The Bargain Life

every issue of The Atlantic Monthly since 1995 online: free
caviar-fueled discussions about the social and intellectual impact of Google: priceless
all kidding of intellectual snobbery aside, The Atlantic has some really interesting articles about issues that the mainstream media isn’t always talking about.  and it’s free!

if you’re looking for something less nerdy, and probably a lot less legal, i just found out about the website mygazines.com, which houses user-uploaded scans of loads of magazines.

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recently i’ve been thinking a lot about tables. crazy, i know, my mom thinks so too. our current dining room set belongs to my roommate, so i’ll probably need to get my own this May. it can’t hurt to start planning early, right?

i envisioned a dark wood top, mahogany perhaps, on a base out of square metal piping. the base of the Torsby table from Ikea is exactly it.

but i would want to replace the top with a wooden one. i got all inspired on that ground when i went to Rockler Woodworking with my dad and some some gorgeous exotic woods:

zebrawood (left), and wenge (right)

i also saw samples of Transtint dyes on curly maple that caught my attention since they come in colors like red, purple, green, blue, etc. unlike washes, the color is vibrant but you can still see the wood grain beneath. these would look infinitely prettier than paint.

the base of the table would also coordinate with the Klubbo tables that i want. i would buy them now except that they don’t match our current living room decor at all.

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as i previously explained, i’m in desperate need of wall art for my house back in Atlanta. i’ve been playing around with some pictures in photoshop trying to make them look more graphic. the ideal image is black and white with no grays, and then i would print it, cut it out, mount it on colored cardstock, and frame it. here’s one of my cats that turned out well, people are harder because you tend to lose the faces when you up the contrast.

from this…

…to this

the basic process is this:
1. open the image in photoshop
2. convert it to grayscale
3. try to white-out most of the background (how much you leave will determine how thick the lines around your image is)
4. increase the contrast to about 50%
5. gaussian blur about 2 pixels (this gives you cleaner shapes instead of pixelated ones)
6. repeat steps 4 & 5 until you are happy with the result
7. print and enjoy

if that’s too hard, you can always make a cartoon with befunky.com. the downside is that the image is small and consequently not good for printing. here’s what the same photo looks like:

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Does anyone know of Etsy sellers who sell prints of their works for cheap? Preferably bold graphic stuff. I’ve been browsing and found a few things I like, but there are so many sellers.

I have a bunch of Ikea Nyttja frames and I need something to put in them. Of course I have about a million ideas: doodles, paper cutouts, art prints (Matisse cutouts maybe), magazine clippings, Marimekko postcards, Warhol-ized photos of my friends and family, scrapbook paper, scrap fabric, collages, etc. I also have quite a collection of band posters, but now that I’m not in a dorm anymore I don’t really want to plaster my walls with them. When I have too many ideas it usually ends up with none of them being put into action.

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My family and I went yard sale hopping this weekend. I was mainly looking for junk furniture to fix up, but I saw something so ridiculous/awesome that I had to have it. And so I present to you the 80’s bridesmaid monstrosity. Not only did it cost a whopping 50 cents, but it actually fits me really well, which pretty much never happens.

I’m not the only one in the family with the bargain gene. My little sister picked up the skirt that she’s wearing as a dress for one dollar, and the belt for free. It would look cuter if she didn’t try it on over her t-shirt, but oh well. She also got a super cute little league baseball tee for 50 cents.

I also picked up 2 pieces of free furniture: an end table and an old dining chair. I’ve been working for the past few nights on scraping and sanding the old varnish off of the chair, removing the torn seat cushion, and pulling out all of the upholstery nails. Maybe by tomorrow I’ll be ready to paint. I’ll have to cut a base for the new seat cushion out of plywood because the old woven base was torn, but luckily I have access to my dad’s tools now that I’m at home.

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Recently I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about design projects, but not much actual crafting. partly that’s because all my works in progress are at my house in Atlanta. the first of these works in progress is a pair of chairs that I got when my boyfriend moved out of his house. the pant is chipping and the fabric sucks, but they have the potential to be cool with some spraypaint and reupholstery.

I’ve been working on scraping and sanding off the old paint. I went out on a limb and bought a can of bright red rustoleum spray paint, but I couldn’t find a fabric that looked good with it and I realized that it doesn’t match my decor at all. so i’ve nixed that idea and I’m back at start design-wise.

I think I’m going to go with “Harbor Blue” paint:

unfortunately most fabric stores don’t sell big bold prints. most of the fabrics are for quilting or clothing, and the upholstery fabrics are all boring florals or stripes. so that leaves me with Ikea and the internet.

here are my favorite fabrics from Ikea, all at $6-8 a yard:

as far as the rest of the internet, that’s a huge world of choices. I like the idea of making them match the sideboard/tv stand I made (pics here). this fabric is dead on:

there are a few other fabrics with the blue/brown color scheme that I also like:

(ok, so that last one’s not brown)

I’m quite overwhelmed by all of the fabulous choices.

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When I can’t sleep I like to lust over gorgeous apartments on Atlanta craigslist. These two are utterly fabulous. Each photo links to a listing with more pictures.

@ The Factory Lofts in Downtown

@ Eco Lofts in Chamblee

I dream of brick walls and high ceilings.

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$24.99 seems a bit much, but I love the simple sleek design of this magazine rack from Target, and it would definitely help with the clutter in our living room. I can’t decide whether or not to buy it. opinions?

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This “cat pueblo play tower” from Target (online only) is so beyond adorable and well-priced at $31.99. Unfortunately my cats don’t need it anymore since I already bought them a “kitty scyscraper.” Part of me likes this a lot better even though it’s not really my style.

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