Black Thumb

I am having the most stressful week EVER.  My poor kitty went suddenly blind over the weekend and seems to be experiencing kidney failure.  I would like to have just one low maintenance life form in my home.  Like a plant.  No, wait.  I kill those.  I just hate how they’re constantly taking and never giving.  About a month ago I finally gave up and threw away all of our plants.  I not buy one bundle of flowers every Friday because a house without any plant life at all would just be sad.  But then I found these Baby Grbals by Karim Rashid.   They are self-watering plant pots.  Trute, I’m sure that at soem point they have to be refilled but I could always set an appointment for that in my phone (please don’t let it be more than once a month).  Baby Grobals are $14.95 and come in tons of cute bright colors.  They also make larger Grobals but I think I should start off small and then work my way up.

All the Single Ladies…

Calling all single ladies, because I’m guessing there aren’t many husband’s out there who will want this.  I am so in love with this new peacock bedding from Dwell Studio.  Its pretty much the best thing to happen to the bedroom since, nevermind.  The duvet and two sham are $280 for a queen set.

Boring Walls Be Gone

Being the proud owners of a cookie cutter new construction condo we have our fair share of walls that are super boring looking.  A big part of me wants to spend a weekend gluing beveled mirror tiles to a one of these walls to give the place a little added interest.  But then what would happen 5 years from now when it was time to sell and those tiles were rather permanently attached to the wall?  I think the Axis Mirror from Z Gallerie is the perfect solution.  Its huge and pretty awesome looking and would not have to be a permanent fixture.  The only drawback is that the bottom edge must remain firmly planted on theground because it weighs a zillion pounds.  That a bummer but something I think I can work with.

Smug

Are you there blog?  it’s me Countrymouse.  sorry about that everyone!  for the lack of posts as well as the terrible judy blume reference.

Normally I try to never like appliances because the always seem to cost a minimum of five thousand dollars whenever I do.  Imagine my shock and thrill when it was pointed out on Apartment Therapy recently that the cutest fridge of all, in my opinon, is only $1700!  I know, that is a lot of money.  But it’s not nearly as much as those big metal nest egg eaters.  Also they say SMEG on the front and are, as I mentioned, adorable.  Also I’m almost positive they keep food cold.  Did you further know you can purchase a SMEG fridge at Sears? I felt certain I was going to have to search all over for stockists.

On the Side

My new home obsession is bedside tables.  For the last 8 years I’ve been using Crate & Barrel folding tray tables as bedside tables.  Those tables are perfectly nice, they just aren’t side tables.  I think side tables are one of those things that people really put off and because of that they are one of the things that when done well really scream “YOU ARE IN A FINSHED HOME!!!”  I was originally in the market for a floating drawer that I could cover in mirrors.  I like the idea of mirriored furniture, but Mr. CityMouse does not so I thought small bedside tables would be a good compeomise location for my mirrors.  I liked these because they would provide both storage aand mirrors, a winning combination.  But I also liked them because I’d never really found bedside tables that I was that excited about.  And then, on the very night I’d decide on something (from Ikea which I was going to cover in mirrors myself) I came home to find a catalog that had these Marie Silver Side Tables.  And I just love them.  They’re like saarinen tables but with a little something extra called shininess and at $188 each they are in the ballpark of reasonable.  Your thoughts?

Nifty Gifties from JA

I cannot get over all the exciting new offerings over at Jonathan Adler.  You now those Windows 7 commercials where the people tell you how they had a brilliant idea (technically, a superior looking version of them had a brilliant idea) and they wrote in and voila, Windows 7?  Well, about a year ago I wrote to the folks at JA and suggested that they make a smaller version of the Lampert Sofa, and Voila the Junior Lampert was born.  You’re welcome world.  But on to the new items I need and can truly afford.  Letterpress stationary!  I can use it to write to all of my friends who are moving away.  Say, CountryMouse for instance.  6 notecards with coordinating envelopes are $14.95. 

More Closets

Cleaning out a closet is so calming.  After CityMouse’s inspiring closet transformation I undertook a good clearing of Babymouse’s closet, well that and the fact that we are selling our house soon and I need to make it look like no one lives here, never mind a three year old with a lot of stuff.  So after a few hours of sneaking obsolete toys off to the salvation army, removing the pictures and shelving, repainting the inside of the closet white white white (it was formerly a flesh beige that I hated but never got around to painting, but I can’t take a risk of a dirty flesh colored closet in this real estate market!) and replacing the shelving and prints, here it is!  It looks ridiculously empty for a child’s closet.  But relatively clean.  I also got my closet shelving from easyclosets, suggested by CityMouse years ago, and the white is cheaper than the wood color in City’s kitchen closet and is just fine for a kid’s room.  It really is the best solution short of Ikea pax for closets, and inexpensive, like  about a thousand times cheaper than california closets and I’m not sure it isn’t made of the same materials.

We’re Back (Again)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  Our sincere apologies for the sporadic (or less than sporadic) posts.  CountryMouse has been consumed with getting her home ready to go on the market in preparation ffor the move to NYC and I have been consumed by tax season (I know, way less exciting).  I’ve also been spending lots of time getting my home into shape.  It was pretty neglected when we moved in because all of our free time was devoted to wedding planning.  Anyway, here’s my most recent project.  We have a very small kitchen.  Its basically the size of a small suburban walk-in closet.  The problem is that we came from a home with a very large kitchen and thus have tons o’ kitchen crap with nowhere to put it.  So we have spent the last week or so converting the coat closet into a hybrid coat closet/pantry.  Continue reading »

Your Heard it Here Last

After experiencing a little mass market designer line fatigue lately (crazy I know), my Target obsession is officially back thanks to the Liberty line, which will be here in T minus 19 days (maybe you’ve heard about it).   I am already planning a trip to the hood Target to have a fighting chance of picking something up (my other local Target is near, oh say 15 colleges so a daytime working mom like me can’t compete).   CityMouse has her eye on the bike, because yes there is a flowered bike! and I have my eye on pretty much everything else.  There are THIRTY preview photos over at Casa Sugar, go team flowers!

PB Inbox

I have a little favorites folder by this name; it really getting full of tidbits, so I am disgorging them now: 

I am one of those people who sound like a walking Trader Joes commercial, so of course I need this.  My husband thinks Trader Joes has a tropical theme, I think the theme is clearly pirate (example:  the “employees only” area at mine says “arrrgh, ye can’t come in”). 

I love these, they have a zipper in the back. 

Loulou de la Falais designed these earring for HSN, yes, HSN.  They are 30$.

I am not normally a huge fan of patterned tights, excepting (small) fishnet, but I thought these were super cute for valentines day. 

Wow this is one pink flowered skirt, I’ll take it!

My shower radio broke so I haven’t been able to wow the judges as usual with my vocals.  I thought I was the only one left in world using a shower radio, but Gracious Home won’t let me down.