The future of blogging, footwear, Ermie, and a lamp DIY

I highly recommend having paper on your nightstand.  Personally, I have an IKEA shopping list/showroom map with a lot of Swedish-chef product names written on it,  and a broken pencil.  It's what the famous authors are doing.  Anyhow, it's necessary to write down those barely-lucid thoughts that occur just as your mind is losing its grip on reality and sliding into dreamtimes.  Because ideas that are anchored to reality are pretty much useless.

This is how I came upon my brilliant idea of a blogger-to-blogger, design-oriented vacation/home exchange!  And now look!  I'm rich and famous!  If only I could design a website and do the PR work while slipping into my nightly cheese-and-Seinfeld-rerun coma.  *SIGH*

So anyhow, I was having some free association time in bed the other night.  Been thinking a lot lately about blogging and social media.  How fast things move and change.  How challenging it can be to know in which media format to invest one's energy.  How plugged in one has to be, but also disciplined and mindful about knowing when to shut it down; when to forge "real world" partnerships and networks.

It's no secret that I desperately heart Instagram.  I'm quite prolific there, friends.  My handle is modernhaus.

So my thought was this:

Instagram is the cool friend who knows the chef at the hot new restaurant.  Blogger is the friend that knows the hostess at the Olive Garden.

This is not, by any means, in reference to YOUR blogs, guys.  In the light of day I think my brain just meant to say that Instagram seems more dynamic, immediate, energetic, experimental, and fresh.

What do you think?  Are your social media habits changing?  Are you more or less interested in blogs than you were a year ago?

Last week I attended a Nutella binge/epic business discussion on the subject with Jon, Morgan, and Laure.  Consensus seemed to be that managing social media is a little like holding on to the tail of a tiger, except for Jon who controls the internet with his mind.


Unrelated, but possibly related because I saw these via social media, are Freda Salvador shoes.

Sexy-orthopedic-handmade.  Freda Salvador, you can use that on your website if you like!

via

I want the ones on the left, to go with my imaginary Ermie dress.

photo by Kate Miss and via

And finally, the creative bender continues.  I know.  My days are filled with paint fumes, blisters, and sunburns.  I wake up covered in bruises and miscellaneous paint colors and I do it all over again!

Yesterday's victims were a couple of antique lamps:

And then anything I could get my hands on.

...................................................................

Kittinger Mandarin/Greek Key Furniture

Don't hate, but I recently acquired a full set of Kittinger Mandarin bedroom furniture. The estate was immaculate and the pieces look like they just rolled out of the factory. They have the original, sort of Tiffany blue/green lacquer, and baby these pieces are MASSIVE!







Look for them in the shop within the next week or two!

I love Greek Key motifs when used with restraint. Which probably doesn't surprise you since I have a Thomas Jefferson dining set and rugs from civilizations that don't even exist anymore.

I want to have my way with this amazing goldenrod number:



If you like this look but don't own an oil well or small Middle Eastern country, here are a pair of excellent hacks to try:

Bri used a really blah little dresser and some simple trim:



And made this:



I totally love the colors, but for you minimalists a tone-on-tone paint job would still be really beautiful.

It might go something like this:




That hack inspired Jaimee (whose blog seems to be defunct) to turn this:



into this:



This qualifies as super-brilliant because the white IKEA Malm dresser already has a nice, glossy white lacquer finish, and that's just not easy to achieve using a can of spray paint!

Any great projects this weekend?

HACKED!

You may remember that I hacked a Danish-style bed for the youngest Haus boy.
Well, recently while thrifting I found a $600-ish litho inside a very big, very sad IKEA frame.
After giving the plexi front to the boys to see how many dangerous shards they could break it into (answer: still counting, much to the pleasure of my bare feet), I was left with the wood frame and pressboard backing.



Rather than trash it, like a good little child of the Recession I "repurposed" it.
I lightly sanded the frame and the smooth side of the pressboard. I dug a little tube of yellow acrylic craft paint out of the closet for the frame, and bought a $4 can of chalkboard spraypaint.



Four dollars later, and voila, a giant, colorful chalkboard.




I just can't decide; hang it over the bed or over the chair?