Do I Have Too Much Stuff?

Lately, I have been longing for a less-is-more house,

so my filled-to-the-brim postal sorter may soon be a thing of the past.

I purchased it in the early 90’s to display my merch in my old retail store,

Heart in Hand.

Here it is in our most recent past house — the brick bungalow,

where it served as a humongous TV stand:

In our current house, the Dutch colonial,

it’s on a wall in the dining room, just across from our table.

Here you can see how the dining room is open to our kitchen.

G.O. added a beam where the two rooms meet,

+ my beloved St. Louis bus station sign is hanging there:

The trunks underneath the sorter are filled with fabric + pillow forms + blankets:

While up on top, I’m displaying my small bird house collection:

We bought this chippy blue metal house last Fall:

I think I love chippy red metal just as much as blue.

I bought this small birdhouse in a store about 20 years ago:

My friend gave me the white bird house years ago:

Come Spring, this trio will head outside, for mostly decorative purposes.

As much as I love birds, I kind of hate to attract them

as a murderous cat named Patty lives just next door.

  Meanwhile, the rest of my sorter is full of more of my treasures,

including this sweet, little pitcher that I bought in Soho, NYC:

This lighthouse nightlight was originally our grandparents’,

then our late sister, Kathy, had it for years.

It obviously took a tumble in the past, + G.O. sez he’ll re-glue it for me.

I bought the pair of black urns from Lowe’s a few years back,

+ the faux plants are from IKEA.

I have a yen to put them on our front porch steps — maybe later today.

I love my heavy glass vessel from Pottery Barn, bought years ago;

currently, it displays a collection of old baseballs:

Speaking of baseballs, here’s one signed by the great Brooks Robinson.

(Hall of Fame 3rd baseman for the Baltimore Orioles)

How lucky I am, to have these old golf trophies of my dad’s!

I collect the Guy Wolff pots, + this one is from the late, great Smith + Hawken.

Coincidentally, this pot is resting on my Smith + Hawken garden book!

Well, that’s about it.

I guess you’d never suspect me of wanting to go less-is-more, would you?

We’ll see — stay tuned!

My Kitchen Design, The Sequel

Today’s the day when I finally spill the beans

+ share why our house has two front doors.

I mean, you were wondering, weren’t you?

Prior to our owning it,

the Dutch colonial had been divided into two apartments,

One up:

UP

+ one down, where we live:

DOWN

We were on the fence, re: converting the house back to a single family

versus keeping it as a duplex.

Some of our friends + one of our spousal equivalents

were/are naysayers about the apartment thing,

for obvious reasons which I shan’t list.

You can probably figure it out yourselves.

Turns out I have my own reasons for the apartment thing.

This guy:

Scott McGillivray

+ his HGTV show:

And ultimately, (fingers crossed), lots of these:

Believe it or not, neither G.O. nor I are getting any younger,

+ it would be nice to have a whipper snapper tenant nearby, if/when I fall.

Because this is pretty much me now:

 Pass me the Boniva!

I jest, but seriously.

Another excellent reason to have a tenant on the premises is this:

I suffer from a very strong case of wanderlust,

+ my plans involve seeing the US of A in our canned ham camper.

Perhaps you read about it, here + here!

If we are gone for extended periods

— let’s say between October 31st + May 1st, ideally —

 our tenant could oversee the place,

 mow + shovel snow at the appropriate times + cat-sit for the duration.

• Anyway.

We’ve started the upstairs re-do finally, which is plenty exciting!

The bathroom was completed weeks ago:

A hallway’s been repainted:

A living room, too:

And, for the most exciting part, we’ve begun to work on the kitchen!

A couple of years ago, we bought an entire display

of discontinued kitchen cupboards from IKEA.

Just as I did downstairs, I’ve sketched the cabinet + appliances layout.

The sink cab is in its position, which is in the L to the right, here:

Yesterday, because I’m a team player, I went with G.O. to look at appliances.

OMIGOSH!  I DON’T CARE!

The only way I’d whip up some enthusiasm

is if we were springing for the red Smeg appliances of my dreams!

And NO, I did not know that Smeg makes ranges.  Swoon!

 

I mean, really.  Who cares if we get a Maytag or a Frigidaire or whatever?!

Am I right?

Anyway, I have sent G.O. to shop again, on his own this afternoon,

so stay tuned!

CANNED HAMS IN COUNTRY LIVING

It’s always a good day when the new issue of Country Living lands in our mailbox.

The issues grow thinner + thinner,

which I hope is not a bad sign or anything.

I read an article about how Millennials are ‘killing’ various businesses

because they don’t like the same things that older people do.

I recently joined a very fun FB decorating group, Nesting With Grace,

+ nearly all the girls are Millennials.

            It has been quite interesting to see their tastes in decor,

+ I was most surprised that the girls don’t buy vintage!

They love pillows but mostly go to Home Goods or Marshalls to buy them.

So.  Kay, you’re asking, what does this have to do with Country Living?

Well, here’s what.

I’m guessing that none of the girls buy the magazine,

which might be the reason why the issues are shrinking so much.

But I digress a bit — I still love Country Living,

so fingers crossed it won’t go the way of Cottage Living, RIP.

Let’s have a look-see at the new issue!

This:

Vintage campers are having their moment now, aren’t they?

We jumped aboard last spring + bought this little (new but looks older) charmer:

We have big plans to travel around the country with it,

+ I vote for a Key West destination, later this spring.

But I digress again, just a little bit — back to the campers in CL!

What’s not to love about this ginormous one (compared to ours?)

Look what they’ve named it — Trailer Swift!

Cute, no?

Speaking of which,

it’s really cute when the camper’s name is posted on the back, like this:.

“Rosie” is a project of freelance writers + bloggers Matt + Beau,

whose blog, probably this, is very cool.  Check it out.

Oh, + BTW, we’ve named our campter the “canned ham”,

+ I have plans to have some vinyl stickers made for it, soon.

Meanwhile, back the camper happiness in Country Living.

Who doesn’t love a vintage Airstream?

Here’s another vintage (1966) Airsteam:

It serves as a mobile pop-up shop

for small business owners + siblings, Austin + Amanda.

Look at how the interior’s been customized

for Amanda’s collection of vintage dinnerware merch!

Looks like the duo will have their own HGTV show,

which sounds like it would be a “must watch”, don’t you agree?

Anyway — I, too, have pop-up shop hopes + dreams for my own business!

Maybe this summer.

Our canned ham re-do is nearly complete,

+ if you’d like to see how we’ve customized the interior,

read this blog post + this.