More on rugs.

Okay...I am a little (make that very) slow on the uptake. I'm sure a few people reading this will say..."Um, hello. Where have you been?" I don't know where I've been, but now I'm found. And found is two words, one designer:

Madeline Weinrib

While searching for carpets to take the place of my MISSING WSHome rug, I stumbled into Madeline Weinrib's website. And then spent the entire morning dreaming and trying to convince stores that sell her stuff to sell to me and ship. Yes...living in Central Maine has its drawbacks. Also, I found an article about how Madeline Weinrib actually sued WSHome for copyright infringement. I agree Madeline!

So check it out:

(from Meredith Weinrib site)

(from Williams Sonoma Home)

Anyway, onto more positive things. I may have changed my mind about a rug for the dining room anyway. Look at this one:

 

 (from Meredith Weinrib)

The inspiration for the color change comes from my Mottahedeh Sacred Bird and Butterfly China: 

(from Mottahedeh.com)

Plus, I'm still very definite about navy and white for the living room. Because the dining room and living room are connected via two beautiful pocket doors, I need to consider that the colors in each room work together. I adore navy and orange together.  Jon is not sold...so I still have work to do. Also...I can't find prices for the Madeline Weinrib rugs anywhere! In the process of trying to find prices/someone to sell me these rugs, I found this adorable store/interior design company in San Francisco: Lotus Bleu Some of their interior design does what I wish I could do -  blend modern patterns with traditional and antique furniture.

Why do I have to live so far from cute shops!?

I am mad at Williams Sonoma Home. Very very mad.

Okay...I haven't posted in a while. A VERY LONG WHILE. Mostly the renovations were on hold because of our overly busy lives. Sob, sob.

Well, because I wasn't getting busy with a hammer...I decided to get busy with my credit card. I started scouring the web (let's face it...I live in Central Maine and online shopping is pretty much all I have) for deals. And I found what I believe to be the deal of the century from Williams Sonoma Home.

The WS Home stuff is way higher quality than Pottery Barn or West Elm and thus...more expensive. I stumbled onto their sale section a little after Christmas...and there...I found the most beautiful HAND NEEDLE POINTED RUG in a herringbone design for $199.00. Originally it was nearly $3000.00.

It crossed my mind at the time that it was probably mistakenly priced at $199.00 and should have been $1,999.00...but I didn't wait. I got out my card and purchased it in 9 seconds flat.

So...then I wait. It says it will ship in 3 days. I start monitoring the lovely UPS tracking device. All it says is:

Location	Date	Local Time	Description
MEMPHIS, TN, US	01/11/2010	2:53 P.M.	ARRIVAL SCAN
OLIVE BRANCH, MS, US	01/11/2010	11:49 A.M.	DEPARTURE SCAN
	01/11/2010	11:05 A.M.	ORIGIN SCAN
US	01/11/2010	9:43 P.M.	BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

So I wait. I think...wow...it must take so long because it's so large. And then I got tired of waiting. I called yesterday. And Williams Sonoma Home gave me the biggest load of bullsh*t I've ever heard:

"Ma'am, our records show that the rug was delivered to your house, was denied and then sent back to our distribution facility in Tennessee, where we resold it."

I proceed to calmly say that it was never delivered to our house, there was no record of any UPS person coming to our house (you know UPS leaves those notices when they can't drop off something and then after three tries you have 2 weeks to pick it up at their facility), and that I want my rug.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am. We don't have anymore rugs. We sold out."

Then I get slightly agitated, "I don't understand. The rug was never at my house. I wanted the rug. My husband wanted the rug. It wasn't delivered."

"I'm sorry Ma'am. There's nothing I can do. You should call UPS. They certainly shouldn't be conducting business that way."

So...I hang up annoyed out of my mind and call UPS. I speak to the UPS agent and give them my tracking number and they tell me that the rug was never delivered to my house. The rug never left Tennessee.

Now...UPS has never failed me. They are amazing. Why would they lie to me? There's no reason...they get paid no matter what. But WS Home? Clearly...I purchased that rug for less than they were willing to sell it for and somebody figured it out.

Well...they messed with the wrong customer. I'm pissed. And the last time I posted something about a company...they FOUND it on my blog and commented. So WS Home, I have one thing to say:  I would like that beautiful herringbone needle pointed rug in my dining room. I am willing to pay more for it. Seriously. I just want it underfoot in my diningroom. I'll forget all about your dishonest customer service representative. Thanks.

22 Windows Without Curtains

When Jon and I moved in to our new house at the end of June, we were struck by the design choices of the previous owners - and not in a good way. They were lovely people so I'll be polite. As I've noted before, the wall paper covering every room was likely put up in 1982. Clashing florals: hot pink in the dining room, white and pink in the kitchen, dark green in the center hall, and tan plaid in the study.  To compliment the floral wall paper, the previous owners put up lace curtains in the living room, sheer (and not silk sheer, I'm talking straight polyester) panels of a greenish tint in the dining room, green sheers in the pink bedroom, more polyester lace in another bedroom, and brown canvas panels in the study.

The previous owners left their window treatments behind, which was a very nice gesture. And because I knew I wouldn't get around to sewing new curtains for quite a while, I decided to leave them up even though I wasn't so keen on the appearance.

Well, I couldn't take it anymore. At the beginning of October when Jon was away I just went a little nuts. I took everything down in a rampage. I called Jon like an ashamed little kid, "Jon. I have something to tell you."

"What? Are you okay?" I could tell he was worried.

"I took down all the window treatments. I couldn't stand it anymore."

"Well, what are we going to do? Just have no curtains?"

"I'm telling you...it looks WAAAAY better."

"Fine."

Click.

It was a little more cordial than that, but it does look waaay better. But now I need to select fabric and at least try to get started on curtains. I have a long, dark, cold Maine winter ahead of me which will provide lots of time for sewing.


When I was growing up, there was a Calico Corners within 15 minutes of my house. Actually, pretty much anything you needed or wanted was within 15 minutes of my house, so I'm spoiled. Central Maine is a different story. Thank goodness for the internerd.

You'll remember that we painted our bedroom a light blue/turquoise color. I'm still questioning that decision a little, but I'm hoping to fix it with my curtains. I need to dress up the room a bit and to do that, I want to add a dark brown element. Here are some of the initial swatches I've ordered from Calico Corners. I WELCOME input:

The first one is called Blossom (in Chocolate) and it is made of 95% cotton, 5% linen. The second one is called Scramble (in Chocolate) and it is made of 55% linen, 45% rayon.

Here are some tips on drapery fabric (all credit to my Mom, an incredible seamstress):  Always get a swatch of the fabric before you buy all that you need. You can't tell "drape" from an image in a catalog or online. The "drape" of the fabric is key. How well does it look hanging- does it fall naturally or look stiff? Just imagine a curtain blowing in the wind: one that billows slightly will drape naturally, but one that moves in one big piece won't drape as naturally. In my limited experience, I love the way linen blends drape. I aim for natural fabrics (linen, cotton, silk), but those are usually more expensive. Just stay far, far away from polyester. I mean it.

Soon, I'll post how to make a gorgeous curtain that's actually pretty easy. It's a historic design that I learned from my Mom, but it fits perfectly in a modern home meaning that it's totally functional yet lovely and unique.

Let me know which fabric you like better!

Don't look in the attic!

Our housewarming party was last Friday and I have to say I am proud of the way everything turned out. Jon and I were discussing that this party was the first party we've thrown as true 'adults.' Hmm. I don't know how we decided that we are now adults, but there it is. I've felt it coming for a while now...but china, wine glasses, baked brie. They are all pointing in a direction. And that direction begins with an A.

Other than the disturbing realization that now we're adults, we also realized that there's nothing like a housewarming party to make homeowners productive. In the two weeks before our party we stripped the rest of the wallpaper in our kitchen, re-plastered the walls in our dining room and kitchen, primed and painted the dining room, painted the trim in our new bedroom, unpacked all of our books, rearranged our 'study' and cleaned about 8 times. Plaster dust is my new number one enemy. Yes, it's even worse than Porter fur. But the combination is downright awful.

To be honest, we made the amazing discovery that our neighbor is a plaster and dry wall professional. He is fantastic. His work is perfect. And our walls are beautiful. Slum no more!

So after all of the work and cleaning, my parents came up to Maine and helped me prepare for the party. Who knew there was such a thing as colored leaf doilies to put on your serving plates under cheese and the like? That would be my Mom, aka as Karen "Martha Stewart" Helm. And we searched all over Central Maine for these puppies. No where to be found. So my Mom bought them on her return home to PA and sent them to me for the party. And yes, I used them. I placed them under my 'made from scratch' pumpkin cupcakes. Are you barfing yet? No? Just wait.

We also purchased a burnt orange hemstitch runner and a white linen hemstitch table cloth from Williams-Sonoma. Not only does the burnt orange match my Sacred Bird and Butterfly China from Mottahedah, but it goes perfectly with the harvest theme of our party. I know you're sick now. (As a side note, I think runners give one the option of making a seasonal table, without having to buy a completely different color tablecloth. If you have a good basic white table cloth, pretty much any color runner will go perfectly with it. Next on my list: navy for summer! Yes, I'm already planning our next party!)

The funny thing about all of this is that I truly had fun getting the house ready for our party. I loved it. And instead of describing it and making myself sick, maybe I should just put some photos up.

Here's the caveat about the photos...my camera was out of batteries, so we had to use an iPhone. Not the greatest, but they'll give you the idea:

We put luminaries on either side of our front walk to welcome guests to our house.

Here's one of our two pumpkins.

When guests came in, we brought them right to the bar- of course!

We also had a 1/4 keg of Gritty's Halloween Ale

We moved the furniture in our TV room to accommodate more people. There are my fab UO chairs!

This is an antique table that belonged to my Grandmother, Mimi. On top, I covered it with an Irish linen runner, a bowl with floating beeswax candles (thanks Mom and Dad), multicolored maize, gords, mini-pumpkins, and paper leaves. I also used this table for a bowl of roasted pumpkin seeds, almonds, and candy corn!

And here's the table. Jon took this picture before I put all the food out. It looked pretty spectacular with all the food. Ugh...I wish we had better photos.

Another shot...sort of.

Before our party, I mapped out an all day workplan (complete with time limits on each activity). I made sure to get everything done on time and in order and that made for a great party, with relatively little stress. It was A TON of work, but not stressful. And I think our guests enjoyed themselves too! Can't wait for the next one!

House Warming Party!

After working INSANE hours for weeks (evidenced by the time of this post) and never seeing Jon except in the photographs on my blog, we decided to add a fun element to our lives by hosting a house warming party.

Now...we may seem crazy. The house is currently half covered in plastic sheeting (I mean the inside) to protect everything from the dust of our renovations. And we are NOWHERE close to being finished. I mean...it will be years. But, we're going to keep it low key and fun. At least, I'm trying to despite the ugly perfectionist in me that's fighting to come out and take over.

So, first came the invitations:
Lately, I've been loving the mail. We had our 3 year anniversary last week and I got a bunch of cards (and all my magazines arrived too) and it reminded me how much I love the U.S. Postal Service. Receiving a letter feels like Christmas. I just love them. So...I decided to send real invitations using the actual postal service for our party. I couldn't afford anything fancy, but I wanted to get creative.

Several weeks ago, I stumbled on this cute antique shop in Hallowell (4 miles from my house) which had an amazing selection of old postcards. I bought up the whole stack of Maine themed postcards (20 for $1 to $2 a piece = total of $30.00) and sent them as invitations. I could have gotten much more creative with the envelope, but my insane job limits my time/creativity way more than I'd prefer. I tried to match the card to each recipient's interests or personality. Here is a sampling of the invitiations:

Upper left: "Greetings from Maine" Upper right: "Deer in Maine" Lower left: "A River Road in Maine" Lower right: "A Maine Potato Farm""Nut cracker in Maine""Surf Scene on Maine Coast""The Gardiner-Randolph Bridge" (I wish it still looked like this!)


"Lunch time in Maine" (sent to two of my favorite Maine parents)

(I forgot to add the time of our party to this invitation...luckily...I only did that once!)

So now that the invites are out, the RSVPs are rolling in. I think we'll have about 30 people. The next thing I need to worry about is food. Anyone have good hors d'ouevres ideas/recipes? Please comment and help me out!

Susanna's Strategies for a Successful Paint Job

Sure...there are tips all over the web for a good paint job, but I have some others that I've learned the hard way...and are absolutely NECESSARY for success. I hope they help you the next time you have to paint.

1. Never ever underestimate the power of primer (I suggest High Hiding Primer- Valspar is the brand I used on this job, and I was impressed).

2. If you are painting drywall for the first time, ABSOLUTELY 100% make sure you have all the drywall dust off the walls. I learned this the hard way. If you paint on top of the dust - even just a little - painters tape will take off all your hard work...because the dust prevents the primer from sticking to the dry wall. I guess I thought I could cheat...

3. Listen to music and specifically songs that tell stories (I think these are ballads?). Such as anything Neil Young, Johnny Cash, Ray LaMontagne, Band of Horses, Neil Simon, Emmie Lou Harris, Loretta Lynn, and throw in some Dixie Chicks to pick up the pace. I sincerely think Maine and its plethora of country radio is getting to me. Really, just listen to whatever you can zone out to and enjoy. I found myself lost in the stories that I was listening to while painting. When do we ever get 4-8 hours to do something mindless and listen to music? It definitely made the process more enjoyable!

4. Always paint with a wet edge. What does this mean? Instead of painting the whole room, and then painting the edges, break up your room into different sections- mainly wall by wall. Paint the center part of the wall with a roller and then while it's still wet, do the edges. When you move to the next wall, wrap the edge paint brush in a wet paper towel to keep it from drying out too much before you need it again. This will make sure you don't see ridges between the rolled center and the brushed edge.

5. A good roller and a good paint brush are definitely worth the money. I ALWAYS choose the Purdy brand.

Okay, so those are my tips. I really debated whether or not to put these photos up. We choose a blue color for the walls in our bedroom. It's a FreshAire Choice brand of paint- ecofriendly and no VOCs. I figure I'll be sleeping *hopefully* 8 hours per night in this room so I certainly don't want to be breathing paint offgas for years to come! The color we choose is called Summer Dragonfly. You can see it in the Waterscape Palette on the FreshAire Choice website.

On the website, you'll probably say: wow, how soothing. Perfect for a bedroom. And that's what I think. However...the color as it appears in these photographs is totally different from the color as it appears in reality. You'll just have to trust me! We also finished the ceiling since I took these photos. Holy hell was that long and neck-breaking. 2 coats of primer...but only one 1 coat of high gloss Glacial Tint! We still have to prime and paint the wood work. See the cool design on the woodwork- we matched it to the rest of the woodwork in our house.

Oh yes, those prison windows have been replaced since the photo was taken too. Thank goodness.

Here you can see a bit of the hell that was the floor. It looks so much better now...pictures soon!

Floors = pain

When we tore up that gross red carpet in the back bedroom we found old wide plank floors underneath. They appeared to be in great condition except for one small problem: they were covered in layers and layers of paint. The paint was likely very old (i.e. lead?) and two tone. The middle of the floor was gold in color and the outside was dark brown. I was VERY concerned about sanding: if the paint contained lead, sanding would make the lead airborne...which is the worst way to be exposed. I figured we already exposed ourselves to some pretty terrible toxins during demolition...no matter how careful we were. So we got some paint stripper...a biodegradable variety...and tried that. The layer of brown paint wiped off with a paper towel, but the stripper didn't even disturb the gold or approximately 30 layers underneath the gold.

So what to do?

When we lived in our Carriage House in Providence, the previous owners had painted the exposed beams. We had to scrape the beams to uncover the gorgeous wood underneath and Jon still had the scraper we used, so he tried it on the floors. Success.

However...exposing a few beams is one thing. Scraping an entire floor is a whole other nightmare. Jon actually sweat through his shorts. I've never seen that before. I understand sweating through a shirt...but shorts? And the whole time he was doing this he had to wear a respirator...which made it a doubly awful task. Try breathing heavily into a respirator...

So then we rented a commercial grade, EPA approved sander. Awesome, right? Well...remember that our house is over 100 years old. The floorboards aren't necessarily level. In fact most of them are bowed one way or the other. So putting a big belt sander on top, will only really work on part of the board. Ugh. But at least it helped a little.

All in all we estimate that the whole process took Jon about F-O-R-T-Y hours. I felt so bad. Sincerely awful.

In the process, we found a layer of old newspaper under the paint in one corner. Weird right? Why would they have put paint down and then painted on top? Who knows...but we did get to scrap up a few pieces that are even readable. Take a look: