Another Baby Elephant

photos from kdka.com

There's a second baby elephant at the Pittsburgh Zoo. This one was born Friday and its another little girl.



Here's a photo (not mine) of the first one, Angelina.

and here.

Doily Part Three

Yes, I've skipped part two. The second doily I made is giving me fits. Its very tight around the outside edges, and my corkboard isn't big enough for it all to fit. I'm going to try something else to see if I can block that one properly and then I can show it to you.

This is number 3 if my adventures in crocheting doilies. It is the Dahlia Doily.

I found someone selling them on Etsy. She has this one available here.

Lace Pottery

I saw these on someone else's blog the other day and thought I'd share them here. Aren't they cool? Maggie Weldon is making pottery by pressing doilies into the clay. I like this. You can find her on Etsy.

I want this one. Square Porcelain Platter

Tatted Bliss Platter

Or maybe I want this one. Lotus Large Platter

Radiant Beauty Large Platter

Out With The Brass

In the ongoing mission to eliminate all brass everywhere in this house, I have finally decided on a ceiling fan that I like. Do you know how hard it is to find any sort of variety in nickel finishes? I can't stand brass, and I'm not really interested in dark finishes. So nickel it is. But apparently I am one of the few looking for it, or the retailers just aren't paying attention.

Apologies for the mini rant. I'm still searching for the right outdoor lights in nickel as well, and that's not going well either. I'm annoyed.

Anyway.

These ceiling fans I picked up at Amazon, which was a much better deal than they were being sold for at Home Depot. About 1/3 less. Yay for Amazon! What I really wanted were these, but its just a fan. Not quite worth it. But isn't it pretty? I like the beading detail.

Old - and those were not my curtains either! This is from the walk-through.

Old

New

Dutch Finally Learned to Ask for Crack Bones

Dutch is approaching a year old and we've been feeding him Greenies (aka crack) most of that year (shhh . . . don't tell the Greenies people. They're not for dogs as young as he was or as little as he is).

They've been stored in the bottom of our linen closet in the hall and we've never kept secret where they were. Just recently he's discovered that if he sits in the hall and whines at the door, he may just get one. So after trying that a few times, he's become more insistent each time he tries it. He cried for one first thing in the morning yesterday and then last night he sat in the hall and whines turned into barks and then into wails. Little rotten stinker. Someone is getting too spoiled for their own good.

Yes, good Daddy. That's what I want.

Please please please? I do stick em up!

He is, in fact, crying for one just now. Pig.

Table Re-do

I have another Cr*igslist find. Yay! This one was used a receptionist's desk and then a conference table and then made its way to a home where it was used as a sewing table. Now I'm going to use it as my sewing/crafting/quilting table in the basement. Its a good solid heavy table and it came with a glass top. How nice is that? Its a good 6' wide and 3' deep.

I was going to leave it alone, and then I thought perhaps I'd paint it black. Then I got anxious and started sanding it down just to see what was underneath it. I ended up completely refinishing it. Its by no means an expert job, but I think it turned out rather well. Certainly better than it was, and it will work just fine for me!

The legs sanded down just fine, so I moved on to the top. I used paint stripper on it first, and then started to sand a bit. It became quickly apparent that the top was just a veneer, which didn't suprise me. I decided to stain it for the heck of it, just to see what it looked like. It looked better than I thought, so I went ahead and stained the legs as well. Then I moved on to the sides. That was a disaster. The sides were just a film or something, because it melted as soon as I put the paint stripper on it. So I put veneer on each of the sides. That didn't turn out half bad. I put new handles on the drawer, and voila! Its done.

I spent more on supplies than I intended to, but what the heck, I'm putting it down to a learning experience. Seems like I have a lot of those these days. I hope I'm retaining something worthwhile from all of them. It was still cheaper than anything I could have found new, at any rate.

Wanna Win a Quilt?

Old Red Barn Co is giving away a Ginger Blossom (the collection from Sandy Henderson at Portabello Pixie) quilt. Go here to enter.

Doily Part One

I got it in my head the other day that I'd like to try making some doilies. Awhile back, I saw Moonstitches blog with doilies here and here and I've been thinking about them since. I think its the photos that make them look so darn artistic.

If you can get past the whole old lady aspect to them, they're really very pretty, though. I thought about framing some of them and hanging them up. We'll see. For now, I'm just enjoying making something that I can take with me.

There are a ton of free patterns out there - just Google 'em. This one is Autumn Reflections.

New Baby Elephant at the Zoo

Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium is celebrating the birth of the first of two baby elephants expected to be born this month. Its a girl and her name has not been announced yet.

from Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium

Check out the video of her learning to walk. Cute.

from Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium

More Video from WTAE here

New Sparkle

I picked up a glass light shade at Ikea the other day to try putting in our bathroom. It worked like a charm. I'm not sure its the perfect light for the space, but its much better than what was there. And for $12, you can't beat that!

Old light

With the new shade

Its the Rimfrost light. There's a larger one as well and I was trying to think what I could possibly use that one for. I may think of something. Meanwhile, I'm eyeing up a few other lights for the smaller shade.

Moving Paths

Yesterday we did some work in our backyard, since working on the front of the yard seems to hold no appeal for us. Never mind that it looks awful.

We decided to move the little path in the back from the patio to the steps that go up to the back of the yard, since its current position didn't make a whole lot of sense to us. It was following the L-shape of the outside of the yard, but who walks that way? Maybe we're lazy, but we wanted more of a straight line.

The Man dug a new trench and spread all the leveling sand. Dutch was very helpful by scampering around in the sand and digging for buried treasure. We picked out the stones and he broke a few to fit. Voila. New path.




We made a trip over to Brenckles Greenhouse and picked up some Corsican Pearlwort (I believe its also known as Irish Moss?) to plant between the pavers. Mom & Dad planted some between their pavers several years ago and I like how it looks. Its very soft and green and gets lots of tiny white flowers on it in the summer. Hopefully it will spread and fill in soon.


While we were there, I may have accidentally snagged a few lavender plants and some beautiful delphiniums. I mean, how could I help it? Who can be expected to walk away from two all-white delphiniums in bloom? I'm lucky that I couldn't carry more lavender with it. I have a problem.

Happy Fourth!

Our Fourth was nothing too terribly exciting. The skies were gray and there was some dripping going on, but we did smoke some beef tenderloin . . .

Mmm. Smells good.

Work a bit on moving the path in the back yard . . .

Must find. . .

something

is in here that I need. Something.

What? Is there something on my nose?

and watched some fireworks.

Is loud. But is okay.

Just some inspiration

above photos from Shabbychic.com online store



photo from Toast.co.uk