Bright Lights, Big City: Nashville

I'm in Nashville for work. I did make it to downtown Nashville to see some of the interesting sites and step inside a Honky Tonk! Here's a pic of the very cool Ernest Tubb Record Store - open 24 hours! More pictures will be posted Thursday evening. I did see a very cool new modern building for some urban living options that is in construction. So there is a little modern mixing in with the typical Nashville scene. To be continued . . . (Thanks to Patrick R. for the picture.)

Coming Down After the BBQ

Well the BBQ was a success. The kids loved the table and chairs. It got tons of use. They were drawn to the color. It's like each little chair called out to each child, "Come sit on me, stand on me, play over here why don't you?" When they got bored of that they went off to pick green tomatoes and find any potentially dangerous item in our back yard. Kids are so good at that! For the adults we ended up buying a lot of my favorite beer - Ninkasi Total Domination IPA. Here's the logo not exactly modern but I - as you might expect - love the color scheme. So much so that I bought a T-shirt for Mr. Monkey.  We got lots of compliments on the living room and the office both of which I know can be even better but by the nice things people said, I think they'll do for now. I need to now work on the other important rooms in our house - our bedroom and the T.V. room. I do now have pictures of the office. I'm still accessorizing but it is pretty much put together. I'll get a picture of that up tomorrow.

For our next shin-dig in August I want to have an adult-centric cocktail party. I'm even thinking of hiring a mixologist and/or a server. Wouldn't that be fun? I could create a very hip bar for the evening. Have lanterns and candles all over . . . plus arrangements with my favorite flower - the dahlia.

Oh in other news I've been asked to help decorate a women's brunch pre-wedding. I'm terribly excited about this. The goal is to be simple, to incorporate nature, and to be beautiful of course. The brunch is on a island off of Vancouver. So if you've got decorating ideas do share in the comments section. 

Modern Patio Almost

  
Okay so it's still not ideal. If I have time I'll try to find a table cloth - probably a neutral to bring it all together. It's party day and here's the set-up of the new table and the crappy blue chairs. What a difference a day makes! Remember how those crappy chairs (note the orange foam spilling out) and patio set used to look. I did end up sanding the table top which helped with the dirt. Have a great weekend! 

Before and After Children's Chairs

 


Now you can see why I haven't been posting too much. For the last two nights this was my obsession. Of  course I'm exaggerating. I worked on it a couple of hours each night. They're not perfect of course but they are a millions times better. Lots of sanding was involved plus removal of a few stickers. The deep aqua color did not cover well on the legs so I'll have to put on a 3rd coat of that. But the color scheme worked out well. It's fun - not gender specific and if it gets painted on drawn on etc who cares - the chairs were just over a buck a piece and the coffee table was a Goodwill find over 2 years ago for $5 bucks. Cheap and fun! 

Need More Chairs: The Teaser

 

Let's just say I've been a busy girl over the past two days. We have a BBQ coming up and I'm thinking there will be about 30 people in attendance over the course of the afternoon and evening. So I figured out that our 8 seater was not going to cut it. I've been a mad woman on Craigslist - you saw the below patio set, right? Well I got new cushions for that set and I had big plans to sand it and possibly re-stain it but sadly, that did not happen. What will happen is a table cloth! Gotta love it. Now the set only came with 2 chairs so I needed at least another 2 chairs to fill it out. What you don't know is that the pillow cushions I purchase on clearance are robin's egg blue and latte brown. So you can imagine when I saw the Craigslist picture above of the piles and piles of blue chairs for $2 dollars a piece from the "Church Closeout" I thought my prayers had been answered - except that I had forgotten to pray - a regular occurrence now for too many years to count and except for the fact that when I went to check them out they were way filthy and all the seat bottoms were ripped with their nasty orange foam busting out. Yucko! But the lady was so nice and I felt bad  for her so I took 2 of the best blue chairs I could find and 4 small children's chairs for a total of $10. She was willing to give them to me for less and asked me to take more but Mr. Monkey can only tolerate small amounts of junk at a time. So yesterday I stopped at JoAnn's fabrics and at the hardware store and picked up some fun colors for my kids set.  The color scheme for the kids set was loosely based on this room from Domino Magazine. Partly because I already had a can of paint for the apple green color and the blues from the new patio cushions - anyway you get the idea. I'm trying to pull it all together. All I gotta say is: Prepare to be amazed . . . The finished products will posted this afternoon!

Danish Teak Sideboard - To Purchase or Not to Purchase?

Well I've got a birthday coming up and I was thinking about making a special request from Mr. Monkey. I found this Danish Teak sideboard on Craigslist for $375 dollars. I'm going to go check it out this evening. I'll look for stamps or labels to help identify. But if I can't find a stamp or a label the question is - is it worth it? Anything over $200 dollars I have to really pause and think about it. Apparently it is about 60 inches long and 18 inches deep and I think it's just too long for our small house. I was thinking about using it as a dresser for clothes instead of a traditional sideboard. It's just so pretty. I've tried researching a little on the web and so far I've found similar styles but no exact matches so pricing is proving a challenge.  Here's a close up of the recessed handles. I love the dual colored stains and the rounded corners. 

UPDATE: So after much deliberation and help from fellow MCM junkies on Lotta Livin'. I rested on the idea that the sideboard was in fact a G plan from England designed by a Danish designer, Ib Kodof Larsen. I contacted the seller to say that I would have to pass (it didn't fit in the designated space). The next day they had reposted the piece for $50 dollars cheaper so I contacted them via email and told them what web research and Lotta Livin' people had turned up and that they should look for the red label etc. and call a MCM dealer, etc. Anyway they did and they found the red label!!! Which they were going to tear off!!!! The couple was thrilled that they had such a great MCM find and now they are more likely to find someone to take it who would truly appreciate it. Of course I'm sad to see such a sweet piece go, but I'm thrilled to know that unique MCM furniture does exist for great prices on Eugene's Craigslist.  And they all lived happily ever after!

 

Modern Patio for BBQ

So my latest obsession has been to find a patio set on the cheap for our big BBQ next weekend. We're expecting about 30 people and we only have one long table on the back patio that fits 8. And yes it is modern if you must know. I'll post a picture later this weekend. Me and Mr. monkey made it from reused items from our fave recycling place called BRING. Anyway so I've been trolling craigslist and I'm on my way to check out this set. I can change the seat cushions to modernize it. Any other ideas? I was also thinking about splurging on some modern print beach towels and outdoor pillows as extra seating on the lawn. Okay well I'm off to check out this set. Wish me luck!

UPDATE: We got it. I was able to get a $10 reduction in price so I feel good about that. Send in suggestions for modernization. I was thinking of sanding and staining a darker color. The wood is cedar. . . 

Before and Almost After of Front Yard

First up we have our lovely front yard (winter picture shown in earlier post). You can see that the trees have filled in and the roses are in full bloom. The lavender to the right is about to go nuts and the bee stay hovering, waiting for the flowers to bust out.

Yes, that's the same yard. Mr. Monkey discovered a leak in our main water line to the house and in fact we were hemorrhaging 5 gallons of water a day! Yikes - this is bad for most people but for dedicated environmentalists we felt especially guilty. Once Mr. Monkey discovered the source of the leak he went to town, renting both a trencher and a jackhammer in one weekend!

We received some excellent design ideas for the front yard from Rachel Foster, a local master gardner and landscape designer. But now Mr. Monkey has different ideas and he wants to get rid of the river rock. The initial idea was to move the river rock into a circle where most of the lawn is currently. The idea was to have a feature/sculpture in the center of the circle surrounded by lavender plants in the center and on the outside of the circle we spread out the many shrubs, roddies, azaleas, that we currently have cramped along the fence. By the front door and major walk area we would have flagstone laid together tightly. But now Mr. Monkey is reconsidering and wants the river rock gone altogether - he doesn't like it - but most people do. Wish us luck negotiating the design for the front yard. . . 

Options for Print Art. . .

My eyes are opening to the world of print artists. There are so many talented people out there and the internet is allowing people like me  in smaller cities like Eugene to discover all the talented artists in cities of all sizes. One of my recent discoveries involves two great websites.

First up: Tiny Showcase. If you are a competitive art and bargain hunter than this is the place for you. Once a week - every Tuesday they release a limited signed edition from one artist. What has happened recently is that I would show up to the tiny showcase Wednesday morning to check out and possibly purchase the latest masterpiece and it would be gone gone gone - that's right - totally sold out! So this is getting frustrating. Until this last time I figured out when the release would occur on Tuesday and I was there and waiting ready to pounce if the print caught my fancy. Well it did and I bought it (a total deal as far as I'm concerned). What I discovered is that within the first 5 minutes of the print being released at least 40/200 were gone! So if you like, you must buy right away because it will not be there tomorrow as I so sadly discovered. Here's my latest artistic purchase for our slowly growing collection. . . This piece titled "Corral Canyon" is from Cole Gerst otherwise known as Option-G. He has designed many things including Vans tennis shoes and skateboards and CD jacketwork and concert posters - basically he's talented in a multimedia sort of way. It's going to go in our bathroom - where the color scheme involves black/white and shades of blue. Plus it gives a shout-out to my SoCal roots as Corral Canyon is a natural space in the Cleveland National Forrest just outside of L.A.

Second up: Thumbtack Press. This site is better for the slightly less competitive art shopper. Here you can browse at you leisure and there is a wider selection of styles and artists. Most prints are an open edition which is why you can get a larger piece of art for about the same price as a smaller piece on tiny showcase. I haven't purchased anything from here yet but I'm going to keep my eye on for when we start decorating our bedroom - you know it's always the last room to get any attention. Anyway that sums up my recent discoveries in the word of print art. Enjoy and have a fabulous 3 day weekend!