Last week, I happened to stumble upon Stephen Bloom’s December 9th opinion piece on The Atlantic website about rural Iowa, which has garnered much attention, mostly negative, including from his own colleagues and the University of Iowa President. It was so fantastically stereotypical, out of touch and just plain wrong that I couldn’t resist reading it over again and then out loud to Keegan, marveling over the idea that someone might pull over while I’m walking my lab to ask me if I hunt him. For the record, that’s never happened to me once in three years, and I walk him a lot. (I’ve been to two weddings here, and neither of them involved a jello mold.) I can’t get over how a journalism professor at a major university who has chosen (not been forced) to live here for over twenty years could so irresponsibly misrepresent Iowa and everyone who lives here.

I won’t lie: I moved here with misgivings. I spent the first twenty-eight years of my life on either coast, and over five years of my adult life in major cities (San Francisco, Phoenix, Portland). I love skiing and swimming in the ocean, two activities not to be found here in Iowa. I enjoy visiting New York and Philadelphia and the energy, excitement, culture and diversity that can be found in a big city – not to mention the food or the shopping. But, after living in Iowa for just over three years, I have to say that I really love it here too.  My top reasons Iowa is a great place to live:

Winterset, Iowa

1. It’s beautiful. Prairies and rolling hills are beautiful in a way completely different to the Appalachian mountains, the Oregon coastline, the San Francisco Bay, the deserts of Phoenix or anywhere else I’ve ever lived. The variety of color that can be found in the landscape, especially in Fall, is simply breathtaking.

 Perry, Iowa

2. It’s clean. The city is pristine as any I’ve ever visited, and so is everywhere else for that matter. We live in Windsor Heights, and the pride of ownership is evident in every home. People here care about where they live.

3. It’s fun. Since moving here, I’ve seen many of my favorite bands in concert, including O.A.R., Wilco, Gomez, Guster, Ingrid Michaelson, Sister Hazel, Joe Purdy, and Barenaked Ladies. Des Moines has great restaurants like Django (my personal favorite), Baru 66, Centro, La Mie, Sbrocco, Sakari Sushi and many more. The East Village is filled with unique shops like Domestica, Porch Light Antiques, Found Things, Seed, Eden, Ephemera, Aimee, AllSpice (and more), where I can find unique gifts, home decor, stationary, and clothing without having to brave the mall, though Jordan Creek is just as nice as any big city mall. This summer we attended the International Food Festival where we ate Turkish, Ecuadorian and Ukrainian. On my list of things to do next are the Bacon Festival, the Iowa State Fair, 80-35, Iowa Cubs games, and Bucs hockey games (we can walk to the stadium), and the Des Moines Art Festival.

4. It’s accessible. After living in cities like San Francisco and Phoenix, the traffic here in Des Moines is a walk in the park. I like to laugh at the Sunday morning real estate show when the host describes literally every home as twenty minutes from anywhere you want to go, but it’s really true! And, for us, most destinations are within 10-15 minutes.

5. It’s easy to be healthy. Our house is a quarter mile from the entrance to a system of bike trails that crosses the entire metro area. We also had access to the same trails when we lived twenty miles south in rural Cumming, Iowa. I walk our dogs along this trail almost daily, and it’s always beautiful and clean. We live less than a mile from the YMCA, and there are tons of options for fitness like Cross Fit, Kosama and Farrell’s, plus your typical gyms like Gold’s, Planet Fitness and AnyTime Fitness. You can also participate in a number of events like the Hy-vee Triathlon, the Des Moines Marathon and RAGBRAI, plus numerous smaller races. In November 2010, Trader Joe’s opened in West Des Moines, and a Whole Foods is scheduled to open later this year, not to mention locally owned Campbell’s Nutrition. During the warmer months, locally grown produce and meats are available through a plethora of CSAs and farmers’ markets including the Downtown Farmer’s Market, which is incredible.

Statue of a Girl – Ames, Iowa

6. It’s creative. If you have read this blog for a little while, you know that I make jewelry and participate in Market Day, which is a monthly art + craft show that runs from May to November. In addition to selling at Market Day, I have met amazing artists and crafters and purchased unique, handmade artwork, pillows, baby clothes, stuffed animals, hand dyed yarn, scarves, soaps, and stationary that I’ve given away (reluctantly) and also kept for myself. If you want to learn more about painting, ceramics, jewelry making, photography, knitting or just about any other craft or creative pursuit, there is some place here to do it. Check out Des Moines Community Education and the Des Moines Art Center for a wide variety, class lists as Fishlips and Studio Fuzzishu for jewelry making, Ephemera for knitting, just to name a few of the many options.

7. It’s close to nature. This past October, we drove a quick and easy two hours to Lake Keosauqua, where we rented a small cabin with a view of the water, hiked with our dogs in the state park and visited several of the small Villages of Van Buren (which were neither scuzzy nor infested with meth addicts, Mr. Bloom). There are countless places where you can hike and camp and fish all over the state; so many that we had a difficult time choosing where to vacation.

Orchard at Sunset – Cumming, Iowa

8. It’s nice. Iowa is nice. People here are nice. When I first moved here from Northeastern Pennsylvania, I went grocery shopping at Hy-vee. The checker asked me how my day was, if I had any plans for the week-end, and if I needed help out to my car. I went home in amazement and told Keegan how surprised I was that the checker actually talked to me, pleasantly. He said, “Yeah, people here are nice.” It took me a while to get used to how nice and genuine Iowans really are, but now it’s my favorite part of living here. If you haven’t seen the cheeky (NSFW, use headphones) yet serious video by Scott Siepker and Paul Benedict, it’s the perfect rebuttal to Stephen Bloom and the rest of the media who would stereotype Iowa without taking a moment to step outside of their own haze of condescension and self importance to actually experience what a wonderful place this is.

Wilco Concert

December was a whirlwind month that really couldn’t have been any better, though I had a couple stress induced, freak out moments along the way. We saw Wilco live at the Val-Air Ballroom, and it was possibly the best concert I’ve ever seen. I wrapped up the semester successfully a little later than usual due to a last minute paper. We celebrated four Christmases, and my family drove all the way from Pennsylvania for their very first Iowa Christmas. Last week, my cousin paid us a way-too-quick visit on his drive westward to California, and then we headed out to Chicago the very next day to celebrate the New Year with friends. After a month of frenzy, eating tons of cookies, and drinking way too much wine, I’ve been more than happy to just sit around for the past couple days, catch up on blog reading, think about New Years resolutions and research lots of healthy recipes. After a rough Fall, I am truly excited about a new year and fresh start.

Our First Christmas Tree

Last year, I read The Primal Blueprint over our Christmas vacation and immediately started to eat grain free, whole food at the start of 2011. With the exception of special occasions, my trip to PA in July, and this past month, I ate Primal/Paleo about 75-80% of the time. My non Primal treats included made from scratch, homemade pizza, Trader Joe’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups, and red wine. I am pretty sure I ate pasta less then ten times this whole year, and most of those meals were when I visited PA.

I’m sure some of you are reading this and thinking that sounds just plain awful, but it wasn’t hard for me to do at all. When I cut out grain and sugar and started eating whole food, I felt amazing. I lost a few pounds too, which didn’t hurt, but was never my main goal. I stopped beating myself up for not spending hours per week at the gym or training for a marathon like everyone else I know and started to enjoy walking the dogs around our neighborhood, yoga, and weight lifting again.

But, during the last month, I threw primal eating out the window and ate loads of crackers, cookies, bread. And, I felt absolutely terrible. I got sick right before my family arrived for Christmas…the first time in over a year. I couldn’t sleep, and my stomach hurt all the time. I was exhausted, and I kept getting migraine like headaches, which really sucked when I was trying to wrap up my projects at the end of the semester and couldn’t stand the sight of my computer screen for more than a couple minutes at a time.

Coincidentally, I experienced the same reactions when I ate whatever I wanted during my trip to PA, which leads me to believe that I have some level of gluten intolerance. So, for 2012, I’m recommitting to eating primal/paleo with the knowledge that it’s the best way for me to eat I’ve ever tried – and that includes vegan, South Beach, Weight Watchers, you name it. I found some great inspiration for the new year over on The Clothes Make the Girl, which is a really inspiring Paleo cooking blog by Melissa Joulwan. I also just downloaded her new cookbook Well Fed, which I’m really excited to explore over the next few weeks and add some new recipes to my mix. If you’re looking for a different way to eat that’s based on real food, I would definitely encourage you to look into the Primal/Paleo diets. The success stories on Mark’s Daily Apple are truly inspiring and motivating, and there are so many great blogs out there with tons of recipes and more science and data than I know what to do with. I’ve also started a healthy recipes board on Pinterest that are all Primal or Paleo if you’re interested.

I hope you had a great holiday and happy New Year’s! I’m looking forward to regular blog posting again and shaking things up around here a little.

Finding a new West Elm catalog in my mailbox (like I did yesterday) is quite nearly as good as receiving the latest issue of my favorite design magazines (House Beautiful, Elle Decor), and yesterday’s was no exception. After reading Holly’s list of her 14 favorites over on Decor8, I decided to do a small roundup of the pieces I’m most excited about (there are many more I haven’t pictured).

I’ve been stalking that little red lamp for weeks, and the dresser with the tiled wood front is so understated and pretty. For some reason, it reminds me of the beach. But, the Paul Loebach media credenza is hands down my favorite. I really like the combination of the glossy gray finish with the natural wood, and the slightly nostalgic mid-century lines.

1. Mia Table Lamp 2. Wood Tiled Dresser 3. Distressed Wood Shelving Unit 4. Paul Loebach Media Console 5. Marquis Rug 6. Dipped Side Table 7. Ryder Rocking Chair

Are you a fan of the direction West Elm has taken over the past year? I used to think that many of their designs were too modern and cold for my taste, but lately, I am really drawn to their use of clean lines, interesting textures, and pops of color.

I’m running a little Cyber Monday Sale in my shop through midnight tonight. You can save 10% of your total order with code CYBERMONDAY2011. The sale is good in both my Etsy Shop and on http://shop.jfrancesdesign.com. A few gift suggestions…

The Classic Pearl Necklace – Shop | Etsy

And, the matching earrings – Shop | Etsy

Vintage Glass Daisy Bobby Pin – Shop | Etsy

Citrine and Sterling Y Necklace – Shop | Etsy

And, the matching earrings – Shop | Etsy

Many more pieces are available in both shops. If you live in Central Iowa, I’m also holding a Holiday Open House on December 10th. The details are available on my Facebook page. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving week-end and are enjoying the holiday season!

.

I really enjoy collecting design coffee table books. I purchased my very first – Tracy Porter’s Home Style – from Powell’s in Portland many years ago, where I would go on rainy winter nights and just sit in the design section absorbing as much as I could from these beautiful books. I’ve added a few to my collection over the years, including, most recently, Decorate by Holly Becker, which is my new favorite. But, I still have many more books on my list because, as much as I love magazines, there is something about holding a big heavy book with it’s lovely thick pages and flipping through it slowly for inspiration and creative energy. These are just a few of the newer books I’m coveting.

Modern Vintage Style by Emily Chalmers

Design*Sponge at Home by Grace Bonney

Undecorate: The No-Rules Approach to Interior Design by Christine Lemieux

Not a decorating book, per se, but I love Tif and her quirky handmade style. I was able to hold this book in my hands at The Creative Connection Event and have been sorry ever since that I didn’t bring it home with me.

dottie angel by Tif Fussell

These last two technically aren’t books. For me, they’re halfway between a book and a magazine – gorgeous, high quality, serial publications that are definitely a total indulgence.

Uppercase Magazine

Anthology Magazine

Do you have any splurge worthy books or magazines on your wish list this year?

We moved into this house and March, and the dining room has been our last big project. We added the wood floors – along with the living room and hallway – right away, and Keegan ripped out some shelves around the sliding door. But, then we didn’t do anything to it for months. Those sliding doors led out to a three season room that is now mostly ripped out and in process of becoming an open porch. We knew we were eventually going to replace the doors, which barely worked, so we (Keegan) couldn’t finish the trim work until we were ready to get the new doors. And, I couldn’t paint until the trim was done, etc and so forth. I’m not complaining…I was seriously burned out on painting after the living room, kitchen, and three bedrooms.

 Dining Room Before

Around six weeks ago, things started moving when the door (and windows in the bedroom) were finally replaced. Keegan ripped out the old wainscot and chair rail, which were in hideous condition, and replaced them with brand new paneling.

 Dining Room Before

In between moving in and starting to paint, we were lucky enough to receive a gorgeous dining room set, handed down from Keegan’s grandparents and handmade by his uncle, along with a beautiful mid-century style credenza that his great-grandfather made. We also “borrowed” a large kilim rug from his dad, which is amazing. It has a lovely, soft sheen to it. The main colors are coral red, cream, and black/umber with accents of yellow-green, turquoise, orange, and cobalt. Before we got the rug, I was pretty set on painting the upper walls a dark, almost navy, blue, but the rug really threw me off.

Dining Room After

After testing six or seven shades of blue and red, I chose Darkening Sky by Martha Stewart (color matched Behr Ultra, my favorite paint). It took me around 20-25 hours total to paint the hallway walls and dining room trim, with the last six or seven hours being the blue walls. As soon as I brought the rug back into the room, I pretty much hated the wall color, but I was so tired that I couldn’t bear the idea of repainting right away. So, I decided to try and live with the color for a while and see if it grew on me. It’s been a few weeks, and I am starting to like it more even though I admit that it probably isn’t the absolute best color choice. It will do for now.

Looking from the Entryway

My favorite part of the room is the new chandelier. I ordered it from the Etsy shop Lamp Goods, which I discovered several months ago through the Taste Test tool. Jann provided absolutely amazing customer service. The chandelier is even more gorgeous in person, as is the little ceiling mount light I chose for the entry way. I plan to order two more just like them for the hallway, hopefully soon. Both light fixtures throw off the most enchanting patterns, and they look stunning both on and off. After living with that horrible lantern and retro (in a bad way) ceiling fan for the last six months, these lights make me happy every time I look at them.

Instagram Shot from the Entryway

 Instgram of the new entry light

I titled this post “Dining Room Progress” because I still have many pieces to add in order to pull it all together. I want to buy curtains to dress up the sliding door and make a runner for the table, which definitely needs some sort of centerpiece. We also want to create an art wall where the lone vertical painting hangs now. On the far wall is a door that leads to the garage, which is our primary point of entry. We’re planning for a long bench with a mirror over it and possibly some hooks for coats. I’m not worried about keeping this room formal, because that’s really not how we live. I’m never in much of a rush when it comes to decorating, so as long as it’s clean and somewhat pulled together, these little details will happen over time.

I have been largely silent here this week because writing about any of my usual interests like design, or crafts, or art, felt so trite and meaningless compared with the great gulf of sadness that has enveloped my home state in the wake of the terrible revelations that came of out State College.

I didn’t go to Penn State, though I often wished I did. I grew up in a Penn State family, and the school – and football program – have been a huge part of my life. My Dad and Uncle took me and my cousins to our first game in middle school, and I still remember it like yesterday. I have many many happy memories of State College – football games, visiting friends and my sister there, my Dad’s hall reunion when I was in high school, the huge art festival.

In Pennsylvania, college football and Joe Paterno loomed larger than life. When I moved away, I encountered many people who loved to tell me how Paterno was too old and that the program was too stagnant. I have often tried to express that there was so much more to Penn State and Paterno than football, though it was often hard to get anyone to listen.

So very many words have written about Penn State this week, and I have no plans to express my complicated and somewhat confused thoughts on the testimony in the grand jury report or the many speculations of the media. I didn’t plan to write about it at all, but then I read this Washington Post op-ed by Thomas L. Day, a veteran, State College native, and Penn State graduate very near to my own age. His sentiments are so close to my gut reaction and growing sadness.

Our leaders have let us down over and over again.

The Church we grew up in systematically harbored pedophiles and allowed them to continue molesting children for decades, the most heinous of its many, hypocritical offenses. Our government has completely failed us by pandering to its own personal and political agendas rather than take any risk that would move the country forward and create jobs for the myriad of unemployed and better lives for the majority of its citizens. Our financial institutions gambled away our future and suffered not at all for it. And, now educators at a storied and revered university are guilty of a crime we thought only bishops and cardinals were capable of. It seems that men who seek positions of power are unable to be trusted with anything other than their own best interests, let alone the fate of small, defenseless children.

Our leaders have let us down time and again, and this time was the hardest. A man who epitomized the definition of honor and integrity my entire life turned out to be so very much less than I thought he was. I can’t express my level of anger, disappointment, and embarrassment adequately. I feel like I lost a part of myself this week, which is obviously and completely irrelevant in light of what those children lost.

I’m really into a yarn related project right now (it’s a holiday surprise), and I have another on the horizon (another surprise). I love that yarn is both colorful and tactile and ever so versatile. Some of my fondest memories of being crafty are learning to crochet from my grandmother, who was always working on an afghan (I still have the one she made me when I was ten years old to match my newly decorated room) and weaving scarves on my little plastic loom with the odds and ends leftover from other projects. I have been stalking these beautiful yarn wreathes on Etsy for quite some time and would love to get one to decorate the interior of my door.

Click the images to buy on Etsy…

1, 3 & 5 are by Etsy seller Knock-Kocking, and 2 & 4 are by Etsy seller Itz Fitz. Do you keep a wreath on your door for the holidays or year round? I’m somewhat lucky in that we have two front doors – the outside one leads into a vestibule and the original front door. So, I can have two wreaths and one doesn’t even need to be weather proof!

The New York Times recently published an article by Emily Weinstein titled All That Authenticity May Be Getting Old. The image at the top of the page was a collage of products that I instantly recognized – an owl mug from West Elm, feed sack pillows, rusty gears as art, an ostentatious French inspired chair upholstered in burlap-esque fabric. I was a little intrigued.

The title of the article resonated with a feeling that had been simmering in my mind for the past few weeks. Over the past several years, I have consciously shifted from buying new furniture and accessories for our home to creating a conscious mix of family hand-me-downs, vintage finds from local thrift stores and Craig’s List, and handmade – preferably purchased from a local store or made locally – with a light sprinkling of IKEA thrown into the mix. I made this decision in part from a lack of funds, in part from a growing aversion to products cheaply made in China (that still seem a tad expensive in light of their quality), and in part because I like old things with character. I would much rather bring home, from a flea market, an imperfect, un-pedigreed solid wood desk, which has held up beautifully for decades, than order another veneered particle board design that I won’t think twice about chucking into a dumpster when it begins to disintegrate – probably in two or three years. All that being said, this feeling I was beginning to recognize was a growing discomfort. I was starting to wonder if I liked what I did because I actually liked it – or if because the media I inhale at a furious pace every single day was telling me to.

The article opened with an anecdote about a young woman whose decorating sense sounded strikingly similar to my own. After a while, she felt that the “authenticity” of the one-of-a-kind pieces she collected was “wearing” on her. I can empathize with the sentiment. I bought my first Eames chairs ten years ago for $10 each off Craig’s List and had no idea what they were at the time. I just felt some sort of nostalgia for my grade school cafeteria when I looked at them, and I liked their shape and color. I look at my current set of Eames chairs, which I painstakingly refurbished, and dispassionately contemplate how much money they would fetch me at a local, overpriced vintage store. They’ve lost something for me…because they’re absolutely everywhere.

The article goes on to call out some big name retailers – West Elm, Pottery Barn, CB2 and Restoration Hardware – for mass producing (probably in China) vintage and antique knock-offs. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I think a mercury glass finish is incredibly beautiful, and I don’t care if it’s antique or not. I’m actually pretty happy that I can buy a beautiful, shimmering, silvery vase without combing garage sales and antique stores for years and than paying some ridiculous price for it. I also adore Rejuvenation and Schoolhouse Electric for creating reproduction pieces that allow homeowners and designers to honor a building’s architectural roots with energy efficient, and safe lighting fixtures. On the other hand, Restoration Hardware’s recent veer towards faux industrial French vintage knockoffs leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and I’m not entirely sure why.

But, Ms. Weinstein lost me when she lumped hand-crafted, artisanal products in with the vintage knockoffs. She specifically called out Etsy and the ubiquitous trends  that are so prolific on the site. Birds on a wire, owls and mustaches (I still don’t get it) are few that pop into my mind right away.  She makes snarky comments about West Elm partnerships with artists and artisans as well as its recent collaborations with Etsy. As I read through the article, I began to think, so, what’s the alternative? If we can’t afford high end art, do we go back to buying prints at Target and IKEA? Do we walk into a furniture store like Ethan Allen or Crate and Barrel and say, “Oh, I like that dining room. I’ll take the entire set.” I feel like that’s a major step backwards and serves no purpose. The surge of interest in independent artists and makers (makers of anything from knitted hats to ceramic vases) is the best thing to come out of the Recession. How can buying something that allows another human being in our community to live their life doing something that they’re passionate about ever be a bad thing? How can repurposing actual vintage furniture, whether you do it because it’s in vogue or because it feels familiar and comforting, thereby saving it from the landfill ever be considered tacky or passe?

William Morris didn’t say, “Have nothing in your house except what the New York Times dictates to be socially acceptable and chic but not so chic that everyone else wants it too.” For me, authenticity in home decor or personal style or anything for that matter comes down to being yourself, buying what you love, and for reasons that make sense to you. If you can’t live without the vintage industrial look or mustaches and birds, then go for it unapologetically. I think having a little stuff we feel a true connection to is way more important that having a lot of stuff that doesn’t resonate with us personally. It doesn’t matter where it comes from Walmart or the highest end store in LA or if it’s on every magazine over or completely out of style. It only matters that you love it.