One Rare Bird

Unhappy Hipsters: It's Lonely in the Modern World

If you're like me and enjoy the occasional, or perhaps more regular, activity of  perusing the most recent issue of the latest design magazines, then it's likely you've also felt completely inadequate and utterly defeated about your own life afterwards. The images in these magazines are at first inspiring, but around page 12 I start to spiral into a depression, and wonder, "Who are these people?"... "Who lives like that?"..."They look so rich and happy"..."What's wrong with me?" And this is where I realize I'm being completely ridiculous. Just because the images indicate otherwise, it doesn't mean the people  in those awesome houses - full of "Eames" this and "Scandinavian" that - aren't still human and trying to figure life out like the rest of us. Right?? So that's when I put down my dark-depression-waiting-to-happen and head over to Unhappy Hipsters. Thank you for restoring my adequacy, you've saved me tons in therapy.

"Wide-eyed by nature, the owls lamented that they weren’t better able to express the ocular trauma of this new turquoise monstrosity." (Photo: Jasper James; Dwell)

"The things that once so defined him — shag carpeting, Room & Board sofas, monogamy — now suffocated him." (Photo: Dean Kaufman; Dwell, September 2009)

"Believe it or not, it was one of their more successful parties." (Photo: Unknown; Dwell)

"He reassured the distraught homeowner: Though there was only one window, the twisted stack of boxes was eminently livable." (Photo: Andy Friedberg; Dwell, March 2007)

"She’d been begging her parents to swap out the gravel for a real lawn, with chairs and everything. She hadn’t counted on their literalism." (Photo: Dave Lauridsen; Dwell)

"There are certain sacrifices one has to make when choosing a designer environ. The ability to comfortably recline tops the list." (Photo: Celine Clanet; Dwell, February 2010)

"One day, after a particularly dull afternoon, she would yank hard enough on the vertical drawer to wrench it off the track, sending everything crashing to the floor—and tell her husband it was an accident. But not today." (Photo: Jack Thompson; Dwell March 2008)

"It was a tossup: Joyless in the natural world or grinning maniacally in the concrete-cased 'Happy Home' diorama?" (Photo: Crisobal Palma; Dwell)

"Must. Have. More. Paneling." (Photo: Daniel Hennessy; Dwell)

These go on and on, but you get the point. Besides, I feel MUCH better now.

Green with Envy

Green. It's my favorite color. I have to make a concerted effort to not buy everything in green. There are days when I walk out the door and I'm a smorgasbord of green; and when it comes to my home, it's no different. So it's surprising I haven't done this sooner, but today is all about Green.

Emma Bee

NolaNova

_cassia_

Lola Nova

Three Red Apples

Nest Decorating

_cassia_

_cassia_

Lari Washburn

_cassia_

Anna Lea Hart

I am seriously in love with the last image. I want want want that living room!

A Room For Living

It's one more week until the big move and despite all the packing I still need to do, all I can think about it how I'm going to decorate the new place---with the biggest challenge being the living room. It's nearly twice as big as what we have now and I'm not quite sure what to do with it. So today I'm rounding up some inspiration via Design Sponge. The sneak peaks they do over there are just as inspiring as they are soul-crushing, and I'm definitely not too proud to rip off an idea or two---possibly more...

Jill Malek

Night Owl

Axel Eben Meyer

Kelley Lilien

Angela Niguori

Linda Ketelhut

Lynda Gardner

Erin Heath

Emerson Made

Laruen Bradshaw

Stacey Sargent

Hmmm...who do I rip off first? Decisions, decisions.

Firmly In The Nook

In Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw talks about wanting to be firmly "in the nook," Aiden's nook to be exact. But I've got my sights set on a different kind of nook, a Breakfast Nook. I've been wanting a breakfast nook for most of my adult home-owning/renting years, and in our new house I'm finally getting what I've wanted: A nook to call my own. And here are just a few of the nooks that have inspired my obsession....

{Raina Kattelson via Design*Sponge}

{Tina Barseghian via Design*Sponge}

{Magnolia Moonlight via Design*Sponge}

{via sfgirlbybay}

{via sfgirlbybay}

And in case you are wondering, this is the fight that exiled Carrie from her "nook"...

 

Bringing it Home

Home. I love that word. It's the place where most of my life happens. It's where I feel the deepest, and love the strongest, and laugh the hardest. It's where I want to be on a sad or difficult day, and it's where I go to share my greatest joys. It's the place I am challenged the most and also where I am the most free to be myself. Home is my refuge, my eden. It's difficult to put Home into words, but I find it even harder to put my sentiments into images. Even this time of year, when I find myself gravitating and orbiting around my home more than usual, I can't seem to narrow down why this place means so much, but all I know is Home really is where my heart is. It is where my story begins and ends and everything in between.

"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned." ~Maya Angelou

"Home, the spot of earth supremely blest,
A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest."
~Robert Montgomery

"There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort."  ~Jane Austen

"Home is a place not only of strong affections, but of entire unreserve; it is life's undress rehearsal, its backroom, its dressing room."

~Harriet Beecher Stowe

"Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home." ~Mother Teresa

"Home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other.  It is the place of confidence.  It is the place where we tear off that mask of guarded and suspicious coldness which the world forces us to wear in self-defense, and where we pour out the unreserved communications of full and confiding hearts.  It is the spot where expressions of tenderness gush out without any sensation of awkwardness and without any dread of ridicule." 

~Frederick W. Robertson

Holiday Kick Off: Tree Style

Lisa sParks

It's the official first week of December and I have moved fully into Holiday Mode. The tree is trimmed, the decorations are up, and the holiday music is a-playin'. So starting today, through December 24th, this blog is single-mindedly dedicated to all things Holiday. This season only comes but once a year, and I have been taken captive by it's sweet and overwhelming power; But I don't want to overwhelm you with my enthusiasm, so I'm going to ease you into it by kicking things off with a little Holiday inspiration....

Dottie Angel

Dottie Angel

wood & wool stool

Three Red Apples

i heart napa

 

"If 'ifs' and 'buts' were candy and nuts, wouldn't it be a Merry Christmas?"  ~Don Meredith

 

Thankful for Mantles, Mojo, and Amy Sedaris

I have been feeling completely uninspired when it comes to my mantle lately. For years I lived without a mantle and I longed to have one that I could decorate and dress up, especially during the holidays. And now that I have a mantle it doesn't seem to be good enough. Though really, it's probably not the mantle's fault, it's a good mantle, I just seem to have lost my mantle mojo. So I went searching for Thanksgiving Mantle inspiration and here's what I dug up...

nerdstroms

 

Poetic Home

A Big To-Do

Becky Kazana

I really like Thanksgiving mantles decorated with pumpkins and banners. I had a few pumpkins on my mantle around Halloween but they started to get big mushy holes in them, so to my disappoint I had to toss them; and since experience has taught me not to keep fruit laying around for too long, I haven't replaced them. But I did make a banner with lots of Fall colors and tried not to be too dismayed by the sheer largeness of my mantle. This is what I came up with...

{I can't believe after all that agonizing I'll just have to take it down and go through this process all over again for Christmas.... jeesh, I really have lost my mojo!}

And while I was looking around for mantle inspiration I found a few non-holiday mantles that I think are amazing. My favorite one is the Alphabet mantle below and the one belonging to Amy Sedaris. I wonder if any of these people have some extra decorating mojo they could spare? Either way I'm grateful for the inspiration because sometimes it sucks to come up with your own ideas.

via sfgirlbybay

Maxine Sutton

Amy Sedaris  Helen Palmer

And speaking of Amy Sedaris, I think she is the biggest kick in the pants. I actually tried some of her Craftercise moves before making my Thanksgiving banner. She says "...it's important to keep yourself limber in order to better handle the rigors of crafting," and boy is she right! I don't know how I ever got through Crafting before she came along.

via Bust Magazine

Thank you Amy, you're a craftsaver!

 

A Few of My Favorite Things

For several years now I have been making an effort to curate my own house. I want to enjoy the everyday things that surround me. There are so many things I am constantly touching and interacting with in my at-home world, and it's a tad less of an effort to go about my daily tasks when I enjoy interacting with those small, seemingly insignificant, inanimate objects. So when it was announced that last week would be "Favorite Things" week for my online e-course I was immediately thrilled. I have so many favorite things, and I loved the idea of documenting them and saying what they mean to me. But as I thought about it further I realized that despite the fact that I am surrounded by so many favorite things, there are very few, if any, that I would actually try to save in a fire. Either it's due to the sheer quantity of loved items or possibly the fact that I could replace most of it, but either way it made me sad and I wondered should I have more things I'd want to save from peril? I don't know, but here are some of my favorite things anyway...

Morning~

My morning wouldn't be complete without a cup of hot coffee, and an ever so soothing cup of tea on a cold afternoon. These are my four favorite mugs~ just looking at them makes the smile~ and I think they make my coffee taste better too. I also love my vintage set of chrome canisters and my Sunbeam toaster (both from the 1950's.) But really, no Autumn morning is complete without a super satisfying pumpkin muffin :)

Collections~

1~ I started collecting vintage tins a couple years ago. The whole thing started because I had two adorable tins when I was a little girl and have always wanted more (you can see them on the bottom~ far left and third from the left.) The collection just hasn't stopped growing. I do occasionally clear out the ones I don't love so much to make room from the ones I love more.

2~ I love red wine, and drinking out of a fun wine glass makes it that much more enjoyable. The colorful glasses are my favorite from Uncommon Goods, but the little ones say "Ottomisto" above the line and "Pessimisto" below the line which means you must always keep your glass half full :)

3~ These are the vintage suitcases I can't get enough of.

4~ I adored my Strawberry Shortcake lunch pail when I was a kid and it seems the love never wore off~ they just don't make them like this anymore. If anyone out there knows where I can find a She-Ra one, I'll love you forever.

Jewelry~

1~ This is my Phrenology bust that holds my favorite everyday necklaces.

2~ These are my three most cherished rings: My great grandmother had the first one made for me after she picked up the stone on her world travels. The second ring (the middle one) has been passed down in my family for six generation~ I was the sixth first-born girl to receive it on my 14th birthday. In about 8 years I will pass it on to my daughter when she turns 14. (There is a wonderful story of this rings history, but it's too long to include here.) The third ring is my wedding ring. We were so poor when we got married that my husband's grandfather let us pick through the rings that were left over from his old jewelry shop. For the longest time I didn't like it, but now it represents so much that I couldn't imagine having any other ring.

3~ The top of my dresser houses an old jewelry box that belonged to my other great grandmother. The photo is of her when she was a toddler.

4~ You can see the photo of my great grandmother much more clearly, plus my ever-growing collection of hand accessories.

 

Colors~

I LOVE colors, especially in accent pieces, and these ones are my favorite. My great-grandmother made the three brightly colored needlepoint pillows  (top left, top right center pillow, bottom right);  the small green one is from a vintage shop; and the two matching red ones are from Pier One. The crewel rug from Anthropologie greets our guests when they walk in the front door.

 

 

Handmade~

1~ I found this clock at a garage sale for $1. I painted the frame electric blue and put new hands on it. I LOVE this clock!

2~ This lamp is a thrift store find that I painted red and bought a drum shade for. I later found another fun lamp base that I painted the same color. They now flank our bed with their fun color and warm light.

3~ I bought this poster by Paul Michael Dellostritto about a year ago. It reminds me to live in the moment and enjoy where I am in life.

4~ A small glimpse of the yards and yards of flags I have hanging in our basement---mostly on the ceiling and walls. I made them to brighten up an otherwise dreary play space for the kids, and also for when we make our basement into sleeping quarters for guests.

 

Places~

These are my favorite places, or at least the most frequent places, I spend my time. My reading chair, my desk, and bed. A book is almost always nearby in all three places.