I found something in my yard

This was hiding by my front step. A crocus! It's spring!

Just kidding. I know this is a daffodil. It's one of the four plants I know. I haven't seen our yard in spring, so I'm curious what will happen. Right now it looks like a dead weed patch.

Speaking of dead, my new potted palm appears to be ailing already. I followed the Home Depot lady's instructions and let it soak up water from the bottom. After couple hours I dumped out the extra water. That was a week and a half ago. Yesterday after seeing it's looking poorly, I watered it again, this time from the top. Today it seems a little yellower yet. It's in a bright room but out of direct sunlight.


Can someone diagnose the problem? Left up to me, I'd do the plant equivalent of seeing someone with a bad cough and concluding their arm is broken. Not enough water? Too much water? Needs plant food? Root rot. More sun. Less sun. Wants to move to Florida. I don't know. Help.

Geometric wallpapers for desktops and devices

Find a bunch of abstract wallpaper freebies at Merek Davis, including this textured tessellation set by Kyle Gray. There's a size for every device! Pretty.

New old light for the office

A recent antique store find: this mid-century ball pendant light, which now graces the office. At night from the street it looks like a big round moon in there. I love it. Plus it coordinates nicely with these awesome globe lamps in the adjoining room.


I guess some bloggers like to decorate their workspace with cute garlands and buntings. I prefer to drape electrical cords all around behind desks for a more linear, modern effect. Who's with me?


Here's the light fixture that got demoted. It's just not cool. The green finish reminds me of sponge painting, which I dislike pretty intensely. Maybe this guy can find a good home on Craigslist.

I bought the vintage pendant light for $90. Not a steal, but cheaper than new and comes with extra character. I see West Elm is selling something similar for $129, or you could shell out $285 at Rejuvenation.

A cute wallet pattern to sew

Look what my mom (alias Grandma G) sewed me: a couple Get Carded wallets from the pattern by Erin Erickson of Dog Under My Desk. I know you just exclaimed out loud when you saw the cuteness, didn't you? I did when I opened the package.

I have a big vinyl wallet that's slowly disintegrating, and I wanted something trimmer and lighter to put in a small bag or carry in my pocket. So I convinced my mom to make me a Get Carded. Then I looked for fabric on Etsy and was dazzled by all the prints at Fresh Modern Fabric. I couldn't make up my mind between Skinny laMinx's Free as a Bird and Lucie Summers's Summersville Brush Strokes, so I sheepishly asked Mum for two wallets because I'm a greedy, greedy person. FMF mailed her the fabric, and these finished goodies just arrived at my house!

The wallet pattern uses just a fat quarter each for the lining and the exterior, so check out the pretty fat quarter bundles at Fresh Modern Fabrics. Or concoct your own order if you need something different than the combos listed. Such a lovely shop! Go there.


You might turn into a wallet-making machine like Mum. Look— she just keeps going, and she's not done yet. I've created a monster.


The wallet pattern offers three variations for the coin pocket: a flat pocket, a pleated pocket, or a gathered pocket, with a wrist strap or without.


Throw your loose change in there.


Put your driver's license in the clear pocket on the other side. If you don't want your mug showing, the pattern has an option for a fabric pocket there instead.


Then fill all the interior slots with credit cards and cash.


Mum says these are a piece of cake to make. All the cutting is straight lines so it goes fast and there's no hand sewing, only top stitching. She's a big fan of Erin's patterns and says the instructions are so clear and there are so many photos demonstrating the project that you just can't go wrong. (And Grandma G is a tough critic— not all patterns are created equal, so if there was anything wrong with this one, I'm sure I'd hear about it.) The pattern is for sale right here. Enjoy!

Removable wallpaper in the bathroom

Here's a look at our upstairs guest bathroom. Last night I covered an accent wall with removable wallpaper. I love it!


This bathroom has a peculiar layout. You walk in past the shower stall on the right, and when you hit the sink, you turn right to get to the toilet. Which is under a lovely arch at the end of a passage that is almost long enough to feel like a hallway. The paint color in there doesn't bother me (hard to capture in photos under electric lights) but that wall under the arch was begging for something interesting. I considered these drops wall decals at Walls Need Love, but after browsing their site some more, I was taken by the Waves of Chic print. Nice and watery for a bathroom, and I can't resist a pattern.


The kind folks at Walls Need Love sent the product to review. Cute packaging, eh?


Like the Sunburst wallpaper I designed last year, this paper is essentially a giant self-adhesive wall decal, and it's easily to peel off and reposition. Unlike our dining room wallpaper, the traditional kind, it was easy to put up by myself. Much to Alex's relief, I'm sure. The material is Fab-Tac, which is a textile coated with an adhesive on one side and backed with paper you peel off.

I measured the wall and cut a length of paper that would leave a little extra overhang at the bottom. I peeled off about a foot of backing from the top of the piece and stuck the paper to the wall along the ceiling. I held a level to the right edge to test the straightness (the corner was a little wavy and unhelpful, so a level worked better).


After a couple tries I had it, and then it was just a matter of peeling off the backing paper gradually while smoothing down the paper with the tool provided.

I cut another piece to place next to the first panel, overlapping the seam by a quarter inch to match the pattern.

Then with a craft knife and straight edge, I trimmed off any overhang that wrapped onto the adjacent walls and baseboard.


This stuff is really forgiving if you accidentally get it stuck to itself. I had a crumpled up ball of excess sticky paper I'd trimmed off the baseboard and wondered if I could untangle it. Yep— with patience you can straighten it back out, and since the substrate is fabric, it doesn't show any crumple marks in the pattern.


Now I just need an awesome picture to hang above the toilet, and we're in business! Or rather, people can do their business.


A huge thank you to Walls Need Love for making my bathroom cuter! Check out their other products: besides wallpaper and traditional decals, they offer anatomy prints, map stickers, and adhesive taxidermy, too. You know you need a buffalo head...

Free font: Composition

Composition is a quirky little handwriting typeface by Noe Araujo. Download it here, free for personal and commercial use. Be sure to type in all caps to make it work! I installed the OpenType file and noticed that uppercase I's, L's and dashes seem to have a strange preview in which they look outlined instead of filled (and print that way, too), but converting the type to outlines in Illustrator solves it. The upshot: it could come in handy for something, but has a few kinks that need working out.

Little origami mouse

There's a mouse in the house! I made him by following this how-to video at Marigami Origami. The mouse was designed by Masashi Tanaka.

I hope I don't kill it

I brought home a biggish $16 palm from Home Depot this weekend and put it in the parlor. I had hoped to find something tall that was not a palm for a good price, but all the other plants they had were much too small. IKEA and Lowes didn't have anything better, and the greenhouse I tried was closed until spring (whenever that is). This guy kind of makes a big difference in the coziness factor, doesn't it? See corner before. Alex was impressed, too.

The Home Depot lady said that after 20 years of killing plants, she has finally learned not to water them from the top, but to let the plant suck up the moisture from the bottom. Her formula is: keep the plant in the cheap plastic container it came in. Put that inside a clear plastic liner tray from the garden center or cheap disposable party bowl from the dollar store, and set both of those inside the pretty decorative outer pot. Every week or so, put water in the clear liner tray for the plant to absorb. Give it Miracle Grow once or twice a month.

We'll see. I'm starting with this guy, and then I'll branch out (har har) into some of the other plants you guys recommended in the excellent comments on this post.

Also note the cute curly fig on the table, too. Best wishes for a long life, little fella.

Update: as requested, here's the pot I put the palm in. It's from Kroger.

Liquid gold leaf on paper

I tried painting yesterday's Liquid Leaf on paper to see what would happen. It creates a lovely metallic lustre.


Liquid Leaf does soak through paper a bit, though. I tried spraying a sheet with a quick coat of clear acrylic sealer first to see if that would help, but it didn't change much. Still, it's no problem if you want to paint some prints for framing or paste the gold-painted paper onto something else.

Experimenting with liquid gold leaf

I'm still shopping for enormous plants, but in the meantime, I operated on some lamps.

You know how IKEA's model living rooms always look so inviting because there are little light sources everywhere? Or in movies, the libraries and dens are always so cozy? Lights on the bookshelves seem to add a lot, so I was determined to put some on our shelves in the parlor. Like a less glorious version of this.

I shopped online a bit, and brass picture lights are expensive. So I bought a couple of these NON lights from IKEA. But I wanted them brass or gold to go with the parlor light fixture instead of the silver color they came in.


I considered spray painting them, but was worried about the paint making a mess and going inside the lamp's little holes. It seemed easier to brush them with something, so I tried out some Liquid Leaf I bought at Michael's. Sort of like gold leaf in a jar.

I shook up the bottle to mix the paint and then brushed it on with a small craft brush. Because the lights were very slightly textured (they're plastic), it adhered beautifully. Brushstrokes evened out and disappeared. It was like brushing on fingernail polish, and smells the same, too. In minutes the paint was dry to the touch. In an hour it was hard and set.


The coverage from one coat was almost enough, but I put on two for good measure.

I cleaned my brush with mineral spirits— not sure what you're supposed to use, but that worked well.

This color is Florentine Gold, which is more coppery than straight-up gold. The store was out of bronze, which would have been nice, but I'm pleased as punch. You can't even tell I used any from the little bottle, so there's plenty left to gild Alex's computer when he's not looking. Now I just need to put up the lights!

DIY pots for small plants

On the subject of house plants, have you seen these sweet tutorials for small pots? Above, tiny polymer clay faceted pots at Merrypad.


Face pot at Dream Green DIY and brass pot with spray painted stripes at Little Green Notebook.


Cement pots with gold leaf at Ruffled and DIY book planters at Green Wedding Shoes.

Cute, all of 'em!

House plant ideas

It's starting to seem a little more spring-like outside, which turns my thoughts toward our yard that I don't know what to do with. And plants. At Lowes this weekend I bought a couple small houseplants and put this one in a pot I had. But I need more!

A smart designerly friend suggested I put a great big palm in the dining room, Downton Abbey style. It would look awesome. But I hear palm and immediately picture this.

I might take her suggestion for a philodendron instead. And a pencil plant for the office. Love it. I use pencils there, so that makes sense.

Now, I understand that if you're a blogger and/or want your house to look like a magazine photo, it's required that you own a fiddle leaf fig.

Got any other suggestions for potted plants that could stand on the floor, grow really tall, don't require direct sunlight, and are hard to kill?

Dress up plain furniture with fretwork

In my travels around the internet today, I came across O'verlays fretwork panels. They're made from PVC and are paintable, lightweight panels that add decoration to your furniture. Designs include Greek keys, quatrefoils, figure-eights, and other geometric shapes. They're especially great for adding ornamentation to plain IKEA furniture— you can choose kits specifically for the model you own. For inspiration, visit the Facebook page or the project gallery, and learn about painting options here. An interesting resource for DIY furniture makeovers.

Original linocuts for under $30

I've been thinking about what to put on our empty walls. I love original art, but it can get pricey really fast (and deservedly so). For original pieces with an affordable price tag, check out my round-up of little hand-pulled linocuts I found on Etsy. For $30 or less, they're a great way to purchase a small work of art created by a printmaker. See my Pinterest board here.

Above: Pattern by Mia The Hawk, Heads by Flat Earth Studio, Whale by We Think Small, and Bee by Art at Garden Corner.

You know you need this Bigfoot. And the award for best title goes to Donkeys Disturbed By A Meteor Shower.

Scratchboard art

I haven't seen scratchboard since art class in high school. It's a fun medium— you scrape away a black ink finish to reveal the white coating underneath. This weekend I picked up a scratchboard drawing done in the 60's by local artist Louis Speigel. I did some research and it turns out he is best known for his paintings of clown faces. I do not need any of those. But I liked this fountain. Original local art! It was an impulse purchase from my favorite antique store. I'm not sure exactly where it will hang, but I'm thinking the parlor.

The subject is Cincinnati's Tyler Davidson Fountain, named "The Genius of Water," in downtown Fountain Square.

To see some terrific examples of scratchboard art, head to scratchboard.org. There are a few tutorials and fascinating videos of artists drawing, too.