My Second Love: August 2012

So many great links this week! I'm feeling inspired again. We're going to have a laid-back Labor Day weekend. We've been traveling so much that it will be nice to just spend some time in our house that we'll soon be leaving. I hope everyone takes some time to relax and enjoy the fruits of their labor!

A great collection of white rooms to send you off on your Labor Day weekend

Another fabulous table setting from Kimberly Schlegel Whitman - pure pink, blue and white bliss!
P.S. KSW - I'm now inspired to needlepoint a stocking for Edward. I'm sure I won't finish until he's 10!

I loved this guest bathroom makeover!
It has some of my favorite elements - ruffles, monograms & scallops

Y'all seriously have to read the reviews for the BIC Cristal For Her Ball Pen
Yes, it's a real product & you will laugh

I love this post on pastoral murals

I'm so excited for The Mindy Project
I'm a HUGE Mindy Kaling fan

A perfect bathroom vignette

Secrets to inexpensive but good drapery from the always inspiring Emily Henderson

A supercute (and simple) DIY art idea from Jamie Meares
I'm thinking of making one with my favorite lyrics:
"here comes the sun, it's all right"
or
"you're my blue sky, you're my sunny day"

Robert Redford is a handsome, handsome man

Robin Williams, not as handsome, but his house in Napa is

Best books on happiness

Pillows, Tunics and Linens - Oh My!
Thanks for the heads up Kelly Market

Congratulations to Giuliana & Bill on their very own Baby Edward!
He's even an EDR so G, call me if you want to trade monogrammed items

Ok, I can't resist sharing my Baby Edward. I'm just so in love.

Very concerned about Shrek

Happy to see his favorite cat, Puss in Boots

Have a lovely weekend y'all!

What I did yesterday

I judged.

I'm talking to you Restoration Hardware.

We're considering two of the Lyon Chairs to go on either side of our fireplace in the kitchen/hearth room. My in-laws have them and they're very cozy and pretty so we might just be big ole' copycats and go get some for ourselves.

This, but in grayish tones.

We need something simple because our kitchen is wall to wall toile. We have a gorgeous long pine table that seats ten. I don't know if these will clash with the pine. I don't like matchy furniture, but I definitely want to keep the space simple since it will be a high traffic area.

So Edward and I ventured down to the Plaza to have lunch with a friend and do some shopping. We popped into RH to check out this chair and to see if there are any other pieces we might like. Well, the minute I stepped into the dark and gloomy, deconstructed, happiness-free space that is the new Restoration Hardware, I just wanted to cry. It's gone completely off the rails. Where's my silver sage? I know, I know, the business has experienced a remarkable turn-around with their new "'do," but I don't like it. It's too much or rather too little. Basically, they had four things in the store that they highlighted with dramatic overhead lighting. Edward didn't like it either. He told me. He said, "no mama, I'm scared, me no like the new Restoration Hardware." What? He did!

I just had to get that out there. And now because I've sufficiently depressed myself with this whole post, I'm going to end with a nice little dose of Mario Buatta. The opposite of RH.

I'm thinking our new house will be somewhere in between the two styles. Ha!

I'm going to spend some time today catching up on my blog comments because I've been the worst. I love all of your comments and appreciate y'all so much! I hope you have a lovely day!

P.S. I wonder how this news will affect the new RH?

* Photos of Mario Buatta's design from House and Garden's Best in Decoration, by The Editors of House and Garden, Conde Nast, 1987 via The Blue Remembered Hills

Wordless Wednesday

I Need a Hobby

... like I need a hole in my head, but I happened to pick up my mother-in-law's Ehrman Tapestry needlepoint catalog and saw this Blue Willow pattern pillow and momentarily considered taking up needlepoint.

Then I realized that a hobby of the needle variety is basically a death-trap for Edward.*

*It's amazing the awful scenarios you can dream up in your head when you become a mother. It must be some biological defense mechanism, but I can literally imagine the worst and obsess over it for days. This is why I don't watch the news and made the switch to GMA - Today likes to get all graphic on me without warning. But really, is that normal or should I be medicated?

So for now I'm content to pick out some patterns and pretend it's something I'll eventually do.

Cat in a Ruff

Heyy cat! Edward loves cats so I would make this for him. He would love it until his friends came over and made fun of it, then he would hate me. See what I just did? Anyway, I like the cat/needlepoint combo and think it would be fun in the right kind of space (i.e. one that does not include doilies or Precious Moments figurines).

Charleston Summer

Love the florals. I'm picturing it on a chintzy floral chair to enhance the flowery experience.

Enchanted Forest

Whimsical and Christmas sweater-y. Again, would be cute in the right kind of space.

Indian Elephant Blue

Love me some elephants.

New England Gentleman

This guy is judging you, which is why I like him.

That's all.

Wall to Wall Blue and White

Coming at ya from JMA Interior Decoration in Florida (but first spotted by moi over at my new favorite tumblr, The Handbook Authority, gotta give credit y'all)

I like it. I like it a lot.

They also did some blue and white business on this yacht.

Right?

Ok, ok, ok, ok (Edward's new favorite phrase). These next two months on the blog are going to be a bit cray cray. I'm in a holding pattern waiting for the move and it's making me insane because all I want to do is decorate. But now that it's getting closer, I know I need to hold back and wait until we get in there before making too many more purchases. The good news is once we get out of this house and into the new house I'll probably be posting 25 times a day asking y'all's opinions on every single thing. I drive by our new house everyday - it's on the way to the grocery store and no matter how hard I try, I always end up going to the grocery store everyday - anyway, I really want to sneak up and paint the front door. It's red now and I want it blue. Would that be inappropriate?

Kk have a good day!

sketchbook drawing : bird nest

sketchbook drawing : red cone

sketchbook drawing : shoe

For the Ethiopian Team...

Introducing Dibaba and Gebrselassie.

Lijoch headed to a 'come as your favorite athlete' party thrown by some of Melese's new school mates.

sketchbook drawing : pine cone

Have a Lovely Weekend!

Morning y'all! Lots of random links for you this weekend, but they're all good! Two weeks worth, since I missed last Friday so I hope this makes up for my absence. If you missed my guest post at Belle on Heels, you should definitely head over there and check out my favorite blue and white bedrooms, including the superfabawesome bedroom pictured. I mean normally, I'm all, "white sheets are a moral imperative blah blah blah," but I love this bedroom, especially the sheets. Soo very well then, I contradict myself. I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Chintz lives!

This butterfly bedding is sweet for a little girls room

Two purchases from Old Navy this week that I lurve:
Polka-dot lightweight cardigan and spotted flats
apparently, spots are the new stripes in my closet

The best lasagna recipe ever!!
made it for a friend this week - so yum!

My birthday is in two months and I need this book.
Mom, Kip, anyone, you can pre-order it here

The Everygirl's ten favorite Ikea finds

The possible inspiration for the blue willow china pattern? (plus lots of blue & white)
and a lovely shout out :)

This Hunger Games Honest Movie Trailer is hilarious and spot on

18 Minute Ritual that might make you more productive?

I'm obsessed with May Books

I'm also obsessed with these camera straps

Amazing kid party idea courtesy of The Bachelorette Emily

Love a good before and after (update: whoops! fixed the link now)

Remember the Oregon Trail?

Finally, what's up Al Roker?
Full Disclosure: I made the switch to GMA. Yep.

sketchbook drawing : yard debris

Back to School- New Column

New Column up...Here.

Come On Over ...

... to Belle on Heels where I'm having a little blue and white bedroom party!

What are you still doing here? Go!

sketchbook drawing : tea & leaves

sketchbook drawing : hands and feet

Puddles of Blue

Morning y'all! Back from 'bama and had to spend all day yesterday snuggling my little man whom I missed terribly. Tuscaloosa is such a cute town and I left my sister knowing she was going to have an amazing four years (five if she's smart ... hey, there's nothing wrong with a little victory lap people). As I mentioned before, she's an interior design major and I'm hoping to get her on here to guest blog. She already has such a distinctive style, think soft and elegant yet cozy, and I'm so excited to see how it grows in the next four years!

Onto decor bidness. I was catching up on blog reading yesterday and I came across this image of blue taffeta curtains on Cote de Texas:

and I died.

And then I came back to life.

I love the look of extra long blouncy (it's not a word) silk or taffeta drapes that puddle on the floor. It's a look The Suze used and still uses in our house growing up, but I first saw it on a smaller scale when I stayed in the New Orleans apartment of a friend of a friend. She was in her 20s and we were in high school and I think it was her first big girl apartment. It was a small one bedroom decorated in all white, and she had these big white silk drapes in her living room that pooled at the bottom. I was obsessed. I still am.

Lonny

Drapestyle

Megan Young Designs

I'm thinking of adding this look to my bedroom in the new house. Specifically, pale blue silk taffeta drapes against white walls. The owners are leaving some pelmet boxes for us that are covered in a pink toile so the question is do I recover them in something like a white or blue velvet (see below) and let the taffeta flow from underneath them or get rid of them all together? Thoughts?