Buttercup

{image source: flickr user law_keven at www.creativecommons.org }

 

I remember the buttercups that used to dot my elementary school playground. 

 I went there for nine years so I knew the field well.  The buttercups would shoot up faster than the blades of grass between mowings.  

 

{image from wikipedia}

 

When we were younger, we'd hold them up under eachother's chins & it was, " Do you like butter?" 

  

A little older and it was, "he loves me, he loves me not"

 

{He loves me!}

 

 You never really knew if he was going to love you or not with buttercups because some types have 5 petals and others have 6.

 

 

 

I loved making flower chains & never really grew out of it.  I remember doing them in the Spring as I waited for my turn at long jump in high school track.  One day I remember making necklaces for the other sprinters & somehow convincing even the guys to wear them as crowns...  (My coach must have loooved that ;)

ahahahaha   (It really still makes me laugh out loud.) 

 

More than anything, I just remember always picking them up & playing with them when I see them.  Long talks on the field with my best friend, scooping down to pick a buttercup, subconsciously.  Crumbling the old flower centers into little pieces between my fingers & rolling them around. 

 

 

 

 

I love these pics of the plants from NC State...  (above & below) 

 

 

 

{image source for above pics: http://www.toronto-wildlife.com/Plants/Buttercup_family/more_tall_buttercup.html }

 

It's for pretty much all of these reasons that I've known for a while I wanted to do a buttercup design for my textile line.  When the power went out for days this Summer & we needed to get out of town, we made an impromput visit to see my dad in Illinois & have him meet the baby...  The car ride is 13 hours and it was the first time after Luke was born (in May) that I'd had some time to sketch.  I  worked on "buttercup" in my lap...

{The beginnings of it...  as you can see, drawing doesn't come easily to me & there are lots of erase marks & mess ups}

 

The design (like all of them) is just an interpretation... not a botanical study.  I add my own little things here & there and I'm sure I leave out pretty important parts, but it's the feeling that I'm after...

{One of my first strike-offs}

I'm working on the final colorways now but I'm really happy with the light earthiness of this first one...

 

A few more options are on their way & I hope you enjoyed a peek into the process.

 

...

 

Do you have any buttercup memories?

 

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

Demo & Rebuild

I'm back to the construction zone from a whilrwind trip to NYC and, like I've been mentioning for the past few weeks, we're now down to the studs at our place. (!!)  We're reworking the floorplan- closing doorways, adding new ones, moving walls, removing them... plumbing is being moved, windows are getting enlarged, we're adding a fireplace, redoing the bathrooms & kitchen... it's madness!! (but the good kind of madness ;)  We have the air off because there's so much dust flying around & we want to keep it out of our upstairs "apartment" as it's been dubbed... But as I type this morning, I'm hoping it stays warm a little longer because there is definitely a chill in the air & there's no heat for us until we get the bulk of the contruction completed. 

One of the biggest changes we're making is opening up the kitchen to the living room...  Here it is before:

And here it is now: 

 They've finished sanding down the beams.  The red-brown stain is now GONE and we've exposed the bare pine.  (How I wish that pine had been exposed over the past 40 years, aging gracefully but oh well... It's very raw now & we had it hand scraped & wire brushed.  )  We've also had insulation added between the beams because before there was only a layer of plywood before the roof & we're making it a bit more energy efficient.   And of course as  you can see... the wall is DOWN!!!  The kitchen is now completely open to the living room.  We also expanded the kitchen two feet to the right (taking space from the dining room) so that it spans the whole width of the living room now.   Floors are going down this week & next (more on that as soon as I have pics!) and I CANNOT WAIT.  Once we have floors, we can move our things inside from the garage & pod.  Dave went diving in the pod for clothes last week & climbed over all of the front stuff to get to the Fall stuff in the back.... He dug himself a little hole and climbed down into it....  And I  honestly thought he was buried by the stuff at one point.  (thanks to him of course.)    

{it's since been rearranged} Me, after realizing I hadn't heard him talk in a while:  "Dav, are you okay in there??"him, very quiet/ far away: "Hellllllllp"At that point I was about to launch the jogger strollerfrom the pod to the woods behind me as I screamed "DAVE?!!!!!!"Then I heard "No no no no no!!  I'm fine!!" in a completely normal volume.  Then laughter.Oh wow. He's very lucky I couldn't reach him at that point. We've had the discussion before of "fright or flight" in emergency situations.  I'm a "fight" kind of girl.  There's tyipcally no hesitation in my reactions and I find myself doing things before I've even thought about them.  Thanks to him, (yes am still bitter ;)  I almost launched our Christmas breakables into the woods.   Anyway, things are happening around here & I'm in the midst of planning the kithen (and pretty much everything else around here) so I'll be back this week to share some plans!!  Off to some clients for the day & keep your fingers crossed we find our nanny soon!!  My head is busting with things I need to remember & people I need to speak to... send some brain space my way.  I've never been so busy in my life.  I'm not at the breaking point yet but feel like I should be.  Maybe once you actually get here, you're too busy to break. ??? ;)  

{at least I've got what matters most} 

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

Good Bedroom Design

1) Proportions of the room.

The word "proportions" is always used in the design field. Every
interior space which is being used by humans must be proportionate.
Proportions are extremely important in any design.

Every 3 dimensional object has properties such as length, width and
height. When these 3 are in accordance with the proportions of
various parts of human body we call it a "proportionate" design.

For example a handle of a wardrobe must have dimensions such that
our fingers can hold it properly for effortless and smooth action.
or a chair seat must have enough are so that we can sit comfortably.
Again the type of seating will change the dimensions of the chair.
A chair in waiting lobby of a bank will be different than a sofa.

So proportions play a major role in interior design and furniture
in your bedroom must also follow these rules. The dimensions of
the double bed, it's height from floor level, height of wardrobe,
dimensions of dressing table, etc...all these matter as far as
function is concerned.

2) Natural light entering the room.

There is no alternative for naturally lit spaces. Sun being the
strongest source of light and also helps to keep the biological
balance of the planet Earth, it is very much necessary in the
interior spaces.

Study shows that natural light can penetrate in an interior space
up to 20 feet (Approx. 7 meters). Using appropriate position for
window opening can easily achieve this.

3) Natural Ventilation

A free and unobstructed flow of air can be a great way to keep
the atmosphere cool and clean in an interior space. This is possible
where bedrooms are located at the corner of the building where 2
sides of the bedrooms have external faces.

Where it is not possible to provide windows on adjacent faces or
opposite faces, a ventilator above the window is used. The concept
behind the ventilator is simple. The lower half the bedroom height is
always used by the habitants. Because of the constant use of this
are the air temperature rises and air becomes light weight.

This hot air rises above and must need an escape. At such times
ventilators above the window openings play a major role of
circulating the flow through the room in an upward direction.
When the lower portion of the room becomes empty fresh air from window
takes its position, thus maintaining a balance.

4) Clear Movement Patterns.

Every bedroom has certain exit points attached to it. Such as
a) Exit to balcony/ terrace.
b) Exit to toilet block/ walk in closet
c) Exit to backyard (if on ground floor)

If we draw an imaginary line from the entry point to all these
exit points, ideally the should not intersect. Since all other
areas are already occupied with furniture, keeping the inside
circulation space clear, helps to achieve a comfortable
space.

5) Good Provision For Inclusion Of Accessories.

Accessories in a bedroom have equal importance. When all other
factors mentioned above are fairly met what remains is the
use of accessories which can make quite a lot of difference in the
comfort level of the habitants.

a) The first and the most important is a good provision of
artificial lighting. This includes basic lighting as well as
special decorative lighting for decorative purposes.

b) Special provision for upholstery and linen. Small details such
as curtain rods, provision for bed canopies can make the room
extra decorative.

c) Use materials that are easy to clean and maintain. For example
if you are using PVC flooring sheets on top of standard tiled flooring,
is it washable? Think of what will happen if your child uses it
as a painting canvas.

The discussion above was an attempt to look for some universal
factor that can affect the comfort level of the users in a bedroom.
Finally the feeling which you get when you use your bedroom is most
important and is a good measure to decide the success factor of
the design project.

What's Up

I can barely remember this past week...  We moved into our new house a week ago. 

We're still living on the upper floor because the rest of the house has been gutted, which is actually working out just fine.  Most of our things are packed up & in the garage...  We labeled things as best we could & had a lot of help from our family, but some things have still just ended up "missing."  Right as we were moving into our house, a huge storm hit and the movers got our stuff under cover as quickly as possible so "organization" sort of hit the fan.  We're slowly climbing through the garage in search of some really important (A.K.A.  "work") things.  Dave's whacked his (bald- completely exposed) head on the garage rafters mulitple times during his searches.  :(

 

 

Fall is hitting (I loooooove Fall!!!) and it's time to switch over our wardrobes but most of our stuff is buried in a POD in our driveway.  We've had people (on a couple of different instances) walk up to our house & ask if we were having a garage sale!!!  My grandmother was here one day & told the woman asking, "No, it's just junky."  (Thanks Grandmother! ;)

We had a new nanny start last week & it didn't work out so we're on the hunt again.  I've realized I can pretty much deal with stress calmly in any situation- except when it comes to my kids.  When I'm worried about them & who I'm leaving them with, I am not okay. I may not freak out & show it, but inside I pretty much just want to give up & quit everything & just be with them.  This past week, we watched as the new nanny we hired (very sweet, I think?)  do things over & over that just didn't sit right with us.  As the week went on, I realized we'd completely lost trust in her & that it wasn't going to work out.  I'm swamped with deadlines at work & having to constantly check in on the kids &and worry about them being okay or not didn't work out so well.  SO, she's out and now we're on the hunt for Mary Poppins again!  For now, we're trying to make it work. 

We handed the keys over to our old house this weekend (tear!) and getting the holes in the walls patched up & getting all of our things out was so intense that I really don't think I ever want to move again.  (Please remind me of this next time.)  There's just SO. MUCH.  STUFF.  I broke multiple vaccuums & Dave was out until 2 AM getting the house ready Friday night for the Saturday morning walk-through.   We did so much of it with our kids with us because we were afraid to leave them with the nanny, which was one of the hardest parts.  You just can't get as much done holding a 3-month old.

{Bye bye sweet home!!  We loved  you!!}

 

...And it's onward march!

{It's even more contemporary than our last home, which I'm really excited about!! It's not the home I ever imagined myself living in but I looooove it & can't wait to make it "us"!!}

So... for a very long time, this house is it.  We're done.

Which brings me to the overall conclusion that I want this house to be just right.  Just right to raise our family in.  I want it to flow & work well on a daily basis & then be able to convert easily into party space for gatherings.  At around 2400 square feet, we need to make the most out of it.  I want the materials to feel good & to be perfect for the vibe I'm after.  I'm willing to wait for the right things and I don't want to rush anything.  (Although I can't wait to have a kitchen again!!  And a washing machine too for that matter!! ;) 

{The back view}

The messiest things need to happen first and so one of those "messy" to-dos is sanding down the pine beams on our living room ceiling...  They currently have a dark brown stain on them that hides the old pine beams.  I really want to be able to see & appreciate the wood iteself, so the team from CarrMichael Construction is hard at work, hand-sanding the dark stain off the wood & hand-scraping and wire brushing the wood to give it a rough-hewn look. 

{above, beams before}

 

{You can see in the pic above that they're getting lighter!!}

 

 

Time to start my day but I'll be sure to post progress pics & show you some of my inspiration photos!!  Finegrs crossed for us in the hunt for Mary Poppins!!




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

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  Magnetic strip: bobby pin saver inside the drawer.

  Shower curtain hooks as purse holders

  DIY high functioning coat hooks

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Home Improvements

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  salt dough - 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, cold water. Mix until has consistency of play dough. bake at 250 for 2 hours, then cool and paint....good recipe for thumbprint pendants. Might make good affordable presents.

  Cover cookie sheet with fabric and you have a magnetic board- I need to hang one of these by or on my door to have kids move a magnet when they leave the room. That way I can tell at a glance who's in the restroom, at ESL, at Title I, in the resource room, etc...

  Glue an old cup and saucer together. Water in the cup..seeds on the saucer. Cute!

$100 for one of these!? Not when I can build it myself for $25! Mark this one down as a summer project!

Home Improvements

  Espresso-Cabinets DIY, super-easy way to change golden oak to espresso.

 Put a shelf over a window and use the shelf brackets to hold a curtain rod- genius and beautiful AND gives a completely finished off look

Dimensions and instructions to make your own bath wall storage piece. (I would love this in my guest bathroom) 

  Instead of a headboard......Love the bookshelves 'framing' the bed, and especially love the lights over head for reading.

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Home Improvements