Pin-up Girls

It took awhile to get ramped up, but I've now joined the rest of America as a fellow Pinterest addict. On the upside, it's a great way to currate the many things we browse on the Internet, to further deter me from purchasing or subscribing to magazines (sorry magazines, I feel bad about that, but really, I just don't have time to read you), and to collect ideas. The creativity cascading down my feed is astounding.

On the flip side, tho, let's face it, Pinterest becomes another version of pornography: fantasy homes, crafts, products, stunning weddings, amazing child nursery decor, fancy food. I'm wondering how many projects actually get done. A long time ago, I attended a conference panel where the publisher of Sunset presented. And, she said that they did a study and the difference between Sunset Magazine and Martha Stewart's Living was that the Sunset readers did the projects. So, all you Living subscribers--you're nothing but porn addicts.

I decided to try and do some of the projects. I am truly inspired by what I'm seeing.

First, I decided to clean my house and take some photos. I love it when my house is clean. It just seems to go from clean to wreck rather fast.

Here's the main areas all tidy and looking fun and fab:

Here's our little living room. Except for the rug and the couch, the rest of the items were found on the street, purchased at garage sales or flea markets, or, as in the Chinese Checkers and the Chagall print, gifted. I love colors. Don't say I didn't warn you.

The globe is part of my growing globe collection and I got that red chair for $20 at the Alameda Antiques Faire.

We were given this piano a few year ago. So far, no one in the house has risen up as the next Mozart, but we can still dream. Up until a few days ago, we had a bench, but it was "Goldilocksed" by a gaggle of 6-year-olds during my daughter's birthday party. More on this in a bit...

 I lucked out when I saw this idea on Apartment Therapy. I added it to Pinterest and then remembered I had an old suitcase in the garage. The AT idea was for books. I stuck some games in it.

Another Apartment Therapy idea: make stripes on a wall using masking tape. I found some orange tape for cheap on Amazon and here's what greets you after I open our red door and welcome you in. You're peeking into my dining room, too. (Old china cabinet, given to me. All the stuff on top: flea market. The print is a Mark Ryden gyclee print, "Jajo, Patron Saint of Clowns." It was my husband's gift to me on our second anniversary (it's the paper year, so that was pretty clever of him!).

Pinterest also inpsired me to declutter. This god-awful bookcase also collects a lot of crap. I woke up on Sunday and got rid of a bunch of books on Freecycle and pulled out that little drawer thing to store paper and art supplies for the kids.

Ah, a clean kitchen. I live in this room. Most of the time, I like that.

Here's our little dining room. I found the sideboard at an estate sale for $50. It's from the 60s, I think and my West Virginia Glass Company collection of Blendo fits in nicely! I have this mish-mash of wooden chairs that will get painted soon. Very soon.

Now, back to the piano. So, the little princesses broke my bench to smithereens. In their defense, it was very close to falling apart and I'm just glad no one got hurt. But, my daughter just started taking an interest in the piano so I wanted a new bench. Not easy to find a vintage piano bench. I imagine they are pretty abused and go long before the piano. I have been looking for some time. I finally found one for about $40 (more than I wanted, but oh well). When I got it, it was kind of messed up.

No before picture. I was too impatient.

I bought some foam and batting and dug out a can of yellow spray paint and a fabric remnant I've been hoping to use.

My inspiration was this:

To see how it's really done, you can find the whole post here.


And my result was this:

 I'm pretty pleased, as long as I don't use my glasses to check out the photo.

So, here's to actually doing some of those inspirational projects found on Pinterest!