Sunday, November 13, 2011

Making New


If I had told myself 10 years ago that I would be buying THRIFTED clothes/shoes/books/household items on a REGULAR basis when I was in my (upper) 20’s… I would have flipped a lid!  USED?  Eww!!

That’s for folks who:
  1. Cannot afford new
  2. Have no sense of taste
  3. Are hippies ;)
Come on!  Why would I buy USED?  Great question… and I now say “why not?!”

I have had more fun searching out ‘lightly used’ items for a fantastic price than I have ever had after paying full price for a brand new original price item.
Something about knowing it’s ‘one of a kind’.  I won’t run into someone at a wedding wearing the same dress.  I won’t visit a friend’s apartment to discover they have the same mirror in their bathroom or same piece of artwork on their wall.  And what a great sense of satisfaction when showing off my new item!

If I shared with you all of my amazing finds this blog post would be so long you’d never read it, so today I will just show you my most current discovery and thus latest project!

I have been fighting with a trouble wall in our living room for quite some time.  It sits adjacent to a wall with a giant photo collage.  And it sits opposite of a clementine orange accent wall.  I needed something just the right size and just the right color.

I was really hoping to find a piece that had a nice frame to finish it off as well.

While visiting my favorite thrift store a few weeks ago I did a stroll by the mirrors and artwork.  I was hoping that I might be able to find something the right size for my space so I could re-finish it my own style.


Matthew cringed when he saw what I came home with!  This bad boy measures 32”x50” (great size!) and has a beautiful frame with a linen matting.  I hung it on the wall to ensure it was a good fit for my space.


Over the next week and a half while I started thinking about what I wanted to do with it I had a lot of funny comments from friends ranging from: “Wow… is that new?” to “Interesting,… that’s not really what I would picture as your style!”… basically all hints at why in the world did I buy it this thing and hang it on my wall??

Well I decided that what I needed in it’s place was some abstracty black, white and grey birch tree trunks.  I thought it would look fun and modern with a nice simple design.  I set out to work.  I popped the picture out of the frame so that I could change the gaudy gold look to a nice clean black to look more our style. 


I started by painting a coat of white for a primer


Then I did a nice background grey to set the scene


Then added a few white ‘tree trunks’


Added some black details


And popped her in my freshly painted black frame


VOILA!  It’s a finished piece.  We love it!
…. Or do we?  We sat on it for a few days and it’s not that we don’t like it…. It’s just that we want to love it!

Ok… so back to the drawing board… I think the problem was we like COLOR!  And that side of the room is already lacking in color with the black and white photos, the plain couch, etc…

I got the primer out and painted over the birch trees:


Then while poking around online I discovered this fabulous retro Dunkin Donuts logo.


It has just the right color for our room.  Matthew is OBSESSED with DD.  And to top it all off I actually “owed” him a piece of DD artwork after I hung up this bad boy in our kitchen:


So… I sketched it out and started painting:


And HERE is our finished piece!



Sure it took about a day and a half of painting all together, but here’s how the break down looks for the money we actually spent on it:

Old painting: $24.95
Primer: already had in basement
Paint: already had in basement
TOTAL: $24.95

For some inspiration from others click below:

Friday, November 4, 2011

Naan pizza


 A quick weeknight meal...

Kerri's been on the naan pizza train for awhile but I've only recently come on board. Now, it's one my go-to meals during the week.  I love it because it's quick, delicious, and looks fancier than it really is. 

Preheat oven to 400F.
Spread garlic pesto on the naan. Layer fresh sliced mozzarella and tomatoes (heirloom if it's available).  
Keep in the oven until all the cheese is gooey and bubbly. (10 minutes or so)


 

Top with fresh arugula and freshly ground pepper and enjoy!


The beauty of naan pizza is that you can put whatever toppings you want.  I've tried it marinated artichokes, diced seasoned canned tomatoes, prosciutto.

What will you put on your naan pizza?