I want to thank you all for your kind messages after last Friday’s post. You are so sweet and inspiring and I feel blessed to have this creative community to tap into. Thank you! I have gotten so many great tips and encouragement from you that my head is spinning with ideas! For example, Toby Alleyne-Gee suggested using sliding pocket doors instead of regular French doors and I find the idea genial!!! How come I haven’t though of it? We’ll be interviewing contractors in the upcoming weeks and we’ll keep the option in mind. Thank you so much, Toby!! For that and for all the other wonderful suggestions.
To say that our first month in the new house has been exciting would be an understatement. We hosted a 20-plus-guests birthday party for Isabella, we scrubbed floors, washed windows and painted the living room (before and after the party, not during. We were nice to our guests, haha. We read about these paint parties some people throw to have all of their friends help but we were nice and didn’t hand out paint brushes as party favors). We removed fences and replaced doors and went on this crazy schedule of mowing our back yard every five days (because the soil is wet, the grass grows incredibly fast). And at nearly an acre of land, there was a lot of mowing and raking. I know it sounds cheesy but we also enjoyed every minute of this madness! That being said, I have this thing with mess. I don’t know exactly when or how it started, although genetics may play a role because I remember always being like this, but mess gets to me and I can’t think clearly when my home is out of order (which is most days :)))). I need a clean and uncluttered space to be able to do any kind of work. Mess makes me anxious and it’s not pretty 🙂 So, before I could attempt any design plan for our home, I needed to shake the stress of our recent move, relax and let the ideas come.
A view of the living room from the dining room doorView Post
I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news but fall is approaching faster than some of us might like, or wish. I love summer and we’ve enjoyed the best weather this past couple of months but we’ve been so busy feathering our nest that we didn’t feel August sneaking up on us. I love summer, yes I do, and although I do not like the thought of it ending anytime soon, we do have quite a few things to look forward to this fall. One of them is the design book launch season! Are you excited? So many great designers have new books coming out this fall that my Amazon cart is bursting! Here are some of my favorite new releases, available to pre-order, as well as a few seasoned ones that I’m coveting as well.
Have you ever thought about it? What makes a room great, to you? Though the answer may be different for each of us, the question is universal when trying to hone in one’s personal style and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this…What makes you love a room (and perhaps dislike another)? Is it a successful color scheme or a functional furniture layout? Is it the art and the accessories? Maybe all of the above?
I apologize for Wednesday’s missing post, we had a special family birthday celebration on the 17th that had my undivided attention – our little love bug turned seven!! I can’t believe it and have so many mixed feelings about it. I thank God every day for having her in our lives, for her happy, funny and curious nature. But with each year that passes I wish I could somehow slow down the minutes and days so we can cuddle a little more, and she can be my little girl a little while longer… I also wanted to thank everyone who left messages after last Friday’s post, I so appreciate your kind words, advice and encouragement. In fact, I’ve gotten Margaret Roach’s revised gardening-primer book – A Way to Garden and I’m smitten and highly recommend it to anyone in a similar predicament – that is having the garden but not a clue what to do with it.
