Showing posts with label Dana Gibson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dana Gibson. Show all posts

10.24.2013

One Room Challenge - WK 4 Updates



Holy schnickes, Batman.  WK4 of the One Room Challenge link up is here and I have zoomed WAY past panic town and landed squarely in whacko jacko territory.  For serious, I am pleading temporary insanity as an excuse for agreeing to do this on a deadline, under a tight (read non-existent) budget with only myself and the mr. for labor.  Only a nutso would foolishly agree to such chicanery.  I mean, I might even have gone backwards this week.  But more on that in a minute.

Meanwhile in Pleasantville, the pros continue to knock it out over the white picket fences.  Check their WK4 progress here.  Awesome stuff happening.

As for me, WK1 is here, WK2 is here, and WK3 is here.  And for those of you just tuning in to Chez V, I dubbed this master bedroom makeover Project Chinoisy Safari Chic because I am going for a cocooning European colonial vibe with a heavy dose of chinoiserie because, much like bacon and animal prints, every thing is better with chinoiserie.  Not to mention chinoiserie accents are timeless and fit in with nearly every décor style.  But I digress.





If you recall from last week, I was not entirely satisfied with my block printed and hand-painted dragon fabric.  I just didn’t like the weight of the fabric and I couldn’t even buy the damn down inserts from my local place to turn the fabric into pillows.  GrrrrI was all ready to order some inserts from Lewis & Sheron and make do until I came across the Ektorp lumbar pillows at IKEA.  Right size, right fabric weight, right price.  Upside, down inserts are included and I wouldn’t have to sew pillow covers.  I have a hate hate relationship with my sewing machine.  Downside, re-printing and painting the dragon fabric.  And I am still cha cha-ing backward…



So I spent the weekend re-printing.  Fabric is a more appropriate upholstery weight but a little more textured so the print is not as clean but I am ok with that.  Last night, I scrambled to hand paint the gold detailing after my little went to sleep.  I got all the way to the last few dragons and succeeded in spilling gold paint on the printed fabric.  Triple feckety feckI am not doing it over a 3rd time.  I am rolling with the punches and hoping that my accent pillow will cover the little oops.  All in all, I am loving how these pillows are turning out.  I am referring to them as my ghetto version of the gorgeous Dana Gibson pillows that I wanted so badly for the space but for which I did not have the budget.

oops


And in true freak a khan fashion, where procrastination reigns supreme in the face of a looming deadline, I decided to make tassels for the pillows.  After a trial run, I decided I could swing it but it is reminding me a lot of that time I made a ginormous pom pom pillow for my daughter’s nursery and swore to never do that sillyness again.  Except that I am, with even smaller thread.  What’s wrong with me?








For all of you who cheered along on my search for the world’s perfect solution to my sconce problem – the Ranarp - well, I have an update on the search which involves a lot of who’s on first, don’t we know anyone on second, and random acts of kindness from friends of friends, in laws once removed, and social media connections, all of which may or may not end in victory due to some last minute intel gleaned from another interested party.  But you will have to tune in on Monday for that detailed account which involves a two part story from myself and Elizabeth over at Little Black Door.





As for the neverending paint story, still unfinished.  The mr. is out of town this week.  Rude. But he did bust his ass on Sunday and we are one wall away from slapping some paint on the walls. With the mr. gone, a 5 yr old in tow and a 4 day school week, that means this bizzo ain’t getting shizzo done this week.  Clearly it’s time for wine.

shit is just piling up and I have resorted to using Hello Kitty as labor - help!



Now let’s go check out those other busy bloggers and see what real progress looks like b/c sadly there isn't much here!

kisses,  mrs. V

10.17.2013

ORC WK 3 - Master Makeover Updates

It’s humpty hump week of the One Room Challenge Link Up which means it is WK3 - the official half-way point and I am officially panicking.  The dew is off my dreamy rose of ambition and the reality of re-doing a room top to tail in a mere 6 weeks is setting  in.  So yes, moving swiftly past panic and into advanced panic town.


Check out WK3 for the ORC pros here.
My WK1 is here.
My WK2 is here.

To refresh memories, this is the original board I put together.


Gonna be real honest.  This week has sort of been a hot mess.  Project Chinoisy Safari Chic Master Makeover is going to be a down to the wire  kind of show.  Mainly due to paintmaggedon aka The Sandlot.  At least we have made some more progress on the walls – skim coat is happening.  So much relies upon getting the damn room painted.  Can’t really move stuff in, around, or hang up until the painting is finished.  And most people finished their painting in WK1.  Eep.

So in true panicky fashion, I spent most of the week shopping.  Oh and I did finish another run of my blockprinted fantastical dragon beastie fabric for lumbar pillows in the room.  Because, in the interest of transparency, I just can't afford the gorgeous Dana Gibson pillows right now in the big scheme of cost.


Good, no?   No, because I realized upon printing that I don’t really like the fabric I used (not the right weight or color but what I had on hand).  To add insult to injury, when I went to my locally owned go-to fabric place today to pick up some down inserts for the lumbar pillows they would not sell them to me.  WTF?!  As in they did not have the size I wanted in stock and would not order them for me, a repeat customer with money in hand, until, and I quote the manager here, ‘until we have sold more of our poly-filled inserts.’  Which, not surprisingly, they had a multitude in stock, because almost NO ONE wants poly-filled inserts.  Note to local fabric store: it is no wonder you almost went out of business once in spite of having the best local selection of designer fabric.  So now I have a new plan for the lumbars that will save me pillow-making time but involves more block printing and hand painting.  Two steps forward and threes steps back.  And now we’re doing the design cha cha.

Any who, all was not lost as I made a mad dash to IKEA to pick up some plain Ritva drape panels for the room that I planned to fancy up with some trim.  Everything was fine and dandy sandy until I got all hopped up on IKEA oxygen which is a lot like Target oxygen and I came out with a lot of other stuff and not even the Ritva panels.  Those cute pink Christmas ornaments were too cute to pass up. I am also blaming the humpty hump WK3 panic because instead I picked up some floral chinzty numbers a la Buatta even though I swore to keep most everything in the room neutral b/c of the deep richness of the paint.  Well…we’ll see how that decision plays out because it might even be a little too flashy for me.  The mr. will think I have plum lost me marbles. 


On to the next dilemma, sconces.  The original plan involved me and the mr. constructing our own.  Reality is killing that crafty buzz so I am on the hunt for affordable sconces with little to no lead time.  And Dear Lord, while we’re praying for miracles I would also like to be 115 pounds soaking wet.  Speaking of miracles, I came across the most perfect solution to my sconce problem today while at IKEA.  Let me introduce you to Ranarp


Perfect balance of vintage industrial vibe for me.  At a whopping price tag of $19.99.  I started to salivate.  Then I started to hyperventilate when I realized they are all sold out.  Of course they are.  I promptly sent out an SOS to the social media gods of Instagram promising all sorts of soul-signing-over stuff if anyone could locate 2 for me in their local IKEA store.  Then I made nicey with the customer service dude.  Turns out, Ranarps are in-store purchases only and they are sold out EVERYWHERE.  Except a few in the Houston IKEA and some in the Paramus NJ store.  So, here’s where you come in – PLEASE, I am not above begging.  Any of you have peeps in either Houston or near Paramus who would be willing to pick 2 up and ship them to me?!  Actually, make that 4 b/c I found out my homeslice Elizabeth has been hunting for 2 as well.

Never one to end things on a Debbie Downer note, I do have some lovely to share with you.  I scored some Jonathan Adler foo lamps for the bedside tables on a DEEP in-store discount (less than the online sale price).  



They only had one but a rockstar associate at JC Penny was able to order me a second one at the same price which arrived today.  Not the original plan but it was love at first sight and I just could. not. walk. away.  However, true to my fickle self, the shades just weren’t really doing anything for me.  The scale just seemed a little wimpy and twee.  So I am swapping them out with some dark grayish-black numbers that I like better.  Oops – except the ring size is a tad too large for the collar so I have to rig something up to fix that – hence my minion model balancing the shade.  



So even though I ran around like a crazy person this week with nothing on the brain except this ORC, I feel like I have little to show for it.  Let’s recap:



Last but certainly not least, I will leave you with a little teaser of the real showstopper.


I know, right?!


Don’t forget to check in on the other participants today!

kisses,  mrs. V