Photo on left, Lisa Hubbard; right, Patrick Cline via Lonny Mag

Hello Autumn.  So nice for you to drop by. Here are some cozy porches for a little Wednesday eye-candy. Fall is by far my favorite season and I cannot wait to sit out on our porch and drink coffee and hot chocolate by day, and a nice glass of wine by evening. Ahh… Fall.

Photo by Roger Davies

Photos from Lonny Mag

This just scratches the surface of the really great things in the new Sept/Oct 2011 issue of Lonny Mag… highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already!  Lovely photos by Patrick Cline.

Styling by Lili Diallo

Been a crazy week with Ada’s first trip to the ER, but she’s doing great and life is good!  Happy Friday!

Photos by Janet Kimber, via Poppytalk's flickr

Inspired from this photo on Emma’s blog, it’s nice to know that if we never find time to actually renovate our 2nd floor that at least we could make it look far better than it does now. Doh!

Photos via Martha Stewart

Photos by Morten Holtum

Some really lovely interiors shot by Morten Holtum.

Photos by Christopher Baker via Country Living

Lovely photos above and below by Christopher Baker… as I would cover the whole inside of my house in wood paneling, I’d also love to cover the outside in cedar shingles and ivy.  ;)

Photo by Christopher Baker

Photographers for either of the bottom two photos couldn’t be found but I loved the simplicity of each, and the casually-formal gardens in front.

Photo on left via House Beautiful; right via Country Living

Photos by Tim Bjørn via Bo Bedre

Some really lovely photos/spaces from photographer Photo by Tim Bjørn (via Bo Bedre).

The bed below looks an awful lot like the Ikea Mandal bed which is intriguing to me since we lack closet space… and I still stick with my theory that customizing Ikea can take you a long way.

Photo by Tim Bjørn via Bo Bedre

It took me a while to realize the photo below, on the right, was a pass-through to the room on the left… well done and well shot.  Would also be a great idea for a painting or photograph.  :)

Photos by Tim Bjørn via Bo Bedre

The heat index yesterday was around 117 so we thought it would be a good time for an outdoor project.  Really, the weather was exceptionally nice a few weeks ago and that’s when the idea popped into our heads but we’ve already dug up half our yard so it’s onward and upward from here.  :)

Since we have lots and lots left to do on our house (basement, 2nd floor, backyard, paint the exterior, landscape, and so on) we needed a smaller project to help get us motivated for all that’s remaining.  Conveniently enough it happens to be summer and we thought this would be a nice project where Ada can be outside “helping out,” which she loves.  :)

Nathan’s been doing all of the manual labor while I watch Ada, and since he had a brief stint working with a stone mason for a year, he actually has more of the necessary skills for this project anyway, so I only feel half-as-guilty.

For the materials we are using blue stone for the patio, crushed gravel for the sidewalk, and limestone for the curbs.  Everything has been dug out, the french drain is in, and the gravel base is (mostly) in!  It feels good to be working on the house again—I have such an addiction for this kind of work!

The only somewhat “off” thing about this project is that it’s a patio for the front of our house.  I find very few houses with a patio in front but for some reason it feels right with this house.  The front patio was never in style but we’re bringing it back anyway!

If given a choice between practical and beautiful, I will almost always choose the latter.  Always.  It’s a sickness of mine that has led to a countless number of impractical decisions, including the purchase of our 9.2 cu. ft. SMEG.

It’s been one year since the little beauty arrived and while I absolutely adore it and want to use it forever, my better-half disagrees.  It took us a long time to actually do it, so in the event someone else is thinking about getting one, here’s what I think:

• It’s small.  Really small.  Nine-point-two-cubic-feet-small. Keep in mind that the average American refrigerator is roughly between 19 and 22 cubic feet, so this little guy is less than half of this—it’s tiny!  And while we hardly have any processed food in our house (we’re nut jobs, I know), it’s still small even for the three of us.
• The freezer is even smaller.  This part of it I actually really like, especially since our old freezer was usually just stocked with random things we were “saving” for later and would always end up throwing out in the end.  It forces you to really think about what you’re putting in there, in a good way.
• The seal is temperamental.  We had done quite a bit of research and lots of people commented on the seals being too loose.  We actually find the opposite to be true—the seal is stronger than the refrigerator is heavy, so when you pull the handle, rather than opening the little guy, you end up dragging him a few inches instead.
• There is a built-in wine rack that I think is both nicely placed (tucked snugly under a shelf) and nice to use.
• There is quite a bit of storage on the door, and if you are condiment-hoarders like us, you’ll be plenty happy with the amount of space provided.
• It’s adorable.  Seriously adorable!
• We have a second refrigerator in our basement which holds all guest beverages—soda, beer, apple juice, sparkling water (I’m addicted to that stuff), etc., etc..  If you entertain a lot and keep loads of that stuff on hand, I’d think twice about this being your only refrigerator.  Without the extra one, we’d be hurting for space in a major way, especially when entertaining.

Having said all that, I have absolutely no regrets about buying it, but I know Nathan does—he feels it’s just a little too impractical for a family. I’m still blinded by it’s beauty so I feel great about the decision, even a year later, but I wanted to share my thoughts just in case someone else was considering one.

Note: We purchased this through sears.com and while our experience may have been a fluke, it was a complete nightmare.  It took months for it to arrive!  We were told they were in stock and ready for immediate delivery but that was not the case and customer service was completely unreliable.

Photos by Mette Helena Rasmussen via things i like, things i love

I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest and to this minute I’m still not sure how I feel about it.  Honestly one second I like it and love that it’s a really easy way to organize photos I find, especially when I want to quickly reference them later on. On the flip side I feel conflicted about all the pins and repins losing photographer credits along the way—I am still up in the air about using photos from photographers, even with crediting them and linking to their site.  I have talked about it to great lengths with three of my photographer friends and I still don’t know how I feel about it (for the record, all three said the same thing—giving credit and linking to their site, if they have one, is great).

Either way, Pinterest is very easy to use, has a pretty good iPhone app (not perfect but pretty good), and remains on my list of things I’m trying out (much like twitter where I was a late adopter but really love it!)… and now that that’s out of the way, here are a few of my pins from this week.

Photo by Damian Russell via Postcards from Colorado

The below photos I’ve seen before (Domino Magazine maybe?) and are two that I have always loved. Sheepskin throws?  Even after being a vegetarian for seven years (I eat meat now), I still want some.  Really want.

Photos by Matthew Williams via Design Traveller