Plants, paint, and projects.

Looking over this post I realize it is a collection of seemingly un-related topics. Ok, fine, these topics don't relate to eachother at all. But they all start with the letter P! How's that for random?

I spent last sunday at a local small town fair. It's kind of a craft show / farmers market / fair / yard sale event and is always lots of fun. I've been going every year for a few years now and have always nabbed something cool from one of the countless yard sales. Last year it was a retro plaid lounge chair (that I'm sitting in right now!), a cool plate to add to my collection, and a pair of retro bookcases that now live in my studio. This year, however, the yard sales were really lacking. I went back to the house that had the garage filled with amazing retro furniture, but alas, their yard was empty and the garage was closed. Bummer! I did manage to find a vendor specializing in succulents and brought this one home.

The leaves have pretty red edges.

The ecentric man at the booth told me all about the species (even explaining that its rarest form is black) but I promptly forgot the name as soon as I walked away. I liked it for its unique tree-like structure. I've never seen anything like it. I happened to have this cool gray pot at my parent's house, and it fit inside just perfectly.

And in completely different news: my bedroom has been painted! It was a painstaking process, but after 2 (!) coats of primer and 2 coats of paint, the brown is gone. Here are a couple of iphone photos I snapped, since I was too exhausted to walk the extra 10 feet to grab my real camera.

One coat of primer and the brown still haunted me!

Can't believe it's the same room!

I ended up going with our original paint choice, Morning Fog and I'm so glad I did! It's a beautiful color and really opens up the room. Sometimes it looks more blue, sometimes more green, and in the bright sun it actually looks white. I'm really liking it so far. Now I just have to get my artwork back up on the walls and choose some curtains. I am very tempted to screenprint some with my own design, but another project is the last thing I need. Speaking of projects...

I've been keeping myself busy with products for my new Etsy shop! Depending on how much photo editing I can blast through tonight, the shop may be stocked with a few items by tomorrow morning. I'm so excited to share my new projects with everyone! Here's a little sneak peek.

Recognize this design???

Oh, and a little reminder: today is the last day to take advantage of my end of summer sale! Head on over to my shop and enter VITAMINISUMMER2011 at check-out to get 10% off your entire order!

Happy Birthday, Mini!

52 years ago, today, the Mini made its world debut! Way back in 1959, a team of less than 10 people, including draftsmen and engineering students, created the original prototype Mini. The first Mini's actually didn't even go by their well-known name. They went by Austin and Morris.

Look at all the stuff you could fit in this tiny little car! Photo from here.

Hm, I should get two doxies and name them Austin and Morris... Anywho, happy birthday to my favorite car in the world! Maybe I will make cupcakes tonight to celebrate.

End of summer sale!

In honor of the end of summer (can you believe it's already August 20th?!) I'm offering a SALE in my shop, now through the end of August!

Take 10% off your entire order by entering the coupon code!

Painting.

I'm finally painting the bedroom! This has been the nagging "to do" item on my list since we moved in to our duplex 5 months ago. The bedroom is currently a terrible yellowish/reddish brown. We've got nice, original hardwood floors in there that we love - but they are also brown. The living room and hallway is, you guessed it, brown. A nicer shade, but still brown nonetheless. Too much brown! I had a tiny bit of primer left over from my studio paint job, so the other day I came home from work and decided to get the ball rolling!

Check out that ugly sheen!
I didn't move the furniture or anything, just wanted to slap some primer on so I would be more motivated to finish the job this weekend. I ended up priming about 1/4 of the room with the leftover primer that I had. Now comes the tough part, choosing a color. My boyfriend and I picked this color out for the bedroom way back when we first moved in.

 

It's Morning Fog from Martha Stewart at Home Depot. I has nice shades of blue, green, and gray, but the more I look at it, the more I think it might be too subdued. I'm thinking of maybe going a little more saturated with something like Artesian Well:

Or Ice Rink:

I'd like to keep it in the blue/green family, but something light enough to be a neutral. All of these colors coordinate with the Whetstone Gray I have in my office. What do you think?

Kitchen plate wall. Part 2

It’s hard to believe my boyfriend and I are in in our 5^th month of living in our new place! For the most part, we’ve got things set up the way we want them, but there are still adjustments being made and pieces being switched in and out. Our bedroom still needs to be painted (there’s WAY too much brown going on in this place – the entire living space, hall, and bedroom) and we are planning on switching out my 60’s wood table in the kitchen for my grandmother’s (also 60’s) laminate table once we get the table leg fixed. My boyfriend is welding us a side table for the living room to replace a little IKEA one that I’ve had forever. My studio is still a work in progress, but it gets better every week. One of the first things, however, that went up was my plate collection. I only had a couple of months to enjoy it in my old space, so I was sure I wanted to put it back up in the new kitchen. We had a perfect spot, too: right above the buffet behind the kitchen table. 

I put it up in the same arrangement and used my trusty 3M hooks and picture hangers that I used before. It was a little easier hanging them on this wall since the texturing wasn’t nearly as pronounced as it was on my old plaster walls. Just like before, I measured the center point of the space, decided on a height and put the large plate in the center. I worked outwards after that, mostly just eye-balling the spacing of the other plates. I didn't have to use any of the traditional plate hangers here, so they all appear to float on the wall! I think the blues and greens in the plates look really nice against the gray wall. 

There's an added bonus about this new set-up: I don't have to worry about the 4 washers and dryers above my apartment shaking the bejebus out of the walls and working the plates loose! I don't miss apartment living at all!

Vintage Plates.

My mom knows that I'm always on the hunt for cool vintage plates with retro patterns, especially since I amassed my collection for my plate wall. She discovered these in a thrift shop and grabbed them for me. I love the diamond pattern and blue, teal, and green are totally my colors.

The patterns is Carousel by Salem. I looked around on Etsy and Ebay and couldn't find any other pieces in this pattern, so it seems like it's pretty rare. I'll be on the lookout for other pieces to grow my new collection. Thanks, mom!

Featured on papernstitch!

Vitamini is featured on papernstitch this month! My Boot and Bonnet Tote bag is even a daily favorite.

If you haven't heard of this website before, it's a curated online exhibition space that features handmade goods. It's a beautiful website with simple navigation that will take you right to a seller's website or Etsy page if you find something you'd like to purchase. I actually found my sister's birthday gift on papernstitch last month! Head over to the papernstitch exhibition page and blog and check it out!