How to get wrinkles out of Restoration Hardware's Vintage Velvet...

Well, I finally broke down and bought a new "grown-up" bed and it's about time considering I have had the same bed since I was a senior in high school.  I have a hard time buying new furniture especially if it's a big purchase.  I strive to buy the perfect piece which for me means the following things... 1) I have to absolutely love everything about it, no settling 2) It has to be made well enough to last 3) I have to have a vision for it in the future, will it still work when I change my style in a few years?  4) I'm not made of money so I have to be able to afford it, i'm willing to save up for it, but not take out a loan...

So because of all these issues it takes me a little bit, some times years to find the perfect piece of furniture, but when I do it's always worth it.  So here it is my new bed! It is the Chesterfield Fabric Sleigh Bed in Sand Vintage Velvet from Restoration Hardware

Okay, so maybe the picture is more about my boys than the bed, but they are just so cute! 

Now on to the real point of this post...

When you order this bed you pick the fabric so it is a custom order and takes forever.  I waited over 3 months for this baby to show up so when it did I wanted to keep it.  Unfortunately once the delivery guys set it up I noticed this...

Ahhh! Wrinkles! My beautiful vintage velvet fabric was all messed up with what looked like permanent wrinkles and creases from the packaging materials.  I was annoyed to say the least.  I emailed Restoration Hardware since they are normally great about handing any issues you have.  I was hoping they would just say that with time the wrinkles would go away and this was normal or some nonsense like that.  Instead they wanted me to exchange the bed...what!? No way was I waiting another 3 months..oh I can keep this bed until a new one shows up?...Nope still not doing it. I don't want to deal with the delivery of a new bed again.  They then offered to pay for the bill if I want to hire an upholsterer to come to fix it or I can keep it like this and they will give me some money back.  After some research on how to get wrinkles out of velvet I chose the third option and took the small discount/refund and then went to work.  I refused to believe this was that hard to fix and I was right. 

This is all it took:

I used a spray bottle and lightly sprayed some water on the wrinkles, the water bubbled up at first so I rubbed it in then immediately dried it up with tissues. 

I kept doing this, spraying, gently rubbing, and patting with tissues.  I went through ALOT of tissues.

Once the wrinkles were pretty much gone I used a hair dryer on medium heat on the fabric and gently rubbed the fabric to completely dry it and fluff up the velvet. 

  

Of course I tested this first.  I had scraps of some of this same fabric I used on a chair and after it worked on that fabric, I then tested a small spot on the bed behind the headboard.  Once I was positive I wouldn't ruin the bed by spraying water on it I went to work.  

The trick is to not get it too wet and to not let the water sit for too long.  You need to make sure it dries with blow dryer and drys all fluffed up.

These wrinkles ran down the entire length of the foot board and it took me a good hour to get them out.  But, they did come out and the bed looks perfect.  I did receive a few hundred dollars back which more than compensated me for that hour, so to me it was worth it.

My "Shop" is Open!

I did it! I finally opened a shop on Etsy!  I have been buying things on Etsy for years, but have never jumped in myself.

I have a small obsession with all things vintage and antique, these pieces really make a house feel like home to me.  I believe I inherited this love from my grandma whose home is decorated so wonderfully and could easily double as a museum.  She has an amazing talent for decorating and collecting and I can only wish to have a home as beautiful as her's someday.  As a kid I never truly appreciated how amazing her home was, but I did know that I always felt so comfortable, loved, and at home there.  I still remember when I was a teenager telling her all about a new bedroom set I just got that I thought was amazing and probably the coolest thing ever.  It was very 90's modern and shiny black with silver trim.  She listened to me and told me how when she was younger she loved modern furniture too, and then her taste slowly turned to traditional/country and then to antiques.  She said someday I too would probably like antiques.  I thought to myself, and probably out loud too knowing me, that I would never like the same decor as my grandma.  Well she obviously knew better than I did and today I would love to live in her home.  

So over the years I have slowly decorated and collected just the right pieces for my home, it truly is a constant work in progress.  Some things I bring home and right away they have a spot or fill a need, others move around my house until they settle in, but some never find a place.  I also have found I just really really love going to sales and finding a great buy.  Sometimes it's all about the thrill of the hunt.  So I decided if I want to continue on this treasure hunt I am going to need a place to put my finds and a way to fund it.  I have dreamed about a little shop but right now that's just a dream, I have looked into renting a booth in an antique mall and I am just not quite ready for that.  So for the moment the place that seems most logical is etsy.com.

I have been reading and researching this on and off for months, but the only way I am going to learn and figure it out is to just jump right in.  Today I did just that.  I opened up a shop and listed my first item and I will just figure it out as I go and pray for the best.  This how I do most things, okay all things, in my life so here I go!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SmellTheCosmos

The Big 3 0

So another week has gone by without a post...obviously I'm bad at regularly updating this blog.  Sooo we should probably just acknowledge right here and now that this is not going to be a blog with posts every day or even every other day.  I mean who has time for that anyways? I'm busy, you're busy.  Let's just agree to meet up here at least few times a month...okay? Okay.

Now what was I doing last week that kept me so busy?  My 30th Birthday of course!

Yes, I am one of those people who celebrates their birthday for a whole week.  I feel like I deserve it and I need a whole week of fun.  Which in all honesty translates into a week of me eating what ever I want, sleeping in super late, and slacking majorly on my chores.  Then the actual day of my birthday I go all out.  In years past I have spent the day at the spa or spent the day shopping.  This year my birthday might have been the best yet.

I woke up super early which is unusual for me.  There are only 3 things that I will wake up early for: work, a flight, or a garage/estate sale.  Lucky for me there were a couple really good estate sales the morning of my birthday that I just had to visit.  Even luckier, probably 30th birthday luck, is that I scored some pretty fun stuff.  I was excited to pick up a few bags of craft supplies for a few bucks and these pretty pieces all had to come home with me...

I fell in love with this umbrella stand...

this painting is so charming, but that frame! love it!

and the best and most exciting find...this flatware set!

Nobility Plate Oneida 1939 Royal Rose Pattern, so pretty!

Then after my morning of treasure hunting it was time for celebrating!  

one of a few pictures I did remember to take...

Since I love a good cup of tea the only logical way to gather my friends was for afternoon tea.  I chose to have my tea at Veranda at the Four Seasons.  This was my first time there and it did not disappoint.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of it! What was I thinking?!?!  I guess this just means I will have to go back again to take pictures.  I can say that the food was amazing.  Everything was delicious and the service was great.  I have been to tea at the Mandarin Oriental before and while you simply cannot beat the view or atmosphere of the Mandarin Oriental the food at the Four Seasons was so much yummier.  The portions at the Four Seasons were also much larger and none of us could finish and we had to bring home a couple of boxes of yummy desserts.  

To top off my week of celebrating we had my parents over for some yummy smoked brisket that my hubby cooked and my mom brought with her the best birthday cake ever!  Seriously the best cake I have ever had.  She got it from my favorite cup cake shop called ShowBoy BakeShop.  They have a cupcake called The Bombshell which is sweet strawberry cake topped with champagne buttercream.  It has to be my favorite cupcake flavor and they made this cupcake into a cake in the shape of a tea cup complete with sugar cubes!  It was so cute and so delicious.  I am such a lucky girl and this definitely made the sting of turning 30 so much easier to bare. 

Expanding my Garden in the Desert

I wanted to share with you my "garden" progress...

A little while back I shared with you my plan/dream for some raised beds...

My growing space has been very limited and I was only using pots around the yard and these large planters.  Ever since we moved here our yard has been a work in progress and every year we add and improve.  This year we built some raised beds and I am so excited about them.

We wanted to spend as little money as possible, make them as eco friendly as possible,  but still make them strong enough to last a good while.  So here is what we came up with...

First we took a little trip to Home Depot.  Well, we actually we started off at Lowes, but they were unable to cut our wood for us.  Apparently they can only cut wood that is 1" thick or less, so boo on them and good to know for the future.

We were super happy to find the wood we wanted, and that we were able to have it cut to any length we wanted at Home Depot.  We picked up 8- 2" x 12" x 10' boards and had them cut in half.  We also picked up a couple 2"  x 2" x 10' boards and had them cut down to fit in our car.

We used the smaller boards for corner pieces and screwed everything together.  The boxes ended up approximately 5' x 5'.  

Next I painted everything with Raw Linseed Oil.  I bought natural untreated boards because I didn't want any chemicals seeping into the soil, but I was worried they wouldn't last very long.  So after some research I decided to use an old method of wood protection,  Linseed Oil.  Raw Linseed Oil is Flaxseed Oil which they sell in the vitamin section, so I figured it was pretty safe.  I bought the raw untreated version because there are some linseed oils out there with chemicals in them so that they dry quicker.  So make sure you read the labels before buying.  This oil does take along time to dry, but since I live in a desert I wasn't worried.  I left them to dry in my garage for about a week and after that they were still slightly greasy, but I'm not sitting on them or anything so it didn't bother me.  I just brushed it on, it's basically like painting on olive oil.  

Once they were somewhat dry we moved them to the backyard and into place.  We quickly discovered our yard was not as level as we thought, which is probably our fault.  So we just dug out some dirt under the high parts until everything was level.  

Here is Leo inspecting the new beds...

Now we were finally ready for some dirt!  I was so excited until I realized how stinking expensive and heavy dirt could be.  We ended up buying the cheapest dirt we could at our local nursery and just amended it ourselves.  

I could not wait to get some of my plants and seeds in...

 I still want to make this area a little prettier.  First I want to remove the grass between the beds because I feel that will be a nightmare to keep mowed.  Then this fall I want to add an olive tree to the middle for something nice to look at.  I think this summer will pretty much be one giant experiment.  Each box gets a different amount of sun so I still need to figure that out and figure out how much I can fit and grow in each.  Hopefully I will only have good updates this summer, but you never know.  Fingers crossed!

Tea shops in Hawaii

One more post about Hawaii that I almost forgot to share....

Not only are there great places to have a cup of tea in Hawaii, but I was really surprised and a little jealous by how many places I passed that sold tea and tea cups.

One evening while heading to dinner we passed a store called Royal Selection.  I had seen another one earlier that week, but wasn't sure what it was so I didn't go in.  This store had some tea cups in the window so of course I had to go in, and wow.  I could not believe the amount of beautiful dishes they had.  I was so memorized by everything that I spent a good while just looking at everything and completely forgot to take a picture.  If you are in Waikiki and see one of these stores you have to check it out.  They had dishes I have only read about online and have never seen in person before.

Here is a picture from their website to give you an idea of what fun this store is...

Royal Selection Kings Village

The next store I just have to share with you is Lupicia at the Ala Moana Center.  I saw the store from a distance and had no idea what it was, but it looked interesting so I went in.  I was happily surprised to find it was a tea store that sells more than 200 kinds of fresh tea. 

At this point I was in complete heaven and the hubby was being a smart ass saying "see??"...  The store is located on the lowest level outside of the mall, you walk out of the store and you are literally in the parking garage.  It's a very weird setup and when you're in the mall this end looks a little grungy and not very inviting because well its sorta in the garage.  I was going to skip this area and turn around, but the hubby insisted we walk down there just to take a peak and see what stores were on this outside edge.  Well I'm so happy I listened to him.  

Along one wall is the a long line of teas for you to look at and smell.  Once you know what teas you want you can either grab that tea from a display if it's out, or take a piece of paper from the sample area up to counter where they will retrieve it for you.  

I had the hardest time deciding which teas were going home with me.  There were so many yummy ones I wanted to try but only so much room in my suitcase....

I finally narrowed it down to five:

• Muscat Oolong- Full-flavored tea is exquisitely accented with sweet muscat grapes.
• Cookie- Black tea scented with an image of freshly backed caramel cookies. Best served with milk.
• Chocolate & Strawberry Puer- Decadent with chocolate on the nose finishing with the juicy tart flavor of ripe strawberries. 
• Rosé Royal- A black tea with enchanting aromas of sparkling wine and sweet strawberries.  This is their signature tea.
• Thé Au Chocolate- Black tea scented with dark chocolate.  Blended with cocoa nib and cocoa powder

They all sound and smell so delicious.  I can't wait to try them and share with you if they taste as good as they smell