Happy (Spring?!) Weekend!

It's the weekend! We are so ready for spring around here. This winter has been cold and long. Lately we've been trying to stay outside all afternoon to combat the cabin fever we've been suffering from basically since Hurricane Sandy in October. :/  It's so fun now that Evie's old enough to ride her scooter and we don't have to take a stroller down the subway stairs. It feels like the city is our oyster. My little scooter gang is coming to get you this spring, NYC!

(This photo cracked me up when I found it on my phone (Gracie's becoming quite the little sneaky photographer). Do your kids climb inside your jacket when they get cold? I secretly love the extra snuggles (and warmth!), but now I'm thinking it must look a little weird to passersby? ha!)

Linus and I have been going out for runs together along the Promenade and I'm remembering how much I love this place. I was talking to another woman in my church about how sometimes we just want to move somewhere easier and cheaper to live. She gave me some wise words: Never make any decisions about moving away from the city in the winter, or your emotions will get the best of you. :)

Well, I think spring must be just around the corner because all the fancy brownstones in the Heights are putting out cut flower arrangements in their window boxes. Talk about luxury right? There's some major wiggle room in your budget if you can afford weekly flowers for your neighbor's sidewalk viewing pleasure.

Have a lovely weekend friends! If you're celebrating Easter, I hope it's a great one for you and your family. xo

Another Lady Portrait

Art is definitely one of those subjective things. Something that speaks to me might not be your bag. When I brought home this portrait from the flea market a few months ago, Heather was not a big fan (I think she likes it more now). I love it though. I'm fascinated by more abstract portraiture and I love the colors of this one.

The vendor who sold me this painting had a lot of pieces from the estate of a Connecticut artist named Lucy Baker. This portrait though was not one of her works, but was a trade from one of her artist friends, Thomas Barron. He wrote a little note saying so on the back.

I had her hanging in our bedroom for a while and I think I preferred her in there. But the electric grape color of her shirt just looks so pretty with the chartreuse console table, it seemed a shame to keep her hidden away, even though there's a much grander dame in the room already. :)

Oh! And by the way, I went back to Home Depot this week to find out the paint color of the console. It's "Citronette" from the Home Decorator's Collection line from BEHR.

$500 Giveaway: Page Sargisson Jewelry

This week's giveaway is near and dear to my heart. Fellow Brooklynite and very talented jewelry maker, Page Sargisson is giving away a $500 gift certificate! Her beautiful work can be found at ABC Home and Sundance and boutiques around the world, as well as her lovely online shop.

Page makes all of her jewelry by hand in recycled gold, using impressions, images and patterns from found and borrowed objects that all have a really lovely sense of history. She uses this vintage printing press block to make all of her calendar charms.

Page's jewelry studio is right by me in Brooklyn Heights, so I popped over recently to say hi. It was so fun to see all of the vintage pieces she uses to make her jewelry. She often uses wooden stamps she bought on her travels to India.

I completely fell in love with these gold earrings that Page made using the pattern on an antique carved plate that belonged to her grandparents.

See how she used the carved trees to make the sunburst pattern on the earrings?

I have one of Page's signature calendar charm necklaces and I can say it is honestly one of my favorite pieces of jewelry. The first day I wore the necklace I got asked about a dozen times where it was from, which made me feel like a million bucks. I wear it almost every day now.

My calendar charm is gold and silver with a diamond marking the 9th of January, which is my wedding anniversary. I paired the charm with my grandmother's gold chain, so it feels extra sentimental. I love, love, love it.

Here are a few more favorite pieces from Page's site:

To enter the giveaway for $500 in Page's jewelry, go to the Page Sargisson site, register with your email and then come back here to leave a comment with your favorite picks on this post. Contest ends Wednesday April 3 at midnight. One winner chosen at random and will be emailed using the registration on the Page Sargisson site, so be sure to register and comment.

PS And in the meantime, Page is very kindly offering a 25% off discount code good through April 15 on her site:  LGN25

*CONGRATS to the winner: Fran! Check your inbox. :)

Metallic Linen

I get asked a lot about where to buy good metallic linen. I always have pointed people in the direction of Gray Line Linens in the past, but they recently came out with some new colors that are pretty darn amazing.

I tried to scan these in so you could better seen the color, sheen and texture (since the photos on the website are worthless), but if you need a very specific color, I recommend ordering one of the swatch cards here before place your fabric order.

I'd say these are all heavy enough for light use upholstery (like secondary chairs, headboards, and obviously curtains and pillows). The fabric is so pretty in person - I wish the depth and shimmer were translating better! 

I'm thinking of having a summery dress made out of the yellow above (MM68). Wouldn't that be so cute? I have an old favorite dress that's on its last leg and I'm hoping my tailor can rip it apart to use as a pattern for a new one in the yellow.

New Art in the Living Room

Over the weekend I hung up some more art in the living room. I had left the wall shared with the kitchen pretty uncovered up until now because there's a gallery wall in the room already and I didn't want to overpower the space. But mostly the lady portrait painting and an abstract photographic print I had hung up for a few months just felt lonely and too sparse to me. Here's the  before shot:

I had a meeting with Bloglovin' on Friday morning at Cafeteria, which is right by my favorite Housing Works location. So if course I had to pop in just to see what they had, and there was a treasure trove that day! Thrift stores in NYC are usually not so fruitful and they are really ridiculously expensive, but some times you can luck out. One of the things I brought home was this exhibition print. I fell in love with the shade of green from across the store and was so glad to see the print was only $15.

I had been wanting to add something in this tone to the walls to pick up on the color of the green sofa, so this was a happy find. I hung it up almost all the way up to the moulding and put back up the lady and the photo print right below the new print. 

I also hung a piece of art I bought a couple years ago at the flea. I talked more about it here, but a lot of times you can find vendors who have purchased a deceased artist's entire estate. It's a good time to buy up a few pieces of an artist you like for almost nothing. I bought a lot from this artist's estate. This one was a rice paper and ink drawing called "If Not Sound, Then, Music is Feeling."

Right next to Michael's guitars felt like a good place to hang it.

I like how the four pieces play off each other. And I'm happy with how the kitchen pass-through is less of a focus on that wall now.

We're getting there! Slowly but surely the bargains are finding their way to me :)

Faux Brick Hardboard Wall Panels

I took a trip to IKEA recently and noticed the badly patched seam in this brick wall on one of their displays and thought, "oh, that's not brick then. duh."

Looks like they could have filled the gaps a little better? But I did like the effect of the texture from the "bricks."

Later I did some digging around the web and I discovered these faux brick hardboard sheets at Lowes. I wonder why I've never noticed these before in the lumber aisle? About $26 for a 4x8' sheet is so affordable! And the reviews are all really positive.

I think with a little effort and some plaster you could make the walls of your bathroom or laundry room look crusty and old like this:

Or if you're on a super-tight budget, I bet you could use the sheets in your kitchen even (painted flat black or white like the IKEA room above, but seamed better, of course!). Have you ever tried the faux brick hardboards? I'm dying to use them somewhere now!

(WHOA, FLOORS! ^^^)

Giveaway: Instagram Magnets from StickyGram

This week's give away is an exciting one! Have you heard of StickyGram yet? For all you Instagram lovers (uh, that would be most of you, right?), StickyGram makes it incredibly easy to import and order magnet sheets of your favorite instagram images.

The printed out magnets are about the same size as the images appear on your phone and they come in sheets of nine photos. I was super impressed with the quality of the printing when I got my order in.

Since our boring white fridge is a bit of an eyesore for me, I was over-the-moon excited about plastering that thing in pictures of my favorite people and places.

I'm sure you can image how much my kids enjoy them too. I think they stood in front of the fridge for about an hour looking at all of the photo magnets the day I put them up. :) I think it's a fun way to display family photos without being too formal and serious about the thing. Plus, (and this is why Instagram is as popular as it is) candid shots featuring real life are so much more interesting than posed photos, don't you think?

StickyGram is giving away three full sheets of magnets today for one reader. To enter, please leave a comment on this post. Contest ends at midnight on Monday March 25. Open to everyone, every where - StickyGram ships worldwide! Good luck!

PS Follow me on instagram at @jennykomenda