Better Living Through Literature
Words + Projects + Stuff I Like
I spent a large part of it outside admiring most of my new pergola (!):
It still needs rafters across the beams and some stain, but LOOK AT IT. I should have added one years ago! (Using the term “I” loosely, of course; my dad gets all the credit here.)
I’ve been working mostly on other sewing projects this week, but I did get the collar and facing on the knockoff tunic before I took a break:
And check this out–I have plans for the pergola already! How did that happen, you ask? Just get a really, really high bid from a manufacturer that makes pergola kits, and (if you’re in my family) your awesome dad will engineer an even better one, draft up professional plans, source the lumber, and offer to build it for you. (My family is the one you want to be in, if you couldn’t tell.) Construction will start sometime in May!
The three days I had off last weekend were also the warmest days of the year so far (above 60!) so I didn’t spend a lot of time inside sewing. (I need to–I want to wear my tunic at the end of the month and I realized Skyler has a birthday coming up–but I needed to recharge more.)
Anyway, all that sitting on my tiny back deck got me thinking about the outdoor improvements I want to make this year. It will be my third summer in the house so I’ve had some time to play with ideas, and the idea that’s stuck is “pergola.” And “slightly less tiny deck.” Check out the ideas I’ve been collecting on Pinterest:
No sewing this weekend, but I finally got my gallery wall hung in the living room:
And here it is with the rest of the room:
AND, my dad came up to help me hang new blinds and brought the fanciest new bird feeder ever, which he made, down to the shingles:
I don’t have a picture of the previous birdfeeder because it was so sad and leaning at a 30-degree angle, but this is beyond an improvement. Thanks, Dad!
I don’t wear a lot of jewelry–and by “a lot,” I really mean “anything other than a watch and maybe earrings.” But years and years of perusing J. Crew and style blogs like this one have convinced me I should probably wear some of the necklaces I managed to collect over the years of not wearing jewelry. The problem? They lived in a drawer and I forgot about them. So I made a jewelry board to hang them up in the bedroom.
I just cut a piece of leftover homasote from the office boards project last year to about picture size and spray-adhesived some leftover rice paper over it:
Then I added little hooks:
And hung it up.
I think it’s working at least a little–I wore a necklace AND a bracelet AND a watch to the symphony this past weekend. At the very least, it’s more things on the wall and more colors.
Last year, I didn’t do much decorating in the house past putting up some fabric bulletin boards. This year, I woke up on New Year’s Day and broke out the painters tape…
And the spray adhesive and paint…
And the leftovers from an old project…
And made an epic list.
(I was also hit with sewing inspiration, which hasn’t happened in six months. I’ll list out those plans next week.)
This week will mark the one-year anniversary of my being in the house. Since it’s really the biggest and longest-term project I’ll undertake, why not look at the progress made through the year?*
Still under construction.
Moved in, with cat head.
With an Eames chair and real window coverings.
And with a coffee table and Arco-esque lamp. Things are getting fancy…
And here’s the orange sofa and grown-up art over the fireplace.
And on the other side of the room, there are curtains and fabric art I made (and more than two people can dine in comfort).
Hooray for home decorating!
*No, I haven’t finished any sewing this week. Can you tell?
After taking down Christmas decor the house seemed barren, so my new goal is to add more decor and accessories. I started with the office and added bulletin boards on each side of the desk:
This is another fabric-covered Homasote board, just like the one in the sewing room. Since I had leftover Homasote board on hand, this project only required one yard of fabric and the loan of my dad’s staple gun again. Here’s a close up:
I’m really happy with the result (but anything turquoise and orange has a 99.9% chance of maing me happy.) There’s certainly more decor in the room than there was this time a year ago:
