5 Uses for Paper Doilies

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You're probably thinking, isn't it a little late for doily madness? And I get it, doilies are typically associated with valentines day, and love, and grandmas. But I'm here to tell you that doilies have a lot of other great uses besides gracing the cover of a valentine card or on a coffee table under a dusty figurine. So today I'm going to share 5 uses for paper doilies and some of them may surprise you and others just remind you of their original purposes so many years ago. This is the first of a series of posts I'm going to do on "5 Uses," so you feedback would be awesome!

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1. Doilies make great garlands for parties; if you're planning a bridal, baby, homecoming, just-because shower they kick butt in the decoration department. They're also fun to hang up for just because reasons, at least I think so.

2. Doilies were originally the cake makers best friend so why not spruce up an afternoon cup of tea with a doily under your biscuit (cookie)? I think it's fun to dress up every day life, it makes the day feel special.

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3. As gift tags. I use doilies a lot to finish off a wrapping job, the little ones are fun to tie with pretty ribbons on a girly bag.

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4. Use doilies as stencils. You can lay a doily down on just about any surface, dab on paint, and voila a pretty new something just for you. The image link will take you to a sweet little tutorial on how to make doily imprinted coasters.

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5. Doilies work great as a decorative matte/background to a small photo in a bigger frame. This has been one of my favorite tricks for doilies over the years and you can see a variation of this theme on my blog here.

Do any of you have a good use for paper doilies once their traditional holidays have past? I'd love to hear your ideas! Happy leap year and see you in March. big kiss, bekuh

My Closet: How to Style a Belt

I'm probably one of the biggest fans of belts ever. After discovering their figure flattering tendencies several years ago I've been an avid belt wearer pretty much everyday of the week. I like them skinny, wide, high, and low; any way you can accessorize them. I've tied ribbons, lace, twine, and plastic wrap around my waist for a belted effect so I feel like I might know a thing or two about belts and their amazing ensemble abilities. Today I'm sharing some of belting tips so you too can experience the endless possibilities belts offer women.

Have fun playing with your style and remember if you feel good about what you wear, who cares what others think? big kiss, bekuh

My Favorite Kitchen Prep-work

Ryan and I have been doing a lot of home cooking lately, and I've managed to capture lots of pictures along the way. Unfortunately we've both been so caught up in the "cooking" that we've only managed to capture parts of each meal and not enough for stand alone meal posts. So, today I thought I'd share some of my favorite meal prep tricks that save us lots of time in the kitchen the rest of the week.

On Sundays we try to prep a lot of ingredients that keep well in the refrigerator so we can add them to recipes or make up meals on the fly. You will typically see me roasting some veggies or a whole chicken while Ryan is kneading away at bread dough. By having veggies already roasted meals become super quick to prepare; sometimes they turn into soups and other times they are mashed as a side, or reheated in a skillet to be served with whatever entree we prepare.

I just finished reading the book An Everlasting Meal and it has revolutionized the way Ryan and I see the food in our pantry. The book is full of delicious recipes, and cooking tips that help you use the resources you have at hand to make truly delicious, wholesome meals at home. I'm completely engrossed by this style of waste-nothing cooking and part of our embracing of this new found lifestyle we've started  a "tails bag." We keep all of our chopped heads and unwanted veggie bits in a gallon sized Ziploc, and then, at the end of the week we empty our tails into a boiling pot of salty water to make stock. We have an over abundance of homemade stock available all the time now and our soups, rice, and pasta dishes love us for it.

I'm so excited for the coming spring and all of the fresh produce that will suddenly come available. I have big dreams of canning and preserves making this summer. big kiss, bekuh

Weekly Obsession: Floral Paintings

My love of florals is a pretty obvious one, there isn't a week on Secondhand Sundays that I'm not wearing, talking about, or showing off something floral to you my lovelies. It's an addiction and possibly a mental problem, I'm not sure. I figured it was about time to show off some floral eye candy with you as spring is approaching and I'm just in the mood for colorful delights. I decided floral paintings were a good starting point as they combine two of my deepest loves, fine art and flowers. Let this be your warning that your brain may explode in rainbows of color and tiny buds after looking at these images.

1. Bouquet for Nora, by Lulie Wallace

Image source: Lulie Wallace Art

I cannot remember where I first saw Lulie Wallace's work but it has mesmerized me and everything she paints speaks to my inner little girl. The colors she uses are so youthful and full of life and I end up clicking one painting after another hoping it's still available to purchase. This is all just window shopping of course, but I can't help feeling deflated when another favorite bites the dust.

2. Welcome Spring, by Kate Lewis

Image Source: Kate Lewis

There is something about the thin layers of Kate Lewis' paintings that make my heart squeal in delight. Every image I see of hers; be it an over stuffed chair, or a bouquet of flowers, embodies a casual elegance that only time can create. I could spend an entire afternoon studying her work and maybe have (shhh). Sadly this painting has sold but I have a new favorite here.

3. Summer Florals, by Brittany Burton

Image Source: Brittany Burton

Some of my favorite colors to wear are yellow, olive green, and red so it should come as no surprise that I also enjoy these colors in floral. This illustration by Brittany Burton is a perfect summer print and I'd love a copy hanging in my Dining room for every season. Just gorgeous!

4. Glowing Flowers and Pink Flowers (2006), by Leanne Shapton

Image source: Leanne Shapton

Leanne Shapton captures flowers in a way I've never seen before. The picture on the left is aptly named glowing flowers, but the same could be said of all of her paintings; each one seems to have an inner glow that is alive and dancing. It would be a dream to own one of her paintings, I know exactly where I'd hang it.

5. Unknown, by Cecilia Paredes

Image source: Mymodernmet

Cecilia Paredes is a Peruvian artist whose works combine illusion and photography to create a beautiful marriage of the magical and the artistic. Whether it be animals or wallpaper, Cecilia seamlessly blends into the background creating a trompe l'oeil that tantalizes the viewer. No, this is not a "traditional" floral painting but it is floral and it most certainly is art.

6. Memory of Summer, by Xiaoyang

Image source: Canvaz

I just recently spotted this beauty on a recent random Google search and I am now a bonafide lover of all things Xiaoyang. Xiaoyang is a contemporary Chinese artist and I love the way this painting, Memory of Summer, seems to emerge from the palette knife scraped surface into full bloom. 

It's a goal of mine to buy a piece of original artwork this year, and it may just have to be one of beautiful florals by a talented artist like those above. I think I'm going to have to cross a couple of other goals off the list first, but who knows maybe this can be my reward for being a good girl. big kiss, bekuh

Doing Chores: Laundry Day

I don't know if I ever mentioned this before, but Ryan and I have no laundry facilities in our apartment so we're unfortunately forced to do laundry in one of two ways. One, lug our baskets and bins down the road to the local laundromat that charges an arm and a leg to dry things. Two, lug our baskets and bins of dirty clothes to Ryan's parent's house. We typical choose the family route because we can actually do something productive, like spend time with them, while getting our laundry done. Needless to say, it's always a bit trying to get all of our laundry from place to place and cleaned in a timely fashion. 

The pros to this method include family time, an almost savage need to wear things more than once before throwing them in the laundry pile, and I'm much more adventurous with my clothing choices these days. I try my hardest each month to concentrate on those positive aspects of laundry day instead of loathing yet another household chore needing to be done. big kiss, bekuh

Coffee and Ice Cream with a Classy Lady

Recently my friend Christine and I went out for snacks at a local hot spot, Pop's. It was so nice to spend a Friday afternoon relaxing and enjoying one another's company. It is not often enough that I get to spend one-on-one time with gal pals and just shoot the breeze. Christine ate a peach ice cream soda and I had a coffee float with dark chocolate ice cream. I felt rejuvenated after she left and thankful for unexpected holidays. big kiss, bekuh

A Painter's Nook

While rearranging my studio, and prepping everything to be painted it came to my attention that my studio furniture was prohibiting me from getting back into painting, something I am desperate to do. There was just no room for an easel among the growing piles of vintage clothes, and giant work table I've employed for DIYs and home crafts. 

So, after evaluating the open spaces in the house I decided to move my easel out of the studio and into a vacant corner of our dining room. Right now my new painter's nook is a little make-shift but it has allowed me to start painting again. It feels good to hold a brush in my hand and work the paint across a canvas. big kiss,bekuh

Why I Buy Vintage

I talk a lot about my love of vintage on Secondhand Sundays, my love of vintage is part of why my blog is named what it is, but I have yet to share with all of you why I buy vintage clothing and housewares or when all these crazy shenanigans began in my life. So today I'm going to talk from a very personal place about this crazy passion I am so deeply in love with.

The first vintage outfit I remember wearing and feeling transformed by was in third grade. My Mom bought me a pair of dark brown polyester pants and a brown floral polyester top at the local thrift store because I had been obsessing about the 1960s and 1970s for months and months. She hated buying me clothing because more often than not I'd hate what she picked out and end up hiding it somewhere so she couldn't make me wear it; this outfit was different. I'm pretty sure I wore at least one piece from this ensemble every week in third grade. I somehow felt "cooler" because I was wearing something that had so much history behind it and because I felt like it wasn't too late for me to attach myself to the movements of the eras they came from. I know it sounds like I was a really deep third grader, and I was. I was passionate about recycling and feminism and these clothes let me express that in a way I didn't yet understand.

I'm jumping ahead though, because this love affair started so much earlier, like neo-natal earlier. As soon as I was born I wore vintage, not because of some conscious choice but because I come from a long line of strong women who identify heavily with their past and held on to little mementos to share with future generations. As soon as I was out of the hospital I was wearing clothing my mother once wore and my aunts, pieces my grandmother had saved to be passed down. I grew up wearing hand me downs of my sister's and watching old movies from the 1950s, '60s, and '70s on my grandma's couch. I had no idea that women didn't dress the way Audrey Hepburn did in Funny Face or Julie Andrews in Sound of Music. My reality was that old things were beautiful and worth coveting.

Fast forward to today and vintage clothing is so much a part of my shopping psyche that I do it without thinking. But, there are still list-able reasons I like vintage clothing and prefer it to brand names and box stores.

1: I feel good about buying vintage/thrifted clothes because it keeps good clothes out of the landfills, and the 3rd grader in me still yearns to save the planet. 2: I buy vintage because it's unique and you would be hard pressed to find someone with the exact same piece anywhere. 3: I like how vintage clothing feels, the materials are often more natural and have that worn in feel that takes years to perfect. 4: The silhouettes of the clothing tend to be more flattering on my ultra petite frame. 5: I don't feel bad buying a lot of clothes because it usually costs less than new. 6: I find I'm much more likely to alter, or have something altered, if it's vintage. I don't know why this is true but it is. 7: The thrill of the deal. 8: I can usually predict trends based on what there is a lot of at local thrift stores. 9: Vintage clothing is typically well made and has already survived countless years so I find it holds up very well under heavy use. 10: People always compliment my vintage/thrifted pieces a thousand times more than the joe schmoe pieces I buy at target.

There you have it, my vintage clothing back story and reasons (selfish and otherwise) that I choose to buy vintage time and time again. If you have questions for me feel free to contact me and I'd love to hear your reasons for buying vintage clothing. big kiss, bekuh

Homemade Sushi for Two

For the last four years, from the time Ryan and I met, Ryan has been begging me to make sushi for him. I am not a sushi making pro, but a couple of years ago my Aunt Dana bought me a sushi making kit because sushi is my favorite food, and a person should probably know how to make their favorite food. So I finally relented and decided our first Valentines Day as a married couple warranted a special homemade treat.

We're lucky to have a Fresh Market grocery store within minutes of our house so I was able to pick up super fresh (for Roanoke) seafood on my way home from work. I decided on making salmon and tuna nigiri, a tuna roll, and two california rolls. We started with miso soup and needless to say we had quite the buffet of sushi awesomeness.

We decided on a candlelit dinner with wine for our feast and we spent an hour eating, talking and enjoying a date night in. Just the two of us.

Ryan bought me a gorgeous calla lily and sweet card as a gift and surprised me with my favorite dessert, pumpkin cheesecake. I felt lame having only provided dinner after such sweet treats from my hubby. 

After dinner Ryan and I slow danced to Bob Dylan, talked on the couch, split a massive piece of pumpkin cheesecake, and cuddled the night away. It was perfect Valentines Day; private and full of love. I hope all of you had a fabulous valentines. big kiss, bekuh 

Weekly Obsessions: Dream Interiors

With all the hard work I'm putting in around the house, sprucing it up and making it company friendly, I thought it was high time I shared some images of interiors that are inspiring this home remix. Though we're only renting and can't make huge changes to our living space I have managed to find ways to make the apartment feel more like our home. I'm sharing everything from hallways to dining rooms so be prepared for an extra image heavy Weekly Obsessions post.

1. Living Rooms: Lots of light and patterns

Image Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

I started the living room remix last year and there are just a few pieces that still need to fall into place to complete the look. I can't wallpaper our space but I'm adding pattern through pillows, images and (fingers crossed) new curtains sometime this year. We are lucky in that Ryan had living room furniture prior to us getting married, but it's a little too large for a cute vintage chair like the ones above so that's on the someday list for now. I know the wood filled fireplace is kind of passe now but I've been dreaming of doing this for nearly two years and it will be completed this spring. And that's a promise.

2. Dining Rooms: Wood with lots of florals

Image Sources: 1, 2, 3 (original source unknown)

I am totally obsessed with the first dining room image above, I love that open shelving between the dining room and kitchen! When we have our grown up house one day that will be included in the renovations. The bottom two images have a very similar vibe in my opinion and I would like to accomplish that naturally organized look in our gigantic dining room, though we'll never have wood floors in the apartment. Sad face.

3. Kitchens: Open shelving and punchy accessories

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It's a total pipe dream to have a green stove but I couldn't resist I just love that kitchen! We do however have some open shelving in our kitchen and I would like to add a second shelf to the mix and maybe paint the shelves black or strip them and stain them dark brown. The difference in color could really help our all-white kitchen look fresh and new but we'll see.

4. Bathrooms: White light and airy florals

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I love the subway tile in this bathroom and the dark/light contrast with a little punch of floral. Have I told you how much I love florals? Our bathroom has been another work-in-progress project for awhile now but I'm this close to finishing up what I'd like done in there. We just received this amazing shower curtain from World Market and I'll be ready to share a bathroom tour soon.

5. Bedrooms: Cocoons of comfort and collections of things

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I've seen this image on pretty much every blog ever, so why not over share it again here? I love the collection of images above the bed and the balance of colors throughout. I hope that our bedroom achieves this kind of equilibrium to those who come and visit it.

6. Laundry and Storage: Lots of organization and clean lines

Image Sources: 1 (orignal unknown), 2

Anyone who has ever lived in an apartment knows that storage can sometimes be an issue and organization is key to keeping harmony in the home. Both of the images above showcase an amazing use of space and lovely design elements that make it easy on the eyes to. I hope our closets achieve this level of zen very soon. I have my eyes pinched closed willing it to happen right now.

I love looking at images of beautiful homes and the inspiration I draw from them is amazingly useful when I'm at a loss for where to hang that last piece of art on a wall or what color combination will work in a space. Pinterest is my crack addiction. big kiss, bekuh

Quick Trip to Hotlanta

Like my cheesy title? I thought you wouldn't. My quick trip to Atlanta was anything but hot with temperatures in the teens in the morning, but it was a lot of fun and a nice break from the ordinary. I enjoyed some classic Cook Out fast food in North Carolina, saw a peachy sunset, ate way too much at my aunt and uncles, attended a fair for work, bought snacks for the trip home and wine for the year from Trader Joes, and drove a lot. My cousin and I also got the chance to watch the latest episode of the Walking Dead and I'm stoked for the last half of the season now. We also made fun of watched the Grammy's. Makes me want to go back soon. big kiss, bekuh