Giddy-up

First off, it's pretty sad when your own blog is a stranger.

It's been nearly 5 months since I've seen her pretty face, and it is ridiculous how much I've missed it. Upon my return I am instantly reminded that I am presently using this nice but not as nice layout that I bought for $10 because the last time I was here I tried formatting a new layout, failed miserably, and became so frustrated that I gave up. Good times. But second, sometimes, you just need to get back on the horse. Someday I can go on and on about what I did over the last 5 months, but today I just want to talk about how I got off my ass and finally finished my dining room. So giddy-up.

For the past two months I had been on this enormous life high, since quitting my long-time job work has been rolling in, the weather's been nice, the kid is doing good in school, I like my new freelance job, things were just good, ya know? Then blam!, they weren't. I'll spare you a dramatic monologue, but last week was just horrible. And by horrible, I mean TERRIBLE.

Today I woke up with a nice little headache, likely from being so tense watching Sinister with my sister last night (I nearly peed myself more than twice) or it could just be the lovely Michigan pressure changes that I am so fond of [not], anyway, I was totally going to curl up on the couch and feel sorry for myself but instead started cleaning. A little bit here, a bit there, and then surveyed the mess that has been my house for the last month or so. I have half-finished projects pretty much everywhere, it's unacceptable. I began this whole "if you don't love it getitout" thing:

image via Pinterest

Which, to be honest, has been pretty cathartic. I have no idea how I ended up with so much stuff, but I want it gone. I have furniture everywhere. My craft room has ebbed out into my kitchen, its crowding my dining room and the piles of "junk" that I am sorting out to donate vs. sell or just pitch are like little mountains all over my living room. I want only clothes I love, things I love, projects I am actually going to complete, and I want to only have furniture that is performing a useful function. I want to take my curio cabinets and put them into cold storage, sort all the old papers, and basically just cleanse all.the.things.

Helllooooo tangent. But you feel me, its a life renewal thing, and at the same time, shit can be daunting yo'.

So today I tried to knock out one of my "you're totes the closest to being done!" projects: my dining room. I definitely had enough pieces to put it together:

- I purchased fabric that I wanted to make curtains and shades with at Joanne's over a year ago
- I had one coat of black chalkboard paint on the wall
- I inherited an aqua chandelier I had been coveting from my best friend while helping her move
- Finally reupholstered the dining room chairs
- Gave my mom all of my wayward plants that I had snuggled back to health
- Snagged a rug from my bedroom that fit perfectly under my kitchen table, even if just temporarily
- New ribbon for my Layla Grayce plates that I insist on hanging right back on the wall

5 hours later...

Okay, so not exactly, because as I admitted earlier, I had already ditched the plants, pulled down the globe and started on the wall, but for funsies, let's pretend I just knocked it all out today. 

Ew. This photo makes me cringe now. 

Oh, and these two colors, Pepto Pink and black? Well, when I moved in I asked my landlord peeps if I could paint and the response was, "Sure, anything but..." 

Guess which two colors they said? I am so much fun. Really, just ask them and they'll tell you I'm not messy, I'm creative. They even bought me a plaque that says so. Though, you can't see it because my craft room is so messy. 

Now we're gettin' somewhere...I am making no-sew roman shades that I hope to blog here in a hot second.

Fin.

Natalie babes, I am so sorry about your flood. I am not sorry I ended up with your chandelier. 

Kindly ignore the lamps outside the window.

Unless you want to buy them because they're for sale. 

Close-up of my shades. If I knew how to sew, this would have been cake, but since I don't, I sticky-witched them which was considerably more of a pain in the ass. I love the coral though. It's my way of getting my beach on, without being all palm tree-y about it. 

I am so in love with this freaking thing. Which surprises me, it's not nearly as industrial as most of the things \I love, but I think that is what I love about it...it softens how hard core the black of the wall is.

(Why does this photo remind me so much of Clara Petersik's bedroom, Is it just me?)

image via Young House Love

Maybe because my kitchen walls are still the same color as Clara's nursery? I need to remedy that with the quickness.

I busted out new ribbon for my beloved Layla Grayce plates which you can get here 

I do realize the sheers obstruct a bit of the light, and having a nasty case of SAD I need all of the sunlight I can get. 

That being said, the only thing worse than being without the sun, is staring at the abysmal death of my backyard. I'll keep those puppies closed until it snows. . 

Now that it's over, this seems a lot uglier in hindsight:

But Oh, happy Day!

This is me. Being happy. 

xo

In Love With Awesome: Mabley Handler Interior Design

Someday, I'm going to write a really long post about Alicia Paulsen, how Posie Got Cozy, my friend, Adrienne, and how, just as Dorothy woke up from the tornado to find her gray world filled with color, I, too, woke up one day to a bright new world filled with new people and beautiful things that I had never realized existed.

At least not virtually, anyway. But that day isn't today.

No. Today, I want to introduce a new series in which I highlight something I am in love with. Because I don't just love things a little bit. You see, Junkies? They can't just have a tiny bit of their fix, they need it in excess, and I am no different. When I find something and fall in love with it, I want it in piles, in buckets, in excess and most likely even potentially lethal amounts.

And I want it now! (Ha, I sound like that chubby little blueberry chic from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-but if you were to ask any of my friends, they'd tell you that is exactly what I sound like when I'm all about something). So, because this is mine, and because I can do whatever I want with it, I am going to indulge myself each and every Friday (and hopefully you will, too) with awesome things that I am in love with.

Because caring is sharing. You know?

For my first post, I had to start with someone(s) super-duper special to me, and pair it with a teensy-tiny story (you guys know how I love to tell stories)...

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away  Michigan, there was a girl who became obsessed with design blogs, white, and various shades of aqua. So much in fact, that this girl would find any and all who shared photos on blogs of various shades of white and aqua, who designed things using various shades of white and aqua and eventually even those who just liked the colors of white and aqua. She would hunt then down, stalk their internets and fearlessly tell them she was in love with them hoping they would like her too, and if she was lucky not file a restraining order. One day, she met a fine blog that told the tale of a pool lounge, with shocking shades of peach (melon, pumpkin, orange?) with her beloved aqua. Well, this had never occurred to the crazy girl obsessed with white and aqua. She became fascinated and obsessed and decided to hunt down the creator of such magic in any way she could. She stalked their Twitters, she liked their Facebook, she subscribed to their website, found their blog, and finally, after right clicking and saving all of their images for inspiration, she was happy.

Hahahaha....And then one day she also realized she was a doofus and just emailed these amazing designers of the aqua and pumpkin (or orange or melon) and said, "You guys are awesome! I'm in love! You're super duper spectacular, Mabley Handler Interior Design!" and the rest, as they say, is history. (Yeah, so it kind of didn't go exactly like that, but who cares? It's just a story).

Thus, I only find it fitting to start you off with photos of the space that hooked me (and spearheaded a wonderful friendship with one of my favorite people, Austin Handler), the pool Lounge (Hampton Designer Showhouse 2010):

Right? I mean, seriously, riiiiight? Remind me sometime to show you the lamps that I made because I tried adding this same touch to my own rooms. The result was cute, but mostly just funny.

Now I must admit, I do not love my friend based on design ascetics alone. If he was daft, pretentious and not-nice, I'd still love his work, but truthfully? Austin is one of the nicest people that I've ever met that I haven't actually met yet. When I emailed him to tell him I was starting this series, I told him I had some questions I'd love for him to answer and that if he could take a photo of his workspace it'd be just swell. His response? "Do you want staged, posed, a flurry of activity, candid? You just let me know what you'd like because I can totally do it". Spoken like a true designer. Spoken like a true friend. 

I had to keep them all. They were just too darling. That, and I wanted one with his friendly smiley face as well as the one with the "flurry" and of course the one that best showcases the fantabulous built-ins.

Pretending we actually got to have a little sit down, I had questions, because well, I'm a nosy girl (get used to it, each post in the series has them). So let's have a sitty-sit.


When you were little, what did you imagine yourself doing when you "grew up"?

When I was little, I wanted to be an astronaut (what 9-year-old boy didn’t?!). And the funny thing is, I didn’t realize that I was even remotely creative until I was in college…I started taking photography classes, and I love it…And that somehow led me into graphic design and I loved that so much that I decided to become a graphic designer after college (even though my major was in journalism). And when I met Jennifer and we decided to leave our jobs in New York City and move out to the Hamptons and launch an interior design firm, I still had planned to remain a graphic designer…I figured that I would design the business cards, build the website, photograph the projects, but still maintain my freelance graphic design business. But after a year or so, we started getting more and more busy with the interior design work, and Jennifer was pulling me into project after project…And before I realized it, I was an interior designer more then I was a graphic designer. I’ve been doing this for almost 10 years now, and it sometimes still surprises me where I ended up! But looking back, even though I never really thought that I cared about interior design, I always wanted my dorm room and apartments to look nice. If I could find the bed I wanted, I would just build one. I was also always interested in architecture…When I lived in New York, I would often grab my camera on a beautiful spring/summer day, and roam the city taking photos of the buildings. And when I think back, when I was boy, I can remember a time when I drew up a floor plan to the house I envisioned myself living in one day…It was very modern, with a double-height open living room/great room, a catwalk, and a large metal spiral staircase. Now, I don’t think that I’ll even live in a house like that (I like traditional shingle-style houses too much!), but to this day, I remember the passion I had while drawing that plan, and how important it was for me to get all of the details right, and to make sure that the catwalk and the spiral staircase flowed well and fit properly into the open space that it was in. So, maybe I really did want to be an interior designer after all, without fully knowing it.


What inspires you?


I am constantly inspired by visionary people and the things that they create, whether it’s one of Wes Anderson’s quirky, beautiful films, Richard Avedon’s stunning, timeless photographs or Michael Schwab’s distinct retro travel style graphic art posters. When I see something that resonates with me, it grabs a hold of me in my gut, and makes when want to design and create, and to achieve that perfect moment when you have created something that is as great as you can possibly make it be. And I’m inspired by the works of other designers as well…It’s amazing when we think about how to design a room or a piece of furniture…And then stop to think about all of the other ways different designers might have achieve a variety of different results.


If you could be remembered for one thing, what would it be?


I would love to be remembered for creating things that made people happy…One of the more satisfying feelings that Jennifer and I have had professionally is when we have created beautiful interiors for a client, and they walk in and see it for the first time, and are so happy that they can barely express what they are feeling. THAT right there is a drug…That’s a high we want to get back to again and again! And speaking of inspiration, that feeling is what inspires us to constantly challenge ourselves, to push our creativity, and to always be on the lookout for new things that inspire us.


What are your favorite products, websites or vices that you simply can't live without?


Some of my favorite products are furnishings that I know I may never have in my life…I am very attracted to industrial style lighting and furniture, the kind of things you would see in a really cool Tribeca loft. But that doesn’t necessarily fit into my life now in small shingle-style house with a wife and family of two boys, four dogs, and two cats. So, for now, I’m content that it will be an affair…A flirtation from afar, most likely never to be realized. But hey, I can dream, right…?

Also, I can’t live without Dr Pepper. At the end of a long day, when we sit down for a delicious home-cooked dinner, a nice, frosty Dr Pepper can taste like liquid gold strained through a hangman’s noose.


Speaking of gold...

(look at those walls!)

(all images property of Mabley Handler Interior Design)

But my favorite spaces? My very FAVEoritest?

The Mabley Handler's private residence. 

WANTWANTWANTWANT!

Aren't they just the cutest? Forget that they're not old enough, I think that they need to adopt me. Why don't y'all get on board the convincing train and just help me out. We just need for Jennifer and Austin to realize that if they adopted me they would never have to hire someone to watch their boys for date night ever again. Nanny schmanny.

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