DIY Do it Yourself Days

i even made the necklace myself

with the economy the way it is these days and the ever-increasing abundance of discarded things at garage sales, estate sales, flea markets and thrift stores, DIY seems to be more and more the trend.  i have never been much of a sander or a furniture restorer, however, with furniture being so expensive, i made a commitment to pick up some skills starting out with a few small items.  i found a beautiful desk accesory box at a santa barbara thrift store and picked up a robin's egg blue paint and actually did it. so inspired was i by the DIY thing that i began to make my own linen pillow covers with hand-crocheted trim and have used my ingenuity to the max, using recycled linen from the same stores.

so it' sbeen all about putting together the guest room over the past several days. i first decided on the colors a while back, aqua and beige with a bit of tan in between.  remember that blanket i crocheted in those colors?  over the years i had collected quite a few pictures in that palette too as well as some decorative items so all that was missing was putting it all together. 

 so the vision of a guest room has slowly begun to take place.  i also found a really dirty champagne bucket that has sprung to life after hours and hours of scrubbing with brasso, revealing a beauty that had probably been hiding for years.  my intent is to use it as a vase for now.

and then, walking through trader joe's lo and behold, peonies.  i hadn't seen peonies in quite a long while and these are just stunning.  i feel suddenly productive again after a lull.