7.23.2010

Montclair Made

I just discovered the shop Montclair Made, which offers lots of great travel-themed (and other cute) handmade items.


I have no real plans for the weekend other than catching up on blog reading, working in the garden, and (hopefully) working on the Etsy shop - all of which I'm looking forward to after being on the go pretty much the whole summer. What are your weekend plans?

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

This WAS me.
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This IS me.
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We are going through some bittersweet changes right now. As much as we love renovating houses, we decided that it was time to return to the safe path and end our 5-year term of self-employment. We both accepted jobs at a pretty cool eCommerce company, temp to permanent type positions. It's great that we still get to work together, although my husband is considering a position with another company that would be long and odd hours (but worth it for the pay and benefits). I really miss working on the Etsy shop these past few days too, but we will continue to sell vintage goodies part time. We have a vintage obsession, after all...

7.22.2010

Sad to see it go...


Every once in a while I sell something in the shop that I instantly feel regret about not keeping. This fabulous black globe sold two hours after I listed it. It looked so good in my office :(
My inner Preppy is trying to maintain her cool, yet is all the while giddy over this kelly green Grosgrain Peaks dress...

7.21.2010

Madmen!

My sister-in-law MadMen'ed us. Me:
Mr. Cheese (plaid jacket):
I can't wait for the season premiere of Mad Men on Sunday!

P.S. So sorry for the lack of posts this week. I'm reorganizing as my schedule has changed, and this week is a little crazy. I should be all settled in by next week. I'll catch up with everyone soon, I promise!

7.16.2010

Summer Fun - 70's Style

As I've mentioned before, my city is hilly and most yards do not have large flat grassy areas suitable for lawn games. But I have fond memories of childhood vacations to Maryland and Connecticut to visit my Aunts, Uncles, and cousins, where we spent our days on the beach...
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by the pool....
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running through the sprinklers...
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picnicking in the backyard...
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flying kites...
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playing croquet...
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badminton...
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tetherball...
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and Jarts (lawn darts)
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We are headed out of town again this weekend to visit my grandparents and spend some time with my sister's family at my Aunt & Uncle's house in North Carolina. I fully expect my 7 year old nephew to again beat us at croquet. He's a natural.
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It looks like some big life changes are ahead for Mr. Cheese and I starting next week. Perhaps it's fitting, since Sunday is our 1-year anniversary :) And no, I'm not pregnant. I promise details soon...

Disclaimer: DO NOT allow your three-year-old to play with lawn darts! Did parents have no sense in the 70's?

7.15.2010

Modern Pixie

I love the uncluttered, earthy style of Modern Pixie.



Not my size :(

Why, oh why aren't these fabulous espadrilles from Dear Golden Vintage my size?
Many thanks to you guys for your comments on my last post. My day did indeed get much better and we had a good time hosting dinner at our house tonight for some of my family and Mr. Cheese's family, who hadn't seen each other since our wedding last summer. I'm already looking forward to the weekend, which will likely include lots of laughs with my family, my 7-yr old nephew beating us at croquet (he's a natural), good North Carolina BBQ, and a family tradition called Samauri watermelon.

7.14.2010

Feeling Blue

Ever have one of those days that you were looking forward to, but it starts out just horribly, and it ruins your whole day (or possibly week)? Well, that's my morning. Ugh.
Hopefully hugs from my adorable little nephews will make it all better. Photo Source

7.13.2010

Baby Finches!

This year's baby finches! Please forgive the poor quality of my pics. The ponytail plant where the nest rests is quite sheltered, and I didn't want to risk Mama bird believing that I'd somehow tampered with her babies. The babies left the nest a couple of days ago, which quite surprised me.
They were all piled atop one another crammed in the nest, then they all moved out in the flower pot, but didn't look nearly strong enough to fly. And then poof they were gone a few hours later.


Mama finch always watched from nearby when I peeked into the nest, and was quite vocal.
I miss those little guys already...

The Baby Ghost

I first sighted the lovely little piece that I call "the baby ghost chair" a couple of months ago, and I was instantly smitten. The real name of Kartell's child-sized chair, designed by Phillipe Starck, is the "Lou Lou Ghost", and it's available in lots of colors.
As with the full-sized Louis Ghost, the "Crystal" is still my favorite.


Using clear lucite in a room is a brilliant way to visually create a larger space. I like the way that the computer and fax/phone appear to be floating in the room. More on this topic in a later post.
I went to an amazing estate sale over the weekend that included a huge art collection, including an original Dali painting (which was gone by the time we got there). There were several very reasonably priced pieces we considered buying as an investment - small Howard and Roy Finster pieces - but we decided it wasn't the right time to spend the money. What we would have bought - had it not already sold - was a thick lucite side table.

Photo Sources: Hive, Real Simple

P.S. I have been having mega trouble with blogger commenting. My attempts to publish comments were thwarted for about 12 hours yesterday, and I know that some of your comments weren't accepted due to some internal error. I also had trouble commenting on numerous other blogs yesterday. My most sincere apologies AGAIN, as this is the second time in a week that blogger has been misbehaving.

7.12.2010

Frankenberry

Although I've never eaten Frankenberry aka Franken Berry cereal (my mom didn't allow pre-sweetened cereals in the house), I was allowed to Snuggle up with Frankenberry for this photo, which I have no memory of. No one in my family seems to remember where or when this was taken.
If you enlarge the pic, you can see that Frankenberry's fingernails are in the shape of strawberries! I'm challenging you guys to find and post an odd childhood photo. XoXo