Joss & Main $100 e-spree Giveaway

Today I am excited to be hosting a giveaway from Joss & Main! They provide a members-only access to highly coveted brands for the home at members-only prices. Each day, they offer their members a carefully selected collection of merchandise intended to complete and refine your home. Sales start at 11:00 a.m. EST and last a short time...with items offered at compelling members-only prices of up to 70% off what you’d pay at retail.

To win a $100 e-spree, please visit their website and leave a comment to let me know what you would pick if you won. If you are not already a member, requesting a membership takes just a few seconds.

 

*make sure you are a sabbespot follower

*tweet or facebook about the giveaway for an extra entry (second comment)

Good Luck!!

Around Here

Remember the DIY cat box building I made when we first moved to this apartment? Did I ever tell ya'll that it did not really work out? It didn't. For some reason my otherwise very tidy cat would pee off the sides of the box, and onto the cabinet floor. It was probably on purpose to let me know she did not like my crafty idea. I miss that sassy cat.

But as I told you last summer, we have a hopelessly ugly bathroom. I will say, our last apartment bathroom was probably worse, but this one is no good either. You can tell it has been re-tiled in the past 10 years and my big question is, what is up with the ole' cup and toothbrush holders still being there? Since when has anyone used a toothbrush that actually fits inside of one of those things? Ours was rusted and so, so ugly that I decided a couple of weeks ago that I needed to rip it off the wall. Both of them. And so I did and last week I grabbed this little guy from Ikea to cover up the holes my impulse decision left in the tiles.

I threw in some mason jars for organization and a hand towel and I like it very much.

I also decided this week I would give a custom boppie cover a try with some left over nursery fabric.

I bought a waterproof liner a couple of weeks ago and used it as a template. I will tell you, it seemed like an easier project than it actually turned out to be.

In other news, I hit a column parking at the OB dr. this week and managed to do $1500 worth of damage to our car!....going 1 mile an hour! Thanks goodness we have collision insurance and thank goodness x2 that I married the kindest man on earth. Better news, my baby bubble is coming along very nicely and last night my sewing instructor opened my eyes to the wonders of the twin needle. My world will never be the same.

Last thing, I have several more remnant fabrics to post, I just do not have time to take pics today.
I will do one more post with everything early next week. Have a nice weekend!

Remnant Sale! {Tonal Greek Key}

Next up, a tonal, woven greek key. This one could work in both a traditional or modern setting. The pattern is subtle enough that you can join the greek key
trend without feeling like you are going full on Jonathan Adler.

1 yard, great for a pair of throw pillows or bolster.

and some inspiration...

PRICE: $17 fabric + $3 shipping

email me at stephanie (dot) sabbe (at) gmail.com

Remnant Sale! {Jumbo Houndstooth} SOLD

As many of you know, I work from home. My baby nursery used to be my fabric and furniture storage room, workroom, junk room, etc. Well now that we've carved out a little space for our guy, I no longer have room to hoard like I used to.

As a part of my nesting process I've decided to try to sell some of the remnants I've been holding on to for that just in case project. So for the next 3 days I will be posting mostly one yard cuts (perfect for a pair of throw pillows) of several different fabrics. If you see something you like send me an email at stephanie(dot)sabbe@gmail.com and I will send you a PayPal invoice. I will note on the post when the fabric is sold.

First up, a 1 yard (54" wide) chenille blend, cream and black, jumbo houndstooth. Again, perfect for a pair of throw pillows or for covering a small bench or ottoman.

finished on both sides

and some inspiration...

You could also buy a pre-made canvas frame, break out the staple gun,

and create some very inexpensive and very easy DIY art.

SOLD PRICE: $17 fabric + $3 shipping (us only)

Additional yardage of this fabric is available. Email with inquiries.

A Lady in the Street....

The title has a story. I have become quite the storyteller lately. Probably part of becoming a mama.

Once upon a time one of my dear friends and I were at a party, it was a formal occasion. There was no printed dress code, but most people broke out their strappy, shiney, dancing clothes for this particular party. Well we ran into a friend that night who opted to go with a very conservation conservative (I hate spell check) look. Now I'm not one to pick out someone for dressing conservatively, I appreciate when women do not feel the need to advertise the goods, but again, there was dancing at this party, lots and lots of dancing. It was an annual event and if Mr. Sabbe and I did not leave in a full sweat, it was not a good year. So our friend's choice of a long sleeve cardigan and floor lenght skirt was just a bit suprising. So I, with my big mouth, made a comment about the conservativeness of this particular outfit choice {terrible, I know} And my dear friend, who never ever gossips, calmly turns to me and says "oh, you know, probably a lady in the street, but a freak in the bed." It still makes me laugh.

This house is actually what made me think of that story. See how conservative she is on the outside..

A bit more risque on the foyer.

And even more in the masterbath.

You would not even think this space would be in the house photographed above.

And a mid century mix in the living room...

Sidenote: I don't know if you can see it, but they obviously chose to remove the tv for the shoot. But why did they not stick something over the outlet? These are the things I notice in shelter magazines. I think it would have shown a nice solution for integrated flat panel tv stands. I personally would have left it.

I know there are many more examples of this lady in the street type architecture, especially in my neck of the woods where modern exterior architecture is quite rare. What do you think? Is it ok to be a lady in the street but a freak in the bed? Or should ladies just stick to being ladies?
images: Dwell

The Nursery: Chapter 7 {hiding the junk}

If you remember from my first nursery post, our little guy's nursery is not a large room and it did not have a closet. Several months ago I showed you the DIY closet from the office side, well now I've finally hidden the mess from the nursery side.

Here was the before. {yikes! I know}

And here is the after

The ceiling track was $10 from Home Depot and the panels were $30 from Ikea. I added 1.5" navy blue grosgrain ribbon to the top and bottom. The shelf to the right was another DIY that I will post once I get it all nice and styled. AND I finally got my glider. I love it. It is the Rena Glider by Best Chair. I chose the Grade A Ecru fabric and had it organically stain treated. It's skirted so you cannot see the glider parts, which I love. The grand total was $540 and I think it's going to be worth every penny.

After looking at my draped wall I decided it still needed a little something.

So I purchased 3 yards of this Robert Kaufman fabric.

And I am going to add these guys via applique...

I photoshoped it first to make sure I would like it and I think I do. By the way, as of this past Friday, I am the proud owner of CS5...super excited!

So that's where I am today. Hope you had a nice weekend!

Something For My Boy {because he will be southern}

Today I am 36 weeks pregnant. Last night I described being pregnant as "really neat" to some guy friends of ours and one of them said "neat, I've never heard it described that way." But it truly is. For the past 8 months I have been growing a person inside of me. It's the coolest thing I've ever done. We talk about our boy and what he might look like or what kind of personality he might have, but one thing that's just understood is, although we live in Boston, we will be raising our baby to be a southerner. He will call you ma'am, he will hold your door, he will say good morning when he passes you on the street. And when he's still his mama's baby, he will wear jumpers and bubbles and proper southern baby attire...at least on Sundays.

This week I made him this.

Hand stitching is not my #1 skill. But it turned out kind of kitchy and I liked that.

I used one of the jumpers that I bought several years ago at the Cooper Young Festival as a template. So now he has one for a game day and one for a trip to the Cape. The whale was a nod to New England. Overall it was a pretty easy project. I plan on making several more. And because my sewing teacher is probably going to kill me if I bring in one more "made up" project to class, I bought this pattern yesterday.

My sewing teacher is Russian and hilariously truthful (and an amazing, amazing Paris trained seamstress) But last week she told me that I "know some things about sewing but I have no foundations." She said "you just make it up as you go along." (which was not intended to be a compliment) And I responded "this is true." I promised her next week I would let her take me back to basics. Collars, buttons, and sleeves are all out of my comfort zone, so hopefully she will be pleased to help me with this one.

Now can someone point me to an online source for the little white shoes and knee socks that would complete these southern baby looks? There are no smocking boutiques in Boston. Although I did recently find a good monogrammer... get excited!

Disclaimer: I'm sure there are plenty of well mannered New England boys, whose mamas taught them open doors, pull out chairs, etc. etc. They just don't happen to live in my building.

Bright Ideas

I found this pendant last summer when I was working on the project in NYC. My client has a round stairway that is fully enclosed, I thought the shadows of the words on the wall would be awesome.

 I also thought someone with good handwriting could give this one a DIY try.

I have been a long time fan of the DWR Random Pendant

Several months ago I gave an unsuccessful shot at creating my own knock off version.

Jen did a much better job. See her tips here. I may give it another go.

I am aaaamazed by how simple Ashley makes this Anthro knock off look.

How fun are these DIY Warhol Pendants?

And when I read this fixture was made out of a paper lantern and coffee filters I almost died.

Amazing!!

Inspired to make something yet? I am

The Namesake

As I mentioned in a previous post, our little guy will be named after his great-great grandfather Remi. Yesterday afternoon I received a very special package from Bryan's Grandmother Alice. She put together a book of family history which includes a great deal about Remi Sabbe, his wife Irma, and their journey to build a life and family together in the United States. It is such a special gift, I thought I would share some of my favorite pieces.

Below is Remi with Bryan's grandfather Albert. I love that he is riding a tricycle! I think I am going to enlarge this and frame it next to the art I posted yesterday.

 Remi, Irma, and little Albert.

And this is Remi and Irma, holding baby Michael, Bryan's dad. He was their first grandchild.

Remi will be the first great-grandchild on this side of Bryan's family. I'm excited to add his story to the book. Thank you Grandma Alice for all your hard work in creating this very special keepsake!

The Nursery: Chapter 6 {DIY art}

Last week I tackled some DIY art I had planned for the baby's nursery.  My very, very talented and creative friend Laura was the originator of this DIY. She posted pics of her baby's nursery on Facebook several months ago and I immediately emailed her to see if I could commission her to paint me the same painting she had hanging over her changing table. Laura is beyond a crafter like myself, she is an artist. One time after Mr. Sabbe and I had visited with she and her husband at their house, Mr. Sabbe made the comment "I think she might be better at this design on a budget stuff than you are." We almost divorced that day:)

When I found out that Laura's art was not a painting, but a manipulation of free online clip art paired with a bottle of decoupage, I decided I would give it a go. First I purchased a 24x36 canvas at our local art store for $8. Second, because I knew that the orange that I was trying to pull from in my rug would not come in an acrylic tube, and I am not a professional paint mixer, I matched the orange in the rug with a color in a paint deck. Then I took it to Home Depot and had them make one of the $3 sample paint jars in that color. Then I painted the canvas.

For the tricycle I took the same image Laura used into Illustrator and ran the live trace tool. Then I flipped it because I wanted my tricycle facing the opposite way on the canvas. I took the image to Kinkos and had them run a 20x30 black and white plot for around $3.50. HERE is the image if you are interested in giving this DIY a try.

I cut out the tricycle, covered the back in decoupage, and laid it on my dry canvas. Then I painted all around the edges of the image with more decoupage. You have to be pretty aggressive about smoothing out all of the bubbles during this stage. And because I wanted the tricycle to look as integrated as possible on the canvas, and the fact that decoupauge dries a little shiny, I then covered the entire canvas with a coat of gloss varnish (which I already had). And whaalaaa, DIY nursery art, for less than $20.

 See how well it goes with his rug.

I really like it. Our little guy does not have a window in his nursery, so I really wanted to do something bright. For a little girl I thought it would be cute to use the same image and have colorful ribbons, that looked like streamers, coming off the handle bars. Let me know if you give it a try!

Maternity Pics

We are leaving for a ski trip this evening. I will not be skiing, but I have a million things to do to get ready before we head out. The photographer who did our maternity session sent us a video link with all of the edited images yesterday, so I thought I would share. If you are in the Boston area, Bella is great to work with!

I'm, on average (pregnant), 10 degrees hotter than Mr. Sabbe.. So the one where he looks freezing, he really is freezing. He was a good sport!

If you didn't catch it, our little guy's name is going to be Remi Michael

Remi is his great-great grandfather's name. He was the first Belgian from Mr. Sabbe's clan to come to the United States. Michael is his grandfather's name and his daddy's middle name. We can't wait to meet him!

{UPDATE} Vote for Us!!

UPDATE: We are currently tied for first!!! If you voted from one computer, go to the other!! We're sooooo close! Thanks to everyone who has already voted!

Dearest Blog Friends,

If you have a second, will you please click HERE and vote for Mr. Sabbe and I to win a date night at one of our favorite Boston restaurants? It could be our last great date night before the little guy arrives. We love the Buttery so much that we did part of our preggo shoot in the cafe. (those are Mr. Sabbe's childhood books)

Due to a technical error on the @where website, our entry just got posted this morning. So we are super behind in the polls. Login your hubbies, login the kiddos, voting ends at 10 pm tonight!

The Nursery: Chapter 5 {crib sheets are easy}

Attention anyone who can turn on a sewing machine. You can sew your own crib sheets! This was such an easy project. I got the idea from this tutorial but then as usual, went rogue. A couple of weeks ago I found this Robert Kaufman fabric for 40% off at a local fabric store. I thought it be fun with the rug, so I bought several yards.

Step One: I laid the mattress over the fabric, left the full width and cut the top and bottom to match. Then I pinned the corners together and sewed. We went with a foam mattress, which is super light, and made this part of the project very easy.

Step Two: Once I had the fabric squared up on the mattress, I did a zig-zag stitch around the raw edges. I do not have a surger. I did this in lieu of folding a hem because the fabric is only 42" wide. I needed to maintain all the width possible or I would run the risk of it being too short on the sides.

Step Three: I cut four 10" pieces of elastic and pinned their center points on the four corners of the sheet. I sewed with a zig-zag stitch ,starting from the middle, and worked my way out in both directions. I stretched the elastic as I sewed, just like in this project. The result was a nice, fitted corner. And that is it!

The skirt was even easier. It still needs some tweaking. I will come back to that later. But the moral of the post: do not spend a billion dollars on cute crib sheets! If you can turn on your sewing machine, you can make your own crib sheets! And with all the fun fabric out there, the possibilities are endless!

Another Bonus: I like it so much, I'm no longer sad about going sans bumper.