House of Mutti

On a recent visit to Scott's parents in University Place, Washington, I thought it would be fun to take a little photo tour of all the cool decor in their house. Scott's Mom and Dad were stationed in Germany while the kids were young, so they called their mom "Mutti" which is German for mother. She is quite the decorator and collector of a combination of whimsical and traditional art and objects.

Shirley is also a volunteer at the Glass Museum in Tacoma. You'll notice a pair of hand blown martini glasses and wind chime in the tour below, as well as some of her darling evening dresses, some funny pics of Scott, Hummel figurines, and more. Pops is a retired Air Force pilot, and there is an unusual painting with airplanes in flight. I'll be posting pics of some of the glass soon. Enjoy!

Sewing on the floor...

Scott laughs when I sew on the floor, but sometimes that's the best way to tackle a big job like this one. You remember our trip to Sacramento to get the new bed slats & mattress, right? Well, it's been great for Scott, but not so great for me. I love everything about it, except it feels like my bones are poking through a rock.

So, I got this great idea to take one of those egg crate foamie thingies and cut it down the middle, and put it on my side of the bed. But of course, that wasn't enough. I had to make it mine, and make it a project.

That's when I went to the closet and found an old zebra sheet and decided to make a mattress cover for it. I just laid the mattress on the sheet, folded it over, and cut the edges 2 inches along the side to make allowance for a seam. And then I went back and rolled the edge to hide the raw edge and sewed it with a zigzag stitch. Pretty neat!

Except when I poked my finger with one of the pins!

Scott played nurse and ran to get a sushi band aid to make it all better.

It turned out great, and now I can get a good night's sleep again.

Antique Store Finds

I simply love, love, love going on treasure hunts in antique stores, because you never know what you're going to find. This made me laugh out loud! Probably from the 60's and the cutest lingerie bag I've ever seen. I'm totally thinking about sewing one up for myself.

When I turned it around it was see-through and made sense that it could be used to stash your stockings, and be able to see where those black ones were hiding behind the fishnets.

And of course, you would need this matching wig head with the black lace and faux pearls.

My treasure hunting gal pal was Alexa (aka Swell Designer) and she is such a poser (kidding!) with the chiffon prom dress. I think she would look pretty swell in that.

The cupcake holders cracked me up with the name Krinkle Cups, and then what can I say about the Stickups for gay exciting decorative arrangements for $1.00??

Roller skates! Yes, really. They have to be 50 years old, and in spiffy shape, too. They reminded me of a song I remember called, "Brand New Key" by Melanie Safka in the 70's. The lyrics are:

I got a brand new pair of roller skates

You got a brand new key

I think that we should get together and try them out you see

Isn't he cute? This little owl clock was only about 4 inches tall. I might go back and get him, because I can't stop thinkin' about him.

Then, I saw this super pretty ad on a tin sign about cosmetics with Lucille Ball. I didn't know she did anything besides the I Love Lucy television show.

Okay, so now I can't get that silly roller skate song out of my head.....

It's Finished!

We finally started assembling the pieces to the fountain today. The top is just amazing with all 4 seasons painted on the ceramics. The water feature on top is just perfect, and worked beautifully.

Each side represents a season, and this is the summer side.

Everyone had a hard time deciding which side they liked the best.

I loved the fall colors myself.

Dean Saether, our Ceramic Arts Director at iLoveToCreate was so excited, and was happy to pause a moment for a photo opportunity before we lovingly placed it into a crate and sent it on it's merry way to Kansas City for the 2009 CCSA Convention and trade show on Friday.

I hope to have some better pics of the finished piece soon, and I'll post them for all to see.

Woooohoooo! Way to go, Design TEAM!

The Ceramic Fountain Saga continues....

The Duncan Ceramic Fountain is still being assembled in the iLoveToCreate design studios, and we are getting close to being finished. The four faces of the seasons were glued to the crown today. These plates are absolutely breathtaking and the artist who painted them is Suzie Shinseki. Her artistic designs never cease to amaze me.

Another of our designers, Cheryl Ball painted the fountain title, "For Everything There is a Season." Her skills as a decorative painter are fabulous, and she's fast, too!

The brains & brawn of the operation is Sam Carter, one of our talented graphics designers. He is also a skilled cabinet maker, and has built a beautiful column as the foundation and also assembled the ceramic pieces and fountain. Believe me, this has been a team effort.

Here are some more shots of the fountain in progress...




Tomorrow is the final day for the fountain to get ready and ship to the CCSA Convention in Kansas City. Sam will be building a crate to house the fountain, and the delicate packing will take place. But not before Scott has a chance to get some photography of our piece of art. I can't WAIT to see it all together!

And the saga continues....

Shocking Blue Patio Paint

I was one busy girl this weekend, and I crammed all I could into the 3 days for Labor Day weekend. I finally got to attack this gawd-awful table that I've had for umpteen years, and spray paint it an electric blue for the patio.


This is how it looked before. I filled all the cracks and crannies with wood putty then sanded it, and sucked up the dust with the vacuum cleaner.

It took gobs of putty, but I stuck with it until they were all filled up. Then while it was drying I made the hanger for a wall hanging. You can see that DIY Wire Hanger project in the post below.

One of the things I've found that works best when I spray paint, is if I turn my project upside down and spray the bottom first.

Then when I'm finished spraying, it's right side up while it's drying.

I'm glad I picked up 2 cans of spray, because I used one entire can, and part of another. I'll still have some left to spray candlesticks or something to match later.

I love how it turned out. I also put new fabric in the director's chairs and added a couple of bark cloth pillows. The foot stool is an old crate with a pillow stuffed into it.

Now, where's my dirty martini??