Today & Yesterday

Yesterday was the quintessential Fall day: brisk, sunny, trees bursting with color, leaves crackling up the sidewalks...  I loved it.  We went on a nice walk and Justin toddled along side of us instead of riding in his stroller. {He thinks he's big stuff}  One of my favorite things about walks is coming home just before it gets dark and enjoying a few {short} moments of peace in my living room.  I love twilight and especially love cozying up to watch the sun set through the trees.  (I don't really get the full sunset.. it dips behind other houses before it really sets but I get enough.)  I turn off all of the lights and the windows just sort of glow with color.  This little tree outside of my dining room window is one of my favorites right now:

I really don't have the hang of how to shoot that spot so it looks pretty but here's another pic to give you an idea:

haha, again, I can't capture it in pics but it's such a brilliant orange and is better than any artwork I could buy.  The tree is in a weird spot in our backyard and when we first moved in I thought about cutting it down but after I saw it last Fall, I totally changed my mind.

That quiet time is really a pick-me-up.  Last night I came in all excited from our walk because I found a bunch of these on the ground:

{Heaven!  Sorry neighbors, I know it's weird I pick branches from your yard!}

Befire I realized what I was doing, I was arranging them around the house and snapping pictures.  {Do you know how annoying that must be to live with?  Dave (my husband) didn't say anything and just opened up a recipe of mine from our cookbook and made dinner. {I try not to be overly-sentimental on here because I realize people are reading and many don't want to hear my personal goo- and I know lovey-doviness is totally annoying- but damn he's awesome.}

...But back to that quiet time...  These days it feels like life is just spinning at a ridiculously fast pace.  And I've stopped kidding myself that it will ever slow down.  It's insane that it's almost Thanksgiving.  I cherish that time.  It's almost like for a few minutes, things just stop.  I don't go in there every day at that time but I guess I should try to when I can.  It's always good for me.  I neeeeeed it.

Mornings at our house run the gamut from fairly relaxed and rushed (when we all get enough sleep) to nighmarish (when we don't.)  Lately we've all been a little low on sleep and Christian (3 ys old) especially because he doesn't sleep at daycare. 

Here's the rough scenario:  Dave leaves for work around 6:45 or so, I hear Christian banging on his door to come out of his room.  (We put his doorknob back on now...  he just forgets he can use it ;) He comes out of his room and into my bed and asks where Daddy is.  I tell him work like every day and he begins to wail at the top of his lungs which wakes up Justin, our 11-month old.   Justin wakes up almost every morning with a dirty (like really dirty #2)  in his diaper, and it's often not just in the diaper.  I'm telling you this not to gross you out (sorry if I did) but to give you an idea of the state of things.  So I leave Christian who's just happy we're all up to clean Justin and his bedroom carpet up.  While I give them a bath, my dog- Ashby- goes into Justin's room where I've left the bagged up pooey diaper and proceeds to tear into it and have her creamy breakfast. 

Does this happen often?  At least once a week or every other week. 

Why don't I learn?  What is wrong with me?

I mean, I know my dog likes diapers.  She's like a panther waiting to devour its prey.  I've got to try harder.

{the beast}

 I mention all of this because of the difference between today & yesterday... (And also because - having just gone through the experince again, I needed to vent.)  The thing is that, as far as circumstances go, there really is no difference at all between today & yesterday.  Most mornings start out something like that and I have the option to end most days something like yesterday's end.  The only thing that I have any control over is my attitude.  I was really impatient & snappy this morning with Christian (and Ashby) and I hate being that way.  It's directly correlated to how much sleep I get, and clearly I need more.  But, since that's not always an option, I'm going to attempt for some "peace" inside even when all's insanity outside.  That's where this blog sometimes helps me.  Even though you may have sat through all of that rambling thinking "what the-?" it was good for me, so thanks.  Writing often helps me figure things out and make changes.  

Also, for anyone who's ever emailed me asking "how do you do it all?" or "how are you so together?"  here's definite proof that I don't and I'm not.  :)  

{#1 trying to squeeze the life out of #2}

When I opened the door today to get the boys to school/ daycare, the first thing Christian said was, "It smells good outside."  I walked outside just after him and it smelled like Winter.  

Here's to attempting to slow things down and remembering that even when all's insane, it's what we've got, so love it.  

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

Client Inspiration & visiting a friend

Today I'm guest blogging over at my friend Seleta's (@ Simply Seleta) about bringing fresh greens inside.  (shocking, I know...  you never see me doing that.  It comes from a very basic need to stay away from the grocery store or having to get in my car to do anything extra.)

{Seleta's new gallery wall- love!!}

And I also thought I'd share a family room plan I'm working on for a super-sweet client of mine, Sandy.  (Remember her living room, here?)  Well, now we've moved onto the family room.  When I visited them for the family room design presentation, I was greeted with a hysterical (although I'm sure serious :) note written to me on their chalkboard from Sandy's husband, Dave.  It read, "Lauren, be gentle."  As wives & husbands know, decorating budgets are often tricky.  Many of the husbands I work with really just want their wives to be happy and are willing to agree to the plans as long as they're comfortable with the budget.  Other husbands heavily weigh in on the decision-making process.  It's so interesting to me to see how partners come to make design-related decisions together.

My plans are typically driven by fabrics & a general palatte and I thought I'd share Sandy & Dave's with you:

Sandy, Dave, and their daughter Emma want to be able to relax in and really enjoy their family room, which is in their basement.  Sandy currently can't stand being down there, which is where the TV is.  Emma also wants to use the space to hang pit with friends & do homework.  I came up with a plan full of cheerful aquas and a fun mix of patterns to get the space feeling a bit more energetic & happy and to work for both mom & daughter.  The current out-of-date fireplace surround is being replaced by goooorgeous aqua subway tile and we're deciding between wall-to-wall seagrass or sisal for the floors.  (layered over with a soft wool area rug.)  The goal is to get the family to love being down there & I can't wait to share the results and more details with you!!

Have a great day & thank you so much for all the kind wishes about BHG!! 

And, stop over @ Seleta's to read my post on greens! 

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

It's Out!!!

The December issue of Better Homes & Gardens magazine featuring our home is out on newstands!!!  I was also chosen as the blogger of the month and am on one of the earlier pages for that.   I fell in love with the other homes featured in it and they all have a fresh, natural feeling that I love. Thank you so much to everyone at BHG, especially, Joanna Lingberg, Jessica Thomas, Helen Norman, F.J. Hughes and Shelley Caldwell.  This has been a dream of mine & I can't thank you enough for making it such a fun & meaningful experience. 

When December arrives, I'll share some of the cool behind-the-scenes/ how-to's from the shoot. 



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

Garden Corner

{where plants go to die...  my house}

I love the fun little "garden corner" vignette that photographer Helen Norman & I did during our photo shoot.  We thought it would be fun to show how you can take a simple corner in your living room and turn it into a little plant haven.  The "ball" you see is actually a little pot of baby's tears turned in its side.  (you know how I love balls.)

Helen & her assistant, FJ Hughes, are amazing and I cannot thank them enough for the day.  I abosolutely loooooove plants & especially fresh green ones like ferns and the baby's tears & pearl somethings I found that we used this past week.  I am trying so desperately to keep them alive and would love any tips.  I've been misting daily.  Like a misting freak.  So this better do it.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend and have a beautiful one!!

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

*photo by Helen Norman

What it's like on a photo shoot

Well, yesterday's over and we did it!!!  We hauled booty and got in all of the shots I needed.  I really can't believe it. 

{not a professional photo..  will get them in a couple of days}

The first time I had some work professionally photographed- about 3 years ago- I was shocked by the amount of photographs shot in a day.  I think we ended up with maybe 7-10 shots??  That number seemed incredibly low to me.  I'd expected lots of angles and multiple options for rooms-  a smorgasboard!!  It's not like that... Every time you change angles, everything changes- lighting, sharpness, accessories need to be moved & tweaked, etc.  Had I been more prepared for what to expect, I'm sure we could have gotten in a few more, but taking even one photo is a long process. 

Some of you left comments about doing different arrangements and having the photographers take multiple arrangements because I was having trouble deciding how to style my house.  This would be so awesome if time weren't limited, but the reality is, that when you hire a photographer (which costs in the thousands) you need to take advantage of every single minute and every rearrangement for a shot is time you could be spending on another photo of another area of the home.  A typical shot can take an hour to an hour and a half... some take as little as 30 minutes- and then there are those magic 50 mm shots that can take 5 seconds.  You know how you typically see 12-20 photos in a magazine spread?  These come from 1-2 full days of shooting and sometimes more. 

Since Helen & FJ had been to my house for the Better Homes & Gardens shoot back in February, we were able to move quickly.  They remembered lighting & angles & important details.  I also take a ton of photographs of my house for this blog & so have tried just about every angle and knew what I liked & wanted. 

I took scouting shots of all of the angles I wanted & put them in a document to show to Helen & FJ.  We were definitely ambitious with the number of shots I needed and with daylight savings time, we fought the light.  We did the whole upstairs of my house (leaving out my uggghhh-still-green-70s bathrooms!) and I was able to get 2 alternate shots ( in the dining room I first set it up for eating and then we set it up for reading which is how we often use it.  We also made a pretty little garden corner in my living room for a nice vignette. )

On a photoshoot where you are paying for a full day, you want to be ready to take your first picture as soon as the light allows to maximize daylight.  You should have a list of all the shots you want to get.  You should know how the light will move about your house.  (Is it bright in the afternoon? morning?  When can you shoot a room?  What time can't you?  If the light is streaming in it strongly through a window it can create "hot" spots in photographs and it's really tough to shoot the room.)  You should have a general gameplan of the order of shots you will be taking and which rooms you'll be shooting at what times of day.  The light is king and it's the one thing you have no control over so let it guide your order of rooms and shots.

It's nice to have extra accessories & arrangements on hand to play with and you should have it all set up the day before.  You can rearrange and tweak once you're looking through the photographer's lense. You move things around for photos...  accessories, furniture, lamps, etc.  Things look really different on camera than they do in real life and the goal is to  make it look on camera as it does in real life.  This takes a lot of tweaking, which takes a lot of time. 

On a photoshoot every second counts so you scarf down lunch and barely remember to go to the bathroom.  It's one of those crazy days where you just plop down at the end and go "'phew."  We had a blast and I can't wait to get the new photos up!!

On another note, I know some of you have emailed with questions & I'm falling really behind on my emails and I apologize.  Work & kids and life are crazy right now and sometimes it feels as if I just can't keep up.  If I don't write you back, please don't think I don't care or am upset, it's just that there are so many balls in the air right now that sometime's it's really hard to manage a blog.  If there's something you haven't heard back about, please email me again.  I hope you can understand!!

Enjoy your day!!




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

Carved in stone

{The mantle... playing around with some arrangements.  Don't worry, I'll repot the plants out of plastic}

I'm in the middle of styling my house for a photo shoot taking place tomorrow.  I'm having it done by photographer Helen Norman so my portfolio will look a little better to prospective clients.  There's just something about professional photography that makes a room look so much better than any picture you can take yourself.  (well. myself anyway.)

What's SCARY about this is we're doing one shoot on one day in time and as you can imagine, my house doesn't looks the same for very long.  So how do I decide how I want it??!!  It will be forever immortalized on my website (ok, or for as long as I have a website) and I want it to look its best.  Sort of like a bride on her wedding day.  I want it to be the epitome of my style.  (which is ever-changing, hence, the difficulty here.)  How do I decide??!!! 

It's go-time so I have to run but I'll share pics when I can!!!



ps- Don't worry, I'll wipe the baby's fingerprints off the mirror!!

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

Thanks "Better Homes Ladies"

If you've been reading for a while, you might remember that we had our house photographed in February for this year's Better Homes & Gardens Magazine December/ Holiday 2010 issue.  It will be coming out sometime this month and I can't wait!! 

{an old issue}

I've refused to get silly-pumped for it yet and have really tried not to think too much about it because I'd drive myself crazy with anticipation, but last week as I walked past a magazine newstand , I got tingly-butterflies knowing that in a couple of weeks our house will be featured in those newstands.  I truly have that kid-on-Christmas-Eve feeling. 

The week of the photoshoot (and I really mean week; Better Homes Editor & Writer Joanna Linberg & stylist Jessica Thomas arrived on a Monday and left on that Friday) was so much fun.  Despite having a newborn & running on fumes, I was on Cloud 9.  The photographer, Helen Norman, and her assistant, FJ Hughes, did such a beautiful job and I drool over their work.  (Love it so much that they're coming back this week to take photos of our house for my portfolio, which right now is full of my blurry unprofessional photography.)

{My laundry room stocked with flowers for the shoot}

And, although I know you've seen it before, our kitchen's being featured on the Better Homes & Gardens website right now -along with paint colors & details- so if you'd like to see it you can click here.  Thanks so much to Joanna and the "Better Homes Ladies" (which is what Christian called them when they visited...  my apologies to any males there ;)  --- you truly made my year. 

ps- I'll be posting as soon as the issue come out!!

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

Happy Fall...

I'm loving the vintage quilts I found recently at Vagabond Vintage.  (Their High Point showroom had some of the most beautiful one-of-a-kinds and I took a few home with me for the online store...  hahaha again, issues letting go.)  I couldn't resist a little photo session with my boys.  (any excuse, right?)

{The red maple leaves hit the sidewalks in our neighborhood last week}

{Love shuffling through the leaves.. even as an adult}

{Happy guy}

{The hydrangeas have their reddish tinge}

{The tricycle from Traci-  I'm pushing for it but kids do love them some plastic!}

This is one of the last weekends before "the holidays" so I'm going to attempt a chill one.  I'm headed to New York via train for the day tomorrow with a group from the Washington Design Center.  We're taking a tour of the Kips Bay Showhouse which will feature work by some of my absolute favorite designers.  We get home around 7 something and then the weekend starts...

{This guy tired of the "photoshoot" long before I did }

Enjoy yours and take it all in.


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

What would you do?

Check out Cristin's beautiful blog Simplified Bee to see what I & some of my favorite bloggers would do with this gorgeous console table:

We were asked to create a design using 4 items.  Cristin's new series is so much fun and I loved seeing everyone's take on the same piece!  Thanks so much to Cristin for inviting me over!!

To see the post, click here.

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

Whatever floats your boat...

Yesterday's post about the beauty of warm brown woods sparked some really interesting comments so I thought I'd continue on the conversation...

{the carved wooden mirror in my bedroom}

I should say first up front that there's not really much I can't love or don't see a place for.  In the appropriate space and for the right person, I can get into {almost} anything.  This goes for wood- painted, stained, raw, etc.- too.  I think my post about the beauty of wood might have given some readers the impression that I don't like painted pieces or raw wood pieces, which is definitely not the case. 

I have a variety of wood finishes in my own home.  I have dark mahogany pieces, warm honey stained pieces, raw wood, painted pieces and even a limewashed piece or two. 

{My office with a painted white work table, chairs & aqua Gustavian desk}

I love mixing woods & finishes and have seen it done well and seen it done poorly.  I love the mix of woods in this living room by Susannae Kasler:

{Living Room by Susanne Kasler via Willow Decor}

 What started me on thinking of the warm brown woods is not because I don't love the grayed/ raw woods  (I do) but because I think -like everything- that once a trend has taken such a hold of us it's easy to look at the other things -like warm brown woods- and say that they're "out."  For me, seeing something over & over gets me appreciating the stuff that's not as played up.

{my dining room mixes woods}

I love painting over wooden furniture. To me, not much is too holy to paint over if a piece isn't working as-is. That being said, I also love unpainted wooden pieces. There really aren't many absolutes to me. It all comes down to the feeling & desired look of the space the piece is going in. It has to work for the person living in the space.  The room of painted white furniture that might work for a cottage-loving girl won't work for the lady who loves her Bristish Colonial antiques.  I don't think either are wrong and to me, it's difficult to judge the design of a room without knowing who lives there and what feeling they want it to have. 

{Restoration Hardware}

I mentioned the trend of grayed woods & limewashes - and how it's saturated the marketplace and has really taken  ahold as a trend.  Seeing so much of one things tends to get us "over" it way too quickly.  So quickly that I think we judge something on how "trendy" it is rather than on its actual merit.  (I.e. "I don't like that because it's everywhere," vs. "I don't like that because it doesn't work there.")  The shelf lives of trends are short these days and I think they're only going to get shorter because more & more people are beginning to read & write blogs & use the internet.  Something we see that we love in a magazine gets circulated over & over throughout the blogs.  We eat it up and chew on it until we're all sick of it and then we say "over it" before most of mainstream America has even gotten the chance to notice it or purchase it.  Or someone can take a picture of something cool she did in her home and in a couple of weeks it can be seen on multiple blogs and eventually even find its way into catalogs and magazines.  It's happening so quickly.  As natural as it is to get "over" stuff, I can't help but thinking it's not really fair either. 

{The "Brickmaker's table...  was and probably always will be a favorite of mine.  Yes, I know it's everywhere, but I still want it.}

Think about the people who have spent years developing a product- a coffee table for example...  is it really worth it for them to spend all of that time & money developing a product whose shelf life is only going to be 6 months or 1 year?  And think about how much more they'd need to charge for an item if it were to only be sold for 1 year.  OR they have to get into "disposable" furniture that doesn't hold up/ cost a lot to develop but is trendy.  When I arrived at High Point Market a couple of weeks ago, InterHall was packed with the grayed woods & limewashes...  As beautiful as they are, I definitely got tired of seeing "another gray showroom."  It's a natural reaction.  We want something "new..."  or so old or out that it's "back."  But how unfair of me to go there and see all these beautiful pieces that are brand new and get over them in 3 days?  Ridiculous. 

So in the end it seems pointless to chase trends.  Stay on top of them and know what's up?  Definitely.  Add a piece or two to stay updated?  Sure.  Do a a trendy room strictly because it's "in?"  No way, but if you love a trend, go for it.  If you'll love it even when the rest of us think it's "out," then it's worth purchasing.  Purchase what you love because the trends are flying by at a ridiculously fast pace.  Still, don't be afraid to experiment and have fun because not everything you buy needs to last you 20 years.

As far as the grayed & raw finishedsI saw at High Point...  will I use them?  For the right client & home, yes, just as easily as I would do mahogany or painted wood or a warm honey oak.

And to capitalspice who left a great comment, I say, definitely paint your kitchen cabinets if they're feeling dark & oppressive to you.  It's the first thing I did in my house when we moved in & I love my painted cabinets because they work for me.

I thought also thought this part of your comment was really interesting: "I was telling my in-laws about my plans to paint my (wood) kitchen cabinets this month and they were shocked. I've noticed a bit of a generational divide on this of people my age (twirtysomething) vs. my parents age (55+). I think for the older set there is a thinking that wood = good quality and painted wood = probably laminate and indicative of cheap materials. Obviously this is limited to folks outside the design industry as painting wood is more commonplace.  I'm curious on your thoughts on it. And if you agree with my mother that it would be positively sinful of me to paint my cherry wood desk and drawers."  I really haven't thought about it like this before, but you might be right.  I had to argue for years with my dad to get him to paint a piece of furniture.  Once of the pieces I did paint (an old trunk) keeps disappearing every time I leave because he thinks it looks junky. 

...but I do think that older generations (not including those who are into design/ decorating/ reading magazines/ blogs/ etc.) might generally be a bit more opposed to painting over "good" pieces than younger generations.   Many antique pieces lose all monetary value when painted, which might play into it.  And often. the wood itself is beautiful so sometimes people can't understand messing with it.  To me thought, if a piece just doesn't work for the new owner, there's nothing wrong with painting or redoing.  If you're not a collector, then make a piece work for you and forget about what it's worth.  (Unless it's serious dough, then I'd say sell it and buy a new piece.)  The younger generations might be a bit more "irreverant" toward wood but I think that's okay. If my kids want to paint up or strip all of my pieces when I'm older, I'll be glad that they even want to use them at all.  (I'm really not going to roll over in my grave at a painted heirloom ;)    I think it's easy to get so caught up in sentimentality and keeping something as-is almost as if it were a museum piece that we forget what it's really all about...  loving something, making it our own, making it work for us & for our style. 

{Eddie Ross's painted secretary}

So go ahead, paint the cherry desk however you want, just don't hate me if you wish you hadn't done it a few years from now!! ;) ;) 




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