Category: just stuff.

Last week I mentioned the dress form that I saw at Acme Junk Co with a price tag of $475.

It was very cool, but you know me, I’d never spend $475 on something like that.

So I thought this might be a fun time to re-visit the stories behind my ‘dress forms’.  One that I made myself out of a Styrofoam mannequin torso, a lamp table base and a door knob, and one that I purchased at a garage sale.

I shared the story of my first ‘dress form’ once before here on the blog, back in 2013.  Yowza, have I really been blogging that long?!

You’ve maybe seen it being used to stage a piece of furniture here and there over the years.

  But lots of you probably don’t know the story behind Lula.

I named her after one of my favorite great aunts.  She was my grandmother’s sister and she and her husband lived on a farm in South Dakota.  As children, my brother, sister and I would stay with them for a week or two in the summer.

That’s a photo of Lula and her first husband, whom I never met.  He passed away and she then married my Uncle Homer.

The mannequin torso that I used to create Lula was rescued from the old Oakdale Mall (for any of you locals who may remember it) by one of the city’s public works superintendents.  The mall was being torn down and the property cleared for new development (it’s now a HyVee grocery store).  He brought it over to City Hall and asked if I wanted it (this, of course, was back when I worked there).

To be honest, I wasn’t quite so sure about a yellow Styrofoam torso, but I took it.

I knew I needed to come up with some sort of a base for it, so when I came across one of those mid-century lamp tables in the free pile at a garage sale I grabbed it.

You remember those lamp tables that were popular in the 50’s and 60’s right?

Mine didn’t look quite like that, and of course it was in pretty rough shape.  But you get the idea.  The base ended up being perfect for my mannequin.

Naturally, I asked for my handyman Ken’s help in attaching the mannequin to the table base.  To this day I’m still not sure exactly how he did it, but they are firmly attached.

It was a long time ago, but I’m pretty sure I painted the table base in black latex paint.  I was totally unfamiliar with chalk paint back then.  However, I painted the Styrofoam torso in Rust-Oleum black chalkboard paint.

I knew I needed to do something to cap off the neck of my mannequin, so I ended up deciding to use an old black enamel door knob.

It’s just pinned to the Styrofoam, but it mostly stays in place.  Same for the metal no. 1 plate.

All of the photos so far in this post are showing Lula decorated with a white chalk pen, but a few years ago I gave the torso a fresh coat of black chalk paint, and then added some gold re.design with prima transfers to her instead.

The crown and the swag on her chest are from their Gilded Home & Nature set, and the wording at the base is from their Somewhere in France set.

My second dress form, Collette, start out life looking like this …

It was covered in an ugly grey jersey knit fabric that had definitely seen better days.

I purchased it at a garage sale, and unfortunately I don’t remember exactly how much I paid, but I know it was less than $100.

It was fairly simple to rip all of that fabric off to reveal the cardboard form underneath.

The metal collar at the neck was still just a bit too new and shiny looking for my taste, so after first painting it with a coat of Dixie Belle’s Caviar, I gave it a coat of Prima Marketing’s Metallique wax in Bronze Age.

Then I changed out the original finial for this painted one …

For the final pièce de résistance, I added bits and pieces from the Prima Marketing Catalogue transfer to it.

By the way, in case any of you are wondering, I did not top coat the transfers on either one of these dress forms and they are still holding up perfectly.  Of course, they are indoors and not handled frequently so that may be a factor.

I totally love how this one turned out.

So much so that I still have it.  In fact, both of these dress forms are in the corner in our bedroom.

I haul them out for the occasional photo shoot, but otherwise they just hang out there holding all of my vintage necklaces.

So let’s see, Lula was mostly free.  The torso was free, the table lamp base was free, the door knob came out of my stash, so that just leaves paint and transfers.  And actually, I was a content creator for re.design with prima at the time, so the transfers were free too.

I don’t remember precisely what I paid for Collette, but I know it was less than $100.  Probably significantly less.  The finial I added was in my stash, and again, the transfer was a freebie at the time.

So, for significantly less than $475 each, I have two pretty cool dress forms.  It just goes to show what you can come up with if you use a little imagination!

It’s time for another installment of ‘book reviews from mom’s library’!

If you’ve followed me for long, you may remember that last year I borrowed a bunch of decorating books from my mom’s library while I was out visiting her.  Then when I got home I reviewed them all in a blog post.

I was a little sad when I looked back at that photo from February 2022.  See that bougainvillea in the background?  This year it was killed by freezing temps.  Yep, Las Vegas has had a cold winter this year.

But anyway, back to the books.

When I came home from mom’s place last year, I was all fired up to renew my library card and check out the books that were available at my own local library.  As it turned out, the selection wasn’t nearly as good.  I’m guessing that my mom’s library has much better funding than mine and thus is able to purchase new books more often.

Sure enough, I found another nice pile of decorating books at mom’s library last month.

My sister was willing to play along and hold them up while I snapped some photos of them with Lake Mead in the background.  She’s really pretty good about humoring me when it comes to this sort of thing.

Let’s just start at the top of the pile and work our way down.

Rather than being strictly a decorating book, Rescue, Restore, Redecorate by Amy Howard is a ‘how-to’ book with lots of practical step by step instructions for using various products.  It was published in 2018, so it’s semi-recent.

I’m sure many of you are familiar with the Amy Howard brand of chalk paint and other products.  I have to admit, I was surprised to find that she never seemed to mention her own specific products throughout the book.  She mentions them in a generic sort of way, and they are shown in photos, but she never specifically tells you about them.  I wonder why that is?

She includes a lot of info on gold leafing.

I’ve never tried gold leafing, have you?  Lately I’ve been thinking about what new skills I could add to my repertoire, and I think I’m going to give gold leafing a try.  Coincidentally, Dixie Belle has just come out with their own gold, silver and copper leafing-ish product.

I’m not at all sure how it works, so I ordered some of the gold and silver so I can test it out and then share the results with you guys.  Be sure to stay tuned for that.

Amy Howard also has a project using a zinc antiquing solution in her book that is pretty cool.

She takes brand new looking metal and turns it into this …

I will note that I looked this product up on her website and the fine print says it only works on unfinished/uncoated galvanized sheet metal so that would be something to keep in mind if you are thinking about giving this a try.

The item that stole the show for me in this book was this painted stereo cabinet.

I absolutely loved that lime green!  If I’m brave enough, I may have to try that on something.

The next book in the pile is Rediscovered Treasures by Ellen Dyrop and Hanna Kristinsdóttir.

This is a translation of a book originally published in Norway in 2009, so it did feel a bit dated to me.  There were quite a few doilies.

They had a lot of small projects using vintage items though, which I always appreciate.

The next book in the pile is a Country Living book called Simple Sustainable Style and was published in 2012.

It’s written by the same authors as Restore, Recycle, Repurpose, the Country Living book that I reviewed after last year’s visit to my mom’s library.

Let me start by saying that I pretty much love every Country Living book that I’ve ever picked up.  My only complaint about them is that if you also get the magazine, you’ll likely have seen most of what is included in their books.  I especially ran into that with their Christmas at Home (published in 2018).

Although Simple Sustainable Style is somewhat dated, as evidenced by the wall mounted T.V. in this shot …

I think their style is fairly timeless.

And anyone who uses old toolboxes as décor gets a gold star from me!

The books seem to be getting newer as I near the bottom of the pile.  Home Stories by Kim Leggett was published in 2020.  Kim Leggett was also the author of City Farmhouse Style which a lot of you may be familiar with.

In a nutshell, I think ‘city farmhouse’ says it all about her style.  She uses farmhouse style vintage pieces, but pairs them with more modern pieces for an updated look.

Obviously anyone with a stack of vintage suitcases has me at hello, but see how she has added that modern round, black vase?  Just that small touch makes this feel more current to me.  I have to admit though, I really want to paint that dresser, how about you?

She’s got a touch of that ‘dark academia’ look that we’re hearing so much about lately too.

She also uses a mix of painted and un-painted pieces, and some fabulously chippy pieces too!

And who says chalkboards are passé?

There is also a seasonal section at the back of the book that I enjoyed.

I have to say, if I was going to purchase any of these books it would be this one.  This would be a good one to study for ways to update your vintage style.  In fact, I think I might just go ahead and order this one today!

The final book I’m reviewing today is Down to Earth by Lauren Liess, published in 2019.

This one also has an interesting mix of mid-mod and older vintage pieces.  It’s organized into sections by styles such as ‘cozy bohemian’, ‘timeless-ness’ and ‘vintage revival’ with tips for each on how to achieve the look.

There were some very interesting combinations of vintage and modern.

Much like with Kim Leggett’s book, I’m really vibing on this idea of using antiques in a more modern context.

One review I read of this book called it ‘elevated, yet accessible’, but I have to slightly disagree.  In fact, my one complaint about this book is that it didn’t feel accessible at all to me.

As much as I appreciate the stunning beauty of that room, I’m never going to have anything like that.  I felt that way about most of the interiors that were featured.

That being said, there were some ideas I could take away from some of the smaller vignettes like this one.

I don’t think I would spend the money to own this particular book, but it was a good one to check out from the library.

I hope you enjoyed this library book review, and you were able to take away some ideas from today’s post.  Leave me a comment and let me know if any of these books are favorites of yours!

By now you all know that I have a love of typography.

I like putting words on things.

Sometimes that’s with a stencil.

Or sometimes with an I.O.D. paint inlay.

But most often it’s with a transfer.

My all-time favorite is the Label Ephemera transfer from I.O.D.

I do have one complaint about this one though, that the designs overlap each other.  It can be challenging to cut them apart, and some sections are simply unusable on their own.  In addition, this transfer has been retired, so it’s going to be harder and harder to get my hands on it.

I also really love I.O.D.’s Traditional Pots transfer.

However, all of the designs in this set are curved to fit on a cylindrical kind of object, ie. a pot.  So I think they look a little wonky on flat objects.

This button box is a good example of what I mean by that.  Here’s how it looks on a flat object.

And here’s how it looks on a curved object.

Yep, definitely better on a curved object.

I find that the Classic Vintage Labels from re.design with prima are a little more versatile in that regard.

Although many of them have some curve to them, they also have some straight lines so they tend to work well on flat or curved surfaces.

I just ordered two more sets of these, so I’m looking forward to updating more thrifted finds with them.

But they are rather small.  They are perfect for little stuff, but don’t really have enough impact for bigger projects.

Speaking of small, I also sometimes use Tim Holtz transfers which are even smaller, or the knob transfers from re.design with prima.

That’s one of the knob transfers on that miniature toolbox above and the dresser has a combination of Tim Holtz and I.O.D. Traditional Pots transfers.

Dixie Belle has recently come out with a typography transfer that works well for smaller items called Vintage Post.

I’ve used bits of it on various things like this tackle box.

But again, there is a lot of overlap of designs on this one that makes it challenging to cut out specific elements to use on their own.

Dixie Belle also has their On the Farm transfer that has some typography in it.

I particularly love that one.

And speaking of a ‘farm’ theme, re.design with prima has Everyday Farmhouse.

It’s fairly basic.

Nonetheless, I’ve used it on lots of items.

I keep hoping that someone will come out with more designs similar to the Label Ephemera from I.O.D., whether that’s I.O.D., re.design with prima, Dixie Belle, or some other manufacturer of transfers.

In the meantime, for a change of pace I recently ordered some of the new French Labels Middy transfers from re.design with prima.

I picked up a no-name crock at the Goodwill recently.  I call it ‘no-name’ because it doesn’t have any markings on it anywhere, it’s just plain and not a collectable antique.  So I tested out one of the French Labels on it.

It dressed it up perfectly, taking it from drab to fab!

If you’re just starting out using transfers and you want something easy to apply, these Middy transfers are a great option.  They come on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet and for around $16 you get three sheets of them, so you aren’t making a big financial commitment and you have plenty to play around with.

As far as quality goes, I find that all of these brands I’ve mentioned work quite well.  I can’t honestly say that the quality of any one brand is better than the others.  The I.O.D. transfers come on a gridded sheet that makes it easier to keep them straight which is nice.  But basically I tend to choose based on the look of the graphics themselves.

You have some options for purchasing transfers.

You can try to find a brick and mortar shop near you that carries them.  Here are links to the ‘find a retailer’ page for I.O.D., Dixie Belle and re.design with prima.  I will warn you though, many of the brick and mortar retailers don’t have a full inventory of products so it can be very hit or miss.  Before driving very far, I would call to see if your nearest retailer has the item you want.

I almost exclusively order my transfers online.  There are lots and lots of options for purchasing from online sellers.  One resource is Etsy.  One caution there, make sure you are looking at transfers.  You’ll also find decals, and digital prints and other things that look like transfers, but aren’t.  Read the fine print before placing your order.

Initially ordering via Etsy has led me to retailers that I now order from directly.

For I.O.D. products, I like The Painted Heirloom.  She always ships items super fast, however, you will pay $6.95 for shipping if you spend less than $60.  She doesn’t offer free shipping until you’ve spent $150 or more.  She also doesn’t have any back inventory of retired designs, so I’m out of luck on getting any more Label Ephemera from her (check Etsy for retired designs, there are usually people out there with back stock).

For re.design with prima products, I ordered my Middy labels from Flipping Fabulous.  She also ships super fast, and offers free shipping for orders over $75.  The Classic Vintage Labels I ordered recently came from Sweet Pickins.  That can be a handy way to order if you also happen to need some of their In a Pickle milk paint!

I always order my Dixie Belle transfers directly from their website, but they do charge shipping.

As for small Tim Holtz transfers, you can find some of his stuff at Hobby Lobby or Michaels, although I don’t know what their current inventory looks like.

I hope I’ve answered a few questions about transfers today.  Now how about you?  Do you have a favorite brand of transfer?  And if so, why?  Leave a comment and let us know.