Thursday, July 28, 2011

Deers on the table!

I just added these lovely Stag Deer 100% linen napkins to my shop yesterday! I love working with linen, it has a really nice tailored look to it, the clean lines are very modern.  And I can't get over how beautiful this grey linen is, the color is fantastic! Such a great way to add some personality to your table. Hand sewn by me in San Diego, CA studio and hand printed using water based ink. Ditch those paper napkins and go green with these reusable fabric ones!


These linen napkins are easy to clean. Just wash in cool water on the delicate cycle and toss them in the dryer!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

New House Projects

Not too long ago we completed our laundry room make-over which I blogged about here http://tangerinehome.blogspot.com/2011/07/laundry-room-makeover.html Well, with the completion of one project begins the start of a new one. We have two projects in the works right now. The first project is finishing up organizing and decorating the 2nd bedroom which doubles as my workspace/office. A few weeks ago my husband built me these wonderful shelves on one side of the closet.


It may not look like much, but to me it looks like organization! When you live in a tiny 820 sq. ft. house you have to take advantage of every bit of space available. I am currently going through all my tons of art supplies, fabric, paperwork, etc... and organizing it all so it can fit neatly in this space. I've been working up some ideas for this closet office to make it pretty and I'll post updated photos once I finish with this project.

Another project we are currently working on is ripping out our mostly dead, weed infested lawn so we can replace it with drought tolerant plants and a deck! Ripping out your lawn is not a fun project at all, in fact, I think I rather repaint the entire exterior of our house again rather than do this hard physical labor. We may have to call in help for this one but for now we've taken it on ourselves. Here is our sad backyard now.


We've managed to remove almost half of the lawn so far in the backyard. Everything is getting cleared out so we can level the ground and have a blank canvas to work with. I have so many ideas for the backyard I hope I can pull it all together!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

New Scallops 100% Linen Tea Towel!

New handmade Scallops tea towel now available at my etsy shop!



This pattern I created was inspired by sea scallop shells. The scallops are screenprinted by hand onto a medium grey 100% linen fabric using a water based non-toxic mustard yellow ink. Linen is a natural material made from the fibers of the flax plant. It is very absorbent and gets softer and softer with each washing, perfect for drying hands or the dishes! Looks great in a kitchen or bathroom. Towel is completely handmade by me in my San Diego, CA studio including the sewing and screenprinting.

Tea towel measures approximately 16"W X 25.5"H and features a 100% cotton twill loop on the backside for easy hanging. It is pre-washed and pre-shrunk.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Pillows Available at Dekor in L.A!

A few of my handmade pillow covers will be available starting next week at the new home furnishing shop Dekor in Echo Park, Los Angeles! If you live in L.A. or are planning a visit I highly recommend checking out this store, it's filled with beautiful Swedish-American modern home furnishings and décor! I was there just last week and all I have to say is I'm lucky I took the train to L.A. otherwise I may have emptied out my entire bank account at this shop.




Thursday, July 14, 2011

Teardrop Trailer Love!

I just love teardrop trailers, they are super cute, especially the old ones from the 1940's! I've seen these mini trailers being towed behind old woody cars and Volkswagen Beetles. As much as I enjoy tent camping I can't help but want one of these cute little trailers to go camping with! Some come equipped with a little cooking stove in the rear. I really like the mid-century modern shape of them and I've seen them in colors of mint, red and yellow! I love them soooo much I decided to put one on a pillow since it's probably the closest I'm ever going to get to owning one. Perfect for the camper, the retro home or the vintage car collector! Go on over to my etsy shop and pick one up!




Friday, July 8, 2011

Corner Design Fix

One of the corners of our living room has been bothering me. For awhile it stood empty and it just didn't look right. My eye would go there and just get stuck. I had always intended to put a plant there but the pot I really wanted is pretty expensive and I just couldn't bring myself to spend so much on a pot. So finally I came up with a solution last week!

This is what the corner looked like before. 


Awhile back ago I found this 1950's triangle table at a mid-century garage sale for really cheap. The wood was a piece of badly damaged plywood so I replaced it with a nice piece of wood. It use to have a place in our house but after some furniture rearranging I no longer knew where to put the table. So I decided to use it as a plant stand!


I purchased a modern white Gainey pot and a plant and placed them in the corner.


I'm really happy with the final result! Now I'm no longer getting stuck in the corner and we have a living air purifier!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Laundry Room Makeover

At last, I finally have the before and after photos of our laundry room makeover! For those of you that have followed our other house makeovers on my old blog FindersKeepers this makeover is not quite as exciting as other ones but I think it's a good example how for not a lot of money you can really change the look of the room, even a tiny room like our laundry room!

The laundry room isn't completely finished but when you have a huge to-do list sometimes you just try to finish the bigger projects first and then come back later to add the finishing touches and let me tell you our to-do list is quite large!

When we first moved into our little 820 sq ft. 1940 bungalow the laundry room was pretty gross. The walls were really dirty from the previous owners dogs and although it was in decent condition it really needed a good scrubbing and repainting.


The cabinets were some past owners diy project gone really wrong. The doors weren't cut straight, there were huge gaps around the edges and the wood finish was pretty ugly.



We added a simple trim around the edges to hide the uneven edges and gaps which then allowed the doors to close properly.


I then primed and painted the cabinets white with a paint sprayer.


I also added new hardware that matches the finish on our new light fixture.

Before there was just a bare bulb for the light fixture. I found this handcrafted period style light fixture at Schoolhouse Electric and I think it looks perfect in our house! We are going to get a matching one for the hallway and maybe for the bedrooms as well.


I can't find the before photo but the old latching mechanism was completely missing on the backdoor and there was just a big round hole that allowed bugs to climb in from outside. We were able to find a new one that fit our door! It doesn't have the old patina on it so it doesn't really match the door handle but it looks a lot better than it did before. We still have to refinish the backdoor so it hasn't been painted yet, eventually it will be bright white.


Our laundry room still has the old style deep sink in which the washing machine dumps out into. It's really great having this sink for rinsing out paint brushes plus I use it to rinse out my screenprinting screens. Before the cold water faucet was frozen and so you could only use the hot water which often came out scalding hot. I found this faucet at Home Depot that fit perfectly and allowed both the hot and cold water to come out of the same spout. It may not look like much but it's nice to be able to control the temperature coming out.

We also added some plexi glass around the sink to act as a backsplash and protect the wall and paint. Someday I would like to tile this or come up with another solution but this was a cheap fix for now and since it's clear it's not very noticeable.


Before there was no molding at all in this room.


My dad came down and installed molding around the windows and doors as well as a baseboard which made a huge difference in this room! He did such a wonderful job with the molding throughout the entire house, it really made a huge impact!






I painted the walls a cream color and the trim and cabinets I painted a bright white which made this tiny space appear larger.

For not a lot of money we transformed this space from a dirty boring room to a clean room with much more charm and it now looks more 1940's than it did before!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

New screenprinted Scallops Pillow Covers

I have reworked one of my favorite pillow cover designs into a screenprinted version and I'm really happy with the result! This design is now available in both grey and mustard yellow

and it's also available now in light blue and white!

I just love getting inspiration from the patterns nature creates and this particular pattern I created was inspired by sea scallop shells. I designed and screenprinted this design in my San Diego, CA studio so it is completely original and can only be found at my etsy shop! The scallops are screenprinted onto a 100% linen fabric using a water based non-toxic ink. Linen is a natural material made from the flax plant which gets softer and softer with each washing. The pillow is completely handmade and double stitched for durability. Backside is solid grey or white linen with a envelope opening so pillow insert can be removed for easy cleaning. Pillow inserts are not included.

A tea towel version of this will be coming soon!

A Few Of My Favorite Things!


Looks like summer is in full effect here in San Diego. It's only 8:30 am and already it's in the high 70's. Wish I could go to the beach today but I've got a ton of work to do!

I took this photo this morning while making my coffee. It's one of my favorite white modern pots I have that I picked up at a local store called Pigment. I just love mixed succulents in modern white pots, it's the perfect marriage! Have a great day!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Re-designed Pillow Cover

Since I've been back from vacation I've been hard at work re-working one of my favorite designs! My Scallop Pillow has been a pretty popular design but since it takes me so long to create, having to hand cut and sew each felt scallop individually, I've had to increase the price and still I'm really not charging enough for how long it takes me to create it making it a fairly pricey pillow cover. So I've been working on making a screenprinted version of this design and I'm really excited about how it's turned out!  I will be taking photos of the new version this week and will be adding them to my etsy shop. Photos coming soon!