Well hello there!

A New Project, A New Home

2014-02-13T09:44:00.000-05:00

Look at that. It's been a while. So long, in fact, that I started a new blog.

Feel free to follow along on mine and Jesse's new adventures with our new project, Mighty Modern Love.

Well... We're Homeowners!

2012-07-18T09:53:00.001-04:00

It's been a few weeks, and if you don't follow me on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, here's the big news:

We closed on our house! As of June 26th (one day after the originally anticipated date), we signed many many pieces of paper and received two shiny sets of house keys to our very own home. The last few weeks have been spent settling in and getting to the point where the house is livable. We still have lots to do, but we've gotten a lot done and it's really starting to feel like home.

Jesse, me and our realtor, Jody at our house closing.

Proud homeowners!

We also decided on a whim to adopt a dog. His name is Clyde. He's a Border Collie / Hound / Pointer mix. He's a total goofball and has already become Jesse's best friend. He's a wonderful addition to our little family. He's won over one of our two cats, but I have hopes the second one will come along in time. She's just an old grump.

Anyhow, back to the house - I must admit, buying a home was WAY less stressful than people have told me. I think we got really lucky for a few reasons: those of you who know me in real life know that I have a bit of OCD when it comes to researching, planning and preparing (it's my job, I can't help it). That being said, it all paid off because we were prepared for the few minimal road bumps that came our way. We were also lucky because along the path of researching, we found an AMAZING realtor. He's absolutely phenomenal and I would recommend him in a heartbeat to anyone looking to buy in-town in Atlanta, specifically East Atlanta. He had the most amazing "crew" of people to utilize for all of the steps in home buying (loans, inspections, etc.). If anyone needs a realtor, I strongly suggest checking him out. Shoot me an email if you want his details.

I need to take some ~~more~~ better photos of the house and the progress, but here's some eye candy for you for the time being...

Adding the stylized house numbers.

Living room, mostly set up.

Relaxing in the back yard after a long day of settling in.

As always, thanks for reading!
Courtney

Hey Look, It's June! A recap of the last few months.

2012-06-02T19:56:00.001-04:00

Well, looks like my sabbatical from blogging went into full effect... for a little longer than anticipated. Whoopsie!

As usual, when I take a long break, lot so of things happen in my real life, so I needed some time to get those things in order before I started writing again.

Let's see, where shall I start? I'm thinking a quick summary of things that have happened would be a good starting point.

I got hired full time at the ad agency I'd been freelancing for since September. This was HUGE for me. While I've loved every company I've worked for during my career for different reasons, this company is everything I've dreamed of. An amazing workspace, inspiring co-workers and projects that make me strive to always learn more and more, it truly is perfect for me. I have never been so happy and felt so accomplished at the same time. It's the most supportive experience I've ever had. Getting hired full time also took a lot of strain off of me mentally since I was always having to be prepared that things could change at a moments notice. Not that life ever guarantees things to be stable, but being freelance when I've never been comfortable as a freelancer was very taxing on me. That being said, it leads me to the second point of my summary...

Once I was hired on full time and had a stable salary, Jesse and I decided to take the plunge and start looking into buying a house. As of two weeks ago, we are under contract on an adorable mid-century atomic ranch in East Atlanta. Obviously, we're aware that anything can still happen since we're still under contract, but things are moving along swimmingly and our fingers are crossed that everything works out. Our closing date is slated for June 25th. We're absolutely elated that this opportunity came about at such a perfect time.

Those are the two biggest things that have happened recently aside from a trip we took to Palm Springs, California at the end of March to see my sister-in-law get married. That was an absolutely fantastic trip, which was filled with SO MUCH AMAZING ARCHITECTURE. Jesse and I fell in love the moment we drove into the city limits. I'll be doing a blog post sometime soon recapping that whole adventure. Such an amazing town with so many lovely people.

That pretty much summarizes everything for the moment. I'm excited to be back blogging, especially now since we're buying a house, there will be lots of home blogging to come.

Happy June, everyone! I think it's going to be a great summer, filled with new experiences, baseball games and lots of friends and family!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-chaaaanges....

2012-02-15T10:17:00.000-05:00

Things have been quiet here in the blog land of Musings and Nonsense. 2012 has brought about a lot of interesting situations and experiences - and it's only mid-February!

Lots of good, lots of flux and lots of unknowns, but overall, everything is good and there is lots more to come. I'm just not quite ready to share these things with the world.

That being said, there are also going to be some changes for my sweet sweet blog.

I've been evaluating and have found lots of things that are working well, but also lots of things that can be greatly improved. Blogging is a hobby for me and it's always a work-in-progress.

In the next two or so months, things will be very quiet around here. I'm re-designing, re-working and will be moving to a new hosting platform. As much love and history as I have for and with Blogger, I'm ready to make the switch to Wordpress. The time has come for bigger and better things, and those things, unfortunately, can't be achieved on Blogger.

So I bid you adieu for the time being. I'll still be tweeting, pinning, photographing and updating, so feel free to follow along on the many other social media outlets that I utilize.

See y'all on the flip-side.

Twitter
Facebook
Pinterest
Instagram

Time to relax, regroup and redesign.

SOPA & PIPA: Please Tell Congress Not to Censor the Web

2012-01-18T09:09:00.003-05:00

As much as I wanted and tried to darken Musings and Nonsense in support of SOPA and PIPA, I could not figure out how to make it work for the Blogger platform. (On that note, I am going to be switching from Blogger, my home for quite some time, to Wordpress in the next few months.)

Instead, I'll still support it (I did darken my personal portfolio website, www.courtneyallisonbrown.com), just by providing you access to sign the petition against SOPA and PIPA as well as by sharing the clever Google Homepage for today.

So, in short but sweet terms, please tell congress not to censor the web.

Click here to sign the petition.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Resolutions for 2012

2012-01-04T14:55:00.000-05:00

I typically don't make resolutions. The concept of making a laundry list of things that, most of the time, I won't actually accomplish (ie. I have a tendency to go a bit overboard with delusions of grandeur) is counter-productive to me.

That being said, I do have a list of goals I'd like to accomplish or at least make a good deal of headway with. I'm not going to pressure myself in saying any are final resolutions that MUST be accomplished, but instead, call my resolution list more of a personal improvement project.

Take time for myself. I have the most trouble with this, which is why it's first on my list. I have to really focus in order to not let time completely slip by without taking a moment for myself on occasion.
When taking time for myself, make it quality time. Instead of just taking a moment or doing something for myself, I want to make it count - I want to enjoy it and make it worthwhile.
Learn more, read more, & write more. First order of business, which will help with the next item on my list, is to re-learn French. (Also on this note, anyone have any book suggestions?)
Travel. I need to actively set out to travel more. We started out the new year travelling for a short weekend to Jekyll Island, GA and I'm hoping to make a trip to the mountains sometime soon. We also have our first international trip planned in June to visit Lille & Paris, France.
Slow down and enjoy life.
Take more photos.
Simplify.
Redesign Musings and Nonsense.
Learn to play a new musical instrument.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and rang in the new year with enjoyment. Here is a little Instagram photo-recap of our New Year's beach trip.

Goodbye, 2011.

2011-12-30T09:20:00.000-05:00

Today is New Year's Eve Eve. Tomorrow we leave for four work-free days in Jekyll Island, GA - a much needed respite from the daily grind.

2011 was a very "full" year. Full of extremes - both good and bad. It's been a year of change for Jesse and I to say the least, some of which I've shared here, a lot of which is too personal to share outside of my closest friends and family. I must admit, I get a little choked up when I think back on a lot of what has occurred.

I'm so thankful that we get to spend the end of the year with two of our dearest friends in a serene environment. It's a calming way to end a very tumultuous year.

Here's to 2012 bringing lots of good things - love, luck and happiness. I have an immense amount of hope that it will.

I leave you with a Gaelic New Year's toast and a playlist of my favorite songs from 2011:

Athbhliain faoi mhaise duit, go mbeire muid beo ar an am seo arís!
(A prosperous New Year and may we be alive at this time next year.)

Driftwood Beach in Jekyll Island, GA (Image courtesy of http://theycallmesausage.blogspot.com.)

Holidays in Full Effect

2011-12-27T16:05:00.000-05:00

Is it just me, or is the holiday season flying by?

Between the rush of crazy busy days and planning for my parents to be with us during Christmas, the last month and a half blew by and I feel like I totally missed Christmas. I suppose the fact that I had a nasty cold from the Wednesday before Christmas until now that is still hanging out, didn't help since I was in a Thera-flu induced stupor most of the time.

Unfortunately, we took ONE photo. That's right - a single photo. Kind of a bummer.

Regardless, I was under the impression that all went well - my parents seemed to have a great time and we had TONS of food around - Sweet hubs and I cooking our first full Christmas dinner was a success.

Now, it's time for me to go back to resting in hopes that my cold will magically disappear and I will get a ton of stuff accomplished in the next three days before we leave for our New Year's trip to Jekyll Island, Georgia.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and will continue on to have a wonderful New Year's celebration.

Merry Christmas, from The Browns (photo courtesy of sweet hubs on Instagram).

Ready for the Holidays

2011-12-12T09:53:00.001-05:00

Well, our home is officially decorated and ready for the holidays.

This year, Jesse and I will be hosting our first Christmas. Both my parents and his, as well as his sister and potentially some of our friends will be coming to our home for Christmas dinner. We've started planning our menu and are really excited about the festivities and finally being able to host a holiday celebration in our own home now that our families are closer by.

Here's a sneak peek of what Casa de Brown looks like, holiday-ified. (Photos courtesy of sweet hubs.)

Happy holidays, everyone!

Holiday Gift Guide 2011 - 35 Well Designed Gifts for Under $100

2011-11-25T09:00:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again... the days are getting chilly, we're gorging our faces on delicious food and thinking of all the folks we need to buy gifts for this holiday season.

Considering the economy, most people are trying to find the best gifts for smaller budgets. Holiday shopping doesn't have to be hectic or cause a headache (or in some people's cases, a mini-breakedown). It should be fun - you're giving gifts to your loved ones.

That being said, I give you my holiday gift guide which is chock full of frugal, yet really cool gifts, all for $100 or less, to impress the design lovers in your life.

Enjoy!

#1. World Map in Aqua (also available in other colors) - $99 from These are Things

#2. Freedom Ring - $78 from Fred Flare

#3. Luxe Faux Fur Throw in Mink - $79 from Restoration Hardware

#4. Storyteller Scarf - $55 from Madewell

#5. Thomas Paul Seafarer Hand Towel - Set of 3 - $50 from Design Public

#6. Linen Scarf by Apolis + Matteo - $58 from Apolis

#7. Wallter Hanging Planter - $72 from Design Public

#8. DwellStudio Baby Foxes Graphic Knit Blanket - $50 from Design Public

#9. Forget Me Knot Ring - $58 from Fred Flare

#10. Vintage Board Games - $69 from Restoration Hardware

#11. The Bowmans Bay Cowl (available in other colors) - $65 from Black Haired Broad

#12. iPad Case (available in other colors) - $59.95 from DODOcase

#13. Market Bag - $58 from Apolis

#14. Scribble Hanging Planter - $70 from Pigeon Toe Ceramics

#15. Timex Weekender Watch - $40 from Need Supply

#16. IMM_Living Aphrodite USB Hub - $46 from Fred Flare

#17. Sound Isolation Earphones - $49.99 from Vers

#18. Bird Spoon Rest (also available in other colors) - $38 from Jonathan Adler

#19. Jonas Damon Alarm Clock - $40 from Design Public

#20. I Love Atlanta (other cities available) Woodblock Print - $39 from Lucius Art

#21. Factory Long Button Women's Gloves - $26.50 from J. Crew

#22. Thorn Oxidized Sterling Silver Ring - $35.00 from MIRTAjewelry

#23. Well Appointed Desk Set - $30 from Poppin

#24. Small Disc Chimes - $44 from Pigeon Toe Ceramics

#25. Stanley Classic Thermos - $39.95 from REI

#26. Squiggle Ring in Gold (also available in silver) by Boe - $44 from Need Supply

#27. Vintage Cocktails by Brian Van Flandern - $50 from Assouline

#28. Red Zebra Crossing Scarf - $25 from Fred Flare

#29. Blomus Utilo Bottle Opener - $12.22 from All Modern

#30. Whiskey Stones - $19.95 from CB2

#31. Small Doily Clock (available in other colors and sizes) - $25.00 from andfurthermore

#32. Blomus Gentlemen's Business Card Case - $13.92 from All Modern

#33. 3 Piece Lotus Candleholder - $14.95 from CB2

#34. Natural White Birch Wood Coaster Set of 4 - $24 from urbanplusforest

#35. Sea Measuring Cups - $19 from West Elm

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T17:04:00.001-05:00

Well the holiday season is officially upon us. I can't believe it's already Thanksgiving day.

I'm so thankful for my family and friends. Each year, I realize more and more how important and irreplaceable all of those incredible people and my relationships with them are. I reflect on how important having traditions are with those special people - even the smallest traditions mean so much to me.

One of my favorite traditions is that each year, on Thanksgiving, my family makes the time to rest and enjoy just being together. It's something difficult for all of us to accomplish, being as we're all such GO-GO-GO people. My favorite part of the day is the few hours we take to decorate the Christmas tree. It's so much fun to reminisce about Christmases gone by and also sweet remembering those who are no longer with us.

What are your favorite holiday traditions?

I'm excited for the holiday season. It's truly my favorite time of year.

Here are a few snapshots of our Thanksgiving day. I hope you all had as wonderful of a day as I was lucky to have.

Alright, Alright, Alriiiiight!

2011-11-20T22:35:00.001-05:00

Pardon, I had to channel Mr. Matthew McConaughey for a moment there.

Whew. Time has truly slipped by. Things have been good and very very busy.

Apologies, dear readers, I know this seems to happen every few months - it's a pattern of mine I suppose... a flurry of writing for a month or so, then radio silence. That's just life for ya.

Anyhow, lots has been going on - sweet hubs and I celebrated our three year wedding anniversary by taking a weekend trip to the mountains, been working like a mad woman and starting to prep for the holidays.

We're so excited about the holidays this year - it'll be the first time we're hosting Christmas in our own home! That being said, there will be (hopefully) lots of design related posts coming your way for prepping for the holidays... and also hopefully we'll finish the second half of the house tour! YAY!

Alrighty folks, I must hit the hay, but I'll leave you with a little Matthew McConaughey as Wooderson, one of my favorite characters from one of my favorite movies, since I did bring him up earlier and now he's in my mind.

Enjoy and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

3 Years of Awesome

2011-11-02T10:31:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was mine and sweet hubs' 3 year anniversary. We spent the evening dining with friends at a favorite restaurant of ours, Atlanta's Woodfire Grill. The evening was filled with copious amounts of laughter, cocktails and delicious food. We partook in the chef's 5 course tasting menu, which was phenomenal as always.

It was a wonderful way to celebrate - and it was an evening filled with several celebrations - 2 wedding anniversaries, a work related celebration and a peresonal landmark celebration. All in all, an incredibly memory-filled night.

To my sweet Jesse,

Here's to you, my love, for being the most amazing husband I could ever dream of spending my life with. Thank you for 10 wonderful years together so far, 3 of which have been in marriage. I look forward to the day when we're old and gray and still as much in love as we are today.

Time truly does fly. It seems like only yesterday that we were up in Tennessee saying our vows on a mountain top overlooking the breathtaking Great Smokies surrounded by our closest friends and family. It's still the most amazing day I've ever had. There was so much love surrounding us - when I think back on it, it still leaves me absolutely stunned that I am so lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life.

Happy Anniversary. My love for you grows more and more each day.

Digital Life of an Avid Reader

2011-10-21T10:10:00.003-04:00

I've always been an avid reader - I love to absorb information. It took me a while to migrate from books to an e-reader - my parents generously gave me a Nook for Christmas last year and I haven't looked back since. I love the feel of books and magazines as well as the smell of printed paper, but the Nook converted me with its ease of use and portability. There is still something romantic and intoxicating to me about books and magazines in hand, though.

That being said, since it took me so long to adopt the technology of an e-reader, owning an iPad had never been anything I was really interested in. Yes, they're neat, but I didn't really want more technology in my life, until recently that is.

I've now come to the conclusion that I really DO want an iPad, sheerly for my magazine addiction. So many of my favorite magazines have gone defunct (I'm looking at you, Domino) or have just moved platforms from traditional print magazines, to digital only (Paste, that's you!). Also in the past year and a half, there have been several new magazines that have come into publication that are only available digitally and it gets cumbersome to read on the computer... maybe that's the first sign that I'm getting old - not wanting to read on the computer. Who knows. Plus, the technology of Issuu is pretty rad - it's just a nice easy reading experience.

Either way, I really want an iPad now. Time to start saving.

What are your favorite digital magazines?

Here are mine:

Lonny Magazine

Leaf (which just made its debut a few days ago)

Design in My Home: House Tour, Part 4 - The Bathroom

2011-10-16T22:58:00.001-04:00

We're now onto the bathroom in part 4 of the house tour.

I really like the bathroom - it's the first time in a while I've had a more modernized bathroom with regard to fixtures and tile, so I wanted to take advantage of that fact and use a more modern color scheme. The color the walls were painted were a bland dark tan, which just blended in with the tile and made the room look very dim and dirty.

Before:

To remedy the bland color on the walls and to give the room a more modern feel, we went with a dark, charcoal grey - Behr's Nature Retreat (430F-5). It made all of the features of the bathroom stand out and overall just cleaned up the entire appearance of the room. We are considering a new shower curtain, but since I still love our Lenox Chirp one from our previous apartment, which can be seen here in its former setting, I figured I'd stick with it till I found something I love more.

After:

Photograph of a traditional japanese tattoo by Jayme Thornton.

They say its your birthday...

2011-10-13T07:10:00.001-04:00

To my sweet hubs...

Happy Birthday to the most amazing man I've ever met.

I'm so glad you were born - and your mom did a pretty excellent job with you.

You just get better each year - more wise, more handsome (if that's even possible?!) and more kind.

You truly are the most amazing man I've ever met and I'm so thankful you're mine.

Happy 31st Birthday, Babe. You're the best.

Design in My Home: House Tour, Part 3 - The Kitchen

2011-10-09T22:51:00.000-04:00

The kitchen, while not the most impressive room in the house by far, has improved a lot with an intense cleaning, swapping out the outlet and light switch plates and just a few coats of paint. The dingy tan color definitely had to go. There isn't a whole lot to say about it, except that it does need renovations, so we're pretty limited on what we can do to improve it.

Before:

I picked a very bold green for the walls - Pesto by Behr (color number 440D-5), which happens to be one shade darker than the dining room (seen here). I really like to use shades of a few colors rather than a multitude of different colors. It makes the rooms work together rather than just be a kaleidoscope of color, which I find tends to make people feel uneasy.

The bold green made the contrast between the white trim and the walls a lot more dramatic so you didn't focus on the things we can't do much about (namely the floors and that the cabinets need repairs / replacing). We have a few more improvements that we're going to do, such as replacing the light fixture and possibly changing out the cabinet hardware, but it's pretty much where it's going to stay.

I can't complain too much - it's the largest kitchen I've ever had in my years of renting, so I can live with the less than perfect aesthetics. It does have some features I really like though, such as the original small rounded corner shelves that flank the sides of the upper cabinetry over the sink, which allow me to display my awesome set of original 1964 New York World's Fair drinking glasses.

Design in My Home: House Tour, Part 2 - The Dining Room

2011-10-02T16:33:00.000-04:00

Happy October, everyone! I've been so happy to be able to comfortably have the windows open in the house lately - it has such a wonderful cross breeze! Lots of stuff coming up to do for October - sweet hubs 31st birthday, a trip to South Carolina for the state fair, a trip to the mountains, some pumpkin picking, hopefully lots of baking! I love fall - it's absolutely my favorite time of year.

Anyhow, now that I've professed my love of fall, let's move onto part 2 of the house tour - the dining room! You've already seen a sneak peek of it here in our how-to post on recovering our dining room chairs, but here it is, in full effect.

A few before shots:

And now the after:

Painting by Ashley Love

TCB Cross Stitch by the amazing Kristy Kizzee (aka Bombastitch)

Coney Island poster by Michael Michael Motorcycle

I actually quite liked the color of the dining room before, but unfortunately, it didn't go with the color palette I had in mind, so it had to go. We replaced it with a nicely pigmented, but light shade of green called Desert Cactus by Behr (color number 440D-4), which is a few shades lighter than our kitchen that you'll see in part 3 of the house tour, next week.

Design in My Home: House Tour, Part 1 - The Living Room

2011-09-26T21:55:00.000-04:00

Sweet hubs and I have finally gotten to the point with the living room that we feel comfortable sharing photos of it. There's still work to be done, but we're pretty happy with the progress we've made.

Here's a before shot of what we were working with:

To those who love red, I apologize in advance, but I truly hated the color of the living room before. It was not quite brick red, and not quite burnt orange, but this grotesque hybrid of the two. It repulsed me and therefore had to go immediately after moving in.

We chose to go the total opposite of what was there previously and cool that baby down with a nice dark teal, specifically Mirage Lake by Behr (color number 500D-6). It did everything we hoped it would - made the white trim pop and made the floors stand out so much more.

See my favorite lamp by Grenkol? It was a perfect fit for the bookshelf.

Aside from painting, the house overall was in pretty great shape - we did also end up swapping out all of the outlet and light switch covers in the house. The ones originally in there ran the gamut of almond, white, and my favorite - painted over to match the wall and cement the plate in place. I can't really complain though, like I said, it was in good shape.

Now, as for things we still need to do - we definitely need a curtain solution. I hate mini-blinds, especially cheap plastic ones. Our cats apparently hate them too - our sweet little Abigail has a mission to break every one of them. We're doing pretty well so far. (Insert sarcasm here.) We're thinking of either going for roman shades with a textured fabric or a natural wood roll down - we shall see.

Another little project I'd like to tackle is putting in new window hardware. The hardware that is currently in all of the windows in the house as well as the knobs and pulls on the drawers in the kitchen are all very old and very worn down. Aside from that though, we're in good shape for having been here two months now.

One of the challenges we ran across with this room is the awkward layout. We hadn't initially noticed it when we viewed the house (not that it would have deterred us from renting it - the neighborhood and the price were too fabulous to pass up on), but it did cause us to think more than we wanted to with regard to our furniture layout. I must say, I'm really glad we decided to keep our "apartment sized" furniture. Had we purchased a larger couch, we would have had to eliminate some furniture and we just aren't quite ready to do that - we love our mid-century hand me downs!

We're quite pleased with it. I'm sure as time goes on, we'll play around with it and maybe find something that works better, but for now, it definitely feels like home.

The Shady Dell

2011-09-14T22:45:00.003-04:00

I think I've found a vacation destination for Jesse and I in Bisbee, Arizona.

Welcome to The Shady Dell.

Image courtesy of Fine Art America.

Courtesy of The Shady Dell website:

Experience the 50's in Full Technicolor!

Nine lovely, fully restored vintage aluminum travel trailers await you at the Shady Dell in Bisbee, Arizona. Whether it is the 33 foot Royal Mansion built in 1951 and restored with leopard carpet, martini glasses, Diner-style breakfast booth and phonograph with a collection of 78rpm records, or the 1947 Tiki Bus Polynesian Palace, complete with hand-carved outrigger bar and your own Tiki God, the Shady Dell’s individual trailers will surely send you back to a time when freedom was just another word for jumping in your aluminum house on wheels, finding the Rat Pack on the radio and navigating the open road in search of your own slice of the American Dream.

Our sleek collection of vintage travel trailers are all perfectly restored to combine mid-century Americana kitsch with the comforts of home in a way that only the 1950s were capable of. Each trailer, such as the 1949 Airstream, or the 1950 Spartan Manor, are available for overnight or weekly rental. For once, experience the 1950s in full Technicolor.

Interiors are the rich blonde woods or highly polished aluminum of the original and authentic décor. Outside each trailer is a grassy yard with lounge chairs so you can enjoy the beautiful evening weather of southern Arizona. In the various trailers, vintage radios play era-appropriate radio programs, televisions only broadcast in two colors, period books and magazines allow for even more mental time travel and big band, early rhythm and blues and original rock and roll are available for your listening entertainment. The trailers are also equipped with original working kitchens, refrigerators and vintage electric percolators. Dishes and linens are also furnished.

Image courtesy of Arizona Highways.

Nestled perfectly among the aluminum trailers and within walking distance from each front door, is Dot’s Diner. Built in the 1950s by the pride of Wichita Kansas, The Valentine Manufacturing Company, this authentic diner was originally purchased by John Hart in 1957 and delivered to the corner of Ventura and Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Los Angeles. It was run by Dot Bozeman, chief cook and bottle washer until 1999.

Image courtesy of whflood on Flickr.

The Shady Dell’s long and epic journey began in 1927 as a place to provide trailer and camping spaces to weary travelers along the famous Highway 80, which stretched from Savannah, Georgia to San Diego, California. Like its more famous brother Route 66, Highway 80 was a center of travel, exploration and family getaways in the early portions of the 20th century. Today, the park is a nice mix of practicality and vintage fun-seeking. Part of the park is equipped with full RV hookups while the other part is a unique step back to the heyday of travel trailering in America.
Step off the premises and experience the beauty and charm of Bisbee, Arizona, a mile-high historic copper mining town nestled in the Mule Mountains and a stone’s throw from the Mexican border. Founded in 1880, Bisbee was a true hot spot around the turn of the century, known as one of the West’s most roaring towns on the route between St. Louis and San Francisco.

Today, Bisbee is captivating and full of historic buildings, museums, art galleries, antique shops, hidden walkways and plenty of ghosts. Its close proximity to the Chiricahua National Forest, Cochise Stronghold, and the Ramsey Canyon Nature Conservancy provides numerous opportunities for bird watching, rock hunting, biking, hiking or just leisurely explorations of the wonders of southern Arizona’s high desert area.

Which is your favorite? Mine is the Tiki Bus.

Image courtesy of whflood on Flickr.

Hello 1950, I think I'll stay a while.

Design in My Home Project: Budget Friendly Landscaping

2011-09-09T15:57:00.000-04:00

When sweet hubs and I found our darling little bungalo, we fell in love immediately. It was the perfect size for us (it's a small house and coming from NYC, we didn't need a cavernous space to fill with excess "stuff".) It's not a newly renovated place, but its got a lot of charm. That also meant it needed a little elbow grease, specifically on the outside, which Jesse was itching to get his hands on. It had been so long since we'd had our own outdoor space, that doing little bits of landscaping was one of the major appeals of the house. Keep in mind, this is also landscaping from a couple of novices... the most either of us has ever really done with regard to landscaping was raking or cutting the grass.

Over the last month, we've become best friends with our local Lowe's store. We've done little bits here and there, and finally, the front is now starting to take some shape. We didn't have a huge budget, and to be honest, didn't really want to spend a lot of money on a rental property, so I wanted to share the little things we did, that made a big impact.

First off, this was what we started with:

Full frontal of the house. Note the overgrown landscape beds and unruly, unpruned trees and plants.

Close up of the overgrown and dead leaf filled landscape beds.

Close up of the walkway landscape bed and vine impressions left on the brick.

It wasn't terrible, by any means, but it could have looked better. A lot better. So here's what we've done...

- Raked out and mulched the landscape beds. (Cost: $2.50 x 10 bags of 2.2 cu ft brown mulch = $25.00

- Sprayed down all of the sidewalks and stairs with water (Cost: Free)

- Cut the grass (Cost: Free)

- Pruned the trees and pulled weeds from the landscape beds (Cost: Free)

- Planted five ornamental grass plants (Miscanthus sinensis 'Variegatus') in the small landscape bed by the front walk (Cost: $3.00 x 5 plants = $15.00)

- Placed three solar powered lights in the small landscape bed by the front walk (Cost: $2.50 x 3 lights - $7.50)

- Planted a geranium plant and a salvia plant in two planters that we found (Cost: $9.00 for the geranium, $1.50 for the salvia = $10.50)

- Planted a small container herb garden with mint, dill, rosemary and chives (Cost: $3.50 x 3 plants, $1.25 for packet of dill seeds, $4.77 for a small bag of potting soil, $6.96 for a black heavy duty plastic urn = $23.48)

- Threw down some grass seed in bare areas on the lawn (Cost: $10.14 x 2 bags of shady grass seed = $20.28)

GRAND TOTAL: $101.76

We still have a few things we want to do to the front - the main thing being that we need to put two pieces of landscape timber to finish the front bed (you can see this on the walkway shots). Once we buy the timber, we'll be right around $105. Not too shabby!

Another project for a little later on is that we want to scrub off the vine remains on the house, but we need to figure out a strategy for that (to power wash or to scrub brush).

Here's the final product (until we decide to do more):

I love the dark brown mulch - t adds some much needed contrast to the front of the house.

Close up of one of the landscape beds.

Close up of the brown mulch.

You can see where we need to lay the landscape timber on the left side. Also, I just love the ornamental grass!

Close up of the geranium and the salvia plants.

Ornamental Grass

My sweet little herb garden. (I'm very excited about this.)

Labor Day Weekend Recap

2011-09-08T17:12:00.000-04:00

What did you, my dear readers, do this past weekend?

Saturday morning, sweet hubs and I set out to spend the Labor Day weekend in Turtletown, Tennessee. I'm sure most of you have never heard of it - I hadn't till I met Jesse. It's a small town outside of Murphy, North Carolina. Turtletown happens to be where all of Jesse's family is from. In fact, not only was his great grandfather the local doctor, which was a very important role among small towns in that time, but his family has been there for generations upon generations.

Our purpose for heading up there this weekend was for a memorial service. Sweet hubs' great uncle had passed away early this summer and this past weekend would have been his 100th birthday, so it was only appropriate to say goodbye to him on the family homestead on the land that he loved, as well as celebrate what would have been a very important landmark birthday.

It was a very relaxing and sentimental weekend and I was thrilled to get the chance to meet a lot of the family I had not had the opportunity to meet before. The weekend was filled with music, laughter, some tears, lots of amazing food and dancing. We visited both of the family homes that his grandmother and grandfather grew up in - talk about postcard beautiful. Jesse and I also spent an extra day exploring the area since we intend to spend a lot of time up there now that we are in close driving distance.

I snapped a few photos, most of them are of his grandfather's property, since the weather was pretty awful, but I hope to take some good ones once we make a trip up there when the leaves start turning.

I love that I am now part of a large family - something I really never have experienced because my family is so small and spread out. I can't express the joy I have that I was able to meet so many cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. I think that my husband may have the sweetest family I've ever had the chance to meet. They're so filled with love, laughter and warmth. The only way to describe it is beautiful. I know, I know, look at me getting all sentimental and emotional - it really was amazing though.

Here are some photos. They don't do the places justice, but figured I'd share them anyhow.

Cherokee Lake

Jesse's grandfather's family property.

The view from Jesse's grandfather's family property.

Jesse's grandfather's family property.

Jesse's grandmother's family property.

Jesse's grandmother's family property - "In Memory of Dr. G.M. Young" (Jesse's great grandfather).

I got a John Deere tractor chocolate lollipop!

We also visited "Fields of the Woods", also known as the world's largest 10 commandments.
(We're trying to see as many sights from Roadside America as possible and this one
is about 10 minutes from Jesse's family property.)

Sweet hubs relaxing at the Nifty 50's Cafe in McCaysville, GA.

Unknown to us, we drove home through a tornado.

Design in My Home Project: Recovering Our Dining Room Chairs

2011-08-25T07:30:00.000-04:00

Recently, sweet hubs and I acquired a fantastic mid-century modern dining set from his mother for our new home. In addition to a dining table with a removable leaf and six chairs, the set also includes a beautiful credenza, which unfortunately won't fit in our small home's dining space, so that will be saved for the day we buy our first house.

The dining set is in pretty great shape, considering it's age and the fact that between it being used and it coming into our possession, it was living under a bed for a few years. It needed a little love and was be back in fine condition in no time.

Hey look! It's the first interior reveal of the house:
the dining room, which we painted in Behr's "Desert Cactus"!

Our first step to bringing the set back to its former glory was to recover the chairs. We recently went on the hunt for fabric that would fit stylistically with it but also give it a little bit of a modern flair. Our search unveiled lots of gorgeous fabric in many styles, colors and textures - but we couldn't find something just right - it all seemed to be missing the most important thing on our search - our budget! For those of you unfamiliar with purchasing fabric - yes, it can absolutely be an incredible solution to freshen up a piece of furniture or a room on a budget, but it can also get very expensive, very fast, especially when you have champagne taste (in fabric) as I do.

Anyhow, after lots of searching, both online and in-stores, in New York City as well as Atlanta, I came across a fabulous little website called Newtoto. It was perfect on several levels: reasonably priced, had lots of options for modern prints and most of them were heavy duty (ie. resists spills and tears - perfect for cats and messy eaters). They even allowed you to order free swatches. I picked out my top three favorites and three days later I had my swatches in hand.

(Fabrics Left to Right: "Network - Frost" Terratex Panel Fabric $7.50/yard, "Maxim - Sesame" Crypton® Jacquard $10.64/yard, "See Saw - Granite" Crypton® $6.50/yard)

And the winner was: See Saw in Graphite! It was absolutely perfect. The moment my grubby little fingertips touched its thick, beautiful texture I was in love. Yes, I fall in love easily, especially when wonderful textures are involved.

But I digress... I got online and ordered my fabric immediately.

Fast forward to 5 business days later...

The day that our delivery was scheduled to arrive, sweet hubs and I ventured to Hancock Fabrics and our luck was with us - they were having a 40% off sale on foam! We walked out of there with four pieces of foam to start recovering our chairs as soon as our shipment arrived that evening.

And once we got home, our fabric was at our door. We then began recovering.

This was what we started with:

The chair before, which was covered in a red vinyl
that just didn't match our color scheme at all.

Sweet hubs and I then disassembled the first chair (unscrewed the seat from the frame) and took off not one, but two layers of different fabric and multiple layers of batting and foam - some of which I'm sure was from 1970 - and removed all of the staples left from the previous recovers.

Sweet hubs removing staples.

After removing the staples, we cut the foam to the size of the board. Once that was done, we cut the fabric. I don't know about anyone else, but I always get so nervous making "the first cut". Be it wrapping paper, fabric or cake, I'm always nervous that I'll mess it up.

Sitting on my knees, taking a deep breath before cutting the fabric.
Very dramatic, I know.

Once the fabric was cut, next was stretching the fabric over the foam and board and stapling it to the back. It's not nearly as difficult as it sounds - you just have to be careful to make sure you eliminate ripples and whatnot on the corners when you're stapling. And stretch the fabric tight. You want it to be nice and smooth. (I failed to capture any photos of the starting point since we were both doing this at the same time, but when you're doing this, your fabric is on bottom with the correct side (the side you want showing) down on flat on a surface. You stack the foam and then the board on top. When stretching and stapling, you want to start with one side, then do the side opposite of that, and so on. It keeps the fabric taught.

This is what it should look like mid-way through (keep in mind we had a little too much fabric left over, hence sweet hubs trimming it):

After you finish, you simply place the cushion back on the frame and screw it back on. Voila!

I'm not going to lie - this was my first time recovering a chair. It was surprisingly easy, once we figured out the logistics. And when I say we, I mean that after the first chair, sweet hubs decided that he enjoyed recovering that first chair so much that he actually took over the project and finished the rest of them solo.

I'm a lucky lady. I'm even luckier because now I have a rad dining set.

That's all for now folks!

Design in My Home: Colors in the New House

2011-08-12T13:02:00.002-04:00

Well, the move to Atlanta from Brooklyn is complete. We've been here almost two weeks now and things are going swimmingly. We're settling in, getting familiar with our new neighborhood and catching up with old friends.

All of that aside, I've been asked numerous times now what my color palette is for the new house and I'm finally ready to share.

I must admit, in my home, I resist a lot of variety when it comes to my color palettes - I gravitate toward cooler colors, as does sweet hubs, which means we typically stay in the neutrals (mainly shades of grey or cooler browns), blues and greens. Guess what? We didn't stray from that here either.

In our last apartment, we went with more conservative, dusky colored blues and greens. You can see what I'm talking about here. This time, we felt since we were actually going to be in a house rather than an apartment, that we'd go a little more bold - instead of dusky, we went jewel toned.

Now, without further adieu, our color palette:

As you can see, I chose Behr colors - I also used Behr paint. I really do find them to have excellent quality paint with great coverage (No, I'm not paid to say that, I truly do just love their products.)

I'm not telling you where which colors are going or what they're doing - just soak up the color palette for a bit and relax. After I saw the colors we picked all together, I realized its almost a Palm Springs color palette. Good thing most of our furniture is modern and mid-century - they go hand in hand in the Palm Springs style.

Well, that's all you get for now. I'll have another "Design in My Home" update soon!

Last Night in Brooklyn

2011-07-27T22:52:00.002-04:00

It's our last night in Brooklyn. Instead of some crazy night, sweet hubs and I went out for a nice dinner and cocktails at The Farm on Adderley with my parents, who so kindly drove up here to help us move.

Tomorrow morning we will pick up our moving truck and leave NYC. Atlanta, here we come!

Farewell, Brooklyn. Thanks for a great 7 years.

(A tasty farewell.)

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