A Surprise Blog Birthday Party - Who Is It For????

Who is this darling little girl?
It's her 40th birthday today!

She grew up to be this glamor girl!

She's an actress

And loves to wear wigs

She's the wife of Mikey and the mom of Fiona

She's a pirate queen with a pirate princess

She loves to cook and I'm told she's pretty good

This looks yummy!

She is a decor addict and bloginista and I love her for painting her kitchen black!

Her house is a small rental and she works tirelessly to turn it into a little gem

She tries DIY projects like painting this vintage buffet a beautiful Farrow and Ball color

Her latest project is trying to decorate her dining room, a daunting task because the water cooler has to stay in the tiny room, & she has a tiny budget and big dreams of Lee Jofa fabrics.
Through all her trials and tribulations she always keeps her sense of humor. She's a super trouper for sure!
She is a true blue loyal friend, and she loves her family almost as much as she loves her blog and her blog buddies. Look at this cute room she did for her daughter.

She loves her fat pussy cat, and shares her home with us in all its unstyled glory.

Her darling husband Mike wrote to dozens of her blog friends to arrange this surprise blog birthday party for her.

He writes this:

In her home life Jenny is Jenny Andrews Anderson.

In her professional life (actor, personality, etc.) she's Jenny Andrews (or as I announce as she enters the bathroom "The fabulous and beautiful Jenny Andrews").

Jenny has been an actress most of her life - since high school. She went to college to study theater, and was the founding member of a very popular theater company in Atlanta called Whole World Theater where she was truly a stand out.

Whole World Theater is like SNL (Saturday Night Live). The show has all of it's great players but, say, John Belushi is the blinking light....that's how it was with Jenny in the female role.

The male stand out and Jenny's counter part, Lance Krall, as well as a few others from the original show moved to LA and now have a TV show called Free Radio that was on VH1, but is now going to be in a prime time slot after The Colbert Report on Comedy Central.

Free Radio

This itself I'm sure is a sense of both pride for her friends and sadness, because Jenny did not go to Los Angeles.

To do my best to summarize the why we too didn't go: I was also in the film business and trying to do my own thing, etc. In 1999, Jenny was diagnosed with type-one diabetes - it runs in her family but she had skirted it. We continued to press on with our "dreams" until the impact of two free lance artists with no insurance became a little overwhelming. I had connections with people in Atlanta that could give me a job with insurance - we were pregnant that year and here we are.

I hope that doesn't read as a sad story because it certainly isn't. We all are moving along in life and things happen the way they do for a reason. Our family is bigger than 1000 stars on the walk of fame.

The Whole World Theater folks did a pilot show for FOX back in 2000 with one of the creators of Pee Wees Playhouse (I actually wrote for it as well) but it was put in a terrible slot and didn't get picked up.

Jenny primarily does commercials now. She has been in a few movies. She had a great role in a Lifetime movie that still plays all the time called 'The Price of a Broken Heart".

She missed out on MANY roles because she is the category of being "too pretty" to play "the friend", but not well known enough to play the lead - but she continues to get to final call backs so it's only a matter of time.

She's obviously found a new passion to expend some of this artistic energy in her blog. I guess people like us....you, Jenny, me, etc - MUST do something expressive.

Visual Vamp here:

By now you have guessed correctly that the surprise blog birthday party is for the blogger known as My Favorite and My Best.

I found this blog a few months ago, and was attracted to it for it's honesty and humor and intelligence and a pretty great selection of images. At first the author Jenny said she couldn't write, but as the months went on and she found her voice and confidence, and it became very clear that not only can she write, she is brilliant!
She started her blog in January 2009 with 6 posts, and now she can post over 50 a month!

Jenny is one of the special ones. She is an original. She is a talent. She is a lover of life.


So Happy Birthday dear Jenny.

I'm waiting on the porch with these virtual gifts, so we can toast each other!

Mine

Yours

And thank you adorable Mike for arranging all this and sharing your life with Jenny with all of us.

Christmas At Edie's Swedish House Of Style

Even those who love Swedish design have told me it's fried, died, and laying on its side. Well she was more ladylike than that, and her identity would shock you. But I think I'll keep it to myself...

However when you see photos like these in the December 2009 issue of Country Living, you know you just have to love Swedish style interior design just a little longer.

Actually this home transcends the trend, and is just beautiful and stylish no matter what you label it.

The fact that it's furnished with some lovely Swedish antiques and reproductions is not really the issue. The issue is this: it's well designed and lovely.

All decked out for Christmas, this home in the Connecticut country side couldn't be more charming.

Winter light never looked so good, so cozy, so hot!

And here she is (drum roll), the lady of the house, Ms. Edie van Breems!

You can read her behind the scenes back story of the photo shoot (on her blog) that resulted in these luscious images HERE
And you can read the entire Country Living article HERE

Holly Golightly Breakfast At Tiffany's Christmas Tree - Version 3.0

I am among zillions who love Audrey Hepburn. She inspires more and more as the years go by. She even inspires Christmas decorations.

This is the third Christmas that I have done my Holly Golightly Christmas tree.

It all started when someone gave me several gift boxes from Tiffany's. I already had the retro tinsel tree, and some aqua ornaments. The marriage of the two created the most fun tree I've ever done.

Click on images to get larger views to see details

The elements are Tiffany blue, black for Holly's little black dress, pearls for the pearl necklace she wears in the movie Breakfast At Tiffany's, and glam and bling because that's what they sell at Tiffany's.

I have had the tree in every corner of the living room, and this year I really like this situation.

I added more black ornaments this year. The first year I did the tree they were hard to come by, and I did some home made ones (that I still use). I always used chartreuse lime green ornaments, because I just love the color!

I got some great designer ornaments from my friend Meg, and I hung some on the chandelier/lantern this year. I tie the aqua silk pillows with the same black gross grain ribbon that I tied around all those lovely boxes. The big clock gets a gilt leaf garland festooned around it.
An over size Lucite clam shell on the coffee table holds more aqua ornaments. I have a collection that has everything from vintage ornaments to plastic ones from Wal Mart. The chic black reindeer were purchased last year at Borders.


My Nativity scene is different. I use Brayton Laguna blackamoors as my wisemen, and a retro ceramic Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. The little sheep were purchased last year, and the glitter reindeer was a damage from the shop I work in. The little packages tied with Tiffany blue ribbon hold candles, and are actually wedding favors.

I have had the Nativity vignette on the coffee table in years past, but this year I put it on a sweet little vintage Saarinen side table.

The tinsel tree is very much like a modern feather tree, and I layer the ornaments along the branches as one would on a feather tree.

I also found three strands of very rare lights with a a silver wire! I could use more, but I swear they are almost impossible to find. I found my three strings of silver wire lights on eBay last year.

This weekend I'll do the outside decorations. At this point in our lives we are not big on exchanging gifts. We have everything of material worth. We always say that our life together is our year long gift. So the decorating, and enjoying the magic it always evokes is the way we celebrate.

Cholo is cozy as he watches Mom do up her Holly Golightly Christmas tree

So Happy Weekend!
Have fun as the holiday season swings into full blast over the next couple of weeks!

No Money To Decorate

This is the story of a newlywed couple who gets their first apartment in New York. They furnish it like most new couples: hand-me-down furniture from relatives; wedding presents; Craigslist, eBay, and flea market finds; cheap art. I think we've all had an apartment, or a rental house like this.

This Graham & Brown wallpaper is on sale at Target for $29.99
and is something I would use whether I was on tight budget or not.
You can get it HERE

I've been having a dialog with a young person, (though not a newlywed, but still young enough to be struggling) about decorating her home, and in this case the dining room. She has no money. Well, her budget is no more than $100. for any one thing be it a chandelier, or a pair of sconces, or curtains or drapes, or fabric to recover a Craigslist chair. She has excellent taste, and high style, and a bad case of wistfulness. I wish I was rich and could just give her the money to make her vision a reality.

Click on image so you can see the cost of things
I kind of like the skirted TV console style table

I just read an article where a designer took on a newlywed apartment for no fee and "no money." Why she did this is not clear, because she does not seem to be a friend. But I was very interested in seeing what she did for "no money."
The couple feels unsatisfied with their own decorating result, and can't figure out how to make their apartment stylish. So they turn to the professional for help.

Click on image to see a larger view of the cost breakdown

The "no money" budget was set for $2000. (which would be a fortune for my friend - in fact I could do alot with $2000. myself). The article is meet-cute with the foibles of a striped dining room wall and a deer head. There is pathos too, with the bride's father and mother getting ill during the decor process, thus imbuing a zen like philosophy to the project.


In the end the budget went from $2000. to over $5000., thus canceling out the "on the cheap" theme of the endeavor. Of course all you design mavens will pronounce that $5000. is plenty cheap. But not really.


What could you do with no money? Or what have you done with no money to make your home look stylish?

The before picture is on top - the apartment had a cluttered and cozy appeal. The designer modernized and stream lined things as shown in the bottom photo.

Read the whole article HERE. It's pretty good.

Too Cute

Cholo wants to play! He hates when mom has to go to work.

Every morning when I leave for work, I hate to leave my two boys. I love my job, but the moment I have to walk out the door and up the street it tugs at my heart. Can you see why?

Thank you to everyone voting for me in the Modern Thanksgiving table setting contest.

There was a major glitch with the link yesterday, and the sweet folks at Dwell phoned me early this morning to say they fixed it.

So if you were frustrated, please try again. You have until midnight tonight.

Thanks to My Favorite and My Best for posting about it yesterday. It was too funny!

So go to vote again please HERE

If I win, place, or show I plan to donate the prize.

A Mini Tablescape Thursday

Please go to Dwell Studio HERE

Leave a comment, which counts as a vote for Visual Vamp Valorie.

You have until midnight Thursday.

Thanks!

This is my mini Tablescape Thursday. I pulled this together very quickly for a modern Thanksgiving table setting. I used a pillow sham with that great orange print (from Dwell Studio) as a kind of giant table mat. The china has a different animal on each plate: rabbit, a boar, a monkey, a dog. The flatware is Edwardian silver plate. The glasses are from the the 1940's.
The antler is new, and the little sheep are new too. The napkins are brown linen. A bouquet of real turkey feathers are in a pottery vase with a modern design on it. A peacock feather was tucked into each person's napkin.
I mixed eras, combining vintage, antique, and contemporary things, which I think is very modern.

This is my last hurrah for getting comments. The link was broken yesterday, so if you had trouble, please try to vote again. I'm depending on all you avid tablescapers out there to pull my standing up.

As ever please for more fabulous table settings go to Between Naps On The Porch.

Dwell Studio Modern Thanksgiving Contest - The Final Five - Vote For Your Favorite!

From Dwell Studio:

Thanks to everyone who entered into our contest - we were completely inspired and overwhelmed by all the amazing entries! It was seriously hard to choose our top five finalists, but we've finally narrowed it down.

The entry with the most comments collected by Midnight, Eastern Standard Time on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 wins. The runners up are the following two most-commented entries. As a reminder, here are the prizes:

1st Place: $500 shopping spree on dwellstudio.com

2nd Place: $250 shopping spree on dwellstudio.com

3rd Place: 1 set of placemats & napkins of your choice from dwellstudio.com

Vote for Michelle HERE

Vote for Joslyn HERE

Vote for Allyson HERE

Vote for Kirsten HERE

Vote for Valorie The Visual Vamp HERE
Please Stop by and leave a comment for me!!!