Progress continues on the living room, but I am having trouble deciding what to do here, so I’ve got a nifty little poll for you. I’m doing this on a budget, so I’m re-using the wall sconces that were here when we moved in. They’re a little too ornate for my taste, and I hated the original antique bronze finish (or was it brass? Either way it was super 80’s country, and not even in a classy Laura Ashley way), so I decided to paint them. And it’s definitely an improvement, I already thing they look cuter and more modern. I’ve replaced the overly ornate glass shades they used to have with cheapo simple white school-house style shades from Home Depot. I just can’t decide how far I should go with the paint. Here’s what I did first:


Just plain turquoise. Then I got out the chartreuse green paint:


I’m not sure which I like better. Or I’m wondering if I should try to tone it all down with a glaze of white or possibly an antique-y brown? Mr. HeyLucy thinks they look like they are straight out of World of Warcraft, and I can kind of see that. I don’t know if that means it’s a good thing or a bad thing in his mind. Anyway, your opinions would be most appreciated!

I hereby officially declare that this is the Summer of home improvement here at chez Lucy. A very long time ago, I ripped down the ugly wallpaper in the living room. And then I did nothing. The wallpaper had been pasted directly onto the dry wall, so that meant it had to be mudded, and to match the rest of the house, it needed a particular sort of plaster texture, and it was just all too much to deal with. So I didn’t, until I finally worked up the courage this week. I went to Lowe’s and bought a box of joint compound and a trowel, and did it all myself. I think I just pulled a muscle in my arm while patting myself of the back. You can sort of get the idea here:


Note to the guy at Lowe’s who I asked what I needed to complete this project: Please don’t tell me what I do or don’t want to do, I’m not a complete idiot, and when I say I want plaster, I mean I want plaster, and not orange peel texture. You’ve never been to my house, you don’t know anything about my taste, and most importantly, you don’t know what I am or am not capable of. I find that very irritating. I think I should bring him this picture and be all, "hey idiot, see, this is what I wanted, and this is what I got, because I’m not afraid to try and do it myself." but maybe that would be rude. Anyway, moving on…

I can only give you some previews of a couple corners of the room, because I have a few more projects to complete. Once I got the walls all looking how i wanted them to look, I primed and painted. As usual, the first color I picked wasn’t quite right, so I had to go back to the store with my paint-covered hands in my baggy painting pants and pick out another color, and the paint girl was quite surprised and impressed that I was doing my own painting, but at least she wasn’t all condescending like the Lowe’s guy. The new color was just right, and I happily finished painting and artfully arranging various pieces of art on the walls.


I was lucky enough to get one of Claire’s gocco prints, which I matted in bright turquoise, to go along with my little bird plate and Anthropologie hooks. The clock is from Urban Outfitters, but I don’t think they have it any more. The wall color is from Dunn Edwards, and it’s called Fly a Kite. It’s a nice periwinkle blue.  I especially like how it looks with the yellow in my kitchen and hallway, because you can see the two together in the archways:


Those are my beloved paint-by-numbers pictures that I found, framed, at an antique mall for $18 for the pair! What a bargain! And I also love my big pear. If you look closely, you can see that some ofbthe frames in the hall don’t actually have photos of anyone I know. Classy, no? But at least they’re hanging up, right? I better add finding photos for the frames to my to-do list.

I also got the curtain rods up and the two wall sconces, which are sort of ugly, painted. I’m hoping that my new paint job will make the sconces more bearable. Now I just have to make curtains, paint the door, re-install the sconces and slipcover the chairs. Not much at all. Heh.

I’m pooped and sore all over, I have more to share, but I think I better get some rest first. Thanks for all the nice comments about my skirt and weight. I really think that picture is just at a really good angle, and also, remember that you can’t see my bum, there’s plenty there to lose :o) I am behind on responding to comments, and my stupid e-mail is being stupid again, but I’ll do my best to reply this week!

And because I can’t do a post without a pet picture, here is a rare visit from Petey, who is either sleeping, as you see here, or bouncing around the house, from one windowsill to the next.

I’m starting to decorate for Christmas. Just a little felt tree, with some of my vintage pearl buttons to get things kicked off on this cloudy morning. I haven’t done a lot of decorating the last couple years, which just makes me sad. It seems that there is never enough time, but if I do a little here, and a little there, we should have a festive little house in a couple weeks.

I think I’ll hang up the wreath on the front of the house tonight…

No ugly things today, only pretty. The bathroom is nearly ready for it’s big debut. I need to find just the right mirror to hang over my little dresser, and a small hamper or basket for dirty clothes. I may also add a shelf, and I do need to finish caulking the baseboards. Oh, and I’d love to find some small, simple artwork. I think I may head to one of my favorite antique shops this weekend for the mirror and whatever other goodies I can find.  Decorating is really never ending, isn’t it? But it’s actually a wonderful space, just as it is right now. I think I’ve had a least one, if not two bubble baths every weekend for the past month. Here’s a pretty bit:

I think I may paint this little dresser. I’m just not sure what color yet. I love love love what Victoria did with hers. I could do the same color as my tray, which is really similar to that succulent green she used. I’ll just be thinking about that for awhile, it’s not going to be done anytime soon, I have too many other things to do. Like embroider pillowcases (click for a bigger view):

I think I’ll be doing a lot more of these. For those who were asking last time I posted about this little project, I washed it, and I don’t see any of the markings at all, they seemed to have come out quite nicely.

The transfer was dark grey, and you could definitely still see it through the pale pink flowers before washing, but not now! Two thumbs up for Patternbee! Floresita has a great site for free vintage embroidery patterns, including these little birds (thanks to the commentors for that info!), as well, but you have to print them out and trace them onto your fabric. I’m too impatient to do that for something this detailed, so I really like the iron-on versions, but I may print up some simpler designs and try it out.

And lastly, I’m doing a little selfish knitting:

I actually have no time for this at all, I have some Christmas gifts to work on, but still, I’m sneaking a few minutes here and there to work a couple of rows. This is the Hanami Stole, from Pink Lemon Twist. I love the beaded cast-on, even though it takes ages longer than any regular cast on. The yarn is from yarnchef, who I cannot recommend highly enough. This colorway is called flourite, and it’s really beautiful. Katy even included the prettiest little stitch marker that matches the yarn. Sadly, my camera didn’t want to take any good macros this morning, so you’ll just have to believe me. It puts my green plastic Clover markers to shame. 

This is my first real lace project, not including the embossed leaves socks or the Misty Garden scarf I’ve made. Those were just small potatoes compared to this. It’s taken me awhile to figure it out, and there may have been a little spat when I was trying to carefully keep count of my stitches, and somebody, who shall remain nameless, walked into the room and started talking to me. The nerve! He completely threw me off and I gave up and started over. I had to unpicked a few rows again a little later (I only had myself to blame that time), and there’s still a little mistake, but I can live with it. Now that I’m a few rows in, I’m getting how the lace pattern works, and there shouldn’t be anymore problems. I hope not, because this stuff is not fun to un-knit!

Books. We have a lot of them. I’ve really thinned out my library as much as I possibly can but there are still so many. I got these two book cases for the guest room, but they’ve been kind of a mess since I put them in there. I love books arranged by color, but that wouldn’t have looked right in this little room, so I went the opposite way, and just put pale cream, white, grey and antique-y books in here. It makes for quite an interesting library.

Ahh! So much better than the jumble it used to be.

So that’s the pretty part for today. Now for the ugly.

I have a pair of mitts at work for days when the air conditioning is out of control, but I still have to type. I thought a new pair might be a thoughtful gift for a co-worker for Christmas this year, and half of Ravelry seems to have used the pattern for Fetching from Knitty. Cute and fast, that’s perfect! Right? Hmm, fast, yes, cute? I need to do a little work to get them to cute.

I know it doesn’t help that there are  bits of yarn hanging off everywhere. I guess I just have long monkey hands, because even with a few extra rows, these are nowhere near long enough. Of course the friend I am making them for has smaller hands, but I still think they should be a bit longer. I really like the idea of the picot bind-off, but it’s all loose and flared here. I think a regular bind off would work better. When I was looking at my mitt this morning, I thought, "oh, I messed up, I didn’t do a second cable at the end," but then I re-read the pattern, and nope, there isn’t a second cable. I think that would help it not roll back so much at the fingers too. So, I’ll give it another shot, with a few alterations longer body, two cables at both ends, and either a regular bind off or a picot bind off with the ‘picots’ closer together. I still think the pattern is really cute, but as written I think it only works for stubby hands. No offense to stubby handed people intended :o)