Sneak Peek.

My husband and I had to drive to Waco to drop off a foster dog on his way to a new foster/potential adoptive home, and we decided to check out the Antiquibles Dog Museum. It's pretty amazing. They have ~60 different vendors, so there's a lot of stuff. I was seriously tempted by a set of four amber glass moon-and-star canisters, but I wouldn't know what to do with them and thus was loathe to part with $40.



I did however find a glass power line insulator that was unique from the ones I already have, as well as a set of mounted deer antlers and this awesome cross-stitch of an Egyptian jeweled scarab. If you look, you can see on the left edge of the picture there's a rug under my trunk now (as well as my red Toms). We've made some updates to the master bedroom, which I will get around to posting soon.

Kitchen Paint.

Okay so I finished this over a month ago, I just didn't want to post it because I'm unhappy with the quality of the photos. Cell phone cameras have come a long way, but they're still a poor substitute for a digital SLR. Which I can't afford right now.









I really like how the magnetic knife racks look above the sink. We have a knife block, but it took up too much counter space, which is a limited commodity in our kitchen. IKEA changed the style somewhat, so we used the old one for the spice containers by the pantry. We also bought some new dinnerware that was on sale, since I had to borrow plates from my mother for dinner on Christmas. We only had four dinner plates for seven people. Oops.

The Living Room.

Painting the Kitchen.

The Fall 2010 semester is officially over, and I've finally picked a color for the kitchen.



Originally I was envisioning a deep teal, but decided on turquoise - Copper Patina by Benjamin Moore. It's actually the second sample I picked up, but I thought it was too bright at first. Seeing it next to the other colors I tried (five in total), though, it felt right.

We might end up tiling the back splash with white subway tile also during the winter break, but for now everything is getting painted.

Thinking More About Living Room Art.

Been super busy with school.

I've mentioned previously about possibly using rasterbator to make a huge print. I did a mock-run of a picture by Nivbed. We used the free printing at school to do a black and white version. The scale is nice. It needed more contrast in the original, because it's very Monet, even on the other side of the room, although you can still discern what the picture is of. Also, it doesn't lay perfectly flat. I taped all the pieces together, and it didn't fit completely perfectly together and there are some crazy undulations. So it would have to be glued to the wall, or to something else which would then hang on the wall. I don't know if I want to commit that much.

You probably would like to see a a picture of the rasterbator mock up, but since I think it's sad and pathetic, I'm not gonna.

So here are some other options I'm considering:

1) Large frames with large white mats, small art.

I like this option because it's simple, clean, and graphic. And you can find nice pieces of art that are small (i.e. cheap) but still make them have a big impact. I would do three frames above our couch, since it's so long and odd numbers look better.

2) Plates!

I really love the different graphic colors. It would probably make more sense in the dining room, but the kitchen is adjacent to the living room also, and hey, they are there for art rather than function. I don't have any graphic plates though. UO has some neat ones I'm always eyeing. I could probably get some of the awesome melamine ones from Target (which I have never picked up because Plastic plates + hot food = no bueno) also for fairly cheap, but the price would still add up for the number I would need. I'm too impatient to go scrounging flea markets and Etsy for the next several years to create a vintage collection.

So that's that. Probably gonna go with #1, whenever I feel like dropping $60+ on frames. That doesn't include finding the art and then getting custom mats. I can always do the plate wall on the blank wall of our mini hallway.

*images are borrowed from Apartment Therapy posts.*