Caught White Handed

Oh no, she got hold of the spray paint again!!  Every man for themselves!

I'm not sure what spoke to me about this hand vase (must have been sign language...), but when I saw it at an estate sale this weekend, I felt compelled to pick it up immediately.  $4? Ok, if you insist.  I've never seen anything like it before.  Even the strangest things can look elegant in white ceramic, right?

I tried cleaning it up, but it still looked like dingy old off-white with a bad manicure.

After checking it to make sure there were no markings that this was a priceless heirloom (spoiler alert: it wasn't), I took to it with some fine sand paper before I let her have it.

Flat white spray paint was all I had on hand (pun intended, but also true).  The white paint was just what this piece needed to make it look fresh and clean.

I borrowed an air plant from the kitchen to test out my vision.  I need to get some more air plants.  In the past year I've only killed 1 out of 5.  That's pretty decent for me with plants- I've kept 4 alive!  Throw me a parade- I'm a saint here!  Too far?  Anyway, so HAND!

For $4 you could get a fancy latte at Starbucks, but I think spending it on weird hand vases is so much more fulfilling.  It looks exactly how I pictured it on my shelf and I kind of love it.  High five! Sorry, sorry, I'll stop with the hand puns, scouts honor.... ok that was the last.  really.

I've been picking up cool old books at tag sales and estate sales, so my living room bookcase is just screaming for a full restyle in the very near future and not just the shelves that end up in hand photo shoots.

Apparently I'm feeling very cheeky pre-coffee this Monday morning.  My apologies if my cheese level was off the charts- I'll try to be more docile in Wednesday's post.  No promises.

Happy Monday!

Grover: Week 14

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I learn to navigate through the business of flipping houses.  Check out more about this flip, Grover, or check out posts about our last flip HERE. It's crunch time!  I want to have this house listed in less than a month.  Hustle, Karen!!  Thankfully, with the floors now mostly complete with 2 coats and all of the remaining walls primed, it's finally starting to look like something.

After everything else is done, the floor will get a 3rd coat so they are flawless and gleaming for when we list.  I seriously couldn't be happier with the floors- I'm crossing my fingers that it'll be a HUGE selling feature.

Also on the list of big ticket items that I didn't do myself but that got done this week.  A roof!

Rather unsexy, but completely necessary to sell the house.

Meanwhile inside, I kept myself busy as always.

In addition to my usual patching, sanding, and priming (and banishing all of the old dark colors), the living room ceiling got painted, the back door got new trim around it (like this tutorial from flip #1), I repaired all the other door frames where the previous owner had arbitrarily cut chunks out of the bottom (?), I finally primed over an obscene drawing that was on the exterior of the back door,

drooled over the hard wood floors some more,

and I added trim to both the interior and exterior of the front door (which I decided to keep because $) to make it seem a bit more cool retro instead of old and dated.

I also spent the good majority of my day yesterday tackling the kitchen vent and the gaping hole in the ceiling.  It went from this:

to this:

I still have to sand and do a second layer of plaster over it.  With a stand alone vent hood going there, I need to make it look GOOD!

Thankfully, this house has finally turned a corner from being a disastrous construction zone, to being near completion (at least the upstairs.... we won't talk about the basement right now).  Even with my drop cloths strewn about, the view as you walk in the front door puts a smile on my face.  Light bright walls, open concept, gleaming original hard wood floors.

Next steps- paint and get the kitchen installed!

Crash! Seed to Stem

I'm so excited to be announcing this new series!  Every month I'll be 'crashing' a home, shop, or studio and sharing the awesomeness with you. This first Crash! I happened upon by accident.  Hubby and I were pooped from trying to move a couch into Frankie (and movers we are NOT) and were ravenous for a late lunch.  After parking and making a beeline for a Diner, we passed a shop that made my head turn.  Food?  Who needs food, I see pretty things.

Seed to Stem is hard to describe (even by the owners Virginia and Candace).  Here's my assessment- if a posh botanical shop fell in love with a quirky antique shop, had an affair with a taxidermist and then a love child was born out of this little love triangle, you'd get Seed to Stem.  Confused yet?  It'll all make sense when you check this place out!

It was so nice of these lovely ladies to let my camera and me invade their shop and ask them a few questions!

When did you first open the shop?

"We started Seed to Stem about 3 years ago, and were just setting up booths at craft shows, selling terrariums or other nature-inspired art we had put together. Soon after, we decided we wanted to have some type of a brick and mortar store, and rented a small room in an antique mall, The cider mill, in Sterling Mass. We stayed there about 6 months, quickly outgrew the space, and found our new home on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester."

What inspired you to start your own business?

"We were inspired to start our own business because we truly love nature, design, art, creativity, style..... and we really like working for ourselves. We wanted to open a unique shop that can be an inspiration to people, and connect them with nature. We also love visual merchandising, and have a blast re-arranging the shop to present our products in a unique way."

How would you describe your shop's style?

"We sometimes have trouble describing our shop's style. We often call it a gift, curiosity, and botanical shop. Our clients have called the shop "like walking into Narnia", "a perfect juxtaposition between life and death", a "natural wonder shop" etc. etc.  Our shops style is a mix of old and new, of times gone past...antiques, skulls etc., mixed with living plants, modern hand blown glass, and more stylish home accents, with a nod to the Victorian era.  We also do fresh floral design and staging for weddings and events. Most couples that choose us love our style and want it reflected in the design."

What has been your biggest challenge in regards to the business? "Our biggest challenge in regards to the business is keeping up with non-creative tasks.... bookkeeping, banking, e-mails, cleaning etc. ....all while creating the botanical pieces in the shop, re-doing displays, and doing large scale weddings and events. We feel like for most creative people, the more structured parts of running a business can be quite challenging."

On behalf of other creatives- I agree!  It's so tough to focus on boring numbers when you have shiny and pretty things to distract!

His name is Rufus and he is not for sale.  Came you blame them- look at that face!  Bear hug anyone?

And speaking of adorable faces- meet their shop puppy, Poe.  The little sweetheart has the most piercing blue eyes and almost converted this crazy cat lady into a dog person.

Even if you look away from the curated vignettes and look down to the floor, you won't be lacking for eye candy- those rugs!

Thanks Seed to Stem and Virginia and Candace for letting me share your shop's story!