Mr. Prof designer home

Hurrah! Thank you, everyone who nominated The Steampunk Home for Apartment Therapy's "Homie" awards. We made it to the voting round!

What's next: Vote for The Steampunk Home in the final (voting) round. You have until Febuary 3rd, EST to vote.

And Thank You!

If you're visiting here for the first time due to the nomination, may I suggest some of the following posts as an introduction?

A Jules Verne Extravaganza
Doktor A's Studio Tour
Pharmacy Style
We get philosophical every once in a while, i.e. Minimalist Steampunk?
An interview with the creator of the Edison Bar

Regular readers, feel free to point out your favorite posts in the comments.

I was amused by the post on how to use vintage industrial pieces over at Decor8. They suggest 4 styles: minimalist, bright, country and natural.

I'm not sure steampunk fits into any of them. The only one that resonates with me in "country", because it is the most likely to mix traditional styles and antiques with industrial pieces. I try hard not to go too country here at the Steampunk Home, though, because it missed the decrepit and geeky aspects of steampunk.

What do you think? Do vintage industrial pieces work for you or are they becoming passe?

Well, that heading got ya didn’t it - but really I haven’t been blogging for quite some time and haven’t visited your blogs like I want to so by making a new post of my own I feel wrong until I get around to all of you…..but I feel so darned chatty and when you start reading you will see – I just can’t stop….lol

I need to say Thank You to everyone who has been checking in on me – I knew I had many internet/blogging friends but to have you e-mail me with concern and love, well, I just am overwhelmed…what a great wonderful group of friends – I will try not to stay away so long again.

I haven’t been in the mood for the computer or anything like that - I have barely been on the forums for that matter.
Maybe it’s the Winter blahs or just nothing good to talk about, but that’s no excuse for not visiting all of my friend.
I certainly have no creative energy flowing for my website - it’s  being challenged right now! I have had no updates on products for quite awhile either.

RUG HOOKING….
So what have I been doing the last month????
I have given myself some fun time with Rug Hooking.
Remember back in the Fall a friend sent me a wonderful package of wool, etc. to get me started, and I also purchased a frame - well I finally got to it!
I drew a Pineapple pattern much like the Pineapples on my Penny Rugs and found it to be very relaxing (after figuring out how to start it).
I have the design finished but need wool for the background.
 

Lots of boo-boos but I still think it’s fine for a first-time rug. What about a Chocolate Brown background???

Then I drew a traditional Penny Rug pattern and started that one yesterday but that is a challenge!
I don’t have enough wool to create it with even colored Pennies so I decided to do it in a random design and I think it will work out better. I will need to increase the border by 2-3 more rows but needed to set a parameter for guides.

Yesterday we took a drive into Milwaukee to LOG CABIN RUGS which is in the JUST A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY shop in Waukesha. And one of the most wonderfully Colonial/Primitive shop in the area.
I had no intentions of buying anything - just wanted to see what she had to offer and possibly get some scissors.

2 squares of Red Wool, piece of Monks Cloth and 2 rugs kits later we left. Whew, I guess I’m on overload with Rug Hooking kits. Can you have too many ‘starter kits’?
Plus the one I ordered from the internet a while back…have to start that one but I wanted to do some practice ones first.

DAMAGED WOOD FLOOR…
So what do you get when you let a 2 year old play with your Pewter Goblets???? This.

I stared at this little hole for the rest of the weekend and then called the installer to come see what he could do - he’s actually our daughter in-laws brother. So he came and said it was not going to work to patch it but recommended replacing the board - all I could see is the entire half of the floor tore up just to get one board replaced but he assured us that he could take the one board out and it would be fine. He does the every so often and it works very well.
So that’s what he did and it’s like nothing happened.

 
So now Aidan is off the hook and Grandma learned her lesson. Normally he doesn’t  play with the Pewter, but he was playing ’eating’  and at one point got away from us and dropped the goblet and it hit just right .

Speaking of Pewter…a couple weeks ago I bid on a Pewter Creamer and Sugar set…I placed the first bid and lo and behold I was the only bidder and got it for $5.00. I hadn’t given it another thought and a few days later there was the e-mail from e-bay saying I won! Yeah…I have only bid on something years ago when I was buying my Strawberry Hill dishes.
It’s small and rather pitted but for some reason I gravitate towards the darker, more worn Pewter. It tells a story of it’s life.

Here it is by something so you can see the size better

BATHROOM….
We are in the process of getting our bathroom redone - not gutted and all new everything, but we had a glass company come to measure for a shower/tub enclosure. I’m tired of always going upstairs to shower so this will be much more convenient.
We had our choice of styles and chose to go all the way with the clear frameless glass - I don’t want it to be turned into a tight dark space. We have about another week before it’s in and I can’t wait.

We’re also replacing the cabinet fronts. We would love to replace the counter and sinks BUT back when the bathroom was put in (in the early 50’s) they used these tiny 1 inch tiles and the entire bathroom and counters are done in this - and if we remove it, it will tear up the walls and that will lead to new drywall…you know how one thing leads to another - so that will have to be decided soon. A new floor is in order as well.
IF we change the cabinets and counters, we are going to just one bank of cabinets, not the L shape. But we will keep 2 sinks. The space under the window where the cabinet is now will be a Primitive cupboard of some kind.

Tub area now – it used to have a glass enclosure years ago but were removed when we had the tub-sinks-tiles re-surfaced.  It was ALL in that horrible ‘50’s Pepto Bismol Pink!
And I never wanted those old ugly doors put back on either.

 
The drawer and door fronts will be a paneled door – maybe in a Shaker style.
And then that will in turn make the room need to be re-papered…see, one thing leads to another.

We could have the room gutted and redone but with the age of the house and all the other improvements we have made we could very well over-improve the house with too many changes and never get the money back if and when we sell.

So that’s what I have been up to this past month as well as running to Janesville visiting our ill aunts and me still doctoring with my disc/hips. That’s on-going so won’t go into it.

Oh dear, before I  foget – In return for a favor, one of our blogging buddies sent me some beautiful goodies…I want to say THANK YOU TO VAL – http://lifeslittlegarden.blogspot.com/

She sent a handful of her own hand made Okra Santa’s….aren’t they cute!
And… a wonderful mini spatula ( I love these for desserts), a cute ‘spade’  with Thank You on the handle, a lovely color of Pink Lip Gloss! It tastes good too…, and a handmade dishcloth. Now am I spoiled or what just for loaning her some books to read. Who do you think got the best of this one????

This is the life of a cat in my house….always sleeping and very cozy! Lola’s favorite place to sleep because the morning Sun shines on the pillow topper.

Thanks for visiting me and I promise to get around to all my friends as soon as possible – don’t give up on me.

Karen

Oh how I love imperial trellis. There are lots of beautiful patterns out there, but this one is my favorite. But, of course, it is ridiculously expensive. The new imperial trellis design is by Kelly Werstler and to buy this fabric is about $80 or more a yard. yeah, WAY out of my price range.

I feel like most of the design blogs that I read are interior designers blogging to other interior designers. So, when they throw out terms like ikat, chevron, suzani print, lacquer....they assume that everyone knows what they are talking about. So, I'm sure most of you know what imperial trellis is, but if you do not, this is what it looks like. :)

I posted this pic before. It's Gwyneth Paltow's bathroom. I adore the black on black. Imperial trellis entry way. It's a bit busy for my taste, but still the trellis in green is gorgeous.

Love these chairs

Very creative here. These are 3 large pieces of canvas with fabric stretched over it for their wall art. beautiful!

I appreciate how they just did one dramatic wall here. I think the wallpaper would look amazing on the back wall of a bedroom.

Ok, so we know that the wallpaper and fabric is super expensive. Now, you feel like a project? The picture below was done by stencil. YES! It looks so amazing. What she did was she ordered just a sample of imperial trellis wallpaper. She traced it on a "make your own stencil" and then cut it with an exacto knife. It seems like a lot of work, but the results are amazing. Plus, you don't have the commitment of wallpaper. Maybe try it in a powder room?

If you don't have the time to figure out the make your own stencil, then there is one more alternative. I don't like it quite as much, but it's close. The pic below is a stencil sold on etsy and it's only $40! You can find it here.

Also, if you want to buy a throw pillow to add some glam to your living room, you can buy them on etsy. There are lots of different stores on etsy to get them, but one is here. Most of the trellis prints are a color on off white or cream. Keep that in mind if you have lots of white accents. Maybe order a swatch first? If you ever decide to stencil, send me pics afterwards!

All is not lost on my faux pas of yesterday...

I sent out a couple of emails in search of tips and lifelines after stupidly deleting MANY comments on some recent posts. In case you missed it...

I love love love crossing stuff off lists, cleaning clutter from closets, emptying my inbox...

Soooo I was poking around in my blog (note to self, stop poking around in my blog) and I had opened my dashboard. And so there in comments are all the comments I have ever received. I thought why do I need all these, they are on the posts on my blog right? So I started deleting them 25 at a time...

Gasp.

Thank goodness I stopped out of boredom and distraction. Can you imagine if I had powered through all three thousand and some comments and deleted all of them???

Fast forward to today.

I found a link on google. What did we do before google? A kind techno savvy person explained how to undo this mess I made. To a point. I was able to recover the comments still in my email account and repost them one by one.

It was so worth it.

I didn't recover all I lost and sadly there are two posts with no comments on them at all. One is my day spent with LAURA from 52 FLEA and her sis LYNN and SUSIE from FROM MY HOME TO YOURS. Well I have the pics and the memories. That's what I get for being such a cleaner upper.

I promise this is my last post beating myself up over this. Thanks to everyone who tried to help and who offered their thoughts.

Spilt milk right?