A Campaign for Hacked Ikea Dressers

I have another dresser to introduce to you.

And NOW, an obligatory assault to the eyes:

Ikea laminate furniture in its full glory. 

Complete with a grad student apartment context and what appears to be a small pharmacy crammed onto the surface. Aaah, please make it stop!!

The sheer magnitude of improvement almost disturbs me.

I became aware of campaign furniture from....Pinterest. The look subtly masculine, yet chic. Campaign furniture was originally made for travel, specifically army travel. The UK Army and Navy manufactured a lot of this furniture in the late 19th to early 20th century, as reported by Wikipedia.  Now I, too, have my own little piece of history, and it houses a little birch Ikea dresser beneath its satiny grey exterior. 

Here's a brief list of items I procured from trusty Home Depot to make my vision come to life:

Brass corners ($2.50/pk x 4 pks = $10): to be completely honest, I'm not even sure what is the original intention of this product. 

They can't possibly be made for the sole purpose of creating campaign-inspired furniture?

Behr satin finish paint "Creek Bend" ($13): this color is the It color right now for interior decorating. It's so hot, I'm afraid it will evaporate and I'll be left with a birch dresser again. Worst. Nightmare. Ever.

Oh, please also refer to my last dresser adventure wherein I laud the merits of Zinsser Oil-Based Primer. This product gave me the support and confidence I needed to see this silly project through to the end. I would like to thank it for my Lifetime Dresser Painting Achievement Award.

Cup pulls ($4 x 4 = $16): At first I was angry that this cup pull did not come in brass at the store. Online there were so many finish choices (copper, brass, nickel, polished nickel), my head was spinning (or was that the paint fumes?). But I wanted so badly for my dresser vision to come to fruition that I just Went For It. I think it was a good move. The mixed metal look adds some interest.

After one coat of primer (applied with a roller, then smoothed over with a foam brush), I applied two coats of Creek Bend (grey paint). I painted the whole thing with a foam brush---it created a much smoother texture than my last dresser which I painted with the roller.  The roller left all sorts of ridiculous fuzzies onto the paint.  A detailed discussion of fuzzies is probably not good for my sanity.

Poor Mike drilled all the holes for the brackets and pulls. At least he didn't have to do them by hand!

I think it looks like a treasure chest! Ahoy matey, what bounty lurks beneath! (Actually nothing right now, as we need to pack for our move in less than 2 weeks!!!)

I may be MIA again for a while, as I have to move to another city, go on vacation to NOLA, transform into a pulmonary & critical care medicine fellow, and then take my medicine boards.

*explode*

Dressy Dresser

Hey look! It's a new dresser....wait a minute that looks familiar.....

I caught the furniture makeover bug baaadly after spending too many hours on Pinterest.  My poor Ikea Malm dresser did not stand a chance. 

Here are my ingredients:

Paintable wallpaper ($15): applied to the front of drawers.

I cut strips to fit, then soaked them in the bathtub.

As I carried them from room to room, wallpaper paste dripped everywhere.

Oil-based primer ($8): miraculous product unanimously recommended by furniture DIY bloggers.

It allows one to paint over laminate furniture without sanding or pre-treating in anyway, which is perfect for apartment dwellers like me who lack tools and workspace.

Behr paint (color = Pot of Cream) ($13): dries within 2 hrs and ready for a second coat!

Unfortunately, I did not splurge on paint conditioner so brush strokes and fibers of the roller were quite apparent. Oh well!

Brass cabinet pulls ($1.69 x 10 = $16.90): adds a baroque zing.

I contemplated crystal knobs for their swanky feminine look, but they were $4 a pop! Oh well!

It was NOT easy to measure them out, drill TWO holes per pull, AND screw them in. 

Luckily I had the help of....

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drumroll

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Husband with drill (priceless + $39): Mike got something out of this adventure, too: an electric drill! 

Whoopeeeee!  He is sporting his favorite J.Crew shirt and new Levi's.

Oooh, and here the dresser is adorned by my newest acquisition ;)

Now, I still have a roll of textured wallpaper, 1/2 a can of primer for my next victim project, and most of the glossy white paint. Husband and drill also still available for commission (I hope).

Chairdresser...Part One

Recently, I lamented that my yellow vintage furniture was dangerously straddling the line between vintage and disintegrating. See how the seat was punctured and sadly repaired with tape? This is how my poor chair dragged on for the last 10 years or so. How embarrassing!

I went on an amazing adventure all around town to gather the items necessary to rectify this important problem. After a whirlwind tour of an upholstery shop, I brought home some new yellow vinyl (it was in the discount room for $8! Ha! They probably thought they wouldn't be able to sell it.) and some other fun-pattered fabrics. I also bought a staple gun at Home Depot. Be afraid...be very afraid. (That was addressed to all of the chairs in my home.)

Behold, the crime scene:

Before and after (actually, after and before):

The new chair sits higher than the old one because I even got new rubber stoppers for its legs and now it is standing tall and proud, and slightly bouncy, too. The chair on the right is still in reasonable condition, but I probably will reupholster it, too, so that they match. Sadly, it is impossible to find the exact vinyl that is used for these chairs.  There are maybe just 2 companies on the internet selling this "cracked ice" vinyl and they charge $35/yd!!!! Holy moles that is expensive vintage vinyl! I think $8 plain yellow vinyl will suffice, thank you ma'am. I now have enough yellow vinyl to cover at least 8 more chairs. Anyone interested? Maybe you will be after looking at one last chair picture.

Convinced? I thought so.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

From my Holiday Oven

'Twas the night before Christmas and there was one mouse a-stirring...cookie dough, that is. (That mouse was me.)  It all started out as a basic cookie dough for chocolate chip cookies, as per this recipe.  Then, I divided it in two and invented two new cookies!

New Cookie #1: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Walnut

I really should try to come up with a more creative name, like "Ostrich Cookie" or "Clumsy Cookie."  But alas, I know not of a fitting moniker to accurately capture how wholesome n' earthy yet sophisticated this cookie tastes.

The sophistication comes from the coarse salt sprinkled on before baking! Other ingredients, surprising and not, include:
- a generous dollop of creamy natural PB (the kind that separates into oil)
- chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup ground up oatmeal (wholesome/earthy)

Next time, I will squash them flat before baking so that they come out thinner.

New Cookie #2: Peppermint Chocolate Marble Cookie or "Zingy Swirl Cookie"

Some cookies are more swirly than others.

For this cookie, crushed candy canes are added festively to melted chocolate whilst singing a happy holiday tune. This mixture is cooled prior to swirling back into the plain cookie dough.
I used:
- 8 candy canes (the regular size, not the mini size)
- 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
This cookie had a much better spread and crispiness than the Clumsy Cookie above. My suspicion is that the melted chocolate thinned it out, or perhaps it was the lack of oatmeal...

Have no fear, peek in here!

Nom-licious

Bonus Baked Good: Lastly but not leastly. I went on a sufganiyot adventure! I followed the instructions from the videos on www.sufganiyot.com.  I think it is special and amazing that such a website exists.

Sufganiyot = a fried and jelly-filled Chanukah miracle

J.Crew Boucle Dress-Up

I recently acquired this dress in size regular 00 during the 30% off craziness after Thanksgiving.  Not surprisingly, it was unacceptably loose on my torso (no pics of this spectacle exist, sorry). Conversely, it fit so perfectly through the waist and hips and was so awesomely tweedlicious, that I decided to permanently maim (alter) it, sabotaging any attempts Reasonable Quyen could have made to return it.  "But I've never owned a boucle dress before," rationalized I.  Then I proceeded to take up the shoulders by 1.25 inches.  I wish I took photos of the whole gory process where the innards of those shoulder straps were vulnerably exposed.

Finished product:

Hey, not too bad for a simpleton.

After alterations:

While the torso of the dress is still too wide, imagine how awkward it was with an extra 1.25 inches of shoulder strap billowing ridiculously about. Perhaps the petite 00 would fit better on my curiously narrow torso.  On the other hand, I purposely ordered the dress in regular sizing instead of petite because I did not want the hem too short, reminiscent of the debacle with the pencil skirts.  And of course, look at how this hem hit above my knees...I shudder to speculate that a petite dress may have hit mid-thigh! Hem hem. Despite the hem hitting above the knee, I do believe the proportions look appropriate on me, given that I am only 5'4" and not 6'4" like the J.Crew models.  Though, I can't help but wonder why the dress is so much slimmer and longer on the model in the stock photo. Did they make her a special long, skinny, and tapered dress?



Loose torsos aside, this dress is lovingly constructed and portends numerous layering and accessorizing possibilities.  Here are a few ideas:

I wouldn't have been able to layer all those shirts beneath if the torso of the dress weren't loose!

1. Sweater: Valerie Stevens Cashmere | Boots: Etienne Aigner
2. Shirt: Limited | Belt: Forever 21 | Shoes: from Vietnam
3. Dress by itself | Shoes: Etienne Aigner

1. Dress looks fine on its own as long as I hold my arms down!
2. Top: Sisley | Belt: J.Crew | Boots: Etienne Aigner
3. Shirt: from Vietnam | necklace: Target | Shoes: Urban Outfitters

1. Jacket: Talbots | Belt: Express | Shoes: Sears
2. Repeat outfit #3 above
3. Shirt: H&M | Necklace: UO | Belt: J.Crew | Boots: from Madrid

Future experiments:
- layering with navy or wearing navy accents
- cardigan
- layering with short-sleeved blouses

The possibilities are endless when you have a solid boucle dress!

Pencils Come From Pennsylvania

Pencil Skirt Galore!

I love me a good pencil skirt! But lately, I've been droning on and on about skirt length, knee caps, and the proverbial flats-heels difference. Let's explore those feelings.

These spreads from the J.Crew Aug 2012 (right) and Sept 2012 (left) Style Guides showcase the inspiration behind my celebration of all skirts pencil!

The No. 2 Pencil Skirt (left), as worn by this unrealistically tall model, fits ideally for a slimming and lengthening look:
sits at waist, hits at knee. Boom.
The heather acorn Sterling Skirt (right) looks lovely paired with camel hues.

The ideal skirt length undergoes peri-patellar variation from season to season. For example, J.Crew put out some long pencil skirts last spring that hit below the knee.  The ideal skirt length also depends on the wearer's height, and whether said height has received boosting by high-heeled footwear. Skirting with long lengths = teetering on edge of danger, as in too-long a skirt can make one's legs appear short and stubby. A good skirt length also probably depends on one's torso:legs ratio, but that is just getting too technical!

Top row: my shorter skirts hit above the knee
Bottom row: my longer skirts mostly hit mid-knee
I tried to standardize the pictures by selecting those in which I am wearing ~2.5" heels. You're welcome.
Skirt Casting:
TOP Vietnam | Anthro Just Right | Anthro Paisley Paths | J.Crew Pencil (2011) | J.Crew Feathered Paisley
BOTTOM Vietnam | Anthro San Pedro | Target | Anthro Trenchcoat | Zara

Wow, I sure own a lot of pencil skirts! And the above smattering doesn't even include my new acquisitions. 

And now, the adventurous installment of my post...altering my J.Crew pencil skirt in the wee hours of the night!!

I let out the hem by an inch. The back pleat was especially tricky, but nothing that some heavy-handed ironing can't fix!

Comparing with the sterling skirt, which used to be the same exact length.
When worn, the pencil skirt actually drops much lower than the sterling skirt since it has a wider waist and sits lower.

 Here it is in person...only 1 inch longer than before, but I am immensely pleased with the results, especially when wearing heels :) In the following series, I compare the altered skirt (left and right) to a pre-alteration photo (center):

With heels
Middle picture = BEFORE: skirt hits above knee, blocks off  middle 3rd of body awkwardly, makes me look short, defeating the purpose of wearing heels.
AFTER: looks much more lengthening/slimming! Just like the disproportionately tall J.Crew model!

With flats
Middle picture = BEFORE: looks alright, I suppose.
AFTER: still looks good even with flats. Extra skirt length did not compromise illusion of leg length. Win!
The back pleats look pretty good, not like some amateur tore apart the seams and hand-sewed them back or anything...

And there you have it, a diatribe all about pencil skirts. Kind of like the time I described my views on jeans.

Thanksgiving Bonanza 2012

This year for Thanksgiving, I was thankful that I did not cause a small kitchen fire.  Fires are sooo 2011.

But seriously, like WO we hosted 7 of our friends and fed them a real dinner with cloth napkins and all the plates and silverware that we received from the wedding.

Wait a minute, is that HEN?!

YES THAT IS HEN.

My friends brought some dishes over (cranberry sauce, and stuffing, and yams) which can be seen above.

I woke up and started cooking at 6AM again like last year. Here's the menu I conjured, with links to each dish's Chronicle of Creation (or Description of Disaster?)

Roasted Garlic and Potato Soup

Green Bean Casserole

Sweet and Sour Brisket (No dedicated pics! Ate too quickly!)

Rosemary Garlic Cornish Hens

Devil's Food Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Icing

And that was the sweet and buttery conclusion to it all!

Chapter 1: Thanksgiving Appetizer / Roasted Garlic and Potato Soup

What can I say, this whole endeavor started because I was curious about roasting whole garlic in the oven.

It really is as fascinating and delicious as they say.  Basically the whole bulb of garlic gets drizzled with olive oil and wrapped in foil and roasts in an oven.  Then it falls out of the skin all soft and aromatic.

I actually used 1 and a half bulbs of garlic.

I ate a lot of the garlic when it came out of the oven but there was still some to go into the soup.  Earlier in the day, potatoes were peeled, cubed, and boiled.  Then smashed into submission!!! And broth + almond milk were added until it was creamy.

At some point I must've added shredded cheddar cheese to the soup but in the end it didn't matter because you can't really taste the difference--the roasted garlic was all the flavor it needed.  

Mike and I had potato soup during a break from cooking.

On the day after Thanksgiving, the soup became dehydrated and turned into just regular mashed potatoes.  The garlic flavored intensified at this point and I was in garlic potato heaven!