Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Home Improvement, Episode 1

I'm living in a Victorian that dates back to the mid-1880s. I wish I knew the stories behind this place. Who used to live here way back then? What were they like? How many different events, eras, styles has this ol' lady seen over the past 120+ years? "Ohhh if these walls could talk!" (Please envision campy early morning basic cable tv anchor now.)

[Editor's note: There used to be a hilarious rant here about the previous owners, but the BF thought it was too harsh. So I deleted it to be nice. Awww. Back to being Serious Me.]

One outstanding architectural detail is the fireplace mantel, which is beautifully crafted and original to the house. Unfortunately it's seen better days. A lot of the finish has been worn away, there are some bad stains and scratches and gouges, and I think someone painted it white at one time (egad). It's just sad to see. However, it's structurally solid and the wood is in good condition (as in, not rotting away!). So the BF and I set out to restore it to its original luster over Memorial Day weekend. What I thought was going to be a 2-day project turned into an ongoing one. We sanded and sanded and sanded some more. We suited up with some SARS masks and eye goggles but still managed to inhale about 2lbs of sawdust and stain our eyes a nice shade of bloodshot. As Mom so eloquently put it: We'll appreciate it all the more when it's done.
Check out the Before pix below. Stay tuned for the After.

(1. Ye olde mantel; 2. Grosso wine stain (for once not by me!) that is still there and a real pain to get out; 3. Nasty 120-year old crud; 4. Lingering white paint and more crud.)

The BF did get a new toy out of this project!

I joked that he should sup it up with a car battery like Tim the Tool Man Taylor, then realized I made a family-show-from-the-90s reference and felt stodgy and uncool. Happy Memorial Day Weekend!! (to be continued...)

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

2009 Open Studios show

Over Mother's Day weekend, I had my 2nd successful (and fun!) Open Studios jewelry show, hosted again by the BF's family at their home/backyard. The weather was gorgeous and perfect and so many old friends, family, and neighbors stopped by. There were also a lot of new faces, people in the area checking out the other Open Studios going on. SugarCube Jewelry was a hit! I surpassed my sales from last year, even tho I slashed my prices. And my "not in this economy" cheapie earring rack was really hot. I was all about clearing out inventory this year and making room for the new. Isabelle did really well too, selling more paintings this year than last. Safe to say we'll be doing this again!

The only thing that could have gone better this weekend was if I had not been sleep-deprived. It's my own fault of course. I had this great idea to give each piece of jewelry a code on the back of the price tag, then match up the code with the file name of the jewelry's photo. That way, when a piece was sold, I simply would have to write down the code and could reference exactly which piece it was later. Sounds pretty straight-forward, right? Well, I'm an admitted neat-freak and I do love order, but as much as I adore Martha Stewart, my digital photos are a complete mess. Nothing is organized or sorted in any logical way. So this great idea turned into an even bigger nightmare--if you can have a nightmare without sleep. The BF and I were up til 6AM tying price tags and tagging photo file names. (Now that is love, folks.) We had just enough time for a one and a half hour "power nap" before packing up and being down in the South Bay by 9AM. (The show went from 11AM to 5PM.) By the end of the day, I was running on 100% caffeine fumes, but still managed to visit a friend's newborn baby after dinner that night before hitting up a backyard BBQ birthday party. Got into bed by 2AM to do it all over again on Sunday. Who says I'm old? I did less in my 20s!



Above are photos of my "shop". I changed up some of my displays. The handy BF made more frames. (He got a new set of power tools out of this project!) And to cover the tables, I used some free fabric from work that I actually like in that Miss-Marple's-living-room sort of way.

Some close-up shots of my work: