Baby Talk.......

It has been really fun to receive fun emails from you being excited about my upcoming little bundle and wishing me well with my pregnancy - thank you! I am now 6 months along and feeling good - tired - but good. :) I'll take tired over nausea ANY day. I snapped a quick photo of me - glamorous I know, LOL! - to show off my belly to y'all.

Because we choose to wait and be surprised to find out what we are having, I haven't really bought anything for the baby yet BUT I did come across the cutest onesie for a girl! I couldn't resist buying it.

It caught my eye at the store in the baby section because of it's color. It's black! I'm not sure I've seen a black onesie before. The store only had 1 on the rack and it is newborn size but it has the cutest saying on it - "This is my little black dress!" Oh! too adorable to pass up! and if you follow my blog or know me at all you KNOW black is one of my favorite colors!!!!!

So now it hangs in the closet patiently waiting to find out if I will actually get to use it for my own baby or if it will quickly get put into a gift bag and delivered to someone else in the event I have a boy. ;)

I would love to also purchase THESE if I knew I was having a little girl, and several pairs too! It's been so long since I have purchased baby stuff and they have come out with some really CUTE and SMART items since my last baby!

The baby heels are just the CUTEST thing for a girly girl don't you think??? Would LOVE a pair of Brooke and Elle for sure and then to be sensible I would have to throw in a pair of "She's a little lady" too because black goes with everything!

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New LG 22-Inch LCD USB Monitor With DisplayLink Technology

LG announced this week the availability of its L226WU-PF 22in LCD monitor with integrated DisplayLink technology.

The monitor features DisplayLink’s DL-160 circuit board, which makes it possible to add up to six extra displays via a USB 2.0 connection, technology that made its first appearance in the 20in L206WU.

“We’re thrilled that LG is rapidly expanding its line of USB connected displays in partnership with DisplayLink,” said Hamid Farzaneh, president and chief executive at DisplayLink. In-Stat research projects that USB network displays will exceed 26 million units and 40 million units in 2010 and in 2011 respectively, and LG is among the key forward-thinking display companies leading this major paradigm shift.”

The L226WU-PF features 1,680 x 1,050 resolution, a 5:000:1 dynamic and 1,000:1 native contrast ratio and a claimed two millisecond response time for grey-to-grey movement of pixels. The display is also equipped with a standard D-Sub and digital DVI connections.

Availability has been confirmed for Europe but pricing had not been confirmed at time of writing.

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Longwood Gardens

My darling older sister, Michelle, is visiting from LA and it is so wonderful to have some much needed sister bonding time. This shamelessly cute photo is from my ALL TIME favorite garden and second favorite place on earth, Longwood Gardens. I'm little one with the big ol' hairbow, some things never change.

Longwood was Pierre Du Pont's summer playground dating from 1906. Fountains, topiaries, castles, conservatories, little girl's total fantasy. I spent my birthday last week exploring the old stomping grounds again.
Alice in Wonderland much?

The waterlilies are just astounding. Longwood is like living in a Monet.

This is a section of Du Pont's house. I am such a sucker for ivy on brick and i adore how this is so wild but very maintained.

Yes, this is what i want my living room to look like.

Just your average castle turret and waterfall combo.

An amazing little boy playing in the fountains. My poor mom and dad had to drag Michelle and I out of these things after hours of fun.

Some sections of Longwood feel like Versailles and some the Petit Trianon. Good thing I am obsessed with Marie Antoinette. Read this book years ago and have since been smitten.

What a good place to spend a birthday. Hip hip hurray!

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Everything old is new again.....{Faux Leather Deco. tutorial}

As I mentioned last week I have several projects in the works. One being a large file cabinet I snagged at a yard sale for $5.00!!!!!!!!!!!! I still can't believe it! I knew right away what I would do with it and how I would "transform it". I love when the piece screams at you and tells you right away what it needs. (Yes furniture and fabric to talk to me. Don't they talk to you as well?)

I thought I would document with photos how it went from sad to FAB and share the process, tips and tricks with you.

Faux Leather Decoupage Tutorial
Materials:

Mod podge - or watered down glue medium
sponge brushes
item to be transformed
Paper to layer over your item - I used brown shipping paper
paint - if necesary
Clear coat - optional

Step 1: Wiped all dirt/dust from my cabinet. I also suggest painting in this step as well if necessary. That way you don't have to worry about accidently getting paint on your mod podged area.

I painted the base of my cabinet and drawers because only the top would get decoupaged on.

($5.00 cabinet before)









Step 2: After my black paint had dried then the fun began! I wanted to go with a brown/black theme for my cabinet so I grabbed some brown shipping paper to use to cover the top. The was originally a wood laminate that had begun to chip and fall off. Hence the need to cover and re-do the top of it.

To keep covering the top as simple as possible I lined up the staight edge of the paper with the bottom edge of my laminate top. (pictured below) I tore a piece of brown paper in a random shape keeping in mind the length of the top and tearing it off so it barely over lapped the edges on both ends. (pictured below)
















Step 3: Working in sections, I put down a good layer of mod modge on my laminate top where the paper would lay. Then I repositioned the paper on top of the mod podge glue and saturated the paper with a layer of glue to keep it in place. Repeat the length of your paper working under the paper and then on top.













I definately got my hands "dirty". Fingers and hands can be the best tool for smoothing out the paper, applying pressure, and spreading the glue medium around. Make sure you put a good coat of glue on your paper so that is adheres to your base project.









Step 5: Continue to layer your paper pieces on top of each other in any sort of "pattern" you like.

Once I had all my pieces in place I added an extra coat of glue to "seal" the entire top. The easiest way to do that for me was to pour the mod podge from the bottle and use my hands to spread it around. This also allowed me to smooth out any bubbles and create "wrinkles" in the paper which would add more character to my "faux leather" looking top.












Step 6: Let dry. ****The paper will bubble as you get it saturated with the mod podge and as it dries. If you've done a good job smoothing out the bubbles as best you can, just step back and let it dry. The bubbles will look awful but give it a few hours (for a large project like this) and the paper *should* flatten itself out once it's dry. ****

Step 7: OPTIONAL - Add a clear coat over your decoupaged area letting it dry in between coats. I think between my husband and I we put on about 4 good coats on. The top now almost looks like it has glass over it. Very cool and very family friendly. Easy to wipe clean and protected from the rough and tumble of everyday life.

***Adding the clear coat will also bring out and darken any areas on your paper that were not completed saturated and sealed by the mod podge. Please be aware of this. I learned the hard way and ended up with several "spots" dotting the top. Although it turned out less than perfect from what I had hoped it would - sometimes mistakes can work too!***

You can add more paper to cover these spots too. One reason why I wanted to share this technique was to offer my tips/suggestions from the mistakes I made. :)
















And you are done!!!! I moved it into our Family room upstairs and have just begun to "accessorize" it.

Pretty good for $5.00 wouldn't you say?

Of course this same technique can be easily used for many other items and with other mediums. I would love to someday decoupage a large item with old maps!

Be sure to upload your photos from this project into the Brassy Apple Projects Flickr group!

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Summer's best treats...

Picked raspberries from our property in Maryland.
blackberries, too.

Total heaven.

Back in Brooklyn, my windowsill tomatoes have ripened!

Hurray for july!

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dockside feast.

So happy i went to maryland for the week.

yum yum yum.

the st. michael's lighthouse. oh so wonderful to get away.

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Busy, busy.................

I mentioned in my previous post that I have been "fliting around my studio" getting projects done here and there. None of the projects are entirely finished but I can show you some sneak peeks of what I've been working on.........have a good weekend! xo - Meg

Yeah! first product to wear my new labels!

Lots of "shaggy" layers there.......

Oh! Just a peek! but coming REALLY soon!

Yard sale find! hummmmm.......what do you think will be done with this?? LOL!

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