A wicked awesome room...

My wicked (and I use the term in the fondest way and only because she named herself that many, many years ago) step-mother is visiting right now, so I finally got to see the fantastic room she did this past spring for the Showhouse of Art and Design in Marietta, Georgia.  If you're looking for any design help in the greater Atlanta area, she is most definitely the woman to work with! 




Design by the super talented Ann Gronewald, Antiques and Interiors.

Emerging from the forest...

Don't get me wrong...I LOVE living in my dark little forest, which feels slightly enchanted, and slightly like it's going to eat me in weeds and vines at any given moment.  But since summer's arrival seems to be waiting on just the perfect spell, prayer, wish, tribal dance or combination of the previous, I love this light-filled airy abode.  Until some sun arrives for longer than an hour, I'm going to dream about sun-bleached floors, a sloped glass ceiling, and floating high above the trees in the loft of my dreams.

Images from elle interiors, via the diversion project.  Styling by Nana Lagerman.

Weird Science

Been on another blog hiatus...had a lovely journey to Atlanta and Birmingham to visit the fam.  It was heavenly and fun.  The wild invasive purple wisteria was blooming; we hit a million consignment and thrift shops; and dined at the restaurants belonging to my all-time favorite one, two Top Chefs.  Oh, and stayed up late, ate coconut waffles, ogled houses, and talked, talked, talked!

Meanwhile, the inner (ok, often outer!) geek in me has fallen in love with these science pillows.  Available from Heather Lin Home.  

March 4, 2011. Today, I...

• Finally understood why crazy, wonderful, kind Taguchi-Sensei that I met in Japan several years ago, always wore silly sock with toes (with Birkenstocks no less--no your typical Japanese fashion).  He was a tiny man that ran a gazillion miles every day.  I have these weird toes that step on each other when I run, so when I saw Mr. Taguchi's socks at the running store, I couldn't resist.  Wearing them around the house, I already love them.  I'll give a running report as soon as I get off the couch, in case there are other toe-freaks out there.  I promise not to start wearing Birkenstocks though.

• I got some fantastic photos from La Vie from a few events last summer.  Real Weddings coming next week! 

• Saw The Adjustment Bureau.  Better than Jason Bourne!
• Saw Dravus with the hiccups.  And a great Dane with hiccups is pretty funny!
• Received an email from Gayle that we try Book Bindery, a restaurant on Queen Anne.  Doesn't it look perfect?  And the menu lists "Caramelized Sea Scallops with winter citrus, sunchokes, and Marcona almonds".  I'm going to dream about those scallops tonight.

• Found this lovely tumblr site (though I still have NO idea what tumblr is...anyone?  Do I need to know this?) that is ADDICTING.  Things Organized Neatly.  I can't stop thinking about all of the things I have around here that I could organize and photograph.  I think I'll actually dream about rows and columns of sea scallops with almonds.

Maybe the neatest view of a rose ever.  Love Thomas Edison's laboratory, and did any other Anthros besides downtown Seattle do the pennies-but-with-toast a few months ago?  It was pretty awesome.

Thursday thoughts

I was super-excited in January to hear from my favorite guys that a wedding we did together last spring was featured that day on VERA WANG's blog!!!  And then I promptly forget to brag about it here, until reminded by my Gayle. 

Check out Sylvia and Matt's pretty, pretty day at Vera's. 

 In other news, hyacinths are available!  Well, hello there spring!  It's nice to see you again.

And I love this home and couple featured this week in the NYT Home & Garden section.  He describes their relationship as "I make stuff.  And she tries to explain it."  Their home is witty, eclectic, and original.  I love his G(love) project, and how he got bored one day and took a jigsaw to the Saarinen tulip table to carve some Godzilla sized-bites--so that he could excitedly tell his little boys when they returned home from school that his lunch had just been sitting there and a monster came up ate it.  They live by the directive:

"Do something.  Then do something to that.  Then do something to that."  --Jasper Johns

Pretty Walls

Lovely new wallpapers from Amy Butler, with great prices from Graham & Brown.

Just popping in

Felt the need to explain that I haven't been sucked into a black hole.  Well, not literally, but I guess the black hole of springtime in the garden and the start of wedding season looming and the return of motivation to finish house projects did kinda get me.  Can't really predict when it will shoot me back out either...

Pretty stuff that would look really great in my living room was first seen on Belle Maison.  Sources can still be seen there.

Hoarding Intervention

Brilliant!  A collage of all of those impossible-to-toss school projects, finger paint landscapes, and scribbled love notes.  Hayes and your artwork drawer...here I come!!!  

 

From oh dee doh.

I spy...

beautiful bedding (named the Fiore Collection!).  What is it about spring that makes me want to remodel the bed?  Available from Garnet Hill, and it's even a reasonable price. 

(This may just be a  response to a weekend at Great Wolf Lodge, sleeping in the exact opposite of this.  Of all the sacrifices we make for our children, GWL may be the ultimate.  Its heavenly to be home.)

Oh Suzani!

Killer new Suzani fabric collection from Calico Corners...and on sale for 15% off until March 27.  Maybe they'll send me 10 yards of each for writing this.  A girl can only hope.

week in review {january 15, 2010 edition}

hanging rope beds (!) on Urban Grace, and more bedroom ideas the next day. I'm feeling the annual January urges to work on the house. Need to get my brain back in the wedding game.

A super simple, but sparkly and cheerful table anyone can do. Spring bulbs (they're all over the grocery and hardware stores right now, pre-forced for early blooming so that you don't have to do the work), pretty mercury glass or any votives you love, and icy glass. One secret that might not be obvious? Choose just two colors to design the whole table with, and make them two analogous (that means adjacent on the color wheel) as in the royal blue and stem green on this pretty table. Notice each color is just repeated a few times--green in the stems and napkins, blue in the flowers and napkin twine wrap. That's the secret formula! Oh, pic via Purple Area.

I'm definitely jumping on the Polaroid bandwagon. Not only have they hired the Lady I'm completely GaGa for as their Creative Director (brilliant! can't wait to see what she comes up with!), but when the re-release their classic, it looks like they're going to make a faux wood grain version. Groovy.

A real wedding all about fashion...the bride is the senior fashion editor for Marie Claire. Dress is a custom gown by Marchesa (If I was a bazillionaire, I'd flounce around every day in either Marchesa and Oscar De La Renta. i do charitable work while wearing them to make up for my silliness.), fabulous bridesmaids dresses with huge grey sequins by Burberry. The bride also had custom shoes made by Mr. Louboutin himself! I wanna see more of this one! (There's a little more in the February issue of MC, but not enough.)Photos by Charlotte Jenks Lewis, as seen on 100 Layer Cake.

I found a new-to-me blog this week that seems to do a better job of expressing what is in my brain than I do. So lovely.

And while we're on the subject of other blogs, if you are a flower lover and haven't subscribed yet to Flowerwild, you absolutely must. Kate Holt is extraordinarily talented. Just a selection of a few things posted recently. Notice it's white and black anemone season!

Cold (part II)

The house continues to come along, though at a slower pace right now with the holiday preparations to keep us busy. It feels so good to finally have a nice spot for our tree though, after eight years of Christmases that involved an attack tree right inside the front door. The only way to get in the old house in December was to climb through the tree limbs, as if running an ornament gauntlet. Forget pet hair...you couldn't leave our house without having a thousand fir needles embedded in your sweater or scarf.

But meanwhile, I keep dreaming of my someday to come kitchen remodel. Our temporary fix with pale turquoise upper cabinets and chocolate milk colored bottoms is a nice make-do kitchen for now. But I left my (albeit tiny) kitchen with custom cabinets with antiqued glass, gorgeous Brazilian cherry handmade counter tops, and a huge farmhouse sink.

It's been well worth the trade off to be closer to the city, have more space and a better floorplan, and have 10x the garden space, but...I can't help but dream. I do know that right now, top on my list, is one of these pretty retro refrigerators from Big Chill. All the modern conveniences in such a pretty package!

On a side note, are any of you other bloggers out there struggling with Blogger all of a sudden? No noticeable changes to the program, but the pictures won't move anymore unless you're in the HTML side of things, which is doable but a bit of a hassle. And...they won't even delete. Seriously, if Google can come up with an Android phone that supposedly is so fantastic it would make me leave my beloved if given the chance, why can't they write a new edition of their blog software? Blogger must be the most awkward, cumbersome, and unreliable program in existence. Google, I've been really nice this year...maybe for Christmas?

Ok, taking a step down off my soapbox to go get ready for the day.

week in review [12.11.09 edition]

Hey loyal readers out there! I'm still alive, but have been badly neglecting all work this week while trying to work through a little bout with pneumonia. It's so like me...everyone else who is sick gets the trendy and chic h1n1, and I get frumpy old pneumonia. Which is making me REALLY tired!

So, not much creativity or insight out of me, but a few things in the blogging world I liked this week. Short and sweet, because I've mostly been sleeping if I have relaxing time.

Hope you are all staying healthy!

Freezing in cold Seattle, but loving the icy sparkly,

Alexa

A beautiful pinecone themed board on Ritzy Bee...
A spunky little felt wreath on Pickles, found via Simply Grove...

Pretty wildflower and succulent wedding inspiration from Rosehip Flora...

A fancy hat--too bad it's not Kentucky Derby season--seen at Lobster and Swan...

And a gorgeous wedding from JL Designs...pomanders, lanterns, succulents everywhere!