Woah Swell Season

We went to The Swell Season concert on Saturday night and it was AMAZING! If you've ever seen the movie Once and fell in love with Glen and Marketa, then seeing them live will solidfy your love in the eternities. Check them out here:

http://www.theswellseason.com/

The whole band was incredible. Their drummer was playing drums with both feet and one hand while shaking maracas with the other hand and singing! He also plays the piano, as does Glen, and Marketa now plays the guitar. It was fun watching them switch up instruments. And Glen was so funny and charming and Irish and sigh...

Designer Numero Dos

I'm sure you're just dying to know who my second most favorite designer is... so let me give you some clues. He is the youngest of my three favorite. He has pretty blue eyes. He is friends with Queen Winfrey, sometimes called Oprah. Yes indeed, its Nate Berkus.



He is everywhere these days. He has an incredible line of products with HSN. He has his own line with Linens N Things. He is just beautiful...rrr I mean his interior designs are beautiful. Ha.

Check out some of his work:

Many Thanks

I had a wonderful birthday weekend! I hope everyone else had as fabulous a weekend as I did. This year the only thing I really wanted was to be warm going to and fro campus and work. So my awesome husband got me a warm puffer from JCrew (woot!) and a big warm scarf/shawl from Gap. And just in time as it started snowing on my birthday!

Speaking of JCrew, have you seen their new winter catalogue? Oh to dream. Its lovely. All except for the random villain placed amidst the beauties. Seriously, this guy is sorta creepy looking. (Suits nor JCrew can hide his evil intentions)

I think he looks like he is planning to take over the world in this photo...reminiscent of Pinky and the Brain. ("Hmm I'll start with the JCrew models and then work my way up till I've taken the entire western hemisphere...yes that sounds good")

Later this week I'll be posting about my two other favorite designers and then hopefully by this weekend the before-and-afters of our house will be ready to debut. What a treat!

TOB: One of Three

Its time I just came out with it. I LOVE THOMAS O'BRIEN. Its a weakness of mine. I've yet to see anything by him that I don't sigh and hold and pause to picture in my home. He is one of my top three favorite designers. I"ll post about the other two another time but today let me just list a few reasons why I enjoy his designs so much. I love his idea of vintage modern. Being secretly 75 years old makes me appreciate antiques and things with a history (for example, our house is 115 years old). But the convenience and utility of modern design has its place. I like his timeless appeal, using classic colors and mixed patterns to create a lived in but beautiful appeal to his designs. I also like the undertones of masculinity. I'm getting carried away but before you roll your eyes and flip the channel, check his video out at http://style.target.com/2009/11/05/the-coat-to-tote/ and gander at some of his interiors below.

Birthday Week: Turning 75

I'm listening to the song 'Hey Soul Sister" by Train. If you want to listen to something similar and equally good listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCh-UoyILVc Dave Barnes, Carry Me Through and then listen to Maybe Souls by Lincoln Crockett at http://www.lincolncrockett.com/music.html or better yet, Feels So Good. Thats my favorite of his. Music was and will always be my first love. One of my favorite things is to get music from other people of artists I've never heard before. I seldom listen to the radio (except NPR) because they never play the good stuff. Do I sound like I'm 75 yet? Its only a matter of time before you discover that I'm a 75-year-old trapped in a 25-year-old's body (okay lets be honest, more like 12-year-olds body but Hey it ain't called "Little Jo Home" for no reason.) I drink out of jam jars. I reuse tin foil (uh, also I call it tin foil- meaning aluminum foil). I wash out the sealable gallon bags. I know all the lyrics to every popular song recorded before 1975. I listen to a lot of old jazz and probably my favorite story: Two years ago I asked for a Roger Whitaker CD for Christmas. No one had any idea who this man was (sings and whistles people) and when talking to my husband's grandparents (aged 70ish) they told me not only did they know who Roger was but they went to a concert of his for their FIRST DATE. Yeah, I'm cool. Anyway, I think this was all to say, I like music and Maybe Souls and Feels So Good ranks up there as some of my much enjoyed songs.

Suzanne the Dame of Design

Do I HAVE A TREAT for YOU! My friend Suzanne York Hall has allowed me to share some photos of her homestead. She was the brains behind the oh-so-incredible look of Spark Lounge (www.sparkrestaurantlounge.com) and is also an interior designer for Alice Lane Home (www.alicelanehome.com). She has a gift for making things beautiful. Seriously, everything this girl touches becomes just lovely. So heres for some Friday afternoon gorgeous gandering

City of Trees

So I head to Boise tomorrow for a wedding. I'm staying at a fancy hotel that I remember playing piano at once when I was younger. They offered me a complimentary breakfast and it was quite the feast, complete with golden whipped cream (or so I thought) so I spread it all over my waffles and strawberries. Turns out it was whipped butter and it was disgusting, but my parents taught me to be grateful for what you get (especially free food) so I swallowed it down and then threw up on the piano bench about an hour later (a Steinway piano bench mind you). They didn't invite me back to play piano. I'll show them... :)

Argyle Pumpkin

So turns out my ambiguous Martha Stewart design didn't turn out, uh, looking like I imagined. Picture wrinkled argyle sock (these are actually pretty cute but here is the visual)

(picture courtesy of Amazon)

And then placed on a pretty orange pumpkin

(picture courtesy of national journal)

Um but if you have something really cool in your mind then erase it and replace it with weird uneven almost diamond shapes and lots of random holes everywhere. The husband thought it would be fun to take a poll of the trick or treaters to see whose pumpkin was best (he created a pumpkin mansion of sorts, complete with chimney from some old pipe, etc) and needless to say, he won. BOO! I'm calling for a rematch next year.

On a happier note, my office mini-me costume was perfection. You know you're lookin good when people are laughing and pointing whilst crying. Yeah BABY!