The Challenge

My sister and I watch Project Runway together, it's kind of our thing, and it inspired us to do challenge each other to a craft project with a time, budget, and material constraint. Sally will have a budget of $20 U.S. dollars and I will have a budget of $30 Australian dollars. We randomly opened two Domino magazines (Bye Domi!!) and happened to fall on a page where table settings were the themes. So we have decided that we'll make something for the dinner table; it could be napkins, chargers, center piece... whatev! We then had 5 minutes to flip through the magazines at hand and pick a theme - Sally chose twigs and polka-dots and I chose the colors Blue, White, and Pink. We have until mid March to complete our look and we have to use it in an upcoming dinner party. We'll take pictures of our fun along the way... stay tuned.

Here's my inspiration...
I love all the blues found in this fabric combo in Domino magazine.


And the pop of pink in this Teleflora arrangement

Let the games begin!

Before and After - chair and shelf

As promised, here are some before and after pictures of my sister's latest projects...

Sally bought this red chair at a local thrift store for $2.99. She's giving it to her friend's son, Isaac, for his birthday this year.

Here's another $2.99 bargain that Sally picked up

She loves green!
Well, actually she says that they have a very limited
paint selection at her local Fred Meyer.
All the little knick-knacks are from Sally's adventures around
the world (mostly from Scandinavia and Russia)

Thanks for sharing Sally!

To Seattle or Bust!

It's time to go home! After 3 years in Russia I'm READY to go home.

My apartment is in disarray at the moment. We just had some lovely guests from Australia stay with us for a week and we did all kinds of "touristy" things with them. Now that our guests have left we're pulling things out of the cupboards and getting things packed into suitcases. We have 3 1/2 weeks until we leave St. Petersburg! It's going by soooo quickly.

I'm getting excited about going home and seeing friends and family! I've call all kinds of plans to do crafty-shmafty things when I get home. My sister and bro-in-law are buying a house and they've enlisted me to help decorate. My sister is working on some projects at the moment so I'll be posting some before and after pictures of her craftiness.

Freebie

This is my sister Sally. She's really creative and likes crafty shmafty things as much as I do.

(Sally in Norway on the Hurtigruten cruise ship)

Sally found a small table in the lobby of her apartment building with a FREE sign on it. It was an older table with dark brown stain. She got so excited to get started on refinishing it that she didn't take a "before" picture, but you can enjoy the "after" picture here!

Holiday project idea!

I know there are thousands of you out there at the fabric shops getting ready for holiday projects; some of you have been there since last April collecting fabrics, materials, and patterns for the upcoming holiday season.

(image from Spool Sewing)

I saw this bird mobile pattern a few months ago on Spool Sewing and automatically thought of making Christmas ornaments out of vintage fabric. Check out Spool Sewing's blog for all kinds of great how-to's and patterns for bags, aprons, skirts, novelty items and other fun stuff.

(image from Spool Sewing)

Bort er godt men hjem er best (Away is good but Home is best)

For New Years 2008 we went to Norway to visit my family and to introduce my husband Cam to my Norwegian side of the fam. While there we stayed with one of my cousin Mette Line and her family. Mette Line works for an Interior Decorating outfitter called Festival. She is so darn creative when it comes to decorating and redecorating. The pictures below don't do her living room justice. The chandelier by the sofa actually has some of her necklaces hanging off of it for some added flair. She was showing it to us and then said "Ah, I've been looking for that necklace" and automatically put it on. Ten years ago when I was there the walls were painted a dark forest green and there was plaid and dark red everywhere, and today there are crisp cream walls and white everywhere. The Scandinavians have a knack for making things cozy, especially around Christmas. Every evening Mette Line would make us a lovely latte with their Nespresso machine and set out a tier tray full of homemade cookies and yummy Norwegian chocolates. Needless to say we didn't want to leave!

A nice cozy corner decked out with sheep skin pillows and throws. Do you see the hearts in the corner - they are homemade cookies attached to the ceiling with ribbons (just for Christmas decor).

Here's my honey Cam making some Skype calls to family back home in Australia. That chandelier over the table is amazing!

The nice fireplace. It looks 100% better with all the candles lit.

Another look at the living room.

Ha det! (see ya!)

Let me introduce myself...

... I'm Sonja. I'm pretty much obsessed with crafty shmafty things and I thoroughly enjoy reading all the home decor blogs that there are out there. I'm not even going to attempt to do what they do, but I'd like to make a tribute to people that are repurposing items and recycling different items to make their nest look a little nicer.

I currently live in St. Petersburg Russia, but I'm a native of Seattle WA. I'm moving to Australia in 6 months and I'd like to take some upholstery classes when I get there. I'm planning on setting up a small business and reupholster old pieces of furniture and use environmentally friendly materials as much as possible.

Oh yeah, I'm also interested in different cultures and like to pull different styles and characteristics together from different nationalities. This comes natural to me because I'm half Norwegian (my mom was born and raised in Norway), I'm married to an Australian, and I live in Russia, but I grew up in America.

(about half a mile from the shore on the frozen Finnish Gulf, St. Petersburg Russia)

(getting dressed to take out the trash)

(In Bergen Norway with my mom in 2005)

Cheers!

Make someone Happy!

I've gotten into a card making kick in the last year. I've made all kinds of things from wedding cards to Christmas cards. Check out the latest lot of birthday and Thank You cards and some cards from the past.

Most of the graphics are hand drawn or printed on recycled paper, magazine clippings, or card stock that people have given me.