I found it - the dinette I've been looking for - and my love for it is indelible.

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Ever since I did my snake coffee table I've been on the lookout for another piece of furniture to make over.

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I had been meaning to to replace my dining room chairs for some time. My filler chairs were in this heinous black and cherry farm style, and uncomfortable to boot. Though I kept an eye out for suitable ones while thrifting, I never found any that blew my skirt up as-is.

I've recently been obsessed with caning on furniture (think: the backs of old-timey wheel chairs, Louis XVI headboards, vacation home furniture) and found an orphan pair of cane-backed chairs at Goodwill. They aren't anything spectacular, but not everything has to be. They have a nice shape and are comfortable, and don't stick out like my old awful farmhouse ones. Besides, the price was right at $6.99.

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Today is the last day of my staycation. I spent a blissful week and a half making things, seeing friends, and sleeping in. I got to crack open beers before noon and play Mike Tyson's Punch-Out on my NES (which, in retrospect, was a preeety racist game - observe Piston Honda's dialogue screen).
Perhaps the most satisfying part of my time off was spending the first few days repainting, moving things around, and generally nesting.

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Scrimshaw Plate Set

Design*Sponge let me know Thomas Paul is debuting a new line of bedding in the fall, which reminds me of the intense love I have for everything Thomas Paul does.

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I know it's been a minute since my last post, but I have been a busy little bee. I've spent my summer thrifting, making things, and dealing with the odd anomaly. I had a case of furnace birds, for instance.

I came home from work a few weeks ago to find Stella and Grayson going to seizures on and around my dining room table. The source of all the excitement was a sparrow who had, somehow, made his way into my apartment and who was chilling out on my ceiling fan. I packed the cats away in a bedroom, turned all the lights off, turned the porch light on, opened the front door, and hit the deck. The bird was clearly stressed out and spent some time flying into walls and dive-bombing me before eventually flying out the front door (then flying back in, then leaving for good).

After giving the apartment a good scrub-down I went to bed, only to be awoken by scratching noises coming from my utility closet. 

Oh, no. 

In my half-awake haze I imagined it to be some sort of R.O.U.S. or similarly scary and fictional animal. It took a good amount of time to psych myself up enough to put my feet on the ground. As I got closer to the closet (in my snow boots) I heard a frenzied chirping. 

Way less scary, but still disconcerting.

Again, I packed the cats away, turned of the lights, opened the front door, and slowly opened the utility closet.

Nothing happened.

I waited.

Eventually the scratching resumed and a terrified and (probably) sweaty sparrow clawed its way out of my furnace vent. He eventually settled under my dining room table, where I let him collect himself before coaxing him out the front door. 

If you don't believe me, see for yourself:

I guess they were trying to make a nest in my furnace spout and fell in. 

Anyway, I haven't come home to any furnace birds in a while, and I promise to post more than once a month from now on.

On to the tutorial!!

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Just a few nice pics from Mother's day:

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When I first moved into my apartment I painted some of the walls more hastily than others because of waning time and interest.

An Example: After having some success with the birch wall stencil in my breakfast nook, I decided to also use it on the wall my couch is on. The couch wall is considerably larger than the nook wall and I lost interest 1/3 of the way in.

Successful nook:

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I fixate on things. It's standard for me to cram a particular phrase into every conversation I have for weeks, or spend countless hours googling something like bokeh or cabinet cards or Tom Waits. Sometimes this tendency culminates in unbound creativity and wit. Sometimes it results in me not having any clean work clothes and annoying the bejesus out of my friends. Lately I have been obsessing over cakes. 

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Half of the fun of gift-giving is the wrapping. A good wrap job can make the giftee feel like they are the only giftee in your world ;) 

Last year my sister-in-law, Abby, made her own wrapping from brown shipping paper and stamps. It was adorable. I have a hoard of paper craft stuff I feel not great about having hoarded, so I decided to put some of it to use making my own wrapping.

I started out with some brown shipping paper, stamps, and permanent black stamping ink.

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I finally finished the snake table! It only took me a sixer of Kirin Light, the entire Firefly series, and a Sunday afternoon. 
Here it is, all scratched in. I am pretty proud of how the head came out: 

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I work with quite a few potluck enthusiasts. I get bashful, though, whenever we have these sorts of celebrations because my cooking skills are...unimpressive. After a few half-hearted attempts the only thing I've learned is this single nugget of wisdom: Choose your battles. I figure what I lack in accurate measurements and cooking times, I make up for in presentation.

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