New Clogs

I love clogs. What can I say? I am a child of the 70s. These clogs have been beaten to death. They are the most comfortable pair in the world, and I mourned when I lost a buckle off one of them. But, I kept wearing them around the house. You can see I painted many a project while wearing them. Today, I decided to revamp and see of they could be successfully recycled.

So, I decoupaged fabric onto them. Glossy. I like them, they look like those shiny garden clogs you can buy. Except I have a big wrinkle in the right shoe. Sometimes when a decoupage project dries overnight, the wrinkle relaxes. If it does not, I will have to do a re-do on the right shoe. UGH.

There is my Saturday night for you. My life is just a whirlwind.

Normal Girl

One Big Brown Circle

Yes, I am still working on the office re-do. This morning, I was outside painting my old wooden crates when I realized that I have made a full decorating circle. It made me laugh. It made me feel old.

When I first started decorating my own place in the 70s, the trend was definitely earth tones and brown played a huge part in that. Practically everything I had was brown. You would have been so jealous of my brown shag carpeting and brown furniture and brown everything, with a little avocado and harvest gold thrown in.

It did not take long until I was sickened by all that brown. But, never having tons of money to spend on decorating, I had to replace things one at a time, or repaint. So, it took awhile to get rid of all the brown stuff. As a matter of fact, I still have a brown waste basket in my office from that time period. It is an antique now, maybe. A big old brown plastic antique.

So today when I was painting my crates brown, it seemed stupid that after hating it so much for so many years, and working so hard to get rid of it, I am back to brown. It almost made me stop painting. But, truly the brown crates look good against my new chartreuse wall, so there you have it.

Brown crates and an antique brown waste basket and I am hip. And old.

Normal Girl

Watch This

Look what else I found in the office re-do! I might have plans for these watch heads, but I am wondering if it is going to cost a fortune to buy new batteries for 18 watches. Because of course, they are all dead.

I personally, have not worn a watch for years. I think most people don't wear watches any more because their cell phones are at the ready for telling time. Sometimes I wear a watch that I added to a bracelet. The watch is dead, and I think of it like a charm instead of a watch, and the bracelet is fab. Ok, I am probably the only person on earth that doesn't care if the watch she is wearing is dead. So, I guess I will be researching watch batteries this week. I hate to waste 18 cute watch heads.

Enjoying the surprise treasures!

Normal Girl

Office Archaeologist

Perspective

In the last couple of weeks, I have been thinking a lot about garbage picking furniture and redoing it. We did some in Germany, and with my office re-do, I have several pieces on the re-painting list. What is better than new furniture that is free and has been personalized by you?

This morning, I ran across a clip from the today show featuring Nate Berkus. If you don't know him, he is one of Oprah's finds and he has a new show of his own that is starting this month. He is an interior decorator. He did Oprah's house and then she made him famous.

One of the regular segments on his show is going to be about picking furniture out of the trash, or from the curbside where someone is throwing it away, and redoing it. His example in the clip was a small two drawer night stand. He repainted, removed some of the moulding, added new drawer pulls and .........added a marble top. He said at the store, someone would pay up to $500 for a night stand that looked like it. He also said that the redo cost him under $300. I think he is totally missing the point!!!! Whoever can afford a $300 nightstand is not going to be picking one out of the trash and refurbing it. And who among us knows how to work with marble??? Isn't the point of trash picking that the furniture is going to be free or very inexpensive to redo?

He needs a foray into regular America, where normal people live.

Just sayin......

Normal Girl

A Slight Delay

So. I was cleaning in my office tonight. That is a job that is never finished. Here is one reason why... I found all kinds of things that I didn't remember having. It was kind of like Christmas. And each one of those finds was distracting, I had to stop and check it out. I found a box of beads that I cut apart and added to bead soup. Had to be done, right?

And I found a big bag of fibers. Oh, they were gorgeous. Then I found a bag full of wide bangle bracelets that I had purchased for a work project that never happened. So, I put them together.

They turned out nice; arty, yet pretty, and bangles are still very trendy. And they helped to procrastinate a really stinky, boring job.

Bookshelves tomorrow, stay tuned,

Normal Girl

French ID Bracelet

Last week, when I was in France. HOOT! I was in France last week!!! Anyway, we went to an antique market in Metz. I bought 5 ID bracelets with French girl's names on them" Nathalie, Josette, Juliette, Daniele, and Valerie.

Today, I took them apart and remade them into a bracelet. I added some crystal beads. It now has three chain strands. I recycled the chains from the ID bracelets. Some of them were really nice, so I wanted to keep them too. Clicking on the pics will make them larger and easier to see.

So, I am wearing 5 French ID bracelets. Just call me Josette Nathalie Juliette Daniele Valerie.

Au Revoir,

Normal Girl

Art in the Park

I found these in the little park near the boat launch where we caught our boat on the Rhine River. That is it in the background. I thought they were cute and clever, the girls are playing musical instruments. It is hard to see that until you are up close inspecting them.

I could not tell of which material they are made. At first I thought cement, but no. They felt like paper mache, but that would not hold up in weather. No final consensus.

I guess this is true about most art in some way...I thought they were cute and interesting. Nobody else cared.

Normal Girl