Artichoke ...

A few months ago, Erin and I toured a model home that was carefully designed and perfectly decorated. We literally fell in love with every design element in the four-floor luxury town home. One such element that kept repeating in various rooms of the house was a white ceramic artichoke. It's hard to tell, but in the photo below you can see four of them in the gray cabinets. (Look on the top shelf at the outer corners and you'll see two pairs.)
We saw them again in the basement on the built-in bar counter:
Ever since the tour I have been looking for something similar to use at my house. I found one option from Z Gallerie and I love the individual thistles and how it sits atop a pedestal. But, I haven't been to a Z Gallerie lately so I've kept an eye out at local shops and boutiques as I've traveled.As luck would have it, Jared and I stopped at a roadside vintage/antique store on our way back in town from a weekend get-away and I found this:
Behold, my gorgeous little artichoke! Atcually, it isn't so little... it's about the size of a cantelope so it defintely makes a statement. I haven't decided on the right spot for this beauty so for now I keep moving it from one room to the next. Eventually it will find a permenant spot in the house and be admired by all who lay eyes on it... or at least just by me!

Pillow Talk

With Spring 2009 almost officially here, I thought it might be time to scope out the new pillow offerings at some of my favorite retailers. I don't think we're the only ones loving the classic black and white combination right now, as B&W pillows abound this season, as do royal influences and texture.

Spring 2009 Pillows - by girlmeetshome on Polyvore.com

Clockwise, starting with the crown:

1. King Crown Hook Pillow, Modern Dose

2. Link Needlepoint Pillow, Modern Dose

3. Sunburst Crewel Pillow Cover, Pottery Barn

4. Isla Pillow, Z Gallerie

5. Ziggy Pillow, Crate & Barrel

6. French Stripe Lumbar Pillow Cover, Pottery Barn

7. Labyrinth Pillow, Z Gallerie

8. Queen Bee, Limited Edition Designer Pillow, Ballard Designs

9. Queen Pillow, Modern Dose

Now I just have to wait for these to go on sale!

FYI: Z Gallerie Store Closings

Maybe this isn't news to you, but I just discovered that Z Gallerie announced last weekend that they are closing 25 stores. For those of you who live in the Northern Virginia area, head on over to the Tyson's Corner location to get your Z-fix one last time, or just to take advantage of major discounts.

Yesterday I stopped in to check out some window treatments and overheard the store manager talking about a sale. When I asked him for details he clued me into the store closing and said as of now, all regular priced merchandise is 40% off. They haven't been told when exactly the doors will be closing so you still have time to shop.

When will the bad news start getting better? I will continue to support the economy in anyway that I can, but there is only so much shopping one woman can do. And to be honest, I only buy quality items that I absolutely love... maybe businesses should start producing them! And if they smack an honest "Made in America" sticker on the back, they will already have one customer lined up!

How To: Remove a Satellite Dish from the Roof

On Saturday morning we turned our backyard into a satellite dish graveyard. That's because last week heavy winds knocked over one of the two dishes on our roof and ever since we've wanted to murder DirecTV. Of course the banging dish was just outside of our bedroom window so we've been sleeping in the guest room for the past few nights. You'd think the satellite company would have a service for removing unused dishes from previous customers... but if you thought that... you'd be wrong!


Our annoyance (and lack of zzz's) spurred us into action. We went to Home Depot at 8:00 am Saturday morning and rented a 24' extension ladder so that Jared could climb onto the roof to remove both dishes. Thankfully no one was hurt in the process and we had the ladder back an entire hour before it was due. (FYI: renting a ladder of this size cost us $28 for four hours which made more sense for us than spending $200 to buy one.)


I think Jared actually enjoyed tossing both dishes off of the roof. May they rest in peace.


Since removing the mount plates would leave a series of exposed holes in the roof we decided to leave them in place for the time being. Jared did some Google searches to see what people typically do to remove these old dishes and most sources suggested leaving the plates in place if they weren't a problem.


However, if the plate is loose or already missing some of the bolts, you will be better off removing them and patching the holes. In most cases the bolts used to secure the dish to your house will have punctured several layers under your roofing. Leaving them exposed will likely cause water damage in the future.


We used Henry Wet Patch Roof Cement to fill in the holes. It came in a caulk tube which made it easy to dispense (I assume, after all Jared was the one on the roof.)

Finally, the eye sore(s) are gone, baby gone. No more useless dishes on our roof and the rickety-rackety, pots and pans-like banging we've been living with are a thing of the past!

Room off of the Kitchen: Update

Back in January I began planning what to do with the "room off of our kitchen" and put together this moodboard. From there I started shopping for items in the plan or like-items that would work for the space. While it's great to have a plan when shopping for your rooms, it's just as important to keep an open mind. For example:

Originally I planned to save up for the Ryhs Console table from Pottery Barn. Then one day I stopped by Target during my lunch break and saw this Tobias Console table on the floor during their Home Design Event. I snapped a picture with my phone and left the store but for the next few days I kept thinking about how perfect the table would be for our room. The long legs create an open feeling that won't eat up space in our small room and it has just enough room for storage in the drawer space. After a few days of thinking about it I went online to target.com and found an offer for free shipping on furniture plus 30% off of everything in their Home Design event. So, for $154 we were able to find a great peice of hardwood furniture that will really open up our room. We essentially saved ourselves over $500 by having a plan and keeping an open mind.

Bonjour, 30!

Recently my dear friend Lisa said "au revoir" to her 20s and "bonjour" to her 30s! So a couple of friends and I huddled together to help make her 30th birthday dinner extra special.

Lisa has said for years that she wanted to go to Paris for her 30th, and unfortunately this year with the global economy the way it is, it wasn't feasible. So we decided to bring Paris to Lisa during dinner!

To help us pull together an interesting, elegant, and decidedly fun and French tablescape, I came up with a moodboard for the dinner party that incorporated all of the essential elements:

• Anything French (fleur de lis and Eiffel towers, included),
• Lots of wine (dinner was to be held at a local wine store),
• And, the color green (her favorite color!).

This is what we came up with:

Lisa's Bday-1 - by girlmeetshome on Polyvore.com

And this is how it turned out:

Flowers: When asked what flowers she'd love to see, Lisa said her favorite flower was "surprise." haha, such a Lisa answer :-) Knowing how much she liked pink, we decided to pick up six bunches of 10 pink, white and aubergine mini calla stems at Whole Foods for $7.99 a bunch! Four bunches served as the main centerpiece in a glass container, and we used one bunch each for two smaller mini arrangements on the table.


Eiffel towers: We also decided to scatter Eiffel towers along the middle of the table, from end to end. Thanks to Ballard Designs, we were able to score two sets of three antique bronze Eiffel towers of three different heights that not only looked great on the table, but look great at home, too!

(My master bath)

Place setting: Each place setting included a menu, a name card, and a napkin ring. I'm happy to say each of these items were DIY!

Menu: The menu was my good friend, Rachel's, brain child. She purchased gatefold cards in green (Lisa's favorite color), and 5"x7" flat cards in cream, which fit perfectly inside the gatefolds.

I formatted the menu for a 5"x7" card using Word, and decided to include a fleur de lis watermark on the menu, which was super easy to do. To find the fleur de lis image, I Googled "fleur de lis," saved an image I liked, and imported it as a watermark on the menu. Rachel printed the menus and adhered the cream cards to the green gatefolds.

Then, because Rachel lives in NYC and has access to all kinds of fabulous stuff, she popped into a ribbon store and found -- how perfect -- a moss green ribbon imprinted with a dark brown fleur de lis! Knowing she would have to close the "gates" of the gatefold card somehow, she decided to use the ribbon to pull them together, and adhered them with a large round label, which she stamped with an "L" (for "Lisa," of course) using an alphabet stamp set she already had.

Here's the finished product, which turned out beautifully!


Place cards: Rachel and Courtney got together on this one. Courtney made the labels and printed them, using the same fleur de lis watermark, and adhered the printed name to an identical shade of green cardstock!

Then Rachel cut into the wine corks lengthwise, about 1/3 of the width of the cork, and we squeezed the placecards into the corks.


Napkin rings: Another product of Rachel's genius. Rachel took a wine cork, and hammered U-shaped ornament wire into it, so that it looks like this:


Then, she threaded a Fleur de Lis ribbon through the wire, and tied the ribbon, with the cork ornament, around the flatware-contained dinner napkins.


Cake: Our good friend, Halpin, played Martha and baked a red velvet birthday cake for the birthday girl! It was awesome -- rich, moist, delicious -- and beautifully decorated of course!

Here is Miss Lisa just after officially stepping into her new decade:


Happy Birthday, Lisa!

Shoe Polish for Furniture Repair? Really...

Ever wonder how you can fix the nicks, dings, and scratches in your furniture?

I happened to catch a recent Martha Stewart Show (okay...maybe I DVR the series, so I "happen to catch" every single episode), that featured antiques expert Christophe Pourny, who demonstrated a couple of furniture care tips that every girl can handle.

Those nicks, dings and scratches in your wood furniture, compliments of your vacuum, your pet, a recent move, etc.?


They can be fixed with a little shoe polish, a steel wool pad, and wood filler as needed. Seriously! And according to Christophe, all you need to have on hand are three basic shoe polish colors to complement most woods: Black, Brown, and Red.

Here's Christophe's advice, as featured on Martha's web site:

Select a shoe polish that matches the piece you are repairing. Place steel wool over mark. Apply wood filler if spot is deep enough to warrant. Apply shoe polish over spot. Buff with a cloth to shine.

Sounds easy enough -- I will have to inspect my furniture for dings and try out this tip!