Peacock butterfly

Remember my butterfly specimens that I blogged about for my living room gallery wall?

I finally got around to crafting a Blue Morpho inspired art piece.

I used a dollar store frame, silver spray paint, six peacock feathers, and some aqua filler feathers.  I cut out a butterfly shape on cardstock, sprayed it with Spray Adhesive, stuck it to the glass, and sprayed it with silver paint.  Quickly remove the butterfly shape before the paint dries to avoid cementing it to the glass.  Once the paint was dried, I arranged the feathers underneath, and then carefully replaced the frame backing.  My butterfly isn't perfectly symetrical, but I think it's kind of charming.  I really love it with the navy blue wall, don't you?

Emery and Ohlin's finished bedroom!!

I got these bunk beds on craigslist for $30! The bedding is an Alexander Girard design and I made the paper bunting over the bed.

Image in from an advertisement from 1954.

The room is painted Teal Zeal and there is a racing stripe of chalkboard paint that goes around the entire room.

We installed a new sputnik light fixture!

In the corner we created a reading nook with vinyl gutter bookshelves, two reading lamps, and a Plycraft rocker and ottoman!

The pillow is also Alexander Girard, and we have a little tulip table next to the chair for water and extra books.

The framed poster is from the National Park series, by Charley Harper, of the Rocky Mtns.

The second framed poster is another Charley Harper, this time for Glacier National Park in Alaska.  The whole room has a triangle/chevron motif. 

I bought some peg legs for the second dresser, but I haven't gotten around to installing them yet.  This framed poster is one of my favorite things in the room! We chose The Empire Strikes Back print because Emery loves Darth Vader, but I would hang any of the series in my home.  Check them out here. 

The poster color ended up being almost an exact match to the paint color, what a happy coincidence!

Who needs a teddy, when you can snuggle with the Dark Lord?

Our newly painted bedroom

I finally picked the WPA print that I wanted to hang in our new green striped hallway.

It's the perfect transitional piece for the hallway because we just repainted our bedroom Darkest Navy (Behr)!

Goodbye plummy/scarlet!

The color is really rich and gorgeous.  We happen to have a big bedroom that gets lots of natural light, so I wasn't worried about "shrinking" the room with such a bold color.  I'll post pics of the entire room after I frame my new screen print.  I'm waiting for Hobby Lobby to put all their frames on 50% clearance. Seriously, does anyone ever buy anything there for full price?

Vintage Western Electric extension phone

My birthday was in mid-March and I bought myself a "new" phone for our kitchen.  We had a super cute kettle phone, but I hated having it take up room on our counter top and the cords were driving me crazy.  I got on ebay and started looking at rotary wall phones from the 50s-60s.  I fell in love with a 1959 pink Western Electric, but I had to drop out of the bidding...it ended up selling for $160!!!  Eventually I found a sea foam green or "mint" green W.E. that had been refurbished.  I think it looks even better than the pink one would have, so all is right with the universe.  Hello, cutie!

I have a framed copy of this advertisement hanging in my kitchen too!

It says: "Why you need a kitchen extension phone

 First, It's a great help in running the house.  Your kitchen extension is near your shopping lists, and at your finger tips for emergency calls to the plumber and other repairmen.   Next, it saves you trouble.  Biscuits won't burn, or a pot boil over, because a telephone call took you out of the kitchen.  And while you handle important household calls, you can keep a watchful eye on playing children.  It saves you steps, too.  When it rings you're right there to say "Hello."  Since the kitchen is where you spend so many hours of your busy day, it makes sense to have a telephone handy.  (Your husband, like you, will find it one of your most useful phones.)  And when all your work is done, it's easy and fun to take a break and chat with a friends on your handy kitchen extension.  The comfort, privacy and protection of extension phones throughout your house- where you work, play, or sleep- cost surprisingly little.  To order extensions, just call your Bell Telephone business office."

'Cause that's how I like to spend my day; slaving away in the kitchen AND gossiping!  I wonder who she is talking about while her little urchins eat an entire bowl of chocolate?!!?