Too Darn Hot!

There’s a great song from the old Broadway musical “Kiss Me, Kate” called “Too Darn Hot” and that song has been running through my mind the past few days… and I am sure it will continue for the next two or three days.

Here’s a great version of the song done by the amazing Ann Miller.

Seriously!  Here are two pictures in my car, one at lunch and one as I was leaving the office! I had to go out and buy the baby a little baby pool, which he thinks is a giant water dish. Just wait until his best friend arrives on Friday afternoon and shows Connor what it’s really for!

Stay cool, y’all!

Architect Barbie’s Dream House Finalists

The AIA received nearly 30 submissions for the AIA Barbie® Dream House™ Design Competition. The AIA and its panel of jurors have selected their finalists, with input from Mattel’s own team of Barbie® experts. Now it’s your turn to help select the winning design. While the submissions/winning design will not be produced by Mattel, it’s still a fun way to play and engage with Barbie® I Can Be™... Architect regardless of your age. I know that there was a lot of controversy when Mattel created the Architect Barbie, so what do you think of the competition? You can check out details here and vote for your favourite house.

I’m Recovering…

…a chair, that is! I have a very comfortable arm chair, which is a bit sun-faded, so I thought I’d take things one step further from my recovered sofa and ottomen, and slipcover an arm-chair. What’s so challenging is that I picked a geometric print linen from Victoria Hagen’s collection. The print is Twilight Rhythm in indigo and periwinkle. Because of the pattern, I have to be especially careful about matching the lines.  I started pinning and cutting, with everything inside out. After I did that, I basted it all together to make sure it fit properly. I need to work on the front of the arms to make sure they look tailored, and then I need to decide a couple more things: should I paint the chair’s legs white or cream or leave them dark, and should I make the skirt more tailored than the last few pieces I’ve done, which have had box pleats or semi-ruffles. I thought about doing inverted pleats on the corners and in the center front. I would love your input!

In case you’re wondering what is on the walls, I found a number of embroidery hoops and then cut fabric to fit them, and then hung them on the wall in my workroom. I can swap out the fabrics when I get sick of them, or if I find a piece I especially love.

My Drive

Since I’ve moved, my commute to work has shortened by more than half, and it only takes about 10 minutes to get to and from work. The old route was at the very shortest, a half an hour. But it was mostly longer than that.

I’ve worked out a route that takes me through some of Baltimore’s prettiest and greenest neighbourhoods, and I thought I’d share some of the scenery with you. I did a spot of “drive-by shooting” this afternoon on my way home today. It the pictures look a bit hazy, it was 97* this afternoon, with almost an equal percentage of humidity!

Love this garage and the amazing windows. I’d convert it to a party barn! This is the house where our pediatrician and her half-dozen children lived. There’s a great chandelier on the top porch on the right side. I love the nine-over-nine windows! There are a lot of these stone houses in this part of the neighbourhood. I don’t think that a French tri-couleur flag would look too out of place hanging there, do you? This is a block of amazing flats. I love the fanlight over the door and the arches on the porches. The flats in this building are all huge and the building’s from the 1920’s, so they’re beautifully detailed. This house has had a lot of work done to it, which has taken away some of its charm. The ramp you see isn’t for the house. It’s for one of the numerous paths that wind their way through the neighbourhood. They’re public paths and are all marked with signs like this one. It’s one of the distinctive features of the area. I love seeing unexpected sights like this in the middle of the city. It’s a small stream which winds its way from the country down to Baltimore’s harbour.

Thanks for coming along on my ride home!

Books on Sunday: Junk Books

A number of years ago, I happened on a little series of books about Junk: Looking in Junk Shops, Still Looking for Junk, More Looking in Junk Shops and Restoring Junk. These volumes are small enough to be tucked into a handbag or a jacket pocket. Although they’re more than a half a century old now, their information is still current – after all, history’s history, isn’t it! You can find copies on Amazon or Ebay, and you shouldn’t pay more than a couple of dollars for each.

The books are by John Bedford, who was English and who was an authority of antiques, china, chinoiserie and junk. There’s not much information about him on the interwebs, just a list of books he’s published. The fun thing about these little books is how relevant most of the information is. The prices are all in shillings and pence, which are long gone, but the basics are all still worth reading. If he’s talking about pottery from Stoke-on-Trent, the information about an old piece is still relevant today, and perhaps even more accurate!

The books are illustrated with loads of line drawings, including a series of illustrations on the pottery marks on old English ironstone and china. I’ve gone through these books while researching a piece I’ve found, and have often gotten the information I was looking for. The book on restoring junk by Suzanne Beedell is very helpful in providing information about cleaning woods and metals. It even has formulas for making your own cleaning solutions, something I am not brave enough to try! The illustration above is from a section on blanc-de-chine, a white Chinese figural pottery. The descriptions are easily written and read and you can pick up these books and put them down, all while learning bits and pieces.

Do you have a reference book you go back to time and time again?

Home Goods Style Score Quiz

I found this great little quiz over on How About Orange and thought I’d give it a try.  It’s for the Home Goods chain of stores, and was developed by Deborah Needleman, formerly of Domino, now of favourite, WSJ.Magazine.  You can take the quiz here and then come on back and tell me how you did!

I am a GLAMOUROUS CLASSIC!

You have a refined sensibility with an appreciation for history and tradition in your furniture and your rooms. You value beauty and craftsmanship. You are visually sensitive and understand how symmetry and a balanced layout give order to a room. But you definitely like to shake things up with some unabashed luxury and glamour to keep things from getting boring. You go for rich materials like velvets, one-of-a-kind objects, lady-like touches, glimmering accessories, and a sense of old-Hollywood romance that makes your home dramatic and elegant.

You value creativity. You are stylish and fun loving, and can be an inspiration to others. You have a natural sense of drama, and you know you have to be willing to take risks—whether with colors, finishes, furniture choices, or ideas—for your home to stand out. Your home can be happy and lively and the place all of your friends want to be.

Funnily, this is pretty spot on!  I call my style Rough Luxe, since I do like the finer things in life, but I also like things like my steel kitchen counter/desk and my 30 drawer steel shoe holder.1. Your Design Challenge: ORGANIZE: The front hall sets the mood for your entire home. Consider how to accommodate all the room's functions as beautifully as possible. At the very least you need a console, and if you're short on storage, consider a dresser. Outfit the surface with nice trays and bowls for mail, keys and sunglasses. Keep a trash can for immediately tossing the junk mail. Closet-door or wall hooks encourage coat and bag hanging rather than dumping. It's nice to have a chair or bench for changing shoes, a mirror for last-minute lipstick checks, and a lamp or sconces for warm light.

This is a big issue for me, and I am really trying to conquer it in the new house. Although my shoe box is relegated to the mud room, I really want it in the front, so I can store my shoes as soon as I walk in the door! In the winter, I also store gloves/scarves in it, so it’s very practical.

2. Your Happy Place: Choose a color or two that harmonizes with the tableware you already own, and collect things like linens, glasses, dessert plates, or platters in those hues. This is a fantastic way to liven up a plain, white table setting. And if you can, set the table the night before a dinner party, so you can really take pleasure in tending to the details.

My china is blue and white, so it’s fun that my Happy Colours fit that range of colours.  I also have some of my china in plain white, so it would work with other blue and white china. I’ve been using hot pink napkins lately and that looks fantastic. 3. Be Party-Ready All the Time! Scent: The first thing you notice about a home is how it smells. Use naturally fragrant cleaning products. If you find a scented candle or fresh potpourri you love, stock up on it. Any scent you like, whether perfume or linen spray, can be used on upholstery, bedding or just spritzed into the air.
I just got an amazing strawberry-scented Slatkin candle and I also bought one from Williams-Sonoma in their fabulous pink grapefruit scent.

Mood: Nice, flattering light makes us feel good. So nix the harsh, direct light from overhead fixtures in favor of the softer glow from floor and table lamps. Also, stock up on some votive candles and a couple of hurricane lanterns for setting around the room.I never, ever, ever, use overhead lights. Ever. I love table lamps, and candles. My sister gave me three lanterns with candles, and I’ve hung them on hooks out in the back yard. I also have some beautiful candlesticks that I use, too.

Food: Devote space in your pantry or on a shelf for go-to party essentials: crackers, dip, chips, nuts—whatever you like to serve. Keep on hand a collection of attractive bowls and cocktail napkins, and you'll be able to set a spread—instantly!
Now that I am entertaining again, I always try and have the essentials on hand. Whether it’s a box of Triscuits and some cheese, or just chips, I am trying to be prepared to have company at all times. A lot of people have been stopping in to see the new house, so it’s good to do this!

Drink: The simplest and chicest thing is to have a drinks tray or table always set up. Include a mix of pretty glasses, an ice bucket, a lovely pitcher, and bottles of soda and water. When the bell rings, just add ice and limes.
Ha! Before I had a jar of mayo in the fridge, I had champagne and white wine!  I do have a nice silver ice bucket and a gorgeous silver water pitcher. I have beautiful William Yeoward glasses, so they’re always stunning to use for guests. These are my Happy Home colours:This is pretty interesting, since the bottom center colour is basically what I’ve painted the living room and one of the bedrooms, and the top left colour, a sort of periwinkle is one of my favourites!

Take a moment to take the quiz, and let me know what it says about you!

Patrick Sutton Home

About a month or so ago, I had lunch with Patrick Sutton, a Baltimore-based decorator who is getting a lot of press on the national and international stage. He’d just returned from Copenhagen where he’d attended the Design Leadership Summit. We had a fascinating conversation which ranged from design in Baltimore to upcoming trends. You can read a recap of the Summit, including quotes from Patrick, here on All The Best.

Patrick has a great store in Baltimore’s new Harbour East neighbourhood, an area that magically appeared while I was living abroad, and which used to be filled with run-down warehouses and docks. It’s now filled with wonderful shops and fabulous restaurants. Patrick’s shop is stocked with gorgeous things and it was such fun to have a quiet wander around looking at everything.

beautiful settings

incredible artwork and furniture

stellar objets d’art scattered throughout the shop

brilliant orange ribbons decorating slate grey boxes

comfortable chairs perfect for lazy afternoons

elegant chairs with graceful lines

tasteful trinkets tossed about

I think that Patrick’s shop is one of my new favourite places! I hope that you will take a few moments to look at Patrick’s website and his work. He’s an incredible talent. Just click on the image above.

JK Rowlings’ Childhood Home for Sale

Just in time for the release of the last Harry Potter film, the childhood home of author JK Rowlings is for sale in England. Church Cottage, on the Welsh borders, near Chepstow, is on the market for the very reasonable £400,000. The house is located in the village of Tutshill, which for those who know their Harry Potter, is the also the name of Tutshill Tornadoes, one of the teams that plays Quidditch. It is also close to both Chepstow Castle and the Chepstow Racecourse, where I spent many happy afternoons, and won piles of dosh! Church Cottage was built as a school house by the Gothic Revivalist architect, Henry Woodyer, around 1852. The property retains many of its original features.One of the bedrooms features a small inscription of the windowsill “Joanne Rowling slept here circa 1982”, which even after several renovations, remains. The cottage is surrounded by gardens with fruit trees, roses, perennial flowers and a lily pond. There are three bedrooms, some of which have views over the Severn River estuary. Growing up in a house like Church Cottage must have given JK Rowling some of the material for the Harry Potter books, don’t you think? Wizard!

I’ll Take This… Sully Island, Wales

I used to see this little island when I would go to the monthly car-boot sale, sponsored by the Sully Rugby Club. I’d look out over the sea and Sully Island would come into view. I always had a soft spot for this particular “boot sale” as it was there that I bought my little chandelier… and for the hunky rugby players who directed you to a parking space. Now I see that Sully Island is for sale. It’s actually pretty inexpensive – only £95,000, down from £1.25m only last year.  Of course, there are no buildings, no roads and no deepwater dock. In fact, the only way to get to the island is to walk across at low tide – and the tide in that area swings about 10 meters between high and low. Here’s what the estate agents have to say:

Home to an abundance of species of birdlife and fauna, and a highly regarded fishing spot, Sully Island is a beautiful and captivating feature of the South Wales coastline with its own chequered history dating back many hundreds of years.

From Romans and Vikings, to pirates and noblemen, all have used the island for their own purposes, foul or fair, and evidence of a burial mound and a hill fort, together with the timber skeleton of a wrecked vessel are visible on or around the island today. It is reputed before the First World War the son of the Marquis of Bute successfully cultivated a vineyard on the island to supply his father’s bottling plant in Castell Coch. Whilst the vineyard has long gone, it is believed that whoever owns the island retains the right to commission their very own postage stamps!What you can’t see on this map, but you can see in the image above it, are two other islands – Flat Holm, which was flat, and Steep Holm, which was steep!  There is a road running along the cliff and that was the road I drove going to work at the Castle.

Here are the details on the island, just in case you’ve got a spare £95,000 and a hankering for some solitude!

I am in the Fishbowl!

There’s a great new website called Baltimore Fishbowl which features a wide range of topics from culture to money & politics, from real estate and homes to schools. Fishbowl’s publisher formerly published one of my favourite local magazines, Paper Doll, and so when I discovered Fishbowl, I was delighted.

The publisher, Suzy Dunn, interviewed me recently, and here’s the story. I hope you’ll take a few moments to read the interview and check out the rest of the site. It just launched in May.

The name, Baltimore Fishbowl, is an inside joke about how everyone in Baltimore has just two degrees of separation from everyone else. Suzy’s husband’s brother and my brother were best friends all through school!

Thanks, Suzy!