The Lost Art of Letter Writing

Also known as, The Bride has a million thank you notes to write...

Miles and I recently celebrated the all-important milestone of FINISHING OUR WEDDING THANK YOU NOTES. It can only be expressed in all caps, ladies and gentlemen, because it was a BIG deal. We wrote hundreds of them. It felt like millions.

When we (I) first started writing them, I was using imprintable cards by Snow and Graham. Snow and Graham makes really beautiful cards, and I could print them up as I went along. After the honeymoon, however, I started making my own stationary using plain cards and envelopes from Paper Source. What started as a procrastination tool (oooh, I can't write any more notes today because I need to make more, ooooh) turned into a really satisfying hobby. I think thank you notes should be as personal as possible, and what better way to do that than to hand make each card? No two were alike. Once I got rolling I made some for Mama, too (she thought I was being thoughtful, but really, I was just procrastinating). Take a look:

I printed out my name on the bottom using the Mac Pages program and my Canon printer. Then, I added stamps from Paper Source along the sides. Later on, I discovered heat embossing; I really wish I figured that out earlier. You use a slow drying ink, sprinkle embossing powder on it, then heat up using this thingy that looks like the love child of a hairdryer and a chopstick. The heat raises the ink up from the page, giving it nice dimension. I also bought a desk embosser and embossing plates at P.S.-- one plate had my new monogram (RHK) and the other had a swirly design that I used around the edges. I'll put up pictures of that one later.

Here's the latest incarnation of my stationary craze:

I love this little bird. I call him Martin. Doesn't he look like a Martin?

More puff paint magic

Voilà! A bud vase using a capers jar, puff paint, and magical flat black spray paint. Aren't my ranunculus looking pretty? Too bad you have to enjoy them in the bathroom-- it's the only place we can keep them away from Chandler.


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Spray Paint Magic Part III

In addition to painting glass vessels, I've also discovered the utility of spray paint and picture frames. Combined with a few dots of puff paint (yes, Mama, PUFF PAINT-- that stuff that filled up your downstairs cabinet for years), and you've got yourself something that I think looks pretty fancy. I know I've said it a million times, but I think glossy black spray paint makes things look so much cooler than they actually are. You shall see.

First, I gathered up supplies from a few of my favorite places-- Goodwill and Target. I was looking for preferably wooden frames that either were interesting enough that I could just paint, or plain enough that I could adorn with puff paint and spray paint. Let's start with the puffers: this was a clearance frame ($1.99) from Target:

I added some dots of puff paint around the frame-- nothing too fancy.  Then, once that had dried completely, I spray painted it a glossy black:

I suspect I may be biased, but I think that's pretty! I frame on the left is from Goodwill; rather than fuss up the frame anymore, I just sprayed it a glossy black. It was pretty trashy looking before, but now I think it looks modern... and maybe just a little well-loved. Here are some more pictures of the frames project:

The bottom photo is of a refurbished goodwill frame. But in it is a silkscreened print of my family's little wooden sailboat, Spindrift, on it's mooring in Smith's Cove, in Maine. Smith's Cove's beauty is rivaled only by Spindrift's, and I made this print for my dad for Christmas. I love how it turned out!

Spray Paint Magic Part II

Here's some more spray paint fun. This time I used flat white paint on one of the four Pizza Hut vases. It makes a nice statement, if I do say so myself.

The Find, quite a find.

Santa Claus brought me a Barnes and Noble gift card in my stocking this year. I had a long list of novels to buy with it, but instead I snagged a copy of The Find: The Housing Works Book of Decorating with Thrift Shop Treasures, Flea Market Objects, and Vintage Details. I've been slowly peeking at it for a couple of days, and finally finished it last night. Trés inspiring! I wish I had shopped at Housing Works when I lived in NYC. I passed by one everyday on my way to the subway, too.

When I moved into my first apartment in New York, I was wildly excited by the possibility of OWNING FURNITURE. You see, I come from a long, long line of nesters. My husband, on the other hand, is a gypsy. Anywho. When I moved into the apartment, I had no furniture save a bed and a dresser, but it never occurred to me to go thrift store shopping. What a loss! I have very lovely furniture, but every now and then I wished that I didn't have a matching dining table and chairs, for example. They're lovely, but I love the old table and mismatched chairs look (a la Monica and Rachel's apartment in Friends). Now I want to go to thrift stores and flea markets and buy chairs I can paint and reupholster (Printing By Hand by Lena Corwin has a very cool project about hand printing a dining chair seat cushion.). I have no room for any of this, and it would be an awful shame if my husband divorced me after only 9 months of sweet marriage because I bought more junque that had to one day be loaded onto a moving truck. So for now, I daydream and stick to perusing The Find. But he should be warned: if I find a china cabinet that I can paint black and wallpaper the inside, I'm buying that sucker.

image is from Amazon.com. Click here to find The Find on amazon!

Spray Paint Magic

I am OBSESSED with spray paint. It's life changing! For 3.99 you get this magic can that, with the press of a button, takes an ugly enamel candlestick and makes it a slick black. I've been eyeing a pair of candlesticks by Roseanna, Inc. at the bakery, but never wanted to drop the dough on them. Now I don't have to! With the magic of spray paint and the miracle of Goodwill, I can have something nearly, if not more, as cool.

Also, with my matron of honor duties (I actually have no duties at this point, but I like to pretend that I do), I have been perusing many bridal blogs, such as Style Me Pretty, where I've been inspired by the DIY-ness of many brides. I wish that I had known about SMP when I was planning my wedding! It could have been a lot of fun to try to incorporate some of those ideas into things. This also influenced my spray paint frenzy... I love the idea of slightly mismatched vessels of flowers on the tables-- all tied together with color (ie. white) but with different shapes. Actually, I'm just trying to figure out what to do with the 5 billion spray painted thrift store vases I now own.

I started with a trip to Goodwill, where I found a plethora of glass goods for about $20.

Pretty unexciting stuff, no? Note the beauty of that candlestick (?) on the right. All kidding aside, I wonder if the two vases second from the left aren't actually Waterford-- they feel like crystal to me, but I'm not an expert (yet) on these things. They only cost $2 a piece, so I didn't feel bad about spray painting them. I also hit up the "Out of the Closet" thrift shop, where I found an entire case of cool diamond-pattern glass vases (I can imagine that they used to sit on the tables at an Italian restaurant. Like Pizza Hut, with my luck). Even I could realize that buying 12 of these was overkill, so I bought 4. I've painted one flat black, and I have other plans for the other 3 (which you will find out about in due time, Dear Reader).

Take a look at how things turned out:

Look at that ugly candlestick! How awesome is it NOW?? They're other pictures of it with an actual candle on it. I decided that the best way to highlight my new objets d'art would be with flowers, so I bought some beautiful baby ranunculus at the farmers market this morning.

Chandler, helpful as always. I spent the REST of my morning chasing him down as he stole ranunculus buds and hid them under the bed.

I'm off now to go earn some more moo-la to pay for my spray paint addiction. Tootles!

Christmas presents

To liven up this page a bit, here are some pictures from some of my Christmas undertakings. Whether they liked it or not, most family members got something from the "Sparrow" collection from this elf.

My sister-in-law Cheyenne got the coolest present in my humble opinion, but unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of it before I mailed it! Grr. I hand-printed 2 pieces of canvas fabric, then made a reversible tote bag. The top picture is of one of the fabric pieces. In this picture it looks like a dirty black, but I have witnesses (1 husband and 2 cats) who can attest to the fact that it is actually a quite cool plum color. I would be remiss (and probably in trouble with the law) if I didn't mention that the pattern for the stamp I used came from Printing by Hand by Lena Corwin. I am in love with this book. Many thanks to Heather at Graze Organic for bringing this book to my attention. More on that later.

this set of placemats and napkins was for Moogie. The fabric for the mats is "Birdsong" by Alexander Henry. They're reversible; the flip side is a plain red linen/cotton blend. The napkins are a linen/cotton blend with a handmade bias tape edging (fabric: Chocolate Lollipop by Anna Maria for Free Spirit. That's a mouthful.). I am relatively new to the sewing world, and unfortunately for Moogie (Moogie is my wonderful mother-in-law, on the off chance that someone I am not related to ever reads this), this is one of the first projects I undertook with my new machine. If she looks closely, she will probably notice that a) very few seams are straight, and b) there is cat hair sewn into the seams. Whoops. But I think from a distance, the placemats and napkins look pretty darn cute. I kind of wanted to keep them, but Christmas was fast approaching and I didn't have time to make her anything else!

this is Chandler, being helpful as always.

my Julie Powell moment.

Here marks my first foray into the blogosphere. Hot dog! I've never really been one for blogs, but I find myself at a crossroads right now. Call it my Julie Powell moment (yes, Santa brought me TWO copies of Julie and Julia!). I'm an actress who doesn't get to act very much, and I need something to fill my time while the phone's not ringing. Ever since I was old enough to hold a paintbrush, I've been filling up my living spaces with art supplies and their subsequent creations (or half-finished creations...). Now that I'm a little older, I've discovered that I like to make things I can actually use-- sewn objects, furniture, home accessories, etc. (I have a not-so-secret dream of tossing aside this Hollywood mayhem and opening a store that fills my design/craft/decorating desires! I worry that what I'm actually picturing is me playing this in a movie, though-- very Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail... but I digress. It's fun to think about. And this store would obviously be on the east coast, where life doesn't come to a complete halt because it rains a little bit. But again. I digress.). Plus, it's hard to send pictures of what I'm doing to all my family and friends, so tah-dah! My blog is born. AND, my procrastination now has a purpose: my sister is getting married in July, so I'm allowed to say that all of this is for her, to give her ideas. It's my DUTY as the matron of honor (I'm not as old as that sounds. I swear. I just got married 9 months ago.). But we know the truth, don't we? Wink, wink.

(Hi Mama!)