Quiet Time

Only God can tell a questioning heart to stop asking and start living out the answers.

-From Heart of My Heart by Kristin Armstrong

Hmmm, I Think I Like You

This light caught my eye while looking for another fixture on West Elm today.  Thoughts?

Client Kitchen

 These pictures were taken in one of my favorite open spaces.  The large light fixture was a gamble but I am glad we took it.  It is a stunner when you walk into the space.

Images: Marianne Strong Interiors

Buttercup

{image source: flickr user law_keven at www.creativecommons.org }

 

I remember the buttercups that used to dot my elementary school playground. 

 I went there for nine years so I knew the field well.  The buttercups would shoot up faster than the blades of grass between mowings.  

 

{image from wikipedia}

 

When we were younger, we'd hold them up under eachother's chins & it was, " Do you like butter?" 

  

A little older and it was, "he loves me, he loves me not"

 

{He loves me!}

 

 You never really knew if he was going to love you or not with buttercups because some types have 5 petals and others have 6.

 

 

 

I loved making flower chains & never really grew out of it.  I remember doing them in the Spring as I waited for my turn at long jump in high school track.  One day I remember making necklaces for the other sprinters & somehow convincing even the guys to wear them as crowns...  (My coach must have loooved that ;)

ahahahaha   (It really still makes me laugh out loud.) 

 

More than anything, I just remember always picking them up & playing with them when I see them.  Long talks on the field with my best friend, scooping down to pick a buttercup, subconsciously.  Crumbling the old flower centers into little pieces between my fingers & rolling them around. 

 

 

 

 

I love these pics of the plants from NC State...  (above & below) 

 

 

 

{image source for above pics: http://www.toronto-wildlife.com/Plants/Buttercup_family/more_tall_buttercup.html }

 

It's for pretty much all of these reasons that I've known for a while I wanted to do a buttercup design for my textile line.  When the power went out for days this Summer & we needed to get out of town, we made an impromput visit to see my dad in Illinois & have him meet the baby...  The car ride is 13 hours and it was the first time after Luke was born (in May) that I'd had some time to sketch.  I  worked on "buttercup" in my lap...

{The beginnings of it...  as you can see, drawing doesn't come easily to me & there are lots of erase marks & mess ups}

 

The design (like all of them) is just an interpretation... not a botanical study.  I add my own little things here & there and I'm sure I leave out pretty important parts, but it's the feeling that I'm after...

{One of my first strike-offs}

I'm working on the final colorways now but I'm really happy with the light earthiness of this first one...

 

A few more options are on their way & I hope you enjoyed a peek into the process.

 

...

 

Do you have any buttercup memories?

 

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Morning Snack

Via ??? Help!

Demo & Rebuild

I'm back to the construction zone from a whilrwind trip to NYC and, like I've been mentioning for the past few weeks, we're now down to the studs at our place. (!!)  We're reworking the floorplan- closing doorways, adding new ones, moving walls, removing them... plumbing is being moved, windows are getting enlarged, we're adding a fireplace, redoing the bathrooms & kitchen... it's madness!! (but the good kind of madness ;)  We have the air off because there's so much dust flying around & we want to keep it out of our upstairs "apartment" as it's been dubbed... But as I type this morning, I'm hoping it stays warm a little longer because there is definitely a chill in the air & there's no heat for us until we get the bulk of the contruction completed. 

One of the biggest changes we're making is opening up the kitchen to the living room...  Here it is before:

And here it is now: 

 They've finished sanding down the beams.  The red-brown stain is now GONE and we've exposed the bare pine.  (How I wish that pine had been exposed over the past 40 years, aging gracefully but oh well... It's very raw now & we had it hand scraped & wire brushed.  )  We've also had insulation added between the beams because before there was only a layer of plywood before the roof & we're making it a bit more energy efficient.   And of course as  you can see... the wall is DOWN!!!  The kitchen is now completely open to the living room.  We also expanded the kitchen two feet to the right (taking space from the dining room) so that it spans the whole width of the living room now.   Floors are going down this week & next (more on that as soon as I have pics!) and I CANNOT WAIT.  Once we have floors, we can move our things inside from the garage & pod.  Dave went diving in the pod for clothes last week & climbed over all of the front stuff to get to the Fall stuff in the back.... He dug himself a little hole and climbed down into it....  And I  honestly thought he was buried by the stuff at one point.  (thanks to him of course.)    

{it's since been rearranged} Me, after realizing I hadn't heard him talk in a while:  "Dav, are you okay in there??"him, very quiet/ far away: "Hellllllllp"At that point I was about to launch the jogger strollerfrom the pod to the woods behind me as I screamed "DAVE?!!!!!!"Then I heard "No no no no no!!  I'm fine!!" in a completely normal volume.  Then laughter.Oh wow. He's very lucky I couldn't reach him at that point. We've had the discussion before of "fright or flight" in emergency situations.  I'm a "fight" kind of girl.  There's tyipcally no hesitation in my reactions and I find myself doing things before I've even thought about them.  Thanks to him, (yes am still bitter ;)  I almost launched our Christmas breakables into the woods.   Anyway, things are happening around here & I'm in the midst of planning the kithen (and pretty much everything else around here) so I'll be back this week to share some plans!!  Off to some clients for the day & keep your fingers crossed we find our nanny soon!!  My head is busting with things I need to remember & people I need to speak to... send some brain space my way.  I've never been so busy in my life.  I'm not at the breaking point yet but feel like I should be.  Maybe once you actually get here, you're too busy to break. ??? ;)  

{at least I've got what matters most} 

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

He Gets It Honest

 Some days I just have to go pick up Henry before work is over because I just can't be away from him any longer.  Luckily (maybe because he has been working with me from a few weeks old), he doesn't seem to mind one bit.   

Fabric swatches? LOVES them.  Gray leather club chair with nail heads? Check.

 Reclaimed wood and more nail detail? Check, check.

 Gray velvet?!?!?!?  He loves it all...I can't imagine where he gets it.

Quiet Time

Client Snapshot: Eating Area

A rug has since been added that looks so good!

Image: Marianne Strong Interiors

Bullseye: Target Lookbook

Just some things that caught my eye while perusing the Target Lookbook:

What I Wore

 Thank you for the e-mails* asking what I wore in the previous post!  Here is the quick breakdown:

Shoes for Milly:

B Brian Atwood Lenoire Metallic Leather Metal-Fringe Sandal, Saks

(borrowed but after last week I think I need a pair)

Milly Puzzle Tile Print  Vivienne Sheath Dress available from Revolve Clothing.

 Dress for Rachel Zoe:

My dress is by Vince from Saks but I can't find it online.  This one is almost identical, I like the neck even better.

* I know several people are having problems posting comments, I will see what I can find out.  I had to switch how comments are published due to an influx of comments for commercial purposes.  Drives me CRAZY!

What's Up

I can barely remember this past week...  We moved into our new house a week ago. 

We're still living on the upper floor because the rest of the house has been gutted, which is actually working out just fine.  Most of our things are packed up & in the garage...  We labeled things as best we could & had a lot of help from our family, but some things have still just ended up "missing."  Right as we were moving into our house, a huge storm hit and the movers got our stuff under cover as quickly as possible so "organization" sort of hit the fan.  We're slowly climbing through the garage in search of some really important (A.K.A.  "work") things.  Dave's whacked his (bald- completely exposed) head on the garage rafters mulitple times during his searches.  :(

 

 

Fall is hitting (I loooooove Fall!!!) and it's time to switch over our wardrobes but most of our stuff is buried in a POD in our driveway.  We've had people (on a couple of different instances) walk up to our house & ask if we were having a garage sale!!!  My grandmother was here one day & told the woman asking, "No, it's just junky."  (Thanks Grandmother! ;)

We had a new nanny start last week & it didn't work out so we're on the hunt again.  I've realized I can pretty much deal with stress calmly in any situation- except when it comes to my kids.  When I'm worried about them & who I'm leaving them with, I am not okay. I may not freak out & show it, but inside I pretty much just want to give up & quit everything & just be with them.  This past week, we watched as the new nanny we hired (very sweet, I think?)  do things over & over that just didn't sit right with us.  As the week went on, I realized we'd completely lost trust in her & that it wasn't going to work out.  I'm swamped with deadlines at work & having to constantly check in on the kids &and worry about them being okay or not didn't work out so well.  SO, she's out and now we're on the hunt for Mary Poppins again!  For now, we're trying to make it work. 

We handed the keys over to our old house this weekend (tear!) and getting the holes in the walls patched up & getting all of our things out was so intense that I really don't think I ever want to move again.  (Please remind me of this next time.)  There's just SO. MUCH.  STUFF.  I broke multiple vaccuums & Dave was out until 2 AM getting the house ready Friday night for the Saturday morning walk-through.   We did so much of it with our kids with us because we were afraid to leave them with the nanny, which was one of the hardest parts.  You just can't get as much done holding a 3-month old.

{Bye bye sweet home!!  We loved  you!!}

 

...And it's onward march!

{It's even more contemporary than our last home, which I'm really excited about!! It's not the home I ever imagined myself living in but I looooove it & can't wait to make it "us"!!}

So... for a very long time, this house is it.  We're done.

Which brings me to the overall conclusion that I want this house to be just right.  Just right to raise our family in.  I want it to flow & work well on a daily basis & then be able to convert easily into party space for gatherings.  At around 2400 square feet, we need to make the most out of it.  I want the materials to feel good & to be perfect for the vibe I'm after.  I'm willing to wait for the right things and I don't want to rush anything.  (Although I can't wait to have a kitchen again!!  And a washing machine too for that matter!! ;) 

{The back view}

The messiest things need to happen first and so one of those "messy" to-dos is sanding down the pine beams on our living room ceiling...  They currently have a dark brown stain on them that hides the old pine beams.  I really want to be able to see & appreciate the wood iteself, so the team from CarrMichael Construction is hard at work, hand-sanding the dark stain off the wood & hand-scraping and wire brushing the wood to give it a rough-hewn look. 

{above, beams before}

 

{You can see in the pic above that they're getting lighter!!}

 

 

Time to start my day but I'll be sure to post progress pics & show you some of my inspiration photos!!  Finegrs crossed for us in the hunt for Mary Poppins!!




If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Snapshots- NYC Last Week

 NYC last week was so wonderful, I am adding it to my favorite times in New York list.  We went for Fashion Week, which was more amazing than I expected, but the best part was quality time with some good friends.  

Above and below, Milly Show.

 I thought this was an interesting shot from one of the shows we went to....

I flew in on 9/11 and we made our way downtown.  I lived near Ground Zero the summer after 9/11 and although a lot has changed, you can still feel the hollowness in the air.

 One of the best parts of the trip was lunch and shopping in Soho with Camila and Hudson.  He is so cute it was all I could do not to put him in my purse and walk away.

 The final show we went to was a private show by Rachel Zoe.  To say I was excited would be a major understatement.

 The crowd was even treated to a Q&A with Rachel hosted by none other than....Prabal Gurung.

 I flew back to Birmingham Friday, landed and literally got in the car to go to Oxford, MS for the Ole Miss game.  It was a special day, Henry's first time in the Grove.  (And yes, that is the same dress I wore to Milly)

So here I go, back to the real world...sigh.  Hope you have a wonderful Monday!