Today we are packing our suitcases, taking the cats over to my sister's house, and disconnecting the computers. Which means no blog updates until the week of the 5th.
Note the lack of a concrete blog-update-date? Let's just say I'd rather not accidentally lie to you.
The next few weeks will be split between Switzerland, Grapevine, and San Jose.
Merry Christmas! Happy Hannukah (which I believe starts tonight? Or last night?)
Our new digs in the South Bay have all the modern comforts (minus a coat-closet)...including a Summer Kitchen. In case you, like my husband and our landlord, have no idea what that is, it's a kitchen on the property, but separate from the main house. In our case, added onto the one-car garage. The purpose of this is to be able to bake and cook to your heart's delight without baking and cooking your housemates in the August heat - they're leftover from the pre-central-air days. Farmhouses generally have them. A genius invention, actually.
Unfortunately, ours shares space with the laundry machines and was clearly last decorated in what I like to call the Harvest Gold Heyday. I'm not to be deterred, though. I plan to hang some posters, install a 1950's era card table and a couple of chairs and create a nice place to store off-season cookbooks and excess freezer goods.
Here's the before image:
I love that there's storage out here. It makes me almost giddy. There might be more storage in this room than in our entire life.
The bed is going to Salvation Army and being replaced with a card table and chairs. On the right you'll note up by the door there's a washing machine and them directly next to that is a hand-washing machine. I have no idea how to use it and I had to ask what it was. Tips?
Stay Tuned for the after. And try to reign in your jealousy.
Found this while I was going through some Christmas stuff a year or so ago. Scanned it and forgot about it and then found it again. Feel free to save it and use it for your own placecards, gift tags, whatever your little Photoshopping Heart Desires:
Happy Holidays!
PS - in the interest of keeping artisans in business, please follow this link. Seriously. Save Our Toys.
PPS - notice to the right under my list of blogs I've got a list of What The Cool Kids Are Posting. Those are items that pop up on my RSS aggregator that I like enough to share. Feel free to browse away. There's great stuff in there!
Please believe me when I tell you that I have killed mint. Yes, Mint. An invasive weed. And I killed it. But DEAD.
And, like all people who fail miserably at something, I have longed to be successful. I watched jealously as my sister brings ailing plants back from the brink, and I lust after well-planned and executed gardens in magazines.
What I need is something hearty. Something resilient. Something that my husband won't mind looking after so as to ensure it's long and healthy life.
I also need something my cats won't readily eat. Imagine my delight, then, when I found this little how-to on the Domino Site.
A day or two later, while cleaning out my backed-up tear sheets I ran across this in the new-defunct Home and Garden:
Ok, so it's not entirely cat-proof, but it does look hardy and pretty. And then I turned the page and discovered this:
Still not entirely cat-proof, but the little mushrooms kill me. One more page in the spread and voila! Cat-proofness.
And look at those succulents! Surely Husband can keep those alive for me...right? Wouldn't they make great centerpieces?
House and Garden even had a nice little information box for indoor plants:
Then a few months later, Dwell did a spread on what they termed Terradomes. Domes- cat proof.
These remind me of the lovely SaarinenTulip Table (which I feel is the perfect patio table.) They're also vaguely Jetson-y, which makes me want to put them in a little boys space-age bedroom.
Tulip Table (with the Carerra White top, which I'm not sure I like. But then again, I promise not to be too picky when the opportunity to place one on my patio presents itself.)
For a bit of nostalgia: (and also to get the full effect)
But first, has Danny Seo (of Daily Danny) given me an idea for utilizing my card catalogue? He had a party and used an old apothecary chest for tea-service...so clever.
Now, Emotional Architecture...questions via this article in Apartment Therapy. I'm going to use this bad boy to help out with the place (that we have yet to find) in California. Let's see if it helps.
What feelings do I want to inspire in the various parts of my house? And how can I achieve those feelings?
Where have I been happiest and what elements can I bring from that place?
What elements will be pleasing to me, my spouse, my children and any other occupants? How can we integrate all of our needs and wants and, most of all, our personalities into our home?
Am I creating the type of environment that will welcome me home after a hard day's work? If not, how can I make it a more comforting place?
How do specific colors make me feel? How can I use (or not use) those colors as an additional way to evoke emotion?
By the way, these are hard questions...best to take your time with. Right now I've only got one partial answer:
Where I've been happiest:
Peach Tree, North Carolina
and
Anywhere I've been hanging out with the husband...the place where we were the happiest is a bit cliched. Our honeymoon, which took place here:
And that actually helps...one day I'll have a kitchen with walls the blue of the ocean. And I'll hang prints of the photos I took...none of which are on my computer. I really should reconsider keeping my iphoto library to a minimum...but I hate sifting through zillions of images for the one I want. Surely there's a better way...?
Got home after spending the afternoon running errands with a friend to find this:
He's been bad all day, but apparently sees the Moose on the tv as a challenge of some sort. Poor moose had wet antlers. Kipper (the cat) is now sitting on the cedar chest grooming himself and attempting to look innocent.
In my mailbox, the new issue of Domino - Woot!
While out, I also picked up these, from Williams-Sonoma. So they'll go on the dining table.
I'd have put the tree up yesterday and would be showing you pictures of that. However, we're spending Christmas in Switzerland this year so we decided in June to forgo the tree. I still planned on doing the full decorating...granted that's not a lot because the tree is generally the centerpiece of the loft. Then we received the timeline for our move...and that went out the window. The day we fly to Switzerland, the movers are coming. Unpacking all of the decorations just to repack them feels wrong.
On the other hand, I love Christmastime. So I compromised.
The moose is part of a gift I got years ago and it has pride of place on the tv. On the shelf behind the moose is the stack of Christmas movies I own and will watch pretty consistently until they get packed.
On the same table that housed the Halloween decor, I switched out a few items and voila! Christmas has come to Chez Moi. I have no idea where I picked up any of that with the exception of the ash tray on the right (candlewick, mother-in-law) and the rubber ducky (shower favor.) Oh, and the table cloth is the underside of the ones we used for the centerpieces at our wedding.
Sorry for the radio silence last week. I was in Florida with family for the holiday and completely forgot the wire to attach my camera to the computer...lets just say that in addition to not blogging I also didn't pack make up and I let a lot slide. I did, however, get my cards addressed and sealed during the Thanksgiving Day Parade...which is a tradition of mine.
And now I'm going to go watch (as Tavi called it) Buddytheelfwhat'syourfavoritecolor! You know you're jealous.
I love that there's storage out here. It makes me almost giddy. There might be more storage in this room than in our entire life.
The bed is going to Salvation Army and being replaced with a card table and chairs. On the right you'll note up by the door there's a washing machine and them directly next to that is a hand-washing machine. I have no idea how to use it and I had to ask what it was. Tips?
And look at those succulents! Surely Husband can keep those alive for me...right? Wouldn't they make great centerpieces?
Tulip Table
Peach Tree, North Carolina
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