Fold an origami bulldog bookmark

I tried out this origami bulldog bookmark tutorial I found on YouTube. The doggie is designed by Christine Edison and demonstrated by Katrin. There's something very satisfying about taking a break from logos and brochures to fold a small square of paper into a thing!

I made the bulldog from a kraft paper envelope cut into a 5" square. The thicker stock was harder to fold, but I wanted the paper to be the same color on both sides. (If you use origami paper that has a white reverse side, you'll end up with a bit of white showing under the dog's nose.) The demonstration is easy to follow— happy folding!

Great upholstery staple remover

I wanted to take the fabric off the Craigslist chairs and see how tough it would be to recover them myself. In the past I've just used a screwdriver, but it can be a pain to work the tip under a staple. Frustration escalates until I want to stab the chair violently with the screwdriver, Psycho style.

My chairs have hundreds of staples hidden under single and double welt cord (which I've learned is usually hot glued on, not stapled, actually.) To avoid deupholstery rage this time, I researched online to see if there's a better tool for digging staples out, and found the DoubleRock staple remover. I bought one. It. Is. Fantastic.


All the staples hidden under here need to come out. Where are they?


The DoubleRock's prongs can wiggle under there and catch the staple, and then you twist the tool to pry it out. The nose of the tool acts like a lever so it's no sweat to raise the staple. Here's a nice YouTube video showing how to use this thing. I bought mine here at Amazon. I highly recommend it if you plan to remove lots of staples from furniture.

I'm addicted to buying lamps

Look what I found at an antique mall. These blue vintage pottery lamps jumped up and down and shouted "Pick me! Pick me!" as I walked past. I took them home where they became fast friends with the Abigail Loveseat. You can see they are destined to be together.

Free printable donut birthday card

This weekend I wandered around Cincinnati and had my first donut from Holtman's. It was fantastic. Today I spotted this very adorable donut balloon project at Studio DIY.

So I was inspired to craft a tasty, donut-themed printable. You could attach this birthday card to a box of donuts or mail a gift card along with it. Or pair it with mini donut sugar cookies using Bakerella's recipe, as a commenter has suggested.

Download the free PDF here.

"Taking care of business" desktop wallpaper

Need a motivating desktop wallpaper to kick off the work week? How about this one by letterer Annica Lydenberg (AKA Dirty Bandits), available here in multiple sizes for various devices. See more wallpapers created by artists and illustrators at The Fox is Black. Have a productive Monday!

Fun game: let's pick a parlor rug

I woke up at 4:30 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. So I made a super rough Photoshop mockup of the parlor and tested different rugs in it. The things in this room I actually own: the loveseat, light fixture (though it's not hung yet), curtains, and chairs (though they're not reupholstered to look like this yet). I'm on a blue kick because it looks good with all the brown woodwork, and I love bold graphics. A navy rug? But which one?

Above: it's loony and I love it! This rug has little orange squares in it which tie in with the orange womb chair in the adjoining living room. If we leave the pocket doors open and you stand in just the right place, you'd be able to see them both at once. But I think I'm too chicken to buy this one, and I wouldn't want the eyeballs of visitors to pop out of their sockets. Plus it's pricey.


Or take it down 6 notches and go with asymmetrical rectangles. By the way, I always first type "asymmetrical" with two s's and then it looks like ass and I realize something is wrong. (Just an aside. Or asside.) This rug is navy with a pale gray background like the walls.


Maybe stripes? A bold move. Navy and ivory.


Royal blue instead of navy, in a chevron.

What to do, friends?

Update: I've loved all of your votes and comments and thoughtful suggestions! I've decided on #3, the stripes, and I've ordered it. That one is by far the best price, too. But it turns out it's going to take 8-12 weeks to arrive. What, are the sheep not even shorn yet? So if I find something better in the meantime, I might cancel that plan and go with something else.

Update: And... I cancelled the rug. I don't want to wait that long. I'm plotting my next move.

My guest room decorating efforts

Our house has two finished attic rooms on the third floor (or crow's nest, as my pa has nicknamed this floor, and which has stuck). One is a guest room for empty cardboard boxes and things we don't know where to put yet. The other is a guest room for humans.

Our old living room rug got demoted and sent up here. As did our old bed and a spare duvet cover. Beige, ugh. That's a lot of brown, folks. No fun.


So I spray painted the faux wrought-iron headboard red.


I bought fabric for curtains that 1) looked happy 2) went with brown, and 3) went with red to tie things together. After hemming, I put the panels on curtain rods with drapery hooks so they'll slide easily. I used some IKEA fabric from my stash to sew a couple orange patterned pillow shams, and the pink cushion was a spur of the moment Amazon purchase.


We got this little lamp as a freebie from a furniture store, so I sprayed that, too. It was unsightly before — I'm not a fan of cheap, fake distressed stuff — and now it's slightly less ugly.


This end table was $10 from Craiglist and needs either refinishing or painting, a project for another day. But for now it's doing a fine job of holding up a $15 Craigslist lamp, which got a new embroidered shade from Target.


The chair should have a cute pillow, right? And the bed should have one of those fancy throws that goes across the foot like you see in decorating magazines or hotel rooms. It falls on the floor and you wonder where to put it, and it's totally useless? One of those. It would break up the beige desert. If I ever win the lottery, maybe I'll get one.

It's a simple room, but much improved from when Grandma G stayed here and it contained only an unfolded futon!

I couldn't resist

I hate Target. They put cute things in endcap displays so I'm forced to walk past and buy them. Orange mini duct tape? Into my shopping cart. Know what would look cute made from orange duct tape? A no-sew duct tape zipper pouch, tutorial compliments of As The Bunny Hops. Picture this: you get some rolls of patterned duct tape, and some buddies, and some zippers, and some cocktails (order optional) and make coin purse gifts for everyone you know. Yep.

Free ornamental font: South Rose

South Rose is a free typeface inspired by the South Rose window at the Notre Dame Cathedral. This ornamental loveliness was designed by Sydney Goldstein, and it's available for non-commercial use from here at Behance. Grab it!

DIY stitched fabric notecard

I was rummaging through my fabric stash for guest room pillow possibilities, and I found a little piece of this vintage print. Tiny uniformed guards — so cute! I stiffened the fabric, printed a quote onto plain cotton with my inkjet printer, and stitched the whole works together with a paper insert for writing a message.


The best way to make stiff fabric that I've found is to use Stiffen Stuff (I bought this bottle at Michael's). Mist both sides of the fabric until it's damp. A plastic garbage bag makes a good work surface for this.


Then let the fabric air dry, or for immediate results, microwave it on a paper towel for about 30 seconds or until dry. Don't worry if the fabric gets crumpled up as your turntable spins it around. Press it with an iron until it's nice and flat.


See? The fabric should stand up by itself. If yours feels too floppy, mist on another layer and microwave again.


To print text onto fabric, I set up my document and inkjet printed it on a test piece of letter-sized paper. Then I positioned the plain fabric over it and taped down the leading edge that feeds through the printer first (you MUST tape this edge or you'll end up with a snarl!) I taped the bottom edge down, too, for extra security. Then I reprinted my document onto the fabric. I used unstiffened fabric for this, since it doesn't need the extra structure.




I cut the quote down to size and picked at the edges to fray them a bit for extra character.


Then I trimmed the stiffened fabric into a rectangle and folded it in half. The notecard needed a paper insert for writing a message, so I cut a piece of coordinating paper to the same size.


Then I zigzag-stitched the quote to the front of the notecard and tied the loose ends of the threads together on the reverse side. I used a straight stitch across the fold to attach the insert to the card and tied off the loose threads on each side.


A stationery set with different messages and fabrics would be a really fun gift for someone, right? Add coordinating envelopes and tie the bundle with a ribbon. Cuteness.

A light fixture for our parlor

There is no overhead light in our parlor, though it looks like there was at one time. We could use flashlights at night or pack the room full of Craigslist table lamps, but a beautiful piece of ceiling jewelry sounds more elegant. The rooms that do have non-ceiling-fan overhead lights have brass fixtures; either aged antique ones or shiny yellow brass that was stylish in the '80s. So we're going with brass. In the form of a drum pendant, to contrast the fixture in the entry. We did look at some antique fixtures, but they were outside our budget.

These new lights were all contenders, but some were too small, too expensive, not enough bulbs, or a different finish than the picture. We ordered #2 without seeing a floor model, yikes! I called around a bit but couldn't locate one. Fingers crossed.

If you're in the market for a large drum pendant, try these:
1. Five Light Chandelier
2. ELK Lighting Preston Drum Pendant (at Joss & Main now for a big discount!)
3. Hinkley Zelda 3-Light Drum Pendant
4. Large Cosmo Pendant
5. Quorum French Damask Vintage Pewter Pendant Light, multiple sizes
6. Five Lights Iron Pendant

When the room has both furniture and light, I'll share a picture.

Craigslist goodies

My house needs lamps. Lots of lamps. After some shopping, I learned that boring lamps are expensive, and interesting lamps are REALLY expensive, at least compared to what I'd imagined a lamp should cost. Small lights for cute little bedrooms can be reasonable, but if you want something that doesn't look dinky next to a sofa, they can get pricey. So I bought these on Craigslist.

There's a mid-century pair to go on either side of our bed. They're quite large and impressive. And I got this chubby pink glass item for the guest room because it looks happy.


The parlor needed a couple seats opposite the pretty settee, so I snagged two of these generously sized, fairly new (guessing) chairs. I want to paint and reupholster them in something fun. I'd planned to try it myself, but then began dreaming about how wonderful it would be to have it done for me. I got two quotes, and both were identical: $275 a chair, plus fabric. Right. So I'm thinking I'll do it myself. There are some great tutorials online. Wish me luck! I'll let you know how many times I staple myself or sew over my fingers while attempting double welt cord.

Sometimes I feel like I'm having an identity crisis in this Victorian house. I love mid-century style and then I go and buy that loveseat and these chairs. What the? I know. I can't help it. The house wants what it wants. I'm hoping to pull off some sort of eclectic but harmonious mix. Or it might just look schizophrenic, I don't know. I'm having fun, though.

Colorful '50s art prints

I spotted these prints at Art.com and fell in love with the colors. They're reproductions of '50s illustrations from the Saturday Evening Post.

The Marriage Wrecker by Coby Whitmore-- I adore the wacky composition that breaks the rule of thirds, has incorrect perspective, and smooshes the ladies' faces into uncomfortable corners. Plus it's orange!

Marriage Is Not For Me by Robert Meyers-- The color palette is delicious. Love the detail in some areas, balanced with flat washes in others.

Hmm, how to work them into this dignified Victorian house? Maybe I could at least tuck this lady into a bathroom somewhere?

Free fonts and backgrounds for designers

If you're a graphic designer, particularly of the web variety, you'll like Freebiesbug. It's a site with a constantly-updated gallery of free resources to download. Grab fonts, backgrounds and textures, photoshop mockups that show off your branding projects, and all sorts of buttons, icons, and navigation menus to use on websites. As a print designer, my eyes glazed over when I got to "JS effects & plugins" and "HTML UI kits." If it has weird acronyms in it, usually assume it's for building spaceships or robots. I don't know anything about that. But I like fonts. Go help yourself!

Spray painted headboard

This weekend I did a little spray painting. Behold the new bright-red headboard for our guest room. The color is "Safety Red" by Rustoleum Enamel. Because we like our guests to feel safe and have no trouble locating their bed.


This inexpensive, light-weight (you can lift it with two fingers) headboard has held up well for 13 years, but we just bought a different bed and this guy is moving to the guest room. It's got a fake wrought iron paint job that is fancy but no fun.

I didn't prime first since the bed has a rough texture already and it seemed like paint would adhere well. First I tried some Krylon Indoor/Outdoor spray paint in Gloss Tomato. It ended up looking coral and the coverage was pretty bad. The picture above shows how far one can got me. The paint seemed thin and prone to running if I accidentally got the can too close.

Rustoleum enamel had worked great on some curtain brackets I sprayed in just one coat, so I went to Lowes and bought 3 cans of Safety Red.


The color was super vibrant, the paint adhered wonderfully and never ran, and the coverage was terrific. I used two cans and just a tiny bit from a third. Rustoleum enamel doesn't come in as many colors as Krylon, the only downside. But I definitely prefer it.

P.S. It now looks like I have sunburned feet, as they were well-misted during the painting process. That's one way to get a spray tan.

Roundup of free bag tutorials

If you're in the mood for some weekend sewing, take one of these free purse and pouch tutorials for a spin:

Ruffled pouches with decorative stitching at See Kate Sew (yup, those black and white patterns are THREAD.)
See-through vinyl pouch at Bonjour Quilts
DIY backpack from Petit a Petit & Family
Oilcloth pool tote with mesh pocket by Sewbon
Patchwork pencil case from A Spoonful of Sugar
Foldover tote at The Sewing Rabbit

Have fun! I'll be working on some curtains for our guest room this weekend. Unless I decide to spray paint some stuff. Or concoct wall art. Or pick up some patio furniture. Or shop for light fixtures.

Make an origami corgi

Ha, so cute! Steven Casey shows the steps to fold this origami corgi in his Flickr photostream (his photos, above). Not sure if we can see enough detail in the photos to follow along, but it will be fun to try. Start here with step one, then click the left arrow to navigate through. And don't even think about making your pup a different color. He needs to be orange for sure.

Free Nelson clock desktop by Leanda Xavian

Hello! Today I'm sharing a desktop wallpaper from designer Leanda Xavian of One Little Bird Studio. I stumbled upon her Etsy shop and liked her illustration style. I asked if she'd make her mid-century sunflower clock available as a desktop wallpaper, and Leanda agreed.

Download the clock wallpaper here — 2880x1800 px, for personal use only. Adjust your settings to fit it to your particular monitor.

[Update to the post: this clock is a static image, not a screen saver. I know you wish it would keep time, because then your computer would turn into a giant clock and look so cool you'd have to forgive it for every time it crashed before you could save. But we have to settle for a cool picture, unless one of you knows how to make this happen.]

Leanda lives in Surrey, England and loves typography, color, chocolate, crocheting, and everything mid century. She seems like somebody we should be friends with, right? See more of her work at Minted or in her online portfolio.