Happy Holidays!!!

We wish you a very Merry Christmas! I hope that you've all been good and that Santa brings you whatever you wish for!

We are going to have a very relaxed holiday. The only excitement that we are going to have is a visit from Santa tomorrow night. He's going to be visiting our neighbor Mr. Frank and I've been told that he's asked to see the kids.

Meanwhile, my little one wanted to make some nature scenes for the holidays.  A couple of weeks ago we dropped by Pottery Barn and Michael's. He saw these adorable squirrels and raccoons and asked if he could have them to make a "nature scene".  Of course you can. 

He even used his trucks to carry the berries to the scene and to fill the vases with some snow.

He was so proud of his display! Mommy was impressed too!

Happy holidays!

xo, L

Do I Need More Furniture?

Oh dear me!! I found this in someone's trash on the way to driving the kiddos to school this morning. I really don't have much more room in my place. How could I resist this one? There was a table on the person's lawn too so I promptly called my friend Roopa to convince her that the table would make a nice addition to her home. Together we carried the table to her place. Our husbands are shaking their heads. At least I'm sure hers is. Mine is on his way home from a business trip. I haven't told him about this one yet.

I had some of this upholstery weight fabric and I thought that I could do something funky with this one. I'm not quite sure what color I want to paint the legs. There's white [not crazy about it but if it works I'll consider it], black [same feeling as white], gray-green range, dark gray, dark blue, ... Got any suggestions? 

What do you call this piece of furniture? It's not a chair, stool or ottoman. Hmm. Let me know, will you? Thanks.
Have a great weekend!
xo, L

Thirty-Five Dollars

I do a yearly visit to a local rummage sale and I often end up with a nice piece of furniture for an awesome price. Do you remember my dining room chairs? I love a modern look but I also love mixing antiques in with the decor. My dad used to take us along with him when he went scouring flea markets for great finds. I even have a wooden chair that looks like a royal throne that I inherited when he passed away. So, my friend, Roopa and I headed down there to look for our treasure. I came home with this awesome table and all of those books for just under $35!! Those 40 books, by the way, are those $4 kids chapter books that you buy in Barnes and Noble. Awesome, right?

There are scratches and I'm not sure about what I want to do with the table. On the one hand, I want to do one of those awesome before and after treatments but on the other hand, I rather like the old vintage look. What do you think?

Oh, by the way, don't tell my husband about this table, ok? He doesn't mind but he's starting to wonder where we're going to put everything. Plus, he'll find out about it when he trips over it Friday night when he comes home from his business trip.

Have a great weekend! xo, L

Lovelies On My Desk

I'll get back to a few more Houston photos later in the week. For now, I need to do some work. I need to do a bit of catching up because I'd caught a cold when I was in Houston.

Meanwhile, I am working at the wee hours of the morning and trying to distract myself by looking at the little things that I have around my desk. I picked up that frame at the top for my cork board at an estate sale about 12 years ago. The glassware is a bit newer. I got them at anthropologie. The most beautiful item is my tall vase. It is a ceramic piece from Kosoy and Bouchard. I love it and I love their whole line of ceramics. Their pressware line is to die for. I wanted to buy a few pieces when I met them at the One of a Kind show in Toronto but I knew the realities of having the pieces in my home. My little boys would somehow introduce themselves to the pieces. I'm sure that my little one would make a new home for his Bakugan balls if I'd treated myself to the flat plates or put his rock collection on top of it.

Yesterday, I went to grab Alex's jacket and it felt as though the jacket weighed 20 pounds or so. I discovered his love for jagged rocks and hence, his new collection in his pockets. Yes, this is the same child who took a Sharpie marker and colored my dashboard [fyi, Magic Eraser works wonders in erasing it all] and wrote on my light beige carpet with it. I am told that I shouldn't be mad or surprised because "he takes after me". I won't tell those folks who told me that they're right but between you and me, they are right. He's fiesty, artsy and gutsy. I have no one else to blame and I'm not mad.

Little Helper

I am trying to work this afternoon but my little helper wants to show off his work. He's learning how to spell and he loves to draw. He did a nice job on my car today. While I was talking to his friend's mom, Alex decided to write on my car radio and hazard light switch with a Sharpie marker. Lucky for him there is a product called Magic Eraser or else he'd be in the doghouse right about now.

Those are very colorful Storm Troopers from Star Wars by the way. He thought it would be cute to show off all of Mommy's little treasures like her Moo cards, fabric labels, fabric buttons, selvage strips and wool pear pincushion. I think that his color sense is very similar to mine because I think that the multi-colored Storm Troopers are much cuter than the actual ones in the movie. 

*Note: For those of you who were interested in my inspiration wall, you can now buy your own at Land of Nod. I think that I may have to re-cover with another design now that everyone's going to buy some of this wallpaper. Sigh!

xo, L

Trying To Work

I am trying to get some work done. After all, Quilt Market is about two weeks away. Lately, I have been getting my groove back. This may sound weird and is perhaps more info than you need to know about me but anywhoo ... I am finally dreaming again. I design from my brain. Nothing gets done unless it's laid out in that noggin of mine. That's probably why I can run around like a mad woman and get errands done. I think and think and think. Ok, sometimes I think too much and then my head feels like it's going to explode but getting my dreams back makes me productive. Ideas will literally pop into my head while I am in the shower. It is as though my head is my sketchpad. I did sketch on paper at one brief moment in my life but generally designing and problem-solving is done in my head and then I sketch out the proposal pretty much in its final form. I must be an editor's nightmare at times. [*Don't take this literally! I'm just having fun at my own expense.] I know that I drive the folks at the fabric company nuts because it is tough to get it down on paper. [Note to KJ: I am working at it and I think that I can get things down on paper for you!] Thankfully they put up with me. Thanks!

Let's move on to lighter and more creative stuff. I made these last year for the boys' bathroom. So cute, huh? I used my Funky Flowers fabric and cut silhouettes from plain black fabric. Then I fused and framed. It's a quick and easy decorating idea and also a great gift.


A few people wondered what my chocolate colored powder room looked like. It used to be blue with beige wallpaper. The former owner had more conservative taste. Wouldn't she be surprised to see it now. Sorry the pic is not that great. This room doesn't have a window.



Gotta pic up Little A and then back to work. xo, L

My Inspiration Wall

Here's another addiction of mine ... wallpaper! I love Graham and Brown, Nama Rococo and Walnut Paper. I love patterns and textures. Oh, and the colors are so glorious. There's just so much wallpaper out there right now. It's not the old fuddy duddy stuff that we used to see.

I've had a mental block about wallpaper because dh and my dad would always tell me how awful wallpaper is to take down later. Since we rented for a long time, putting the stuff up just never happened.When we did finally buy our own place, it still took a while to convince the free help around here that it would look great on the wall. Well, my parents always said that I'm a persistent person. So a while back, I just ordered some and let's just simply say that I have a beautiful wall now.

I have loved this wallpaper from the day that I saw it. I think that I saw it on NBC morning news about six years ago. It doesn't have color but that's the beauty of it. You just add the pics to make it fun and funky. I just stick my fave photos [here's a pic of a design of mine from my book, iKnit] onto the paper whenever and remove it whenever. It's on the wall going down to my basement. I adore it.

I also wanted to put a cool piece of wallpaper on the wall behind my headboard and frame it with molding and to do cutouts for the kiddos' room. Not successful at convincing the help of that yet. I see that Pottery Barn is doing something similar. At least I got the chocolate powder room and the funky green bathroom that I wanted. That was only 4.5 years in the making.

Score!

I was driving down to Princeton to get a haircut and I drove by a rummage sale. It looked promising because a lady was packing a really cool chair into her van as I was driving by. "There won't be anything left on my way back," I thought to myself.

For some reason, I felt compelled to stop on my way home. Well, 20 minutes later I was in possession of 6 chairs and one painting for $54! There were two of each chair plus one large painting. I don't think that I will keep the painting. I bought it for the frame. Can you believe it? It was meant to be. I was thinking about trips with my dad to these sales when I was a kid. I have always loved to find my own little treasures and it is a major thing for me to get a great deal. My dad would have gotten a kick out of this.

I ran out to get some foam and I had some of this Alexander Henry fabric on hand. Presto! Two new dining room chairs. How cool is that! Sorry the pics are mediocre. I was way too excited to share this with you and it was getting dark outside. I couldn't wait.