"RED".......it's classic

Oooh and it is sexy too!.....Since it is Christmas and all I figured we could do a bit on probably the most timeless color, that also, works so well with our holiday season......Red.......

"Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin. That, or a kick-ass red lipstick. "

Gwyneth Paltrow

These are just a few great Christmas dining table set ups. All three of these are simple but festive.  I think they show that you don't have to go over the top to decorate for the Holidays.  They are also inexpensive ways to give a fun party feel.  Now lets eat!

 

 And what do you think I thought when this piece of art was plopped down in front of my face.   I immediately knew it just had to go on the blog!  Joe's first cousin is truly the hostess with the mostess.  I mean isn't it beautiful and there is a delicious chocolate mousse inside that candy cane shot glass.  Oh the joys of Christmas.  This was definitely one of them.  And so was this next picture.......

This little nugget in red velvet is my new Niece, Maysa.  I think she enjoyed her Christmas day.  Hope you all did too...... 

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. "

Norman Vincent Peale

I am sure many of you have seen this picture before but it is one of my favorite bathrooms.  I want that red tub and I am still trying to find out who makes that red and white wall paper.  If anyone knows please tell me!

Fun Red Spaces........

red walls, red pouf, red and yellow striped sofa, red and white geometric chair, wonderful red floor lamp, and not scared to do a red rug.  What a great space......

Note to self......Lily must have one of those chairs!  I wonder if it would hold me???

Who do you think is dining in that spectacular dining nook?  I want an invite.  

Really!  How cute are these little Santa's.  Such an easy, and somewhat healthy, Holiday treat.  Strawberry's and whip cream!  yummy.  I could eat one of them right now. 

Don't you just wish you could go red for at least a little while!  I have pretty much had the same hair do my whole life so to go red would just be wild!  I could not pull it off but I know many of you can.  Rihanna looks good in about any color.

"There is more, much more, to being a redhead than the color of one’s hair."

(G. Adam Stanislav, red-haired photographer)

Under my "Red" umbrella....hey hey hey

So how about this little girls room with the awesome Babushka dolls on the wall.  Everything about this room is so cute.  Especially those two little girls having a tea party. 

It has been the Christmas of Babushka's for us.  First I bought Lily these glasses while I was home in Charlotte over the holidays.  They are glass, NO PLASTIC, and they stack inside one another like traditional Babushka dolls do.  They are really sweet. 

Then we came across this Babushka Christmas tree ornament at Crate and Barrel........

And then someone gave us a Babushka Christmas card........this will be the Christmas of the Babushka ladies.....don't they just make you so happy

The color of the season is OPI's, "Big Apple Red"!  Man it has been a good one, even did my fingernails in it.  I am headed back for a touch up today.

"When in doubt wear red." --Bill Blass

 We had our tree up for a couple of days (well probably more like a few days, 3 maybe 4, who's counting) before we could find time to decorate.  So Jay and Lily decided they would start decorating without me, or the ornaments.  Here is how it all began......a camo hat, a storm trooper mask, I think that is a Spiderman mask, a Rudolph book (lily is obsessed with Rudolph), A Carolina Panthers Hat (We all Love Cam Newton) and a basket made by women in Africa......It looked amazing and I love to see that they are becoming so diverse, well rounded and into so many different cultures......Now I am thinking that I will get them to do it every year.....whatever, I still had to do it all my way in the end...... but they are becoming good little helpers....only broke 3 ornaments this year.......One more note to self, "Don't get attached to anything when you have a 3 and 5 year old"

"He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree."

Roy L. Smith

 

I don't think I will ever get tired of the old Skull and Cross Bone design.....and doesn't he look good in red......tough guy..........

What a statement this single red chair makes in the all white room.......the red Tolix chair is a classic

I just used this red Navy style chair for a client of mine's desk chair.....it is sooooo cool.  It is made out of 111 recycled coca cola bottles!  I love the chair and the concept.   Lily and Jay might have to have this chair for their desk one day too.  You can find it right now at Design Within Reach. 

Groovy Reindeer.....are they tie-dyed or acid stained.....whatever they are I like it!

I could not pass up showing you Kelly Wearstler's mantle with her Lady Gaga stockings.....is this unbelievable or what!  She is probably the only person in the world who can totally pull off hanging Lady Gaga stockings.  Gotta love her, actually you have to love her and Gaga!

Isn't she fabulous......and I think she has a shop in Barney's now called the "Gaga's Workshop"....have not been there yet but we all must check it out next time we are in NYC. 

"A blond in a red dress can do without introductions - but not without a bodyguard."

Rona Jaffe

 

If you don't know who Charley Harper is open your mind to a whole new world.  Really he has created such a magical graphic world for children and adults.  I buy his books and puzzles for the kids because his 1D, flat, illustration (meaning not 3D) is just plain magical.  And he is a magician at creating depth through color, overlapping shapes and size relationships.  Read his story and look at his lithographs.  He His composition's focus on Nature and Human Beings, so there is a learning aspect to his work.  The drawings are true to form but have a whimsical, sometimes comical aesthetic to them.  Every child needs to have some Charley Harper in his or her toy bin.  

“Everything you can imagine is real.”

― Pablo Picasso

Here is our christmas card picture for 2011.  We had a really fun photo shoot at Fort Moultrie, around the corner from the "Love Shack".  So I will be sharing many new photos of the kids. 

Oh and everyone have a "Happy New Year"

"I love Christmas. I really do love Christmas. I love being with my family and I love snow. I love the music and the lights and all of it." -- Christina Applegate

Furniture Market.....and some Late Thanksgiving

 Yes, that is me and my new friend Suzanne Kasler in the Hickory Chair showroom, in High Point, NC!!!  What a highlight!  I saw her from a distant and my heart started racing.  She is one of my design heros and I started to panic.  I lurked (literally I was a lurker) , until she finished speaking with some other ladies.  I just had to introduce myself and meet her.  She was so cool and gracious.  We also talked about her new fabric line for Lee Jofa and she showed me her new pieces for Hickory Chair.  And crazy enough I just ordered that armoire that is behind us for a client.  I could own that piece.  But don't we look great together.  Even out outfits match!  I just wish I had taken that awful tag off for the photo.  Oh well, I was a little star struck at the time and not really thinking about that.  Maybe I will see her again in the Spring.  So Fun!

"Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do."

Eleanor Roosevelt

 "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. "

Eleanor Roosevelt

I found these vintage pendant lights, I think they are called spaghetti lights, in my favorite dealers booth at market.  I got so excited when I found them because it reminded me of the restaurant at one of my favorites, The Crosby Street Hotel in NYC.  I had always wondered where Kit Kemp found such an amazing grouping of these lights.  I love how they are hung at different levels and all the color just makes me happy.  I even purchased two little white ones that my dealer friend had.  Guess I will have to find a home for them one day. 

Here is the restaurant at The Crosby Street Hotel.  I have shown this picture before but love the yummy spaghetti light arrangement, right in the middle of the room.  Delicious!

Market can be a lot of work but it is also really fun.  The first place I go is the Antiques and Design center so I can scout out all the one of a kind items.  Here is a little taste below........

Great spaces.....so much to explore

So there is an art dealer there that I love.  He has original works, mostly abstract.  I could not leave without this piece.  I wish you could see it in person because the colors are really great and I love the graffiti effect.  I have always been drawn to works of art that have letters and words in them. Even words I can't understand!  Like in this piece.......maybe it is some exotic foreign language.  Probably not but it is still super cool. 

Ok and I picked this little number up from one of my favorite lighting designers.  My client told me it looked like a crown for a queen!  Which made me love it even more.  This designer takes vintage pieces and remakes them by changing the finish or adding crystal drops.  I also love glass and she has added an old piece of fenton glass to the top of this piece.  The fun round bulbs make it so fresh and hip!  This will be hanging in the foyer......I am really excited about it.....

"There is one fundamental fact about lighting: Where there is no light, there is no beauty."

 Billy Baldwin
 

Ok so yes this is the craziest thing I have ever purchased but it is so wonderful.  A dear skin pouf!  Everyone must have one.  Joe is going to love it.....it really is amazing.  The texture and color are perfect!  This will be going in the family room that is I am planning to be the most relaxed playful space in the house. 

The deer skin pouf leads me into something that will not be in our family room......but totally makes me laugh.  This is a picture from our Thanksgiving at Joe's uncles farm.  I talked about collecting last post, well you have no idea what kind of collections this man has.  Some are quite amazing and others are just down right hilarious. 

Oh and yes he has a jack-a-lope......When I lived in Aspen, CO, some friends of mine convinced me that there were jack-a-lopes living along this pass where I would go on my walks.  I was so freaked out that I was ready to stop going up there to walk.  Of course all the guys thought it was too funny that I would actually believe that there was such a thing as a jack-a-lope.  I figured it out when I learned that you could order a jack-a-lope from Cabelas catalog.  Oh those silly boys, glad I did not stop hiking. 

Cutest outfit of all Thanksgiving.........Oilily from ebay!  I am addicted.......and how great is it with her brothers old cowboy boots.......that's my girl.....

I just had to hug these little guys......they are baby Long Leaf Pines......Long Leaf Pines are where actual Heart Pine comes from.....the Heart Pine that people for centuries have used for flooring and furniture......Long Leaf's are disappearing so quickly in the South (Loblolly Pines are taking over), that you can get a grant from the Federal government if you replant Long Leaf's on your property.  It is quite a commitment because they are harder to care for and grow slower than other types of pines.  Hats off to the people who are making the effort to bring back these trees.  I love them so much, just look at this guy.....he is soooooo cute! and the mature trees are just beautiful.  Joe wants me to give Kudos to the government for starting to replant Long Leafs in the roughly 250,000 acres of the Frances Marion Forest.  Nice job......grow little ones, grow.

and how cute is this....

and how cute is that!.....so much cuteness in the world. Even more to be thankful in life.

"I give thanks everyday that I've been able to take my craziness and make it work for me."

Fritz Scholder

"A Collection"...........everybody needs one......

We collect a lot of things in our family.  I have always felt that everyone should collect something.  Something that gives them such great pleasure when they find another addition.  Especially, when you find one of the treasures, in a place where you are not even looking.  It can be a total discovery and a life long hobby.  I started this bell collection after a friend of mine gave me my first bell as a bridesmaid gift.  It inspired me to start this collection......oh and I have more collections, just keep reading.

"Collecting has been my great extravagance. It's a way of being. I collect for the same reason that I eat too much-I'm one of nature's shoppers."
Howard Hodgkin

Joe gave Jay and Lily two different cast net boxes, to start their collections.  This is Jay's collection box.  Notice the collection of Cars, Baccugan's (I have no idea how to spell that), and Geodes.  This is what I found when I opened up his box.  Now lets look at Lily's........

A little different.  Clearly, there is one color difference in the two collection boxes....Pink!....Honestly the two collection are pretty much night and day.  Lily chose sunglasses, baby doll bottles, a watch, a princess phone and goodness gracious..........is that a pink straight iron.  Wooo ah.  The teenage years sure are going to be interesting.  I think she just collects anything that is PINK. Thats my, girly girl. 

Jay is a natural born collector.  He always has multiples of "something" in his pockets.  One time after a dinner at our good friends restaurant, we went home for bath time and when Jay took off his shorts to get in the bath, we discovered he had two pockets full of rocks.  We decided to see how many rocks he had swiped from the restaurant and we counted 55 rocks.  I mean that is unbelievable.  Who would have even thought you could get 55 rocks in a 4yr old pair of shorts.  I Always knew he was a determined little guy.  It would be really cool if one day we poured out his pockets and there were 55 gold coins..........well, I guess we would have to return the gold coins, we got to keep the rocks....

 We collect these shells every year when we go on different trips and to the beaches of North Carolina.  The shells are so different in NC than where we live.  I have always loved the organic shapes and the soft relaxing colors.  I save them with hopes of doing something with them someday.  Together they tell a story of where we have been, and they make me feel at home.  We will collect more next year and as soon as we figure out what to do with them I will let you know!

“It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be born a millionaire” Robert Louis Stevenson quotes

So I was trying to think of cool collections and........there really is nothing much cooler that Slash's collection of  "Les Paul's".........that is sooooo Rockstar.......

So for about the last 7 yrs I have been buying Diane Von Furstenberg dresses mostly to wear to work.  They fit so well and they seem to be timeless.  I wish so bad my mother would have kept all her DVF wrap dresses from the 70's.  They would be really fun to have now.  I am going to keep mine for Lily because the styles and patterns seem to be more desirable, the more vintage they are.  And just look at all that color!  How playful they all are together.  Oh, and ebay is the place to look for the deals because they can be an investment. 

This green number with the white ginko leaf pattern is one of my favorites! 

The green toes-ies, went great with the green DVF this summer.....that green is one of my favorite colors. 

I don't know how this group collected itself together but it made me laugh.......have you ever played the game "which one of these things doesn't belong"?  Well, I think we all can tell who does not belong here but somehow they got together and became friends.  I guess that is what happens when you live everyday, together in the same bathtub.  Let this be a lesson to all, never judge.......friends for life. 

This is one of my clients elephant collections.......they are so cute!

Jay's car collection......
 

and his airplane collection......

"The Barnes Collection" is one of the largest collections of art owned by one person, in the world.  It is estimated to be worth about $25 billion dollars and is mostly works by Impressionist and Modernest masters.  Albert C. Barns was a chemist and after he made his fortune he began seriously collecting art. 

He purchased land in a residential neighborhood in Philadelphia, PA and designed a building to display all of his art.  One of the things that makes the collection so intriguing were his idiosyncratic arrangement of the art.  He also wrote in the by-laws that the arrangements could never be changed and none of the pieces could ever be lent or sold.  Everything must stay together the way he left it.  But modern times have made it hard for his foundation to keep up the exhibit so a judge ruled that they must move the exhibit to a new building in downtown Philly.  Although Mr. Barnes would not have liked this, I am sure these priceless works of art will be better taken care of in the long run.  Now that is a collection that I really hope to see one day. 

I know I have shown this picture before but this is our little tiny "Barnes Collection".  It is wrapped up tight somewhere in storage.  It might be small now but we are adding to it and each piece has meaning to us.  I can't wait to see it all again in a year (or so).  Opening these up again will surely be like Christmas. 

My mother started me a collection of vintage beaded and mesh bags years ago and she would give me a different bag every Christmas to add to my collection.  I want to give them to Lily one day. 

This one is my favorite, it looks like an abstract painting.  I think I might have it framed for the new house......might be fun in the powder room under the stairs. 

Lily and I collected the "Target" Missoni line for a while.  I just could not resist the boxes!

You all have probably figured out by now that I am starting to collect turquoise cuff bracelets.  As I get older I like bigger pieces and I really only wear bracelets and rings.  Plus, a turquoise cuff will never ever ever go out of style and you can wear it on so many occasions.  One exceptional accessory is all you really need to take you from day into night......and like many of you know, these days there is not always time to go home and change!

I hope everyone had a Thankful Thanksgiving and a Happy one too......J