|
|
|||
 
    |
I recently made this little owl figurine as a gift for a friend. I used the same needle felting techniques that I talked about before.
It turned out so well that I decided to make two more for my Etsy Shop! One with a pink banner and one with a mustard banner. If you are interested in purchasing, let me know what you’d like to have written on the banner. Be sure to read all of the details on the listings.
For now, here are a few more detail shots!
As I’ve been decorating our apartment, I’ve tried to show restraint and keep things from getting too girly. I’ve always said that good design involves knowing when to hold back. I also want to have a happy hubby who feels at home in our apartment – who won’t feel grossed out by too much frill. So I’d say overall our place has an old world vibe that is slightly masculine, with a sprinkling of feminine touches and modern touches. Our major furniture pieces are all more serious and gender neutral, but this time I had to indulge in my feminine side and get a really pretty arm chair for the living room. I wanted something antiquey that would have a similar feeling as our wedding venue. I finally settled on getting a french bergère chair. Bergère chairs are not cheap, and I did a lot of research before we finally decided on which was the best value. Check out all of the amazing, but unaffordable options I found out there on the internet:
Aidan Gray Chandler Chair for $1,944.00. A wing back version of the bergère chair. This one costs more than our whole couch. Definitely way too expensive.
Marquis Arm Chair from Soft Surroundings for $1548.95. Very stately.
Eloquence La Belle Bergere Gustavian Grey Chair from Layla Grayce for $1,450.00. Also way too expensive. Its OK, this one is maybe too girly for me.
Spencer Oak Wing Chair from Jayson Home on sale for $1,436.00. Another expensive wing back.
Hand Carved Louis Chair from Clayton Gray Home for $1295.00. Similar to the one we got, but with open arm rests.
The “Romona” Chair from Horchow on sale for $1,199.00. This one is a little slimmer and taller. Very elegant. Very expensive. Getting better though…
Bastille Lounge Chair also from Soft Surroundings for $788.95. Pricing is getting much better at this point, but still a little high.
Oak Gentleman’s Chair from Wisteria for $749.00. I love this chair, and it looks really similar to the one that we ended up buying.
Louisa Bergere Chair from Ballard Designs for $599.00. This is really close to the price of the chair we bought. But this one’s a little smaller and the color wasn’t right for our room. Still really pretty though.
Marseilles Chair from Restoration Hardware on sale for $495.00! You may have noticed this in the background of my paperwhite post. We ended up getting this chair in the stock color while they were having a sale so it was $100 less than its currently listed on the website. Can you believe that Restoration hardware was the cheapest for anything??? Surprising. We got ours for $495 minus a $70 store credit that we had. Not only was this the most affordable, but I honestly like this one more than any of the others I found. It looks antique European without being too fancy-pants. I love the heathery linen and the rustic aged wood. I love that it has closed arm rests and its the perfect size for our living room.
Of course, there are other options for obtaining such a chair. I think they are fairly common with antique and vintage sellers.
I’ve been eager to try forcing paperwhites (Narcissus tazetta) for a long time, but never got around to buying the bulbs. I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a bunch on amazon and it really is as easy as they say!! Its like magic. You don’t need sunlight, you don’t need soil, and you can do it in the middle of the winter. Just stick them in a rock-lined vase and add water! In only three weeks you’ll have abundant bunches of little white flowers. They grow so quickly and heartily that you may even want to stunt their growth a little to prevent them from getting top-heavy and falling over. I found this article about how to add alcohol into the water to stunt their growth and it worked really well for me. I think one of the most fun things about having plants indoors is watching them grow, so take a look at the picks below! DAY 1:On the first day they arrived in the mail, I wedged them into a rock-lined vase filled with just enough water to cover the bottoms of the bulbs. You want to wedge them in nice and tight so that they don’t fall over when they start growing.
Its crazy because they had already begun to sprout by the time they arrived.
DAY 5:After five days, the sprouts stayed about the same height, but the roots had started to shoot out rather quickly.
DAY 9:By day nine, the roots had grown into wild tendrils.
Now that the roots had fully grown, the leaves started to gain some height. You can also see one or two flower buds/pods just emerging.
At this point I decided to add in alcohol according to the chart below from about.com. All I had was Grey Goose which is 40% alcohol, so I used 7 parts water and one part Goose: 10% Alcohol = 1 Part Water to 1 Part Alcohol DAY 11:The growth really accelerated at this point. Only two days later the plant was significantly taller, and you could see many more flower buds poking up. I can’t imagine how tall they would have been if I didn’t feed them liquor.
DAY 21:For the next week or so, nothing major happened for most of the week. They just continued to get taller and taller. Then Joe and I went away for the weekend and came back to this!!
About half of the pods have bloomed! My only complaint is that they smell similar to lilies, which I’ve always thought smell kind of cheesy… or like some kind of Chinese preserved food …or something less pleasant than other flowers. But they look absolutely lovely! I’m definitely going to make this a winter tradition =)
|
     |
|
|
Copyright © 2025 Joe & Cheryl - All Rights Reserved Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa |
|||
