honeymoon jealousy...

a close family friend just returned from her incredible honeymoon to the amalfi coast of italy. the newlyweds spent their time travelling to capri, positano, ravello and paestum. their photos are beautiful, what a romantic honeymoon setting & wonderful place to start your life together...

remembering today...

eight years ago today i was a senior in college, i'd just come back in to my apartment from walking my dog and turned on the today show just as matt lauer had announced a plane crashed into the building where my father worked. panicked i called his office, his voicemail picking up only. then i called his cell phone, no answer either. so i called my mom, who had just heard the news as well. a flurry of phone calls and tears is what i remember most about that day. my friends came over to be with me while we waited to hear the fate of my father.

we didn't hear from him until later that evening, he was safe. he was just about to enter his building, one world trade (although they kept calling it the north & south tower which meant nothing to me at the time), when the plane hit his building. he, like so many others watched another plane hit and people jumping from the buildings...something that still gives him nightmares. he ran what must have seemed like a million blocks to grand central station in his suit & tie after he saw one of the buildings being to sway, only to be stuck on an outbound train that was stopped for security reasons.

we were blessed that day not to have lost my father, but others were not so fortunate. our friend, scott rohner, being one of them. my thoughts and prayers are with him and his family, and so many other families today. i certainly will never forget this day, eight years ago.

construction yoga, YES!!!...

if only i could get my company to start this trend during their scheduled coffee breaks...

vermont cottage fixer-upper...

i get sent all kinds of local design magazines here at work, which is fun because I get to see what the competition is doing right around me. one such magazine is design new england .

this renovated rundown vermont cottage struck a cord with me in the september/october issue. it's no secret i have a soft spot for cottages/farmhouses in vermont. this one happened to be done by the owner who also happens to be a lighting designer. we all know how important good lighting is, but it always seems to be the first thing cut from a budget or the last thing even thought about, unfortunately. but not this space...

we're kind of a big deal around here...

ahaha, sorry but i had to put that title for this post!

this article just came out last week about a major historical renovation/preservation my company completed this year in partnership with siemasko + verbridge architects/interiors in the avon hill section of cambridge, ma. and while i can't exactly brag about my own participation in this project (seeing as i did barely anything on it) i am proud of my co-workers, it was a labor of love and incredible carpentry skills on their part and they should be commended for it. you should see first hand the awesome woodworking in this home, it alone will blow you away. while the interiors may not suit everyone's taste, you have to appreciate the level of detail the interior designers put into recreating the homes original 19th century design aesthetic while artistically blending it with our 21st century modern conveniences.

if you ever do a stalker drive-by of this house be sure to check out the (heated) driveway. the owners had custom bricks made with every member of the family's name & birthday engraved on them and placed in the driveway...as well as bricks for the original architect & builder and the new ones (US!)...

'fan'tastic...

i used to hate ceiling fans, because let's face it, most are ugly and outdated (not to mention collect gobs & gobs of dust if rarely used). i hated them until i had to find one for a client...and i'm happy to announce that the modern fan company has changed my stubborn mind about ceiling fans...

lapa

pensi

industry

i especially love the look for the 3-bladed fans...

cirrus

alta

velo

in the market for a new duvet...

because repainting my bedroom with every changing season isn't going to happen, buying a new duvet set is the next best thing. this painterly paisley bedding from pottery barn would do just the trick with the color of my walls. i love the large paisley pattern with the simple stripe, to go with the white damask stripped sheets i already bought...


on a related note, the boyfriend and i have been talking about moving his king size bed over to my apartment this month. yes, yes, very exciting...and just one more reason to shop for new said bedding!

a prayer for a friend...

this morning i got word that a very good friend of mine from high schools father died of a massive heart attack. four years ago this same friends mother died after a 5 year long battle with breast cancer, she was only 61 years young. marty is an incredible talented landscape architect who is amidst creating a memorial garden at the school where his mother taught for many years...i know it will be nothing short of amazing because of the amount of love he has poured into this project.

my heart is heavy today for my friend and his 3 sisters. i am at a loss of words, i am unable to comfort my friend. it's times like these the question 'why' repeats over & over in my head and heart. please keep the barry family in your prayers, and be sure to hug your own parents tonight and tell them you love them. i wish i could give marty a hug today myself...

my buddy, marty 2008

take me to the movies...

i'm not sure what my fascination with movies that take place in the early nineteenth century is lately, but this one has struck my fancy as well. oscar wilde happens to be one of my most favorite poets, authors, playwrights, and the picture of dorian gray is one of his best (and i think only full novel ever?)...

i'm totally stealing this idea...

looking at all these baby nurseries/kids rooms is giving me the urge...no, not that kind of urge (but someday that kind of urge)...to start designing more kid friendly rooms! talk about a way to really go all out in fun & color.

it's official, i am totally going to steal this idea for my own (someday) child's room, i think i'll start collecting letters now...

image courtesy of wide open spaces

love the way she writes...

i came across the blog mabel's house (while reading design wanna-be) and read every single post she's ever written...a sign of a great writing, cause I usually just skim through the photos and read a caption or two on my morning reads. she writes like the thoughts in my head sound (except she's way funnier than i am), i love it!...

holy stinkin' cute nursery...

everyone must go read erika's post today on the most adorable baby nursery. such a lovely little space for a baby....



erika's due any day now with her own lil' bundle of joy. not only am i excited to hear of her grand entrance into the world but i'm also dying to see her daughters completed nursery too, erika's been giving us snippets of it all along the way. check out her nursery diaries series:

chapter 1...


chapter 2...

chapter 3...

chapter 4...


chapter 5...


chapter 6...

chapter 7...

country road, take me home...

image courtsey of aaroads

bet ya'll didn't know i used to live in louisville, kentucky back in the day. Yes siree, I sure did live in the land of bluegrass music, horse racing, mint juleps & straight bourbon, southern cooking & southern hospitality. I went back for a long overdue visit last spring (2008), i hadn't seen some of my friends in nearly 15 years! many of them are married and have (the most adorable) children. i was sad to have missed out on those monumental events in their lives, but happy to have rekindled a friendship with them nonetheless....

the tiny house i used to live in with my mom...no, we did not have purple shutters when we lived there.


carrie & me


courtney and her cutie-pie son

so the other night, when i read an article about the kentucky bourbon trail (note: the boyfriend is a serious bourbon connoisseur) in the september 2009 issue of southern living magazine, i immediately thought this would be a great trip for the boyfriend and i to take for my 30th/his 31st birthday in march. then i thought maybe it would be better to do in the month of may so we could not only hit the trails & visit with my friends, but catch the kentucky derby too!...

churchill downs

bourbon trail map

burried in the backyard...

remember that totally random song by guns and roses, i used to love her? well, it turns out someone in cambridge, ma had that same idea! a skeleton and a gun were found yesterday on a construction site not that far from where my own company has been renovating a (spectacular) house in the avon hill area of cambridge. they're running forensics on the skeleton now to find out the gender and age, but it's estimated that it's around 100 years old because of the antique gun found next to it. creepy!

take me to the movies...

i highly doubt the boyfriend would take me to see this, so i think i'd have to go with a friend instead. bright star is such an incredible love story about the boys & girl next door, cut short by john keats untimely death from tuberculosis. can you imagine fanny brawnes heartbreak? ugh, makes me sad just thinking about it. i think i should bring a box of tissues to the theatre...

obey the giant...

you may recognize these images but not necessarily know the man and design group behind them... contemporary artist & graphic designer shepard fairey of studio number one.


i'm still kicking myself for not making it to the shepard fairey exhibit at the ica boston (geez, i only had 6 whole months to drag my butt there!).

did anyone happen to catch the august 2009 issue of interior design magazine featuring their offices, the audacity of hope? father & son team of yeh studio were the designers of the company's new office space that includes an open studio upstairs, gallery & print storage below and conference rooms on each level. what a great industrial space for such a creative endeavor. i'm surrounded by plywood daily here in our office shop, but to see it used in this sort of application breathes new life into a product i used to find so drab...

ergo in the office...

i think this is sort of similar to the exercise ball contraption, but a little cooler looking i guess...introducing the ergo ergo, designed by alan heller and launched this year at the ICFF show. like it? i spend at least 7-8 hours at my office desk a day (when i'm not out of a jobsite that is) so if i could be getting an ab workout while doing so i'll take it. think my bosses will splurge and buy me one? i wonder how much they are anyway???...