Polka Dot Robot

Renovations and Recipes

Hey There! It's MegPie! Sorry I've been MIA for a while (and not in the cool Paper Planes way...) but as Laurel mentioned, I moved in with the BF, and not only is it fun and scary to make that move in our relationship, but we also have to tackle designing our apartment! Hopefully you all can give me your advice as I post about the challenges and triumphs!

The Stats:

1 br, roughly 800sq ft. in a 1920's building (so charming, so cold!)

The Challenges: kitchen is small and has an odd lay-out, bathroom is small and not much room for creativity

The Awesome: spacious living room AND dining room with beautiful bay windows with scallop detail :)

We're thinking about painting the dining room, which has lovely picture-frame wainscoting on the wall

  

so we're trying to think of the best way to celebrate it, and keep the class the molding deserves. ColorSizzle has some good ideas (especially the wall paper.) What do you think I should do with this kind of molding?

This is going to be a long process, and I'm trying to make sure I'm taking care of myself while taking on such a big project. One of the ways I'm doing this is by cooking more. Here are some of my favorite recipes this week that I've found on other blogs or sites:

Chickpea Salad

 
I got this recipe from PureStyleHome, Lauren Liess' interior design blog. I really dig her style (comfortable, clean, classy) and she has great recipe ideas!

 
This tasty dish comes from The Kitchn (I've been trolling Apartment Therapy like no-other, and have fallen in love with their sister Kitchen blog) and I couldn't believe I found a dish that put so many of my favorite things together!!! (Yes, I LOVE Brussel Sprouts...)

Finally, I am looking into signing up for FarmFreshToYou to deliver to our new place (if you don't know, it's this awesome service that delivers a box of veg/fruit weekly or monthly straight from the farm to your door) and found this tasty recipe on their site for Blood Orange Olive Cake, which I am attempting to make this weekend! Will let you know how it goes!

Will have more pics and DIY attempts soon! Stay tuned!

Love, MegPie

Where have all the Robots gone?

Oh my goodness! How 2011 has flown by already! 

I hope you're all feeling me when I say I Can't Believe it's MARCH already!  The Ladies of PDR have been a bit neglectiful of our blog lately, BUT, for super, important, cute, craftsy, amazing, and lifechanging reasons! We are excited to pick up again!

So here's what the Robots have been up to:

Megpie: Meg moved in with her boyfriend Kevin and his charming fluffball Mr. Gatsby!

Megpie is in the Lower Haight now and is reading lots of apartment therapy books as she and her boy fix up their new digs :)  The Lower Haight has it's own neighborhood blog Haighteration, which I love.  Expect blog posts about decorating and DIYing a new apartment!

Laurel: Me! I'm SO excited to share that I have hit one of my major, since childhood, life goals:

PUPPY! puppypuppypuppy!  His name is Odin and he is 3/4 boxer 1/4 pitbull. We adopted him at 7 weeks when he weighed just under 4lbs, and now he's about 17lbs at 15 weeks!  The photo above is at 10 weeks when he'd run up the stairs and was too scared to go down. To answer the most important question: Yes, I have made him a Monster Hoodie- but he's already outgrown it!  Must make another one soon....

Vivianna: If you've kept up with Viv on Oh Shoot, you know that she did some moving as well:

And is now over in the East Bay.  Fortunately she's still coming over to hang with the PDR ladies, expect some excelent photos of upcoming PDR events, and photos of Viv's new space as it progresses.

Erin: Erin is leading the charge in Birthdays this year- Erin, Viv and Laurel are all turning 30!  Erin organized an AMAZING birthday that will be really hard to beat-  We had a Photo Scavenger hunt!  I'll let Erin do a post on how to DIY this super fun event, but here is one of my favorite images:

The task: Photo of team members crossing Valencia Street on invisible ponies!

So that's the main of what PDR has been about lately!  But, don't worry, we've also been crafting and inventing and DIYing all over the place, so look forward to more posts soon!

<3

Laurel

 

 

 

 

5 DIY's/ Good Ideas I totally Dig

How to Make a Bow out of Recycled Magazines

How to Make a Feather Barrette

How to use a Cheese Grater to Stay Organized

Spice Rack to Twine Rack

How to Make a Designer Handbag with $1 Worth of Supplies

Speaking of Fashion... You should check out my LookBook.

Project 365

One of my big goals this year is to finish Project 365. If you follow me on my personal blog then you know that I am been doing a good job so far. Yay me!!!

Here are 5 of my favorite photos from January.

You can follow my progress here and here. 

How Not to Make Pompoms

This video cracks me up. Isn't Amy Sedaris the greatest??

 

Happy new year, everyone!

<3 Erin

MegPie's New Year's Resolutions:

I spent my Christmas in Minneapolis to be with my family for Christmas, and am spending New Years in Vermont in a snowy house surrounded by friends. Over all, life is pretty great. But there is always room for improvement, so without further ado...

MEGPIE'S 11 THINGS TO-DO in 2011:

1.) Work on more projects for myself

2.) Take better care of myself

3.) Donate clothes I haven't touched in months!!!

4.) Dance

5.) Use my gym membership more

6.) Look into spinning my own yarn

7.) Actually do my hair, as opposed to throwing it into bun or pony tail

8.) Practice more paper crafts (I need to take Viv's art journal class!!!)

9.) Start collecting soup recipes

10.) Write a play

11.) Take pictures as often as possible- I need to document my life!!!

Happy New Year, everybody! Wish me luck on my list!!!

Where have the Robots been?

My gosh have we neglected our cute little blog :( 

The holidays are always a busy time for us and some things get neglected.

I promise that I, vivs will blog more often on the PDR blog. I have a list of blog posts set up for the next couple of days. 

 

So you have an Ugly Holiday Sweater party to go to?

So did Polka Dot Robot!
 
This kind of party seems to get more and more popular every year!  It's almost hard to find a good ugly sweater in the thrift stores in my town! 

Megpie did a fabulous job finding a white angora sweater with fake lace, fake pearls, Marbou feathers, and SHOULDER PADS! Good work Megpie!

But the rest of us were a bit stuck for ironic ugly holiday sweaters- so Viv and I did a DIY project!

How to DIY an Ugly Holiday Sweater:

1) Get a sweater you don't mind sewing things to (you won't be ruining it if you attach things lightly). Viv already had a holiday sweater with reindeer on it- but it wasn't ugly.  I took a red sweater of mine and a green one of my boyfriend's because I figured it would be fun to match in a disgustingly cute manner.

2) Go to your local cheepo Holiday store.  In San Francisco, all the 99 cents stores are exploding with Christmas gear.  Viv and I had an awesome time picking stuff out: we'd forget where we were, and say "how much does this ribbon cost?"  "99 cents!! haha!"  In total we spent $8 and outfitted 5 people!

We bought things like this

• Stockings with cute images on them, Santas, reineer, mittens, snowflakes
• Ribbon
• Garlands
• Big gaudy flowers
• Anything we could see that could be easily tacked down onto a sweater

3) Go home and get out your scissors and needle and thread!  We sewed a big glittery flower to the front of Viv's sweater (she was sprinkling glitter around all night!) I bought 2 matching stockings with santa faces on them, cut out the Santas and attached the faces to the front of the red and green sweaters for me and Andy:

PDR model Kara is in the middle- We took some holiday garlands and sewed them down lightly in a toy soldier pattern all down her cardigan.

The Santa Stockings had some mittens on them- I cut those out and sewed them to my friend Dave's sweater as mittens:

He also got a garland tie!

Just remember: when you're sewing, use big loose basting-type stitches, so you can cut the objects off easily and return your sweater to normal! Or sew them tight to keep them on forever hahaha!

Hope your holidays are full of fun parties!

<3

Laurel

My Wish list- all things photo

Buy the The Camera Lens Mug at the Photojojo Store!

Buy the Fuji Instax 210 Wide Instant Camera at the Photojojo Store!

Buy the Wooden Camera Magnets and Stamp at the Photojojo Store!

Buy the Polaroid Postcards at the Photojojo Store!

Buy the Seat Belt Camera Straps at the Photojojo Store!

Buy the Photojojo! The Book at the Photojojo Store!

Buy the Photo Hanger Clips at the Photojojo Store!

Buy the Polaroid Picture Frames at the Photojojo Store!

Blog Party

My lovely blog friend Michelle is having a blog party today. I did a guest post on fashion and knitting!

Thank you for sponsoring PDR

Polka Dot Robot would like to thank each and every one of our November sponsors. It was a joy having them on our blog this month.

Stop by their shops for holiday gifts.

Thank you!

xoxo,

Vivs, Erin, Laurel, and MegPie

Sponsor Spotlight: Wishfulness

Hi, my name is Chelsea and Wishfulness is my little etsy shop, a place for girls to get pretty vintage dresses and accessories. I'm a graduate student studying to become a therapist, an office associate at another college, and a blogger/etsy shop owner in the free time that I can find. :)

It's always been a dream of mine to own a shop where girls can find affordable clothing and accessories. As I got older, I developed an appreciation and love for vintage and started a huge personal collection of vintage dresses and tops. Honestly, I started Wishfulness as a way to clean out my closet -- I had this big collection of vintage dresses and not a lot of space to keep them in, but as I started listing dresses, I realized that it was a lot of fun and I was enjoying meeting and interacting with other Etsy ladies. One thing I noticed once I opened up my shop was a lack of affordable vintage shops out there. There are tons of beautiful shops that carry so many pretty pieces, but I know that a lot of them didn't fit my budget, and I figured that there were probably a lot of other girls in the same situation as me.

I also love crafting, and I've been using vintage fabrics to make pretty little headbands and hairclips as well. I hope to eventually expand my shop to include more vintage accessories, jewelry, and even some home decor. I love owning an etsy shop because it gives me a chance to pursue a lot of my hobbies on my own time and share them with others!!

A random fact about me: My favorite colors are teal and mustard yellow.........but I'm always embarrassed to tell people that, because who picks those colors? So specific! Hahaha.


You can find me in a bunch of places:

Etsy: http://www.wishfulness.etsy.com
Blog: http://lovechelsealauren.blogspot.com
Personal Twitter: http://twitter.com/Chelsea_Lauren
Shop Twitter: http://twitter.com/WishfulnessShop (follow this one for shop updates, sales, and sneak peeks!)
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovechelsealauren/

Thank you, Chelsea for sponsoring Polka Dot Robot!

Last Chance to Save 20% on All Items!

Happy Cyber Monday, Everyone!

Through the end of today, take 20% off your entire order at www.polkadotrobot.com. Use code TURKEY at checkout.

<3 Erin, Vivianna, Laurel, and Meg

20% Off Your Entire Order!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

From now until Monday, take 20% off your entire order at www.polkadotrobot.com. Use code TURKEY at checkout.

<3 Erin, Vivianna, Laurel, and Meg

Recent Projects- and Black Friday Sale Reminder!

Hi Robots!

As it often occurs before the holidays, I've had a ton of projects to work on!

As it often occurs when I have a ton of projects to work on for other people, I've been distracted by a project for myself!   

One of the things I like about my neighborhood, is that people will often put unwanted items out on the street.  Normally this means I'm looking at a hideous old couch or some wierd looking sweaters, but sometimes it means I walk home with a new bookshelf! The good thing is that nothing hangs around for long, and so the streets don't look too cluttered.

So, just the other day, one of my neighbors put out a huge collection of old slides! They seem to be a combo of a european vacation (lots of old stone churches), a winter ski trip, and some summer vacation stills:

(Boomer is, as usual, wondering why I'm doing something other than playing with him)

So here's the plan: I'm going to string them together into a grid using dental floss (the strongest stuff on earth!) and then hang them in the window like it's stained glass! Fingers crossed that it looks amazing!

Meanwhile, here are the projects I've been working on for the Holidays:

Hudson the Harrowing

and the first of some fingerless gloves for my Grandma:

Meanwhile- I'm so ecited for PDR's Black Friday Sale!  This Friday, November 26 - Sunday, November 28th!  Everything is 20% off!!!!!

Have a great Thanksgiving Robots!

<3

Laurel

Black Friday Sale: All Goods 20% Off

The holidays are upon us!

To celebrate, we will be offering a 20% discount on all goods in our online shop for the weekend of Friday, November 26 - Monday, November 28th. :)

So be sure to visit www.polkadotrobot.com this Friday for great deals on monster hoodies, animal hats, and our lovely knit and crocheted accesories.

<3 Erin, Vivianna, Laurel, and Meg

Sponsor Spotlight: Much Love, illy

Much Love, illy opened up shop on November 2009.  It started out and continues to be a creative outlet for me! Everything in the shop is handmade by me, inspired by the everyday - whether it be colors, fashion, and nature. My shop is known for its unique names and descriptions which gives you a taste of what i mean by being inspired by the everyday! So what will you find in my shop? You'll find a little something for just about everybody - from poppy garland headbands, hair accessories, vintage-inspired jewelry, and colorful haircharms. Colors range from the bright and bold to the neutral and sophisticated! 

As for the shop name?! My name is Ilene but my fiance nicknamed me Lil' illy. Also the shop originally started out as a paper goods shop so the idea behind the name is similar to how someone would sign off in a letter. I think the name still works because every single item still made in the shop is made with much love by me, illy! 

shop - www.muchloveilly.etsy.com 

blog - www.muchlove-illy.blogspot.com

twitter - muchloveilly 

Thank you for sponsoring Polka Dot Robot! 

Sponsor Spotlight: aPearantly Sew

I started sewing back in May, when I had a set of curtains that needed to be hemmed. I asked my mom if she would hem them for me. She said, "No. But I will teach you how". So, a good friend of mine came over and we had our first sewing lesson. We were both hooked, and have been having regular "sewing dates" ever since! A month later my husband bought me a sewing machine for my birthday. I quickly developed an addiction to fabric, so I decided to open a shop to support my habit :)

My shop name, aPearantly Sew, was chosen by the same friend I learned to sew with. We were out fabric shopping one day and talking about shop names. I think I had looked at about 15 fabrics with pears on them. I told her, "I just love pears!". She came up with the name right there on the spot and I knew it was the one for me. I loved it, and still do!

http://apearantlysew.blogspot.com/

http://apearantlysew.bigcartel.com/

Random fact about me: I graduated from Nursing school, but never worked as a nurse. Not even one day. My first son was born a few months after graduation, and then 9 mo. later I was pregnant with baby #2, and my priorities just changed. 

Thank you Alison for supporting Polka Dot Robot. 

We will have more sponsor spotlight throughout today and tomorrow. 

Shop Update!!!!

(Sail Away Mittens)

We are super excited to share all of the NEW products that we have been working on.

Oh My Robots! Shop update TOMORROW!

The Robots had a great time this weekend doing a photo shoot at one of our favorite buildings in San Francisco- the Atlas Stair Building Co.

Image Credit: RadioNicole

They used to make spiral staircases there- now it's a residence- I'm so jealous! The photo shoot was super fun: we were leaping about and posing in our cute products entertaining the neighborhood.  There were a lot of people out and about as it was a sunny Saturday, we even met some firemen that invited us to a block party down the street (hee hee).

But, back to the most important news! SHOP UPDATE!!! Tomorrow morning Polkadotrobot.com will be filled with new knit and crocheted items, and new monsters!  You already saw a few of our new products in our Indie Mart post, here are 3 of the new monsters for you to meet:

This is Johnny Scotland, Richie the Ravenous, and Billy the Biter!

Special thanks to Kara, Erin's little sister who modeled for us.  Kara- here's a High-Five in thanks!

We can't wait for you guys to see our new stuff! Stay tuned til tomorrow!

<3

The Robots