Naomi Stein's amazing house tour

Design Sponge featured Naomi Stein's house today, and oh my heavens, it is delightful.  There are two nooks that are just ahmaaaaazing.

I love how saturated the colors are in this blue office nook.  The cobalt blue wall, paired with the hot pink parsons desk, is just fabulous.  I foresee living in rentals for the next few years, so this beautiful collection of color won't be mine for a while, but when I buy a house I am going to go CRAZY with color and this will be at the top of my inspiration file.  THE TOP, because I love it.

I don't know if I would be so bold as to pair the red stools with the cobalt blue and the hot pink--I don't know if I'd even be brave enough to pair the cobalt blue with the hot pink--but looking at this I am inspired to try.

The other fabulosity is this wall nook in the living room:

Both images via Design Sponge

That wall-paper is so colorful and glamorous, and the mirror just POPS.  Oh, to live in a place where I can put up wallpaper without having to take it down at the end of our lease.

The entire home is gorgeous.  You can see more of it on Design Sponge, or on Naomi's blog Design Manifest.

Ugly Sofa 5: The Opposable Thumb sofa

The opposable thumb sofa is a lovely shade of band-aid, fleshy peach, and bends in both directions like opposable thumbs.  It also helpfully contains a side table in the middle of the sofa, that's one less thing to buy.

As usual, $1000 total budget; $500 or less must purchase a 5x7 rug, one set of curtains and two pillows. 

Rug, curtains and pillows: $489

1. Diva Ikat curtain: $70
2. maze rug: $399 (I REALLY wanted to use this rug, but at $499 it gave me $1 for a pair of curtains and pillows, stupid budget.)  I gotta tell you, using a rug that is more than $300 really strains the $1000 budget.  As you will see by the pillows.
3. pair of turquoise pillows: $20.  Finding two pillows for under $30 is tough. If I had more money in the budget I would have gotten these Kelly Wearstler ones or these Celery Kemble ones.


Accessories: $526
4. leather armchair: $125 on craigslist
5. Jersey shore photo: $145.  At 28x12, this picture is on the small side for a focal point, but hey, its Jersey shore, gotta REPRESENT.  Plus its by an independent artist, I like to support them when possible. (This artist has some great pictures that are reminiscent of that Christian Chaize Praia Piquinia picture that's all over blogland, but way less expensive.)  If you were of a mind to have a massive ocean photo by a mass retailer, this one from Ikea would also look nice in the room and is nearly the same price.
6. lamp: $25
7. Cocoa & Hearts painting: $95
8. set of light blue crocodile boxes: $46
9. snow leopard throw: $90. Everyone needs a leopard throw.  Everyone.

Total: $1015

Glass/gold coffee table: $350.  This is not even remotely in the budget, but lets pretend that a generous relative bought it for me.  

I am grateful

for these little stinkers.  They are the biggest source of joy in my life.

They like to DANCE DANCE DANCE to Dynamite by Taio Cruz.

How about you put your hands up, all you single ladies?

Man, that smile gets me every time.  So stinking cute.

And how cute is Princess's new haircut? (Not the easiest picture to take, she don't hold still for long.)

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

a Thanksgiving meme

Lawyerish put up a Thanksgiving meme, so I will play along.   You should too!


1. Are you celebrating Thanksgiving at home or elsewhere this year?  With whom will you spend Thanksgiving Day?
This year, we are off to the inlaws (about an hour away).  In years past we did both sets of parents in one day (my parents are about two hours away), but that is just an insane amount of driving and eating, so after we had two kids we set a holiday schedule.  For the past few years we have spent Easter at my grandmother's, Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve with my inlaws, and Christmas Day with my family.  Still a fair amount of driving at Christmas, but its the best plan we've come up with.  

2. What do you have for breakfast on Thanksgiving?

Nothing special.  As a kid, we used to have pumpkin pancakes.  However, we eat pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes in my house every weekend, so they are not exactly a special treat.  I made the mistake of adding chocolate chips to the pancakes, and now my children turn up their nose at any other pancake, which is annoying.  Breakfast here tomorrow morning will probably be cheese sticks and waffles and yogurt, just like every other morning.  

3. Do you go to a Thanksgiving parade or watch one on TV?

No.  

4. Do you serve appetizers, lunch, or snacks during the day (i.e., for the men to eat while they lounge around and watch football)?

Not really.  The first course at my inlaws' is an antipasti, so there's not much served while we are waiting. 

5. What do you wear on Thanksgiving?

Mah Eatin' Pants.  Just kidding.  I save those for the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve (now THAT is a ridiculously huge meal).  I usually just wear jeans and a nice sweater.   

6. What's your Thanksgiving table like -- do you use special plates/silver/glasses, etc?  Do you have a centerpiece?  A color scheme?  Candles?

I just show up and set the table with whatever plates happen to be available.  There are usually 11 of us attending, so we tend to go through all of the holiday plates plus the regular plates plus the dessert plates and all the silverware, since there are so many courses.  

7.  Do you serve buffet-style or family-style?  What do you have to drink?

At my grandmother's house the meal is served buffet style, although everyone sits at multiple long tables.  My father is the oldest of 11; there are 40+ people in the immediate family.  There is a turkey, and everyone brings a side.  

I grew up eating a Thanksgiving meal of turkey, mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy (omg my grandmother's mashed potatoes and my uncle's gravy YUM YUM YUM--I can't eat most dairy anymore, so that cuts off both items for me, waaaah), ham, lots of bread and butter, and green beans with eggs and breadcrumbs. Year after year.  

My inlaws have a more traditionally Italian meal which happens to have a turkey in it; the meal is pretty big (not as much food as Christmas Eve, but still substantial) and is served in courses at the table.  There may be the occasional crudite while waiting, but since the first course is an antipasti course, we usually don't have have snacks while waiting. We start with four or five small vegetable sides plus the finest cured meats and cheeses in the land, then a meat course (turkey and stuffing in this instance), frequently a pasta course (everyone eats lasagna for Thanksgiving, don't they?), a salad course, then dessert.  Yes, the salad is served last. I love salad, so I have learned to pace myself so that I have room at the end. 


I cannot discuss Thanksgiving at my inlaws' without noting that my mother in law makes a stuffing that is UNBELIEVABLE and constitutes the majority of my meal.  Yes, I just eat plate after plate of the stuff because it is DELICIOUS.  Thank goodness its only made once a year because its probably a thousand calories a spoonful.  It is fresh sausage, mushrooms, onions, rice, a gallon of olive oil and 47 tubs of fresh parmesan.  To die for, I tell you.   


There is wine aplenty at both families. I don't drink anymore (yet another food group denied to me by my stomach issues), so I usually have water or Pellegrino if I'm feeling fancy.  


8.  Once you're at the table, do you say grace or a toast or does everyone go around and say what they're thankful for?
Not at my inlaws, but I think its a tradition we should start now that the kids are old enough to participate. At my grandmother's we said grace and would go around the table and say what we were grateful for.   


9.  Do you have dessert right after the main meal or later on?
Holiday meals at my inlaws tend to be a few hours long, with a small break between courses.  So we have dessert right after dinner, but dinner has been slowly creeping along for about three hours.  I am bringing a lemon cake and a French apple pie this year.   


10.  What do you do with your leftovers?
Since I rarely host, I don't usually have the problem of what to do with the leftovers.  We get sent home with a large tupperware container; with any luck it is 90% stuffing, which is generally gone by the time I go to bed.  


11. I'm adding a question here--what's your favorite food item at Thanksgiving?  
Mine is clearly the stuffing, followed closely by leftover turkey sandwiches.  

inexpensive chiang mai dragon pillows, other tidbits

Today I was reading Aesthetic Oiseau, which is a fabulous design blog (you are already reading it, right?), and she is partnering with the Etsy shop Aurelia for 20% off items in her shop. This is massively awesome because Aurelia has a number of designer pillows, including a PAIR of chiang mai dragon pillows for $80 after the discount.

Eighty dollars, peeps!  That is an insane deal for TWO chiang mai pillows---look elsewhere on etsy, I have been pricing these pillows for my bedroom and I have yet to find them for under $200.  I feel obligated to share this awesomeness with you all.

Check out Aesthetic Oiseau's blog and Aurelia's shop for details.

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I did not send out change of address announcements when we moved to this house a few months ago.  It occurs to me that this is probably going to significantly impact the amount of Christmas cards we get this year.

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The rabid squirrel remains at large, despite the all-points APB put out on him. 

decorative cell phone skins

I have wanted an iPhone forever.  Not because I actually want an iPhone--I just want a pretty case cover for my phone, and the covers are only available for iPhones and Blackberries.  I have even contacted the sellers, and they say they are "looking into" making cases for other brands, but they just aren't available.

But!! Super exciting news!  I have found an alternative for us non-iPhone/Blackberry-using consumers!

Instead of a hard case, these rubbery plastic skins are available for Android users, give the same look (and cost less too):

Or these chevron cases:

Peeps, there is so much design goodness here, I can't even decide what to get.  Maybe I should order five two and switch them depending on my mood, like having lots of pretty purses to match your outfits.  I carry the same purse, day in and day out, usually for about four or five years, but I feel that I could be persuaded to be the kind of girl who switches the skin cover on her cell phone two or three times a day.

Which five one should I get?

Art over night tables

You might have noticed that above the new Rast night tables I hung some pictures.

Sorry for the glare, I found it really hard to get good photos without a reflection in the frame.

Ever since I saw the below picture, I have loved the way the pictures were matted, especially how the smaller horizontal ones were placed higher in the frame.  I've wanted to do this in my own home but hadn't figured out the right spot.

Source: chictip.com via Dora on Pinterest

Enter these two gold bamboo frames I picked up at a thrift store.  I thought they would work well with all the gold hardware and asian influence in my bedroom decor, but didn't know what to put inside the frames.  I had a really hard time thinking of art that would play well but not compete against the chiang mai dragon art.

One day I thought, hmm, why not put some pictures of my wedding up in our bedroom?  The Mister and I have nearly zero pictures of the two of us together, and I have about 500 proofs left over from our wedding pictures.  The wedding proofs are 5x5 inches, so they would actually work pretty well matted like my inspiration picture.

And then I let the frames and pictures sit for weeks.  I got an estimate at Michaels for about $35 for both mats with a coupon.  And then every time I walked out the door, I thought hmm, I should take those to Michaels and get them matted.....

When I was at Walmart in the art supply section I looked at the flat canvases and thought (dude, I know, there's a lot of thinking involved in decorating my bedroom), what if I just mount them on top of the canvas, instead of getting them matted?  The flat canvas was thin enough to put in the frame, had a nice texture to it, was plain white, and cost $8 for a 3-pack. And that's literally all I did--I put a piece of double sided tape on the back of the picture and placed on the canvas in the center near the top, then put it back in the frame.

And voila, nice art, some lovey-dovey pics of me and the Mister, and the total cost was under $25.  

turquoise Rast-Espana dressers

Ta-DA! The Rast dressers are now residing in my bedroom.

Update: linked this post to Primitive and Proper's Piece of Work Wednesday.

Nada: still no squirrel, no art, no stupid Rast dressers.

The landlord brought over an exterminator on Monday while we were out.  He placed three large traps under my sink and baited them with something that kind of smells skunky.  They look like bear traps.  I do not like to think that a) something that needs a trap that large is living my walls, and b) that the cabinet under the sink, the one that is easily accessible to my children, is the ONLY place you can put poison and giant snapping bear traps to catch this thing???  I had some words with the landlord and the exterminator when I got home, but apparently there they will stay.

So, to ensure that none of my children lose a hand or eat poison, and also to make sure that whatever giant animal does not choose to enter into the interior of my house while spasming in pain when the bear trap gets it, I've got this going on in my kitchen.

My Rast night table, covered by a towel to protect the top from water damage, since its in front of the sink.  Yes, its ever so convenient to have a dresser in front of the sink. I'm also enjoying the basket of dishsoaps being out for consumption.

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I decided to let the boys make art for their room.  I bought a two pack of 16x20 canvases at Walmart for $9, which is really cheap.  However, be warned that the reason they are so cheap is that the canvases are stapled on the side, not the back, which makes them look really cheap.

Anyways, I came home, spread out a shower curtain on the table, put out some craft paints and let the kids go to town.

Princess, caught in the act of dumping water all over her painting. Perhaps I should have been paying attention instead of taking pictures. 

I have no idea why anyone likes to do art stuff with their kids; I would prefer to poke myself in the eye with a sharp stick.  Our art endeavors lasted twelve minutes, at the end of which Princess had dumped all the water bowls on the tables, canvases and floor, and the boys painted their entire upper bodies while I was cleaning up paint water.

The boys made some really cool paintings, at first.  Unfortunately, they then smeared all of the colors given into one muddy greenish color and covered up their paintings with that.

Peter said "my painting was attacked by a whirlpool."

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I am working on these dumbass Dorothy Draper Espana knockoffs, but they kind of suck.  The Rasts are built and painted a lovely greeny-blue Balmy Seas.  Its the stencil that's killing me.  So far, I painstakingly made a stencil from the front of a coloring book (only available cardstock in the house), used it for one drawer, decided it looked stupid, and threw out the stencil.  Then I threw some expired raw chicken on top of it in the garbage.

After a few hours I came back to the drawer and decided it didn't look that stupid, in fact, I kind of liked it.  Except that stencil that took me an hour to make now had salmonella all over it.

These night tables might be done by the New Year.  

art for the boys' room

The boys' room is nearly done.  There is only one undecorated spot left, and it is this blank wall over Greg's bed.  In fact, just this evening Greg said "why haven't you decorated over MY bed??"  Guess I better get a move on.

I originally wanted to do a navy striped wall here, but changed my mind to navy striped curtains.  That leaves me with a big blank spot in need of art.

I have two art inspiration pictures I've been thinking about while decorating this room.  I feel like the boys' room has the same kind of vibe as this first inspiration picture (clearly not as much rough-hewn paneling, but the same general vibe).  I love this room, and I think that this type of art would work well in the space. Its actually a Josef Frank fabric, presumably just stretched over a frame.  However, most Josef Frank fabrics are about $270+ per yard, so I need something a little less expensive.

Source: shabbynest.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

The other inspiration picture I've had on my mind is the artwork in this Liz Caan-designed room.  I haven't been able to find who the artist is--does anyone know?

Source: bazaarofserendipity.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

I'm sure that piece is out of my range, but it reminds me of otomi crewelwork fabrics made by the Mexican Otomi tribes.  You can find these reasonably priced on ebay, like these:

They also come in single colors:

I could also just buy a large canvas at Michael's and let the kids go to town with some paint.

vermin, Fugees, the fiasco of fleece blankets

People, I am a giant coward.  I am also not a lover of animals.  These two facts are pertinent when you consider the fact there appears to be a squirrel or some large heavy animal (raccoon???) living inside our kitchen walls.

This animal keeps making loud noises that sound like it is dismantling the interior of the wall, strip by strip. This only ever happens when I am at home, alone, at night.  Like RIGHT THIS MINUTE. (Psycho killers I have a large rabid raccoon in my kitchen, do not make me unleash it on you.)  Do I go to bed?  Pretend its not happening?  I have called the exterminator company that is literally steps from my back door and it has not returned my (frantic, increasingly desperate) calls.

If I wake up tonight with a raccoon in my bedroom I am going to be mighty pissed.

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Recently  I was speaking with a young man who had been at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. On his phone he showed me a poor quality video of a man singing; when I asked who it was he said "its Wycleff Jean--he was a in a group called the Fugees, they were a big rap group--he's a big singer, he's on the radio."

Uh, yes, I have heard of this newfangled thing called the radio.  Also, The Score was released in 1996, when you were in diapers, young man, and I had a copy on cassette tape, you might not know what that is, they were these little plastic boxes with a reel of plastic tape inside, you could record music on them?  So, actually, I do know who Wycleff is THANK YOU VERY MUCH.  Where is my cane, so I can beat you with it?

If he had said it was some guy from Kings of Leon, I probably wouldn't have been so insulted.

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Last week we started swim lessons for the first time.  It was...oy, a post in itself.  Lets just say that I have not been frazzled enough to cry in public because of my children's behavior in a very long time, but I came very very close that day.

Anywhoo, today was the second day of swim lessons, which went better, partly because I got a sitter for the afternoon so I could leave the youngest one at home.  However, upon arriving at the pool, I discovered that I did not grab the appropriate bag full of towels and fresh underwear.  No, I grabbed a bag of fleece baby blankets.

Fleece blankets, if you are wondering, are not very absorbent.

Peter stole someone else's towel for the second week in a row.

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That animal is STILL JACKHAMMERING IN MY KITCHEN.  I am waiting for it to bust out of my dishwasher any second now.  Someone please send an exterminator.

navy striped curtains

Awesome, yes?

Originally I wanted to do a striped wall over Greg's bed, like this.  However, this being a rental we plan on leaving in the next year or so, I didn't want to paint navy blue stripes on the wall and have to paint them back to white a few months later.  I looked for a removable option, like these wall decals, but everything I found was at least $100+ worth of materials, and seemed like a lot of work (remember the Jets decal?) for something I would have to remove in a few months.

Instead, I decided to try striped curtains.  West Elm now carries a navy striped duvet, so I could have made curtains like the ones in my bedroom.  But it was still more than I wanted to spend.

I had white Merete curtains from Ikea that I was using in the boys' room.  I bought a quart of Behr's Midnight Dream, and painted the curtains using this tutorial.  I used regular paint, not fabric paint, and didn't add any fabric textile medium.  My curtains were 72 inches long and I went with 8 inch stripes.

There are some cons to the project.  It used an awful lot of paint.  For four curtains I used a sample pot of paint, plus a quart, and I was scraping the bottom of the quart to finish the last curtain.  I only got one coat on each curtain, and they definitely could have used a second coat.  I'd probably go with a gallon if I were doing this again.

Even though I would classify myself as a careful painter, there are a ton of mistakes on these curtains.

Fabric is not a forgiving medium for painting; you can't wipe paint off if you get it in the wrong spot.  There are a lot of splatters from the roller and a number of spots where I accidentally brushed the white stripe.  Paint also makes the fabric fairly stiff.  But the mistakes are not that noticeable from a few feet away, so we'll live with them.

All in all, though, I'm happy with how they came out.  Since I already owned the curtains, this project cost me about $20 in paint, so it a pretty inexpensive way to get the look of wide-striped curtains.

zombie teachers, Rast night tables, no armoires

I asked Greg what his substitute teacher was like.
"Well, she's young, and she's not a zombie."
.....uh....Right, then.  Not a zombie is always a plus.  Why do you think she's not a zombie?
"Her hair."

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This weekend I picked up some Rast dressers at Ikea.  I plan on using them as our bedside tables.  As soon as I get around to building and painting them.  I am torn between the ubiquitous mid-century modern stained-with-white-fronts that half of blogland has, like this one,

 or a Dorothy Draper Espana knock-off that the other half of blogland has, like this one,

For the foreseeable future, they will probably look like this.

I picked up some paint chips at Home Depot. I put the paint chips on my current night side table, against the chiang mai dragon painting and the bedding it will be sitting next to.  (I'm still looking for a navy duvet, but the summer bedding is coral.)  Choices are turquoise:

or pink.

I think I am leaning toward the second blue chip from the right (Balmy Blue).  Or the first pink on the left (Ballet Slippers).

Feel free to weigh in on paint colors (or vote for the white and wood combo), I am still undecided.  Or I could do a citron color.  Decisions, decisions.

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While at Ikea, shopping for a coat armoire, the Mister put his foot down.  There will be no ugly armoire in my living room.  I will just have to suffer with 47 winter coats in a pile on my living room floor.

Jenny Lind spindle beds, or, Mama gets a new big boy bed

Every night, there are at least four people in my king size bed.  One of the reasons I keep spraining my neck is that I wake up every night with children laying on my head, across my neck, and kicking my spleen.  Although my king bed is 76 inches wide, these kids allot me about six inches on it.

Peter has slept in a toddler bed for the past year.  Around 3 am every night he comes into my bed for a snuggle. While I like a nice snuggle as much as the next person, I also like sleeping at 3 am.  I would just get up and let Princess, Peter and the Mister just have the bed, but I find sleeping in a toddler bed just as neck-stiffening as being squished in my own bed.

This week I bought Peter a big boy bed.  Now when he comes into my bed at 3 am, I give him a snuggle till he falls back asleep, and then I go sleep in his bed.  I got mad problem-solving skillz, yo.  

Greg also managed to break his Ikea bed frame recently, so we were in the market for two bed frames. A bed frame from Pottery Barn Kids or Land of Nod runs around $500 t0 $700, and I need two beds, so I have been looking around for cheaper options.  Craigslist to the rescue!  I found a pair of matching Jenny Lind spindle beds.

The boys give their new beds two thumbs up.

Ugly Sofa 4: Mustardy brown-yellow leather

It seems the Ugly Sofa Series is becoming a Friday series.  This week we have an overstuffed, giant poofy mustardy brown-yellow leather sofa.  As usual, $1000 total budget, $500 or less must purchase a 5x7 rug, one set of curtains and two pillows.

Remember when I wanted to put curtains made from Richloom's Lucy Eden fabric in my dining room?  I came across these Lucy Eden curtains on Etsy and am longing to take down my Target shower curtains and replace them with  the pretty Lucy Edens.  Oh well.  I will have to give the to the Ugly Sofa series instead.

Rug, curtains, pillows: $506
1. Elite Blue wool rug: $156
2. Richloom Lucy Eden curtains: $250
3. Caitlin Wilson Hong Kong pillow: $55
4. red ikat pillow: $45

Other Accessories: $492
5. Posters (24x36): Monaco: $20, Annecy: $7, Soleil Toute Lannee: $20. I absolutely love vintage art, especially vintage travel posters. I would love to do a grid wall with twelve 8x10 frames and vintage travel posters in my own home.  (This would take up my remaining $494 to do that here, but it would look really cool.)
6. lamp: $80
7. knitted pouf: $108
8. tray side table: $50
9. coffee table: $159
10. ceramic balls: $28
11. wood bowl: $20

Total: $998

If only I had a mudroom.

One thing I loved about our old apartment was the foyer.  There was a large, deep coat closet, and around the corner was a cube where each family member had a bin of gloves, hats and scarves.  We also kept a shoe cubby there; it was out of sight but very useful.  All of our stuff was corralled in the closet and cubbies, but close at hand.

Here, we do not have a foyer. Or a coat closet.  Or a bin for each family member and their various wintry accoutrements.  Cue the sad trombones.  Here we have hooks.  Hooks on the stairwell going up to the second floor.  More hooks in the stairwell that leads to the basement.  While I am not intrinsically opposed to hooks, I think they are useless for attractively storing large amounts of functional stuff in a main living space.

The hooks that line the basement stairwell mean that all our puffy winter coats are taking up alot of space in a narrow stairwell. If just one coat was hanging in the stairwell, it would probably not be an issue, but there are five of us, each of us having a heavy winter coat and lighter fall coat currently out, plus the occasional raincoat and umbrellas and five pairs of snowboots.   I walk up and down that narrow stairwell at least once a day with a full laundry basket, and every single time I knock at least one coat off, or lose laundry out of the basket.

The hooks on the back of the door for the kids' coats and backpacks mean that its really difficult to close the basement door.

If I owned this house, I would enclose the front porch as a mudroom.  That would solve all my coat storage problems.  But, I don't own this house, and I do not plan to stay in this house for more than two years, so....an inexpensive, temporary solution is needed.

I do not have a solution to this mess.  I have talked before about trying to implement some sort of DIY foyer with armoires, but honestly, there is not enough space in this room to do that.  That sliver of space between the sofa and the door is where the armoire would have to go:

Our living room is small enough without cutting it in half with an armoire perpendicular to the door. There is nowhere in the main part of the living room to put a coat closet or armoire.

The only possiblity is to remove the brand new console table (!!! Lisa YOU JUST BOUGHT THAT FOR THAT SPACE!) and put in an armoire.

That would look terrible. No, really, that would be visually awful.  It can't go in the corner because there the air return vent is there. (Anywhere in this house you might want to put furniture has an inconvenient air vent on the floor in that spot.)  The tall antique secretary looked terrible in that spot, with the diagonal line of the banister cutting the piece up top (I don't have a picture of that, just one of the secretary in the corner.)  Plus that would be your view two feet in front of you as your walk in the door--squat, thick, armoire shoved up against a stairwell. U-G-L-Y you ain't got no alibi, you ugly, you ugly, yo mamma said you ugly.

And yet I'm still considering it.  It would corral all the coats and shoes behind a closed door. Sometimes sacrifices must be made.  I could put it back in the garage when warm weather returns, and bring the console back.....my version of seasonal decorating!

If only I had a mudroom.