to see me last Thursday:) More on that later!

sisal rope art + 3 current obsessions

2011-04-20T17:58:00.000-07:00

This post is going to be a bit all over the place, so bear with me! First of all, I attempted to add some height to the room (as I conversed about in the comments here) by doing this project from design*sponge. I really like how it turned out! I have to say though, she wasn't kidding when she said it takes 4-5 hours. It's definitely not a do-it-in-one-day project!

I ran out of rope before I could finish it, but I plan to add more swirly designs to the rope leading down to the "Hello" as soon as I have time. In the next day or two I'll be sharing a super fun craft project that my sister and I collaborated on. We took one very long maxi dress, cut it in half, then .... you'll have to wait and see;) Until then, I'll leave you with a few of my (current) favorite things!

1. Vera Neumann: I've wanted to buy this book since the minute it came out, and I finally treated myself and bought it a few weeks ago:) Now I want to start collecting vintage Vera table and bed linens!

Her designs are just so fresh and happy.

I've had this Vera image/quote as my desktop background on my laptop for ages!

2. An Abundance of Art: I think the organizer/neat freak in me has always said "Don't clutter up the walls. That's bad". Which is funny because I love the look of walls filled with interesting art. I had a bit of an epiphany not long after reading this post full of pictures of Kate and Andy Spade's home on M Crooked Letter. I wrote a comment saying how I wished I could have their art collection, and a few days later I thought, why can't I?!

Ever since then I've been snatching up frames with reckless abandon, and filling them with something I love ... even if it's just a family photo or a little sketch that only took me 5 minutes to draw.

3. Eye-Catching Textiles: While I don't think my love for white walls, all-white bedding and neutral furniture will ever change, my love for accessorizing everywhere with bold textiles just grows and grows.

Wouldn't this Vera Neumann tablecloth look amazing as an upholstered headboard, or even framed as over-sized wall art?

Love this navy ikat lampshade. So modern and vintage looking at the same time.

Okay, so this last example is a bit over-the-top for my tastes, but it still rocks. Go maximalism! (But only when it comes to decor).

the townhouse, one year later: part II

2011-04-15T14:44:00.000-07:00

I was pretty surprised when I saw this picture of our living room's humble beginnings. Bare walls, a Target coffee table that was falling apart at the seams, a saggy old sofa .... it needed help! I think the only things in this room that haven't changed are the end table/lamp, the library dresser, and my toilet paper roll art.

The first step of decorating the room was adding these shelves. I had wood cut at Home Depot to mount on the brackets I got at anthro. I found a glass coffee table on Craigslist that I spray-painted aqua, pulled out some selections from my coffee table book collection, and my mama bought me a jute rug, pillows, and ...

Mitzie! She's the crowning glory of my 20th century portrait collection:) I also painted and re-covered these chairs, and accessorized with flowers and knick-knacks.

One of my favorite things in the entire house came a few months later in the form of the Petrie sofa. We've had it almost a year now, and I still can't believe my eyes every time I walk downstairs and see it. It's my baby and I love it!

The white Louis chairs got a make-over with some bold orange stripes, and I added two more portraits, one of them being a Christmas gift from my thoughtful hubby, to the wall. I liked that the chairs brought in a more bold, modern touch, and I started craving even more modernness .... Modernity? Modernification?

Which brings us to today. New chairs with more mid-century lines have replaced the orange ones, my grandparent's portraits have joined the right side of the wall, and various other art has been added as well.

This marquee-letter lamp is something I made myself using this tutorial from design*sponge. I used a very 1920's-looking typeface, which I love. The teensy little painting right above it is an original painting that was a gift from my Papa and Neenah when I was a young girl. I treasure it so much! Also shown here: the newest addition to my beloved collection of Wolfe birds. My mama got me this one for my birthday this year and I think he might be my new favorite:)

The wood/tape/frond monstrosity on the far left is just a mock-up of a project I'm working on, so don't be alarmed. The framed sketch hanging next to it is something I drew by hand on card-stock, but before you get all impressed and think I'm an artistic genius, I was just copying this sketch by Picasso:

The picture in the frame is of me as a little girl:

My husband loves this picture of me because he says I look soooo proud of my itty bitty fish, haha:)

This side of the room really hasn't changed that much, with the exception of a new coffee table, a few different pictures and such on the shelves, and two new benches. They started out as these sad little guys, which I got for $5 each:

A fresh coat of paint and some burlap-style upholstering later, and they were good as new!

And here's where the quality of the pictures I'm posting takes a nose-dive. I tried to get a shot of the benches in their natural habitat, but for the life of me I can't operate the flash on our camera correctly, and it was getting too dark in the room to count on natural light like I usually do.

For fun, here's one last before and after of the living room, followed by a poll!

before:

in between:

after:

Which do you prefer? The ultra-white, simple, shabby chic before, the vintage-inspired, orange-stripe-chair in between, or the more artsy, bohemian, colorful after?

the townhouse, one year later: Part I

2011-04-11T15:58:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that it's been one year and 4 days since I wrote this post, showing pictures of our new (and very un-decorated) home in San Diego. I thought it would be fun to celebrate our one year anniversary with San Diego by showing how the rooms have evolved over the past year!

We'll start with the guest bedroom, which now looks absolutely nothing like the first picture I snapped:

The first make-over was very bright, young, and springy, which I loved until Fall/Winter rolled in and it started feeling a little too bright and springy.

I eventually decided to start all over, this time focusing on storage in order to make way for a desk and bookshelves.

It looked something like this for quite awhile:

and it currently looks like this:

You can click here to check out the "before" of that headboard, by the way.

I love the chair, the bookshelves, the painting and the headboard, but the room still needs a little something. I don't know what it is, but suggestions are welcome!

The master bedroom started out pretty bright and sparse.

Then I did an anthro-style makeover to make it look a little more cozy and warm for the winter.

And now we're back to a simpler, brighter look:

The bolster came from anthro and was a gift from my mama:) I'd like to get matching end tables for this room, and I'm considering painting the dresser at the foot of the bed. Thoughts?

The portrait on the left is the newest addition to my 20th century portrait collection.

The man I bought it from actually laughed when he realized I was buying it because of the portrait, and not because of the frame. He said he'd planned to throw out the portrait because he didn't think anyone would want it, LOL. I got rid of the smoky glass, gave the frame a fresh coat of yellow paint, and I'm loving the results. Oh, and in the lower right corner the portrait says "Frederica", in case you wondered what I named her:)

You might recognize the "art" above our bed from somewhere else in the house...

I removed the legs, got rid of the glass, and used the top as a giant frame for a giant .... potholder? Remember those potholders you made at camp when you were a kid, the kind where you took stretchy fabric and wove it together? That's pretty much what I did here, using scraps of various white things such as old t-shirts, tablecloths, sheer curtains, and even white garbage bags!

A few weeks ago we bought a new bathroom rug from world market, but other than that I don't think a single thing has changed from this time last year.

So that's it for Part I, next up: the downstairs!

2011-04-05T16:57:00.000-07:00

A new pair of chairs have joined the white waxflower household! These funky little guys used to be decked out in some really unfortunate fabric:

The seats were a scratchy, metalic-ish, blue fabric, and the bottoms were a scratchy, leaf (?) patterned fabric.

After searching far and wide for the perfect fabric, I ended up resigning to the fact that I was never going to find exactly what I was looking for, so I hand-painted my own. I love the way the pattern turned out, but I think next time I'll use a different type of fabric, because when the paint dried it made the fabric bunch up and wrinkle. Not a big deal, but the perfectionist in me is annoyed by it!

For fun, I added a quirky touch to the backs of the chair seats ... the primary color of the fabric changes from turquoise to navy to match the navy fabric on the back of the chairs.

Oh, and because I don't want to make a separate post just for this painting, I'm throwing it down here at the bottom of this one:) Check out the little birdy I painted!

Hope you're having a happy Tuesday!

get distressed (in a good way)

2011-04-04T14:43:00.000-07:00

I've been intending to make a "How To Distress Furniture" tutorial forever, and I finally got around to it! Though I love making video tutorials, this one would have required a LOT of talking, and I (like most people I know) am not too crazy about the sound of my own voice. Listening to myself talking over and over while editing it may have driven me to insanity, so I've opted to make this one a readable tutorial.

Anyway, let's get started! First you'll need to assemble your supplies:

Sandpaper - 100 grit
Sandpaper - 220 grit
Sandpaper-holder-thing (optional but oh-so-helpful)

a piece of furniture to distress: preferably a piece that is made of real wood, and painted without much gloss.

quick side note: if you've freshly painted the piece of furniture, make sure it is TOTALLY dry. I would give it at least two days between painting it and distressing it, or else you won't get an authentic-looking result as the paint will just sort of scrape off.

Now start sanding!

1. Take your 100 grit paper and start working on the corners and edges, where furniture naturally gets the most wear-and-tear over the years. For the less square parts, such as these round little legs, it's not quite so cut-and-dry. I usually pick a few random spots to really sand all the paint away, and pay extra attention to the widest part of the curves, where the furniture would likely get scuffed most often.

The 100 grit paper will get most of the paint off with just a few scrapes, but it will leave you with these ugly scratch-marks, which brings us to ....

2. The 220 grit! This will smooth out the scratchy look and make your furniture look more naturally worn. Start where you started in step #1, going over the corners and edges, extending out the sanded-ness (my new word I just invented) towards the middle, sanding less and less thoroughly as you work your way towards the middle of the area you're working on.

3. This next step is so important that I'm putting it in bold! Sand the ENTIRE piece of furniture with the 220 grit. Even the places that you don't want to be "distressed". I always think it's kind of funny when I see "shabby chic" furniture where the piece has been painted in a pretty, glossy paint and then randomly sanded here and there, while the rest of the piece is left sparkly clean and freshly-painted. It looks strange and fake! The point is to make the piece look old, worn and ... loved? I was going to say abused, but "loved" sounds nicer;)

This poor little hutch. I really got carried away with my sandpaper. I was feeling inspired by this heavily-distressed chair from design*sponge:

But I think I took it too far. Oh well, that hutch will always be one of my favorite pieces of furniture in the house, no matter how much I torture it.

I hope that was helpful! It really is so simple and very hard to mess up, unless you tend to get carried away like I do;)

Oh! And see the chair that the supplies are sitting in, up there in the very first picture? That's a little sneak preview of a super fun before-and-after I'll be posting tomorrow!

pictures galore (as promised)

2011-03-30T10:51:00.000-07:00

I'm back home in San Diego after a whirlwind week in the southland! I'm very happy to be reunited with my handsome hubby and my cuddly doggy, but I sure do miss my family! Here are a few random pictures I snapped over the past few days:

my brothers grilling out.

my brother Daniel hanging out on the back patio.

me and my mama:)

my little sister, Lizzie - we had a photo shoot!

she's so pretty:)

Lizzie's dog (and my nephew), Buddy.

As I mentioned before, I brought the "fancy" camera home for the wedding, and while I was home I took about a billion pictures of my home, sweet home in Mississippi:) I only had time to take pictures of the outside and downstairs, with the exception of a few pictures (like the one above) that I snapped of my bedroom. I'll be back with a pretty funny post about my bedroom later, but for now, get ready for an assault of pictures of my parent's house, including some from our wedding!

click here for the tour...

... then come back here for comments because there's no comment form on the tour page!

2011-03-26T22:06:00.000-07:00

My precious Mary Claire's wedding was today:) It's now midnight and I am WAY too tired to try and re-cap the day ... or even caption all these pictures, BUT I'm dying to throw some snapshots from today up on the blog and don't feel like waiting until a time when I can sit down and type something more thought-out, so without further ado .... check out today's wedding pics!

Me and my brother John.

My little sister!

Me with my brother Sam, and my brother John again:)

Me and my parents:)

Mary Claire and Mary Grace: BFF's since 1988!

Dancing with the bride.

OOTD: airport style

2011-03-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

This is me this morning, with my bags packed and ready to go to this girl's wedding! Now I'm at the Houston Hobby airport for my layover, probably looking a bit worse for the wear than I am in that picture;)

Shoes: TOMS

Scarf: Anne Taylor Loft

Cardigan: J. Crew

Here's the adorable little bride herself:) I'm so excited to see her and celebrate her wedding that I only slept a few hours last night!

Side note: we finally got our "fancy" camera fixed, and it's sitting right here next to me as my carry-on, so I can FINALLY get some pictures of my parent's home and my mama's awesome decor and furniture without having to rely on my cell-phone camera!

Stay tuned for pictures galore.

my latest search-and-rescue project

2011-03-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't noticed, I aDORE anything mid-century. Unfortunately for me, everyone else in San Diego adores mid-century furniture too, so owning an actual piece of Danish mid-century furniture will set you back a pretty penny.

Unless you happen to discover it in the furniture graveyard at Pat's! (Check out my friend Becca risking life and limb to dig out a lovely cane-back chair)

That's where I found this sad little beauty, which I believe I ended up paying something like $8 for.

It was in pretty sad shape from sitting outside for months, but I about flipped when I got it home and spotted the original Danish manufacturer's sticker from 1959. EEeeeEEeek!!!

It took a lot of work to sand it down, Oxy-clean the mold away, and replace the broken seat.

Then I conditioned and stained the wood and re-upholstered the seat.

I'm sooooo proud of the results! Let's get one more look at the before:

and the after!

I'm in love.

my coffee table monster

2011-03-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

If you're just joining us, I blogged here about my plans for a coffee table/ottoman creation, and here about this coffee table I bought from Pat's.

The hardest part of the entire project was finding the perfect fabric. I finally found what I was looking for at Anthroplogie in the form of these clearance-sale table runners!

I wanted to chop them up into a new design, so I started by marking the shape of the table top in tape. (My friend's dog Katie was having a playdate with Jemima, thus the large golden retriever in the pictures)

I experimented with different patterns for a while, which was trickier than I had imagined! Once I found one I liked, I cut the fabric accordingly, then bonded it together using iron-on hem tape, then reinforced it by hand-sewing using a very (intentionally) sloppy stitch. But more on that later!

I experimented with button layouts, marked the spots and drilled the holes.

I also gave the legs a good sanding to make it look a little more worn and vintage.

After I upholstered it, I trimmed it in a thick black trim, then did more sloppy hand-stitching all the way around the trim.

Next up, tufting time! I love to tuft:)

One last look at the before ...

And the after! It's not 100% done, because I'm having a very hard time finding the perfect casters for the feet. They're all either too big, or too tacky! But you can imagine it with little copper wheels all on your own, I'm sure:)

I KNEW it!

2011-03-16T17:27:00.000-07:00

So this is me (in the leopard print) just a few hours after posting this post about how my husband BETTER not be throwing me a surprise party. My friend Julie (sitting on the floor next to me) was in on it and took me out for birthday dessert while my husband set everything up, and when Julie brought me back home there was a room full of people ready to embarrass the heck out of me ... hahaha:)

Sadly, I was too busy having fun to take pictures, so all I have are these two of everyone playing Apples to Apples. I have to say, I was wrong about surprise parties. I had SO much fun and I'm so glad my husband ignored my request to never throw me one! He thought of everything ... he knows I hate cake, so he put candles in a pizza, and he had a slideshow of my baby pictures playing on the wall from the projector. He even bought all clear beverages so I wouldn't worry about our white furniture, LOL

I was going to wait until the coffee table/ottoman was done to put any pictures up on the blog, but you can sort of see it in those surprise party pics. It's not quite done, but here's another sneak preview!

And lastly, check out these flowers from my friends (and soon-to-be-married-couple) Spencer and Becca. Aren't they pretty? And see that yellow compote bowl thingy? It's vintage and I got it at an estate sale last weekend for just 5 bucks!

I'm hoping to post official "afters" of some furniture re-do's in the next day or two, so don't be a stranger;)

happy birthday to me

2011-03-14T17:58:00.000-07:00

Today I woke up to find these gorgeous flowers (and a very sweet letter) from my husband on my bedside table.

And when the mail came, it was full of sweet cards from friends and family:) I am so blessed!

Now I'm off for a surprise evening. My husband has something up his sleeve but won't tell me what it is. At first I thought he was cooking for me, but now I'm thinking I was wrong. I have a very strict no-surprise-party-for-Mary-Grace-EVER policy, so if you're my friend and you live in San Diego and you've been invited to a surprise party for me tonight ... DON'T COME! Haha just kidding ... kinda ..... :) Have a great night, everyone! xoxo

pat's, stencils, and more (happy) tears

2011-03-10T12:08:00.000-08:00

There's a really strange, but really awesome furniture store in North Park, San Diego called Pat's. You can click here to read a great review and learn a little more about it:) Behind Pat's is a yard that is something like a furniture graveyard. I got this weird little chair with mis-matched upholstery, but beautiful, detailed wood, for about $10.

And this coffee table for $25. I have big plans for both of these pieces!

I also got this pretty wood frame for $2

I used some burlap-ish cloth as a mat, drew a charcoal sketch version of this guy, and viola! Quick, free art:)

But back to furniture: I've been wanting to try my hand at painting a design on a table-top for a while, and this sad little end table that I found by a dumpster seemed like a good piece to experiment on.

I ripped off the weird leaf, resiny thing, patched up the holes, sanded it down, primed it, and gold-leafed it.

Then I added three stripes (in 3 different thicknesses), and used a box-cutter and stencil paper to create a stencil based on this art deco-looking design.

I'm actually not that pleased with how it turned out, but it was just a practice-run anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter.

And last but not least, here I am yesterday, dropping Lovely off at her residential program. I cried, (again!) but I'm very happy for her:)

Hope everyone is having a great day!

my buddies

2011-03-07T12:42:00.000-08:00

These are my friends, Genesis and Lovely. They've been living on the streets for about 6 months, and I met them through my church back in January. Here we are last month after a clothes-shopping trip to Target:)

Here they are yesterday with our pastor, Jim:) I hosted a surprise party for them yesterday, because it was their last day of homeless-ness!

Sadly BOTH of our nice cameras are currently broken, so these are iPhone pictures and don't really do my little banner justice. I made it out of sparkly pink, green and silver sheets of card stock, with tissue paper poufs behind each letter.

I put Martha Stewart pompoms on the corners ...

And over the buffet. Unfortunately I didn't snap a picture of my buffet set-up until after the guests had already eaten, but you can get the general idea!

I also bought two albums and put their names on the front, and then set out card stock that was cut to size so that guests could write a personal note to each girl for their albums:) My friend Becca helped put together gift bags for the girls full of things for the girls to take to their programs with them like toiletries, stationary and gift cards.

Here we are this morning, dropping Genesis (in the middle) off at her residential program! I felt like I was dropping my child off at college, LOL. Lovely starts her program on Wednesday. It's a little bittersweet ... these girls have become true friends to me and I've gotten used to seeing them several times a week! Their programs last about 2 years, and I can't wait to see where life takes them after that!

I'm making a colorful-rug-blanket-caster-wood-ottoman-coffee-monster

2011-03-01T11:29:00.000-08:00

This coffee table cost us about 28 dollars. We bought it on Craigslist and spray painted it a nice aqua-ish color, and it's lasted about a year or so. But now it's time for this little table to be on it's way, and I have very big plans for it's replacement!

My idea for it is all in my head, and a bit hard to explain, but it's going to be a bit like this ottoman from Little Green Notebook...

a bit like this chair from Anthroplogie ...

a bit like this cushion platform from Urban Outfitters ...

And a lot like something out of Flea Market Style, an amazing coffee table book that my bestie Jilly gave me last year for my birthday:)

Stay tuned to see how (or if) it all comes together:) And check back soon because I have a lot more home projects going on that I'll be posting about soon!

a week in the southland

2011-02-23T11:28:00.000-08:00

I'm back from a very full trip to my hometown:)

I went on a girl's trip to the Alluvian, hung out with my mama and sister ...

..and my brother Daniel:)

I made this Facebook "costume" for my brother Sam's costume party. Complete with a blank space on the right for people to "write on his wall".

And saw this gorgeous sunset during a walk on my parent's land. I also had lunch with my "Neenah", Aunt Becky and my cousin Margaret, did some clothes-shopping, and ate all my favorite foods that I can't get in California! Like the delicious white cheese queso chip dip that they serve in Mexican restaurants in the south, but is no where to be found in Mexican restaurants out here! Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I could eat bowls of it!

But one of the most fun things I did while I was at my parent's house was watch home videos that they recently converted to DVD. I brought a few of them back to CA with me and took some screenshots to share:) Check out this glamorous pose I'm striking while sunbathing on the lake.

And here I am about to go "look for rocks" with my Papa. Right after he's done waving, I tell him I have sand in my mouth and he teaches me how to spit. LOL!

But the best screenshots of all are these of me reuniting with my mama after a few days apart:)

I can't look at these without tearing up a bit.

Look how happy we are to see each other!

my bestie the bachelorette

2011-02-19T23:38:00.001-08:00

This is where I got to stay this weekend:) The Aluvian in Greenwood, MS! We ate amazing food and spent the whole morning today at the spa. I had the Sonya Dakar facial and I wish I could have it done on a daily basis!

I loved every minute I got to spend with these amazing girls. I wish I could take every one of them
all back to San Diego with me;)

I go way back with two of them;) REALLY way back! That's Mary Claire (the bride) on the left, Laurie in the middle and me on the right.

We've changed a little since then. That's Laurie on the left and MC on the right!

Mary Claire (left) looks precious here ... Me, not so much! We were so excited because we were in a play together and got to wear lipstick.

And here we are 15 years later;) I love this girl to pieces and can't WAIT for her wedding next month!

all you need is love (and flowers)

2011-02-15T13:06:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine's Day full of lots of xoxoxo's from your loved ones:) My day started with these gorgeous flowers from my hubby. I'm afraid this OOTD business is bringing out the worst (i.e.: vanity) in me! I decided to show off my Valentine's OOTD by "modeling" my flowers, and I got a little carried away...

Some might say that it's not very fashionable of me to wear a white dress before Easter, but I haven't worn this dress in a few years, and when I ran across it in my closet I thought it looked just like a white doily, perfect for Valentine's Day!

Maybe this is weird, but whenever I get a bouquet of flowers, I always break them up into several arrangements right away ... as you can see in the picture above. I'm no Eddie Ross, but I do enjoy pretending to be an expert in floral arrangement every now and then:)

Dress: Mango

Bracelets: Assorted bangles

Shoes: H&M

Earrings: Vintage - they belonged to my Gran:)

Here's a close-up of the shoes.

The best part about turning one large arrangement into three smaller ones is that you get to enjoy your flowers all over the house! Here are a few of them sitting in the adorable hobnail pitcher that my little sister Lizzie gave me for Christmas:)

I saved a single rose to put on my desk.

And this little bunch has moved to the kitchen window since I took this picture. They looked so sweet and cheery in the morning sunlight today:)

HAPPY (belated) VALENTINE'S DAY!

a bit about the new design

2011-02-09T17:09:00.000-08:00

Lately I just can't get enough of ads, illustrations, borders and fonts from the 1920's and 30's, and I decided to overhaul my blog design (again!) in the style of an ad from that era. Here are a few things I noticed about the ads that I tried to incorporate into the blog's new look:

sunbursts...

LOTS of different fonts...

(the fonts I used for the banner and new buttons all came from fontspace, under "art deco". Click here to download them for yourself!)

And the beautiful and unique color schemes! I love the mustard yellow in the ad below.

And here we have an ad by General Electric, showing us how useful it is to have several outlets per room. That way you can read in bed, curl your hair, vacuum, and even turn lights off and on right by the door! Oh, the convenience! Aren't the colors lovely? Pink, orange, cobalt blue and turquoise, all in one room? Yes, please.

Of course, having the new design means I won't be needing my silhouette buttons any more. If any of you have use for them, just send me an email at whitewaxflower@gmail.com and I'd be more than happy to send you the file. I'd love for them to go to good homes;)

In other news, in my most recent Jigsaw post, Moe commented that I should decorate him according to the holidays. I embraced this idea whole-heartedly, and bedecked him with paper hearts for eyes like on those silly retro cartoons. I already know what he'll be wearing for Easter, too!

And finally, and I say this with a bit of embarrassment because I know some people think OOTD's are lame, today I'm posting my first-ever OOTD post (that's "Outfit of the Day", in fancy fashion-blogger talk). This isn't actually my outfit from today, it's my outfit from Monday, when I had fancy places to be.

necklace: vintage

shirt/belt: Anne Taylor Loft

skirt: H&M

shoes: vintage

PS Re: my byline in the banner ... just in case anyone was wondering, I'm not really a detective, but I do plan to be just like Nancy Drew when I grow up.

Hope you guys like the new look!

Copying Kate

2011-02-07T14:19:00.000-08:00

I was doing a little shopping this weekend when I spotted these absolutely adorable flats in the window of Kate Spade. If you want the real thing they'll set you back $250, but I'm a bit on the short side (5'3'') and prefer to wear heels, so I began plotting how I could get the shoes, plus a heel, minus the hefty price tag.

I started with these basic tan pumps that I bought for $14.99 (originally $49.99) at Ross.

Then I headed over to Michaels for the following supplies, which cost about $20

small wood rectangles
assorted clear jewels
glue
gold leaf
wire

I painted the wood pieces and waited for them to dry.

Then I glued the wood to the shoes and secured them down with wire until the glue had dried thoroughly.

I used a spare piece of wood to plan my jewel-layout. I did the above design on the right shoe, and a mirror-image of the same design on the left shoe.

Et voila! I'm quite pleased with them. I was worried they'd fall apart right away and I'd be leaving a trail of bling behind me everywhere I went, but so far everything has stayed put! Now we'll have to see how they hold up after an evening of dancing out on the town with my husband:) That will be the real test!

2011-02-02T17:34:00.000-08:00

Oh hey, what's up?! I'm just hangin out with my friend Jigsaw. Isn't he handsome? Or maybe I should say "Isn't he less hideous than he used to be?"

before

after

It's still pretty safe to say that my sculpting skills leave something to be desired. Ironically, my grandfather was an accomplished, award-winning sculptor! In his (much too short) lifetime, he created amazing art that can be seen in museums, universities, presidential libraries...

and on my vanity:) See the little elephant bronze sitting next to the picture frame? He gave that to me when I was 14 years old, just two months before he passed away of cancer. I still remember exactly how he was holding it when he surprised me with it. He had it down by his side, with his fingers looped through the little elephant's legs, and it's back resting in his palm. I know it sounds silly, but I remember that sooo vividly, and I often loop my fingers through the elephant's legs ... just the way he did that day, and it's almost like holding his hand.

My Papa

I'm officially teary-eyed now. I had no intention of making this post so solemn when I began writing it, so sorry about that:( And before I go, I have to say that while I may not have inherited his talent for the creative arts, I definitely inherited his love for them, and I'm so grateful for how much he cultivated that love in me. And my husband says I inherited his mischievous smile, which is good enough for me:)

I'm back and ready to blog!

2011-01-31T12:02:00.000-08:00

As you may have noticed, I took a little week-long break from blogging. I hope it wasn't too painful a separation for you! LOL;) I have a lot to catch up on, so forgive me if this post is a bit all over the place!

You may remember my little friend Jigsaw, from a few posts back.

I am currently in the process of re-covering him in this print from vintage printable. Will it decrease the terrifying-ness that is my paper mache project? I don't know, but here's hoping! And speaking of vintage printable, does anyone know what happened to it? It seems to be down. I'm gonna cry myself to sleep if it turns out it's been taken down for good!

I have a funny pixie-cut related story for you guys. On Saturday afternoon my husband and I went to South Beach to chow down on some delicious fish tacos. You have to be 21 to get in, and when the guy was checking IDs he looked at mine, then looked at me and said "I gotta be honest, you look wayyy better with short hair". Which was nice of him to say, but sort of hilarious because of course I look better now, my driver's license picture is ATROCIOUS! Don't believe me?

AHHH!!!!! Told you.

If anyone tries to tell me I'd look better with long hair, at least I know I can whip out my license and instantly change their mind! And if by chance this post is making you crave fish tacos, but you can't get them where you live, you can always tide yourself over by making these:)

In other news, the adorable Mina from Bohemian Vintage was kind enough to ask me to participate in her 10Corners feature! Click here to have a look:) Another feature I've been meaning to mention forever is my interview with my blog-buddy Alaina from Recycled Interiors. Click here to check that out! Thanks Mina and Alaina!

And finally, you all know how head-over-heels I am for this little guy ... well, he has a sibling on the way, and my sweet sister-in-law called me on Friday to tell me it's a GIRL! So excited to meet my first niece (on my family's side) and fall every bit as in love with her as I am with her big brother:)

So that's it for today, but I have lots of fun posts coming up this week, so don't be a stranger:)

speakers and wires and tri-pods, oh my!

2011-01-24T14:26:00.000-08:00

I promise I'm not slowly trying to turn this into a fashion blog or anything, but I was so blown away by the amazing prices at H&M recently that I just had to mention them to you guys, in case any of you are in need of some cute basics! This skirt was only SIX DOLLARS, and the shirt was only 8 dollars! Crazy, right? I got the skirt in stripes and in black, and I got the shirt in gray and in white. And just for the record, H&M isn't paying me to say any of this ... I just get really excited about cheap, cute clothes, haha:)

And I just wanted to say again: thank you guys so, so, so, so, SO much for all the kind words about my hair. You guys have nooooooo idea how much your sweet compliments meant to me ... I read them all over and over and over! Cutting all that hair off wasn't easy. When they put it up in the "donation" ponytails and got ready to snip it off I closed my eyes and buried my face in my hands until it was over! But I'm so excited to be able to donate alllllll that hair, and thanks to all of you I'm feeling very secure about my new 'do! And, as you can see in the photo above, I can even ditch the Audrey look and style it into a pretty sweet 'hawk when I feel like it;) LOL

And now on to something more house-related, I have a confession to make: While I'd love to be able to claim that the wall behind our sofa looks this picturesque all the time, the reality is that it most often looks like this ...

We don't have an entertainment center, so all of our DVDs and video games stay in this library dresser you see below, our TV stays in the guest bedroom....

and we use a projector to watch TV downstairs. Which is AWESOME, because it's like having a 100 inch TV screen in our living room whenever we want, but the problem is that without an entertainment center, the shelves behind our couch are constantly covered in speakers, tripods, etc.

What do YOU guys do with all of your TV-and-movie-watching gadgets? Do any of you have pictures of your living room set-up on your blog that you could link me to in the comments? I'm looking for solutions, here!

I did it.

2011-01-21T21:17:00.000-08:00

Sorry to keep you all waiting for pictures, the haircut took 4 hours, then I went straight to my husband's office to show him:) Then we were off to the mall where I bought some pretty dresses and took the pictures above, and now I'm home just long enough to write this post before we're off for a night on the town!

I really hope you guys like it!

pixie in a pretty dress: updated

2011-01-18T09:06:00.000-08:00

Update: My haircut is scheduled for tomorrow, the votes are in, and once I added some "yay" votes and subracted some "nay" votes, here are the grand totals:

Yes, chop it off: 27 votes
No, keep the hair you have: 8 votes

So what's a girl to do? Tune in tomorrow, same time, same station to find out just how brave I get when actually faced with those scissors;)

If only this lovely pixie-wearer could be there to hold my hand.

Lately I've been on the hunt for over-the-top, girly-girl dresses. I live in light, flowy dresses during the warmer months, and even though it's only January, I'm already starting my spring/summer shopping:)

{from modcloth}

{from anthropologie}

{from marc jacobs}

And if you thought that by reading this post you were done having to hear me talk endlessly about the pixie cut, you thought wrong! I tallied the votes from yesterday, and I got 10 for "yes, get a pixie" and 11 for "no, don't do it!" Now I'm determined to change all 11 of your minds! And don't think I won't keep track of who changes their mind and who doesn't ;)

First of all, look how long that ponytail is! If I get a pixie, ALL of it can go to Locks of Love. You don't want to be responsible for depriving them of all that hair, do you?

Secondly, I pinned up my hair to look like a pixie and played dress-up last night, and look how cute it looks all gussied up, complete with a headband! Don't I look like I'd be a barrel of fun to hang out with, with my mischievous, impish little haircut?

And third, I'd like to think I have a good head and face for a pixie cut, since I have a sort of ovaly, square-shaped face and a short neck.

Did I change anyone's mind? Anyone? Bueller? Buuuueller?