Patio Addition

Thanks in part to a birthday gift from my in-laws, we now have a new fire pit for our back patio!  

I found this beaut on walmart.com; it's eerily similar to this one on Design Within Reason and a million times cheaper.

I foresee a lot of s'mores and late night, fireside chats this summer.

Happy Friday

My new favorite Tumblr feed: It's no biggie. It's filled with darling little animated gifs such as these...

Enjoy your weekend!!

Home Renovation on Steroids

I came across the Olive Green Window blog today and it makes our renovation projects look.... kind of pitiful.

It probably doesn't hurt that they started out with a home like this...

From lovely, to totally amazing....

They've found and refinished a lot of their furniture on auction sites, but it's all period, it's all authentic, and it's all designer. Fancy.

Even though this is home renovation on a completely different scale, it's fun to see what other people are up to. It looks like they enjoy their projects almost as much as we do!

(This will be me in a year :))

Folk Fibers

I am a huge fan of Folk Fibers. I've meant to post about them for a while now, and with all the quilt talk yesterday, this seemed the perfect time. Folk Fibers is pretty much the only reason that I think quilts are cool. I follow Maura Grace (the owner and creator) on Instagram, and watching her dye her fabrics and then turn them into these hand-sewn beauties is inspiring. If I were capable of quilting, my quilts would attempt to be as awesome as these:

This is an indigo-dyed whole cloth quilt. 

This one was dyed using pomegranates. Pomegranates, people!!

See even more amazingness at http://www.folkfibers.com/.

Dyeing

I dyed some fabric last night! Not only was it fun, but it turned out really, really well!!!

I bought a half yard of white quilting cotton, and a couple of dye baths and an hour later I had two little rows of colorful scraps.

I began the night by carefully sorting out my supplies in the backyard (a cat is not one of them).

But then I read the directions on the dye packet and had to move everything indoors. A hose and a bucket just wasn't going to cut it.

A few recommendations to anyone that may ever dye something:
1) Wear gloves. Yes, it says on the package, but don't take that as just a suggestion. WEAR THE GLOVES.
2) If you drip any dye onto your kitchen counter or floor, WIPE IT UP IMMEDIATELY. No matter how much you hate your kitchen now, you will hate it even more when the pink formica has green polka dots on it.
3) If you do forget to wipe something up immediately, pouring a bit of bleach onto the dyed spot can help remove it. Just make sure you remember to wipe up the bleach afterward, don't leave it there as you will invariably put your elbow in it and spread it all over your favorite workout shorts.

So why the dyeing, you ask? Well, I've always wanted to make a quilt (and to experiment with dyeing fabric) and making a teeny tiny baby quilt seems like the perfect project to learn on.

I think a tonal quilt of triangles would be pretty and graphic....

.... but I'm thinking a strip quilt or something with large, haphazard geometric shapes would be more doable for a beginner. Especially for someone who can barely sew in a straight line (and that's with a sewing machine).

I have more dyeing to do (which I'm looking forward to) and a whole ton of quilting (which I'm terrified of). If the quilting doesn't work out, I may just haul my freshly dyed cotton over to my mother-in-law and plead with her to sew the strips together. Wish me luck!

JCP

Suddenly, JCP has become cool. They now have lines by Johnathan Adler, Design by Conran, and even Martha Stewart. AND, everything in the home section is on sale this week. I'm quite tempted....

These sofas are fabulous:

Crescent Heights Sofa / Darrin Fabric Sofa / Bleecker Sofa

That Crescent Heights sofa is the perfect color of greige and the Darrin is only $849 right now. Eric, can we get another sofa? Or two?

These pieces are also on my "Awesome Home Wares" list: 

Charlotte Round Pouf / Design by Conran Luciana Table Lamp / Royal Doulton Mode Tableware 

I'd love that pouf (or one similar) for a nursery and those dishes (!). They come in white and putty and I would like 5 settings of each, please. I absolutely love the shape of the plates. I hope our JCP here in town has at least a couple of these collections. I will have to check it out tonight after work.

New Things

We have a few new things around our place....

I finally found a frame for my print from Karolin Schnoor on Etsy, we now have a lighter bedspread for the summer months, and this just in, we have new windows and a new sliding door!!! The weather has continued to be a bit spotty so our siding is still in limbo, but I promise to post photos as soon as everything is complete. Can't wait!

Oh yeah... and then there's this....

Which won't technically arrive until sometime around the first week of December. Prepare for this blog to become a cesspool of cribs, clothing, and super cool baby toys. Things be getting crazy in the Brindle house!

Windows!!!!

When I left for work this morning, our kitchen window was already out and the new frame was going in!!! After all the rain we've been having, I think our contractor was raring to finally get started! It will be so good to have the new windows!!!!! And the siding! And our new sliding door!!!!! Huzzah!!

Cindy Rizza

After two weeks of solid rain, I've started looking at summery paintings to combat the dreariness. These by Cindy Rizza are just the thing to keep one dreaming of long summer days....

(you know, except for that last one).

Big Green Monster

My friend just bought the MOST AMAZING DINING SET EVER off of Craigslist.

Um... yeah. It's amazing. THOSE CHAIRS!!!!

Swoon.

I'm very happy for my friends, but I will be honest; I plan on seducing their dining set. I will woo it with Danish Oil and furniture wax. I will gently polish it and whisper to it how lovely it is. I will slowly chip away at their relationship until suddenly, one day, my dear friends will arrive home to find their dining room empty save for a note informing them that their dining set has run away to live with me.

I am a terrible person.

I haven't been this jealous since fourth grade when Kayla Stellar got a haircut and I suddenly realized she was pretty.

Pray for my soul.