where my wild thing is

Aster is so happy that the couch is back up. Now that we have a t.v again ( survived over a year with no t.v. , which wasn't a terrible experience at all.), I get to snuggle up with the dog and blanket on the couch again. The other night we watched Pride and Prejudice together.

Ornate gold mirrors

For years, for the life of me, I simply did not like gold ( ok, it was little more than dislike). Golden jewerly(except for white gold), golden faucets,golden lamps, golden watches, golden door handles...
Now I have my gray walls and the one type of mirror that I want above my fireplace is no other than a golden ornate one!

above: from thingsthatinspire blog

above: from home decorating info

above: from flickr:xJavierx who got it from Home Beautiful 07

The one above is not gold, but together with the fire place it certainly says focal point. It's almost too much, but beautiful at the same time. From Living etc.

waiting anxiously for my chairs.

I love chairs. Chairs have personality and functionality. They're artsy and expressive. So as much as I fell in love with so many chairs out there, a lot of them were simply too high in my price point.
Craigslist was once again the answer. My friend found our farm table there, so surely we could find some chairs to go with it. And I finally did.
I found these:


By the time I emailed the owner, they were gone. That was disappointing, as one thing about Craigslist, is that it has a lot of fugly chairs too.
But, my friend has super powers and so she found these


They are dead on the same! I am beyond sure that this couple bought them for cheap cheap cheap and is now reselling them to me for reasonable.
With some reupholstering, they'll be just what I need.

Keep Calm and carry on past it

It seems like the poster with this message went through a love phase and straight into an overload, rejection phase.
I must admit, I liked the poster a lot when I first saw it, but then it just became so overly commercial that everyone seemed to have it. It seemed to be everywhere. Now it just feels dated in a bad way.
Which is why I wouldn't dare walk out with one of these from Decorative Things.
Who knows, maybe in 10 years it will be cool again.

Bm paperwhite/sterling walls have arrived

The workers are gone, the walls are done, the decorating will get there. The place feels like a fresh breath of air. I love the color! On the photo it tends to look too white, but in person it's really great and airy.
There is still plenty of work to be done( moulding, new fire place mantle etc..), but for now I will just chill and enjoy walls. In this case watching the paint dry was far from boring. It was exciting

before

after

White rooms

The white color phase continues. I found a bunch of white room images from the Traditional Home website.

Starbucks revamping?

I've noticed in the city that Starbucks is redecorating. No more deep brown, green and yellow walls. Gone are the yellow glass mini pendants. Instead it's crips white walls, wooden accents and clear round globes for light.
Will need to take some picture. It's refreshing and I think a smart move.

Oh Deer

The entire living/dining room is getting ready to be painted gray today. The ceiling is already transformed into a bright white. The fresh room has me back in the decorating mood and I can't but love the idea of a deer head somewhere in my house.
I thought of a white one, but a really crazy colorful one would be awesome. Some hot pink one would just satisfy my craving to have pinkness among my gray and white, while not being too much for my husband to want to divorce me.

These colorful ones are from etsy

ZGellerie

etsy

New Walls

We are currently in the process of having new walls in the living/dining room and staircase. So darn excited.
The wood panels are gone and so is the ridiculous amount of mirrors.
I'm busy rushing trying to find a light fixture for the staircase.
I'd really like a schoolhouse pendant, but it's becoming a bit of a challenge to get my hands on one within this week ( ordering online takes too long). It's also surprising the price range that they come in.




Going through a "white" color phase. Pretty much everything white just seems fabulous. I will however stay away from white walls for this place ( except that if we were doing our bedroom now, it would be white. By the time we get to the bedroom reno I may be back in the "blue" phase)

discovering pop art - Philippe Bertho

The New Orleans art scene was fascinating and on top of the list of my favorite things about our road trip.
I made a stop at the Martin Lawrence Gallery where Philippe Bertho's work took me for a fun ride.
Pop art was of little interest to me. Andy Warhol just felt so yesterday and over copied.
Bertho's work feels contemporary, fresh and fun. His work inspires me.

Back from New Orleans

Ant and I did a road trip to New Orleans, which was pretty fabulous. The place is very much color inspiring. Eventually I will post some pics.

Recent customers

I can go mushy over terrier, mutty dogs. This one, ohh so cute. Those perky ears make me smile.

He just looks so proud in here.

This little fellow was very sweet too and well behaved.

good evening mr opossum

Mail in my hands, bag on my shoulder, I walked up the stairs until I reached the landing before my last few steps to home sweet home. What a large rat tale. Perhaps a nutria ( seen those by the water)? No, just a "small" opossum.
So I like critters, but this one was in a really bad spot. If he went any further up, he would end up at my door step. If he went sideways, he would go dropping down a floor. If he went down the stairs he would have to pass me.
So I went down and waited a bit, but the fellow was too scared to move and stayed in the corner. After calling hubby and friend for advice, I just went to the dumpster, got myself a cardboard shield ( no google at hand to realize that these things are scared and use to play dead as one of their defense mechanisms.) and slowly passed it.
I was worried it would get so scared and take a leap down, fall and break.
It finally moved ( hopefully to some happy place) and I was able to walk my pooch.

It kind of looks really mean in this photo, but really it looked more like a cute kitten ( minus the large rat tail), that was scared.

My first art/photo purchase! :)

Rain or shine (it chose to be rain), the Hoboken arts festival is on today. Hubby went to it last year, and after hearing that they sell art work too (and not just food, like at the Italian festival), I had to go.

I bought two photo prints. Both have been taken in Tibet. When I saw the one with the horses, I just had to have it.
Finally, I found a piece of work that I really wanted. Buying just some "art" from a mass chain stores is not my thing, especially not just for the sake of buying anything to fill up a blank wall to make the room feel more complete.
The other print is of a Tibetan temple, which hubby picked out.

Frame wise... not sure yet. I've decided to keep the gray walls, with which white frames would look nice... BUT the matte is white, so no real contrast.... so perhaps something darker, but not black... some brown color... but not reddish... and contemporary, but perhaps with some extra dimension to it and not just flat... ok, need to think about it more.

The photos here don't do justice of what they actually looks like.

Sunday breakfast on a Monday

When I was a little girl, my dad and I used to make this very simple, yet delicious dish on Sundays.

It's pretty much called " Duszona cebulka".
There are different variations of it, but this was ours.

Ours consisted of first frying up some cut up bacon pieces.
Then you had about three onions( I always tried to get as many as possible. The pot would be so full that you couldn't even stir the onions, but had to wait for them to shrink), cut in half moon slices.
Then put the onions in the pot together with the bacon, and put the lid on the pot ( lid on top is very important, otherwise the onions may burn and get dry).
Once the onions are super soft, you add an egg or two and stir it up. Season to taste and have it on some fresh bread/roll.

Recent customers

The pooch photos are long overdue, but sometimes we are just so busy at work that there isn't really a good time to snap some photos.
All of these fellas were really adorable. I almost wanted to steal the Dachshund for my husband, as that's his dream dog. The kitty was really sweet too, and the West Highland Terrier just reminded me of something that popped out of a comic book.
I also just want to note, that not all pictures taken are of dogs that I have groomed.