Vintage Matchbook Art

We have our first official guest room ever! Matt and I have lived together for about ten years. We've had spare space and a blow-up mattress, but now we have a whole special room with a real bed for our guests.

I'm pulling this room together.

I've had this pile of vintage matchbooks for a few years now. I never knew what to do with them.
Today I figured it out.


I took two sheets of kraft paper - the size of my frames, and masking taped them to the table and marked off 2" border all around with pencil dots.


Then I used double-stick tape to tape down matchbook covers on the 4 corners...


Then I eyeballed it the rest of the way.


I laid them out and did re-arrangements until I was pleased with the colors and composition, then I just used double-stick tape to commit to the layout.

Getting there.


I love how this one is flipped open to show the matches.




Bonnie is never impressed.


Notes: I used my exacto knife to cut some of them because they were cute on both sides and I wanted to use both sides but maintain the look of the matchbooks.

Here's a Flickr set with more photos and details. This project was pretty fast and easy and I know there are tons of bags of vintage matchbooks at thrift/antique/flea markets.

Most of the matchbooks in the frames have the actual matches removed.

DIY Times - Decorative Art

I suspected I would start making things when I got on Arkansas time. Out of necessity, I made some decorative art.

I followed this DIY for this one.


I'm really happy with it because it works no matter which way the canvas is turned and your eye keeps moving. And there's glitter. I kind-of totally free-handed the shapes, so I could continue to clean it up. It looks good in photos.

Next project:  I needed to cover this big column and I love this Marimekko pattern, but I don't live down the street from a Marimekko store anymore, and sometimes I'm impatient and didn't want to order the fabric online and then make a stretch canvas, so...  This was much cheaper anyway.


I read that the artist made the shapes to look like chunky cut-out circles so I used masking tape to make a similar effect and try to have sharp edges.



I just used acrylic paint for both of these. I never felt like I had the time or space to do things like this in NYC. 

Christmas Eve Times

We were Domestic as Heck this Christmas Eve. We quickly picked-out some recipes and got groceries on Friday night since I had zero plans for us this Christmas weekend. It's really nice to not have any plans sometimes as that's not our norm. We also couldn't agree on a restaurant to make a reservation. We forget we can fix food ourselves. 

Getting groceries meant the fridge couldn't hold it all and some beer went out on the terrace. We don't have a fully-normal sized refrigerator in our tiny apartment.

Matt made the first 2 meals of Christmas Eve. He started it off with some steel-cut oats with cherries then for lunch he made grilled cheese with apples. I made a tortilla soup for dinner. I also made my old family recipe Jell-o salad - It's a strawberry/pear/cool-whip/cream cheese/marshmallow dessert.

When we walked Bonnie this afternoon we stopped to get Kahlua to make Soy Milk White Russians. Me and Bonnie waited out on the sidewalk.

We watched Jackass3 and Pecker and now it's time for bed.

Our soy milk white russians were great and I found a recipe online to use equal parts soy milk, kahlua and vodka. We like Tito's handmade vodka. I love how much ad space they buy in BUST magazine.

I used a Martha tortilla soup recipe.

Matt freestyled his oats and grilled cheeses. Though not dairy-free, it happened to be a meat-free day.
Tomorrow is going to be a different story of the wild game variety. 

A Little Apartment Update

We live in a peculiar little tenement apartment. It's about 375 square feet. 

Our gossip bench is so precious to me- I moved it so that it would be in a more interactive spot.

I love sitting on it to do my nails. 

I got it at The Habitat for Humanity Re-Store in Hot Springs Arkansas around Christmas and shipped it to myself.  The pink telephone is what we use to buzz people in through the front gate of our apartment building. 


We braved Ikea Brooklyn in the rain last Sunday. We had things we were looking for, but this was a total surprise. This shoe rack- 

-Is now our TV stand in the bedroom! I love it. It got the TV out of my CLOSET. It's also put our TV at a great angle for watching Maddow or Conan while we go to sleep.



Getting the TV out off of one shelf of my wardrobe has already majorly helped.


Lastly, I'm using these little baby chairs as an end-table. I've been using them in random spots as tiny tables and as stepping stools.  I got them on the sidewalk on York Ave., on and early morning dog walk.


I don't know if they'll make it there, but I'm looking for a tiny end table. I hope I find something on the street. Treasure trash is fun! 

Gettin' Comfy with the New Sofa

This guy arrived Tuesday evening and this week has been B-U-S-Y! I haven't even had much time with him, but I think we're going to get along just fine. The reviews complain about the firmness, but we are totally cool with that. I hope it maintains firmness and shape. It sure was cheap affordable!

Our apartment is skinny bones jones. The total square footage of our apartment is 375sf and we can barely call it a one bedroom. I do love this crazy little place though!


We* think* we're going to be OK with a fabric sofa this time because we only have one dog. I'm also looking for a suitable blanket to keep on here most of the time because Bonnie dog is already totally in love. -It's kind of orange like her.


The official name is Day and Night Convertible Sofa and we purchased it from Urban Outfitters. I initially got hooked on this similar style from West Elm which costs 3-times as much, because it's a convertible sofa guests can sleep on.

I gave our old couch away for free on Craigslist in about 5 minutes. New York City Craigslist moves very fast!

On the Way - Persimmon "Night and Day Sofa!

We've been talking about getting a new couch/sofa since our current one has a little hole in the pleather. 

I found the Clark at West Elm, and fell in love with the idea of a sleek little sofa that folds down into a bed. 

Matt/husband and I made a little deal and decided that we need to get an under-$500 sofa so we can do or buy something else too. I found this guy online Friday, discussed it and purchased it this morning. I'm super excited about it!

Google image searching has made extra, triple excited seeing Betty Draper at the children's psychiatrist sitting on a very similar model. 

This year I'm seriously going to at least make Top 10 of the Mad Men photo contest. I've already consulted a photographer friend. 

This orange, vintage style couch is going to look absolutely martini-glass smashing next to our gossip bench!

Too Cold to Live

We are sitting on this couch-

-Watching the Golden Globes!
I love Claire Danes so much, and her and Kyra Sedgwick's outfits are my favs.

See the gossip bench? He's hangin' over here.


This weekend New York City is so cold! It's not even freezing. It's like 20's or in the teens. So sad. Definitely no bicycles. Bus/Subway/Taxi/Feet were used.

Friday night I came home from work to find out apartment without electricity. We have warmth from our radiators. It was just boring because of the darkness and lack of TV, but our friend Gail came over and we talked & talked gossiped until bedtime.

Saturday morning I had to whoop some ass on the electricity situation. Matt played basketball with some boy-friends while I took care of biz'nazz. After I got our power back on (with the help of emergency electricians) I got dressed and headed down to Chelsea to catch this little Robert Rauschenberg show. It was very nice. I feel inspired to make some fabric/sewing/cardboard art.
-But we'll see if I get around to that. 


I realized I was not terribly far from the FIT Museum, so I walked. I saw these 2 exhibits and it was GREAT.

I read about the museum because the Japanese fashion exhibit was in something I was reading, but the "His & Hers" stole my heart. I love clothing exhibits. I was listening to Feist on my iPod. Just a lovely time.

Saturday night we thought we were going to pick-up tacos and watch our Netflix movie, but we got invited over to the Upper West Side by our new couple-friends. We rode the bus over there. We tried out Dive 75 and Cafe Frida. I had a really fancy Chile Relleno with pumpkin seeds and all kinds of stuff in it. We took ourselves to the bus stop to head home and dear god it was freezing so we jumped in a cab.

Today/Sunday we rode the bus to MoMA! This was our first time using our new membership we received for Christmas. We caught the Andy Warhol video portraits thing and did a few floors, got exhausted and left. We are going to burn a hole in our membership cards come spring & summer time!

NYC Treasure Trash Table Progress

A few weeks ago me and Bonnie dog found this on our early morning walk.


I decided that it's really handy and it fits on this tiny wall next to the refrigerator. If this refrigerator was full-size it wouldn't work out; fortunately we live in a miniature apartment with a mini-fridge so it works!


The landing pad in the doorway has little gloves all over it, so I decided this table's little drawers might be a hot spot for my gloves & shades. I lined them with some Marimekko oil cloth leftovers.


And put in gloves & Shades!


I need to get fancy drawer pulls for this guy and that's all I'm going to do to it. I am not going to be the one who paints this crazy old naked wood.

Saturday Business

I'm kind of sick and delicate today. I'm kind-of high on allergy medicine. I only had the strength to do some fall-cleaning that's not in the Martha Stewart Homekeeping Handbook (my bible.)

1. I threw away all the plants we killed this summer. It's a cute idea to grow stuff on our terrace, but it's not so cute to forget those plants exist and let them dry-up and turn to dust in the sun.

2. I cleaned my make-up brushes! This should really be every Saturday Business but this is the first time in weeks. They will perform better and feel better and stop contaminating my skin with dirty old funk.


I have several MAC brand brushes, but I also have bunches of the $1 variety that have worked out great and lasted for years. You never know with make-up brushes. I'm hardest on my concealer brush & angled blush brush.

I rolled a towel at each end so they wouldn't lay flat and the ends wouldn't get bent while they dried.


3. I organized my jewelry & accessories a little bit. The overall situation isn't great. They really should all be in ONE PLACE together but they're not. But they're in the same area of my dressing area.

That gold watch came from my father's company on a milestone anniversary of him working there and I got it right after my mom died so it's almost 10 years old. It needs a new battery but I'm ready to wear it this fall & winter. It's skinny Gold Watch time. I also have a gold watch ring there and I hope a new battery can save it. It's really cute!

My chunky bracelets are in these containers from The Container Store.


This antique toolbox isn't the best thing for this storage...


-Or I need to outfit the whole thing with acrylic trays like these.


I put all my pearl things in this Strawberry Shortcake food container for their own protection.


This is what my wardrobe looks like right now. It's time for us to do a fall-switch-out at our Mini-Storage unit.


Sorry to be repetitive... But if you don't already know - we live in a 375sf tenement apartment and I don't have a closet. My husband gets the (awful, skinny) closet and the drawers you see on the bottom here. My things that would typically be found in drawers are in the baskets & boxes you see on this wardrobe system.

I'm still so glad Laura Cattano, the professional organizer who came over and assessed the place acted like I didn't have that much clothes. Bless you, Laura!

Ikea's got my back

Some small changes that are big. Actually, any extra space you can get in this tiny of an apartment (375sf) is really helpful.

Laura C. (the professional home organizer who recently visited us and did a consultation style appointment) isn't going to believe that I got my hhhhhuuuuggggeee 31" folding table into the utility closet! Woo hoo!
If we actually had to count points she shamed me on, the size of this table would qualify as something that bugged her out. I still maintaing that 1. I love this table and see it in our future and 2. This table still isn't very great for sewing & craft projects. And it's slotted.

And now it's in this closet! Out of sight!




It used to be back behind the microwave & dishwasher. Our dishwasher is portable and that means you pull out hoses and hook it up to the kitchen faucet.


So the Microwave got off the top of the dishwasher (since we got an almost full-size refrigerator the microwave could not longer fit on top of the fridge, so it had no other home but on the top surface of the dishwasher. It was so ugly and horrible, I don't think I ever took a photo) and moved to this little side table...
Ikea TRYTA Table $9.99

Here's a little IKEA tray to catch stuff on top of the microwave. A 2nd "landing area" If you will.


It's SO IMPORTANT to have every bit of surface area - we have no real counter tops - at all - it's OK to have the microwave in a semi-strange low place, so we can use the top of the dishwasher as a counter top.


We rolled without paint for about a week-


And Spray Painted Gloss Black:

Wardrobe Progress Update

Last weekend Matt worked super-duper hard and we slaved away in the apartment, so now he's super-duper PlayStation3, and I'm happy for him. Design note:  That column is the biggest dick in our apartment.


Matt got himself this big, white TV as his gift to himself for graduating from med-school a few years ago. Amen! He knew we would be moving to a large city and he would probably be spending his precious free time (He has more free time than he could have dreamed of) at home glued to it. A spread in Domino mag got be bent on white ones. So then I cared that our bedroom TV looked just like this one, because I love the look of the white tv's. So yes, we have 2 different white TV's.

So this is our smaller one in the bedroom that got thrown into my wardrobe. I kind of love how it's worked out, because I naturally put my jewelry in this spot when I'm about to fall asleep at night. I also love this Bows Mirrored Tray and am happy he has a great new home. And I'm going to try my very best to put my earrings back on the Pink Poodle earring tree.


Yeah, there are clothes hanging over it a little bit, but I look at it late at night from a low angle laying in the bed so seeing through the clothes isn't a problem at all.


So... I'm still conducting some business while standing on the bed. I stand on the bed to work out which belt I'm going to wear and I've got bags/purses hanging on hooks up and down this pole behind the belts.

I don't mind. I also run across the bed to flip the lights on b/c the switch is on the opposite end of the room.






I'm using this little kids' school chair as my step-stool to reach the things on the very top shelf.

I tried to move bonnie's Denim L.L. Bean (she's lesbian - j/k) dog bed to a different spot, but she would come over here looking for it and lay down right here anyway, so I got her a new fur chunk at Ikea and put it back where she likes it. The air conditioner blows her hair. It's cute.