Best $20 I ever spent

The Quoizel sale has come and gone. My score this year was this awesome pendant. I grabbed it as soon as they brought it out from the back. And only $20! Amazing!

Dumpster dive for the win!

Of the many things I hate about my job - which are many (especially today) - there is normally at least one thing that makes my day.

 

Today's? 

 

My Lil Bit found this beauty at the compactor. And it works!  All it needs is a pretty lampshade and finial! 

Classic Quirk

The style personality I discovered in the Style Cure interview is Classic Quirk.  It would actually describe our marriage as well. 

Dave would have our house look like a castle if he could:  dark wood, dark leather, stone… moat!  I like to shake it up.  For every new piece, there needs to be something old.  For something traditional, there also needs to be a modern piece or a fun element.  Dave likes brand new, match-matchy.  Me, not so much. I love things that mean something – that have a story.  Things that just “go”. 

For the most part, Dave is pretty easy-going about what I choose to do in the house. I never could quite sell him on the lilac/lavender/purple room, but that’s ok, too.  That worked out how it should have in the end, too.

The only thing I need to watch out for is “too  much of a good thing”.  I never met a stripe I didn’t like and everything would have a nailhead trim if I didn’t temper myself. 

When I have an idea of how a room should look, I can visualize the entire room in my head exactly how it will look all put together.  Maybe it’s my verbal interpretation, but sometimes my ideas don’t  translate to Dave so well. 

A common phrase in our house is “you just have to trust”.

And in the end, he usually gets it.

Thank God.

Let's Get Started

A couple time a year, Apartment Therapy hosts a Style Cure which is kind of a Refresh Your Life exercise.  What the heck...seemed like a good time to do it.

Here is Assignment 1, the Style Cure Interview:

Favorite actor:

·         Jimmy Stewart:  In addition to sharing a birthday with him, I just simply love him!  He was so authentic, so real.  An awesome actor and a great man. 

·         Kyle Chandler:  I’ve followed him since Homefront back in the ‘90s which was a show set during World War II.  He seems like a modern-day Jimmy Stewart to me.

·         George Clooney, the Cloons:  Old Hollywood glamour and style. So suave.

 

Favorite Actress:

·         Kristen Bell:  My imaginary BFF.  Love that she doesn’t take herself seriously.  Awesome sense of humor.

·         Sandra Bullock:  She just seems real to me.  Love her work.

Favorite Artists

·         Steven Jordan

·         Jim Harrison

They paint what I know….beautifully.

Favorite Musicians

·         Food Fighters

·         INXS

·         Eric Church

·         George Strait

The best of old school plus authentic music.

Favorite Restaurants

·         My House: Seriously, we cook a lot at home.  Better, fresher, cheaper.

·         Old Spaghetti Factory:  Have you seen that place? It’s gorgeous! Oh, yeah, the food is good, too.

·         Ms. Bobo’s: Country cooking at its finest.

·         Wild Wing:  The perfect spot for just casually hanging out.

Favorite Automobile:  Old Range Rover.  The kind that looks like it just came off safari. And, hey!  It’s good enough for the Queen.

Favorite Movie:  Auntie Mame, 1955 with Rosalind Russell. I’d watching this movie over and over growing up.  I loved the sets and the fashions.  The writing was so far ahead of its time.

 

Favorite Clothing/Designers

JCrew, Michael Kors, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Target.  JCrew and I used to have a deep and abiding love affair back in the day. I love Michael Kors purses. Calvin has such classic shapes.  Target, that’s right.  For basics, they’re my guy.  I love their jeans and v-necks t-shirts.  They are all I live in in the summer.

 

Favorite Furniture/Designers

Classic Chesterfield couches, Saarinen table, nailhead trim, tufting.

Personal Style: Classic, Eclectic with a twist.

 

Favorite Room: Childhood

I’d have to say my bedroom. It was the first room I really got to put my stamp on.  It went through so many incarnations.

Favorite Room: Adult

It would have to be the Green Room in our first house.  My husband was trusting enough to let me paint it Eccentric Lime by Benjamin Moore.

 

Role Models

Definitely, my two grandmothers.  They were each creative in their own right. One grandma sewed and cooked.  The other sewed, crocheted, cross-stitched and cooked.  I found out after she died that my  dad’s mom wanted to be a furniture designer when she was younger. I owe all my creative energy to those two amazing ladies.

Just Right Rooms

·         Powder Room

·         Sunroom

·         Entry

How do I want my home to feel after the Cure:

·         Welcoming

·         Fabulous

·         Me

Juice

It's almost been two months since I've lost Mom.

And it seems like two years.

The thing about grief....it's paralyzing, and it's brutal; and it manifests itself in many different ways.

For me, I resented that the world was going on without her.

I felt guilty every time that I smiled because she wasn't here, and I wasn't supposed to be happy knowing that she wasn't here.

It was hard to think of the good times we had because it HURT SO BAD every time I thought of her.

Heartache should be called Bodyache because there have been days that every part of me hurt because I miss her so much.

In a completely unexpected way,  losing Mom released my creativity again or at least gave me a channel for my thoughts and my energy.

I had gotten pretty lax on my painting and sewing and decorating due to work.  Having to figure out how to incorporate Mom's things into our house really helped me to think about how the house would best work.

Stay tuned.....

Long Time No......

It's been a long, long time.  Over a year. Geez.

So many things have happened in that time.

Work was awesome. 

I finally felt like I found my groove. 

I felt appreciated.

I was a rockstar. 

Everything was going my way.

Life has a way of pulling your balloon back down.

I lost my mom on August 27th, a little less than a week after her 67th birthday.

There is nothing worse in the world. 

Dozens of times a day, I think "I can't wait to tell Mom" this or "I'll call Mom when I get home tonight".

As an only child, I always expected to have to take care of my parents when they got older.  Half the reason I agreed to this house is that there was more than enough room for either - or both - of them to come live with us when the time came.  I never even dreamed that she would just be...gone.

Everyone says it will get easier, and some days it is.  Then there are the days that I swear I'm having a panic attack, and it would just be so easy to cry all day.

"Life carries on. I guess it always will. Deep inside my heart, time stands still".

Don't hesitate to call or see the ones you love.  Tell them you love them every time you get a chance. You never know when you won't have the opportunity to "do it tomorrow".

bolin b.

Today seems to be a fitting day to jump back in.  Both of my grandmothers were born on September 30th. Both were creative beyond measure.  One sewed; one crocheted.  Both baked and were outstanding cooks.  One, I found out after she was gone, wanted to design furniture for a living.

Surely my creativity stems from the genes of these two incredible women.  I've decided that if I ever have the opportunity to have my own firm/store/legit creative outlet, I will name it bolin b. in honor of the two of them. 

Paying it forward.

Ahhh....At last.....

I don’t hate the chairs.

I adore the chairs! 

They are perfection.

I don’t want to sit on them. I just want to look at ‘em. 

Of course, now that table has to go.  At least the glass top.  Maybe a round marble top on the same base.  Maybe this little World Market metal and wood table. 

Who knows?

Now Lovey hates the idea of the big brown leather chair where it is.  Has he no vision?  That is going to be our "reading nook".  Doesn't everyone need a reading nook?

This is a story of a chair.....

Well, we bought a house. And while I have many stories about that particular venture, let’s talk about the reason I’m so excited today!

My chairs are coming! The most perfectest chairs in this entire wide world. And it only took me four months to find them. Yeesh.

Back in August, I visited the TJ Maxx in my widdle hometown. There I saw the most perfect chair. Linen. Simple lines. Silver nailhead trim. Swoon……but only one. Of course, there was only one. Naturally. Because I? Wanted two. I took a picture of the chair and the tag. Because this is how I shopped when we were in house-buying-spending-freeze mode.

I formulated a plan to find the second one. First, I dropped a check by my mom’s office. This way she could buy the first chair when (how optimistic) I found the second one at one of the Charleston TJs. Second, I called my friend ReRe who lives in Mt. Pleasant. She would visit their Marshall Superstore and TJ to see if they had a match. I would go to Summerville, North Charleston and West Ashley to check those stores.

None of the stores had a second chair – none were even close. Heart. Broken. I googled as many terms as I could to find the chair. Come on It’s google! If you can’t find it on google……well, I couldn’t find it on google. The only close match was in Australia and way out of my price range. If I hadn’t taken a picture of the chair, I’d swear I’d dreamed it.

Over the last few months, I’d case the random TJ to see if by chance the chair was there. (Of course, the first chair was long gone by then). So, I kind of gave up.

Lovey had been online shopping for new outdoor lights for our house for a few weeks. On Black Friday, he showed me a picture of a chair on one of the home sites he had been looking at to see if I liked it. It was nice, but it wasn’t My Chair. Friday night, he was watching some action movie I had zero interest in. I settled in with my laptop and googled My Chair again. Nuthin’. I went to Overstock.com and started looking through chairs just to have something to do. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.

WAIT! Back up! I grabbed my phone and found the picture of My Chair. I looked from the phone to the computer about a dozen times. I showed it to Lovey and asked if it was the same chair. It was!!!! I double-checked the dimensions of the chair to the tag I had luckily taken a picture of. The same exact dimensions. The linen color looks to be just a little lighter than the one I originally saw. After a quick measurement of where I wanted them in the greatroom, I ordered them. And! Extra 10% off for Black Friday, $55 coupon for first order and free shipping. Merry Christmas to me!

They will be here today. This afternoon,  I will scotchguard the poo out of them. I will probably rub up against them in disbelief that they are mine. I hope I don't hate them.

There'll Never Be Another Duffy

We lost Duffy a week and two days ago. 

It's weird that such a little dog can leave such a large hole in our lives.  Lovey rescued Blanca and Duffy when we had only been dating about six months.  Duffy was seven; Blanca was six.  They were neglected by their previous owners.  I still cannot fathom someone not loving those little guys to death like we did.

Although Blanca seemed much more affected by the neglect, Duffy was always such a chill little guy.  He rarely barked.  Mainly to express his happiness when we came home at night.  There was never a cuddler as cuddly as our Duff boy.

Even though he was almost nineteen, he only showed his age by a stiff back leg.  So when he got a cough a few weeks ago, it was noticeable that he wasn't feeling well.  Trouble breathing led us to believe that he may have congestive heart failure like Baby Girl did.  We thought we'd take him to the vet, get some meds and problem solved.  He'd be fine.

Monday morning, Lovey took Duffy to the vet.  Thirty minutes later, I got the call that Duffy's heart was fine.  He was much worse off than we imagined.  Fluid had built up in his body which was pressing against his lungs.  This was causing his breathing problems. In addition, his kidneys were only functioning at 15%.  He was in pain. 

Lovey and I had to make the worst decision of our lives.  We needed to put Duffy to sleep.  We just couldn't let him suffer.  We stayed with him,  We stoked his head and told him how much we loved him. A few short minutes later, he went into a peaceful sleep and then he was gone. It all went so fast.  

For such a quiet little dog, his absence in this house is deafening. I find myself looking for him a dozen times a day. 

There will be another bichon in our future.  We've discovered we cannot live without a little white dog in our lives.  But there will never be another Duffy.  None will even come close.

Wedges

The angst of working for an antiquated company which prohibits open-toe shoes. Especially when Target has such cute wedges right now.

Where Have I Been?

Head on over to The Green Room and find out!

Is It Hot In Here?

Or is it the Kindle Fire Lovey got me for Christmas?

I See Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Maskros

Unfortunately not the one you hang in a living room. But soon....

Meet Pixar

This little Guy was next to nothing from the Goodwill. Doesn't he look like the little dude from the opening sequence of Pixar movies? He's only wearing his primer right now. He'll be beautiful as soon as the humidity goes down low enough to paint him.

Bizzy

So much to talk about! It's been a whirlwind of a summer.

We could talk about our trip to Puerto Rico



or how Lovey and I have become boaters



or how me flying to Puerto Rico wasn't as bad as when I put Lovey on one of these to fly to Tennessee.


(plane shown actual size. plane is 2 years older than me!)

We could even talk about how a baby being held by a guy with a handful of french fries sneezed on me yesterday (and that wasn't the worst part of my day).

I'd much rather talk about how I, singlehandedly, gave Hancock Fabrics the best anniversary sale they have ever had. $3 remnant tables. 54% off of home decor fabric!

It started with these $3 per yard remnants:



and this one:



which go so well with the TV room fabrics I already had:



A trip to Ross scored this rug for only $29!



This Robert Allen Geo was a 54% off/yard buy:



And here is how the living room all came together.


Twirly pillow +


Geo pillow =


Pretty!


The curtains in the Khanjali fabric that started it all.



The reupholstered slipper chair that I've had for at least 15 years.



The room all pulled together.







It looks exactly how I wanted it to. A few more tweaks including a new ceiling fixture are needed, but that deal hasn't been found yet.

Pullo would like everyone to know he helped.

Naturally....

Deep Breath In, Deep Breath Out

Flights booked.

Hotel reservations made.

Dog-sitter confirmed.

Anti-anxiety pills clasped firmly in my hands.

Let the mad packing begin!