After Thanksgiving Walk with the Family....and goats

{This post is really for my Mama because she couldn't be there on Saturday and she's not on facebook to see these pics.}

On Saturday my Sister hosted a little family Thanksgiving get together with fantastic food (and fantastic leftovers, thanks!) Besides the light fixture that I mentioned last week she also refinished a new (old) mantle that I can't wait to share with you later.  But first I wanted to post some pics of our after dinner walk to the river with the whole family (kids, dog and goats included) 

Freddie and Allen are very well behaved goats!

the goats get a treat after the walk - I on the other hand was still stuffed!

{hey Mom, the kids loved their pine cones and they looked SUPERfabulous on the Sister's new mantle}

Special thanks to may fab Cousin for bringing her camera and for letting me steal these pics.  Love!

Fast Changes for Thanksgiving

My sweet, talented, hardworking, amazing Sister wanted to update her dining room.  We are having a family meal at her house in Charlottesville on Saturday so she's been inspired to work fast and bust out a few projects before the big day.  (I am NEVER that fast with anything and am always in awe of her!!)  Her family moved into this house three years ago and this was one of the first rooms to get a mini-makeover (paint, new drapes, etc).  But after living in the house for awhile my Sister has a better understanding of how she wants the whole house to feel and is going back to make some changes.

First on the list is to change out the dining room ceiling fan for something more fab.

This is an obvious choice because who wants a ceiling fan over their dining table (except maybe my husband!)  Sister also had a swatch of fabric that she LOVED but couldn't bring herself to pay that much for all the yardage needed for new curtains.  Then she decided to cover a drum shade in the new fabric to make the new light fixture and TA-DA!

Love the new shade.  Can't wait to see it and all my family on Saturday.  Happy Thanksgiving!!

Office Inspiration

As I've mentioned before, I need new shelves on the wall over my desk in the office.  We haven't gotten to it on the to do list let.  (to his credit the Husband has been working extremely hard on the yard for the last several weeks) My hope is that we will have them by the end of the year.  Maybe.

While we continue to work on that I will continue to dream about what it could be.  One of my favorite pictures is of this one I've had tacked to my inpiration board for ages.

 
It is from an old issue of Martha Stewart Living from YEARS ago.  (notice the dinosaur of a laptop on the desk - it's listed as a IBM ThinkPad 755 CD laptop computer)  Though I don't think those awesome cubbies are in my near future I love how each square gives the opportunity for storage as well as creating some artful vignettes.  I love the chair and its fabric, the minimal color, and the rustic table as desk too.  Try to ignore the whack-a-doodle placement of the file cabinet trapped behind the table leg though.  Also from a styling perspective I find it interesting that they didn't edit out the wall plug and outlet in the lower right corner.  It's something you never see in magazines anymore yet it's something we live with everyday and really can't live without.  It always makes me happy we things look a little more real, more human, more lived in.

 

Thanks

So I didn't mean to take a little blog hiatus, but here I am over a week later and ready to get back to business.  First I have to give a big thanks to John & Sherry of Young House Love for hooking me up with tickets to the R Home for the Holidays Event on Thursday night.

I tried to play it cool and not be too geeky blog stalkerish when I ran into them during the festivities.  I didn't even tell them that they were one of my first introductions to the world of design blogs almost 3 years ago (yes, I know I was a little slow to catch onto the phenomenon).  I was googling wedding venues in the Richmond area and their blog popped up in my search.    More importantly the Husband and I are huge fans of Burger (their chihuahua!) because we now know the love that one little dog can bring to a family.  Anyway, I managed to keep it all inside and not harrass them while they enjoyed their own evening out.

 obligatory cute puppy picture

My Sweet Husband I and I had a great time and we both really enjoyed hearing Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, co-founder of Apartment Therapy, speak.  Okay, I have to back up for a minute and say that we had a little wine (a rare treat!) and a little food before the talk began.  One of the things being served was a turkey and cheese sandwich on a KRISPY KREME DONUT!  I can't believe I'm saying this but it was really tasty.  Okay, back to the designery stuff.  Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan gave a great talk about design, his history and that of Apartment Therapy and where it's all going.  It was very inspiring and made me want to focus my efforts back into my work even more after feeling not so inspired for the last week or so. 

After the talk we had to run out of there so the Husband could get to his regular Thursday night gig at Bogart's.  I actually stayed for a little bit of the show.  Here's a little taste of what you missed (the Husband's  the oh-so-handsome bass player!)


Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams from Aimee Richardson Sulser on Vimeo.

Have a great weekend! 

Nature's Inspiration

I am completely inspired by nature, as I'm sure a lot of you are too.  Over the weekend I snapped this pic on the path and thought it would make a beautiful jumping off point for a living room:

And this is what I  came up with:

What inspires you?  If you'd like an inspired space of your own, contact me for design services. 

Monday, and a tip

Welcome to November.  

The leaves are changing, the air is crisp and I need to wear socks 24-7 to keep my feet warm again.  I took the above reminders of fall on a walk with the dog in one of the Civil War parks near the house.  We love it there because we usually have the park to ourselves.  

And now a tip:
Today I am changing out my summer and winter clothes (do you have enough closet space to NOT have to do this??)  I'm not the most personally organized person in the world but I like my closet to be neat and tidy.  The easiest way I can keep it all organized and to know what to keep and what to get rid of at the end of the season is to turn the hangers around so that once they are worn the hangers face the correct way. 

At a glance I can see what needs to stay and what needs to go (because it wasn't worn) at the end of the next season.  It's easy to hang on to things too long but this is one rule that I keep to insure that I will have enough closet space to have new things every once in a while.  Basically I can buy myself something new and pretty if I make room for it!