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Friday, May 20, 2011

So much time and so little to do!

Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it.

Willie Wonka said that (in 1971) in case you missed the pop culture reference. I can't think of Willie Wonka without thinking about my mother. When Taylor was little she had several grandmothers and great grandmothers which can be confusing for a toddler. She called my mother "Sita", the Arabic word for grandmother. My own grandmother was still alive at the time so she was Taylor's Big Sita but my Sita. So when I would refer to "Sita", Taylor got confused as to whether I was talking about her Sita or my Sita. When she started learning her grandparents' real names, things got a little easier. She just tacked on their real name to their grandma name and that solved the problem for her. Big Sita was still Big Sita but she started calling my mother Alonkia Sita since Alonkia is her given name. At first she started doing it just to clarify which Sita we were talking about but then it sort of stuck. Her Sita became Alonkia Sita and remains Alonkia Sita to this day.

The reason Willie Wonka reminds me of Alonkia Sita is because it was one of Taylor's favorite movies to watch when she was little but she insisted that the name of the movie was Willie Alonkia & The Chocolate Factory. To this day, Willie Alonkia is still one of our favorite movies.

My point, before that tangent lured me away, is that I have a lot to do.  I have nothing really significant to do at this time, but the little "playing house" projects are keeping me busy. It's a good thing I don't have a job right now. If I was out there wasting my time earning a living, I wouldn't have time to do the more important things in life such as gluing fabric inside an old suitcase. And that would be a crying shame.

Here are some of the life changing projects I'm working on right now:

This is one of 6 vintage suitcases I got from Craigslist for $30. Heck of a deal. Depending on their condition they usually cost $10-$30 each.






The fabric inside this one was really gross so I ripped it out and replaced it with some of the muslin I got at Trader's Village.

Yes that is my bathroom counter I'm working on. Ceramic tile and hot glue like each other so I chose to work there.



I bought some lace trim to hide all the hot glueness and now I'm on the lookout for some kids suspenders to put in the lid to hold the small towels. A friend suggested that. I have brilliant friends. Our new house has lots of square footage but lousy storage, especially in the bathrooms, so I have to get creative.








This used to be a pastel floral painting in the 80s but I painted over it and collaged some of Kandinsky's Concentric Circles on it so that it would match my house. Ironically, that house is gone and now I'm back in pastelville.




I don't know what it's going to be now, but I'm going to stare at it until it tells me.







These are the bathroom doors we close when we want a little privacy. Not very effective.








I bought this lace panel at Goodwill, whacked it in half and hung it from cafe rods that I installed on the door. I have more lace and sheers that have to be cut down first but they'll add some texture and variety. It won't be completely opaque, but close. It looks great in my head...we'll see.







This mirror was already hanging in the foyer so I draped it with a cheesy garland I've had forever. The table is a work in progress. That pedestal thing on the left is what my wedding cake topper was sitting on. I need to make some kind of flower or poof to put on it. Or a topiary. Something.







I bought this at a thrift store several months ago. One of the sets of crystal danglies was missing so I knew I'd have to redo those somehow.









I rearranged the crystals and put my vintage mercury glass candle in it. The candle is really too tall for the candlestick but I don't care. I like it.









I hung the crystals from fishing swivels because...well I don't really know why. I had them and I like them so there. I added some little pink beads to the round crystals to give it a little color.






I forgot to take a new picture of my rag rug but it's a little bigger now and  I've added a different shade of the white/cream fabrics I'm using. It will look great when it's done but there's a slight risk that I'll get sick of it and abandon it half way through. That's my M.O.






I need a little something to replace that pot in the foyer since it really doesn't match but the size is about right. I like the soap holders on the wall but I'm not sure what to put in them.








My card catalog is living on top of this table for now. Some of the drawers still need to be cleaned up and the brass needs to be polished. I don't have anything in the drawers yet but I needed a place to put my Delft collection.









I need bookshelves. This is where they will go, I just haven't decided on exactly what kind to get. That's not a fun project so I'm putting it off.








I also have 23 windows that need window treatments but they all have mini blinds so that's not a big priority. All the walls in this house are sort of cream colored and so are the mini blinds so I'd like some kind of sheers or something to break up all the cream.

Whew. I know. It's exhausting being me.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those soap holder thingies would be good key holders, the last thing you see leaving the house.

Betsy, yes you can read this

donna joy said...

bookshelves-IKEA
but you just have to figure WHICH ones ;) like you said.

SkylersDad said...

Is now a good time to tell you that the lace is getting in the way of my web-cam?

Shannon Green said...

Chris, that is moderately disturbing and here's why. Whoever lived here before us liked to build & tinker with stuff. I am convinced there's a camera somewhere in the attic, I just haven't found it yet. There's all kinds of electronic gadgets that don't appear to be hooked up to anything and I found a big circuit board that looks brand new. But the most disturbing thing I found was a joystick. It's not attached to anything but why would someone have a joystick in their attic? This is not a video game joystick either, it's something they got special at Radio Shack I'm pretty sure. There's a button on the end of the stick. Like you might push it to take a picture. It's so creepy, I would have preferred to find a dead body up there.

yama said...

I need bookshelves. This is where they will go, I just haven't decided on exactly what kind to get. That's not a fun project so I'm putting it off.


Shannon,,, I saw the cutest county cottage library ,,, she used 3 different cottage hutches in 3 different colors side by side.... white green and blue.. who would of thunk...