Happy Birthday Eleanor Rigby!
I can hardly believe it, but Miss Eleanor Rigby is now one year old.
*cries*
THEY GROW UP SO FAST.
Eleanor weighed only two pounds when we brought her home, but still managed to turned our world inside out. She’s been a demanding and challenging puppy, but also hilarious, intelligent, sensitive, curious, and so loveable. She’s an innocent little soul and can convey so much emotion with her little bearded face.
And she cuddles like it’s her job.
We taught her how to sit, lay down, drop it (hello napkins and mail!) and go to her crate & mat on demand. Coming when called is a different story. Let’s just say Mike D and I have become highly skilled at tag teaming a very swift chihuahua.
She’s a tidy little pup, and wipes her feet on the mat when she comes in from outside. She grooms herself like a cat, and her paws often smell like fritos? Such a mystery.
If you follow me on instagram, you are aware that her fashion choices are SO MAJ.
Yet she is also very gangsta.
She once ate a very important old newspaper, so don’t think she’s not well read.
Oh you know, just an original insert from the Detroit News in 1969 about the U.S. landing on the moon. No big deal. Hope it tasted good.
She & Celia are slowly learning to coexist peacefully due to my intense couple’s therapy sessions. We focus mainly on trust issues and how to not be an asshole to each other.
They’re still learning.
And guys, I’m not normally so sappy, but humor me with this one.
A few weeks ago on a lazy Friday night, Mike D and I snuggled up on the couch for a movie. Eleanor jumped onto my lap, burrowed herself under the blanket and drifted off to sleep. Moments later, Celia tentatively and carefully climbed onto Mike D’s lap, curled into a ball and purred herself to sleep. Now. This is a rare occasion for both animals to lay next to each other, so as you can imagine, Mike D and I were doing a lot of whisper OMG’s and excitedly (but quietly) gesturing back and forth between them. Then out of nowhere I pretty much lost my shit. My heart nearly imploded from all the love that was on that couch. It may seem silly considering this family of four is 50% four legged, but they bring me so much happiness.
HASHTAG I LOVE THESE GOOFBALLS.
Happy birthday my little muffin.
xoxo
Posted in celia, eleanor rigby // 2 Comments
Instant Detroit, Woodward Avenue Edition
Beginning at the Detroit River and exiting the city at 8 mile is a road synonymous with Detroit. Woodward Avenue serves as the divider of the East and West sides, and if you were born anywhere near Detroit, you know your side and you REPRESENT.
[cue to me making the East-side hand sign]
Within a 27 mile stretch, Woodward Avenue runs the gamut of wealth, painting a picture of poverty that will sear your heart and of riches that will spoil your insides with envy.
For many years I’ve made the trek down Woodward from the suburbs into the belly of the city. It’s not the quickest way in, but the view never disappoints. 19th century Victorian homes, breathtaking churches, street art, steaming sewer grates, and other straight up gangsta shit greet me on my way in.
On this particular trip I pulled my car over six times leading into that seedy, struggling stretch south of 8 Mile. One day these places will be gone, and such is the nature of life. As these images passed through my camera’s rollers that day, I reveled in my (small) attempt to freeze time.
Welcome to my new series, Instant Detroit. Words and pictures about the city I first called home. The city that keeps chasing me out, and keeps calling me back. The city that gave me my grit. The only real city I know.
PS: Here’s a great pictorial from Detroit News, chronicling Woodward Avenue throughout the years. Enjoy.
All images shot with an antique Polaroid land camera and expired black & white instant film.
Posted in detroit, dutch girl donuts, fontaine motel, fuji film, hotel normandie, instant film, la renaissance motel, land camera, polaroid, woodward // 1 Comment
Dining Room Gallery Wall
Several weeks ago I hung a gallery wall in our dining room. I took terrible photos without a tripod (which recently broke) and then upon receiving a new tripod, intended to retake the photos, but never did. Holidays? Laziness? But then I recently looked back at the original photos and thought they weren’t that bad? So let’s just go with it.
This wall in our dining room sits opposite the heart shaped polaroid collage and contains two doors – one for the closet and one for the entrance into the kitchen.
Rather than trying to find one big piece of art to fill this space, I decided to round up a bunch of art prints, postcards, and photographs.
I think it’s pretty cute and whatever.
All of the frames are Ikea Ribba frames which come with mats, hanging hardware, and are cheap as dirt.
Here is what I put in them.
- Photograph of my great grandmother (also known as the creepy baby) dressed as Charlie Chaplin on Halloween.
- Fox print from Kari Herer.
- Fancy cat drawing purchased from a little shop in the Tuscany region of Italy.
- Original drawing of the piazza I stayed in while visiting Lucca, Italy.
- Print from Fifi Duvie, postcard from Rar Rar Press, a self portrait polaroid emulsion lift and photos of Eleanor Rigby & Celia, photographed by me.
- Signed photograph of Edward Scissorhands.
- Another fancy cat drawing from Italy. Because one cannot have too many cat arts.
Here are some of my tips for creating a casual, yet cohesive gallery wall.
Gather the following:
- Original artwork – drawings, paintings, sketches, photography. Think local art shows, independent shops, art festivals, Etsy, etc.
- Sentimental stuff – old black & white photos of your grandparents, post cards, photo booth strips, your kid’s artwork.
- Inexpensive/fun/silly/trendy stuff that you can periodically switch out when you get bored with it – album covers, band posters, printed photos, art book tear outs, leftover wallpaper, fabric scraps.
- My photographs. Zing!
If you plan to use several different colors of frames, you should always use more than one of each color. For example, hanging five white frames with one gold frame will probably look like a mistake. But if you hang several of each, the mix of colors will look intentional. Like these guys.
Same goes for artwork style. Don’t hang several pastel botanical prints with one Tupac album cover. That would be weird. But if you have several Tupac album covers and several pastel botanical prints, then it would be fine. And by fine I mean still terrible. Don’t do that.
Instead, do this.
If you have an eclectic mix of colors, styles, and sizes of artwork, you can easily tie them all together by using frames in a uniform color. To save money, you can spray paint frames you already own, or hunt down cheap frames from garage sales and thrift stores and paint them all one color.
Once you have all your artwork gathered, compose your gallery on the floor so you can easily move the frames around until you come up with the best arrangement. Evenly distribute your colors and make sure your sizes are balanced without being too symmetrical. Be sure to fill the space! You probably need more pieces than you think. Once you are happy with the composition, take a digital photo of it, so you can reference the exact composition as you transfer them to the wall.
When it comes to spacing, small pieces should be spaced 1-2 inches apart. Larger pieces (20 by 24 and up) can afford to be a bit further apart. Those are good general rules to follow, but as you can see below, sometimes rules are made to be broken.
To hang your artwork, your best bet is to use the Paper template method, although sometimes I just go for it and eye-ball everything. This method makes Mike D experience O.C.D. rage, so I usually send him out of the room.
Once you have mastered those rules, feel to break them and set your inner artist free. Because screw you, rulez! Right?!
But no seriously. Follow my rules.
I think that’s it for the dining room, outside of refinishing the dining table this spring/summer. To recap, I painted, refinished an old bench, created a polaroid collage, and made some easy no-sew drapes.
Speaking of those drapes…
Not sure if you keep up with celebrity news, but I’m famous on the twitter now.
Word has spread, and now the Kardashians keep calling me to hang, which is so sweet of them, but I’ve been so busy smoking blunts with Justin Bieber all the time. On my way into Starbucks this morning, the paparazzi swarmed yelling “Tracey, who are you wearing?!” and “Is it true you convinced Rihanna to leave Chris Brown for good?” to which I kindly yelled back “Vintage Old Navy circa 2006! Duhzville! No photos please!”
So in light of my recent fame, I decided it was high time to actually join twitter and now I’m tweeting and all that junk. Follow me!
xoxo
Posted in dining room, emily henderson, gallery wall // 1 Comment
No-Sew Drapes DIY
This is a bit of recycled content from my old blog, but I made some no-sew curtains for the dining room recently and just HAD to share the DIY again! Because they’re so easy!
I’ve been on the hunt for new curtains since repainting the dining room. I didn’t have a specific color or pattern in mind, but Mike D politely suggested that I look for something not girly, and when Mike D speaks, I sometimes try to listen.
I couldn’t find any curtains I loved at my usual favorites (West Elm, Ikea, Anthro) except for a few that were well over $100/panel. Yikes! I change curtains like I change my underwear so I can’t justify spending a couple hundy when I’ll probably want to replace them in 5 minutes.
And then this happened. Charcoal & white ikat fabric, affordable, long enough, wide enough, approved by Emily Henderson herself. Well, shoot.
Sold!
Now here’s a little known fact about me. I do not sew. Not one little tiny bit. I dabbled in sewing as a kid, but I don’t remember any of it because I have blocked out my childhood. Just kidding, mom.
Re-learning to sew is on my bucket list, I just haven’t found the time to dedicate to it yet. Maybe when Mike D makes enough money to allow me to be a stay-at-home fur baby mom, I can finally teach myself. I’ve got goals, my friends.
In the meantime, don’t fret because I have… *cue the sound of angels singing*… HEM TAPE!
I love it more than baby kittens and reeses peanut butter cups.
[No I don’t]
Now buckle up for the easiest curtain DIY ever!
Once my fabric arrived in the mail, I gave it a good ironing and then cut two evenly sized panels (approximately 86″ long by 36″ wide) leaving an extra inch at the top and the bottom for my “hem”.
I didn’t take a picture of that part (farts!) but instead please enjoy this ridiculous picture of my cat.
On the cut edges of each panel I created a small fold, placed my handy-dandy hem tape inside the fold, and pressed with an iron until it bonded. Supes easy.
Once all the “hemming” was completed, I clipped on some curtain rings that I purchased from target, and I was done-zo.
I don’t remember exactly how long this took, but it was about the length of one Real Housewives of Atlanta, minus commercials, plus several pauses to run after Eleanor and collect Christmas tree ornaments from her mouth.
Is that helpful?
Speaking of RHOATL, what is up with that new Miss USA chick (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH MISS AMERICA)? And really, WHAT IS UP WITH HER?
But I digress. Here are Le Fancy Drapes all hung up and dazzling.
Cost Breakdown:
- Fabric: $49.00
- Hem Tape: $0 (I already had some in the house, but it’s about $2 per roll and lasts forever)
- Curtain hooks: $9.58 (Two packs of 7 clips at $4.79 each)
Total Cost: $58.58 ($29.29per panel)! Woot!
The dining room is coming along swimmingly. Since painting, I have hung the heart shaped polaroid collage, painted that ugly old bench, and created some vinyl record storage. I have a future post planned for the frame gallery that you can see in some of the pictures above, and after that I just have to refinish my grandmother’s old dining room table. And maybe switch out the light fixture.
Maybe.
And now I shall leave you with some recent instagrams. Cuz they purty.
- My signed No Doubt poster, reframed and moved to a new spot in my office/studio.
- New throw pillow from Ikea. $10!
- I broke my tripod (sad face). A stack of books & boxes works surprisingly well in a pinch.
- I received my drawing of Eleanor Rigby from Hannah Evelyn Rowlands in the mail!
- Christmas (Troll) Tree.
- When I push the pouf over to the glass door, it’s Eleanor’s favorite thing ever. FULL VIEW SQUIRREL ACTION.
- Another gold sofa! What! What? Whaaaaaat.
- My first geocache thanks to my friend Jillian for letting me tag along (she’s a pro). I must admit, it was quite fun to wander around the woods looking for something hidden, crossing my fingers that it wasn’t a serial killer waiting in the bushes. Hooray for not getting murdered!
xoxo
Posted in curtains, dining room, DIY, drapes, emily henderson, ikat, no-sew, one king's lane // Add a Comment
Old Timey Party w/Detroit Saloon League
Back in August, Mike D and I hosted an old timey themed soiree, which was the most glamorous party in the history of time.
I’m pretty sure.
And yeah, I’m a leeeetle late in posting this, but better late than never right?
As I’ve mentioned before, I was recently handed down an assortment of antique serveware, drinkware, and barware that originally belonged to my grandparents, so we decided it was a good excuse to throw a shindig and put all that great stuff to use.
Conveniently, two of our good friends, Dennis & Daniel, are craft cocktail extraordinaires so we hired them to provide the libations for the party.
Spoiler alert – THEY KILLED IT.
After sending them our budget and an estimated number of guests, they devised a proposal for 3 cocktail options and a punch. The proposal outlined all of the itemized expenses and detailed what they would be responsible for bringing the day of the party, which was almost everything- the booze, syrups, ingredients, glasses, and ice. The only things we needed to supply were clear punch cups, a punch bowl, cocktail straws, and space in the kitchen near the sink to set up their drink station. Also included in the proposal were several other options/recommendations with price breakdowns in case we wanted to increase or decrease the budget, which was very helpful. Once we finalized the plan over email, I designed the drink menu in photoshop.
I printed out several copies on 5 by 7 card stock, inked the edges to make them look aged, and dispersed them throughout the house for guests to peruse.
If anyone is wondering, the font I used is Bellerose which reminded me of silent film title cards.
The spirits, and believe me I tried them all, were OUTSTANDING. Dennis & Daniel truly have a passion for the art of craft cocktails and it shows in the quality of each and every drink. Everyone was pretty much gushing over the drinks all night.
No theme party is complete without a soundtrack, and long have I pined for a reason to make an old timey playlist. I have a huge collection of old music from the 1920’s through the 1960’s on vinyl, however a few days before the party I dropped my record player while rearranging the dining room. Drats! I broke the connector thingy that holds the electrical cord, and despite my efforts, I couldn’t fix it, nor did I have time to have it repaired before the party. So instead I put together an itunes playlist which included Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Patsy Cline, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Chuck Berry, The Andrews Sisters, The Count Basie Orchestra, Hank Williams, Glenn Miller, and much more. I wasn’t shooting for any specific decade as a theme, just an overall swingy old fashioned jazzy vibe. If you want to be technical, that is.
For the hors d’oeuvres I stuck to finger foods, because tiny food served on cocktail picks seems very nostalgic to me. That assumption is likely influenced by having watched both Edward Scissorhands & Mermaids 5,000 times during my childhood.
Sidebar: Does anyone else picture the opening scene of Mermaids (cue to 2:07 mark in that video) every time this song is played on American Horror Story?
EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. Get out of my head Winona!
These mini caprese bites are always a hit and I make them for almost every party. Just buy a package of marinated mozzarella balls, grape tomatoes, and fresh basil leaves. Thread each ingredient through a cocktail pick, drizzle with remaining oil from the container of mozzarella, and you’re done. Badaboom badabing.
Red pepper slices with dollops of hummus.
Italian sausage, spicy pepper jack cheese and green olives (I also made a tray in which I omitted the Italian sausage for my vegetarian friends).
I prepared mini “taco cups” by filling Tostito scoop chips with guacamole, cheese and black olives, but I forgot to take a picture. Here is a similar idea.
The ubiquitous lemon drop candies, which I personally find to be repugnant, but are pretty and remind me of old ladies.
When hosting an old timey party, one would be remiss in not including a tray of cigarettes, because we all know smoking wasn’t dangerous until the late 1970’s. In fact, even today, if you are smoking while pretending to exist in an era prior to 1975, the carcinogens actually have no negative effect on your body.
I hope my hyperbole was not lost on you.
Dennis & Daniel, craft cocktail BROFESSIONALS, in my kitchen doin’ their thang.
Here are some more shots of my extremely good looking friends, being jolly & gay.
Once again I failed at getting photos of half of our guests, the only photo of me is blurry, and I didn’t get a single shot of Mike D in his old timey getup which is a disaster in and of itself. He was very proud of his vest. One of these days I’ll get better, but this time I’ll blame it on the booze.
At least Eleanor Rigby had her shit together.
She entertained our guests with her adorable stage acts such as “watch how I remove all the fuzz from this tennis ball” and “watch me run away with this shoe”.
In summation, it was an incredibly fun night and our favorite party to date. If you’re looking for unique cocktail recipes for your next gathering or tips and techniques for perfecting your craft cocktail skillz, I highly recommend you check out Detroit Saloon League’s blog. Additionally, they can help you devise a unique drink menu for a party or event (hello wedding receptions!) and can even provide full service drink catering like they did for us if you’re located in the Detroit area.
Psst!
I finally made my way through all of the vintage goodness that I recently inherited, and I simply cannot keep it all.
[But I did keep a lot].
The items you see below, and more, are now for sale in my friend Heather’s booth inside The Rustbelt Market in Ferndale. There is much more than what I have pictured below, including some really pretty glass & milk glass decanters. Everyone needs a fancy bar setup in their house, amiright?! So go get you some! The Rustbelt Market is open every Saturday & Sunday from 11am to 7pm. Check their website for extended holiday hours as well. Heather’s booth, where my stuff is being sold, is called Painted Lady Trashions. She’ll take very good care of you.
You know you want that Lady Schick Facial Mister for your white elephant Christmas party.
xoxo.
Posted in caprese, craft cocktails, detroit saloon league, eleanor rigby // Add a Comment
