Featured!

I was so excited today to find Isaac's Union Jack dresser featured on Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday!!! Marian has a lovely blog, a brand new book out, her own milk paint line, she blogs for HGTV, and she has impeccable taste; so to have my piece selected to be featured is so exciting!

Thanks Marian, I got all fan girl and squeed when I saw it on your blog!!!

 

Travel Thursday {The Flower Market}

If you haven't seen the giveaway I've got going, go here and enter! 

Last Monday Emmie was home from school sick, although she was not so sick that she needed to stay in bed all day, and I thought being in the warmth of the Yangjae flower market's green houses would do her some good. (I had planned on going to the flower market since the week before, and Paul was going to stay home with her on the day, but I decided to take her with me instead, we just stayed away from other people and sanitized her hands a lot.) The Yangjae Flower Market is a combo between green houses full of potted plants, sections of cut flowers for florists, and some decorative Christmas items and baskets. Christmas is not huge here in Korea, although you see bits of it here and there, so it was fun to go shopping at a place that specifically catered in some small degree to Christmas (I want to take a trip soon the the Express Bus Terminal in Seoul, it has a flower market with twice as much stuff as this one in the Christmas department.)

All these pictures are just some instagrams I took, so not too exciting, but still fun I think.

There were tons of orchids in every color!

I wanted to bring the deer home, and Emmie wanted the ram, but my better judgement won over and we didn't bring either to fill up our tiny apartment!

One of my favorite plants is ornamental cabbage, I love how heirloom/wild it looks! 3 of these beauties came home with me, and are my new dining table centerpiece!

There were poinsettias everywhere!

They kept the green houses at about 75 degrees inside, which was a nice change from how freezing it is outside here (OH MY GOSH IS THE WIND FREEZING HERE) It was so nice to take off our coats and just walk arm in arm smelling the greenery.

I bought a few ornaments, ribbon, our tree topper, and the cabbages while at the Yangjae flower market, (as seen in this post.) I had such a nice time with Miss Emmie, she is such a good buddy, and makes everything fun to look at and talk about, and she's feeling so much better now!

Our Christmas Tree

If you haven't entered the giveaway I have going yet, go here and enter!

We tried to put our Christmas tree up the other night only to find that a whole bunch of the pre-lit lights were burned out, whole sections of the tree were dead, and after fiddling with the bulbs, we came to the conclusion that it was faulty wiring. So instead of setting up the tree, we used wire cutters and pulled all the lights out of the tree (we don't get fresh trees due to allergies in the house) 

After a trip to the store, and 8 strands of lights wrapped around each branch, we were ready to decorate the tree tonight,

I think it's safe to say that we have a more is more attitude about decorations.

The topper is a white flocked Stag, we have sort of a deer thing around here. I was so excited to pick the deer up at the flower market here in Seoul just a little bit ago!

Most of our deer ornaments have been collected over the years, wherever we could find pretty ones. The ribbon is a navy faux fur, and a pale blue velvet I also got at the flower market.

I just picked up the flocked blue and gold balls for $1 each at the flower market. The mercury glass eggs came from Tuesday Morning a couple of years ago.

More deer!

This glitter glass deer is one of my favorites. 

The little pewter knights are some of my favorite too, we made them out of model knights, Paul drilled through their heads and we wired them to hang.

And here is the effect all lit up, it's amazing what 8 strands of lights will do! In case you have spotted the old tree skirt, it's because I have as of yet to get around to making the new one.... I feel such a bum, but I am trying to get to stuff, I just have some guest posts percolating in the near future, and it's hard to  get all the secret stuff done, and still do stuff over here!  (And that's before you mention having a committee meeting for the Osan Officers' Spouses' Club in my house this morning, (I'm the chair of the welfare committee) and having to go to the high school for emergency evacuation/gas mask training this afternoon (nothing brings home that you live in a hostile zone like having to learn how to put a gas hood on your kid, it's a good thing North Korea isn't REALLY in a position to attack us, RIGHT? someone tell me I am RIGHT, today was a little nerve wracking and a reality check.) 

Our Christmas wrapping is styled after this pin I saw on pinterest, I just thought it was too cute! 

 

Victorious Vikings! {a giveaway!} CLOSED

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED 

Guys, I know I've been quiet, the plague has hit our house, and I was down for the count throughout Thanksgiving day and everything. I'm a hibernator when I don't feel well (I've gone from migraines to sinus issues that caused tinnitus etc. so I have been sleeping A LOT between watching 2 seasons of walking dead back to back, I had never seen it, and I'm hooked.) Anyway, I got out and about today, and made a Happy Quilt run for Christmas pajama fabric, and LOOK what Paul found, a whole BRAND NEW bolt of MY VIKING QUILT FABRIC!!!!!!! I think I need more CAPS for that. After all the trouble I had, and everyone being so awesome and scouring the internet for me trying to help me find it, after 2 weeks, my local store got it in!!!  

I'm so excited, and everyone was so lovely with helping me look (by the by, this fabric IS impossible to find, even online stores that say they will stock it, aren't going to before next March at the earliest even though it came out this month) SOOOOOOOO because everyone was so lovely, I bought an extra 2 yards, and am doing a giveaway to one of my fantastic followers!

So if you want a chance to win 2 yards of Michael Miller's Viking fabric, make sure you are a follower, and then leave me a comment here on this post (I would love to hear what you would do with it, but you don't have to tell me, just any old comment will do!) and next week I will randomly select a winner to ship it to!

(this is not the big giveaway I was planning, I am still in the works of putting that one together!)

Thanks again everyone who was so determined to help me find this fabric, and Good Luck!

p.s. Even if you don't have a blogger ID and Follow through email, leave a comment with your name, and I will include you! Sorry, this is open to US residents and APO only!

Isaac's New Quilt

I have been trying to find inspiration fabric for a quilt for Isaac since this last Summer. I made a pirate quilt with my sweet sister Sarah, and Emmie claimed it before Isaac even knew what was going on (here's the link for more on that quilt), and then later the next week I made another quilt, this time for Paul (that has as of yet to be photographed) and Isaac was pretty much feeling like chopped liver. SO I was trying to do a Steampunk quilt for Isaac, but have as of this far managed to only get 2 fabrics for that theme. 

ANYWAY, yesterday I was with a friend in Happy Quilt, and came across a fat quarter of this fabric, 

And suddenly I KNEW exactly what fabric I wanted for Isaac's now VIKING quilt. I asked if there was any yardage of the fabric, and got a big fat NO on that one, so I found the only 4 fat quarters they had in the shop (which look like they all came out of the same yard of fabric) and purchased them thinking I would be hopefully be able to order more online (we have developed the theory that Happy Quilt was sent a tester yard, decided not to stock the fabric, but turned the yard into fat quarters, it's a nice theory that I have no way of actually substantiating since I don't speak Korean.)  

Now comes my problem, I was able to distinguish via the selvage edge that it is a Michael Miller print called "Vikings" and according to his website it came out in November, but I can't find any online stores that stock it! I could make due with just the quartered yard if I have to, but I was hoping to add it to the back as well. Paul and I are going to go up to Dongdaemun tomorrow (I'm trying to get the last couple of things for my giveaway package!) so I will try to see if anyone there has it, but I'm not holding out much hope (there are only a couple small quilt fabric booths in Dongdaemun, they are definitely more stocked for the clothing industry.)

SOOOO If anyone runs across an online shop or retailer that carries this fabric, I will love you forever and call you my hero if you would pretty please let me know where, so I can order more of this fabric before I get too excited and make it anyway with just the 1 yard. 

p.s. Isaac will also love you forever, he has loved vikings since he was a little boy, so much so I made him a faux fur lined viking coat that he actually still wears around for play (yes he's 12) even though the sleeves are too short, and he learned how to write his name in runes practically before he learned to write it in English!

Tree Skirt

I recently realized that I only posted a picture of the tree skirt I made a couple of Christmases ago on my facebook, so I thought I would quickly put a picture of it here, especially since I am changing everything this Christmas, so I had better get SOME mileage out of it while I can! I made this skirt in one day, and it is made from a vintage double wedding ring template that a friend gave me ages ago. I made it with the 9 panels as though I was just making a quilt, machine quilted the layers together, and only at the binding stage did I cut the slit and circle for fitting around the tree. The binding on this skirt is a silk fabric, and the backing is a medium weight corduroy which  helps hold the tree skirt in place through friction with the floor.



There's a tiny bit of sparkle in the fabrics, and I especially love the fussy cutting so the birds are centered in the design, it's those little details that make sewing fun for me, thinking through each detail so things become the best version (of whatever) they can be.

So You Think You're Crafty!

Hey everyone! So I am really excited to announce that I am competing for a slot in So You Think You're Crafty! I was so excited to be selected as a finalist for the auditions, and now our projects are up ready to be voted on!

So if you could please head on over to here and vote for your favorite craft (I love that it is anonymous, so exciting!) The voting gets done this Friday, so you have until then!

Canvas Covered Box-springs

Before moving, we bought Isaac a new smaller bed, his last bed was the heaviest thing ever (which is not great for our weight allowance) and was bigger in size, even though it was still a twin bed. We found him a great antique bed, but ran into needing to buy him a box-spring mattress, since his last bed was on a platform bed, and he's never had a box-spring. One afternoon while checking the scratch and dent section in IKEA, I found this box-spring on legs for sale for $50. my initial intention was to take the legs off and just use the box-spring (new without legs the next cheapest we could find was $150 if you weren't purchasing a mattress too.)

Once we got the box-spring home, we discovered that the legs fit perfectly inside his new bed, and we decided that was a good way to not have too much weight on the frame of the antique bed, while still giving him a headboard and a footboard. Here's the bed frame as found in the antique store,

There were two of these beds, but the one was in pretty rough shape, so we were able to just buy the one we wanted. I cleaned the bed frame, and then wiped over it with a matching stain with poly combo to color in any scratches and to refresh the whole thing (if this was a fancy antique I probably wouldn't play with the finish myself, but this isn't really good stuff.)

I bought a really great recycled canvas fabric at a local decorator's outlet in order to cover the box-spring (I  will sometimes use an extra fitted sheet to cover a box-spring, but for this project I decided to cover it with something a little more custom.

Here's what the finished product looks like, I didn't take any during pictures, since it literally took 15 minutes of sewing, but I will describe what I did.

 If you look at the fabric, it has raw canvas edges that are top stitched nice and flat, I was just able to copy that arrangement as I joined the fabric width wise, it was a 60" wide fabric, and I cut it as tall as the box-spring plus 6", and then used an upholstery thread and a long stitch to sew those the strips end to end. I want to say there were 6 total widths sewn together for this.

 after I had my strip, I wrapped it tightly around the edge of the box-spring, and cut off the excess length, and sewed the last 2 edges into the fitted tube around the box-spring.

 for the top, I pinned miters with most of the excess height on top of the box-spring (leave enough on the bottom to staple under) and after sewing the miters, I inserted a fabric rectangle into the top middle (this was just some left over fabric that I have carried around for YEARS.)

 The miter is a really great way to make this edge look good, I know I could have stapled the top rather than sewing it, but I thing this makes all the difference in how finished it is.

 The main reason for having the top look nice, is just in case your mattress shifts to the left or the right, you want to see only the pretty canvas edge.

 I serged around the bottom edge before putting it on the box-spring, and then pulled the bottom edge nice and taught, and stapled all around the bottom. my final step was to staple the hook side of Velcro to the bottom, in preparation for a bed-skirt, this makes adding a bed-skirt very easy, since I will just have to add the loop side of the Velcro to the top of the bed-skirt. (I've always put my bed skirts to the floor rather then as box-spring covers, it totally hides the bed boxes I put under the beds with out of season clothes.

I alternated the direction of my staples to make them cover both width and length, and hopefully prevent the Velcro from pulling through in any direction.

The silver legs will totally get hidden by the bed-skirt, and hopefully it will all come together to have the look I am aiming for!

(My pinterest inspiration board for Isaac's room is here)

What do you think? are you going to be covering any box-spring mattresses in the future? I am hopeful that even though it is pale, it will stay pretty clean because of the recycled canvas (and if not, it will blend in with some of the original canvas stains!)

 

Isaac's Union Jack Dresser

I knew I wanted a Union Jack for Isaac's dresser, so I set about Googling different images of union jack furniture, until this dresser from Daena at Bad Rabbit Vintage (the picture is a link to the image source if you click on it) popped up!   

There was just something about this piece that stuck with me, and I pinned it, thinking if only I could find a piece of furniture that would work with  a similar idea..... I am sure you can imagine that when I found this piece for sale at my local Salvation Army Store, I was ecstatic! I got it on sale for 50% off, and there was a matching side table for the same 50% off! (I have already posted about redoing Isaac's side table here.)

 Paul and I sanded down this whole dresser, because unlike my inspiration photo, I wanted to stain this piece a different color rather than painting the whole thing. I taped off all of the pieces of the Union Jack that I wanted to remain wood for staining, and all the bits I wanted to be blue, and then I used cream spray paint to spray the whole piece. Next I removed the tape covering the bits I intended to paint blue, taped off the cream using newspaper to help protect the cream, and used spray paint to cover the blue bits. I don't have progress pictures (what else is new? I just get going on something, and then Paul comes out and reminds me to take pictures!) But here is where I was when Paul got me to take pictures! The dresser was all painted, and all the tape was removed. The wood hasn't been stained yet though, as the next step was to sand all the paint back so it didn't look so crisp.

 As a gift to my neighbors, I waited until the next day to sand the dresser with the electric sander, since I finished painting the dresser late at night! (spray cans are quiet enough right?)

And then after the sanding I stained the whole piece with a dark stain, and used a satin polyurethane to seal the whole thing.

And here is the finished piece,

 Just like the inspiration piece I wrapped a portion of the union jack onto the top, leaving the top drawer to be half of my cross, with the bottom drawer being cream. (it's actually the bottom half of the drawer, since the lower 2 drawers are actually only one big drawer.)

The sides are all cream, that has just been sanded back. (You can see a sneaky view of Isaac's Hawker Hurricane side table next to the dresser in this picture.) 

And then again, here is the finished product. I used the original hardware again, since I LOVE this look, and I love that this has both a modern and timeless feel. I'm sure you can tell all my lines aren't straight, since this was not a flat piece I had to go around curves and shapes, so there are some non perfect angles, but in the grand scheme, I think that just adds to the vintagey folk-art look this piece has. I didn't use red for this piece, since red really isn't a strong color in his room (his room is shades of blue, brown, gray, cream, and beige) but I think it still clearly reads as a Union Jack, since the brown wood is in those spots.

I am pretty sure this is the last dresser I didn't share before moving to Korea! I am stinking never gonna get caught up with everything I have been doing, but hopefully I'll keep getting closer!

 

Korean Apartment Master Bathroom

I took pictures of our master bathroom today, showing what we have done to make it "our's" and not just military housing for the next 3 years. The before pictures aren't that great, but I did at least remember to take them when we moved in! 

I don't know what I was thinking with this one....I hate trying to figure out what to do with myself in a mirror.

And now the afters, (all these pictures were taken at night, not that it really matters since there is no window in this room! But the flash made the colors look a little different than in real life.)

It's hard to tell, but the walls are a soft golden wheat color. 

These bird pictures hung in the dining room of our last house, but will do well in the bathroom because they won't get ruined in the humidity.

The towel rack is the same style one in our last house, we got a spare one before we moved so we could have one here. We took down all the towel bars that were in the bathroom, and put up our own (the organizers are the same IKEA one's from our last bathroom, they came with us in the move.) The laundry basket is from target, and is the best shape ever for a laundry basket.

I recently made a hair clip hanger so my stuff was at hand, now I just need to make 10 more so everything I have can be at hand!

I obviously need to clean my mirror, oops! Here is what the organization system looks like with the door shut. We hang robes, and other things behind the door (along with my mirror so I can see the back of my head) and pretty much everything in here is about maximizing organization for a VERY tiny bathroom.

We store extra towels above the rack, and here is a good shot of the door frame. We used to have a door between the front and back bathrooms. In order to open the door (if you were on the inside by the tub) you had to stand right up against the toilet or in the tub to make room for the door to swing. (which made the whole bathroom tiny, and gross, because you HAD to shut the door or you couldn't reach the towel bar behind it) So, we just took the door out and put it in our little storage space for while we are here. I used wood filling wax to fill the holes in the door frame, and when we move, we will just put the door back.  We figure it's just as easy to close the front door for privacy as the middle one.

I ended up following my gut and taking the advice to leave the shower curtain ruffle free for now, I bought some stuff to possibly embellish it later, but for right now I am liking the plain look! I have all the photos for a tutorial for making the shower curtain (finally, I know) so I'll get those up soon.

The only thing I bought new for this bathroom was the fabric for the shower curtain, and the towel rack that was identical to the one in my last master bath, everything else was being reused from our last house.