3.22.2012

thrift scoring and instagraming, that's my game

most people, when they get some time off from work, will plan a trip to somewhere relaxing and luxurious.  when I get a week off, I visit every dirty, smelly, crowded thrift store in Los Angeles, and I love every minute of it.

I actually haven't been finding that much, but the hunt is really more the point.  found some more vintage Japanese (far left) and California (center) ceramics.  if it has a drippy glaze and it's blue, brown, or orange, it comes home with me to join the ceram-fam.

I planted a few succulents in the orange pot today, I'm definitely in a spring planting mood!


this bit of bad-assery makes me happier every time I look at it.  it's by an artist named Virgil Thrasher, and the black border and wheat graphics are painted on glass and then the sunset background sits behind it, shadow box style.  the label on the back says it's from 1974.  I paid $4, but I found a few on ebay listed between $25 and $300.  so it's maybe worth a few bucks?  anyway no way I'm selling it, this baby is going up in the bedroom.


I hope you're enjoying this gorgeous spring...flowers are everywhere!  I'm obviously still very enamored with Instagram...so here's one more.


3.11.2012

instaddiction

another week, another dumb unexplained injury for Jody...this week it was waking up friday completely unable to move my neck!  no idea why...perhaps I've been sleep-breakdancing.

anyway there's not much one can do when you have to spend whole days lying on your back with frozen broccoli under your neck.  I spent a lot of time playing with my phone, which is why I'm now totally obsessed with Instagram.  I forgot Pinterest even existed, that's how much I love Instagram.

in my stiff-necked state I haven't been able to get out and take a ton of new photos, but here's a few I posted...both new and old ones I found on my phone's camera roll just begging to be filtered and made all pretty.


Daylight savings started today...I wouldn't mind losing the hour of sleep if I didn't also lose all that time changing clocks.


Josh is the best, basically, ever.  He goes to the farmers market on sundays and usually buys me flowers, like a big sweetie, while I stay in bed and drink coffee and check facebook.


this is from 3 years ago, and makes me really really really want to go to Palm Springs as soon as possible. hey Josh, you heard all the nice things I said about you earlier, right??


this is in downtown LA, and completely surprised and delighted me when I came across it.  it's a Jody store!  it also reminds me of the Seinfeld bit where George has the great line he wants to use on his co-worker..."The jerk store called, and they're running out of you".


oh yeah remember last week when I was bragging about all the pillows I was gonna finish...well here's one that's still not done.  but kinda pretty, right?


and yeah, that's me.  from a few weeks ago, when the pink streaks were still pretty fabulous.  now they are faded and sad, and no one cares anyway because I just lie in bed, moaning and alternating heat and ice and playing with Instagram.

so hey, find me on Instagram!  I'm craftnik...I only have 3 followers right now, which is really embarrassing.




3.04.2012

measure once, cut twice?

so you've maybe seen this little mid-century bench in my living room?  it's cute, I got it at the flea market years ago...


I made the teal cushion and all the bargello pillows, but I'm taking the whole apartment in a more calm, neutral, ethnic/rustic/modern direction lately.  so the crazy riot of color and retro pattern that was happening on the bench wasn't working anymore.

so, I decided to make some new cushions, and I went with a simple hand-tied futon type mat made from old linen.  I worked on it for a couple hours on saturday.  I was kinda digging it, but then I realized it was not deep enough for the seat.  I was willing to overlook that mistake...


until I realized it was also several inches too short.


wtf?!?  I am a good seamstress, people.  I don't make these kind of rookie mistakes.  I certainly don't make two of them!  I seriously don't know what happened here.  I got so mad about it, I decided I don't even WANT the bench anymore.  that'll teach it, for being all confusing in its dimensions!

it's ok, nobody sits on it anyway, it's just there as a showcase for pillows.  so I'll be putting it on craigslist soon, I think.  if you're in the SoCal area and in the market for a cute mid-century bench (with a teal cushion that fits it perfectly), send me a message!

after the cushion debacle, I decided to make a pillow, which I know I can do properly.  I had some scraps of linen that I had tie-dyed blue at French General's last Woad Dyeing Workshop, so I did a sort of random log cabin kinda thing with it, just to see what happened.




I actually really like it!  it looks like clouds, don't you think?  I was so into this one, I started a second even cooler pillow in the same vein.  I'll share that one with you in a couple days.

I'm serious about selling the bench, let me know if you want it.  I'll even send you the dimensions...but don't be surprised if it's a little bigger than you expected!

 

3.01.2012

friday kahlua




I've started reading The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver, and I love it...I'm too tired these days to read for very long before bed, but I've gotten to the part where Frida Kahlo comes in, and I wanted a clearer picture in my mind of what she really looked like, cause all I could see was Salma Hayek.

turns out she was way more beautiful and stylish than I remembered!
















I also found this fantastic quote from her, which makes me love her even more:




not to mention, she somehow rocked a unibrow and made it work.

(oh, and the title of this post is a reference to a legendary college game of Taboo that went terribly awry.  and it's a fitting end of the week post name!)