This and that

Remember this post..? Well, I ordered this handmade pillow from Liane at enhabiten... I think it's the perfect companion for our quilt in the spare bedroom, don't you?

They're calling for snow here today... I know most of you are about done with winter by now, but it doesn't snow much around here, so I'm actually kind of excited. Maybe we'll get to do this again tomorrow:

Now, that would be fun, no?

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Noah's bedroom

My little boy's room.

My little boy who will be going to first grade this fall.

My little guy who is learning how to spell words and write proud, deliberate numbers...

He who collects leaves and rocks and seashells; and dried flowers and the spiked fruit from gumball trees...

He, to whom I read Goodnight Moon not so long ago in my arms, rocking back and forth, back and forth...

My Little Prince who is growing up. The little man who is becoming so wise. I worry about his heart - how it will be broken, and how that is part of growing up. But I tell myself: he'll be fine. It will soon be time for him to go from the safety of his little school to the big school. His world is getting bigger and bigger every day. And he'll take it all in stride and be just fine...

I, on the other hand, might have a little bit of a harder time. But I, too, will be fine. For my little boy is growing up - and that is a good thing. I hope the world treats him with the love and kindness that he deserves, and that he, in turn, will treat the world in the same way.




*For those of you who asked, the color on the top is Silver Sea SR209 (the same I used for the bi-fold doors, since I had leftover) and on the bottom, the color is Dust Storm EE2046C. You can get them both at Lowe's.*

Psssst...!

Lovely Leah at Apartment Therapy surprised me by posting our little bi-fold door project here. Go take a look, if you feel so inclined, and check out the other two great DIY ideas for door updates. You won't be disappointed - I promise.


Thank you, Leah! It truly was a sweet, unexpected surprise and an incredible honor. You made my day, dear. And as Bill is fond of saying, Happy Little Friday, everyone!

(image: me)

Friends. Etsy. Love.

Since I started blogging last year, I've come to know some pretty spectacular and ridiculously talented women. And as we've slowly become friends, I've tried to purchase a little something from each of them so that I can have them close to me and think of them at unexpected moments - like while I do my dishes; or right before I turn the light off to go to sleep; or as I look for mascara in hopes of making my sleepy eyes look less tired in the morning; or as I catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror and see the little sparkle of an earring or necklace...

Sometimes it'll happen when I'm looking for a bowl that is just the right size for a snack; or as I leave home in the frazzle of morning and look up from the black hole that is my purse to see a lovingly-made pillow...

Or it may happen as I stop to think for a minute, while sitting at my little desk upstairs in my bedroom, and see a row of beautiful pictures, all lined up, anchoring me in time....or when I see a pretty card, leaning against said desk, reminding to smile...

It is at times like these that I think of some of the new dear friends I've made on this journey.... And it makes me so very happy to think of them as being part of my everyday life here at home, even if it's in a small way.

So today, I'd like to share some of the beautiful things that have made their way from Etsy to my home...won't you take a look with me?

Traci's beautiful photograph of pretty eggs from her shop, Blissful Images.

Denise's bowl, its glaze the most perfectly subtle shade of cream I've ever seen, found at Chez Danisse.

Rebekah's gorgeous patchwork pillow (which, incidentally, inspired this post) from her wonderful shop, Little Byrd Vintage and Handmade.

Cindy's carefully crafted card and bag, found at Pretty Neat Designs.

Melissa's perfectly delicate necklace, from her wonderful shop, Acts of Kindness.

Jill's cheerful zip bag, the best companion for these gray and cold winter months, found at her lovely shop, Jill Bent.

Beautiful photograph by beautiful and talented Cara, of Peonies and Polaroids.

Michelle's lovely earrings, perfectly bohemian, found at Blue Moss.

And last but not least, Azzari's wonderful 2010 desktop calendar, which you can find (along with other beautiful work) at her shop, Gabrielle Kai Photography.

When you have a moment, do stop by these women's wonderful blogs and shops.... You never know - you may even end up making a new friend, just like I did..!

(images: me)

The guest bedroom

Yes. We have a spare bedroom. I must confess that at times, it about kills me. Although it's nice to have one when we have the occasional guest in town, it is one of the only things about the house that is not a perfect match for us: its size. I think the spare bedroom and the office, as well as the living room and den, could all be combined into two rooms, really: one living area and one office/guest bedroom. All these extra spaces (a couple of them seldom used) seem to make this house a little too big for a family of three. Sometimes, it feels a bit wasteful to me.

For a while there we thought there might be another kid, so it made sense... But we now know that won't be the case, thus the house at times strikes me as being rather large - and decadently so.

At any rate. The guest bedroom. Let me share it with you...won't you come along?

The quilt was made by Bill's mother when we first started dating. It was originally intended as a gift for her bachelor son, but I love it, so it gladly got adopted into the collective of togetherness that has been our life now for... close to 12 years.

The nightstands (both yard sale finds)...

The dresser (found at The Screen Door, in Asheville)...

(Actually, let me pause here for a moment to admire this beauty...will you indulge me, just a bit? I love distressed furniture - a love that only those who love it, too, can understand, and those who don't...well - they simply don't do this to their furniture. Or if they do, they regard it as the ugly stage in the way to refinishing. I love to leave it just like this - really, it's crazy how madly happy just looking at it makes me..!)

The wood floors in this room were painted a glossy black. In a way, I was delighted; Bill simply stared in horror. Of course there were the really purple walls, too. And the zebra skin painted on the door. And there was some hot pink, too. And a little desk lamp with boa feathers. I think. Maybe the horrified look I'm attributing to the floors is misdirected. But I digress.

I was ecstatic because it meant I could paint over the floors - something Bill would have balked at had the floors been the wormy pine and oak of the rest of the house... But I adore painted floors. Especially in creams, grays and whites... They become such a neutral and soft background for everything else... don't you think?

The closet was added on at some point and is definitely not original to the house. You can even see the remnants of a fireplace hearth on the bottom right corner.... Anyway, the closet was cut out with an opening so crooked and low that no door would really work. Which gave me an excuse to do something else I really love - hanging heavy curtains high up, almost to the ceiling, to emphasize the beautiful height of the ones in our home.

And that, my friends, concludes the tour of our guest bedroom. Like I said before - it feels like too much of a luxury for us at this point... So we'll keep pondering this issue for a little while...

Holiday glimpses

I know, I know... They're over. The holidays, that is. But maybe there is a holiday going on somewhere in the world (there must be), and we can bask in the good feelings a little bit longer....

We're still listening to Christmas music around here (driving Bill somewhat batty in the process, I'll admit), and just feeling the lazy comfort that came from having unstructured time off... In that spirit, I'll leave you with a few pictures that capture, in a small way, what life was like around here in December...

Folksy Santas,

Noah's cheer,

pretty lights...

Handmade stockings*, one, two, three...

...and a fourth one for The Bean.

Moose** pancakes (because some of you asked),

for dinner, no less..!

(Because Noah asked.)

The good news is - we can revisit all of this any time we want... We don't need a holiday to have twinkling lights, deliciously idle family time, or ridiculously shaped pancakes (for dinner or otherwise)... don't you think? Happy January, dear friends!


*made by wonderful Rebekah of Little Byrd

(**editor's note: Uh. Yeah. Apparently these aren't moose pancakes, but reindeer ones. Heh. My apologies to the moose. And the reindeer. Of course it makes sense - I mean, moose don't pull Santa's sleigh in Buenos Aires either. I just wish Bill had pointed all this out before folks started leaving comments. Siiiiiiigh...!)

(images: me)

New beginnings


I know it's not news, but I am still in awe of the new year: 2010. It sounds like the stuff science fiction stories, fairy tales and magic are made of...doesn't it? It feels a little bit like I've woken up in a comic book. Shazam! It's 2010!

Then again, maybe it's just me.

I have to confess I've started a new post a few times since I've been gone, and it just never seems to be quite right. So I'm just going to post this clumsy post and move on... I'm feeling a little bit rusty and I think I just need to get over the initial awkwardness of writing a public journal entry for the first time - even if it is not the first.

We had a good holiday break, filled with lazy days, lots of good food, and the first cold nights in the area, which left behind a thin layer of translucent frost. We hung twinkling lights from a cypress tree and ate silly pancakes shaped like moose; we baked cakes, and wrapped presents, and later opened them with delight; and we got to spend some time with family and dear old friends we had not seen in a little while.

I hope your holidays were just as special. I can't wait to visit each of you and find out what you've been up to lately. Happy 2010, my friends. Here's hoping that this year treats each of us with the kindness, peace and magic that we all deserve.

(image: shan b's photostream)

Quietude

I've been walking around feeling a little bit dazed with all that's been going on lately. It has all been terrific and a little bit terrifying at the same time, and as a result, emotionally, somewhat exhausting.

Between the photo shoot, and following a couple of leads for doing design work (maybe - we'll see), and keeping up with my part-time job at a nonprofit, and being a mom and wife, and continuing on with other general domestic duties, I must admit I've been feeling somewhat overwhelmed. So. What do I do at times like these..?

I come back to white interiors. And Jane Cumberbatch. I will never tire of her home. I know I've posted photos of it before, but it looks like these may be a little older (or newer?) as the house is styled with an even greater abundance of soothing whites in these pictures - which is exactly what I need to look at when I'm feeling slightly frazzled by life. I hope you'll enjoy these as much as I do...








(images: via the ever-inspiring bliss)

A bright and happy place

My dear friend Florence, a wonderful writer of stories for young people, asked me a little while back if I would write a post about a place I thought would suit her...

I haven't had a chance to come up with a whole house or apartment for her, but when I stumbled upon this kitchen, I thought of her. It's a little bit bohemian and girly, and even though she might protest the girly label, it's just her style, I think.

The pink on the window frame, the old Hollywood glam chandelier in such a utilitarian room, the warmth and texture of the many wooden drawers and vintage pulls on that piece (not to mention the playful scale of it in the room); the somewhat flirty, sheer curtain under the sink, the easy comfort with which mismatched chairs and plates and pottery accumulated over the years all coexist in perfectly inspiring harmony.... Yes - it all speaks of beautiful Florence to me.

Wouldn't you agree that this kitchen belongs to a wonderfully warm, interesting, and creative person...? I think so. And such a person is my gorgeous friend - my dear Florence.

Do make time to visit her little corner of the world, Cate's Folly when you have a moment... You'll find a little taste of a mid-grade comedy she's been working on called Gas for Pluto, a wicked recipe for tomato-nut soup, musings on being a writer and how to get published, and an inspiring post on the need to create picture books tailored to the specific needs of kids with autism, among her many wonderful entries.

(image: marie claire maison)

Photo shoot!

Okay, my dears, I'm sorry it's taken me this long to get back into the swing of things, but here you have it: what kept me busy and happy last week was that Better Homes & Gardens was here to photograph our kitchen and bath!!!

I had such a great time..! And I can't say enough kind things about the team that came over to the house. Sandi, the field editor/stylist, was wonderful. She was funny, considerate, and has been doing this for some time, so she had an amazing ability to anticipate how the vignettes would look like on film (which, surprisingly to me, is quite different from how they might look in real life, both color- and composition-wise).

She was also incredibly patient with my constant questions and requests to move things or try this or that instead, and she even let me style a little (!!), which was not only incredibly generous of her, but also made me realize how much fun styling is...!

Brie, the photographer, was incredible - it was truly a gift to see my house come to life through her eyes. She is ridiculously talented and I encourage you to visit her site here. You will not be disappointed.

And then there was Mike, who helped Brie with everything from technical issues to (I kid you not) holding our ficus tree outside the window so that our neighbor's somewhat messy back porch would be hidden from view. He was, needless to say, indispensable.

I wish I had captured a shot of him holding up the tree..! Unfortunately, I didn't, but here are a few pictures I took that I hope you'll enjoy and will help give you a sense of what a chaotic scene it can be right outside the camera frame when you are doing a photo shoot...

The pretties - cake and raspberries on a beautiful stand, and gorgeous tulips in an ironstone pitcher (pay no attention to the surrounding madness).

The not so pretty chaos.

Lovely Brie at work, secretly wishing walls and kitchen islands would be more helpful and move out of the way so that she could do her job more easily.

Gear. Tons and tons of cool gear.

The camera resting on its tripod while things were being set up.

More contortions from poor Brie to get just the right shot.

Sandi inspecting the shot and making mental notes about which things would need to be moved one or two inches this way or that, and such.

Mike and Brie working on the camera's focus in a rather tight space (again, if the house's walls would be a bit more cooperative and flexible..!)

Highly technical gear - not to be confused with the Ikea Komplement basket.

Sandi, with Mike standing by, studying the shot, and getting ready to call it a day. And what a wonderful couple of days they were..!

If you guys (Sandi, Brie and Mike) happen to be reading this: I had the best time. The house felt a little bit empty after you left... Thank you for your generosity and the privilege of allowing me to watch you work. I feel like I learned a ton and I have renewed love and sense of commitment for design.

The magazine is called Kitchen & Bath Makeovers, a quarterly publication of Better Homes & Gardens. Sandi thought the kitchen would be featured in the Spring issue, perhaps on the cover (eeeeeeep!!) and the bath might be published in a later issue. I can't wait to see them in print!

(images: me)

Inspired by: The Avett Brothers

If you have three minutes and thirteen seconds, take a listen to what's been inspiring me lately... It's a wonderful melody and I find the words to be very touching.

If you have another minute, you can read this for a tiny little background on The Avett Brothers.

There is something about these guys that reminds me a little bit of my beautiful husband and his brother - and the many years I've spent listening to them play guitar together. What a gift they share - and what a gift it is for me and his family (including their sister) to listen in once in a while.

If you have yet another minute, check out what my guy and his brother have been up to lately here.

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Patchwork friendships


I often have moments when I think, blogging is too much work. It takes up too much of my time. And so I make these rules for myself: "I will only post two times a week," I say, emphatically. Or, "The laptop must remain upstairs after I pick Noah up from school," I tell the dog as she looks at me dubiously and gives me a couple of uncertain wags. Or, I add with authority: "I will only read blogs when the wind is blowing from the North." Or better yet, I decide: "I will only post when it's raining - and the sun is out. And there must be a rainbow."

And then I make a new friend. I meet someone who just seems to be living my life in a way, but a different one altogether - sometimes in an entirely different part of the world. And I think, I wish I could just have a cup of tea with her. I wish, I say to myself, we could be sitting at the kitchen table talking and having a real-life friendship. Our kids playing in the background while we chat. Or just Noah, building Legos and jumping off a mountain of couch pillows while we catch up. We have so much in common, I think, and we haven't even met in person...! It's wild.

And so it is that I keep coming back. Because I'm amazed at the talent out there. And the kindness and thoughtfulness. And the many kindred spirits that I never imagined could have ever possibly been out there, without my knowledge, but are.

And I am surprised and grateful when, every once in a while, I meet someone like that. It's a nice reminder, in the middle of all the chaos, that the world is a good place after all. Because it is.

So, to those of you who have touched my life in some way through this crazy world of blogs: thank you. From the bottom of my heart. I am grateful to have met you - even if it's in a virtual sort of way. I'll take what I can and consider myself a lucky person. Because I am.

(image: little byrd vintage and handmade)

My Buenos Aires

After writing about Hotel Home last week I got a little homesick and decided to look for some photos of homes in Buenos Aires to post here.

I looked around some and I even started a post with pictures of apartment rentals in Buenos Aires... But invariably, I kept coming back to this home, which has been in my inspiration files for a little while now, and is by far one of my favorites. The other places just didn't move me the way this one does. And so it was that I started over.

There are many things about this place that remind me of my grandmother's house, where I spent a good part of my early years while my parents figured some things out. And so in many ways, when I think of Buenos Aires and home, this is the type of place that comes to my mind...

Sensible concrete floors (not stained at my grandmother's, but left natural), lots of white on the walls, soaring ceilings,

and incredibly tall double doors into each room... these all take me back to her home, to my Buenos Aires.

But of all these details, perhaps this next one is the one that most readily transports me to my childhood: the central patio.

My abuela's house also had an interior courtyard, although instead of glass, it had a really old grape vine in place of a ceiling... It filtered the sunlight and rustled quietly on breezy days, and best of all, it gave plump, delicious fruit in late summer, which we plucked and ate, still warm from the sun, directly from that vine.

I still remember, very vividly, this image of me (maybe 3 years old?), my hair freshly braided, being carried by my grandmother across the patio in her strong arms, the light and shadows dancing around us as we walked under that vine. It is one of my happiest memories - perhaps because I felt so safe and loved.

The kitchen was at the end of the patio, completely separate from the rest of the house. Since the patio was not covered, my grandmother's kitchen had windows and a door instead of being wide open, but it was simple and utilitarian just like this one.

Other than that, I don't really remember the details of my grandmother's kitchen; I remember that it was small and cozy, and that there was an old table (with legs painted the most beautiful red) under the window, overlooking the patio.

My brother and I used to sit at that table eating shredded apples sprinkled with sugar while my grandmother busied herself with the mysterious things that take up grown-ups' lives; and we watched and wondered, and looked at the curious play of light and shadows that lay ahead.

(images: by caitlin m. kelly via design sponge)

New glass knobs and one sweet discovery

So, remember those bifold doors we turned into little french doors..? I told you about them a couple of weeks ago...? (See here, if you don't remember.) Well, we finally got the knobs, and I think they're lovely. Take a look:

They add the perfect finishing touch to the doors, don't you think..?

What I neglected to tell you in my earlier post is that, while doing the work, we had a little, uh... accident. I forget how it started. In a really silly way, most likely. It was probably one of those "We can't do it - it'll look dumb/ Of course we can do it - fine I'll do it all by myself!!" moments...

And so it was that I found myself wrestling with the bifold, trying to take it down all on my own... And I succeeded - only it landed squarely on the thermostat. Sigh.

Bill quickly put aside our little spat (and suppressed some serious laughter, I'm sure), coming to the rescue since I was caught in one of those I-almost-saved-it-but-didn't-quite-pull-it-off positions, awkwardly holding the door which had caught my ankle at one end and smashed the thermostat at the other. He gently assured me that it wasn't a big deal and helped me untangle myself free from the door, while I just berated myself for being so stubborn. (I think I was probably a little embarrassed, too, not just angry. Heh.)

The one cool thing about this little episode was that when we took the old (really old) thermostat down, we found one of those sweet surprises old houses can give you:

Isn't that tiny bit of vintage wallpaper the sweetest..? I love it when little unexpected things like these happen. Anyway, I debated whether I should take it down and frame it or not, but I decided to leave it with the house, so that it can tell this story again through someone else some day.

So, we covered the little treasure, with Bill doing most of the work, and me getting in his way, trying to document it...

And there you have it. The same exact thermostat, sadly made out of plastic instead of metal...but, oh well. At least it's white, rather than brass. I guess that's an improvement, visually speaking. For me, anyway.

Buenos Aires cool

Last time I visited home, my best friend's mom insisted that we stay at her place . (She stayed with her niece while we were there - have you ever heard of such ridiculous kindness?!? Insane. That's how incredibly generous people can be. Still blows my mind away.)

Anyway, I just spoke with her the other night and again she pronounced that if we came to visit, we'd stay at her place like last time. How can one resist such a tender, generous gesture..? It would be rude. Foolish, even, since it saves us from having to pay for an apartment or hotel room...

Which brings me to the point of this post: Hotel Home? In Buenos Aires? I may have to check this place out just for fun...! Chalk it up as a tourist destination... (My poor kid and husband are saints. Truly.) Here, take a look - so simple and stylish and filled with vintage details:








...Isn't it incredible? I thought so. The modern lines paired with the vintage pattern of that wallpaper? I love it. Love.it.

(Sure enough, this post has made me a little homesick, so I think I'll look around and see what other cool interiors I can find online that hail from Buenos Aires.... Stay tuned for more to come..!)

(images: hotel home via remodelista)

The Living Room

I thought I'd introduce you, dear reader, to our living room. I've only painted it three different times, and although I can't promise (*cough*) I won't repaint it again at some point in the future, for now, the walls will remain chocolate brown.

I like to have a place to drop keys and sunglasses when I come in, so this tall (yet narrow) dresser provides us with just the prefect spot for that... I sanded it down until you could see the different layers it's seen in its lifetime and rather liked it, so I left it that way.

On this wall, we put up beadboard pretty high up, to emphasize the height of the ceilings, and because as much as I think the cozy color works in this room, I need white. And lots of it, at that.

The vintage coat rack was missing a hook, so I put a glass knob in its place. I took the knob from an old cabinet door a neighbor had discarded after a remodel (The horror! The horror! And on so many levels, too... But I'll abstain from saying anything else about that.) Anyway, I actually really like this detail, and I am glad that at least the knob, if not the door, found a second life in our home. The bird print is by talented Geninne, whom I've mentioned before here.

The windows behind the couch to the right were covered with mirror (mirror?? yes, mirror...more horror) that had been glued to the glass, which made for a very weird and uncomfortable space, not to mention dark...so dark.

Needless to say, we got rid of the mirrors, carefully breaking each little pane on the top as well as the big panes on the bottom of both windows. We then put in new glass panes, applied putty around them to hold them in place, and repainted the frames once the putty had hardened... The light in this room is now pretty incredible, as we knew it would be...

...and hopefully it will somehow make up for the many years of bad luck we'll otherwise get because we had to break so many mirrors to free those windows and their lovely, life-loving ability to let in light.

Weekend house love

Remember I told you about adding brackets and a shelf, along with hooks, to the wall in the hallway? Here's the picture to jog your memory:

Anyway. What I didn't show you was that next to the shelf and benches, right out of sight in the photo, are two closet doors where we hide all manner of household odds and ends: paint cans and rollers, drills, random screws and nails, hammers, cleaning supplies, stacks of toilet paper (Bill thinks I have a problem hoarding paper goods), boxes of movies in VHS that belong to Bill (I think Bill has a problem hoarding everything, but nevermindthat), the odd box of old clothes that don't fit Noah anymore (but we'll take to the Goodwill - eventually)... in other words, this space holds a lot of our stuff. But it's stuff that needs to be in a closet, behind closed doors, at least until we get around to using it or appropriately disposing of it.

So back to the point of this post. Those closet doors in question? Horrid bifold little numbers. I think I abhor bifold doors almost as much as I dislike wall-to-wall carpet. They just grate on my aesthetic sensibilities or something. Plus they're awkward and dated. So down they came.

We decided to glue and nail beadboard to the space where the horizontal slats were,

then added trim around to hide the gaps on the edges,

and most importantly, we re-hung them as little french doors instead of bifolds. We put a piece of trim along the length of one of the doors to hold the other one in place and we installed a little magnet latch at the top.

We then spot-primed the knots with a shellac base primer and then applied a solid coat of regular primer to the bare wood...

Finally, we gave them a coat of bluish paint that was leftover from Noah's room (Silver Sea, you can get it at Lowe's), and there you have it! We also ordered a couple of glass knobs for each door from Anthropologie, but they're on backorder, so it'll be a little while before they get here. They're the prism knob, in clear:

One little house project finished: check. And on to the next..!

(**To see the finished project, with glass knobs and all, click here and here.**)

Farmhouse goodness

If you've been following this blog for a while, you know of my love of white floors,

my deep appreciation for all things vintage,

my attachment to chalkboard paint (the smudgier the better),

and my sincere affection for design that borrows from Swedish aesthetic...

In short, you know I have a soft spot for old houses and the people who love them,

so it should come as no surprise that I adore the farmhouse that Sacha Dunn and Edmund Levine share with their son Max and pit bull-whippet mutt, Winnie, in Upstate New York.

To see more of Dana Gallagher's photos and read about the story and details of the remodel, visit Country Living here.

(many thanks to lovely nelya at head over heels for reminding me of this little gem!)