Well, tan my leather!

How is it it's already mid-week????

I've been planning this post since Monday, but somehow life, Motherhood, and wrecked computers (all three of 'em) got in the way.  Oh well....here goes

When it comes to leather goods, I've always been a saddle color kind of gal.  Something about the natural tanning, combined with perfect hardware appeals to my luxe-but-not-too-much sensibilities.

Now, I'm dying to put together some kind of tan leather/hardware combo in my casa.  Not in a wagonwheel kind of way, either. 

See those stools?

Maybe some MCM goodness?

This one's Ebay - it got away.

Maybe just a couple of these floating around an a lot-of-white room?

Like this...

If this weren't black, it could play nice

Woah, now, horse.  What's this?  Perfection is what they are.  Hold on, lemme check.....

Damn. My taste is rich. *source

What are you obsessing over, lately? 

all images via my pinterest unless otherwise noted

I'm a centerfold! *blush*

Just happy as a lark that the baby gurus at Baby Lifestyles picked my design work on Oliver's nursery to be their centerfold feature in this month's e-glossy!

A whole lotta love went into that project, so it means a ton to be recognized for my work.  Thank you, Tara, and the staff at Baby Lifestyles!

*Keep in mind, the entire design for this room was done long-distance (me in Brazil, client in Texas) via e-design.  If you, or someone you know needs help bringing to life a beautiful nursery or other room, I'm taking clients.  Email me at atexski@yahoo(dot)com for info.

Downsizing and Questioning Authori-TAY

In a few months, we'll be moving from our spacious casa in Brasilia to an apartment in Rio.  Although the apartment is generous by Big City standards, it will mean a lot of downsizing for us. 

I'm nervous about moving with two, energetic kiddos into an apartment - and exasperated when everyone says, "Oh, you'll just go to the beach." Like it's a magic cure for the maladies of tight living quarters.  It might be. I'll find out.

What the move also means, though, is we'll be selling many of our household goods - keeping only what we really need and love.  I'm actually very excited about this part.  Right now, our furnishings are a mix of things we've inherited, cobbled with a few lower-end items we've had since our first home. I won't be able to make a lot of upgrades, but we will be trading in on some more space and taste-appropriate items.

I think I've got Ben on board to selling his Shaker-style dining table, and buying a Saarinen tulip table.  I'm really digging the oval shape set with more traditional chairs.

barrie benson via Domino

We have several traditional, but non-matching chairs that I'm thinking I can recover in the same fabric to pull it all together in a fun, eclectic way for our new place.  Because after all, Rio is nothing if not fun and eclectic.

Lonny

I recently did some window shopping to see a tulip table in person.  In general, household items in Brazil are much, much more expensive than they are in the States, so I figured I'd check them out here, but end up ordering one from the US.  

The salesladies at the shops stated the tables were "authentica," and they look spot-on to originals online. So I found it puzzling when the Brazilian prices were about 1/3 of the price you'd pay if you ordered a similar tulip table from a website like All Modern. (Dum da DUM)  I thought maybe the copyright laws were just more lenient here, and that they can claim the tables are authentic.

Good thing I've got a design-savvy (and legally-versed) Brazilian friend who explained that the worldwide copyright on Saarinen's design has expired, so that anyone can replicate it, and call it a tulip table.  If the dimensions and materials match the specifications of the designer's original, then it can be called "authentic."

Lonny

My own thinking as to why the authentic versions in the States are so much pricier is that they are still manufactured by Knoll - the company Saarinen originally worked with on the design.

Southern Living

So, there ya go.  

Brazilian Saarinen tables.

Almost free. 

Skonahem

In other Makes-Monday-Good news:  I found out some of my design work has been selected for a little e-glossy love.  Stoked doesn't even begin to explain my feelings.

Tom Scheerer

For your Weekend Enjoyment

Do ya'll hate it when I post food pics, then send you off to my other blog?  Sorry.  BUT I just thought you might enjoy having this recipe this weekend because it is SO FREAKING AMAZING!  Last weekend, we adapted ordinary, perfect soul food, Chicken and Waffles to the Ultimate - Fried Chicken & Butternut-Quinoa Waffles with Cinnamon Chipotle Maple Syrup.  It was amazeballs.

See what I mean? 

Try it out this weekend.  Let me know how they were on Monday.

Happy Waffle Weekend, ya'll!

I like big books and I cannot lie

Are ya'll ready for it?  The Hunger Games world premier, duh!  I'm hosting a "pre-game" party at my house, so I have all things Girl on Fire on the brain to gear up. 

Doesn't the cool factor of Katniss sort of make our obsession with Edward, Jacob and (I guess) Bella seem really lame?

I won't be in line for the midnight showing - me and my amigas are blue-haired like that - but I'm super-stoked just the same!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

In other book news, I started this one the other night.  It's about a Manhattanite woman who falls in love with farming, all things fresh food, as well as an "all man" farmer who's happens to be a brilliant cook.

Just a few pages in, and I'm ready to hang it up, buy some fertile land, and learn what life's really all about.

It's Monday - Let's do B&A's

It's a two-cupper kind of Monday for me, so how about some Before and After goodness? 

I've been working with my sister to get her formal living room properly zhushed before an upcoming shower she's hosting.  Can I just say right now how much it KILLS me not to be able to do this fun stuff in person?   Oh well, getting to be a part of putting together a great room is still rock 'n roll.

Wanna peek? (Pardon the iPhone pics)

Wingback Before - Sad stuffing, and almost-coulda-shoulda-been-kinda-cool Missoni-esque fabric....

...and After... Make-a-me-SO-happy coral and purply-pink ikat!

X-benches Before (sorry, no real-life photo) - Now, you know I'm not the kind to turn a side-eye to most anything animal print, but these bargain X-benches needed to look....well....not so bargain-y....

So, they found some love in the form of high-quality velvet, and extra tufting.  Oh, the plushness of it all!

What's pulling this all together, you ask?  Why, a giant, colorful print by Cozamia, of course!

Yep, Monday's lookin' better, already!

Other things

Sorry for being so MIA lately.  You know, there was a time when I stressed a lot about this blog - what to post, comparing my posts to others', wondering where (if anywhere) this blog might lead.  Since we lost our baby, so much of that perspective has changed.  The fact that I no longer freak out if I'm not getting X number of posts out per week is a good thing, but the down side is I leave you all in the lurch, and that makes me kinda sad.

I guess while I'm talking about it, well, I'll just talk about it.  The loss of our baby girl, Lauren.  We're doing OK.  As good as can be expected, I guess.  Grief is a journey, and we're certainly still on it, but life also keeps moving.  Especially when you have another almost 5 and almost 2 year-old buzzing around.

I've been busying myself with our upcoming move to Rio - planning designs for as-yet unknown living quarters.

I've also been trying to lose the last five pounds of pregnancy weight.  They say the last five are always the toughest.  I can't even shed ONE much less FIVE.  This stuff is holding on for dear life.  I imagine if I had been able to breast feed, the baby weight would have come off like it did with my other children.  And, it's not like you can read up on "What to Expect after Stillbirth."  Stillbirth occurs in one in less than two hundred pregnancies, but no one talks about it.  No one really researches it.  Those of us who have experienced it are left to figure it out on our own.  Instead of cuddling a newborn, we ride on the roller coaster of grief, hormones, and in my case, stringent expectations on my body to be "normal."

I saw a quote shortly after we lost Lauren that said in terms of grief - It doesn't get better, it just gets different. It's true. You don't really "get better" or "get over" losing a child, but you are certainly not the same.  I'm just hoping that my different is somehow...better.

Painting by Jenny of MFAMB - See her for all your abstract art desires!

Memory like an Elephant

It's funny, some days I can't remember whether or not I put on antiperspirant, but there are images from well-worn glossy mags that are burned into my brain - I could tell where I sat when I first saw them.  This (crappy scan) of a vignette from a 2008 House Beautiful is an example.  I have always, always loved this lemon photograph by interior design photographer, Victoria Pearson.

Source: Uploaded by user via Alison on Pinterest

I remember researching her work when I first saw it, to find out about purchasing a print. 

Never had any luck.

But, guess what Mrs. Meare's happened upon while scoping out Nathan Turner's shop in LA?

Source: isuwannee.com via Alison on Pinterest

*Bum ba da DAAAAM!"

Sound of me clicking through his site.

*PfeeeeewwwwSqueeeek*

Sound of air slowly being let of me when it puts me through to his 1st Dibs booth

Source: 1stdibs.com via Alison on Pinterest

*Ka POW*

The Price.

Still, closure.

He Said, She Said does Pinterest

Ben is forever catching me "pinning," and honestly, he just doesn't get it.  So, I tried to illustrate to him the lure and addiction that is Pinterest.  I think it's safe to say I didn't succeed in convincing him that all my "looking at a bunch of pictures" is a purposeful use of one's spare time, but as always, he offered some interesting commentary....

Source: abodelove.blogspot.com via erika on Pinterest

Me:  Can you believe this is a child's room?  I think it probably cost about a bajillion to do it.

Ben:  Yeah, I'd love for it to be MY room.  But I'd shit-can the Ghost chair.

Source: myfavoriteandmybest.com via Alison on Pinterest

Me:  I died when I saw this couch.  It's on Craigslist, so it's cheap.

Ben:  Oh, if it's on Craigslist, you simply must have it.  It goes great with the grass.

Me:  You're such a buzz kill.

Source: stylecourt.blogspot.com via erika on Pinterest

Me:  What about a pink, English roll-arm?

Ben:  You want a bubble gum couch?  It just doesn't look comfortable to sit in.  I think if you sat all the way back, your feet would stick straight out.

Source: myfavoriteandmybest.com via Alison on Pinterest

Me: This bedroom inspires me for Rio, because we'll probably have a small room.  I lurv the walls.

Ben:  Get rid of the lavender/purple pillows, and the chicken-wire windows.  Feels too English-y to me.

Me:  What?  It's totally Boho.  The windows almost Moroccan.

Source: designwonderland.net via Vicious on Pinterest

Me:  I just pulled this up.  It feels like a chic hash-hish den.

Ben:  Yeah, I like it.  Like the furniture.  Like the floors. The rugs, too. My parents had some friends who were very chic, artsy partakers of the "fine herb."  This room totally reminds me of them. Is that a late-night Taco Bell bag peeking out from under the couch?

Me:  No.  If they're chic, their munchies are much more refined.

To follow me on Pinterest (and you should) go HERE

Valentine's Goodness

It's a really drizzly, gloomy kind of Valentine's Day, so I corralled my girls into a little cookie-baking session.  We made Linzer Cookies, which in the end, are really almost too pretty to eat.  If you want to get the recipe I used, check out my other, more highly-caloric blog - HERE.

Ben is out of town tonight (yes,it's a common theme in our casa), so we'll be rainchecking our Valentine's tomorrow.  He'll make it up to me by sitting through movie night of Breaking Dawn.  And not providing running commentary.

 

 It's a win-win, you see?

I Bit the Bullet

Go ahead, call me a follower, but I wasn't about to let the chance to snag a Stark Fauna aka "antelope" rug pass me by this week, when they were featured on OKL. 

We've all seen 'em, some of us love 'em, and some of us have husbands who travel all the time, leaving us sad and idle, and wanting to fulfill our souls with something.  And rugs can do that.  Sometimes.

All boo-hooing aside, I bought a runner.  They're ALL good, but I think this pattern in a runner is particularly effective.  So does Sally Wheat.  See? (and she's a boss)

Source: troveinteriors.blogspot.com via Alison on Pinterest

...examples of more goodness

 

(this one's actually Karastan, but whatev's, you get the idea)  image source

Oh, if I ever have a little boy's nursery of my own....

Source: cotedetexas.blogspot.com via Alison on Pinterest

So, in summary:  Antelope Rugs: Good.  

Dressing like an antelope:  Questionable

Happy Weekend, Folks!

My Favorite Room (Guesting at S+S)

Hellooooo out there!  I know you've all been dying to see some of my handiwork in my own casa - well, here ya go!  (Except you have to go to Sadie + Stella where I'm guesting) - Find all about my favorite room HERE

Floating Art Project

I've been itching to frame out a piece of art with a simple, acrylic frame.  It's such a clean aesthetic that can really showcase artwork in a modern way.  Jenny posted not too long ago about finding acrylic frames for smaller works, but I was thinking something on a larger scale...

We gifted my sister and BIL an original painting from Brazil, and while we were visiting them, it gave me the perfect chance to test the acrylic-framing waters.

I took the artwork to a local glass and mirror shop, and asked if they could cut two pieces of acrylic to "sandwich" the artwork between.  *Note*  I anticipated "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" looks, so I took the above inspiration photo for explanation purposes. ;)

I had them cut 1/4" (rather than 1/8") pieces for a more substantial look, and drill holes at each corner.  Since I wanted a floating look, I had them size the sheets to allow about a two-inch border around the painting.

To hang the painting, I had to enlist Ben's help (of course!).  He had to enlarge the drill holes a bit to allow for the brass screws we selected to hang the art. 

If you try this, be slooooow and careful, so you don't crack the acrylic!

Next, we cleaned the acrylic of all fingerprints.  He had a little "help."  Note to self:  next time, use latex gloves!

We used double-sided tape on the back of the painting to make sure it wouldn't slip during the hanging process.

We secured it all with brass screws through the drilled holes - straight into the wall (using drywall anchors).  ......aaaaand DONE!

I'm lovin' it!