hold my calls....

because this girl is out of here!!! i am leaving this computer for a well-deserved vaca!! i need a tan and a fruitie drink like asap....

the sitting room....

its the little things that make a huge impact. lately i have been doing a lot of shopping/ scouting for a client. its not as easy as one may think; you really have to LOOK b/c what you may love, others may not get. anyways, i frequent a lot of the same places in hopes to find a new shipment of goodies or discover a jewel that i may have overlooked previously. and one of the things that i have realized is that it doesn't just pay to have great things in your store but the people who own the store make a world of difference.

hence, the sitting room....a married couple from LA that uprooted and basically pointed their finger on a map and decided Charleston as the place to raise their children and start their store. boy, are they a fresh face in this sometimes (well actually a lot of times) stuffy town. heather has great taste and gets what is "in" in my humble opinion. brady, is great at helping out clients and if he doesn't know things exactly, well he says "heather will be here any minute". plus, they are super fun to talk to! little me gets stars in my eyes when it comes to LA...i don't know why i am fascinated w/ that silly town...yea, well i do know why, b/c i am a celebrity stalker...lame i know! anyways, i am really routing for this couple and their store! i want them to succeed and hope nothing but the best for them...yesterday i found out our children will be in the same daycare class starting in sept...i warned her that taylor is a little bit of a diva (i don't know where she gets that from)!! so if you are ever in mt. pleasant, you should totally check out the sitting room...they have great upholstery, they carry dwell bedding and tabletop, and have a fresh take on accessories and lamps!! heather, i am still keeping my fingers crossed that you pick up madeline weinrib.....

i hate your vacuum.....

its so funny how things in your life effect you....when my husband and i got married we had to do counseling w/ the church for what seemed like months (we had 10 lessons we had to attend). at first it seemed rather uncomfortable sitting there w/ the preacher talking about why we loved one another but as the weeks went on, it actually taught us a lot about each other.

each week, we had to read a chapter in this book and do a worksheet afterwards. one week we had to a lesson on how we were raised. it was like a questionnaire with duties and then columns on each side labeled mother, father, both. this was probably one of the most valuable lessons b/c what you had to do was circle which person did that specific duty in your family a.) your mom, b.) your dad, or c.) both. b/c that was what your perception on that specific duty would basically be going into your marriage. for example...it would say who takes out the trash.... my answer was b. my dad (later i have learned that my mom does it a lot more) and in our marriage, warren generally is the garbage man.

anyways, what i have realized in my 4 yrs of marriage is how you are raised has a huge effect on "your life"...not that i need a book to point that out. well, the reason i am writing this in a round about way is because of a simple thing called a vacuum cleaner...my loving husband was raised on a canister vacuum cleaner. you would think something as simple as a vacuum cleaner wouldn't have that much effect on your life but i was raised on what i consider a normal vacuum...the upright kind. i HATE our vacuum cleaner, in fact, i love to blame that stupid thing on why i can't vacuum. it is the heaviest thing ever!!! it has these wheels on it that is somehow suppose to make the thing easier- give me a break!! i am sweating my butt off from vacuuming the house. i have to constantly tug on that thing, pick it up b/c it runs into the walls, add different parts to it...it sucks- literally!! i almost took out my child this AM...one swift tug and she is history.

my mom can second my opinion...she hates that evil vacuum too (when i was on bed rest for a life time she helped out and tried vacuuming with that stupid canister)!! so to make a long story short...i wasn't raised on that evil canister vacuum...i am here to say my vacuum (the normal kind) is WAY better and so i think i need to boycott vacuuming until a normal kind arrives at our humble abode. no disrespect to my in-laws who are the best thing ever; i just dislike the vacuum you raised my husband on!!

so i didn't vote.....

so i think i need to confess...i am obsessed w/ so you think you can dance. its inevitable that i love this dance show considering i danced from the age of 2-18. my parents had to go to dance recitals for 16 yrs. and then on top of that, in high school, i did 4 yrs of dance team so they had to go to all of the school's preformances. my mother is even more obsessed then i am...it's actually really funny. i think its because she is still upset that my grandmother made her quit ballet to do piano lessons (thank god, my mom didn't make me do that). she hasn't gotten over it. she goes way beyond just watching the show...she goes online and reads the blogs about it and you tubes it....that makes me laugh. i can't believe she hasn't already called me this AM to talk about the upset last night...will got voted off. she will probably die that i am letting out her little secret!! my grandmother is really passionate about politics; my mother is really passionate about so you think you can dance- she will talk all day about it (only to me though...no one else knows until now)!!

i know that this is suppose to be a design blog but sometimes i just need to write what's on my mind (maybe i should have gone to the shows blog) and i cannot believe that one of the most technically trained dancers was voted off last night...i can't believe the two guys that were actually in the bottom two...i love both of them. but here i am ranting on about it and i don't even vote so i guess i can't really say much when it comes to who leaves the show!! anyways, i just thought i would make a confession....have a great weekend...will, you will be an amazing dancer and i can see alvin ailey in your near future....

i want that rug!!

i know that madeline weinrib has been blogged to death but i just cannot tell you how wonderful their rugs actually are. i had a chance to see them in person for the first time in atl (no one carries them in charleston which is a sad, sad thing). i was left drooling. and the cotton collection is relatively inexpensive as far as high end rugs go. and while the store didn't have an extensive collection, they said that madeline weinrib will send you thread samples of any rug you are debating between. *sigh* i want to own one. the problem with being a designer is that you are constantly surrounded by FABULOUS stuff but unfortunately your wallet can't always afford it...so you just live vicariously through the fab stuff you put into your clients' homes!

charts...

things that make my heart putter...wall charts. i love the idea of the scroll and how it hangs. it's like you need a yard stick so you can point out the elements in the picture like the teachers use to. and they are usually fairly large so they are a great way to take up a lot of space on a blank wall. they are now making reproduction botany/ zoology charts from jung koch quentell...i just purchased the butterfly one for a client. it has such great colors! also, you can still find vintage ones around- ebay is a great source for them. i'd love to win the bid on these 1900 german biological chart on ebay right now....

cha ching...

shopping can be tiring...i'm not asking you to feel sorry for me...but it can be hard, especially in atl and that town's insane traffic; i need to do a little shout out for my neighbors who lent me their gps...i don't know what i would have done without it. i LOVE that thing...but its kind of scary...i don't pay a bit of attention to my surrounds and i put all of my trust into this computer generated women to guide me all over town...it never once crossed my mind that she could be telling me the wrong place. but luckily, she was right on and i had a successful shopping trip in the big city. i can't go to atl w/out stopping at pieces; *sigh* i could live in that place...its so wonderful and beautifully color coordinated with amazing taste. yea, i am going to have to do another *sigh* on that note.
so i'll touch on some hot spots i experienced...bedding- i still think that it is really hard to do bedding...maybe b/c my bed consist of a white duvet b/c i can't figure out what i want to do in there. however, i went to this amazing place, belle chamber- loved it. i was greeted by a woman who looked just like charlotte on sex and the city but w/ shorter, curly hair. she was sporting her pearls and a perfectly pressed pleated shirt. she was so much help. i think charleston needs a bedding place like this one. they have so much gorgeous stuff...all the lulu dk samples (which is a huge help when you are trying to match things with existing fabrics in a room). and so many other brands that i hadn't found online. the only draw back is that luxury bedding comes with a luxury price tag. so i am still in limbo.
okay, this is getting super long so i am going to speed this up...LOVE bungalow classic. the store is just so tastefully done and has the most beautiful lamps. and the way they display their furniture is just wonderful...all upholstered in linen, coffee tables had sparse but right on accessories, bedding was classic, and fabulous rugs. you should totally shop here...stocked up on some lamps for a client.
i am multi tasking by writing this way too long post, talking to my brother, and eat the rest of taylor's peach. i am going to run!! have a great weekend!! tay and i are going to play at the pool today...much needed relaxation after all of that shopping :)