So I have been loving my J.Crew wellies which I got last year. Bright pink, with olive green laces and similar green soles, very cute, and not over-the-top. However, I need some diversity as sometimes it rains and rains for days and they can't be used all the time. Esp when winter comes and the salt on the roads and sidewalks at school will ruin it all...
So I've been shopping around for some new boots. Less than $100. I don't need Hunter Wellingtons if I am buying them myself!!
Here are the runners-up:
Sperry Plaid Pelican Boot in navy/forest for $68:
L.L. Bean Rubber Moc in tan/navy for $59:
Sperry Comorant Moc in navy for $80: (a little bit more fun decorated-wise)
Shearling-Lined L.L. Bean moc in chestnut/chocolate for $114:
The dining room color is Woodlawn Colonial Gray, another NOVA plantation (seen here behind the couch)!:
**Our dining room looked like this when we visited it - they "gave" us the "window treatments" AKA lengths of fabric stuck through plastic-finished hooks in (eww):
Our plan with the dining room is this:
Ethan Allen - Townhouse Rectangular Dining Table
It has drawers on either end to store serving pieces, etc, and can extend to being 120" long! The legs are fluted and just amazing!
For chairs, we are planning on going with a chippendale side chair of about 5 on either side, so 10 total, and then 2 host/arm chairs. We may over time add a few more to fill in the wall spaces left!
The bay window has a space which would be sweet to put a couch/loveseat in but there is no room. So, our best option is a storage console piece which we could move during the holidays to stick a tree in. This is the one we have been going with - it is from the same collection as the Ethan Allen Dining Room table:
My mother was incredibly kind and gave us her old display case from her first marriage. It was used for storage when I was growing up on our farm, in the barn, for I believe horse accessories/etc, and now has a neat shabby-chic wearing to it. The pecan has withstood time well (as good pecan should), and has an older grey-ish finish on it, which we look forward to sandpapering off a good bit, to really make it look even more antiqued. There are two lights which need to be replaced on the inside, and the shelves are made of glass. I am on the fence about this, but I am thinking maybe replacing the glass and their holders with a grey-covered velvet would make it better for fine display pieces - wedding china/silver, antiques from my family, collections of my grandmama, etc...
For looks, it is very similar to this china cabinet and display piece by Ethan Allen (Maison), except flat across the top - and the pecan is marbleized underneath the fading finish:
Lastly, we want a blue and gray oriental carpet with touches of ivory, rose, and champagne tones for the dining room. So, here are some inspirations on those lines...
Or
What do you all think? Draperies are natch our last thought, as these pieces are much more significant in the order presented!
From: thetearoom.typepad.com, a more minimalist look. We want something dressier. Like the shelves though.
PBF and I will soon be doing major decorating for the house. Not just because it is the holidays, but because we will be starting on the major painting. Why are we doing it in the winter, you may ask. Well, because where we live in VA you can leave the house open all day long, and in the Summer that = HUMIDITY. Not good when spending a bunch of $$ on high-quality paint that could bubble, get dust on it, or just look bad. So, we have been waiting for this dry/low-humidity weather to kick in and it has in the past month. By the time my exams are over it will be perfect.
Living Room
We plan on painting the living room a deep dark forest green. Maybe a dark polo green is a better way to put it, as forest green has more brown in it. This isn't that kind of color. We will be purchasing the paint for Lowe's and we/I will be doing it ourselves. I have seen jobs at friend's houses that professionals did and they completely destroyed the crown molding. To be honest, this painting job feels like something I should do as I am worried they may "screw it up"... so I would rather screw it up myself than have to be concerned with someone else.
The living room color is Montpelier Palmetto Green, named for Montpelier in VA:
A lot of people - parent included - have questioned this choice, but the room is the length of the house, has a TON of crown molding, plantation blinds in white, and gets a TON of natural light, so the light won't be sucked out in a bad way.
This is what the living room looked like when we visited it the first time:
You can see that they had professional window valences made, but they did not really "work" with the rest of the Living Room. It was a mish-mash of things, understandable as they were recently married AND the husband was relocated out of state during the time the house was on the market - but not in our taste design-wise at all.
A more formal version of French Country. From: FineLiving.com
Our plan with the living room is to be minimalist (as in few things that are key pieces, not as in a Modern look). We hope to keep the look of French Country consistent in the house so we are going for classic, home-y, and traditional, without being stuffy. Our house is a colonial so layout-wise it is perfect. This is also so when I inherit items they can be placed throughout the house without looking out of place (my parents and grandparents have dozens of antique furniture pieces and collected pieces of artwork and figures from Europe). For example, my great-grandmother had a gorgeous Gold oval mirror which my parents currently have in their living room and I would love to have it for over the fireplace when it is my turn. It would be perfect there.
We were given as a housewarming gift from my Grandmother and Grandfather a beautiful sofa table: It is from Ethan Allen, the Maison collection (perfect name!), and is in the finish Rustique.
We plan on recovering the couch and sofa my parents had in the farmhouse I grew up in this fabric pattern - yellow background with red and green diamonds within it: This fabric is from Ethan Allen.
With a few throw pillows done in this pattern, which I love as it picks up the colors from the sofa and is a bit whimsical and 19th century at the same time: This fabric is from Ethan Allen as well.
I cannot wait to take all of the silver/brushed nickel fixtures including the living room ceiling fan and replace them with brass ones - such as the one below: This is a Hunter Bayport 42-inch four-blade ceiling fan with antique brass fixtures: This photo was taken from Amazon.com.
We are debating closing up the open "TV shelf" space above the gas fireplace and turn it instead into a real fireplace mantle with a family painting above it (not a portrait, a piece of artwork from my family, obviously). We'd get a media center to house our entertainment center, etc.
We have already ordered a large bookshelf from Ethan Allen to be delivered next month so the room becomes more library-style as we hope it will be used as such. It is large but we want it to look classic and still be functional (we have a TON of books between us). The shelf will go between the windows facing the front porch. Again, less floor space taken up because this shelf is TALL:
The collection is called Tango at Ethan Allen. (This bookshelf is actually 3 shelves, so use perspective in that regard).
Here is another photo of the living room (Thanks, Blackberry Tour!), including our goofy Halloween decorations! haha:
All Historic paint colors are shown here: http://www.valsparatlowes.com/explore-colors/historic-colors/paint-colors.html.
You may find that choosing Lowes for paint is a poor choice, or, at the very least - random. Well, originally, I was going to get the paint there because of my father's discount but now that doesn't apply (this Fall he went back to being an Executive Sales Manager at Pitney Bowes). However, they carry Valspar which is incredibly high in quality, and they have a relationship with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is an organization I have a great deal of passion for - as they have assisted with many projects near and dear to me. Currently, a major project of theirs is the Miami Marine Stadium, a unique structure to say the least:
Check out the NTHP at: http://www.preservationnation.org/.
Ode to the Nice Girls This is my tribute to the nice girls. To the nice girls who are overlooked, who become friends and nothing more, who spend hours fixating upon their looks and their personalities and their actions because it must be they that are doing something wrong. This is for the girls who don't give it up on the first date, who don't want to play mind games, who provide a comforting hug and a supportive audience for a story they've heard a thousand times. This is an homage to the girls who laugh loud and often, who are comfortable in skirts and sweats and combat boots, who care more than they should for guys who don't deserve their attention. This is for those girls who have been in the trenches, who have watched other girls time and time again fake up and make up and fuck up the guys in their lives without saying a word. This is for the girls who have been there from the beginning and have heard the trite words of advice, from "there are plenty of fish in the sea," to "time heals all wounds."
This is for the girls who have spent their weekends sitting on the sidelines of a beer pong tournament or a case race, or playing Florence Nightingale for a vomiting guy friend or a comatose crush, who have received a drunk phone call just before dawn from someone who doesn't care enough to invite them over but is still willing to pass out in their bed. This is for the girls who have left sad song lyrics in their away messages, who have time and time again dropped their male friend hint after hint after hint. This is for the girls who have been told that they're too good or too smart or too pretty, who have been given compliments as a way of breaking off a relationship.
This one's for the girls who you can take home to mom, but won't because it's easier to sleep with a whore than foster a relationship; this is for the girls who have been led on by words and kisses and touches, all of which were either only true for the moment, or never real to begin with. This is for the girls who have had their hearts broken and their hopes dashed by someone too cavalier to have cared in the first place; this is for the nights spent dissecting every word and syllable and inflection in his speech, for the nights when you've returned home alone.
This is for the hugs you've received from your female friends, for the nights they've reassured you that you are beautiful and intelligent and amazing and loyal and truly worthy of a great guy. This is for the girls who have been used and abused, who have endured what he was giving because at least he was giving something; this is for the stupidity of the nights we've believed that something was better than nothing, though his something was nothing we'd have ever wanted. This is for the girls who have been satisfied with too little and who have learned never to expect anything more: for the girls who don't think that they deserve more, because they've been conditioned for so long to accept the scraps thrown to them by guys.
Men complain that they never meet nice girls, girls who are genuinely interested and compelling, who are intelligent and sweet and smart and beautiful; men despair that no good women want to share in their lives, that girls play mind games, that girls love to keep them hanging. We nice girls are everywhere. But you're not looking for a nice girl. You're not looking for someone genuinely interested in your intramural basketball game, or your anatomy midterm grade, or that argument you keep having with your father; you're looking for a quick fix.
So don't say you're on the lookout for nice girls, guys, when you pass us up on every step you take. You don't want the nice girls, so don't say you're looking for a relationship: relationships take time and energy and intent, three things we're willing to extend - - but in return, we're looking for compassion and loyalty and trust, three things you never seem willing to express.
So how do you sit with a shattered soul? Gently, with gracious and deep respect. Patiently, for time stands still for the shattered, and the momentum of healing will be slow at first.
With the tender strength that comes from an openness
To your own deepest wounding, and to your own deepest healing.
Firmly, never wavering in the utmost conviction that evil is powerful, but there is a good that is more powerful still.
Stay connected to that goodness with all your being, however it manifests itself to you.
Give freely. Take in abundantly.
Find your safety, your refuge, and go there as you need.
Words won't always come; sometime there are no words in the face of such tragic evil.
But in your own willingness to be with them, they will hear you; from soul to soul they will hear that for which there are no words.
When you can, in your own time, turn and face that deep chasm within.
Let go. Grieve, rage, shed.
-Steele, K. (1987).
Sitting with the shattered soul. Pilgrimage: Journal of personal exploration and psychotherapy, 15, 6, 19-25.
For support, talk to your partner, family, friends, an advocate at a sexual assault crisis center, or call the Virginia Family Violence & Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-838-8238(v/tty).
**FYI, this has nothing to do with PBF. This came WAY before PBF.
