Liebster Award, Part 1

Julia at It's Always Ruetten was sweet enough to give me a Liebster Award! 

You're supposed to post 11 random facts about yourself, answer 11 questions from the person who gave you the award, and nominate 11 bloggers and give them questions.  However, I was obviously feeling pretty verbose and wrote way too much for the first part (the 11 random facts) - so I'll be splitting this into two posts.

Part 1

11 Random Facts About Me:

1.  I was born with 12 fingers and 12 toes - one extra digit on each hand/foot.  They were removed when I was just a baby, so I don't have any good pictures.  I guess it wasn't something my parents wanted to properly document.  I still have the scars, and it's always my go-to random fact about myself when you have to play this game at work/school/etc.  Now for 10 more...

2.  I'm a list freak, especially about movies and books.  It started my senior year in high school when the Modern Library released its list of "100 Best English-language Novels of the 20th Century."  I considered myself well-read at that point, so the fact that I had only read two books on the list was like a gauntlet thrown in my face.  I still have the newspaper clipping and when I read one of the books, I cross it off. 

It's sad that 15 years later, I still haven't finished the list (especially since I vowed to be finished before I turned 30) - but it's hardly the only list I'm working on.  I frequent a site called Lists of Bests (which looks like it's down right now, but should be up again soon) where you can adopt lists of movies/books/place/things to work on.   It's a great way to find book and movie recommendations, or just feel all warm and fuzzy when you finish a list.

3.  I've only left the U.S. once - I spent a month in Ireland when I was in college.  I love travel and want to go everywhere. 

4.  The boyfriend and I currently have no plans to get married - ever.  We've waffled a bit over the years, and sometimes I feel pressure because our daughters and his mom really want us to get married.  But it's not something I really want or need.

5.    My favorite actor is Ewan McGregor.  I simply love everything about him and fear that I will one day meet him and turn into a slobbering fool. 

6.  My favorite bands are The Beatles and Travis.  I bought Florence and the Machine's latest album in December and I haven't taken it out of the car stereo since.  It is kind of driving my family crazy, so I have been making an effort to find new music to listen to.

7.  My middle name is Luella.  I was named after two of my great grandmothers - Lou and Ella.  However, when I got in trouble when I was little, my mom always called me Kai Luella.  And I guess it happened a lot because at one point I believed my name was "Kai Luella" and my older sister's name was "Kai." So, when I was in high school, one of my friends told me the Spanish pronunciation is "Lu-eya" and that's how I've pronounced it ever since.  Even my mom uses it, so I think that makes it official.

8.  While we're on names - Kai is pronounced "Ki" - rhymes with Sky, My, Pie, etc.  It was mispronounced both times I graduated (high school and college), and about a million times besides.  It has been getting better lately - I think the name is becoming more popular.

9.  I've seen every movie that won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

10.  My son is named Atticus after the character from To Kill a Mockingbird.

and finally...

11.  My favorite food is crawfish.  You haven't lived until you've been to a crawfish boil with hot piles of them heaped on a table, with potatoes and corn....  Yum.  Unfortunately, I have yet to find a great place to get them in Austin.

That's all for today.  I'll be back tomorrow with answers for Julia's questions and my nominees.

Cheap Art Options

I needed some impulsively bought art to go in my impulsively bought frame, right?  This picture will go on the back wall of my dining room, which has turned into the focal wall of the whole house.  For the last couple of months, I've been dead set on ordering a 20x20" print of this antelope picture from EyePoetryPhotography on etsy.

Only now I'm leaning towards getting this frame with a huge mat (from Target, yo!) and getting the original 5"x5" size of the art. 

Although I love a huge quirky picture for a focal point, the colors are a little sedate and we needed more color.

I stumbled across a site called Imagekind the other night when I was looking for some fun, colorful abstract art on the cheap.  Independent artists upload and sell their works in prints, posters, and printed canvases.

Love Spill

I loved this print by Nancy Ramirez, but it didn't come in a large enough size.

Tangy Revival

And the colors in this one by Erin Ashley are crazy good - but not for the dining room.  But I still want it.  Where can it go?

watercolor 3110501

I finally picked this one by Belgian artist pol ledent.  The colors look amazing - especially that pop of purple since I've been wanting to incorporate some neon purple.  Unfortunately, it's not a square print, but since it's just a cheap print I don't trim it down.  I bought the large size - 32" x 24" - and after a 30% off discount they were offering, it cost under $30 including shipping.

Just waiting for it to arrive!

Square Matless Art

Last Friday, I made an impromptu stop at Ikea and picked up a square Stromby frame.

For some reason, they're not on the website, but it is the 19 3/4" x 19 3/4" and cost $12.99.

I thought the thin frame looked more modern than the Ribba frames, and I knew I wanted a matless print.  This is the aluminum color, but there's a strong possibility I'll spray paint it.

Lonny via Peonies and Brass

I think there is something very modern about big square matless art.  I drew inspiration from this picture of a Lonny office (although judging from the size of the desk - also Ikea - those frames are probably 35" square).

Some other square art I had pinned:

Restoration Hardware - one day I'm going to hack this

 

via Design Crisis

Tomorrow, I'll share what art I bought to go in it.

P.S. And, of course, the next day I went to Goodwill and there was an even bigger, high-end square silver frame for $6.  I ended up not buying it, but since the artwork was super ugly it might still be there when I go back, which is the Goodwill gods telling me it was meant to be.

Faux Tortoiseshell

You guys, it must be spring or something because I'm actually getting sh*t done around here!  Of course, everything is taking about 10 times longer to complete than originally planned, and I'm taking next to zero pictures because I'm the best blogger ever, but I'm still super excited that I'm crossing some things off the list!

#1 - I planted the first stage of our front yard garden this last weekend - two new flower beds and cleaning up a huge amount of weeds/lava rock.  Of course, stupid Austin decided to almost freeze the next couple of nights and some of my annuals are not looking so great, but hopefully they'll recover.  This weekend, I'll get around to mulching the new beds and putting in a few stepping stones.

#2 - My neighbor and I built rolling pantries for our kitchens (she lives on the other side of the duplex so our kitchens are mirrored).  They're based on this idea by Classy Clutter.  I will not be doing a tutorial, but maybe a "lessons learned" post.  It'll be functional, but not my best DIY moment, that's for sure.  They need to be painted and the back installed.

#3 - The boyfriend has been refinishing a pool table for the past couple of weeks and he's almost finished with all of the woodwork.  I will do a post on this later, because he's done such a wonderful job. I know he did all of the hard work, but I'm going to give myself a producer's credit since I gave such great advice. ;)

#4 - The dining room is 80% done.  Maybe even 85%.  It's actually been looking good for a while now, I just lost the cord that charges my camera, so I guess I'm going to either buy a new one or take crappy phone pics.  Tomorrow, I'm hopefully going to be picking up this bad boy from Craigslist for $20.

It's the last piece of furniture I need for the dining room - a coffee station/bar cart (sans wheels).   I'd love to get some mirrors cut to fit in the sunken oval sections and, unless I really dig the finish when I see it in person, I'm leaning towards experimenting with tortoiseshell.

I'm not the biggest fan of faux finishes, but I think tortoiseshell can look super pretty on rounded wood.  See what I mean?



SadieandStella via Pinterest

There are a couple of good tutorials online.  Some blog link I lost along the way led me to this wonderfully detailed tutorial.

Extreme Restoration

I also read through the comments on this Little Green Notebook post and followed Laura's link to The Paint Effects Bible on Amazon.

I guess a trip to Michael's just got added to my list as well.  Isn't that always the case - finish one project (or in my case - step 1 of a project) and add a couple of new ones? 

Have a great weekend!





Goodwill Rug

I finally managed to go thrift store shopping this weekend.  It has literally been months, and I was getting symptoms of withdrawal.  I didn't find any furniture, but I did score this:

It's a gigantic (10x13) Chinoiserie rug - 100% New Zealand wool, made in Egypt.  $30 - no lie.  It didn't even have pet hairs or stains - and it came with a wonderfully thick rug pad.

I wasn't in the market for a rug so I bought it for resale, but when I rolled it out to clean it, I decided it was too nice not to keep.  I replaced our free West Elm rug in the living room (and got a good workout to boot - now I know why people roll up dead bodies in rugs, you can hardly tell the difference).  I like the print in there, I had a few too many solid colors in the space.

I looked up the company, and it looks like similar rugs of this size generally sell for $1500-$1700.  So it was basically 98% off and in near-perfect condition.  Yay for Goodwill!

Library Dining Rooms

I love the look of a library dining room.  It works extremely well because of the combination of two spaces you might not use that much (formal dining room and a library) into a layered and interesting use of square footage.  I tend to like the ones with built ins and a darker, cozier design.

My favorite at the moment:

Peter Dunham designed, from Domino via designing "the life"

Habitually Chic



Simply Beautiful

 

Your Day Simplified

Beautiful Libraries
 

Apartment Therapy

Pics above and below via Victoria Dreste Designs

The one below isn't my style at all, but I love how it translates the idea of a library dining room into the space of a small breakfast nook, but the use of a mirror makes it look a lot bigger.  Fantastic space plan.

Traditions Journal

Free Garden Plans

This is the year we tackle the front yard.  We did a vegetable garden last year with mixed results (lots of growth, but not enough food to make me feel all the work was worthwhile), so I feel a little more confident about my gardening abilities.  I didn't want to try a front yard garden before I conquered my black thumb, because, after all, it will be on full display for everyone to judge and potentially mock.

Right now we're in the budgeting/planning phase.  A great site I found for information is BHG.com - they even have free garden plans which give you all the details from what flowers to buy, to how to properly plant and take care of them.

I like this one for the area near the sidewalk, which has a slight slope.  Plus, we could use a nice path from the sidewalk to the front door since we currently cut across our neighbor's yard, which is probably a big faux pas.

My top 3 goals are to find plants hardy enough (and low-maintenance enough) that they won't die from the extreme Texas heat or my general lack of gardening mojo, that are cheap (you know it), and are mostly perennials so I don't have to replant the entire garden every year.