raise high the roof beam

Our home was built in the 1960s and has very high, peaked ceilings with exposed roof beams on the interior, which I love.

This also means we have these giant, empty spaces over both of the bedroom closets, where normally we store stuff--unused chairs, boxes of Christmas decorations, luggage. But since re-doing the bedroom and all the floors, I wanted to use the space in a more attractive way. I think the vintage snowshoes (which Andy has had for ages), and this great, bright Rousseau-esque painting (a thrift store find) are perfect up there!

xo

K

progress

I've been verrrrrry slowly moving stuff back into the bedroom, post-painting. I'm not moving all my clutter back because I want to, though. I'm doing it because I have to: we will soon have our first house guest since the painting was completed, and all the stuff stashed in the guest bedroom must be relocated.

I'm doing this so slowly because--as I've said here before--I'm loving the newly minimalist look of the bedroom. I'm particularly loving this little nook, which I'm thinking may turn out to be a great place to take some shop photos.

Antique marble-top dresser passed down from my grandparents, dried hydrangeas from my friend Roberta's garden, a selection of my current perfume rotation on a vintage tray, and some favorite necklaces hanging from a thrifted coat rack. Perfect!

xo

K

snow white floors

The floors are done--just in time for Christmas--and I could not be happier! They turned out beautifully. We moved the furniture back into the living room this weekend and I love how everything pops and looks totally different with the floor all white and shiny.

The red vinyl and chrome chair we found several months ago at Goodwill for $5.00 looks terrific against the white floor. And as you can see, Princess Lucy requires special bedding to lift her a few inches off the hard floor.

The house was built in 1962, so it didn't have neat old wooden plank floors--just plywood underneath carpeting. After he did the (arduous) work of scraping up the rug glue, Andy primed and painted the plywood. I love how it turned out, especially where there are imperfections.

The rolling drinks cart will perform much better on the painted floors, too. Cheers!

xo

K

homey

Lucy and I are relegated to the bedroom and other parts of the house today while Andy uses some kind of toxic stuff to get the gunk off the living room floor in preparation for painting it. The bedroom is completely painted, and completely undecorated right now, a minimalist look that I'm rather enjoying for the moment.

My mirrored perfume shelf is up, but empty for now. This old deco utility lamp was used in the office previously, but I think I like it up here now (especially since we've removed the Brady Bunch-era hanging lights).

This accordion rack is something I tried and failed to sell on Etsy. Now I'm glad I still have it. It's perfect for jewelry.

Antique marble-top furniture, passed down from my grandparents.

I've had this sweet little rag rug since I was a child. My grandmother made it. I wish I had a bushel of these for all the rooms of the house, now that all the carpet is gone!

Naturally, I've been doing a little Etsy window-shopping, which means the minimalist look won't last long. I put this treasury of items together that pretty much perfectly sums up what I need. Click the image to be taken directly to the treasury and links to all the fab items in it!

I also found these cool silver pine cone bookends while searching, from seller SweetLoveVintage (already in my treasury with the pine cone metal tray). They would make a GREAT (hint, hint) Christmas gift for me. Ahem!

And the tearing-up of the carpet has made me area rug-obsessed. There are so many amazing choices on Etsy, I think I will leave it for a separate post. However, I have to show you this cool example from my friend Pegg's shop, fiveforty. Her shop is closed at the moment, so I stole this photo from her sold items. Isn't it amazing?

xo

K

before, during, after

Andy and I went out to dinner last night to take advantage of Grand Rapids' first-ever Restaurant Week. We ended up going to Bistro Bella Vita, an old favorite, because we were too slow to make reservations at super-fancy 1913 Room.

I wore a newly-acquired vintage fur collar. I was going to sell it in the shop, but decided to keep it. I attached a pretty moss green satin ribbon to it to fancify it up a little.

Something I didn't realize about fur collars: they are really, REALLY warm. The last time I wore fur (vintage, naturally) was in Montreal in March, several years back. Last night was an unseasonably warm evening, and I was quite toasty, bare arms and all. I'm showing the cape I wore here, as proof that I do wear it, since it was an item I'd previously shown on the blog in a shop preview and then--very rudely and selfishly--kept. Bad Karen!

Anyway, despite our delicious meal at Bistro, it was a depressing Restaurant Week, as with it came news that two of my local favorites, Bloom and Corez, are closing. This is very sad news, as both places served amazing, innovative food using local ingredients (and amazing cocktails at both places I should add), and restaurants that do that are very scarce indeed in Grand Rapids.

On another note, here's a little Before (well, During, really) and After peek at what we did to our bedroom!

xo

K

fantasy Etsy home shopping

We're in the middle of a major (for us) home renovation: ripping up all the carpeting in the house and painting the floors white, plus painting the cherry paneling in the bedroom white so I can have my dream all-white bedroom. To be honest, Andy's been doing nearly all the work. Which leaves me the terrible burden (ahem) of fantasy shopping for all the stuff we'll need when the project is finally finished.

All these items can be found on my marketplace of choice, Etsy.com. Click the photo to see the item for sale on Etsy.

White painted floors mean no shoes in the house. Warm felted wool slippers like these from onstail will be a necessity!

We'll be wanting to get some small, pretty rugs like these, mostly for our pup, Lucy, who refuses to sit on anything that isn't soft and padded. From greenatheart.

I just love this vivid blue crocheted bath mat from theblackwoodcottage. So much nicer than the rubber-backed synthetic thing from Meijer currently residing in the bathroom.

I'm tired of our current couch pillows. These covers from skinnylaminx would freshen them up nicely!

We found a great vintage metal drinks cart at Goodwill recently, that will be taking up residence in the living room when everything is done. RustBeltThreads has the best collection of mid century barware on Etsy (heck, the Mad Men prop department bought some of her goods!), and this tumblers set would look real nice sitting next to my Fee Brothers bitters and bourbon.

Gosh, all that fantasy shopping is exhausting. I think I deserve a relaxing bath with ForStrangeWomen's Tree Resin bath salts. I already love her Pine Cone lip balm. And I think I should add a Cabin Fever candle in for good measure. ("The aroma of fallen decomposing leaves fills the air while a wood burning stove imparts a comforting warmth and subtle smoke. Faint traces of cedar and mushrooms complete this artful interpretation of a lonely November evening."--!!!)

xo

K

random house

That's me and my dad above. Andy and I just spent a few days in St. Louis where we attended his retirement party. (Congratulations, Hoss!) He worked as a sugar salesman, and was given "vintage" bags of sugar as a gift, which was pretty funny. He was also serenaded in Italian by the owner of the restaurant where the party was held, which was pretty awesome. The people who have worked with my dad over the years universally praised his all-around niceness and excellent customer service. Any pleasant customer service you receive at the hands of Small Earth Vintage is pretty much directly attributable to my dad, so cheers and thanks to you, Hoss!

Anyway, the reason this post is full of randomness is that I'm all at sixes and sevens due partly the trip out of town and partly to the fact that Andy has begun our long-overdue home improvement project (first mentioned here). But we took a break from the scraping and painting and photographing and listing to go check out The Girl Who Played with Fire at the UICA. The UICA is moving to a new location, and I can't help but wonder what will happen to the neat sidewalk mosaics in front the building.

We had a delicious dinner at Bloom afterwards. Andy took this photo of me in front of the Civil War statue near Bloom.

And I took this photo of a cool old building across from the statue. The Kendall sign near the top made us think it must be an original location for the Kendall College art school, but having read up on the history of the school I don't think so.

I also love the yellow cornices on this old building, which sits at the corner, directly across from Bloom.

However, the neon strip mall signage of the tan and wax joint on the ground floor? Not so much.

Oh, but I do love the hiliarious tag I found this week on an old western shirt!

My plan for next week: get more focused! And as work on the house progresses, I promise to post some scary Befores and (hopefully) beautiful Afters!

xo

K

"i love beauty--is not my fault!"

So says legendary designer Valentino, in the documentary Valentino: The Last Emporer, which I watched last night. It's definitely worth watching. The behind-the-scenes fashion stuff is, of course, interesting, as is the relationship between Valentino and his longtime partner Giancarlo Giammetti.

Valentino's pugs get taken for a walk.


But for me, the best parts of the film were the scenes featuring those who work for Valentino behind the scenes. Namely, the team of Italian seamstresses--especially the wonderfully cranky and necessarily particular head seamstress--who actually create Valentino's designs. And the DVD extra that follows Michael Kelly, Valentino's incredibly serene majordomo, as he prepares and runs the Valentino household for huge parties and day-to-day living, whether in NYC, France, or on a ski trip in Gstaad, is incredibly fascinating. I could have watched an entire film about Michael Kelly!


I seem to have more than the usual amount of shop items to get ready this week. So I'll be splitting up the preview into a few posts. Here's what I photographed today.


Stripey 80s boatneck dress.

Sparkly beaded powder blue cardigan.




Marigold full skirt dress.




Art nouveau peacock print skirt.

L'Aiglon shoe print dress. This has an inverted pleat in the front skirt and a scarf tie at the back collar--so cute!




Plaid day dress.

1970s Levi's denim car coat.

1960s does 1920s, mod drop waist sailor girl dress.




Olive and orange tweed pencil skirt--fab pockets!




1960s paisley taffeta dress.



1970s chartreuse and blue Vera folk art print blouse.




And finally, here's what Andy was doing while I was taking photos.




Pretty, huh? We've had enough. No more carpet in the bathroom. Carpet in a bathroom is crazy. Maybe this is the start of the much-discussed, long-dreamed-of, home improvements. Maybe not. Stay tuned!

xo
k