I am not a decorator…
This is not false modesty… this is the truth.
I realized this about myself sometime last winter as I looked around my house and saw all the blank walls, the naked windows, the mis-matched pillow shams, and the shelves that completely lack that homey touch.
I love houses, I love architecture and I [...]
One of the things I managed to accomplish during my recent blog hiatus, was to re-paint the center hall, and finally hang up some family photos! I considered painting the above bench in one of the colors on the paint chips, but by the time I had painted the hall (in the same boring off [...]
Originally posted October 2007
Over the course of building our house, I have had a few very minor disagreements with my builder, Dennis.
A few months back, he did not appreciate my decision to leave the pine treads and risers on the steps to the loft unpainted. I had originally told him that I was going to paint [...]
A few weeks ago, I toured the home of Mary Carol Garrity during her summer open house.
Mary Carol Garrity is the owner of the fabulous Nell Hill’s and Garrity’s stores in Atchison, Kansas as well as the newly opened Nell Hill’s at Briarcliff in Kansas City.
She has also written several books on interior decorating as well [...]
Is there anything more wonderful than a paint chip? Okay maybe a few things, but right now I am really loving paint chips. For one thing, they are free! You can walk into any local lumber yard, Home Depot, Lowes, Ace, True Value, and fill you pockets and your purse, and stuff some in your [...]
It took a while to make up our minds. We stood in front of the door display in Home Depot flipping through the various door profiles for what seemed like an eternity, Our four boys entertained themselves by having shopping cart races, building forts in the lumber section, playing hide and seek in the [...]
I am in complete and utter agony. Torture torture torture. There are two sides to my misbegotten, bizarre, giant weirdo personality. The first half of my personality likes for things to be nice, well made, pretty, interesting, and somehow right. I am not a perfectionist. I can live with flaws [...]
I have a thing for old sinks. I have tried all sorts of new age therapies, homemade herbal remedies and straight up chemical detox and I still have a thing for old sinks. I just think they are soooooo beautiful. Why did they stop making them?
Oh! Maybe because they weight 17 [...]