what I did Sunday

I made this t-shirt.

Well I added to this t-shirt in order to cover up a stain.

and then last night I spilled a tasty red wine on it.

Guess I am not quite done with it...

RUCHE Giveaway

Thanks to Linda over at Restyled Home I recently discovered Ruche,

They (unlike Anthro etc) offer a few "big gal" sized selections.

Not as many as I had hoped, but it is a start?

And I adore their clothes.

The clothes, the styling, it is all perfectly me.

I think they need a Homewares line (don't you?) and I think I should design it!

They are currently having a Giveaway on their blog.

In order to enter you have to pick you favorite Fall Look.

This is mine because it is completely wearable just as it is and completely adorable.

And if I won the $50 Gift Card they are giving away, I would buy .these

Love, love, love them.

Seriously.

(of course if I don't win,  my birthday is coming up and I am size 9 if anyone is interested...)

never as you planned

This weekend has not gone as planned.

I planned to spend it cleaning, organizing, visiting with friends,crafting...

Instead I have spent most of it flat on my back.

Saturday morning I threw my back out cleaning my office/studio.

I think it was the combination of too much furniture moving and too much stress (albeit regular life stress, but it is still stress all the same...)

So down I went. And there I stayed.

I think maybe my body is trying to tell me something.

Like "hey you, sit down will ya? you are not super woman!"

Dang.

All this time doing only one thing at a time has given me the chance to think.

Sometimes I think about deep things.

Sometimes I think about painting chairs.

Here are a few of my thoughts with pictures. 

I added (well I pointed and the boys did the work) this rug to the TV area. I think it is a good start at redifining and seperating the 2 areas. Grounds the sitting area a bit don't you think?

My other thought is to convert some of the white furniture to color.

But should I paint the wood chairs at the craft table (this image is from Maine Cottage.)

Or should I color-up the upholstered pieces? With patterns or solids?

(these chairs come from Overstock, Ikea and Crate and Barrel)

I know which one would be easier and cheaper and faster, but is it the right choice?

(image from Period Living)

In adoption news, there is none really.

Except that both Miles and I would go tomorrow and get the girls if we could.

I wish getting them was as easy (for me) as getting pregnant was.

Luckily for us cooler heads (Sweet Man, Wylie, DHS...) prevail.

So say a little prayer for us as we begin to tackle things like physicals, finger printing, & form after form.

This change isn't as easy as moving furniture.

Maybe considering the state of my back, that is a good thing?

Design Sherpa

Earlier this summer, on a whim, I entered a contest.

A contest whose grand prize includes a trip to Paris.

(I mean, how could I not enter right?)

Somehow, out of all those who applied, I made it into Round #2 (aka the top 100.)

Now, Design Sherpa (host of the contest) is posting the top 100 entries post; 1 a day for 100 days.

Today was my day.

To see and read my entry go HERE

Wish me luck!

life in a house as a home and not a museum

The problem with writing a post that says something like " Lately I have been uninspired to decorate..." is that you will imediately go home and turn your house upside down reaarranging furniture.

In case you are new to this blog or don't know much about me, here is a little inside tip:

I am a huge nest fluffer. 

Space is a big deal to me. How I use it, what it looks like etc.

When I am chewing on a problem or a change in my lilfe you can tell because I start messing with my space.

Rearranging it like a rubix cube. Turning things this way and that, trying to make it all fit just right.

A few months ago we decided that it was time to move forwarded with this little seed of a dream we had to adopt.

And that is when I bought the green couch.

Now we have been to our first meeting and have a stack of paperwork and the wheels are in motion.

So  what do I do to work though this phase? Swap the dining room and the living room of course!

See I know that we will have to give up our office/studio space for the girls (whomever they may be, they are already our kids in our hearts and so we now refer to them as "the girls." It is just how it is.)

And (cute as it was) we really never used our dining room for much more than dumping our mail on it and hosting the occasional dinner party. And the table was hard to get around. And really for every day use we eat in the kitchen, and now that the weather is getting nicer, on the back porch.

So my original plan was to to turn the dining room into the craft room. Keep the table,

add craft supply armoires..

But still that table was too big and everyone always bumps into it.

And I knew (especially with the addition of more kids) I really needed 4 "family" areas and I only had 3 rooms to do it in.

I needed the following:

Craft/Making Stuff Area

TV Watching Area for 2-3 persons at a time

Lounging/Reading/Chating Area

Eating Area

And then we went to Otis and Lynns and they had switched their dining room and living room (something I have often thought of trying, but never seriously considered it.)

And there you have it. I just had to try it.

So we did.

I love:

Miles putting on old record after old record because it is down at his level now.

More piano playing because it is easier to get to.

Laying on the couch talking to Sweet Man in one room, while the boys practice piano or watch a movie just a few feet away, but in another room.

How close the couch is to the kitchen now.

How cozy the sitting room is.

How we use the space.

I don't love:

How cluttered the living room looks with so much blue and white furniture.

So many white chairs!

I would like colorful patterned cushy chairs for the TV area.

Maybe the red walls in the sitting room? Been debating this one for a while...

No rugs. I feel like the smaller sitting areas need rugs.

If I keep it this way the upside is smaller rugs = less money.

So will it stay this way? I think so.

Do I have lots more work to do on it to make it truly lovely?

Yes!

Does that deter me at all?

Nope!

I am actually happy for the distraction.

reading

 

Here is what this weeks trip to the library produced:

Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home 

Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship 

Peony in Love: A Novel

 Back Story (Spenser)

 The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder: A Novel 

tuesday pick-me up

(photo credits here)

today these pictures are making me smile.

we have had (as I am sure many of you have had as well) an outrageously hot summer.

the heat has done very little to inspire me.

all my projects have stalled.

the porch is 80% done.

our bedroom is 80% done.

the living room needs serious attention.

and then there is the whole turning the craft-studio-into-a-bedroom/dining-room-into-a-craft-dining-room thing, which I think is going to take some time to work up to. 

I just can't seem to get excited about much except buying shoes and staying cool.

Hoping the weather cools soon and brings some decorating mojo with it.

shade

Habitat ReStore Lamp. Recovered vintage lampshade frame.

Just cause.

.

resonating today

(print by edie art)

A bird does not sing because he has an answer.

He sings because he has a song.

- joan walsh anglund

emerson made me smile

don't you love it when you come across something that just makes you smile?

something that gives you hope that the whole world isn't just one big plastic rat race?

something that seems to exemplify beauty in the simple things?

me too.

(all photos from EmersonMade)

baby steps

yesterday our little family of four took our first baby steps to become a family of six.

it is something Sweet Man and I have talked about from the day we met.

it is something I have held in my heart since I was very young.
it is something some may see as crazy talk. as a risky move.
and maybe they are right.

but to us, it is an adventure. an adventure placed in each of our hearts, separately & together.

adoption here we come.

(pictures by jemimah b.)

costume change

too  much to say.

be back soon.

(image Rachel Papo)

escape

 

There are 6 large tween boys who have taken over my living room with guns and light sabers and stinky feet.

I think I need a vacation.

This one looks nice.

(images from Cabbages and Roses)

fine art

I recently came across this painting at a Flea Market in Hot Springs.

I excitedly rushed over to it hoping for a steal of a deal, because I immediately loved it. I loved the story it seemed to be telling as well as all the colors and textures.

Unfortunately the price was too high for me.

But I took a picture of the price tag so I could remember to look up the artist.

The artist is Katherine Strause and I adore her work.

She is even more amazing that I could have imagined.

And she lives in my parents hometown. 

On her website it says 

" Found photographs are the source material for these paintings. Katherine Strause's compositions allow us to bear witness to familiar stories through images of our shared past.  By altering and re-arranging the original compositions a provoked subject matter emerges. At times the active witness appears in the paintings; at other times the active witness was the person behind the camera that took the original photograph."

With each of her paintings I feel as if I am looking at a whole book, right there in one painting.

They all feel familiar and slightly distant at the same time.

As if they are the images from stories I have heard but never seen.

I have never spent a good chunk of change on Fine Art, but if I was able to do so, I think I would start with Katherine.

i protestest

I recently found out that Urban Outfitters is the streetwise sister of Anthropologie

I know I am letting myself get old because this is the type of information I would have known years ago if I was still hip and with it.

But I think my cool factor is slipping. Despite the pink streak in my hair.

So while I will post cute things from time -to- time here from UO and Anthro, I will not be posting any clothing.

Why not? you ask?

I will tell you why not. (Because I know you are curious.)

They do not sell my size online.

They do not sell (except in rare cases) the size XL.

Now, I have no idea about what the size issues are inside the actual stores seeing as we don't have them here, but come on. Really? In 2010 this is still an issue?

And while, yes I would like to lose a few pounds, and while yes that would then place me within their (at the top of) size range, there is part of me - the part of me that was the "chunky" girl all through school, always self-conscious of not being the "right size" - who is completely appalled at their gall to exclude perfectly lovely and beautiful women from purchasing and living in their perfectly and lovely clothes.

Do they think that a 16 sized woman would make their clothes look bad?

Taint their name brand?

Somehow detract from their fab-u-lousness?

Maybe they should do like JCrew and shine the spotlight on us awkwardly and have a Size 16 section.

(That is right. Size 16 gets her own very special, very limited stocked section over at the Crew.  Isn't she a lucky girl?)

We have an African-American president, we have Gay Marriage in at  least 6 states and fancy smancy stores cannot lower themselves to sell to the average woman???

Glad to know women have advanced so much.

 (wanna guess what sex their CEO is?)