The Domestic Vernacular

An Introduction to Letterpress Printing. Marla, Meet Kozo. Kozo, Meet Marla.

2008-05-04T08:39:00.011-05:00

One of my favourite Christmas presents, a gift from my boss Kari, was an introduction to letterpress class at Kozo Studio / Gallery with Akemi Nishidera.

I showed up with my notebook, a Cabin & Cub product that we carry at Winkel, ready to go.

Akemi provided a glimpse into the fascinating world of letterpress, both as an art form and as a way to make a living in times past. The stories of competitions at the CNE for men to win jobs in larger cities with their typesetting skills were exactly the kind of lore I love.

The studio is a feast for the eyes. It sent my heart strings thrumming - being able to poke about and look at type, and see others' prints, and getting to snoop in drawers and boxes and fondle some of her handmade paper.

We were soon left to ourselves to find what we wanted to print. Fondling blocks and exploring drawers ...rowr!
Then Akemi gave us some guidance on setting the words - like the basics: they go in reverse.

I made my choice - something small for the show press. I'd brought my own letterpress blocks from home to try on the Vanderhook press.

Time for smooshing ink. That's the technical term.

Setting is a finicky business - everything has to be in there, right and tight.

And finally, a print.

With much tweaking, I learned to make quality prints. Said tweaking involves, building up layers of tape on the back of the blocks to bring everything up to the same level. That was the no-fun part. Really, the only no fun part.

What's fussypea about? Never mind right now. All in good time.

Then, it was on to using the Vanderhook. The Big Kahuna. The one where the fear of ruining a $300 roller stayed the hands of a few. But I'm glad I went for it. With Akemi's great help and patience, I was able to use the letters of our names that we've collected to make a print.

But, learning about letterpress prints was also learning about myself. The patience and discipline needed to make excellent prints of consistent quality - and those qualities being lacking in my life, well, it means I'll likely always work at the level of a dilettante.

I moved back to the show card press, where I was happy to putter and make some more prints.

I'll look forward to more classes there in the future, and will dream of finding the perfect show press and collecting type for it. In the meantime, with Kozo so close to home, there are beautiful cards and prints to buy; blocks to fondle, and Akemi - a nice person I love to talk to - to visit. Chatty like me, and accommodating to a fault - I stayed about three hours past the time the class ended.

In the meantime, it's back to mourning the state of my dirty windows.

What Do These Items Have in Common With the Items in the Previous Post?

2008-03-25T12:45:00.004-05:00

What Do These Things Have in Common With Each Other?

2008-03-24T09:42:00.003-05:00

The $12.99 Closet Makeover

2007-11-05T22:58:00.000-05:00

Six Years.

It's been six years or so that we've lived in this house, and I still find it amazing how it's possible to just stop seeing things that remain to be improved. Especially - MOST especially - things that are encountered EVERY DAY. Perhaps two, six, ten or twelve times a day.

One such source of perpetual unsightliness has been the coat closet in our main room. It's the only closet on the main floor, and one has to walk from the front door, through the "living room" area to the "dining room" area to get to it. It used to be worse - but at one point during some renovations we had the outside of it covered in fresh drywall, and added folding doors instead of the broken slatted doors that were there from the original owners.

But the inside...the inside remained hideous. Beyond hideous. It was (WAS!) ugly, repulsive, repellent, unsightly, revolting, gruesome, grotesque, monstrous, ghastly, awful, terrible, appalling, dreadful, frightful, horrible, horrendous, horrific, horrifying, shocking, sickening, unspeakable, abhorrent, heinous, abominable, foul, vile, odious, execrable.

Bad.

And of course, I almost forgot to take pictures, but here:

This is just to show exactly how badly the paint was mis-applied. I recoiled in horror as I took this image, which might explain why it's blurry. But there's more:

This is the view to the left: some shelves. Chipboard shelves, crooked ones, and yes - a better view of exactly how barferiffic the paint colour was (WAS!); AND how the coverage, it was slapdash. (WAS!)

And because I have no mercy:

(Shudders)

I know. And shiny. Nobody should have to look at that. Lower down there too, were some live wires that we lived with for an embarrassing amount of time, before one day having a closer look and realizing HEY! The people who lived in this house before for us really were the biggest dolts on the planet! Cap those bad boys, we could die!

If you're curious, I believe that colour is called Badly Applied Puspukesnot Green, and that was (WAS!) the colour of the kitchen too (until last year - proving once again how, alarmingly, I can stop seeing incredible ugliness even when faced with it twenty times each day).

Oh, it's often bothered me, that gross closet, peeping out from behind our coats. But I have a child - a Josephine, no less - and there are always more projects and better things to do. Besides, it holds jackets and hats and shoes and the vacuum, and with the doors closed, who cares? Out of the twenty times a day I go in there, I'd care about the horror inside there only about half the time.

But recently, we cut through the little paint store nearby in order to say hi to the store's cat as we often do, and I got Mis-Tint Fever. You know what that is? Its when you see the little pots of custom colours - $5 for the small ones, $10 for the gallons - and projects come to mind. Instead of shopping for paint for a project, you get the paint and look for something to put it on. Here is this high-quality paint, already chosen and mixed right there - but because it was gray-blue instead of blue-gray, it was returned and is now less than half the price it would otherwise be. I sorted and tidied up our left-over paints in the basement recently, and realized we had some there too - but nothing right for the closet. I made a mental note to keep an eye out for a colour that would work.

For a few weeks, I've been wondering what it would take to just empty the closet and slap paint on it. There's no way it could ever be a good job - the closet is too badly made for that. It just needed to be done, and I had bet about three hours would do it. I was right. Josephine, now in daycare,and there one day each week when I can actually get stuff done around the house, thwarted and foiled me this week and last with her sickness. Last week she was so sick, and not just lay on the sofa and watch movies sick, but lay on my lap and whimper sick. Today, the opportunity presented itself. She was sick, but not miserable.

After we dropped the dog off at the vet's for her eye surgery, Josie and meandered through Value Village on the way home. We wanted to look for a puzzle, or a new video, or a new book to make yet another day at home with her cold more fun. She chose something, and we wandered into the paint store to pet their cat on the way home.

And I saw a colour, and kind of liked it, and had five dollars in change scrounged from the laundry, so it's like it was free, really...

So we got home, I dumped the closet, and I slapped that paint on.

Huge difference. HUGE. Huge. I made a little curtain to hide the hole (didn't even sew it - I used the factory selvedge ends at the top and bottom, and hemmed the sides with iron-on fusible webbing and mounted it with the staple gun), and just...wow. It's a quick job - no nail holes filled, the ceiling left undone, the inside of the front deemed not worth the effort...but wow. It's clean - it's brighter. It's not nice by any means...but it's niceER.

When Steve got home, he trimmed the screwed-up floorboards with his Sawz-all. Now, you have to look at this:

...becaue seriously, this is the kind of fucked up this house is: only three floor boards extended into the closet, creating a totally uneven floor in there, though you can't tell when the doors are closed. By trimming them, I now can find a carpet remnant to cover the bad old floor. I'd stopped seeing that too.

So, loaded up and looking at it now, the only thing I notice is...

Um..not much. Nothing really.

See? I don't notice a bilious green. I don't see half-assed brush strokes. What do I see? Just a closet. That's all. No horrorshow, no nightmare behind folding doors...and..oh...wow. This family has a little (whispers) Converse problem.

So, how does it get to be a $12.99 makeover when the paint was only $5? Well, I had the brushes and fabric and stuff already...

The present Josie chose at Value Village was $7.99. It was a "My Little Pony" Unicorn, and it came with a DVD having music videos and a short movie on it. Without that, I never could have accomplished this project. She put on her Unicorn costume, played with her ponies, and watched that DVD from start to finish twice.

Sometimes the best help is no help. And sometimes the budget for a project, when you're a mommy with a Josephine, means that the extraneous toddler entertainment things sometimes cost more than the actual project material things. And if can't be done within the amount of time based on what you bought to bribe your kid with, it isn't worth doing.

(whimpers)

2007-11-02T22:37:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry I might have maybe dissed you, Martha. Thank you for making these happen.

An Image of Steve Having Fun With My Cupcakes

2007-10-30T21:31:00.000-05:00

Photo credit: Some guy at Steve's office

Care Less Cupcakes

2007-10-26T15:37:00.001-05:00

Despite feeling a little intruded upon by Halloween this year, I found myself volunteering to make cupcakes for Steve's work party. Now, it's not the Halloween party - it's just for their usual Friday Drinks Cart. What is that? Well, every Friday, a randomly assigned team of two gets together one alcoholic cocktail along with something non-alcoholic, and some snacks, based on a theme (because they're into TEAMWORK and team-building and CREATIVITY and all). His first go-round had a "White Trash" theme, with PBR and JD martinis and tacky snacks like Cheetos and Wonder Bread sandwiches. Perhaps the best part was the Lynrd Skynrd cover band soundtrack, and how we loaned two of Josie's toy monster trucks for them to have monster truck races with on the kitchen table...

This time around, the company's PRESIDENT as his partner, a Halloween theme was a natural choice. So, some Blavod Screwdrivers (they turn green when stirred!) and some Jones Soda candy corn pop on tap and there will be fake flies all over the table and body parts in the ice cubes and cupcakes...

I tried to follow Martha Stewart's skulls, as you can see by the first two rows. That was with Josephine ignoring Martha's vision, and deciding that TWO BIG CHOCOLATES (chocolate covered coffee beans) were better than just one, and sometimes she decided two chocolate chips were just great (so screw you Martha). Seriously, it would be great to make some really awesome-looking cupcakes like hers - but in the end? They get eaten. That's all. So, I tried an assembly line, and it was still unsatisfying.

Then, I got bored with exactitude too. I decided the ones where I ran out of vanilla batter and had to make and add chocolate batter looked kind of eerie and creepy with their swirls, and so I just left them as they were. Then I scrounged up some plastic spiders and took some plastic flies (from the ones Josie wanted to keep out of Steve's stash for the party) for others. I decided that eyeballs would be cool. And then I decided that eyeballs were too much work, so there weren't many eyeballs made. Toward the end, most of the cupcakes were the little crossed-eye guys, made while Steve gave the sugared-up toddler a bath and got her into pajamas. I packed them into my cupcake carrier (yes, I have one) and put some extras in a box to suck up to Josie's daycare providers with, eating exactly none myself, and went off to bed glad to be done with them.

Maybe next week I'll make some with love - but just in case you ever need to whip up something to make it look like you care, or like you're more awesome than you really are, cupcakes have a lot of impact.

And like sex and pizza, even when they're bad, they're still pretty good.

So here is the recipe for Loveless Cupcakes:

Go to Bulk Barn.
But lots of cake mix to keep on standby. It lasts forever, and most mixes aren't much better, and if you wanted to make cupcakes from scratch you'd just do it, right?!

Buy their frosting too. (Or at least buy confectioner's sugar, so you can make up some frosting with butter and cream and flavour at home).

And cupcake papers, in packs of 200. White. Nobody cares about cute papers. Save it all of the tops.

Make it (It's easy: 2 1/4 cups mix, 1 1/4 cups water).

The best part was finding a mini-cupcake pan at Value Village with 24 cups. If I had another, I'd only have to bake one round!

See? That's it. Nothing to it!

The best part of cupcakes is decorating them. Once a year I stock up on the decorative sugars and toppings at Bulk Barn, and I have them all year round. They look pretty on Josie's Hot Cocoa instead of marshmallows, and sometimes I even put them on her plain yogurt to make it fun.

But, if you're like me, and you can't stand not making things taste the best you can - you can make the mixes a little better.

Like, I used milk instead of water, and added more vanilla to the cake mix.

And I added a scoop of softened butter, orange and vanilla extract and a little more confectioners sugar to the frosting to make it taste better. I could have made my own buttercream frosting just as easily, but I didn't want to spend a minute more than I had to stirring. Stirring is not fun! (By the way - I don't often use electric mixers or anything. I have very little kitchen equipment, because I'd rather clutter up the room with decorative things I like than things I don't use often anyway. I don't mind a little elbow grease.)

So these weren't exactly Loveless cupcakes - maybe just Care Less Cupcakes.

Pie! The Recipe For My Pie That Has No Recipe.

2007-10-07T14:48:00.000-05:00

On Friday, Steve got me in trouble. He casually mentioned to his boss that we (!) were going to make my Sweet Potato pies that night - and she asked for the recipe. She wanted to bring one to the Thankgiving celebration she was invited to. And? She is married to the owner of the company they both work for. (!!!)

And? I had sixteen minutes left on the battery of my computer. Their office was closing in seventeen minutes.

So, here is what I wrote to her:

THE RECIPE FOR A PIE THAT HAS NO RECIPE

This is a pie I invented myself. Sometimes, it's high and fluffy and light. Sometimes, it's dense and creamy. It depends on what's in the house, how the yams are, and even my mood. It's more like cooking, which is an art, than baking, which is a science, right?

Use any pie crust recipe you like - I often use mixes, because that's the part of the pie I'm least interested in, and if they're crumbly and light, that's all I ask. Pre-bake, brushed with yolk and you can sprinkle sugar on the edges if you like - or not. Either way is fine.

Yams/Sweet Potatoes: 4/5/6 (I choose the larger, rounder ones - easier to boil or bake and then peel)

Bake them, or boil them, then peel. Either way is fine - one way is fluffier, the other roastier

In a pot, melt lots of butter. Add cream (I use half and half, or even heavy cream -- you could do any kind of milk, depending on your desire for how bad for you/healthy for you the pie will be)

Throw in the cooked, peeled potatoes.

Add brown sugar - a few palmfuls
Add pie spices - I use cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg
Add vanilla - a splash. And then I dab it behind my ears - it was my first perfume as a kid.
Add bourbon, if you'd like - a splash or two. Low-end stuff like Maker's Mark is fine (Saying it's a "Sweet Potato Pie with Bourbon" sounds swishier) (and drink some bourbon too. The more expensive stuff - like Woodford Reserve or a Weller's Centennial)

Add either evaporated milk, or condensed milk - either is fine.
Throw in an egg or two.

Mash it up - I like to use a hand-blender to make it really fluffy/creamy smooth.

What you're looking for is a nice tasting mix - if it tastes good in the pot, it's nice in the pie.

Heap it in the shell, and bake until it'd done. It's already cooked - you just want it to pie-ify. If you have extra, add lots of broth, and it's a nice soup. Or make more pies.

See image attached. (I sent the one pictured above)

And so, I was too tense and nervous that her pie would be a disaster, and couldn't bake my pies Friday night. I did make them Saturday morning, and did two mini-pies for a friend.

Sometimes, as a stress reliever, I do silly things. In fact I almost always do silly things. This one was just particularly satisfying.

Any questions?

Oh...and yes. I am a very fast typist.

Housekeeping

2007-10-02T08:38:00.001-05:00

October! Though it's been warm, it's SO FALL!

I am making steps towards making Josie's room a little cosier, which Julia at Apartment Therapy : Nursery noticed, and posted about again. It's so exciting to be featured on a site I like so much. It's like being in Esquire, though instead of being on the cover in a white sweater with no underpants, I'm like, maybe the Funny Joke from a Beautiful Woman column.

We've upped the book reading, which had fallen by the wayside a little over the summer, when playing outdoors expanded to fit the time allowed.

This reprint of a lovely old book, Barkis, we found on our vacation to the Jersey shore, for one dollar. It is so, so lovely. The colour of the cover, the illustration, that font! The story isn't so bad either - it's much better than some of the silly stuff I've been forced to wade through over the years.

I don't like cutting up books for projects, really, I don't - but I'm thinking of buying another copy of this one. The illustrations are SO FRIGGING CHARMING that I have a project in mind for them.

Josie inherited a child-size deacon's bench. I want to paint it this aqua colour, and instead of the stencilled flowers that are currently on it, I'd like to decoupage Barkis and his kitty friend on it. Wouldn't that be ADORABLE?

Part of the fall cosy cure has been the switch to soups and other foods not cooked outside. Mmmmm...chicken soooooooup. With lime juice, hominy and avocados - and other secret ingredients. Dani wants this recipe, but there is nothing I can offer.

Witness the exchange (ever so slightly edited for reasons of privacy):

On 9/25/07, Marla wrote:

All elegant ladies swipe pieces of chicken from their soup with their pinkies extended. Josie has a cold today, I am up to my ankles in crud on the floor, because I accidentally gave her the Motrin, which makes her feel TOO good so instead of her being sniffly on the sofa she's climbing all over the back yard; and so I had to take a break, make some soup, and I decided to send a picture of it to you because you know, I miss you.

M

On 9/25/07 5:50 PM, Dani wrote:

The first odd sentence of this made me laugh, because there is a commercial right now where a woman wipes her counter down with a raw chicken leg, and every single time I see it, I think of you and our mutual raw chicken phobia. For some strange reason, this sentence evoked that commercial!

Anyway, would you ever consider sharing that soup recipe with me? Not that I could ever do it justice, and I'm not exactly sure where one finds hominy, but the craving is killing me! Barring the discovery of that wormhole, I mean. And I've just in the last year discovered making soup, so it would be exciting to expand my repertoire to TWO kinds.

xo Dani

On 9/27/07 Marla wrote:

I've seen that commercial, and I think of you too. I would share the soup recipe, if there was a recipe. But their isn't. Remember – baking is a science, cooking is an art. I'll tell you what's in in, sometimes, sometime. But the main ingredient is LOVE.

M

On 9/28/07 4:43 PM, Dani wrote:

Bah, love. Love can be bitter, love can be sweet, love can be spoiled. I'm too left-brained for that artsy crap, give me MEASUREMENTS!!!

If I can ever figure out a recipe for it, I'll post it. But I will say - hominy is one of the key cosy ingredients. Puffy, almost doughy, nice to chew hommmmmmmmminy. Canned hominy is also good when it's fried in butter and onions. Not good as in "good for you" - good as in, it's worth getting a plunger to move that stuff through your arteries.

And this, speaking of butter and onions, though it looks like barf, is so awesomely cosy and flavourful:

Bacon and Eggs Spaghetti with roasted Butternut Squash! Did I say caramelizing onions in butter? I meant to say, in butter and bacon drippings.

(NOT gonna do the bad segue "speaking of bacon"...)

We've had a few trips to Riverdale Farm, enjoying that it's less crowded with so many kids back in school.

I must announce, with great sadness, that we miss Tom the Turkey very much.

He was um...culled...recently, to make more room for the other turkey family there, and because he was old and not in the best of health. We always made a special stop near his pen, and Josie would tell him to stop making such huge poopies on his sawhorse, and giggle like crazy. One of the things I liked most about him was that he was a jerk - his "careful, I peck" has been taken down, and the farmers truthfully note that he was never a really nice guy, so they're regretful, but not that sorry to see him go. So long Tom. I hope you get to poop on the Rainbow Bridge.

For his birthday, Josie's Papa Glen received a beautiful bench from us.

We love his pond, even though those who know me will know what rankles the minute they look at this picture. (Answer at the bottom of the post.)

Josie always loves a trip there, not just because of the three stooges:

Duchess

Jake

and Furby.

Duchess is lovely - the healthiest and nicest pet they've had in a while. It's nice to pet one of their dogs without death breath knocking me out. Their penchant for rescued animals means it's always an adventure visiting.

Jake is the fattest dog I've ever seen in my life (diabetes is partly the cause - the other partly part is Papa Glen) and Furby, the cutest little puffball, who is the meanest cur I've ever met. He needs Tom's old sign - as he is an old, crotchety vicious little beast who bites Grandma Joan regularly and whose only kind deed is to lick that yellow walrus of a lab's leathery elbows. Josie thinks his full name is Don'ttouch Furby.

Josie loves it there because a promise made early this past summer came true: we came home with three fish from Papa Glen's pond - named, Brownie, Calico and Goblin. That makes six pets in the house. I now have to count pets on both hands. That's not so good.

Shoppping for the bench gave me the chance to grab the last Porcelainberry vine from Bill's Garden Centre. At 40% off, I HAD to, once I realized I have the perfect spot for it.

It's the last thing I'm planting this year, and now all I have to do is pray "please survive, please survive" until spring. It's supposed to just need sun, and lots of water - it will take poor rooty soil with pleasure. At Bill's, there's one growing out of a crack in the asphalt. LOOK at those pretty pretty berries. The colours! I love them so much. All those blues, and purple and green all on one vine? Now I want to paint something in those colours. Hmmmm...

But I should say - I'm due to go and get some bulbs there next week - but there are lots of plants on sale there now, and they're well-cared for still - not like the markdowns at a Home Despot Garden Centre. Some of the shrubs and bushes and trees are marked down 40% too - but still come with their guarantee! It's a good time to go and get some "bones" for the garden, as well as some of the hardy groundcovers that are there and on sale. I'm addicted to stopping in there, falling in love with something, and having it come home with us. Josie likes it there because she gets a lollipop, and there's the fun game called "Where is the cat sleeping today?"

I'm sure they'll be one more big garden clean-up before winter - but as I look at my garden gloves hanging up, dry and stiff from the wet of planting, I can't wait to see my garden next year. There have been some changes this time around.

And now, I'm moving to make the inside of the house a nice place to hibernate. Oh, there's some tidying going on all right. I think I no longer need Elvis magnets on the fridge - but since Josie loves them, she can have them for her magnetized chalkboard. It was made by Lee at Wattle & Daub - reclaimed wood, a metal sheet, entirely painted in chalkboard paint so it looks nice as it hangs in our living room. But when I added the Elvi, I thought "This looks like ART. They can stay.

*The answer to what bugs me? I've changed my mind. You can guess. There's a prize for whomever gets it right.

Into Each Life, A Little Basset Hound Must Fall

2007-09-23T22:11:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time, my head wouldn't have even turned for bad Basset Hound art. Then not only did I get a Basset Hound, I realized that they have quite the fan club, and its legions have taken the breed's droopy and humble aesthetic and carried it over into the execution of art, folk art even, on its behalf - promoting it in forms other breeds don't rate.

Now, I find homemade Basset Hound crafts practically jump up and down in front of me, the unsuspecting shopper, and they're begging to be purchased. "Buy me! Buy me!" a poorly executed paint-by-numbers hound pleaded at a flea market one Sunday in Buffalo. So I forked over the two dollars, and suffered Steve's rolling eyeballs.

And then...and then! Another one. The yang to the first's yin. The icing on the cake. The bookend. It walked into Winkel, along with a collection of well-done and tasteful paint-by number works. Three dollars. "Me too?" its sad eyes questioned me. I had to buy it, you see. Not just because it completed the set...

...but because across time, and over the distance, and with all due respect to the efforts of each artist - how is it possible that the mate to the first could be so exactly perfectly charmingly badly painted too?!

And so, now that the floodgates have been opened - enter bad ceramic hound, six dollars ( I know - pricey for me!) from a thrift store in Philadelphia.

Thankfully, I have an enabler in my newest obsession. Josephine loves them too. This one's named Penny, after her favourite puppy at our local dog park.

It Followed Me Home From The Estate Sale...Can I Keep It?

2007-09-19T08:25:00.000-05:00

A furry beaver (snicker) bank...

Vintage note paper and envelopes, in pink, yellow and pale turquoise. None used. Yet.

Bookplates! None used. Yet. But...for me, or Josephine? Or a gift?

Vintage shelf paper in brown (too cool for mere shelves...I see a hat box covered in this happening in Josie's room!) (also, I bought some in a gold colour, but I don't love it as much) and vintage gift wrap (and Apartment Therapy : Nursery recently posted this fantastic idea!)

Vintage book marks - never used. Originally 8 for $1, the back states that they're "Mice - Drawing for a knife handle (kizuka) from an album of designs for metal carving compiled by Ranzan Tsuneyuki, mid-XIX century, from The Metropolitan Museum of Art) These I see as a nice mat for a picture. Or maybe ... I'll hang on to them just as they are for a while...

...because sometimes the hardest part of buying something nobody's used in forty years is being the first one to use it.

Josephine's Room at Apartment Therapy Nursery Today!

2007-09-18T10:18:00.000-05:00

Just looking back, and forward.

I'm so happy that I was able to accomplish much of what I'd dreamed about when embarking on this project. It went from something to nothing to something again.

Back when I posted about the reality of reality, I didn't realize how much the room would change, even from day to day. Thinking that getting out of the stress of the doing into the joy of the done (one of my favourite thoughts) would be enough, I didn't think of it as an ongoing project. I knew from my sketches that what I was planning was pretty loose, and I liked leaving room for surprises - but didn't imagine I'd be making changes so soon. I'm mostly happy with how much Josephine loves being in there.

But now, I can see that come winter, even though a new window is being installed tomorrow, we'll still need to make adjustments to the room to "winterize" it. Already, with Autumn approaching, the light has changed so dramatically, that more cozy is called for. We made a decision I now regret with the floor, and I think a larger rug will help a lot (I'll have to talk about that fiasco another time!). Heavier curtains might be a good idea, just to add to the impression of warmth and quietude on cold and gloomy days.

Josephine has not yet, and may never outgrow her habit of kicking off the covers - so aside from the flannel sheets, which I don't see her snuggling into, but throwing off - I think creating warm layers underneath her will help. I'm already searching out more bedding options. She's had another growth spurt, and it's time to extend the bed.

But most of all - more things have found their way to us. A hideous beanbag chair that Josie enjoys is now in there, and I'll need to find a way to live with that, and the cosy corner has been unused since the eyesore's introduction. I sense there will be fabric shopping in my future, and that there will be shuffling.

Some exciting new accessories placed themselves in my path, and I gathered them up and fit them into the room. Some things might leave - a children's TV show set might rent some of the paint-by-numbers dogs for three months, funding some of these changes.

And speaking of changes some more, I'm excited to mention, more breathlessly than airily, that my enjoyment of arranging things just so has been noticed. Two local stores have asked me to help with their window displays - one of them with re-imaging the whole store. I'm giddy, and busier for that.

But, more, what has made my day, my week, and my month, and well, name your longer increment beyond that, has been that one of my favourite sites to haunt has noticed Josephine's room. I adore Apartment Therapy, because I'm nosy. I love the open threads, I want the book very very much (and may think of Josie's Room Winterization as a Winter Cure, so I can justify its purchase), and the NY flower box images were something I loved peeking in on this summer...

So, it is with enormous, gigundous, HUGE excitement that I tell you:

Today, Josephine's room will be featured in an Apartment Therapy Nursery Tour. It should be up around one o'clock today.

I'll apologize for the images, though the very kind Julia of Apartment Therapy Nursery doesn't think I have to - I think they're not as polished as many I've seen on the site. We were on our road trip I was trying to put them together. Then, my old camera fell in the ocean. Now, the new camera eats batteries like no-one's business, and I have to buy rechargeable ones today. So, soon you will be treated to the images of the new theme - bad basset hound art - that has begun to pervade the space. Also look forward to the great vintage shelf paper that followed me home from an estate sale and the ensuing Hatbox Recovery Project.

Fawning Over This...

2007-08-30T16:27:00.000-05:00

Well done, Urban Outfitters. *appreciative hand clapping*

I think I know a little girl who would love to find this under the Christmas tree this year. At $18 it will be one of the most expensive tsotchskes in her room, but, so be it.

*stops clapping and reaches for the credit card*
*ignores those who think it's too early to shop for Christmas*

(I probably won't wait until Christmas to give it to her anyway.)

Josephine's Bedroom, The North Wall!

2007-08-30T12:24:00.000-05:00

Sticking to my rule that "Done is No Fun", the North wall of Josephine's bedroom is still waiting for the poster of the fox to be framed and hung over the bed. Since it's also the wall that has the stuff that gets used the most, it's going to take some time to figure out what is going to work. This part of the room is always in a state of disarray, and re-arrangement. I'm sure there will be changes before long, though minor. Already I've purchased a bin for her dress-up clothes, as we've entered the tutu, tiara and feather boa era of childhood.

When the room was in the earliest stages of being put together, it was lovely and sparse, and how I wish it could have stayed that way...

But, to be more accurate, it was more blank than sparse. It's the wall the sun reflects against; and it's one of the bigger walls in the room, with nothing like a window to break it up. Though we're not heavily into Feng Shui, none of the commanding positions for the bed would work, as any of them would cover the only heating/air conditioning vent in the room. Considering the compass position, and the other aspects, as well as the small size of the room (Each wall is a different length - 10',9',8', and 7'), the bed had to run lengthwise along the ten foot wall. Thus was the decision made for us.

The Ikea bed, which we've had for some time, was dressed in bedding found at Winners, and its American Counterpart, TJ Maxx. I found the throw, which fits a toddler bed perfectly as a spread (hey - there's a tip for you guys! Throws are often less expensive and more interesting than bedspreads, and fit kids' beds very nicely!) after I'd found the matching sham in those excellent haunts for bedding, respectively - for $29 and $7. The pink plushy Laura Ashley throw also fits the toddler bed better than a blanket, and that was $14.99 on sale at Winners, and Josie adores it. Loves it. LOVES it. Loves it even in August, when it's hot and she's sweaty because of it. The white cotton sheets are Ikea, sadly - but for fall and winter I have lovely natural coloured cotton flannel sheets that Kari, my boss at Winkel had made for it as a present. The really exciting part? I just inherited Kari's old sewing machine, and while I'm learning to sew in baby steps, sheets and pillowcases will be the perfect things to practice my techniques on! There is also my collection of vintage embroidered pillowcases for the pillow too, but I've been reluctant to use more than one of them on a toddler's bed just yet. The dog also sleeps here at every opportunity, and I have to wash everything often.

Sometimes on the bed, sometimes on the chair, we have this lovely pink and brown cotton blanket - very vintage, homey and shabby - a few dollars from an estate sale in Buffalo. In the winter, under her fitted sheet, I'll use another old pink wool vintage blanket from an estate sale as a mattress cover. It adds warmth and cushyness without making Josephine sweaty.

The table next to the bed came from Winkel, and I believe it was about $25. We used it outside in the back yard all last summer, and it over-wintered in the basement holding up storage tubs of stuff. When it came time to decide what furniture Josie's room needed, I did have a choice, as well, um... I love occasional tables and they have been known to follow me home. There are others in the house that may float in and out of the room in the future. But I soon realized that most of them were too tall right now, and that not only was this one perfect, it expanded the black wrought-iron curlicue idea and filled the space perfectly. The tabletop, which is a faux-marble formica, was less than attractive though, and so it was covered in the brown gingham oilcloth we sell at Winkel for $8.99 a yard. I used Gaffer Tape, in white, to hold it and um...yeah...some is showing on purpose in the next picture for the viewer's benefit. Okay - more truthful would be that Josie picked at it at first, but now she's forgotten it's there.

Can I tell you of my love for Gaffer Tape? It has many amazing uses, and it leaves no residue like duct tape and doesn't need to be cut with scissors. In the case of this table, I was able to reposition the oilcloth as I needed to get straight lines.

On the table, aside from tsotchkes that have since been moved around, is Missy. HE is a nice male Beta, chosen by Josie, so she wouldn't have to ever "sweep awone." His classic goldfish bowl didn't last for more than two weeks though - it got dirty too quickly, and I thought it might be stressful for him if I had to change it so freuently. So he was upgraded to a larger tank, which is filled with rocks and pebbles and beach glass we find on our walks along the beach; and a seashell my Grandma Josephine brought back from her first trip to Florida in the 1960's. Sometimes we buy a plant for him, but I think they're what was making the tank dirtier. He has places to hide anyway. I kind of want to bring the bowl back - it was so sweet and simple. But then, I don't want to clean it every five days, and with the tank, I can let two or three weeks pass before it's even remotely foul. So, convenience over aesthetics - that, and the happiness of the damn fish win this time.

Under the table in one of the woven baskets that matches the others from Winners are the books for bed-time - carefully chosen for length and their appeal to the reader (me). Long ago I realized that Josephine, as with most kids, doesn't choose books by looking at the spine. That's why her book case holds so few books at this time. But, even in this position, the books in the basket aren't chosen as often as they used to be. Josie is more into playing with her little guys, and given the choice between story telling or role-play before bed, it's talking in squeaky voices about ridiculous things every time. I may spin the basket around, so she notices the books more often. I'm sure this stage will pass though, and it'll be back to books soon.

All of this is why her table looks more or less like this now:

Why, hello "Bambi", an Easter present from my mother, found at Winners for $29.99 - who was deemed too precious to ever go out in the garden. And it wasn't good enough that he should go on the floor near the window, which is where I thought he would look cute. She likes that he watches her "sweep".

Of course, with "Bambi" comes "Thumper" - another garden ornament gift from my mother. Thumper and Bambi gotta hang together, and so there they are. Hanging out. Taking up lots of room, but making Josie happy. And, it IS her room, as I tell myself.

Other "guys", like the Rottweiller figurine and the ceramic deer and cats soon gravitated to where all the cool kids hang out in the room, and there they play with Josephine. In the hat box under the dog are her My Little Pony figures, because Molly will chew them if they're left out, and I will let her do that because I find them charmless.

I've since hung the picture of "Sheba". The print resembles the family dog that Steve used to love the most as a boy, and he often tells Josie stories about her. Grandma Joan found that print at a garage sale, I believe, long before I met Steve. It's signed and numbered, and one day I suppose I'll try to find out more about it. I painted the originally cream-coloured frame black, and was pleased to see the cream come through in crackles. The glass is old and wavy, and I love it placed in here as much as Josie does. Moving that off the table, and the fact that the ceramic guys move around helps in that it's not always so cluttered looking - but it does look "lived in", which is the point of having a room that she likes. She spends time in it. That was the whole point of this endeavor.

The other two prints come from Isle of Printing. A long long time ago, when Steve and I took a road trip to Austin instead of flying, we stopped in Nashville and Bryce McCloud was very cool about showing us around Hatch Show Prints while he worked there. We've admired his work for a long time, and though we've had these around for a year or wow...almost two...they've finally been framed and hung. Originally, the Hooray print wasn't intended for Josephine's room, though the Look Up print was, since she loves her friend the moon. She thinks the Hooray print looks like "Daddy and Josie". (Return to Sender, and Good Coffee were also ordered for the grown-up areas of the house, Good Coffee was framed and hung, Return to Sender is pending and I love them SO much.) The floating frames came via Zellers, affordable and easy and because the prints were odd sizes - but now, I love those frames the most. It lets the hand-cut paper show, and the prints don't have to be placed perfectly. Later on, when she wants to change the room a bit, other things can fit there, maybe matted on scrapbooking paper or fabric...hmmm...

Ahem...and I must say...Missy's fish tank is much clearer now. That image was taken just after I changed the water, and stuff had to settle down a bit. The Ikea bird light is still there, and the plants moved to the shelves to give the table some breathing room and because it was a little too bright for them there and they were suffering. Josephine also wanted to water them too often when they were there.

The carpet that inspired the room is next to the bed, in front of the table. It really makes the room, and it makes me smile to see it.

Now, something else has found its way into the room, and I don't adore it myself - but Josie went for it in a big way. It gets played with a lot, and it was a treat for her, so it has some meaning and importance and has earned its place there.

After we did a big clean-up of toys, intending for them to be sold at a garage sale, I asked Josie to look at what toys were left and to tell me if she still felt happy with what she had. She did. And so, I brought this out with a great flourish (it had been wrapped beautifully by the store), and told her it was great that she was able to let go of some toys, and that there would often be new and wonderful toys that would come when other toys were let go. This came from Spahhh, a little place in the neighbourhood, and Josie had admired it there. It's a cheerful store we pass often, and Josie loves to stop in there, because it smells so good, and I'm happy to buy her a lip balm or some other little treat there.

One great thing that Mary does at Spahhh is to collect old stuffed animals. She has a friend that refurbishes them, and then they are sent away for soldiers to give to children in conflict areas. Spahhh also sells these funny little Franken-animals, made by this friend out of patches and bits and pieces of other stuffies, each unique; and Teddy Bear Poo, which are delicious handmade chocolates. The proceeds from the Teddy Bear Poo pay for shipping the donated and refurbished stuffies.

So, I didn't envision a pink Hawaiian print tent in there (there are matching sleeping bags around somewhere), but there it is, between the table and the door.

All in all, Josie is proud and happy in her "new woom". I'm happy with how it all came together, that it's warm and friendly and not too treacly sweet.

Things that I've had for years, random items waiting for the perfect place in our home have ended up here. This dog pillow, found before Josie was even born at the nearby Value Village (which was unstuffed, washed, filled with new filling and sewn back up by me because used pillows = icky) fits right in, and was even part of the inspiration. She likes it because it's a cute dog pillow, I like it because the person who sewed it left all of the pattern lines exposed, and because part of the charm is that there are bones printed on the bottom panel. It also looks like Peg, from Lady and the Tramp, and we're certainly Lady and the Tramp fans at our house - wasn't Peg the best part of the movie?!

But of course, the best part of the room is the little girl in it. You have no idea how wonderful it is to hear her chirping little voice coming out of it. To peek in, and see her playing in there with her trusty slobberhound sitting nearby sets my heart a-fluttering.

It was always important to remember, and I think I've succeeded in this - that the room was not created for a little girl - it was created for this little girl.

Josephine's Bedroom, the West Wall

2007-08-22T12:08:00.000-05:00

Surprise!

The West wall's paint colour is Benjamin Moore's "Mixed Fruit" instead of "Zephyr"! I don't know why I attempted a feature wall, except that it was a small wall, and I thought the darker colour would reflect the paler pink wonderfully and warm it up; and the light pink would keep the dark colour from being overpowering. It turned out to work exactly that way. As well, the wardrobe was too stark in contrast to the light pink.

The colour is a darker coral pink very close to the pinks I love in some of the accessories, like the wicker cradle, some other doll furniture, the flowers in the paint-by-numbers dog pictures, and the deepest pink found in the cute dog pillow on her bed. I love this colour, it screams "VINTAGE" to me - but it's too intense for a whole room.

The wardrobe was a deal. It came from Sam at All Most Antiques, but after my boss, Kari rented it for use in a movie she was working on (Saw IV, to be exact, but I'm assured there was no gore on it or bodies in it). Here's a tip - sometimes the local dealers, if they've rented a piece to a movie, will discount as much as or part of the price of the rental when it comes time to sell the piece. Also, cash is better. And then, the movie needed it back for a scene, so it was rented from me after it had already been delivered to our house. Skimping on the exact particulars, that's how someone can get a $395 wardrobe for $125 in the end.

The wardrobe holds almost everything we need it to, and it seems that Josephine has more clothes than she truly needs when I realize how often I do laundry. Shirts and blouses and sweaters are folded and stacked, and as the shelves are deep, tucked in behind them are extra bedding items. Socks are in a bin, and jeans and pants folded. Tights are hung on the old-fashioned tie/belt holder on the door. I may unscrew and switch the clothing bar so it hangs from left to right instead of front to back, but for now it's working. I did this with my own antique wardrobe, and for the price of a $3 shower rod, the kind with the spring extensions, it's worth it.

On top is a vintage leather suitcase found at an estate sale in Buffalo, probably for less than $10. We rarely pay more than that for them, though here in Toronto they start around $30 and up (in this area- stores patronized by decorators can get even more for them). It stores all of her keepsakes - her first shoes (pink sneakers) and the cards from her shower, her knit hospital cap, her first painting, all sorts of things.

Above that is a small train case, and in there are extra pillowcases, because we change those more often. The two woven bins have her underwear and pajamas in them. At this point, she's happy to let me get those articles out, and she gets them on as best she can; but as she grows more able to dress herself, I suppose those things will go in open bins on the shelves in the wardrobe. We'll store out of season clothes, or maybe bedding will go in the woven bins. Those bins are the lidded versions of the same baskets/bins used elsewhere in the room to store her books and stuffies. They came from Winners, and the prices ranged from $7.99 to $14.99 each, and I like that they can be used elsewhere some day, like under her bed (hey - that would be a good place to store pajamas!) or in the living room or kitchen. Now, I should also say that they remind me of these great looking mid-century chairs I've seen, with a similar canvas weave - but since I can't remember the designer I probably shouldn't say so.

I really like all of the browns and creams, and the cream stitching and the two different woven textures, and how I can move it all around if I need to. They're all sitting on some brown gingham oilcloth from Winkel, which protects the surface of the wardrobe and makes dusting a little easier, since I can just wipe everything with a very slightly damp cloth.

The wooden dog is one of those things I can't seem to let go of. Josephine was holding it in her first picture with Santa, and it's sweet and so it's just sitting there waiting to go in the suitcase the next time I open it. It moves around as I access the bins, and it does still get played with when she looks up and sees it, but not often. Why do kids grow out of their most charming toys?

Next to the wardrobe is a lovely little child's chair in a gorgeous shade of deep aqua-green. It belonged to an old lady who lives in my Mom's apartment complex. My Mom almost refused it, because she hates old things, and then she almost repainted it before she gave it to us. (Shudders - the horror!) I LOVE the colour. Love it. It's perfectly worn, with a lovely patina, and for a while it was the chair Josie stood on in the bathroom in order to brush her teeth. Again, Josie doesn't really sit on it, she stands on it to get things or to work the light switch. The wee chair makes a great place for to set down books before putting them away properly, or for laundry waiting to be put away, or sometimes Josie sits one of her buddies on it.

Then, there is the door, again with an Ikea rod and rings and curtains cut from yardage found at the Nathalie-Roze fabric sale this past Spring.

The two black hooks are there so that we can swag the curtain to either side, or so that if some day we do double panels, or maybe heavier curtains for more privacy, they can be parted in the centre. While the door that was there was removed to the basement long ago, as we don't really need privacy, we don't intend to replace it. Okay, what we really don't need is a toddler slamming doors, or, for that matter, a pre-schooler, pre-teen or teen slamming doors on us. Okay, for real, the room is rather small, and so the swing of the door would eat up a lot of space; since it's set at an angle, we couldn't make a pocket door. So, curtains.

The wicker chest on the wrought iron stand there in the hall was also a gift from Skeeter at Fabric Hound before she moved away. It was going to hold toys, but toys that can't be seen don't get played with. It crowded the room more than somewhat, so at first it spent time in our room as a laundry hamper and now it holds our bathroom towels in the hall. We lost some storage when this room became a bedroom, and this room was formerly house's closet, so we have to get creative. Needless to say, I'm on the hunt for the perfect piece of furniture to fit in the hallway, one that will hold towels, cleaning supplies and the odd bit of infrequently used toiletry (and toothbrushes - I HATE keeping my toothbrush in the same room where there might be poo particles in the air).

The last bit was the biggest surprise.

This cosy corner came about as I was making up the bed. I'd tossed the coral and yellow pillows, which were another gift from Skeeter, plus the brown fleece pillows, which were part of Josephine's birthday gift from Kari (the other part was custom made natural coloured cotton flannel sheets for her bed, because boy, those Ikea sheets are not nice) into this corner. Josephine immediately crawled in there and curled up on them. So I went downstairs, got the Ikea floor cushion, and it fit perfectly. Now, she hasn't spent much time there, as in hours, because she's rarely still; but sometimes she tucks herself in there for fifteen minutes at a time. So, whereas I was going to stick the chest there maybe, or a plant, or some more shelves, this will do for a while.

While I don't feel the need to fill up every blank space, I do think that Josephine would like her Ikea half-moon shaped wall light (you know, these things) to be hung in there, and I HATE that the cords show so much. So, if I hang it above the wardrobe, where an outlet is located behind it, the baskets on top might hide the unsightly cord. Also, it would probably be nice to have a place for Josie to hang some artful things that she'd like, so I think I might make a bulletin board to fit above her cosy corner. Remember, "done is no fun" so I have projects to look forward to!

Next up...the North wall, but that post has to wait until I clean the fish tank because it's really cloudy and weird. I know that's it's okay for it to be that way, because I learned that male Beta fish make all of these bubbles for their partner's eggs to go in when it's time to breed. Who knew?! But it's not looking its most attractive today.

Fear not though - I'm also planning a post where I show how the room really is from day to day, and reveal the horrors that have crept in and made it (gasp) a real kid's room, not just the unrealistic fulfillment of my long-thwarted desires.

Josephine's Bedroom, the South Wall!

2007-08-17T16:33:00.000-05:00

The beautiful South light - it's what really makes the room.

Thankfully, the light bounces off the North wall and brightens the whole room - and a new window has been ordered to let some air in. The old window is a hideous danger - it doesn't open more than a few inches, it can't be cleaned from the outside as it's on the second floor and we don't have a ladder that reaches, and it's old and yucky. It's also quite a plunge, straight down onto the brick pavers near where we keep the garbage cans. The new window will be safe for Josie, as it has locks that only let it open three inches from the bottom and more at the top, and will be white with the six over six pane pattern. Oh, Home Depot, you blandifier of North America. Your six to eight week wait between order and installation means that they should be coming right when we're on vacation.

Below the window sits a little wicker rocking chair, painted white long enough ago that it's beautifully worn. It belonged to Josephine's cousin, and was a hand-me-down before that, and I can see why these things get passed around: kids never actually sit in them.

It's the perfect place for my doll to sit. This doll belonged to my Grandma Stella, my father's mother - she of the Capo di monte dogs. I don't have much from her - the dogs, this doll, the dress she wore to my parents' wedding, and memories. She's the lady who taught me to shop, and to clean clean clean. The doll, which Steve finds creepy but I love with a child's eye still, was her first and only doll - it was her engagement present from my Grandfather. She never had a doll as a child, and he bought her this one. Awwww....

She used to make a horrible bleating "Ma-a-a" sound, but that's grown silent over the years. My old roomate's daughter thought she was so horrifyingly freaky that I'd tease her by hiding the doll around her room - posing her behind furniture, laying her under the bed with her head sticking out, waiting under the duvet with her head on the pillow, peeking out of the closet...

Josephine loves her, and tucks her in at night and plays with her nicely. While I wasn't allowed to play with her until I was older, I decided that it's better that the doll knows love again and becomes "real" to Josie too.

I splurged on the black fancy floor grate at Home Despot - figuring there's no hiding it. As well, there's a lot of curly black wrought iron going on in there, and so I might as well pick up that detail.

What you also see is one of the rugs - the pink Ikea Ringum (want to say Ringworm!). There are three of those, one in green and one in light brown. Josephine pretends they are lily pads, and jumps from carpet to carpet like a frog. They seemed like a good solution, as I couldn't find a single larger rug that I liked well enough to fit the space, and easier to clean than a larger rug should the inevitable schmutz land on one of them.

To the left is a tiny wicker cradle found at an estate sale in Buffalo just a few weeks ago. It's the same shade of pink as the darker wall in the room, and so adorable that for $4, it would have been a sin to leave it.

The curtains? I love them. The best part of them is that the material has a permanent "wrinkle" or creased look to them, which means I never have to iron them. The fabric came from a sale at Nathalie-Roze, a bargain at $4 a meter. I bought more than enough for her curtains, the door, and some left over for later projects like pillows or bedding for the cradle.

I didn't hem them - I just cut the edges with pinking shears. Sloppily too. It's part of the charm. After all - I don't think we'll want them forever. As she matures, I can see finding a more modern print. In winter, depending on the budget and temperatures, I might invest in the coffee/brown cloth insulating drapes from Linens & Things I Don't Really Need But Like To Buy that we use in the office. To keep the room dim in the morning, we use a chocolate brown Roman blind from Bouclair that was a cinch to put up (I asked Steve to do it) and the cords can be wrapped very high up around a thingy to prevent that strangulation problem. There I also found some small black decorative hooks for the tie-backs. There I passed on a narrow white wicker hamper and I'm kicking myself about it.

The curtain rods and rings are Ikea, natch. Why make life harder, you know?

The colours complement the room, but don't match it exactly. What also helps to tie (get it) them in are the tassels. Josephine really really really wanted tassles. The ones at Linens and Things Can Get Really Out of Hand in the Decor Department were too expensive. The Dollar store ones fell apart in my hands before we made it to the checkout. But then, one day at Home Despot, we found these - exactly half-way between the former and latter in price, and in shades of brown, taupe, cream and powder pink. Pluperfect.

Then comes a hat box full of guys - admittedly selected for their neutral fur tones. The goal is to someday cover the box in some brown polka-dotted fabric I have. Another motto - "Leave something for someday. Done is no fun!" There is Beauty, the Steiff dog I brought back from F.A.O. Schwartz when I went to New York with Kate.

Another basket of stuffies, because, wow, she's three and she already has a crapload of stuffies. The basket is one of four from Winners, because Winners is great for those things. I think having the same basket repeated looks more tidy and calming than having a huge variety, though there is an odd metal bin from Ikea holding her Little Golden Books - because why buy new when I could grab something from elsewhere in the house? That bin used to hold my pot holders in the kitchen.

Oh...the antique bookshelf? The shelf itself came from Winkel, glorious Winkel. Bought for a song from a kind boss, so I can't say how little...I mean how much...I paid. But, for the record, there is a similarly cute one in the window right now for $65.

The shelf was going to hold more books, almost all of her books - but then, since I realized we do most of our reading in the living room, storing more up there would mean either more effort fetching or less reading. Not good. So the favourites, the ones she pulls herself, go there.

Pink cowgirl boots (with T-Birds!) from Target, similar to these. She's had them so long, and she's growing out of them now. I'm glad they seems to be a version of them perpetually in stock.

Some hats, one a gift from a wardrobe sale from the movie Hairspray that filmed here in Toronto, the others from estate sales in Buffalo for $1 each. The preferred method of wearing them is wearing them. Them meaning all three.

The wee chair is from Nestings, purchased for me when I was in there shopping for a shower gift for someone else. After a year of trying to convince Josephine that the chair is Mommy's decoration, and it's not a toy, I have given up. It's a toy.

There's her musical jewellery box, a gift to Josie from me on her first birthday. I thought she should have something like that for her treasures - a weird little assortment of things, not necessarily jewellery. It's very deliberately tacky, because I recognize that tasteful isn't always fun for kids.

And Pooh...he's made of resin, sadly not wood, by Charpente. He was a gift from someone I was never attached to. I went through a period where I really liked the stories, coming at them from an adult perspective. Their gentle lessons and beautiful flow gave me peace. But then, people found out, and started giving me Pooh crap. Every kind of Pooh thing. Mugs, garish acid-washed denim vests with patches on them, Pooh-jamas. I was so full of Pooh my eyes were brown. I let most of it go (ran away from quite a bit of it, actually) and only kept this figure and one other. He just seemed too nice to let go of, but I stopped seeing him in the room he was in. He just became part of what was in an overcrowded bookshelf. Now, he's lovely for Josie. He holds up my old Pooh book that I've given her, which was the first book I ever read to her.

The top of the shelf is covered with brown gingham oilcloth from Winkel, cut with pinking shears. I've used it elsewhere in the room too. An assortment of objects - a painting from the One of a Kind show (shoot - I forgot to note whose it is...later), a watering can from Ikea (oh, Ikea, I'm a slut for you!) and a nursery planter bought for $1 at a garage sale with an Ikea (I can't help it!) plant in it.

I confess - I love Ikea plants. They feel like the furniture there - almost disposable when you fall out of love with them. In fact, one of the plants in the room is dead already. But I'm not sad - in fact, plants are Josie's treat when we go there - a much better choice than a $4.99 stuffed rat that she'll never love enough.

Also shown in a picture above is the boom box - had to get it. HAD TO. Look at it. Josephine has been enjoying books on tape and a little Norah Jones. It's working for us.

There's a small ceramic duckie lamp that we bought at a garage sale for $2, and asked Steve's dad to rewire it. With a shade from Zellers, it cost more to fix it up than to buy it. I have two other lamps in the basement for later incarnations of her room - a simple black stick lamp, and a vintage lucite boudoir lamp. That way her room can mature as she does. Or, as I get bored and convince her that change is good.

Above the bookcase and offset slightly are simple shelves from Home Depot, painted white. We have these shelves all over the house. Some would call it a unified look, which would be nice. I'm happy to say they're cheap and cheerful.

On the lower shelf is a small bookend, a sweet yellow and pink dog. I have no idea when this followed me home, or from where - but it seems like it was meant for this room. Then there's the set of Beatrix Potter books - 49 cents each at Value Village. They're nobody's favourites, but every once in a while we take one down and give it a go. Josie's never pulled one on her own, so I've tried to make them seem special by giving them a place of importance. I fear she'll miss out entirely on a set of cultural reference points if we don't make it through them at least once. Then a Pooh and Piglet bank, a gift from a kid I used to babysit. It's something I never asked for, was happy to have for a while, then it floated around and came to rest here. If it ever goes away, I won't be sad. It doesn't owe us anything. Then, in the white milk glass holder, another gratuitous Ikea plantspawn.

Those plant holders? I have twenty-two of them, in various patterns. Twenty-two in a box in the basement, that is. More around the house. I had plans for them...great ambitions to do all kinds of different things - herbs, collections of twigs, cotton balls and Q-tips...Now it's time for them to go. I can let go of them. I think.

Hanging to the left are two temporarily placed items - though I like the idea of hanging things on vintage wooden pants hangers and will probably find ways to do that elsewhere, or for her own aesthetically acceptable art in her room, sometimes.

The fox poster is a vintage teaching aid from the Canadian Red Cross, bought from...you guessed it...Winkel! Sometimes I am my own best customer. We have other cute posters at the store, but Josie loves foxes, and if ever a kid needed to be cautioned about being careful morning noon and night, it's Josephine. Currently it's being framed by Ian at Telegramme. I like to keep it in the neighbourhood, you see.

The handkerchief is from an estate sale in Buffalo, and I don't usually spend as much as $2 on things that others have blown their noses on - but this one has never been used and still has its wee sticker on it. I haven't decided whether it will get framed, or just hung from the hanger on a nicer hook. But I love it, and I like the idea of changing out beautiful bits of fabric.

I think that if I got something sturdier - a ticking or a canvas, I'd use it as a background for other art; pinning, clipping the paper to it so that it resembles a mat...hmmm....

Gratuitous Ikea plant in superfluous holder. Moving on, look at Jock! Jock came from (let's all say it together) Winkel. He appeared in the middle of Josie's Lady and the Tramp phase, and so I had to buy him. I didn't even bargain, paying Kari's full $8 price - not knowing that he can reach $45 on Ebay. That's why he comes with one of those "Not a Toy" explanations, though I hate that and there are few things that are off limits in her own room.

What's that peeking out?

Oh, yes - a "pictuwe of Mowwy". I love it - a badly painted paint-by-numbers Basset Hound, complete with one runny eye. I don't know why Steve thinks Josie should be fearful of it, I think it has great charm. And for $2, it's like it was placed in our path at that flea market in Buffalo a few weeks ago.

Next to it is my sole Tiny Showcase purchase, by Jen Corace, whose simple style I greatly admire. I've used photo corners to hold it to some brown polka dot fabric (also from Nathalie-Roze's sale) that's been spray-glued to the backing of an Ikea frame. It's a bit wonky, but striving for perfection would have made me crazy. It's time for another motto: "Out of the strain of the doing, into the joy of the done."

Last come three of the sweetest guys - the two terriers were gifts from Skeeter at Fabric Hound, before she fell in love and ran off to live in a cabin on a lake way out West. The chandelier was also from her too, as were a few other things soon to be revealed.

Last, there's Lady - a chalkware bank from Winkel. Josie loved "Wady" very much, and always looked forward to seeing her in the store. Whenever someone would ask about it, or even make a motion near it, she'd shriek and yell "MY WADY!", so I kind of had to buy it for her. It might have been $10. Once it came home, she stopped playing with it. So it goes.

Two walls down, two to go.

Is this boring, or is this fun?

Ta DAAAA! Josephine's Room, Revealed. The East Wall.

2007-08-16T13:58:00.001-05:00

I think perhaps it's best to do it in stages, a wee bit at a time. Why? Oh, because one post would take forever to read and write, and because it's fun to keep you on tenterhooks.

Here is the room that has brought a couple of new elements to our house, namely: peace and quiet.

Shall we go in and look around?

Josephine's room has become a place where it's impossible for her to be cranky, sad or mad. It's a happy place for her. That makes us happy. Happy is a Good Thing, if not The BEST THING EVER.

We like to watch her playing in there - but even more, to peek in and see her asleep and dreaming.

What you see first, upon entering, and her bed which runs lengthwise along it, the head of it to the North.

The chandelier is not the ornate flowered one I'd originally planned on.

The one that needed re-wiring, and funny little bulbs. So sad, too bad. This one was also free, and it worked. Free and working are two qualities that work along with the motto "Don't let perfection be the enemy of good enough." It's on a dimmer and it's a little wonky. It had already been sprayed silver over brass, and the worn effect pleases me. While I'd like to use energy-efficient bulbs, the shape that will fit this fixture is still hard to find, and we rarely use the overhead light, and these bulbs are supposed to last two years. Again, not letting perfection be the enemy of good enough.

The three shelves were all finds, the centre from an estate sale for $3, sprayed white. But something cool happened - something in the varnish, in places, turned into pink highlights. Happy accidents are good things, though I will try not to say "good things" too often.

The other two shelves came from an antique market near my Aunt Rosie's old home. They were white, but needed a fresh coat over their old lead paint-covered selves. But it's not the shelves you love, I know.

You love the paint by numbers dogs, don't you. I know. I KNOW.

The two on either side came from Winkel, and I believe I paid $12 each. The stands they are on came from Pier 1, and you will see why I needed to get them. Need, vs. want, is key in doing darling, you know. Um, I garbage-picked the centre picture. And it's now on a black wooden plate stand I had lying around the house, and cripes, it doesn't matter where I got everything, does it?

The Capo di monte pair of dogs belonged to my Dad's mother who passed away ages ago. I have always loved them, and now Josie does too. They're a bitch to dust though.

More soon!

2007-08-15T12:07:00.000-05:00

Today, I'm the featured reader at Mamazine, where I've blurted out that I'm starting this blog. The Domestic Vernacular will feature the reveal of Josephine's room, and further adventures in decorating and finding old stuff. I'm imagining it as the product of an orgy that invited craft blogs, decorating blogs, advice blogs and thrifting blogs, and months later births something that's homely, but loveable. If I had more than fourteen minutes left on my battery, I'd name those sources of inspiration and link as well; but some of them are mentioned over at Mamazine. Go there. That should tide you over. They also deserve particular mention, all the whys and wherefores, and so I won't give them short shrift at this time. Besides, what else will I have to blog about here if I blow it all now?

I look forward to this space, and I hope you will too.

Bye for now!

Decorating Without Permission

2007-06-11T09:14:00.000-05:00

"It's beauty that captures your attention; personality which captures your heart."