A day at the beach

While in South Carolina, we enjoyed one very foggy day at the beach.

My DIY extreme cardigan makeover

Inspired by this. (J.Crew, almost $200 but cashmere.)

I made this. (Thrifted, less than $1. Not cashmere.)

From this.

Yeah, it was enough sweater for two people.

You combine taking in the sides with taking in the sleeves and add taking up the shoulders, below.

If you've got any fears about refashioning old clothes, this will blow them out of the water.

Backyard chickens

My in-laws get at least three eggs a day from their four backyard chickens.

Sweetie, the friendliest, tolerates being picked up and held by strangers - as long as there are dried mealworms in play.

However, she'll sit quietly for Marion, the chicken whisperer.

Sugar, the smallest, got a bath and was, as you might well imagine, madder than a wet hen. (Note chicken soap dispenser in background.)

Plain and simple

Whenever I come back from being away for awhile, my home looks very:
1. White 2. Plain 3. Empty.

Here's a little uncluttered soft neutral inspiration from Coastal Living to clear the mind.

Back

Back. Will share some photos soon. (This is our grand-nephew in a rare moment of stillness.)

Blushing pear

Sorry posts are a little slow. And now going out of town. Don't quit me. Good stuff coming soon. In the meatime I give you fruit.

White sofa du jour

Alberto Pinto in Architectural Digest. Note white and leopard again. I've spotted a trend. And I crack myself up.

Little bedroom DIYs

Here are the lame DIYs I did for my bedroom. First is the curtain, which is a piece of really gorg cobalt blue dupioni silk I thifted.

I didn't hem it or anything. I folded over the excess fabric at the top and clipped on these curtain rings I also thrifted. YOu can get similar rings at IKEA for three bucks.

Then I hung it up. Didn't even hem the bottom. I just let it "puddle" artfully.

The pillow was made from this non-cute thrifted leopard coat that I felt terribly guilty over cutting up, but it was not a good-looking coat and nobody else seemed to want it.

I simplified my zipper making. Just take the zipper and put it right sides together with your fabric and pin. Sew it and then do the same with the back half of your pillow (right sides together, pin and sew.) The zipper came out fine.

The pillow came out pretty bad. I have a hard time cutting straight lines.

Then the framed Pucci-ish art is a thrifted JCPenney scarf in a thrift store frame. It's the same frame and idea for the tribal art DIY here.

That's it.

Mini bedroom makeover part 17

I'm not even going to link up to any 'before' images because you'll be, like, what changed?

What changed is a tiny addition of pattern and color, to wit - a leopard pillow made from a thrifted coat, a cobalt blue pop of curtain, and some Pucci-esque wall art.

All the additions are DIY and/or thrifted, right down to the real coral and the faux fur on the ottoman.

I'll give some DIY details later this week.

In the meantime, there's some leopard inspiration here. and some leopard with blue inspiration and some blue stuff.

For more on blue, see From the Right Bank and again here.

Does any particular color intrigue you right now?

Zoom

About a month ago Mr. Bromeliad jumped on an Amazon sale and got me a 55-250mm zoom lens.

It gives me a nice short depth of field (e.g. fuzzes out the background).

And the ability to zoom in on weird details.

And forlorn pups outside of liquor stores (with the thought bubble 'No, not the Chianti!')

Never know what will get you famous

My most popular post of 2011 and of all time was not the hand-designed pattern for Moroccan poufs nor the suzani templates that took days to sketch. No no no. It was the five-second necklace made from ribbon and clip earrings.

Thanks to the DIY divas of Pinterest like Becki Malloy who have enough followers to start their own religion, this thing really took off.

I can take a hint. Prepare for more stupid simple projects.