Only God can tell a questioning heart to stop asking and start living out the answers.
-From Heart of My Heart by Kristin Armstrong
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Friday, September 28, 2012
Hmmm, I Think I Like You
This light caught my eye while looking for another fixture on West Elm today. Thoughts?
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Client Kitchen
These pictures were taken in one of my favorite open spaces. The large light fixture was a gamble but I am glad we took it. It is a stunner when you walk into the space.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
*images courtesy of gretchen o, fern living, knitofactso
Buttercup
{image source: flickr user law_keven at www.creativecommons.org }
I remember the buttercups that used to dot my elementary school playground.
I went there for nine years so I knew the field well. The buttercups would shoot up faster than the blades of grass between mowings.
{image from wikipedia}
When we were younger, we'd hold them up under eachother's chins & it was, " Do you like butter?"
A little older and it was, "he loves me, he loves me not"
{He loves me!}
You never really knew if he was going to love you or not with buttercups because some types have 5 petals and others have 6.
I loved making flower chains & never really grew out of it. I remember doing them in the Spring as I waited for my turn at long jump in high school track. One day I remember making necklaces for the other sprinters & somehow convincing even the guys to wear them as crowns... (My coach must have loooved that ;)
ahahahaha (It really still makes me laugh out loud.)
More than anything, I just remember always picking them up & playing with them when I see them. Long talks on the field with my best friend, scooping down to pick a buttercup, subconsciously. Crumbling the old flower centers into little pieces between my fingers & rolling them around.
I love these pics of the plants from NC State... (above & below)
{image source for above pics: http://www.toronto-wildlife.com/Plants/Buttercup_family/more_tall_buttercup.html }
It's for pretty much all of these reasons that I've known for a while I wanted to do a buttercup design for my textile line. When the power went out for days this Summer & we needed to get out of town, we made an impromput visit to see my dad in Illinois & have him meet the baby... The car ride is 13 hours and it was the first time after Luke was born (in May) that I'd had some time to sketch. I worked on "buttercup" in my lap...
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{The beginnings of it... as you can see, drawing doesn't come easily to me & there are lots of erase marks & mess ups}
The design (like all of them) is just an interpretation... not a botanical study. I add my own little things here & there and I'm sure I leave out pretty important parts, but it's the feeling that I'm after...
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{One of my first strike-offs}
I'm working on the final colorways now but I'm really happy with the light earthiness of this first one...
A few more options are on their way & I hope you enjoyed a peek into the process.
...
Do you have any buttercup memories?
Monday, September 24, 2012
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*images courtesy of cape cod collegiate, crush cal de sac, womac interiors, houzz, me
Demo & Rebuild
I'm back to the construction zone from a whilrwind trip to NYC and, like I've been mentioning for the past few weeks, we're now down to the studs at our place. (!!) We're reworking the floorplan- closing doorways, adding new ones, moving walls, removing them... plumbing is being moved, windows are getting enlarged, we're adding a fireplace, redoing the bathrooms & kitchen... it's madness!! (but the good kind of madness ;) We have the air off because there's so much dust flying around & we want to keep it out of our upstairs "apartment" as it's been dubbed... But as I type this morning, I'm hoping it stays warm a little longer because there is definitely a chill in the air & there's no heat for us until we get the bulk of the contruction completed.
One of the biggest changes we're making is opening up the kitchen to the living room... Here it is before:
And here it is now: 
They've finished sanding down the beams. The red-brown stain is now GONE and we've exposed the bare pine. (How I wish that pine had been exposed over the past 40 years, aging gracefully but oh well... It's very raw now & we had it hand scraped & wire brushed. ) We've also had insulation added between the beams because before there was only a layer of plywood before the roof & we're making it a bit more energy efficient. And of course as you can see... the wall is DOWN!!! The kitchen is now completely open to the living room. We also expanded the kitchen two feet to the right (taking space from the dining room) so that it spans the whole width of the living room now. Floors are going down this week & next (more on that as soon as I have pics!) and I CANNOT WAIT. Once we have floors, we can move our things inside from the garage & pod. Dave went diving in the pod for clothes last week & climbed over all of the front stuff to get to the Fall stuff in the back.... He dug himself a little hole and climbed down into it.... And I honestly thought he was buried by the stuff at one point. (thanks to him of course.) 
{it's since been rearranged} Me, after realizing I hadn't heard him talk in a while: "Dav, are you okay in there??" him, very quiet/ far away: "Hellllllllp" At that point I was about to launch the jogger strollerfrom the pod to the woods behind me as I screamed "DAVE?!!!!!!" Then I heard "No no no no no!! I'm fine!!" in a completely normal volume. Then laughter. Oh wow. He's very lucky I couldn't reach him at that point. We've had the discussion before of "fright or flight" in emergency situations. I'm a "fight" kind of girl. There's tyipcally no hesitation in my reactions and I find myself doing things before I've even thought about them. Thanks to him, (yes am still bitter ;) I almost launched our Christmas breakables into the woods. Anyway, things are happening around here & I'm in the midst of planning the kithen (and pretty much everything else around here) so I'll be back this week to share some plans!! Off to some clients for the day & keep your fingers crossed we find our nanny soon!! My head is busting with things I need to remember & people I need to speak to... send some brain space my way. I've never been so busy in my life. I'm not at the breaking point yet but feel like I should be. Maybe once you actually get here, you're too busy to break. ??? ;) 
{at least I've got what matters most}
One of the biggest changes we're making is opening up the kitchen to the living room... Here it is before:
He Gets It Honest
Some days I just have to go pick up Henry before work is over because I just can't be away from him any longer. Luckily (maybe because he has been working with me from a few weeks old), he doesn't seem to mind one bit.
Fabric swatches? LOVES them. Gray leather club chair with nail heads? Check.
Reclaimed wood and more nail detail? Check, check.
Gray velvet?!?!?!? He loves it all...I can't imagine where he gets it.
