Decorate Me

I'm on a mission-- a mission to sew new accent pillows for our Cameron couch.

We're quite happy with the couch so far, but have been muddling along with off-matched black and white flower-esque graphical pillows which do not match the rest of our decor, which consist of golds, browns, creams, and grays.

courtesy of Crate and Barrel

Here are the fabric choices for the pillows. Cast your vote by leaving comments below. The fabric that receives the most endorsements will be purchased, sewn, with pictures posted on this blog. Voting closes on Sunday August 12 at 6pm EST.


Helen Summerland Citrine

Gotcha Summerland Yellow

Midwest Modern Optic Blossom Linen

Secret Gate Gold

Hockley Banana

Rossmere Sunshine

North Carolinaaaaa!

...come on and raise up, this one's for you, this ones for who? Us, us, us, us!

In case you are too old or too young to know, these are lyrics to the masterful song by Petey Pablo. Circa 2001 Boston College.  Maaaaany impromptu dance sessions occurred because of this song. It's the song that pops into my head whenever I read, hear, or speak "north carolina." Do you experience anything like that?

Feel left out because you didn't go to college with me and want to hear this amazing musical display? Check out the music video!


Now back on track... last weekend I visited my good friend KL in North Carolina, with whom I went to high school. It was a regular old reunion with her family...2 of her sisters and her mom, who was generous enough to rent a waterfront beach house in the OuterBanks, near Duck and Kitty Hawk.

The early morning haze is burning off, and its starting to warm and lighten up!

 This kind of creeped me out. Doesn't it look like something on one of those religious cult booklets? Or a brochure about palliative care? Or a framed picture in a delivery room? And why does ocean evoke birth and death symbolism for me? These thoughts I will ponder.

 

I'm really glad to have reconnected with her; 

we hope to stay in touch better, and perhaps schedule a visit up to Boston soon!

Wegmans The Musical

My love for this store is well documented, and so you can imagine how hard I laughed with I watched this video. Classic. And even better, the show is put on by a group from a Massachusetts high school,  the latest state conquered by this grocery store chain's domination.

Downtown DC Day 2

I woke early for my final day of touring and sight-seeing. My day started off by walking to the FDR Memorial, followed by a 2 mile stroll to the Botanical Garden.

FDR Memorial

This is a beautiful memorial with several water features and inspirational quotes. 

Highly recommend visiting this in the future if you can.

Botanical Garden

This is my favorite shot.

 I love this idea for a crawling, creeping roses or clementines. 

It's much more elegant than a regular arbor or flat lattice.

These are really popular lately, especially in the design and decorator circles. 

I think they're called Stag ferns or deer ferns. They grow well when mounted on a wall.

I love this seersucker plant! I looks just like my favorite summer fabric! 

I wonder which came first-- the plant or the fabric?  

This reminds me of something from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

 

I can't wait to go back and visit the sites that I didn't find time for!

Downtown DC Day 1

I started Thursday out in DuPont Circle. I visited a couple of exhibits at the National Geographic Society, and then tried one of Chipotles new ventures out for lunch: ShopHouse, a noodle house that also offers bahn-mi. It was such a sunny and breezy day that there was plenty of seating in the actual DuPont circle grassy park so I ate my lunch there. I took a short walk down one of the big avenues to Dumbarton house, a beautiful old home from the 1700s that was built in the Federalist style.

 

There was an ample sized private garden were I sat and planned my next stop. Vendors were setting up for a wedding that weekend- how lovely!

 

My next stop was the Newseum, which gave me a grand view of the Capitol, looking down Pennsylvania Ave.

 

The Newseum hosts a Tim Russert exhibit, featuring his desk and pieces of his office.  Born in Buffalo, Russert was known as a fair interrogator of both liberals and conservatives, and made questioning political pundits entertaining and informative for me. During our time at Boston College, we were excited to hear that he would be giving our commencement speech, and that his son Luke was accepted for the next freshman class. Some creative joksters made a short video series called "The BC" a spoof on the now-cancelled FOX show "The OC." As you may remember, Russert was cool enough to oblige the student producers with a cameo appearance. You gotta watch it. It's especially poignoint considering Russert died of a heart attack just weeks after Luke graduated.

 

Adventures just outside of our Capitol

 

Last week, I took a short vacation trip to Washington DC with Nate who was traveling for work.  On my first full day there, it was rainy and drizzly, so I rented a car to get me to Frederick, Maryland which is about a 45 minute drive outside of the city. I was on a mission to visit a museum I had read about years ago. On my way to the museum, I spotted this historic hotel.

 

 The National Museum of Civil War Medicine. I had pretty high expectations, but unfortunately they were not met. It was a fairly small museum, and seemed a bit out of date, and more geared towards juveniles. Midway through my tour the fire alarm went off, and I decided not to stick around.

 

Fresh with irritation and disgust, I forged ahead to visit Antietam National Park, a historic battlefield of the Civil War. It is known as the bloodiest battle, but I have to do a bit of research because it seems like Gettysburg also makes this claim. Stay tuned.

 

As you can see, it was a dreary, rainy late afternoon by the time I drove through hill and dale in the Maryland countryside to this battlesite. I was pleasantly surprised at the Maryland countryside, it really reminded me of upstate New York. Trees, cornfields, and lots of farms. I never considered this side of Maryland, the only exposure I had was the "metro-suburban" towns just outside of DC.

 

After listening to a half hour ranger-led talk about the history of the battle, I drove through several of the tour stops on the map. It really reminded me of Gettysburg. The acreage is so expansive that it would tucker you out if you decided to walk the route.  And I was alone, so I didn't want to look like a loser history dork. And the skies were about to open up and drop a can o' whoop ass.  Did you know that Clara Barton served during this battle, tending to the wounded?

Moral of the story? Don't mess with the North. We won this battle.

Sewing display

 

Isn't this a cute display? I saw it today at Fabric Place Basement. It's a bit hard to see in the picture, but its an antique sewing machine that is set in a huge table of buttons!

Be on the lookout for upcoming posts about the sewing project that brought me to this store.

Shoe Binge

I think it's fair to say that I have been on a shoe binge. In the past month, I've purchase not one but two pairs of shoes.  This is a lot for me. And both of them were fairly quick purchases, without lots of hemming and hawing per usual.

Here are the beauties:

Puma 76 Runner SGL

I like these because they are low profile, a rich dark purple, and slightly retro. They are perfect for weekend errands, but be warned, they are not suited for exercising (my feet need lots of cushioning!). They have a thin sole cushion, but not much arch support.


Rylee Slingback Wedge Espadrille from Ann Taylor Loft

The minute I saw these in the store, I knew I was going to buy them. Slingback? Check. Wedge? Check. Espadrille? Check. I even found the toe cap to be cute and summery in contrast to the ivory linen. The cork sole even intrigued me since my feet sometimes get sticky during the day and the cork could prevent that.

Now, some of you faithful readers will remember my recent post about my abhorrence of the color-blocking trend. I will conceded that this toe cap does tip its hat to that trend.

Have you bought any shoes or summer sandals lately?

2012 fashion trends that have me looking the other way

Spring is the season that designers, fashion editors and magazine clamor for the newest trends to hit the runways and through America.

These latest trends have me looking the other way:

• color blocking from handbags, to shoes, to skirts
• thin belts
• and the worst: color blocked skinny belts!

Have you seen any themes this season that make your nose scrunch?

Annual spring is here post

Enjoy!

Neti Pot

At last, the long awaited neti pot video, my dear friends.

Over the past week, the local pollen count has been in the severe category, and my nose and head have suffered. I honestly don't think I've ever had allergies this bad before. Overall I feel fine, except for a cough, headache, and completely blocked nose. So, I've started back up with my neti pot routine each night.

Graphic warning: for those of you who are faint of heart, do not watch too closely, or you will see first some bubbles coming through the saline rinse, and then some clear mucus goop.  Enjoy!

Cameron couch

My love affair with Crate and Barrel is well known and documented.

Here is our new (now 6 months old) couch, decked out with pillows for Christmas. We love the clean lines, square armrests, and tight back. The name? Cameron couch. No pun intended.
Like?

Gather Here

Gather Here is the name of a cute sewing and fabric shop in Cambridge. I visited the store for the first time on Sunday with my friend C. They also have an Etsy shop, in case you aren't able to visit the store personally. Its a cute shop, and all of their inventory fits quite snugly.

Here you can see their stock of yarn, and also the mural on the wall of the local area.

They've upcycled this old card catalog into a vintage button organizer. How cute!

The storefront fits in between other small, eclectic boutiques and apartments.

They've also upcycled meter measuring sticks from old schools, and retail stores to decorate the front face of their checkout counter.

The store offers daily classes, as well as sewing stations that you can "rent" if you do not own a machine yourself. The day we visited they were having a sidewalk sale where I scored some Amy Butler fabric for $4/yd!!! Perfect for sewing a springtime skirt.

We'll be returning sometime soon, because a cute bakery/cafe is opening up next door called DwellTime. What's more perfect than a coffee, scone, and fabric?

Cocktail Tree

Now that Sis has a large patio, one thing she had been hankering for are some dwarf citrus trees. As part of her Christmas gift, I "future-gifted" her a citrus tree. The trick with this was finding a local nursery that sells dwarf citrus in the local Miami area. It is illegal to ship out-of-state citrus trees into Florida because the state has had a bad bout of citrus blight. You're only allowed to buy from local nurseries.

So, I found one such lovely establishment called Spyke's Citrus Grove, that is located not too far from the Fort Lauderdale airport where we were flying into. We stopped there and picked up a tree for Sis's patio. It's called a "cocktail tree", isn't that cute? Its a dwarf, and it is a hybrid Meyer lemon and key lime tree. The employees there were so helpful and friendly.

Won't it be perfect for garnishing a cocktail? I hope it is bearing fruit next time I visit!

SOBE part trois

My sister has some lovely and shockingly large aloe plants on her terrace in SOBE. These look like they are from "Little Shop of Horrors" they are so large and intimidating!

On day two, I noticed that N had a medical need for some aloe, and why not use some fresh aloe to ease a red burn from the hot Miami sun?

Sis cut a large arm of the aloe right near the base so that it could still regenerate later.

She quite dangerously shaved off the thin but tough aloe skin to reveal the cool, gooey aloe entrails. We tried a vegetable peeler, and it wasn't sharp enough!

She drops the aloe into a small blender. It smells wierd, and not at all like the "beach" smell that commercial aloe offers.

Without any water, the aloe was blended into a light, frothly mixture.

Check out the lobster red skin that is practically screaming for some fresh aloe. Can you hear it?

The application of this "organic" aloe was not at all like what you find in a bottle. It was very light, and had a plant-like odor. The effect was the same; soothing and refreshing.

Have you ever tried real aloe from a plant?

Ode to Massholes 3

Thank you, ma'am, for parking your car in the ATM drive-through, and blocking me from actually using the ATM because your friend was inside the bank. No need to use the parking spaces adjacent to the ATM, because inconveniencing me is more fun and being aware that there are other people on the earth besides you is just too much for your feeble brain to handle.

Not only did you barely inch forward to let me actually use the ATM while waiting, but I finished my transactions quicker than your friend inside the branch building.

As I slowly pulled forward to try and let the next person in the car behind me use the ATM, your friend flies out from the building without looking and runs behind your car and in front of mine.

My belief that humankind will survive on this planet is diminishing.

Miami creature

This is a picture of a real person who attended SOBE. Nate and sister were wine tasting in the special wine tent, and we stumbled upon this creature. If you look closely, you can see he matched his crocs with the rest of his outfit.

Only. in. Miami.