First, I’m so sorry if my side bar is looking a little funky or if you notice other technical glitches.  We’re in the process of moving my blog over to WordPress and it’s a bit more involved because my website was on the URL my blog is moving to.  A lot of my graphics and sponsor buttons were stored there, so just hang in there and we’ll get it all sorted out soon.  This January, I had the pleasure of attending Blissdom, my very first blog conference.  The best part was meeting and hanging out with bloggers I knew well and getting to know those I had only “seen” in passing.  One night at dinner, I ended up sitting next to Dee Kasberger, the artist and designer of Red Letter Words.  I had seen her work all over the place and so many of her pieces struck a chord with me. 

I think it’s safe to assume that most Americans experienced 9-11 through their television.  I experienced a part of it in person and then later watched it on TV.  On September 11, 2001, I was working for a staffing firm in downtown DC, right in the heart of the city.  Getting to work each day was a four step adventure that started with a drive to the park-n-ride, then onto a bus, followed by the metro and the rest of the journey was made on foot.  It took over an hour to get from my door to work.  On that sunny Tuesday morning, I went on my four step adventure just like any other day.  I settled in at my desk, put on my headset and started making my calls. I worked in a “bullpen” environment, so there was no surfing the net or checking my personal e-mail.  It was fast-paced, numbers-oriented,

I have the pleasure tonight of introducing you to one of my sponsors and a very fun company, if you don’t know it already… Alice and Jay.  Their tag line says it all.  “Simple Splendiferous Fun.”  And they are fun.  I met the pair last May at the Lucketts Antique Market.  I didn’t have much to sell on the second day, so I had a good time mingling with other vendors and drooling over their fabulous stuff.  Not only do Alice and Jay sell cool things like antique textiles, Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint, refurbished furniture and curiosities, they sell lamps they make out of cool things.  Things like dress forms, farm tools, industrial pieces and architectural salvage.  I have a gorgeous pair of chippy gray lamps made out of old columns from them.  I was thrilled when they wanted to partner with me as a sponsor and even more excited when

Aw, my boys are getting so big. They went off for their first day of full-day school today. My four year old is in pre-k five days and my three year old will attend two days a week.  It’s a change that’s going to take some getting used to, but I will have so much more time for work, so that’s exciting.  This post today is a bit of a mixed bag.  I’ve been working on a lot of different things and nothing is done, so I’ll just show you where I am with it all.  First, some pretty shots.  I bought some dried hydrangeas (my favorite flower) and this great chippy table the last time I was at Lucketts.  Isn’t that paint divine? The big project of the day was continuing the office purge.  Mini Mustard Seed and I consolidated three wire racks of stuff down to one.  (The

When I do a photo shoot for Cottages and Bungalows or HGTV.com, I take LOTS of shots.  I not only get the “beauty shots” that I think my editors want, but I take closeups and some other pictures that are just for me.  I just can’t help myself.  So, here are some of the rest of the photos I took during my shoot for the October issue of Cottages and Bungalows, which is available on newsstands now. The shot above actually made it on the contents page of the magazine, but it was cropped.  This was definitely my favorite photo shoot so far.  I’m off to go to bed early again tonight.  I’m still dragging a bit, but we had a low key day and I’m hoping a good night sleep will give me the “reboot” I need!

I’m almost done with my HGTV.com projects for fall and Thanksgiving. Here’s a peek at a couple of them… One more left to finish.  So, while I was working on those, my “intern”, Charlene, was working on some stripping, sanding and painting.  While getting ready to don a mask, she informed me that she wants to be referred to as Mini Mustard Seed.    She’s a hard worker and great at organization, so we’re going to work on my office together over the next few weeks.  A part of that plan will include reducing the amount of stuff I have greatly, moving seasonal things to the basement and then using antique pieces to provide beautiful storage.  So, I started her on my French armoire that was hauled all the way up from Florida.  It had a painted design on it that needed to be sanded off before painting, so it wouldn’t show through

“So, what would you like to do for your birthday?”, I asked one of our graduated youth girls (and babysitter/craft assistant)  She replied, “Can you just make something for me?  I like your food better than any food I can get at a restaurant.” Well, she certainly knows how to flatter a girl.  I love cooking and it’s something she enjoys doing with me, so we made fresh pasta with a creamy chicken, mushroom and Marsala sauce.  She also requested an ice cream cake, which I made yesterday (and it survived through our power outage.) Something you may not know about me is that I’m a bit of a foodie.  I love baking and cooking things from scratch, so I have awesome kitchen gadgets and great cookbooks.  We used the basic pasta recipe out of the Williams Sonoma Mastering Pasta cook book.  With a food processor and the pasta attachments for my Kitchen

Imagine with me, if you will.  You’re a designer, walking through an antique store and you see this gorgeous chippy table.  The size isn’t right, but the color is exactly what you are looking for.  Oh, if only you carried all eight of your paint color fan decks around with you, you could spend an hour conferring with strangers in the store trying to find which color was the closest match.  Well, now there is a better way.  Capsure is a gadget ideal for designers, paint fanatics and color buffs. Here’s how it works.  You install the software and connect it to your computer.  Then you decide which paint decks you want to match colors to.  I selected Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams and True Value.  Once it’s synced and charged, you can start to play.  I immediately pressed it against my kitchen wall, it read the color and said “BM –