happy halloween!

seascape and sand collection

Yesterday we put up the seascape we found at the flea on Sunday. We also put up a great wrap around shelf. It ended up being the perfect backdrop for my collection of sand, jiggly eyed friends and nostalgic tidbits.




We were able to hang a few more pieces in the hallway and just as I thought we might be nearing the end...I found another box of paintings and prints. We need more wall space.



Today Richard is working on a hallway runner with the pieces of carpet samples I found at SCRAP. I am very excited about that!

I really want to just stay in bed and read a good book today.

I have been thinking a lot about Anna's Door Sixteen post for October 28th. Her mom has a great grouping of vintage Moomin dolls that I am totally pining for. I have now added that to my long list of ebay searches. If you haven't seen them yet you are in for a treat.

Happy Tuesday!

Sunday was awesome!

Sundays are always a great day around here. We like to start with coffee and bagels and then...the flea market. After what seemed like a two month dry spell...Richard broke his streak of finding nothing at the flea and more than made up for it with all the new friends he met and had to bring home.

We also found the first of what I think will be many seascapes. Richard has been trying to get that collection going and today we found the first. I think it will end up being a great backdrop for my sand collection.


There was one special item at the flea that we couldn't bring home. I so wish I had room for it...part of me still feels like I blew it by not bringing this baby home.

After the flea we went out to Tiburon and the pumpkin patch.

Then we went to celebrate our friend Scott's birthday (aka cuddles)

Brody, Serge and Cole always have the best dinners on Sunday and this weekend was no exception.

Here is a photo of the pre-dinner nosh.

Now its Monday and we are going to work on a lot of the art hanging and collection showcasing.

I wanted to thank Leslie at Apartment Therapy for giving us a shout out today. We love Apartment Therapy and are thrilled to be mentioned.

Have a great Monday!

unpacking and showcasing

Wednesday we managed to unpack the truck and edit some of Richard's collections. We both have the collecting gene and since we don't have a huge house some of our little buddies are going to have to sit in storage. One of the best things about this process is finding ways to have both of our many collections showcased in a cohesive way. Richard has been collecting toys for years and he had about 16 boxes of them. We edited down to 3. He will be taking 4 boxes of dudes to his studio and the rest will have to be happy in storage...at least for a little while.We are probably going to use jars and glass domes to showcase a lot of the toys. This is one of those projects that will have to wait a while. We were able to showcase his collection of tiny food in a vintage mayonaise jar.

We also figured out a great way to use his two antique benches. I will repost when we have more of that area together but here is what we have so far.

Yesterday we unloaded the rest of Richard's boxes at his new studio, returned the u-haul and drove out to the east bay for my usual salvage yard run. I managed to find a piece of glass for the office table top. I am hoping to get the office table top together this weekend. We also hit Ikea for a few storage containers and shelving for my sand collection. By the time we got home we only had enough energy to hang 7 paintings. I leave you with a painting that he painted and gave to me for my birthday last year. I love it! I think it looks really perfect in its new home.

hot days and hallways

Yesterday was a hot one! The city has been truly gorgeous this past week and yesterday may have been the finest. I was so inspired by the day and by the fact the Richard was finally driving up from Los Angeles with the rest of his stuff that I decided to finish the hallway. The finishing touch was a slightly altered version of the Cole & Sons wallpaper that I adore (thank you kinkos oversize enlarger) Now all thats left is putting up a curtain over the door to keep hallway light out at night and of course hanging art. Here is our hallway in its various stages.

What a satisfying project that was. Today we unpack Richards U-haul truck. He says he has 30 boxes....I have no idea where its all going to go but it is so great to have him home!

Have a great day!

creative chicks

Last night was the Design *Sponge sponsored 'Biz Lady Meet up' at Design Within Reach. (i made and brought the cupcakes pictured above) It was a really great opportunity to meet a lot of cool ladies doing really exciting things. We, over at Chief are in the process of renovating our website and offering our little embroidered goodies to retail clients. For six years we have been a strictly wholesale operation so the change is a little scary. It was great to talk to women who made the jump and are happy and successful. In particular it was great to hear Cate from Rose and Radish talk about jumping in with both feet. Going to the meet up was really helpful and inspiring. A big thank you to Grace for putting it all together.

flea sunday

Sunday was a gorgeous day! Here are photos of the car packed with stuff and a few shots of our booths.





We had a great day out there and I actually ended up with a new item. I wasn't suppose to leave the booth to shop as the whole point of selling things at the flea was to make room for Richards furniture but...well judge for yourself. I think it was totally unavoidable. HAD to buy it.


I have never seen anything like it. Someone took a stool and turned it into a little stool-trunk.

Richard is driving up tonight or tomorrow depending on how the U-Haul packing goes. This gives me a full day to finish all the projects I have hanging...which are quite a few.

Have a great Monday!

before and after the closet issue

I wanted to post before and after photos of the closet project. I have a lot more organizing and hanger changing to do so just focus on the walls ceiling and woodwork. It was quite a project for such a small space. Here is the list:

1. washed walls
2. patched and sanded ceiling and wall cracks
3. primed ceiling and walls with Kilz premium primer
4. painted ceiling with Bright White ceiling paint from Kelly Moore (flat)
   
5. painted trim with Soft Sesame from Kelly Moore (eggshell finish)
6. painted wall with Behr Contemplation (flat)
7. scrubbed floor with Murphy's Oil Soap
8. coated with Minwax hardwood floor reviver
   

I also wanted to thank Anna at Door Sixteen for talking about us on her site. She has been really supportive from the very beginning and we really appreciate it. You rock Anna! If you haven't checked out her site yet you should. She has quite the overwhelming renovation going over there.

no sleep til sunday

For the past two days and all day Saturday I have been and will be preparing for the flea market on Sunday. My friend Brody and I will be getting rid of a lot of stuff. If you are in the area and you like stuff you should try to stop on by. I tried several times to post a picture of my car full of the choicest offerings from my closet and shelves but Blogger is having some issues. I will have to update later. Have a great weekend!

Room details

Now that I feel alright about the 'wallpaper' I am ready to give the room list of what we did and what we used to get it to look like it does. But first I wanted to thank Dean over at My Little Apartment. She suggested using upholstery tacks to just deal with the fabric seams head on. It is a great idea and I wish I had thought of it. Thanks Dean! At any rate I am putting the plan into action once we get the rest of the apartment together. Richard is here in 4 days and things are starting to look better but I still have a long way to go. Anyway...here is the list with before and after photos.

1. removed radiator
2. removed all peeling wallpaper near radiator
3. skim coated the peeled wallpaper areas to even out the texture
4. sanded plastered areas
   
5. primed all of the walls to get rid of the lavender color
6. painted ceiling with Kelly Moore Bright White (flat)
   
7. painted the trim with Kelly Moore Soft Sesame (eggshell finish)
8. painted walls with Kelly Moore Mocha (flat)
9. painted chair rail with Kelly Moore Crystal Cathedral (semi-gloss)
10. attached deep blue/grey mohair looking fabric to walls using Golden Harvest Universal Wheat Wallpaper Paste. (I tried using starch first. IT DIDN'T WORK)

...and then I cleared out the hallway and put some of our books in their new homes.





My friends Brody and Cole (pictured here) stopped by for a bit to check on the progress. Cole got sleepy so they went home but it was nice to see people. I hope Brody starts a blog soon. Her house is amazing.




more tomorrow...

making it work

So today was actually a big day. It isn't over yet but I wanted to upload some pictures while I have a snack. I drove to Berkeley to buy replacement fabric for the bedroom wall and they were sold out of it. I was pretty bummed so I decided to drive over to Ohmega Salvage to hopefully buy something for the house that would make me feel better. It was raining when I got out of the car but I pressed on. I found nothing so I made my way toward the exit when I nearly walked right into Tom Waits. We said hi to one another and I gotta say...the man is hot. He looks so great! My friend Brody and I are huge fans so I text messaged her and decided to make another trip around the lot until she called me...which she did. I started to feel like a stalker so I left but it was really cool seeing him out and about doing something normal...while looking super hot. My star sighting put me in a great mood and I decided to come home; put on Tom Waits and attack the bedroom. I decided to make it work! I think it works.





There will be many more furniture moves and *phage changes but for now I feel like I can stop obsessing and move on to the hallway.

Having said that while I was painting the chair rail some of the old paint came off and revealed the original finish....one of these days I need to go at it with a heat gun to get to the first layer. Until then I can obsess on that.

Thanks Tom. You totally made my day.

*phage - anything to do with decorating or reworking the look of a room or place