Fridays At Home | Picky Girl: I read. I teach. I blog. (pickily)

One of my favorite ways to commemorate my travels is to take and press flowers or interesting leaves I find in different places. Some of the best “art” I have on my walls are the pressed flowers I’ve framed from various cities in Italy.

The flowers yesterday at the funeral were so lovely, and my mom and aunts, sister and I took flowers to press or dry. One of my aunts was a florist, and so she told me the different flowers that would press well and which to dry. One of the keys is to press or dry the flowers before they begin to die, while they still retain color.

So even though it’s hard not to want to place them in a vase, you should instead preserve them. (Of course, I say that, but mine are in a vase at the moment. I plan to press them tomorrow.)

To dry flowers:

rubber band a bouquet together
hang the bouquet together from a string or hang flowers individually
hang the flowers in a dark area to preserve the color
leave them for several weeks
spray them with hairspray

To press flowers:

for large flowers, separate petals and press
for small flowers, arrange them how you like in a telephone book or other book (I use my old Norton literature editions)

add tissue paper to absorb any of the oils or colors from the plant
leave them to press for several weeks
keep them for posterity or
frame them

I think for the bouquet above, I’ll likely frame a compilation. Either way, you know I’ll let you know.

Have you pressed or dried flowers before? If so, what did you do with them?

So every morning after I let Maddie out and start getting ready, she climbs back into the spot I left, sometimes not even moving when I make the bed. Her half-open eyes follow me as I get ready, and mostly I feel she barely tolerates my noise and movements. Her look says, “I am only quiet because I know you’ll soon be gone, and I can sleep.” When I kiss the top of her head as I leave, she rolls over and stretches, feigning some sort of activity before I walk out the door. It’s always such a cozy scene, and most mornings I stare a bit jealously at her and wish I could kick off my shoes and join her.

Well, this morning, I will crawl right back in beside her. My co-teacher and I realized we each had floating holidays we had to use before the end of the month. Since we only have a few days between the summer session and fall semester (which we need to prep for classes), we decided to take a day off. Yea!

On the agenda:

First and foremost, sleep late.
Read lazily in bed (one of my favorite things to do).
Cuddle Miss Maddie.
Go to the gym! (I love going in the morning. Such a treat.)
Meet my mom and sis to go visit my grandmother.

Other possibilities for the rest of the weekend:

Paint the garage (holdover from last summer…it didn’t happen).
Fix the lawn mower and take care of the yard. It currently looks like a jungle.
Touch up paint on baseboards in the living room.
Paint the dollhouse.
Gather stuff for yard sale.

Ahhhh. Can’t wait…at least for the first list. Hope you guys have a great weekend! What’s on the agenda?

When my parents moved a year and a half ago, we found lots and lots of my childhood things, but one I knew I was ready to take home: my dollhouse. The Christmas I was five, my grandfather made me a dollhouse. My grandmother decorated it, and my great aunt painted a miniature for the wall inside. It was definitely a work of love, one they repeated for my sister and again for my aunt’s daughter who was just a dream when he made it (they adopted her 4 years ago, several years after he died). This week he would have been 94, and I’ve decided the dollhouse needs some updating.

It’s been around for 26 years, and the layers of dust it’s had for years have taken their toll. I’ve cleaned it out and rubbed it down, but I’ve decided to give it a fresh coat of paint. Since last summer was the summer where my house was painted, I’ve decided it’s fitting that I’ll paint this tiny one this summer. In fact, I’m going to paint it the same shade as my house. But before I did anything, I wanted to take a few photos to preserve its original glory.

Each shingle is individually glued, and you can’t see it, but they hung the address, and it was the number of the house they built and lived in most of their lives.

My grandmother made the curtains. She originally taught me to sew, and I remember making Barbie clothes one summer. We also took the acorn caps and used them as “cups.”

The painting my great aunt made. A few years ago, I had the idea to remove it and buy a gold chain and wear it as a necklace, but it’s actually attached to the wall. It’s so beautiful and so unique.

It almost looks real…

Isn’t it lovely?

Now the key is to find where in my house it will live…

I’m going through a phase. This phase makes me want to throw out everything in my house and start all over. I love my stuff, I do. But right now, I just feel cluttered…in mind and body. Ever since I got back from New York I’ve been in a funk. Partly it’s not having another trip to look forward to. Partly it’s because I really loved being in the city. Partly it’s because it’s super hot and steamy outside. Regardless of the cause, all I want to do is clear out stuff.

When I came across this post on Brooklyn Limestone, I decided I’d start small. I go to the gym almost every day of the week. This results in lots of jewelry and hair changes throughout the week. I was finding bobby pins and earrings all over the place! The side of the tub, on the corner of my small pedestal sink, on my bedside table. The blogger from Freckles Chick made a really cute two-tiered jewelry stand. Like her, I have go-to jewelry. My grandmother gave me a beautiful jewelry armoire for Christmas several years ago, and it houses all of my jewelry, but it isn’t ideal for every day. So instead of insisting I would get better at putting my jewelry away each day (at 31, let’s just say that’s wishful thinking), I decided to make something to fit my life.

As is often the case when I’m looking for something, I went to Marshall’s. I knew whatever I got, I wanted to paint gold like the blogger did because I love that matte gold and knew it would match my room perfectly.

I found this great little bowl and loved that the base was much smaller. Space is a priority on my vanity, so I didn’t want anything too large.

Plus it was on clearance for $2! Can’t beat that.

I laid down the tissue the bowl was wrapped in and got a can of Veg-All to balance the bowl but still allow me to get at the edges. I’ve painted enough to know that if you just set it on something, the edges will stick.

I used the gold Bright Coat Rust-Oleum. I looooove it. It also dried really quickly.

This picture shows the sheen from the gold spray paint. I kind of want to paint everything this color.

And here’s another shot of it next to my antique perfume bottles and lotion.

So far, I love it. It’s made it much easier to just take off my earrings and toss them here when I change for the gym or get ready to head into the shower. Plus, I don’t have to hunt every available surface to figure out where I left my ring or earrings. It saves time! So for a project that cost roughly $7 (and I have plenty of spray paint left), I’m pretty darn happy.

Have you made any small changes that had big impact? I’m all ears. And what do you do when you feel cluttered?

P.S. Plus, now I have a place to put my super cool necklace from the best pen pal ever, Julz. I don’t want to take it off.

Last week for Fridays at Home: Let’s Play Pretend I told you guys a friend had hired me to help him pick out paint colors and carpet for his condo as well as paint it. It was quite the undertaking, even for someone as paint crazy as me. As for being a house painter for the weekend…it was some rough physical labor, and for about two days after, my entire body hurt. BUT – I painted for 9 or so hours each day, and that’s a lot, especially when you’re up and down a ladder and scooting across a hard wood floor. Normally, I’d paint one room at my house in a day or two, so to do three rooms (and one of them is a combo dining/living space) in two days was pretty quick.

The condo was laid out about like this:

Via Autodesk Homestyler

The biggest problem is that the only windows are on one wall in the living room. The living room/dining room and kitchen have an open floor plan, so they have a lot of light, but the bedroom and bathroom have no natural light. Plus, the bedroom has a ceiling mount light fixture, which only adds to the darkness. I’ve recommended he change this out as soon as possible. The living/dining area was plain ivory, which was fine but really boring. Nothing stood out, and the space has some great architectural details. The bedroom was purple (forgot to take a pic), and the bathroom was a truly horrific mauve pink.

The other problem was that all the walls were not at right angles. Instead, they were curved. This is very popular in construction at the moment, but the problem is, it can be difficult to determine where to end color. If there are a lot of architectural features in the space (such as this condo), you have to really be careful you know exactly where to start and stop the color. For example, a column that separated the living/dining area from the kitchen actually curved and continued into the kitchen ceiling. I certainly didn’t want to paint the lower ceiling and certainly not a dark color.

Here are some pics, but keep in mind they are with my cell phone, so they aren’t the best:

Very blah. Built-in shelves don't stand out at all.

Rounded corners on ever surface. Problematic.

80s/90s mauve pink bathroom. Ugh.

The plan was to a. update the space, b. bring in color, and c. still keep it masculine. Here are the color choices (we did try samples first). Carpet is only installed in the bedroom.

Living Room Color: Relaxed Navy

Bathroom Color: Valspar Rugged Suede

Bedroom Color: Valspar Cathedral Stone

Mohawk Santa Cantarina Foggy Mist

And here are a few snaps of the progress and the completed spaces:

Progress

Cutting in around the curved windows...I'm a pro

Example of the curvature

Defining the built-in cabinets

Architectural detail separating living/dining area

Bedroom pre-carpet

Bedroom post-carpet

Slightly truer color through the French doors into the bedroom

I love this color in the bathroom against the tile - notice the purply/pink still on the column to the right.

And against the shower tile (though color not completely dry)

All in all, it took me about 18 hours to paint these three spaces by myself, and I kind of feel like a hoss.

Of course, I still want to get back in there to help him pick out light fixtures, area rugs, a coffee table, and some new bedding, but it was super fun to get to make decisions about someone else’s space and have them foot the bill for it. Of course, designing for a single man was probably a good first job because he wasn’t very picky. Or at least he said he wasn’t. Any time the color swatches veered toward green, he was very vocal, but that’s excellent. In the end, he was pleased, and I was proud.

So. Got any painting questions? I’m thinking about doing a video on cutting in (painting where walls meet or where walls meet the ceiling) without tape. If you’re interested, let me know. I can honestly say that tape (which I haven’t used in years) is a huge waste of time. But that’s a whole other post…and I might even show you my painting clothes (yes, an outfit dedicated to painting).

Hit me up. What do you want to know?

Fridays at Home: Pressed Flowers

Fridays at Home: Lazy

Fridays at Home: A Tiny Renovation

Fridays at Home: Clutter Control

Fridays at Home: Let’s Play Pretend II