The Sketch Book Project

I signed up for this project. It's a global art journal project and in the end, the journals will go on tour and end up in a permanent exhibit in my old home of Brooklyn.

It actually took me a while, like months, because every time I tried to sign up, for some reason, it wouldn't allow me to log on. And every time I saw it online, I would get the urge to sign up again and go to the site and go through the same frustration of being bounced back to the "sign in" page which would not let me sign in, or get a new account because I already had one. I bet I signed up last year on my gmail account and forgot the password.

Anyway, finally, I got smart and used my secondary email to sign up. Then I picked my theme and bought my notebook. My theme is "If you lived here..." which is actually the third or fourth theme I chose, since each time I went back, my previous theme was sold out.

If you want to do something so much that you keep thinking about it, keep having the urge, and keep returning to the same place, it's probably a sign that you should do all you can to make it happen.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to fill this journal.

There's still time. If you want, sign up, journal away.

Some Inspiration to Thrift

Just found a whole bunch of inspirations over on sfgirlbybay as she mourns the loss of Domino. If the website was going to be around, I would have just saved it to my decofile, but alas, alas, alas... I guess I'll just have to do my collecting here.

Love this living room. The white and the brights and the books. Oh I love a room with books. No room really feels finished to me without some books, somewhere.

I am planning to do a lot of decorating soon, as we get a new place, probably a cozy cottage with lots of light and an fenced in back yard for the kiddoes to romp, if I have my druthers.

But since we got rid of almost all of our furnishings, leaving only our library and art and clothes (pretty much) it all has to be done by scratch.

That's kind of exciting, actually. I am looking forward to the hunt. I promise to post about it here. This is one of the reasons I started this blog in the first place. In anticipation of decorating a house.

But don't think that I'm going to be about linking to thousand dollar chairs and ten thousand dollar light fixtures. I won't-- unless I found a way to hack the style from discards found in the alley and yard sale discoveries that get covered with a coat of glossy blue paint. I'm more likely to show cool rooms that I take as inspiration and photos from my estate sale excursions.

I'm drooling just thinking about it. Hey. Here's a preview. I photographed this on my last jaunt (a long time ago.)
It's a little well loved, but I thought the colors and pattern were beautiful. I ended up giving this to my mom to buy, and it lives in her blue and yellow kitchen, now.

I only had 24 dollars that trip and got a lot of lovely things, but there were things I left behind because we don't always NEED the things that attract our attention. I found it was fun to have a little photo safari, taking photos instead of purchasing. Just like on the savannah... take a picture of that elephant, don't shoot it.

I'm getting my jones on for the thrifting again. Actually, it's a good idea to keep a small budget like that for impulse shopping, because it would be so easy to just snap it all up. At 24 dollars, you have enough to get things you really love, but not enough to be impulsive and start collecting crap again. It took me 5 years to get rid of the detritus. I vow to not collect stuff I don't really love or really need, ever again. Of course, I do mourn some of my loved items that I had to let go of, but that just leaves room for new loves, doesn't it?

For the room above, I will be on the look out for a heavy textured large bedspread, cotton, so it can be tossed in the washer (two toddlers, remember?) a shapely chair, a poof or ottoman (or stack of pillows, which might fit my needs best, honestly), a sinuous lamp, a bright red oriental rug, just a simple coffee table (I miss the mid century modern one we left behind), oh, and a nice cabinet... or a crappy one with good lines that could take a pop of colorful paint. The shelves just look like ones from the hardware store, absolutely nothing fancy.

The toughest thing to find on that list in my experience with thrifting? The rug. I must keep a sharp, hunter's eye out.

I haven't mentioned this before, perhaps because I have so little time for crafting, but I love Crafty Crow. She collects such wonderful ideas for kids projects. Learning and crafts and arts and reading and holidays. So many wonderful ideas. I am a total lurker on her site. Today though she's giving away a gorgeous book, An Awesome Book! by Dallas Clayton, and I can never resist books. Especially ones with great illustrations. Plus my boy adores monsters of all types. Probably because he's part monster himself.

What? Don't look at me like that. He didn't get it from MY side. ahem.