Fine Art of Flowers

Winston flowers makes me feel like I walked into paradise. I have never seen such beautiful flower design. The containers are of grand scale, the flowers are unique, lush, and impeccably arranged. I wish I could live in this store (put Winstons and Anthropologie together, and it would be paradise on steroids!). I wasn't sure if they would allow pictures, and I am too chicken to ask...so I snapped a few with my camera phone. Please pardon the quality, but hopefully it will give a sense of how amazing this place is.

This was my favorite pot - only $2000! I'll take two... :)

Oh, sweet succulents...makes me miss all my plants in GA. Hallie/Sommer/Brenda - you all know what I mean! Lately I have been craving an enormous succulent arrangement like one that I saw at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. mmmm.....
these shelves would be awesome storage for potting supplies...
such striking arrangements...
this makes me want to hang a chandelier in an outdoor living space.


love the log idea...I would take one of these tables too...
I wish I could have orchids in every room (and also have a good out of the way place to store them/allow them to stay alive when they aren't in bloom!)
i love birch wood (reminds me of the cottage). they have such fantastic displays.

Another potential project...canvas bag

So, along with the laundry cart misunderstanding, there was another one. Ryan had mentioned maybe I could attempt making him a canvas bag with a 'stained' M on it. I was thinking he meant a big weekend bag. I was immediately constructing it in my head...

Base it on bags like these...



Get some cool canvas/duck cloth in a neutral color, use some thick rope for handles...like this...


Make stencil out of cool font and do some fabric painting...like this tutorial.

The only question I have would be how to sew the rope on as my sewing machine couldn't go through it, so I guess I could sew on either side of it - similar to the bag above, but then how would I connect/tie the rope?

Anyways, what Ryan was REALLY asking was...if he built a wood frame, could I build a canvas bin (like the ones I want for the other potential project) to go around it. Wow, totally misunderstood. BUT...now we have ideas for new fun projects!

Potential Project

So, from an email misunderstanding has come a potential very cool project. Ryan was talking about wanting to build himself a laundry cart sort of like this one, but with a wooden top that could be used for folding, but could also be removed....


I misunderstood and was selfishly thinking he was talking about trying to build one for us out of my left over bowling slab from Paddy's dresser. So, he humored me, and we continued thinking about it...it could also be a cool toy storage piece for Paddy, or really anything - a cool mudroom organizer, laundry bins, etc. You know I adore furniture that can be multi-purposed.

Plus, these bins have been on my Amazon wishlist for a while now, so it would be an awesome excuse for having some!



Based on our email exchanges, Ryan did this great drawing...



We 'discussed' a few options, but we were thinking of adding another row of the canvas bins to maximize storage space. The legs would be wood or maybe iron...I think iron could be fun in keeping with the industrial feel.

So, now, either I need to become a woodworker, or I need Ryan to come back and visit. Oh yeah, and we need more room in our apartment to place a piece like this :)

Hopefully there will be some developments on this plot...

Couches

So, we made a rookie mistake when we were first married. We needed a couch...so, we bought one...without test driving it. Bad move. We have regretted it ever since the day we got the couch, and here we are, six and a half years later, still grumpy about the couch. Now, to look at the positives:

1. it is slip-covered and washable, which is key for bad dog owners like us who let our black lab sit with us on a khaki couch.
2. Neutral khaki color...has been able to withstand lots of different colored throw pillows and wall colors.

We dream and talk about getting a new couch often.

Here is the thing...I love upholstered couches; however, with Glory and now Paddy (okay, I guess I should include Sean and I here too b/c we are just as guilty as G & SP), I want something that is easy to clean. I can't count how many moments of frustration I have had b/c of the couch not being clean...argh. So, since we are crushing on the tufted look, I feel like our only option for me to keep my sanity would be a leather couch like this:

Restoration Hardware - Kensington Collection

Some of the others that I like...

from Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams

from Boston Interiors

from WS Home

**I found one more that I had to add!

My favorite spot in Boston...

Every time Sean and I check out a new site in Boston, I wonder if I am going to have a new favorite; however, the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum has maintained its position as numero uno.
We have decided that we want to model our dream house off of the museum (obviously on a much, MUCH smaller scale). Basically, she constructed a huge home with the middle of the house being a tranquil, lush courtyard and garden. Most rooms border and have gorgeous windows overlooking the oasis. How lovely would it be to wake up to something like this every morning?

from here, here, & Flickr

I wish I could bring all my friends here because the ISG Museum never fails to make me feel at peace, happy, inspired, and in awe.

Unfortunately, you can't take pictures inside :( In my opinion, the ISG Museum could stand to create a beautiful coffee table book with exquisite pictures...mostly of the courtyard.

For all you craigslist lovers...

You MUST get this tool...it brings up the images with the description when you search!

SO key for furniture searching :)

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12544

enjoy :)

Down Home Cookin'

Ahhhh, entertaining. Sean and I have really been missing entertaining. There is just something about our current house that makes it seem difficult. Part of it is probably missing our favorite piece of furniture that housed all our serving pieces which is collecting dust in storage. Part of it is that we have our landlady and the three legged cat downstairs. I will refrain from commenting further on that. Part of it is being up on a second floor. Part of it is our horrible kitchen. Bottom line, it is just NOT our house. There are lots of random reasons...or, maybe they are excuses. We also needed to add a newborn to the complication column.

We first invited the Sean's classmates from the Irish Studies program over. We had a very fun night, albeit, it was a lot easier and more fun to get ready for it considering I am 'retired' for the time being and Sean had completed everything due for the semester. We had a lovely evening, despite feeling quite old when one of the girls said "this is the classiest party I have been to without my parents!". It was cute.

Okay...onto entertaining round 2.
Time for some good ol' Southern cookin'.

We had been craving Southern cooking since visiting a highly recommended upscale Southern restaurant in Cambridge - Hungry Mother. We had six friends over for a southern feast. The night was guaranteed to be fun just because of the wonderful company of the Haubens.

We had thought about doing some fried chicken, but decided that might be hard b/c of so much time in the kitchen close to show time. We went ahead and tested fried chicken out ahead of time, and Sean knocked it out of the park, in my opinion....



Southern night made us miss Columbus and all our dear friends so much. We wish we could have ordered all of our favorites from Minnies, Girlfriends, Country's, etc. but we had to make due with our best attempt.

Prep pics...I have been bad about getting pics of the final products...need to work on that.



The menu was as follows:

Appetizers:
--Homemade cheese straws
--Pimento cheese dip

Dinner:
--BBQ Pulled Pork with mustard based BBQ sauce
--Collards
--Cheese Grits
--Tomato Pie
--Squash Casserole

Dessert:
--Phila's Pecan Pie
--Phila's Chocolate Chess Pie
--Fresh Whipped Cream

If I was all over it, I would have links to all the recipes that we used. Considering I started this post weeks ago, I am clearly not...

Flower Power...

I want to be brave enough to wear one of these (AND pull it off!)...

Check out these delicate, gorgeous flower statements at emersonmade

Snacky-doody time!

For all my Alpha Chi friends, I have been reliving our finals weeks at the house since Sean has been living at the library for the past two weeks trying to get all his studying/writing done. Unfortunately for Sean, he doesn't have Fran around to come over the PA and exclaim, "It's Snaaaaackyyyy Dooooodyyyy time!" Do you all remember what happened after that? The full out stampede of 135 girls pounding down the stairs to devour whatever food we could get our hands on. Of course we were starving b/c we had been waiting outside the dining room at 4:10 to be able to eat dinner at 4:15pm! Did we order Pizza Express on the Snacky Doody nights as well? I wouldn't be surprised :)

The memory of snacky doody time has stirred up so many other good memories from IU and the house. I am looking forward to our 10 year reunion!

Thanksgiving...

We have countless blessings to be thankful for this year...little Paddy, being together, having a roof over our heads, our amazingly supportive and helpful families, and our caring friends...to name a very few...

We also, as always, are incredibly thankful for all of our friends who are currently deployed and for their families who are keeping it all together on the home front. We think of you all everyday. Lusk Reservoir at West Point