One of my favorite projects of the new year is the metaquilt project; it’s an online version of a quilting bee (the “meta” part refers to the online community where all the quilters come from). Each month, one quilter mails out the fabric for her quilt to all the other quilters, and then we all mail completed squares back to her. It’s a quick way to get lots of quilt squares done. We also have enough fabric to do two squares in each month’s fabric–one for the original quilter, and then one for our metaquilt. At the end of the bee, each quilter will have two quilts–the quilt they made for their month & the metaquilt that combines all the fabrics. I haven’t started on my metaquilt yet, mainly because I haven’t decided on a design yet.

I have finished two squares – Naturalist’s Journal Quilt (January) and the Wonky Rainbow Quilt (March). The Naturalist’s Journal square went well enough. It was my first experience sewing; it was thrilling to actually make something with my machine.

The wonky rainbow quilt was another story entirely. Inspired by a gorgeous Anne Brauer quilt called Rainbows of Summer, this quilt used a modified version of an overlapping squares tutorial. We made only the center block in the tutorial, but upsized it to a 12.5″ square. At first, I thought my square was going well; everything was assembled without mishap. It wasn’t until I was preparing to mail the square off when I realized my 12.5″ square wasn’t 12.5″ on all sides. It got down to 12.25″ on one of the sides. (I think the problem was that I didn’t cut my initial strips long enough. I was aiming for 15″, but the directions said to cut free form, and I must have been way too relaxed about that step.)

This 1st square is not big enough!

I didn’t have enough fabric left to do a completely new 12.5″ square, but I sewed the fabric I had left into the strip panel called for in the first stage. Then I cut out the middle section of my bad square, used it to make the central panel of the new square, and added the two side panels from my new strip panel set. Voila! It is not exactly what the tutorial called for, but I think the look is the same.

The finished Wonky Rainbow Quilt Square

And now I’ve got some cool remains to use in my metaquilt!

Remains of the Wonky Rainbow for the Metaquilt!

Years ago, before we moved into our home, my mama gave me a stack of her old magazines. I dutifully went through the magazines and ripped out the pictures that I liked. There was one set of images from an outdoor kitchen that I still can not forget. This piece was in Better Homes and Gardens in May of 2009, and it was about an outdoor kitchen made of CMU’s and reclaimed wood. I want to create this kitchen in our side yard. Now I just have to find a source for the reclaimed counter. And design the space. And clean up the rest of our yard nonsense. Read the scanned article here: Better Homes and Garden – May 2009.

This pretty little flower is blooming right outside our door. The red is so vibrant, it’s hard to photograph (especially with my iPhone camera). I’m going to use this color red as inspiration — for the laundry room color!

Uh oh, the cracked screen on my iPhone is starting to chip away. Sick!

If we ever have a tornado, our laundry room might be the best place to go. It’s right in the middle of the house, there are no windows, and there are actually two roofs over it. However, it’s also the room most likely to look like it was hit by a tornado. It’s one of the *two* rooms that haven’t been redone since we moved in. Now the time has come to put some work into this room.

I probably shouldn’t show these pictures because the laundry room is bad. Really bad. And I can’t blame anyone else; I’m the only one who uses this room! However, a proper room renovation requires before pictures, so here goes.

The Washer & Dryer Wall

Bookshelves & Craft Supplies

The Wall Behind the Door

The Wall with the Door

As you can see, I’ve got decent space, but major layout issues. And clutter issues. This renovation is going to involve a lot of things; can you say de-stashing? We’re going to paint, change the lighting, and maybe even construct some furniture-type things! My next laundry room post will focus on designing the new layout (plan & elevation views) and inspiration shots. Stay tuned.

In preparation for the holiday season, I’ve been making paper ornaments. These ornaments are perfect for wreaths, trees, garlands, or as my favorite use — a gorgeous substitution for a traditional bow when you wrap a gift. It’s amazing how pretty folded & cut paper can be!

Today, I’m going to just post some pictures of the ornaments I’ve made (along with a link to my Etsy shop where these ornaments can be purchased). AND tomorrow, I’m going to post a tutorial where you can learn to make these ornaments yourself. The ornaments are infinitely customizable — like snowflakes, but they remind me more of flowers in their execution.

I’ve made the paper ornaments out of patterned & solid colored papers,

but my favorite ornaments are made from catalog paper! (In this case West Elm & Free People; such pretty colors!)

They’re a lot of fun to make; they’re pretty easy to make; and they can be used for so many things! If you’d like to purchase a set of these, just check out my Etsy shop here: JulepStyle.com on Etsy!

This past weekend, we had a lot of fun getting in the spirit of the season and decorating for Halloween. In an effort to better document my Halloween exploits, I’m going to try to post a project each day.

One of the oldest projects on my Halloween to-do list was to make a wreath. Last year, I bought a spooky-ish (but plain) black wreath from CVS on 60% clearance the week after Halloween was over. The wreath sat in our Halloween bins in the attic all year. I got it out this past weekend and decided to spice it up with some dollar store items: Centipedes, roaches, a fly, spiders, a ghoul, and the dollar store spooky gray cloth. Total budget for this wreath ended up being about $5, and we’re pretty pleased with the effect.

When I realized that Rob and I needed a sideboard/credenza for our dining room to hold serving pieces and extra dishes, I began looking at all our options. I quickly realized that I didn’t really want a sideboard enough to part with hundreds of dollars. I wanted a stopgap sideboard that would suffice until I could afford the sideboard of my dreams.

Enter ugly dresser found from Craigslist:


This dresser had 4 things that made it the perfect temporary sideboard:
1. Cabinets with doors in addition to drawers. Drawers can be useful in a dining room (hello silverware storage), but for the most part they become unwieldy when filled with heavy dishes. The cabinets with doors are perfect for large heavy stacks of plates and other china. (The drawers are perfect for bulky large platters or those over-sized chip/dip trays that won’t fit anywhere else in your house.)
2. Interesting Hardware. The drawer pulls had some spunk.
3. Interesting Architecture. The cabinet doors had some intriguing ornament to them. Don’t get me wrong; it’s definitely UGLY — late 70′s/early 80′s plastic-glued-to-manufactured-wood furniture. However, when looking at the pictures of the dresser on Craigslist and later in person at the thrift store, I saw some potential.
4. Cheap price. I’m not going to euphemize this one; the dresser wasn’t affordable or cost-efficient. It was cheap. And at a fraction of the cost of my other options, I pulled the trigger.

Fast forward through the horrible difficulties of transporting over-sized, manufactured wood furniture (thanks Mom for letting me borrow your Envoy!), and I had to decide how to make this ugly dresser fit in our cute little home. I did some research online & decided on spray paint, but not just any old color. I chose silver spray paint with gold for the handles. We lugged the monstrosity outside, gave it a good cleaning, and 3 coats of spray paint later, Voilà!:

Gilding (silvering) makes it all look ok!

For my first five years of elementary school, I went to school about two miles from my grandparent’s home at the same school where my mother also taught. Often in the afternoon on the way home from school, we would stop by their home to chat, visit, pick something up, or drop something off. The first names that I used to call my maternal grandparents were, “Ma,” and, “Dada.” However, around the age of 9 or 10, I grew self-conscious of those names because to my ears they sounded like baby talk compared to the other names kids called their grandparents. I started using, “Grandma,” and, “Grandpa.” In retrospect, my self-consciousness probably stemmed from reading so many books where grandparents had bland grandparent names. It’s funny what kids do.

Any time that we stopped by my grandparent’s house, I would begin a treasure hunt. Grandma had all kinds of food in her kitchen that wasn’t at home: White Bread with Butter, Sleeves of Ritz Crackers, Left-over Fried Chicken or Pork Chops from the day’s lunch meal (their biggest meal of their day), or Biscos Sugar Wafers. (To this day, when I get sick, I send my husband to the grocery store after Biscos Sugar Wafers because that’s what Grandma or Mama gave me when I stayed home from school sick. I am not interested in any other brands, only Biscos are light and sweet and creamy in the exact curative proportions.)

The biggest treasure hunt score was always when I noticed Grandma’s orange cake carrier out on the counter. Cake! Usually, I would excitedly open the carrier to find pound cake; always awesome, but not the ultimate prize. The best days were the days when the big reveal exposed Grandma’s Sticky Chocolate Cake (if you click the link, it will take you to the recipe for this amazing treat). I was in heaven with a can of Diet Coke (or Tab before that) and a huge paper plate of chocolate cake.

Many years later after my grandmother died, when my Mom and Aunts were cleaning my grandparent’s house, my Mom asked me if there was anything from Grandma’s that I wanted. The only I could think of was Grandma’s orange cake carrier. It now has a treasured place on our dining room hutch, though I wish I baked a lot more, so I could leave it on the counter with cake inside. Maybe if Rob and I have children one day, I will be able to share with them the anticipation of seeing the orange cake carrier on the counter and slowly lifting the top to reveal their heart’s desire.

My grandma’s cake carrier was a “LookLift” Cake Carrier. From time to time, one can still be found on etsy or eBay (like the examples above).

Martha Stewart is ruining eBay for me. Every weekend, I take a moment to relax and execute two searches: 1) Sour Cream Glass and 2) Sour Cream Glasses. (For some strange reason, these searches don’t yield the same results.) These glasses are generally vintage glasses that sour cream manufacturers used to package their sour cream in as a freebie gift, like jelly jars. They come in pint and half-pint sizes; I’m definitely partial to the half-pint glasses. Over the years, I’ve found some great buys on these gorgeous little glasses that we use in our home everyday. They’re perfect for wine, juice, or a quick glass of water. I never worried about breaking these glasses because they were so ubiquitous. Sometimes, I even found the glasses at thrift stores priced at $.50 or $1.00. I fear this will never again be the case.

Martha Stewart’s magazine recently featured sour cream glasses in its, “Our Finds,” section. (PS they have a new section of the same name on their website.) Suffice it to say, the prices for sour cream glasses are skyrocketing on eBay. I’m thinking maybe I should start selling my collection, but I’m too in love with all the patterns. Oh well, maybe this trend will die down soon, and I can go back to scoring them for a reasonable price (or at least less than $10.00 per glass)!