Attic July 18, 2009

The attic in it’s current state:

Love the knobs, will love them more when I figure out how to secure them.

Walk up.

And because I am all about little tips for you to take with you –>  when walking around in an attic; you should always wear shoes.  I spilled the first blood the other night.

Patch.

Vintage linoleum love.

Found.  Still looking.

Little room not as scary as this photo would suggest.

This will be Mr. Paperdoll’s break out room with his music and the tiny little IKEA sofa he has been dreaming of.

I look forward to sharing the after photos with you!

Playroom December 30, 2009

We were lucky enough to be able to buy our first house last summer.  After being crammed into a little apartment for 7 years, which was worth it because the trade-off was I got to be a stay at home mom, it has been a whole new world of quality family time.  A lot of it has been spent in the attic.  We had it converted into a playroom for the kids and a music room for my husband (he is a good sharer though).  Links to before posts: 1 & 2

And my little blur of motion going down those same stairs.

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This is the building zone.  Blocks, games, people, etc.  Go ahead and say it, I’ve heard it before.  I don’t feel like my kids have an excessive amount of toys and I will proudly tell you that most of them are craigslisted, freecycled or thrifted.  A bit defensive, perhaps.  🙂

The book area over there behind the rubber ducky collection.  Okay, you have me here.  It IS excessive.  The boy loves his rubber duckies, what can I say?!

Dress up and dramatic play area.

This is the playmat area.  Our hope was to leave a big blank space that the kids could manipulate and rearrange as the game and their creativity dictated.  Also we wanted a place they could get their energy out in the winter.  Here they are this morning, building a house out of the of the playmats I scored off Craigslist (I searched for about a year and got lucky one day last summer!).

And here are the little ones getting some of that energy out the other day.

Can’t type much, too nervous.  Going to get an emergency root canal in an hour.  Arrrrgh.

Craft Night October 28, 2009

I was finally able to host craft night!  Kind of a big deal since our last apartment was too small to host such an event.

I think Trader Joe’s is the new Martha.  I hoisted 7 boxes of various  fried cheesy bites of goodness from the freezer and my hostessing job was nearly done.

After the “what? I always keep the place this clean” cleaning and the hors d’oeuvre heating up, I was too exhausted to think of a craft so I took photos of the crafts of others in progress plus odds and ins around my kitchen with my iPhone.  Is there a crafty app?

This craft night we had a new member join us.  We sent emails back and forth suggesting a light hazing might be in order, an excerpt:  Maybe the first time she comes, we could all be working on fake projects like an artificial floral arrangement, bedazzling a sweatsuit, and making a toilet paper cozy.  We’ll ask her things like, “Do you think this is over bedazzled or just enough?” “Does this floral arrangement look classy, like it would be in a really fancy hotel?”

Yeah, I know, we’re CRAZY.

But despite all our big talk, we welcomed the new member with open arms and she’s great.  She is doing this cool project, the pattern of which you see above.  She is crocheting the kippot (yarmulkes) for her daughter’s bat mitzvah.  ALL of them!  I wish I had gotten a photo of one.  I imagine she’ll be working on them next craft night as well!

Another crafter made a lovely necklace from these beads.  I set the bowl on top of my lame attempt to craft.

What I love the most about the Polaroid app is there is no cropping.  It is what it is.

Scarf on chair.  After this I gave up “crafting” for the night and focused on the aforementioned TJ bites of goodness (and badness).

And I don’t know if any of you are still with me because I have become sporadic because life has become more hectic (in a good way) but here is a teaser.

Our attic is FINISHED!  I will do a before and after post this weekend.  Total transformation of the space and how our family will use it.  Woot!

Allow Me to Bore You September 7, 2009

Attic in it’s raw state.

After the insulation spray foam guys were through. (P.U.)

After they laid the blue board.

It’s still really wet in this shot so you can’t see how beautiful the plaster looks.

And a different angle of the attic.

There is still more work to be done.  Painting and flooring being the biggest two.

But it looks like a livable space now and we’re getting really excited to see the finished rooms!

Bloggy Playdate January 4, 2009

Yesterday I met my first virtual friend in person.  Mimi Kircher, funky doll creator   and all around amazing artist, invited me over for tea, a chat and to check out her studio.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself and look forward to hanging out again!  It was fun to talk blog, flickr, fabric, family, etsy, and art with her.  In addition to chatting, I could have spent hours just photographing her home.  It was chock full of life and creativity.  I think if I could make up an ideal job for myself it just might be photographing the living spaces of others – peeking behind the curtains!

Here are some shots from her studio:

And I took this one on the way down from her attic studio.  The portrait is of her as a child and the woman in the mirror is the talented Mimi herself.

I was trying to explain to my husband that this was MAJOR blog fodder, meeting Mimi Kirchner!

I couldn’t show up empty handed. I was inspired by her quote in the latest Craft Magazine about the oft used phrase, “This is not your grandmother’s craft”.  Click on the link and read it, it’s a good one.

I sewed some buttons from my Granny’s tin on a vintage piece of linen with lovely french knots (a skill which escapes me).

So thanks for a lovely afternoon, Mimi, and for sharing your non-virtual space with me!

And if you’d like to check out more of her work, including the very fine mustachioed and tattooed men, click here to be whisked away to her etsy shop.