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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Chicagoland is silly with markets and bazaars.

One one hand, you have the city attracting nationally-known shows like Renegade Craft and the International Vintage Poster Fair. On the other, you have the rest of Illinois, where self-reliant folk have amassed generation upon generation of vintage goods and have honed traditional skills (I'll bet a dollar every Illinoisan reading this has gone to Amish Country at least once). This creates a crafty/vintagey apex to feed my constant obsession with "things".

Over the 4th of July weekend I took a trip to the Randolph Street Market in Chicago. 
Considering Chicago is a mere 30 minute drive and my friends live there, I have no excuse for not going more than I do. It was great. I was so focused on finding good stuff that I forgot I was supposed to be taking photos for the first half of the trip.

Here are a few camera phone shots gussied up by Instagram:

Oh, look: jars of things. I love jars of things! I almost bought one with screws in it, but JB talked some sense into me. I sort of still want one.

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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 use a sturdy wooden chair in my studio that stands up to tipping, leaning, and being knocked into, but it gets uncomfortable after a few hours. I made myself a nice little solution using remnants of previous sewing projects.

The Elements:

- Red grosgrain ribbon

- Printed cotton duck

- Leftover batting 

I started by laying the batting over the seat of the chair and roughly cutting around it. I cut it down further until it fit on top of the seat, and I cut out a second layer of batting to give it extra height.

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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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I took these with my phone from the car while returning from a vacation in the sticks. You can see the rear window defrosting bands in at least one of them.

They remind me of the Polaroids my parents took when I was small.

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