Fair’s Fair…I Put A Bird On It

9 Feb

Yesterday I shared my love of a Portlandia sketch, mostly because I like to put birds on things and love the irony. So I thought it would only be fair to show you how many things I’ve put birds on in my house, and a few things I’d love to have with birds on them. Because I’m such a hipster.

click for larger

From top to bottom, left to right:

1. My mantel clock, bought for me by my mother.
2. Glass bird side table from Pier 1.
3. Bird au natural doormat, bought by my mother at (I think) Target.
4. Vintage cupcake stand, purchased from the yarn shop I used to manage.
5. Owl wallet, bought for me by my mom (she buys me a lot of bird stuff!) from Urban Outfitters 7 years ago. It’s lasted that long!
6. Flying birds wall decal, from Styley Walls on etsy.
7. Bird nest necklace, from ManoCalebrates on etsy.
8. Birds on a Wire painting, from The Dancing Brush on etsy.
9. Clear bird umbrella, from The Cross Decor & Design.
10. Owls of the British Isles Wallpaper, from Abigail Edwards.
(LOVE great wallpaper, and totally regret that my walls are textured so I can’t use any.)
11. Henrietta the Bird ornament, from amyperch on etsy.
12. Birdie teapot, from A Spot of Paint.
13. Bird on a Branch necklace, from hartley studio on etsy.
14. Red Cardinal on Agapanthus Rectangle Pillow, from joom on etsy.
15. Bird Cage Pillows, from Movi Modern Vintage Home.
16. Russian Bird Pillow, from The SoHo.
(I feel like I could make this…hmmm, will have to try one day…)
17. Bird nursery decor, from All Things Thrifty.
(This is SOOOOO my style nursery, for when we’re at a life-stage to start thinking of such things.)
18. Birds on a Wire Photo Clips, from fredflaire.com.
(For the office supply geek in you.)

What about you? Do you like to put birds on things? Seen any good bird decor lately?

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Put A Bird On It!

8 Feb

Portlandia is a genius show. I know it’s set in Portland, Oregon, but it really has elements of Santa Cruz, Berkley, and San Francisco in it as well. Basically I think that if you live anywhere on the West Coast you’ll identify with some part of Portlandia.

Today I had to share one of my favorite sketches from the show, plus a story. First, here is my favorite Portlandia sketch, mostly because I love things with birds on them.


And here’s my story. The other day I was wrapping a present and found this great bag at Whole Foods. The Child (youngest sister) is a Portlandia fan as well, and also loves birds, so I sent her a picture of my wrap job with the following caption:

Put a bird on it!

She responded: “Hahaha! At first I thought ‘Oooo! Pretty!’ Then I saw your caption and thought, ‘Oooo…I am such a hipster. :/”

So here’s to hipsters everywhere, and celebrating the co-opting of all things hip by mainstream culture!

Tags: , , , , ,

How Tuesday: Upcycled Paper Boquet

7 Feb

This week’s How Tuesday comes to you from Cara over at This Little Light. As soon as I saw it I became completely obsessed. I literally thought about making my own paper flower bouquet until I got off work and could run home and find some paper. Here’s how mine came out:

Swoon!

View Full Tutorial Here

Here’s the rundown on how I put my own spin on her concept and made it fit my space:

At first I thought about making a black and white bouquet out of sheet music, and looked into downloading our wedding song to print and use. But that would cost some dollahs, so next I thought of using vintage books, which I have plenty of. While going through my shelves I came across an old edition of Boho Magazine. Boho is printed on a heavy-gauge recycled paper, and the color scheme for this edition was beautiful grey-scale, yet saturated, colors. Perfect! And free!!!

The flowers didn’t take long to make and glue. I’d say about two hours, or thee episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. I didn’t have the finger-cramping trouble that Cara did; I think it’s because I used my table to push against while rolling the flowers instead of holding them between my hands. I also got up frequently to check on dinner, so my fingers got a break.

The next day it took about another two hours to get all the flowers glued to their stems, leaves attached, and arranged just so. I wanted a taller centerpiece than the vases I had could support, so I picked this one up at the thrift for 99¢. The best part was they had an identical one next to it, scratched up, for $5.99. Win!

I splurged a little and bought thick gauge paper-wrapped florist’s wire. It’s almost twice as much as regular skinny plain wire, but (in my humble opinion) sooooo worth it. I think it takes my bouquet from crafty to Anthropologie.

The filler is five shredded pages from an old edition of Found Magazine. I wanted a black & white base to compliment, but not take away from, the pops color going on above. Upcycling going on all around, you gotta love it.

I cut my flowers in a more-or-less straight spiral instead of wavy; I wanted a cleaner look since my paper was full of print. The leaves are scrapbook paper I bought – most of them are an iridescent white, with lightly textured soft pink or green leaves to bring out Boho’s main color scheme. I did at least one leaf on each flower, predominantly using white, but put two on some that could take the extra visual heft.

Each flower is totally unique with a different inside and outside, and I love each and every one. But my favorites are the ones that only had black on white text, with pops of highlighted words in color.

Four hours, one hot glue gun burn, 30 paper blossoms, and $14.23 later I have a centerpiece that I’m even more obsessed with than I was when I saw the tutorial. Everything except the stems and the leaves are upcycled or secondhand – which I totally love – and it’s a showstopper, if I say so myself. You can see it as soon as you come in my front door, and everyone who has come over has commented on it. I can totally see these in smaller box vases, clustered tightly, as a centerpiece for a wedding or other chic DIY event.

A huge thanks to Cara for sharing this tutorial! This definitely will not be the last time I play with paper flowers.

What would be your dream color scheme for a flower boquet? Plain or printed? Multi-colored or mono?

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

And the VBA Goes To…

6 Feb

Last Friday I was honored to be given the Versatile Blogger Award from Cara at This Little Light. And boy, am I honored! As a woman who self-professes to wear many hats, there can be no better compliment. Thank you so much Cara! You deserved to be named a Versatile Blogger, so thanks for passing on the love. (Spoiler alert! You’ll be seeing more from Cara on tomorrow’s How Tuesday. Stay tuned…)

Apparently there are rules if you get this award, which are as follows:

The Grand High Rules for the VB Award

  • Thank the person who gave you this award. (Common courtesy, really.)
  • Include a link to their blog. (Again with the courtesy.)
  • Next, select 15 blogs that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. (Oof, I can’t do 15. Way too many of the blogs I follow are delightfully single-focused. How about five? Ya’ll know I like the number five.)
  • Nominate those bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award. (I’m guessing this means contact them and tell them? Or something?)
  • Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself. (That I can do. What do bloggers like more than writing about themselves?)

So here goes, seven things you might not already know about me:

  1. My all-time favorite television show is the classic Addams Family. I’ve had an affinity for the odd, the strange, and the macabre since I was a kid, which is why I’m still obsessed with Edward Gorey.
  2. When I was a sophomore in high school I went from a 32A to a 34D-DD in about five months. It wasn’t fun. (Cara shared a boob fact, I thought I might as well follow suit.)
  3. When I was a kid in SoCal I used to head up ladybug hunts in the tall grass in front of the abandoned drug house on our street. We thought it was great, like trekking through the jungle, and we’d fill up whole coffee cans with the red and black bugs.
  4. The most fun I ever had at a job was when the theater I worked at in SF was closed for 3.5 months over Christmas, and I got a job as a hot dog vendor in Union Square. Everyone thought I was crazy to love it, but I got to meet people from all over the world in the middle of the greatest city ever, and I got to wear a Santa hat to boot. And let me tell you, I worked that tip jar.
  5. Apparently I never learned to spell ‘versatile,’ because I’ve typed it about 50 times during this post and spell check keeps catching it. That’s one even I didn’t know! Versitle? Versitile? Hmm, will have to practice.
  6. I have four names. Because I didn’t take A’s name, I added it to the end of mine. It’s an important distinction.
  7. I was almost the lead singer for an all girl’s cover band called Inspect-Her Gadget, but as a broke college student living in SF I couldn’t afford the studio fees. Ah, the road not taken…

Here are the blogs (in ABC order, because that’s how I roll) that make me smile when a post pops up in my inbox that I feel deserve the Versatile Blogger Award:

Cakes, Tea and Dreams
Katie is my reading idol – I don’t know how this girl goes through so many books each month. She’s the queen of lists, the claimer of all things red, and is my go-to for good tea recommendations. I was lucky enough to become friends with her when she and her man lived inAbilene, and love keeping up with herBoston adventures. I feel like I could walk around that city, just for reading her blog.

Chatting at the Sky
I’ll admit that sometimes I avoid this blog, because Emily always seems to write in a way that cuts through the trivial, the petty, and the unnecessary, and hits me right in my gut with what it means to be God’s woman. I’ve never left her blog without feeling edified, comforted, or convicted.

New Dress a Day
I followed Marisa since about a month after she started her NDaD venture. Even though her blog is focused on remaking the old and fugly into something unique and wearable, she definitely deserves this award because of how many different ways she can pull a rabbit out of a hat and make truly awful clothing look couture.

 Ready Go! Get Set
You might think this is just another mommy blog, but Adelle writes with passion about everything she loves, including (but not limited to) being a Boymom. From the tongue-in-cheek to the beautifully lyrical, this lady writes it all, and does it while wearing great shoes.

Sweet Glitterati
The only tumblr account I follow, this gal knows how to do glamour! She posts great photos of whatever catches her eye, and I love seeing her perspective of the world through her lens. If you ever need a personal style consultant, give her a call.

 

 
So that’s it! Thanks again to Cara and This Little Light for kicking this off. Now I want to know, who would you give a Versatile Blogger Award to?

Saturday Soundtrack – Brought to You by Shape-shifting Psychedelic Pop

4 Feb

click for credit

MGMT came on the mainstrem music scene with their first major label debut, Oracular Spectacular, in 2007. They became a big thing in a major way, working with and opening for artists as diverse as Radiohead, Sleater Kinney, M.I.A. and Paul McCartney. I’ve always been a huge 80’s music fan, being a product of the 80’s myself, and for my money MGMT is the modern-day extension of everything good 80’s Electronic Euro-Pop brought to music. Even though their sound is comprable to many bands, both older and current, MGMT’s sound is entirely their own. And it all makes me want to jump in place while spinning in a circle.

“Kids” was the 6th track on their second EP, titled Time to Pretend. It was given a facelift and added to Oracular Spectacular. It quickly became one of their best known singles and is one of my all-time favorite songs. I love having this song on while I run or clean, any time I want to feel productive, really.  Even though it clocks in at a moderate 125 bpm, the driving beat makes me want to kick up my heels and get moving. Despite lyrics that definately lean towards the eerie, their psychedelic stylings always make me feel entirely optimistic and happy about life when this song pops up on my playlist. Even the music video is remincent of the 80’s, playing out like the dream of a cinephile listening to the Eurythmics while on an acid trip. What’s not to love?

For fans of Modest Mouse, The Flaming Lips, Vampire Weekend, The Xx, and The Postal Service.

“Kids” by MGMT, on Oracular Spectacular

Tags: , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →