Maggie: She's what defines Hot Ticket. To fully describe why Maggie is so amazing, I need to provide you with a bit of background:
After a turbulent sophomore year of high school, I decided that I wanted to leave home and go to boarding school. I went from a 500-person school in the small central Massachusetts town I grew up in to a 1,000-person school in the western part of the state. I was fairly shell-shocked and unprepared when I arrived at NMH (Northfield Mount Hermon). Every morning for the first two weeks, I woke up and vomited due to anxiety and homesickness. I cried a lot. I was a mess. I missed my second day of classes because of the vomiting issue. Later that day, a note was delivered to me. The note, written in light blue gel pen on recycled loose leaf paper, was from Maggie, one of my classmates. Maggie wrote how she noticed that I wasn't in class that day, and she welcomed me to hang out with her. It was one of the nicest gestures I have ever experienced.
I decided to brave leaving my dorm room, I and went to visit with Maggie. One of the first things I noticed about her half of her room was that it was impeccably decorated. Her posters were in
frames. She had a stereo
system, and a beautiful wrought iron lamp that she told me her father made. I learned that her dad was a blacksmith, her mother was an artist, and that Maggie dreamed of performing in musical theater. She talked to me about her favorite performer at the time, Ruthie Henshall, and how her father had taken her to see one of Ruthie's shows. Maggie seemed confident and vibrant. Over the next two years, we became best friends, and we've managed to keep in touch since.
Maggie currently lives in Portland, Oregon, and she works as a collections information manager at the Portland Museum of Art. (I looked up her title and everything!) She continues to have impeccable taste and a love for musical theater. She continues to make me laugh and smile whenever I hear from her. When I asked Maggie to be this week's Hot Ticket, she wrote back and told me that she isn't into the crafts, per se. She suggested that she write about her love of design and how her home reflects her creative choices. I loved this idea, naturally, and encouraged her to run with it. Below, Maggie talks about making her apartment into her home.
Tell me about a craft and/or art project you made.
I was so excited and flattered when you asked me to do this, but it was a harsh reminder that I haven't been making things as often as I used to. I truly believe that art is everywhere, though, and that, surely, I could find something from my life to talk about even if I don't have any big or inspiring projects to share. I thought about a few small home improvement things that I've done over the past few years and then I thought about talking about my flea market and thrift store treasures and then I thought about having a snack and then it hit me: every topic I entertained was about my HOME. Really, my favorite project to work on is making my home a comfortable and welcoming place. So that's what I'll talk about.
What inspired you to make it?
"I have always been a woman who arranges thiiiiings . . ." My parents always made a beautiful home for us and when I left at 14 to go to boarding school, it was very important to me to maintain a sense of homey-ness from afar. Since I left for boarding school, I've had a different room of my own every year of my life, with very few exceptions. If the location isn't stable, at least the feeling can be, you know? That, and it's compulsive.
Did you come up with the idea yourself, or did you find a pattern and/or template that you used?
I follow design blogs (like this one) and I have a boatload of ultra-creative friends, including my supremely artistic parents, who inspire me all the time. Some project ideas I borrow, some are born of necessity, some are the result of sheer boredom, and some are challenges.
Here's an example of a sheer boredom style project. I had a can of stain and some paint samples and a really drab IKEA bookcase. It was inevitable:
I got this A/V cart at a local thrift store for $15 and gave a fresh coat of spray paint in the parking lot next to my apartment . . . LIKE A BOSS:
The reason I got the A/V cart was to give my projector a home. Once the projector had a proper home, I had to re-paint the apartment to upgrade the viewing experience. I chose a dark color to give the screen contrast and did a little research on the best white paint for a projection wall (Sherwin-Williams Pro-Classic Extra White Enamel):
Once the living room was painted, the bedroom needed some attention:
Ollie helped . . . sort of. Before he stepped in the paint and pranced around the bedroom:
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| This is Maggie's awesome cat, Ollie. Another thing that Maggs and I have in common is that we both take lots of pictures of our cats. Also, Bebe the cat did the same damn prancing around with paint on her feet deal. Oh cats. |
The mini-blinds were next to go. Unfortunately, I have an awkward (beautiful, but awkward) window situation in the bedroom and plaster walls that make drilling holes for curtains next to impossible. I do, however, have picture molding throughout the bedroom. I designed a system of curtain rods that could be suspended from regular molding hooks and asked my super-hero blacksmith Dad to make them for me (home-field advantage << sports reference). Here is the hanging system:
And here is the finished product. Bye bye mini-blinds!
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My next project will be converting this fantastic vintage surveyor's tripod into a floor lamp. Did you know that wiring lamps is the easiest thing in the world?
What type of medium did you use?
By any means necessary . . .
What did you enjoy about making this project?
I like the thinking and planning and doing. Ollie likes the relaxing when it's done:
What did you think about while you were making it?
I think I love home projects so much because rearranging and organizing and making things is a time when I can just relax and stop thinking a little bit. I think about what I want to do all the time, but once I'm doing it, my mind shuts up for a while.
Were you doing anything else while you worked on this project? If so, what? (For example, sometimes I watch tv while crocheting.)
I'm always listening to music and singing. Some projects have theme songs and some have whole albums. I have no shame in admitting that the living room was painting to approximately eleven complete runs of the Guilty album. I think I refinished the bookcase to Melissa Manchester's practically perfect Home To Myself. Sometimes, there's dancing involved.*
*usually
Were you pleased with the finished product? What pleased and/or displeased you about it?
I'm always pleased and displeased. I tend to get a bit impatient when I'm working on home projects and that is pretty much always a horrible combination. There are always things I could have done better if I had waited longer or taken a step back, but who has the time? Yeah, I know. I do. Mistakes have been made:
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| I should talk to Maggie about how I painted my kitchen bright yellow so that it looked like a giant Easter egg in combination with the light blue cabinets. Sometimes colors go very, very wrong. |
More to the point: it's a house, it's never going to be pristine or perfect and sometimes we just have to make concessions. For instance, Ollie and I like to fight over the fabrics we both love and neither one of us is going to budge on this issue:
I am, however, always really happy about finishing a project and having a new excuse to invite people over. Even though my home is always a work-in-progress, I feel like I have accomplished something good every time my friends gather and have a fun, cozy time in my home. Here is a recent example (pre-paint):
Will you make it again?
I'm never satisfied and I have a hard time sitting still. I'll be moving things one inch to the left for the rest of my life.
Can I post a picture of the final product? Please???
Duh-town. Here are some pictures of the two homes I've been in for more than a year (since I was 13). The first set of pictures is from my apartment in Los Angeles, where I lived for three very happy years. The second batch of pictures is from my current apartment in Portland, where I have been for about six months and hope to stay for a long, long time.
Lastly, what is your favorite color and glue?
Right now, my favorite color is mustard yellow and I'm pretty sure everyone's favorite glue is Mod Podge, right?
