Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Put a Dragon on it

Put a bird on it. No way. So cliché. Put a dragon on it. 


I added the Natori Dragon euro sham. Love it. Keeping it.


Gift Inspiration at Work

I made some cellophane-wrapped gift baskets for my retail job. It was fun to do. Place your bets now as to whether or not a single one will sell.














Upon boss-lady Kat's instruction I made a self-service gift wrapping station for customers. I love to wrap gifts. So does my coworker, Stephanie. If we're not there, knock yourselves out.









Monday, November 18, 2013

Things Need Doing

Buy a house and you will never have an excuse to be bored. You will always have something to do, and ways to dispense extra cash. The to-do list at the 1952 House grows faster than it shrinks.

• Scrub the carport ceiling and add a new coat of white paint

• Weed the back planting beds

• Remove (seriously tacky) trashbag that Chad put down in front planting bed when he ran out of blackout fabric, and replace with actual blackout fabric

• Add mulch to front planting bed

• Get the one compromised pier and one section of compromised beam under the bathtub reinforced (Yes, this is still on the list after seven years.)

• New bathtub (All 3 of my loyal readers may recall that I reglazed the 60-year-old bathtub in the 1952 House six years ago. The new glaze peeled after too many applications of Kaboom and too vigorous scrubbings. It looks worse now than before I reglazed it.)

• New windows which will cost a small fortune (Half of the windows don't open. A few have BB pellet punctures, and one window has a pea-sized hole through both the glass and the metal screen from what I can only assume was a rock kicked up by the mower.)

• Replace the elderly oven and microwave in the kitchen

Or, maybe just move to a house with nicer stuff and bigger closets on a much quieter street. Off to buy a lotto ticket.

New Bedding: Refined or Dreary?

The crazy color quilt bedding saw better days at the 1952 House, and the ancient super-soft sheets fell victim to Kenji's claws. Kenji is the worst helper when trying to make the bed. She runs around under the covers, digging in her claws for takeoffs and landings. She is no longer allowed in the room when the bed is being made. No need to call the ASPCA. As evidenced in the photo, Kenji is allowed back in to lounge after the bed is made.



Time for new bedding, I resisted my employee discount this round. (Sadly, Chad and I are both too "Princess and the Pea"/Sissy-La-La for thread counts below 500.) I combined The Company Store sheets, duvet, white shams and generously king-sized comforter with Jonathan Adler euro shams and a Greek key design Matouk throw blanket. It's a little dreary and drab after the crazy quilt bedding, but it's all so incredibly soft, that it's like sleeping on Cloud Nine.

I ordered a Natori dragon euro sham to throw in the middle to add a little lucky liveliness. I'll post a photo if it's a keeper. Kenji will likely sit for that photo session also. Her agent promises to get back to me with her availability.

Thursday, November 07, 2013

Nighttime Window Peeping

Holiday 2 Floor Set is winding down. I spent more time in Snowdrift and Enchanted Forest. At this point, I'm pretty severely enchanted. I'll have interior photos of all that later. It's real nice.

Chad brought our fancy camera with a borrowed tripod from his work to finally snap some nighttime photos of the window displays at work. Let the prettiness ensue. As always, click on any photo for larger slideshow.



Oh look, it snowed in Austin. Yet there are moths and butterflies on the trees. Must be an enchanted forest meets snowdrift. 



There was no room for the 30x30 sign in this window, so I chalked a pretty good copy of the sign on the left wall. Get your gift ideas here!





This is the Market window. Market focuses more on cookware, cleaning supplies and personal care. I decorated the trees with felted veggie ornaments, wire whisks, veggie peelers, copper measuring spoons and egg separators. Check out the cookware gifts under the larger tree. I put references to staff members on the gift tags, but am not sure they noticed yet. I spied that red wagon peeking out from a shelf in the dungeon, er, I mean stock room, and just had to put it in the window. Market's signature color is red, so there's lots of red. I think about things, and like, plan and stuff.

I'm also making gift baskets at work lately. I'll post a few of my fave examples soon.