What happens in the bedroom...

It's time for a confessional: I need some help. I no longer adore my bedroom.

Don't get me wrong. For goodness sake, I really like my furniture, and I have no desire right now to repaint my room. (Heck, I wasn't even supposed to paint it in the first place!) But I've tired of the colors & the accents & the room arrangement. Here are a couple glimpses (& sorry for the poor lighting in the first one!):

If you can see it, I have a lot of orange in this room. Orange & white & minty teal. While has been inspiring as well as relaxing for the past six months, it is almost spring now & certainly time for a change! I've been sneaking around on design blogs & favorite-ing items on Etsy. I think the final straw was seeing Amy Butler's book, full of creative, colorful fabric uses.

So where does this leave me? Well, I think the color scheme is going to be a little more monochromatic. Lots of flavors of green & blue. I'm in love with these and these prints from Amy Butler, my favs of which are below.

So tonight I'll be dreaming of quilted throws, pillow covers, green plants, and a mix of blue & green accents. Sweet dreams to you too!

Orange + Pyrex = love

As my sister knows oh-so-well (often from "I can't concentrate at work" e-mails), I dearly seeing the color orange & Pyrex are combined into one sturdy, functional, beautiful bowl. I love the pop of color in my kitchen, particularly now in the winter when everything just seems to feel blah and completely over itself. Since I rent, the look of my kitchen is pretty inflexible, and with lots of white 80s cabinets & a weird shade of creamy pink on the walls, I don't have a lot of options, people! Thus, I believe, the fixation on color for serving bowls & other kitchen accessories.

The question is, where to find these? There seems to be a dearth of thrift stores in this part of the country--the only one nearby provides only a few treasures. So for the most part, I have to get my fix online. Few days have gone by in the past several months when I haven't spent at least a minute putting "orange, pyrex" or some permutation into the search box of Etsy, Ebay, or Shop Goodwill. So imagine my joy when I found this on Etsy last night:

Sorry, people. I already snapped it up! It'll go so well with this smaller Pyrex I found (surprisingly!) at the nearby thrift store.

A little break never hurt anyone!

A week ago, I hopped a plane to Florida for a (sunny vacation) conference for work. It was the best kind of trip--intellectually stimulating presentations & conversations with vendors, visually stimulating verdant surroundings, and physically stimulating with warm weather for running & walking.

In addition, I celebrated my birthday with an afternoon trip to Epcot. (And don’t even ask...a woman never tells her age.) A few nauseating rides & a trip around the world later, I returned to my hotel, rejuvenated and even feeling that I could face the rest of the New England winter. The following are a couple of my favs.

A hint of spring (Just a hint)

Today was a giddy day. The fact that we're supposed to be celebrating-- something about presidents--was excuse enough for me to take the day off. It even came on the heels of a relaxing weekend, so I awoke early this morning & cheerfully attacked the remainder of my list. The morning started with a rainstorm & a space heater, but when I ventured outside, it was a balmy, damp day that smelled of rain and dirt and spring. It was 60F--wait, yes really! in the usually frigid northeast! Enough to make this girl giddy with joy.

Somehow, there is just nothing like rare warmth & a free day...in this case, it led to two steamy loaves of french bread and a full pot of soup*, as well as a bevy of organizing & errands. In spite of the cooling weather outside, the joy of being able to slowly, happily savor my day still lingers with me this evening.

*I promise to post pics tomorrow. It was a lunch feast that I quite happily devoured!

What I dream about at work...

Now, don't get me wrong. I truly enjoy my job and work hard (really, I do!). However, there are those moments when I find myself thinking about things other than healthcare & clinical guidelines. Namely, the ugliness of my cubicle. To be fair, it's nicer & newer than plenty I've seen, but it just doesn't welcome me with open arms or beg me to linger a few moments more.

If, my fantasy begins, perhaps, my company permitted, or even encouraged full-out cubicle customization, these would be a few of my picks:



CB2 desk & Ikea file cabinet, for a touch of the clean & modern. Plenty of space to spread out on the desk, but a great place to store all of the junk underneath it.





Comfy Pottery Barn desk chair, a perfect blend of the old with the modern desk. (Please note, craigslist.org is also a great source of these chairs!)




Fun desk accessories from See Jane Work & Bell'occhio to add a little color to the cubicle:

And wouldn't this Room&Board chair (maybe in a red/pink wool fabric) be fabulous to settle into on those afternoons when you just want to put your feet up to work?

One Lucky Helen

Well, we've been a little lazy with our blog here. I guess work has snowed me under, and Rach might actually be snowed under.... hmm.

I "found" a new artist today though (thanks to Print&Pattern), and I had to share. I am in LOVE with Helen Dardik's artwork (and patterns). Her vector art is phenomenal-I tried my hand at vector art once, and I now respect anyone who can do such a fine job! Here are some samples.










































Seeing artwork like this, done by an artist who loves their work and has made it their job makes me infinitely jealous....

The reader in Me

I thought that today I would share my obsession with bookshelves, bookcases, or just stacks of books. I love the colors that they create together and I love the idea of all those stories and lives, just waiting to be read and enjoyed. Right now, Domino Mag has a little feature on bookcases. Here are some of my favorites...