On the Road: Southwest Colorado

My baby brother was just married in Ouray, Colorado and we had a great time visiting. I think most people were busy taking photos of the mountains, but there were other grand details that caught my eye.

I was impressed by the Victorian cottages, dripping in trim.

There were beautiful chandeliers hanging in the barn where the couple were married. They were made to look like old oil lamps and it brought a refined touch to the rustic architecture of a barn.

The Beaumont Hotel was full of interesting things. This safe at reception was painted with pretty details, I love when someone thinks to adorn a utilitarian object.

The wrought-iron supports for the ceiling fans in the cafe, I love this kind of detail.

The house had some fun trim, I love the "eyebrows" over the upper windows.

Here's the happy couple leaving the wedding, isn't the Beaumont Hotel beautiful? That staircase was so grand.

Seriously?

I was looking thru the latest email from Restoration Hardware when I noticed that they were selling "Decorative rope". For $89.

Rope. For Eighty-Nine American dollars.

Apparently, one is supposed to pile this rope decoratively somewhere in their house. Sure, it would have been helpful when Hurricane Earl came to New England last weekend and we needed to tie down the patio furniture. But really? Rope for $89?

I am clearly not taking advantage of the crap lying around my house. I've been trying to be more creative lately when it comes to decorating, so I decided to let Restoration Hardware be my inspiration. I looked around and realized I have lots of things with which to decorate!

Assorted garden hoses..

Sculpture Pile of old Nails Fasteners

 These would be especially interesting, old window weights with rope. A two-fer!

Then it hits me! Functional yet colorful, neatly coiled, just like RH's rope. Green extension cord! Don't you love it?

Preparing for the worst

In theory, Hurricane Earl should arrive tonight. We live about 40 miles west of the coast, so I'm not expecting much more than rain and some wind. With the dry summer we've had, I'm hoping for lots of heavy rain.

But, when it rains, we often lose the power, so I decided to can a batch of tomatoes, rather than freeze them. It took a little while, but I think I have the hang of it.

This batch started out as 10 lbs of heirloom plum tomatoes from the CSA. I think next time I'll squish more tomatoes into the jar. But as a first-time try, I feel pretty good about it.

Blogger get-together

The smart ladies from Hot Houses in LA came for a visit.  They were very kind and ohhed-and-ahhed over our kitchen and the new screened porch. They told us stories of the fabulous houses they'd sold in LA, and we compared notes on termite treatments.
Learka and Heather happen to be good friends outside of blogging, but we spent a lot of time talking houses.

If you ever need real-estate help in LA, these are your people!

Accidental Stalker: 9 by Design edition

We had a busy weekend, but it included accidentally stalking the nice family featured on "9 by Design". We were driving through western Massachusetts and I was looking at houses when I noticed the Great Barrington house that looked familiar. We made a u-turn and I said "I'm pretty sure that's one of the houses that Bob and Courtney own!" Yes, we are on a first-name basis.


This was the only photo I was able to get,

but you can see better photos here, look under the projects section.

Then, the next day, we were sitting in traffic on the West Side Highway in NYC and I was looking at the houses when Jeff and I both said "I think that other house is right near here, the view seems familiar." Sure enough, we saw this house overlooking the Hudson (the white one).

A little closer...

The facade, with the blue faux-bois boards is very fun and distinct.

We didn't set out to find these houses but it was a nice surprise during a fun weekend. Maybe I should watch less TV?

Look on the Bright Side

If you've been following me on Twitter you'd know we've been making some updates to the Dining room. What? You don't follow me on Twitter? You should, I would tweet more often if I had followers!

I contacted the super-smart, ever-patient, design-saavy Shelly of Van Rozeboom Interiors to help me make some updates in the house and to phase out our college and barely-post-college decorating scheme.

She started with my living room and then we moved into the Dining Room. I'm still incorporating the changes into the living room, but the dining room is proving to have a higher instant-gratification rating among people who live in my house.

(Ignore the legos-in-progress on the table!) 

We changed out the old gold-toned, plain-jane, chandelier for this sparkly number. At her suggestion, I also added 4 coats of high-gloss paint to the ceiling. I love how the ceiling seems to be glowing and the chandelier makes the room feel so lively. I'll post more pictures as the room comes together, but I couldn't wait to show off the new bright side of the dining room.

Suck it, Mother Nature!

I am aware of the power of Mother Nature. We've had termites, carpenter bees, vampire bats. We've had water in the basement and watched our neighbors get flooded.

So I knew I was tempting fate when I put my tomato seedlings out before Memorial Day. Friends at work said it was a gamble. To that, I now reply: I"m not gambling! I'm winning!

I am cheerfully harvesting warm red tomatoes well before many of my friends. Score 1 point for me!