designer names...

i have to admit, i was super skeptical about bravo's new show, 9 by design. i don't know why i was so adamant about not wanting to like it at first, maybe because i feel inherent anger towards those designers who didn't have to waste their life away in design school for six years like me! but now that i've seen a few episodes, seen their method, gotten a glimpse of their personalities i'm definitely drawn in by it and lovin' it. what do i love most about the show? their 7 kids names! seriously cool & different names...

Wolfgang, 12- boy
twins Tallulah and Bellamy, 10- girls
Breaker, 8- boy
another set of twins Five and Holleder, 4- boys
and Major, 14 months- boy

heaven= chocolate milk...

go to whole foods and buy cocoa metro chocolate milk, you will thank me later...


p.s.- i think it is only in boston right now, so if you REALLY are DYING to have some i will ship it to you, that's how good it is.

bedroom re-do progress update...

the bedroom makeover has commenced. it started by painting the walls with a flat coat of benjamin moore baltic gray (1467), i love it. because my room has 14 foot ceilings with an 8 foot window light floods in, so I could get away with using this dark color (fyi, it looks seriously nothing like this horrible khaki-computerized-color, pull your color deck out and look at it for yourself, it's much darker & grayish/bluer than how it's showing on the screen)...


bought the nate berkus welted headboard from hsn in pewter. i liked this one because it's simple and it'll be easy to make a slipcover for once i decide to redo the bedroom again, and again, and again...


of course then i needed some new (budget) bedding to go with the headboard. so i went to target and picked up the home pebble quilt & sham in dark gray...


i stopped by my all time favorite fabric store over the weekend too, zimman's, to browse for (discounted) pillow fabric to coordinate with my revamped bedroom. i nearly fell over when i saw this thomas paul print for duralee, a black & white dragonfly pattern. i decided to make my larger decorative pillows out of this fabric...


these are how the finished ones all turned out, not horrible right?...


currently i have pink floral sheets that were my mother's long long ago (like before i was born) on the bed. they are probably the softest sheets i will ever own, after years of having worn-in from being slept on...but i decided it was time to change them to these lattice print sheets from Nate Berkus's hsn collection. i chose the pale gray color naturally...
a few months ago i bought a pair of these lamps from homegoods for either end of the long dresser (the square shades on them are from target). sorry for the crappy photos, they're from my blackberry...


and this one for my nightstand (you can see the actual wall color much better in these photos)...


the only thing left to do is strip my dark wood dressers & night stands, have them painted black, and put some new hardware on them...need to save up for that though. we use this wonderful place, minuteman furniture stripping & restoration in somerville at work, so i'm going to take the pieces of furniture there to have it done rather than do it myself, they have VERY fair prices & do wonderful work. can't wait!

i love new spaces, don't you? what i love even more if figuring out how to do them on a tight budget (story of my life!).

add godmother to my resume...

yesterday i officially became a godmother to reese, the first born daughter of my best friend. i'm very excited about it, and take it very seriously. it is such a special honor and links me to them and their family in a way that i can't describe...


i was just at their house the weekend before last and she was still crawling...now she's standing on her own and taking steps...actually, she's practically sprinting. it's amazing how quickly they change, how quickly the grow up...


because it's a godmothers unofficial duty to spoil their godchild, i had a special cross made for reese. i wanted to give her something to remind her of her commitment to God as she grew older, but also a piece of jewelry that is cool and not your traditional religious item. i found mary of koboldt designs on her etsy shop and commissioned a custom cross with reese's birthstone, an emerald, to be made along with her name & birth date to be engraved on the back side. mary kept me informed of her progress throughout the entire process, she was excellent, i highly recommend her for any of your custom jewelry requests...


i couldn't be happier with the final product, i hope reese will love it someday too...

wedding crush...

now this is a wedding i wish i had been invited to. i'm envious of every little detail! style me pretty never fails to impress...

wicked summer...

i kid you not...the guidos & guidettes are coming to boston. yup, mtv's jersey shore is doing a boston spinoff, wicked summer, casting calls are happening now. it's happening in cape cod apparently, as read here. i wonder if i'll know anyone on the show! hahaha. wicked awesome!

oh baby...

one page i keep coming back to in the april/may issue of lonny magazine is this one from tlc"s trading spaces designer laura day of a babies room, i can't get enough of it. i think i might have to borrow this idea someday...

virtual awesomeness...

i've spent most of my morning flipping & reflipping through the april/may online issue of lonny magazine...i suggest you do the same...

i wish i had a big backyard...

i wish i had a big backyard so i could adopt these two fur-babies to add to my growing fur-family. they are a friend of the boyfriends who can no longer keep them, and i am already totally in love with them, look at those faces...


Here's the letter from the owner...

Dear Friends,

After many painful months of trying to make the best of a totally inherited situation, my daughter Meghan and I have decided to try and find another home for her two border collies. Luke is an-almost 5 year old male, black and white smooth-coat border collie, and Scarlet, his sister and litter mate, is the same age but a reddish brown rough-coat border collie. I have enclosed pictures to let you know how cute they are, how good they are with children, and how they must be adopted as a pair because they have never been apart.

Both dogs are very smart, good walkers, and incredibly well-behaved and sweet. You can ask anyone who knows them—most people say: “I can’t believe those dogs!” They stay on my 7,000 square feet of property without being fenced in!! Scarlett, our frisbee, ball , and anything-thrown-in-the-air retriever, has put on a few extra pounds over the winter because we are not able to give her the exercise she needs to stay fit. Luke, even mellower than Scarlett, just likes to go along for part of the run—the part when he brings the prize back to the thrower. Luke tested positive for Lyme disease at his last physical in August (which the vet said is quite common in dogs with no visible signs), has received a regimen of antibiotics and will be rechecked on or before April 19^th. We have heartworm medication until September (administered first of the month) and another round of flea and tick medication (administered fifth of the month).

We love these dogs because they are easy to love (Luke is my bed buddy), but it is too much to handle with a 2 ½+ year old, work, and a 19-year old cat who refuses to give up the ghost.

If you or anyone you know of anyone you know can offer these beautiful dogs a loving and caring home (and exercise), please let me know. They would never be sent to a shelter, but they can get more attention than they are getting with us. Thanks for your help.

it's now my mission to find them the perfect home, unless the boyfriend let's them come live with us (i've been begging). if you know anyone in the boston area looking to adopt them both, they cannot be split up, get in touch with me, please.

my office, someday...

someday i will have a real office of my own, not a home office, not an office like where i work now, but one for my separate interior design business (which i plan to do full time, someday). and when i do it will look something like this...

image courtesy of home sweet home

dark stained floors- check
pale neutral wall color- check
simple uncluttered white desk- check
organized fabrics & other materials- check
me making gobs of money doing what i love- check!

lovely long table...

i'm loving this long table arrangement from style me pretty wedding post today...

the wonderous life of penny, mobile phone shots...

a few shots from the blackberry to show you how difficult penny's life is these days...it's RRRRUUUFFFF!

miracle speech...

disclaimer: i'm a mets fan.

but this was awesome last night at the red sox home opener...

girls getaway...

ok, i need to start this post with a little rant before i get to the main attraction...

i had a doctors appointment scheduled for today at 1pm, mind you i've been waiting for this appointment for almost 4 months. my doctors office called me this morning to say that my doctor will not be in today and could we reschedule for a time that's 'most convenient for me'. to which i rudely replied, 'yes, saturday, when i don't have to take time off from work'. uh yeah, they don't 'do' saturdays...so i have to take more time off from work next week to accommodate them! had i known this i would have gone into work for a half day...too late now.

the only thing that makes me feel better about now having missed work is that i'm headed to foxwoods mgm grand for an overnight (dinner, drinks & spa) with my two best friends, a mini-girls-only-getaway! last time we did something like this was a long weekend to florida in 2007...we're long overdue. it's actually a birthday gift from erin to steph & i (we both celebrated the big 30 last month). i cannot wait!...

animal love in photos..

sharon montrose, animal photographer extraordinaire, just posted this video of herself & her work in progress on her blog. can i just tell you how much i love this woman...i mean honestly, she loves what she does and it shows. i love how excited she is as the baby giraffe enters her studio, it even made me excited!...




i bought these photographs from her etsy shop last year. the best part about her etsy shop is that she makes her work affordable to people like me! i was going to give them to my mom as a house warming gift for her house in boston (it sort of has a rooster thing going on in the kitchen...sorry mom), but instead i kept them for myself and put them on the mantle. i just adore their stoic poses...

rock-a-by baby...

i love smart design, it means someone was actually thinking hard. so when i saw these on wide open spaces this morning it made me smile. i'll put them on my 'someday-baby' wish list...