Last minute projects from the Plastic store

I saw this clock about 4 years ago on E-bay.It's a Mondrian style Sunbeam vintage clock. I like to call it the "the one that got away" ever since then, I've been wanting to buy one but since it 's a vintage piece, it's very rare that I find it on E-bay and now that MCM has gone main stream.. everyone and their Mama is willing to pay a couple of hundred bucks for something like this.. Not the Mod Diva- Me- well, I like to make my own and save some bucks- Here's what I did.
1) I found a black frame that had a bunch of sections for a picture montage from K-mart. The shape is a tiny bit different from the original but that's what makes it mine. You actually could make your own frame.. Looks pretty simple just section it out the way you want to, cut out some block sections with some Balsa wood and paint it black.. you get the picture-

2) I needed to find the correct colors for the blocks- Here's where the project came to a halt- Ideally, if you live near a plastic place that sells remnants you could get some pretty cheap pieces of plexi- I know you could do that in New York. The Canal Plastic company had a bunch of cheap plexi for like $5 for a 12X12 sheet. Here in LA, there's Gaverelli plastics- they have every color in the world but it comes in HUGE sheets ( even the remnants) so.. I was crap out of luck UNTIL... I went to Ikea and found the perfect color blue and red in a cutting board mat (DRALLA). What????? Yup, it was the perfect shade of blue and I could cut it with scissors. It also was the right thickness so it was'nt too thin that you could see through it. It was perfect. It also came in red and for about $2 each.. I was sold!

3) The white piece in the middle where the clock face is.. that one was just luck. The guy who made my bubble frame for me was lagging on my order.. he had a couple of white plexi remnants at his shop. Since he was late getting my order in, I managed to get the perfect piece of plexi for the clock face for Free99! That's my favorite part!

4) The clock mechanisms came from an old IKEA clock that I hacked into this project.


and there you have the Mod Diva Mondrian clock.. I think the project cost me about $15 and 4 years ( so worth the wait) Woo Hoo!

After I finally hung it up in the living room, I sat back on my couch and admired it. It was the missing piece on that sliver of a wall! Dig it!!

Projects.. DOWN!

Ok.. since I've been doing tons-o- crafts ( mind you it was baby mobiles for the last couple of weeks) Things have slowly but surely taken place in my house.. the rock garden is 95% complete.. all we need now is the plants that go against the back wall.. lucky for us we live right next door to a fabulous nursery. I thought about papyrus but I'm still not convinced I want that plant.. I'm gonna do my cross reference with my " MCM Porn" tonight and see what's a better fit or if it is a good fit after all.

I think the reason why I love this rock garden so much is because it makes everything else look so clean and the colors that we do have going on just make it POP. Besides, it beats spending a couple of hundred bucks every season for perennials and don't even get me started on watering them...

I like how I matched the pavers with the front door.. I was pretty proud of that little project!

Inside the house we've been searching high and low for a good medicine cabinet. We saw the ATRAN wall cabinet many times on our journeys to Ikea and it's a steal at $24.99. Crappy thing is that it needed to hold more for us.. So what did we do? We got 2 of them and it fit the space. I think it looks good and now it's kind of a functional art piece in the master bathroom.

Here's another shot of what it looks like with the frosted door... One day we're gonna change that raggedy old sink and vanity- till then, we're just going to have to do what Tim Gunn says, "Make it work!"

The hubby and I have also been working very hard in putting our baby's room together. We finally got the crib up and it's slowly taking shape.

So far the past couple of days ( including the Memorial Day weekend) have been pretty overcast- The weather finally got better yesterday and since I'm in my final weeks of my pregnancy, lots of things need to get done but my energy level is slowly tapering off. It's a mad rush to get a million and one things done but not enough time. ( isn't that always the case?) I think it's just more amplified since we have this little one on her way- Daddy is going to put her mobiles up right now.. ( If I can get him away from the X-Box 360 for 10 minutes), Sunday the upholstery lady should come and take the chaise rocker away and reupholster it to an approprite color, I'll get some art work up on the walls and then.. I'll do a full tour of Ainslie's new room. Till then, stayed tuned!!

Rainy Friday and I'm on a roll

Hizees.. So it's a rainy Friday here in California and it's project time!.. I was supposed to take pictures of my rock garden for all of you to check out but it looks pretty yucky out there since it's nasty and wet. So, after making my Pug mobile a couple of weeks ago, I was inspired to do another one for my new baby. This time a little more abstract- I came up with this..

It was pretty simple really. The most expensive thing about it was the foam balls. I got them at Michaels 22 foam balls for $3.99. All different colors that match my daughter's room. I used floral wire to put it together and if I could have found thicker wire it would have turned out a a whole lot better. Oh well, I think it turned out alright.. But there's always room for some improvement.

Palm Springs Love, Love LOVE YOU!

Sometimes I like to spend my free time looking on Craigslist at Mid century modern homes in Palm Springs. One day when I win the lottery and if I could be lucky enough to afford a "vacation home" I would get one there. Preferably a Nice Butterfly roof Alexander or a Palmer & Krisel and everyone knows that nothing says modern like an Eichler or a beautiful Cliff May. Till then I'll just keep looking at my Atomic Ranch magazines ( what I like to call " MCM porn") and drool over other people's homes and landscaping. Here's a couple of pictures that I like to keep as MCM inspiration. Apparently this home in Palm Springs used to belong to designer Kenneth Brown and has been on the market for a long time

I wish I had a picture of the fabulous front gate that closes up this "compound" It's orange and it looks so HOT! I like that most of the stuff is totally found at this store in LA called ROOM SERVICE one of my favorite stores to check out when I'm in Hollywood!

Here's one more pic of this home in Palm Springs.


A couple of years ago the owner of Room Service sold their house. I was one of the lucky ones to go to the open house. It was decked out in pretty much all the furnishings of the store. And needless to say, I was in LOVE! Here's some pics of what it looked like inside. Shame that the new owner changed the color of the house and from the looks of it closed off the cool atrium and didn't know that they were buying a mid century modern home.. Don't you just hate that?

It's crunch time!

Hizees! It's been awhile since I posted because there's so much going on at Casa Selma a/k/a Mod Diva's humble abode. This week we had people over for a co-ed baby shower. I am now 34 weeks pregnant and am ready to explode! We've had one of my girlfriends living with us for the past 6 weeks and so we've been a little lagging on the baby nursery and house projects. Since we did have a bit of an open house and my motherly "nesting" patterns have been in full effect here's some pics of the projects that we did get done.

I finally had to get rid of my existing VORK rugs from Ikea and changed them to these plain circles to make them into a runner for the hallway. I actually don't mind the circles. The colors fit in perfectly with the rug in the living room and the rug in the baby room and because there's no more pattern like the old runner.. it's not so "busy' looking anymore.

Here's what the baby room looks like so far.. The crib is going to be put together tonight and my Pug mobile I finished weeks ago is going to be hung too.

I'm still debating on what color to re upholster the chaise I guess when I finally go looking for the fabric on Monday I'll figure it out. We already have a purple sofa, and an orange chaise in the living room. I was thinking maybe I'd do it up in a Cookie Monster Blue or in Lime like this:

Two weekends ago I ventured out to the Pasadena Rose bowl for my monthly junking trip. I didn't get to buy too much but what I did buy I was very happy with. I bought this interactive toy called the Magzoid 64. It comes with 20 steel balls and 40 magnetic disks that you can make cool interactive art with. I liked it because not only was it colorful but it went well on my coffee table.

The best part about it was that it was brand new and I got it for 5 bucks! Now, that was a deal!!
My junking trips have usually been only to find treasures for me and for the home but this trip, I couldn't forget about my girls.. They needed a new bed so I got this for them. The canopy is velcro-ed on so you can take it off or put it up or down. The girl's Auntie Kimee said it was a perfect fit for our house.. she was totally right! Here's Penelope modeling their new bed!

Please forgive me if I don't post as much as I'd like.. things have been a little crazy. Tomorrow I plan to take pictures of my rock garden in the front.. it's almost done and I painted the pavers to match the front door.. It's so Palm Springs that it makes me giddy whenever we drive up to our house.. Stay tuned!!

Summer , Summer, Summer TIME!

The warmer it gets outside here in Sunny Southern California, the more I want to hang out and enjoy my yard. When we were living in Chicago for that year and a half, I decided that when we got back to California, We should make it our priority to spend more time in our yard and share our home with our space challenged apartment dwelling friends. So, we've been having more parties at our home and on Sundays we are the weekly host of Poker nights. In Chicago, I saw this auction on E-bay and ever since I've been coveting these for our patio.. You gotta love the Ploof by Philippe Starck

Modern lines.. but an arm and a leg for patio furniture.. I think NOT- so I settled for the Kimmie chairs at Ikea. They remind me of gummy bears and we bought them a few years back, they happen to be on sale at the end of that summer for $2.00 each! They work great and look even cuter! (But I still wish for the Ploof chairs one day!)
Here's the view from our master bedroom

I like how the chairs and the Bougainvillea coordinate colors of pink.

Here's more pics of the yard......


The table is also IKEA and the red chairs are Kartell from E-bay. The cool thing about those chairs is that the legs come off and they are stacked so easily for storage!


Wooo Hoo for Southern California Summers!

Time to get the nursery ready...

So here I am 9 more weeks till our little Ainslie's arrival and still there's a million things to do before she gets here. Today I was inspired to do something crafty for my little girl's nursery. We've already decided to go with the BabyMod Olivia crib from Walmart for her room




Now for the perfect mobile... Now, at first I was thinking to just by her one of these modern mobiles from E-bay




Then I saw this homemade mobile and it got me thinking...


I think I should make my own! So I came up with the idea to use the same elements of the home made mobile ( Minus the pointy scissors) I still haven't put the entire thing together but here's what's going to look down on our baby when she's checking out her custom mobile her Mommy made her-




It took me all afternoon to make the pug heads but it forced me to sit still for awhile ( I don't do that enough)
This project was made with Love by Mommy and inspired by her pug sisters who are waiting for her arrival! Here's what it looks like when it's all put together!!