A Chair Story

This blue velvet chair is my very favorite item in our home. 

We bought it a few years ago on craigslist for $30.

At the time, we had just moved in to a 4th floor loft apartment downtown in Over the Rhine, with no elevator. 

We very naively allowed some guy off the street to carry it upstairs for us. 

When he left, we looked at each other and agreed that was really very stupid. 

That guy turned out to be Kevin, our favorite corner drunk over the years.

A couple of weeks ago, Hendrix vomited all over it. The curdled milk kind. 

As I was cleaning him, Nick was cleaning the chair and declared that the damage might be irreversible and the chair might just be rendered trash. 

This news was crushing. 

I cleaned it some more, took the cushion cover off, and threw away the foam inside. 

The cover washed up fine in the laundry, and I kept working on the chair.

I bought new foam from Joann's when it went on sale for 50% off.

The blue velvet chair is still alive. Febrezed and beautiful.

Don't it always seem to go, that you don't what you've got until your kid ralphs all over it? 

What's your favorite thing in your house?

Old Stuff from the Antique Mall

Duck Creek Antique Mall is right down the road from us, but for some reason I've never visited in the 2+ years we've lived in this neighborhood. Until today. 

The thing about antique malls is that they usually have tons of great selection, but their prices aren't generally as great as weekend antique markets or thrift stores. Still, I did not come home empty handed. 

I don't know what I'll do with this little plate, but it was only $2 so I couldn't resist.

Pyrex! I probably won't keep this lovely set of mixing bowls for myself, because I have absolutely no room for dishes that are mostly just for looking at. But the dishware is always what I'm most drawn to in these places. Maybe one day I'll live in a place big enough for a pretty mid-century cabinet full of pretty dishes.

But the find I was most excited about was this set of 4 alphabet coloring books. I knew I had to have it for the kids' room. Jim and Jane here may look like they have angry eyebrows, but they are really just excited about letters.

How creepy-cute is that mouse? Every letter has a colored page and a blank page to color. So they will be perfect for cutting apart and hanging up along the walls because the letters aren't different from front to back. And in a couple years I can switch them around and let the kids color their own alphabet art. I love it. It was $20, which at first I thought was a little steep. But then I reasoned that it's a really good price for 26 separate alphabet prints in perfect condition. And I think it will make a big impact in the room.

Anybody have any great ideas for how I should hang them up or display them?

Vintage Kids Patterns

Some friends gave me about 50+ of these old sewing patterns from the 50's thru the 70's that had belonged to their mother. I finally got around to looking through them the other day. I really need to learn how to use this type of pattern, because they are aDORable. Especially now that I'll have a little doll girl to dress up. I guess that is the downside to learning to sew from the internet. If there isn't a picture tutorial involved, I might get dizzy and whirl into a semi-conscious stream of profanities...

But just look how cute some of these are.

Girl in green: "Wally Banks said my knee socks were tops during geography!"
Girl in blue: "Oh you are such a lucky duck! I was betting on Wally preferring harlotans, so I went with bare ankles."

Boy in blue robe: "Wowie Charlie, your mom sure makes the best berry waffles in town. Thanks for inviting me to your astronomy sleep-over!"
Boy in red robe: "Well I'm glad you enjoyed it Roger, but I'm afraid you won't be invited to the next one. You wouldn't stop singing Conway Twitty in your sleep. We're more of a Merle Haggard household."

 Girl in Indian costume: "Gee Suzanne, I thought my Halloween costume for this year was good, but your blue Q-Tip costume is much more original!"
Suzanne: "Thanks! I love dressing as household items- last year I was a tissue box cozy with an embroidery of Elvis' face!"

Loving Cincinnati

In honor of my beloved Reds clenching their division win (wooooooohoooooooo!!!!!) last night, I am hereby declaring the rest of this week "I Love Cincinnati Week." I realize most of you don't care one bit about the Reds or baseball, but it's really a pretty big deal around here. They haven't been much good in over 15 years, and now they are going to the playoffs and you can just feel everyone swelling with Queen City pride. I won't pretend I've been waiting that long for a good season, as we've only lived here for four years. But we did start loving going to the Reds games right away, as well as loving the city in general.

The thing is, people like to complain about living in Cincinnati a lot. A couple years ago a megachurch here started distributing bumper stickers that say "I Love Cincinnati." Now there is a knock-off that uses the same look, but says, "Cincinnati's Just OK." I think it's pretty hilarious, and I appreciate the irony. It's not like we live in NYC or anything, not even the NYC of the Midwest. BUT, there are many many good things about this area, and I'm more of a "learn to love your ground" person. I could really be happy living in lots of places, but now I live here, and I like it. So stop your complaining.

So, now that I've rambled about baseball and bumper stickers, today I want to tell you about two new-ish reasons to love the 'Nasti.

A few weeks ago, Nick and I had the chance to go on an afternoon date, so we headed downtown and tried a new restaurant in the Gateway Quarter called Senate. It was amazing.

They serve a lot of fancy Southern style food, but they are becoming known for their gourmet hot dogs. I know that sounds weird, but believe me, they are sooooo good. I'm not a hot dog person at all, but I ordered the Korean dog, which came with braised short ribs and all that other Korean-y stuff on top. Did not disappoint. And the truffle fries are to die for. Nick had goose-fat fries, also sinfully delicious. (Please don't judge my one beer, this was before I knew I was preggers.)


We also walked down to our old neighborhood on Main Street to check out the new record store that the owner of Iris Book Cafe opened right next door. It's really fun for people who like hunting through old things, and it's all from the owner's personal collection, which is amazing.

100 Bonus points for anyone who knows where that awesomely-creepy goat head used to live.

I'm in love with this cover. Maybe I'll be this foxy lady for Halloween.

Yeah, but I didn't have your number. All you wrote on this paper was your band name.

Gangsters of alliteration. 

Hmm, does a Gigolo shake his pants when they are on or off? Is this boarded up building where you do your business, or can one get a hotel room with Tony? Does that other guy have to come? These are the questions I can't answer. 

And Grand Funk wins the grand prize for all-time sexiest album cover. And just in case you didn't realize how sexy it really is, they warn you: "all the girls in the world beware!!!" You know they are serious with 3 exclamation points. 

Tomorrow, some pictures from inspiring shopping spots downtown. 

....GO REDS!

Antique Market (I Like Old Stuff)

Sunday morning we headed down to Burlington, KY, just about a 20 minute ride, to the Antique Market. They have it on the fairgrounds there every third Sunday of the month. Dealers come from all over the place, and it's huge! And everything was beautiful, or had the potential to be- I was in heaven. I could have spent a lot of money there (even though the prices were very reasonable.) I snapped some pictures of stuff I loved but didn't have room for. After just a little while, it was no use, because I wanted to take pictures of everything. Here are some of my favorites.

I actually regret not getting these canisters. They are so adorable!

This would be perfect for Hendrix with just a fresh coat of chalkboard paint.

I'm usually not that into the old Coke stuff, but this tray was so cute. 

If I knew how to knit, I definitely would have snatched up this basket of fabric yarn. In fact, I considered buying it and worrying about learning to knit later :)

The perfect color.

I loved these huge spools. I'm sure there are some really great projects I could think up with the spools themselves. 

These next few pictures are the things I did come home with. How hip is this clipper ship necklace?

The lady said this necklace was from Spain.

The perfect little vase for my corner shelf.

And I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this set of embroidered cloths, but I just thought they were too pretty to pass up. These are like those sets your grandparents put on every piece of their living room, all the side tables and over the backs of the couches. I'll think of something to make with them- any ideas?

   

The vintage-flair photog studio.

So remember over a month ago when I told you I was going to show you more pictures of Fyrefly's new studio? Well, I planned on it. But then, this toddler I know and love pulled over my morning coffee onto my husband's beautiful, less than a year old, 17 inch Macbook Pro. Thank goodness he did not get it on himself, but it flowed directly into the side of the computer with the power jack and all the other plug-ins. The screen went black immediately. Not a good sign. (Speaking of s**t my kid ruined, have you seen this yet? Funny.) Of course, it was totally my fault for having the computer, the cup of coffee, and the toddler all even remotely near each other. $1400 dollars (gulp) into our savings later, it is fixed. At least we have some savings thanks to Davie R, but this is not a financial blog. :) Still a painful experience though.

Luckily, all the memory on the computer was recovered, thus I can show you these pictures now, if you still even remotely care at all.


All the styling was done by the talented Gina of Kiwi Street Studios, who (whom?) Fyrefly is sharing the studio with.

Isn't that the cutest little sitting area in the first picture? And I know everyone talks a big game about loving vintage typewriters, but I don't think I know someone else who actually has one. And I know you will ask, so that pennant light thingy is from Ikea.

I also thought this was a very clever way to display photos or art on the wall. I don't know if these are true vintage drawer pulls or anthropologie imitations. Either way, they look great.


A very cool space. Congrats (late) to Fyrefly and Kiwi Street- so proud of our friends!

Cincicrafti Spring

So remember when I went to the Crafty Supermarket back in the fall? Well, today there is a spring one, even bigger and better than the last. For some reason, I did not know about this until 10:30 this morning, thanks to Olivia. (What a good blogity-blogging friend!)

There were about 50 vendors this time, up from 20, and I loved them all! No really, I didn't see one single thing that wasn't really cool and inspiring.

All the old Cincy favorites were there again, including Kitsch Cafe, Morninglori, and Visual Lingual. And I learned about a few artists that are new to me-

I really love these necklaces from Yellowberry. They remind me of those friendship bracelets we used to make in grade school.

These earrings by Red Raven Studios make me wish I wore earrings. They also had a slew of gorgeous belt buckles at the show. 

And this really fun wristlet by Buzz was my only purchase of the day. The artist described it as "tennis-preppy," which I thought was really funny. All of the supplies she uses are recycled vintage, even the zippers and thread. So there you go earth, happy earth day. 

If you are local, get down to Clifton- there are still over 3 hours left of handmade goodness!

(info here.)