Tasty Treat: Easter Cake

In honor of Easter weekend, I decided to bake a bright gradient cake. Although I love a perfectly balanced neat and tidy cake as much as anyone else, I can't help but love cakes that are a bit wonky and oozing with deliciousness. This cake was made with one batch of vanilla cake split it into five equal parts and dying each a different graduated shades. It was quite delicious!

Easter Egg Surprise

This week, I decided to some fun projects for Easter this coming weekend. I've always wanted to try blowing out eggs. It's something my grandmother did for me when I was little and I thought it was time I learned to do it myself. It was much easier than I thought it would be! When it came to decorating the eggs, I decided to keep it simple, a sharpie and some simple repeat patterns. Since the egg was so conveniently empty, I decided it would be fun to turn the eggs into little message carriers! I designed the package and labels to make it into a fun experience for the recipient!

To blow out the egg, I poked a hole in each end with a needle, and then made the bottom hole bigger with some drill bits. Then it all came down to blowing in one end and having all the egg guts pop out the other. Lovely. Then I microwaved the empty shells to "cook" the remaining egg inside, which also makes the shells a bit stronger. After drawing the patterns on the outside, I wrote out a little message, rolled it up and inserted it into the bigger hole in the bottom. To make it even more fun when the egg was cracked, I added some glitter into the mix. To seal up the bottom, I used a bit of tissue and liquid bandaid.

Virtues of Vintage

I thought today I would write about the virtues of vintage and antiques. When it comes to design, my eyes are often much larger than my wallet. I want unique and well crafted furniture, but my budget doesn't allow for crazy spending. Shopping for antiques is always a crap shoot, whenever I am planning to drop some dough, there is nothing to be found, it's when I'm least expecting it that I tend to stumble upon something amazing. That being said, antiquing is fun, the prices are never really fixed, I'm not a great haggler, but as long as I'm friendly and smile I always seem to get a good amount off of their "listed price". Below are some pieces of furniture I have scored at antique markets. I've put them next to an image of the comparable mass produced item so you can see what you would pay for them if you bought them "new" or "reproduced" from a regular store.

Furniture cart coffee table. New from Restoration Hardware, mine from a vendor at the Brimfield Antique Fair who salvages them from old factories in North Carolina and refinishes them.  I actually think mine is better quality and quite a bit sturdier, I also think the color variation is amazing on the vintage one.

Eames lounge chair. New from Design Within Reach, SUPER pricy. Mine, from the Brimfield Antique Fair, I had to reupholster it, you can see the before and after here. This is a classic piece with knock offs up the wazoo, but it always looks good and it very comfortable.

This dresser was a huge score for me, I actually got an the entire bedroom set (this dresser, a tall dresser, and two nightstands) for $500, also at the Brimfield Antique Fair. It just needed a new coat of polyurethane and it was good to go. After I bought it, I was browsing online and stumbled upon this credenza which is EXACTLY the same, but about 10 times more expensive, it made me feel like the savviest shopper ever. 

The new lamp above is something I've been drooling over for the past couple months, but $500 for a lamp is just silly and not even in the realm of possibility for me. This weekend, I was browsing around a big warehouse full of antiques which I discovered a couple months ago, and I found this lamp and almost died. One of the good things about living in the burbs, is that there is not a big demand for mid-century modern design, which means whenever I find it, I tend to get it for a deal! When you're looking at vintage lamps, always imagine them with a new drum lampshade which can take it from grandma to glorious! I bought the lampshade pictured at Target to give it a little oomph.

SO, morale of the story, find your local antique dealers, visit them often, smile and shoot the shit, and more often than not, you'll be taking home something better, more unique, and cheeper than you could ever find in a box box store.

Small Change, Big Impact: Drawer Pulls

Everyone has a piece of furniture that's been around forever, something old, boring, but perfect for holding your socks or some other necessity. This dresser has been floating around my family's home, and my various apartments for a long time, its old and worn, but it's a perfect compact little dresser. It's current home is in our guest room, and with the polka dot walls and fun color pops around the room, I thought it was time for it to get a little love. You see these brass drawer pulls on old furniture everywhere, but by popping them off, cleaning them in vinegar and salt, and painting them with a fresh coat of vibrant spray paint, they feel really fun and new. With just a pop of color, this dresser feels fun and new, even the shape of the pull feels fun now.

$50 DIY Nail Headboard

Please excused the un-styled bed, this headboard was the second step in the completion of the guest room, but there is still quite a bit to do. For this headboard, I wanted to do something simple and a bit rustic to keep the room from feeling too modern when it's all done. We are on a tight budget as of late, so I had to come up with something creative and different for under $50. 

Supplies:

1. Pine board from Home Depot 
2. Sand Paper
3. Stain 
4. Cotton rags for applying stain
5. Hammer
6. Nails (no longer than 3/4in)

Process:

1. Cut board to size: mine is the width of the bed and about 2.5ft high. If you're not comfortable with power tools, bring your measurements with you to Home Depot and they will cut it to size for free.
2. Sand:  you don't have to go crazy sanding, just get the edges and the top so it's smooth to the touch.
3. Stain: I went for a darker stain to bring out all the beautiful grain detail in the wood. I prefer rags to brushes when it comes to stain because its easier to spread the stain evenly and avoid pooling and drips.
4. Once the stain dried, I looked at the board and chose a line in the grain that I wanted to follow with the nails
5. Hammer Time! I went down the nail aisle at Home Depot and picked a variety of nails in different metals, head sizes and shapes, I just made sure they weren't any longer than the thickness of my board. I basically filled in the lighter grain line in the wood with the nails, varying types and spacing to make it feel organic. 
6. Attach it to your wall! I put in wall anchors and screwed the board into the wall in six places, better safe than sorry. If you're in an apartment or don't want to put holes in your walls, you can buy two 2x4s and screw them into the board and your bed frame. 

Watercolor Wedding Invitation Suite

Hot off the press! This is a wedding invitation suite that I designed for a lovely couple getting married at Lake Pearl this summer. I did a handful of custom watercolors of their reception site (which I displayed in an earlier post). We chose from those paintings to create this suite. All the different paintings displayed together on the Invite card, Reception card, and RSVP postcard, give a lovely idea of what the guests can expect at the wedding. They calm navy and grey color pallet is classic and understated with hits of aubergine keep it modern and fun. We added a little credit card sized card, perfect for guests to slip in their wallets, which has that little extra bit of info, directions to the church and accommodation information. Coming soon to join the Invitation Suite in this collection are Programs, Escort Cards, and Favors. 

Adorn Your Walls: Object Art

Last week I posted about how you should love your walls by covering them with art. One of the ways to keep your rooms interesting and keep the eye moving is to hang objects and sculptures on your walls mixed in with your 2D art. What you hang doesn't necessarily have to be something you'd find in an art gallery, hanging a well crafted pick-axe over your door can be a fun conversation piece! Below are some great 3D objects for your walls.

Decorative arrows, I'm totally getting these for our guest room, she can make them in any color to match your decor!

Woven bowls are so pretty and a couple put together to make a beautifully graphic wall. I love this idea for a kitchen or dining room. High end stores sell these at a steep prices, but there are some stores which support African businesses and sell them for a more reasonable price.

I have a thing for faux taxidermy, and this knitted deer head is just amazing. 

Why not have knitted sausage hanging on your wall? Hilarious.

In our "Man Cave" I used vintage pennants of the hubbies favorite sport teams in lieu of the tackier "fathead" that he wanted. but the pennants have a much more legit and "true sportsman" feel. I'm thinking of getting him one of these "stay home" pennants as he is always using the dogs as an excuse for us to stay home.