Liberty of London Update

(the cat checks out the loot - no food in sight so he decided to obey me and get off the table)

It took two Target trips, but I was able to find all of the Liberty of London houseware stuff that I wanted. My Target started putting stuff out on Friday but didn't have most of the housewares out yet. I couldn't get back to the store until Sunday (the day it was supposed to arrive in stores) and the shelves were completely picked over! It must have been a shopping frenzy! Frankly, it surprised me but people around here don't usually get excited about the same things I get excited about. It was also disappointing. So, I decided to check out the Target in another (less hip) part of town and was able to find the patterns I wanted! Below is a pic of my loot: the tiered serving tray, four cute pink cereal bowls ($2.50 each!), and a couple of gift bags. I also got some plastic tumblers with the black and white floral design but forgot to include them in the pic.

Thrift Score

Had a good trip to the thrift store today (Savers), which isn't always the case. We were looking for new dining room chairs (anyone who has been to my place can tell you that the old ones are literally falling apart) but weren't so lucky in the furniture department. BUT - look at the cool vintage textiles I found. Especially loving the granny square afghan and the floral print on top (a photo with detail below).

I also found a great Sunset (like the magazine) cookbook from 1960 with truly awesome illustrations. I don't think the woman who owned this cooked anything from it (or she was a particularly neat cook) as there is not a mark on it except on one of the dessert pages.

As always, the mismatched dishes drew my eye. I ended up with two of these strawberry print ones from Mikasa and the little blue saucer shown in the bottom pic.

New wall display and some collecting

We moved some things around in our apartment, and I had to figure out what to do with this wall in the dining room. There are lots of solutions that would have worked but I decided to hang this group of embroidery hoops. All of them are done with some scraps of vintage fabric.

I don't really collect anything anymore (unless books count!), but I think everyone has accidentally started a collection at some point. Usually it happens when well-meaning friends and relatives decide that you collect something. If people notice that you have two or three things with roosters on them or if you casually mention that rooster paintings are cool, expect to get a flood of rooster-related gifts for Christmas. My mom started a teapot collection this way. My aunt started a pig collection this way. My sister received teddy bear themed gifts until she was 21 or so.

I don't collect owls or frogs but do like them and noticed the other day that I have a few of each. Please note - this is not a request for these items. I just thought they looked cool grouped together.

New (and not so new) additions to the decor

I know that this pink poodle on velvet is tacky but I love him so! When I tell people I got him for a dollar, some people say, "Only a dollar! Awesome!" and some people say, "You paid a dollar for that?"

Another awesome thing is this framed album cover below. We are big fans of the new Battlestar Galactica. Not some much of the old one (have you seen it? it's so cheesy!) but I am definitely digging the kitschy 70's artwork.

New Digs

As you may have guessed, The Big Move and its aftermath kind of took over my life the past few weeks. Between unpacking, painting, steam-cleaning the carpet (!), and more painting, I haven't had much time for anything else. I have been working on some Artist Trading Cards, though, so will post those soon. In the meantime, here's a peek at my new decorating scheme for my bedroom (the bedding isn't actually black and white, though, it's red and orange in the same pattern. There's a lot of orange with some green accent pieces thrown in here and there.

Procrastination

I should be packing since I'm moving this Friday (eek), but instead I'm looking at wall decals online. Thinking about ways to decorate the new place is way more fun than trying to organize piles of random crap.

Here are a few from one of my favorite sites for wall decals:

http://www.whatisblik.com/walldecals.html - all the decals pictured are above are from this site. They even have some that are re-usable so you can move them around according to your whim.

http://www.urbanoutfitters.com

http://www.modernwallgraphics.com/

http://www.slicksticks.com/