I turned 32.

Well. It happened. I turned 32. For some reason unpronounced to me this birthday felt the most traumatic of all the "I'm getting older birthdays". It was kind of like that scene from SATC when Carrie Bradshaw turns 35...well, that happened for me 3 years early. So, I'm going to stay 31 until I actually do turn 35. I swear. My sakes.

31 (2014) was an okay year. Not exactly a gravy train. But, it happened. Seemed like one transition point after another.  It felt like one adult type thing after another. Perhaps an opportunity to chalk it up to growing pains? But there were good things as a 31 year old. Perhaps my favorite of the year, spending July in NYC. That was terrific. I will always remember that trip, the learning experience, etc. Things that were not lovely about being 31. Perhaps at the top, the realization that I wasn't doing something that made me happy or that I wanted to do any longer. When you figure out you're going down the wrong path at 31, that's harsh when you've made so much effort to be in the right place. So, I said goodbye to my 31 year old self on January 30th at midnight and welcomed in my 32 year old self. Which, thus far,  I'm optimistic that something more sunny is coming my way.

 My birthday weekend started with some extra props for music lessons. 

I give you the girls from Frozen as well as Beethoven Bear and Mozart Mouse. 

Hey, when you're 5, it's all good. I say bring'em. I'll use them to help you learn the piano. 

And...my Mom sent me a new book for the collection. 

And yes. I wore some pink. 

Through in other years it consumed more of my outfit, as I'm growing older...it's a smaller portion. 

I got two of these new to me lamps from Antique Warehouse on Summer Ave. 

They are brassy gold with a solid carerra marble base. LOVE THEM. 

I have one in the living room and the other is in the lady room. 

And as you can see, Handsome was on hand to assist. 

I share my birthday (January 31) with Justin Timberlake. 

Shout out to JT. 

Okay...and a shout out to Handsome. 

Later in the day we went to see "Cake"...

And do not me decieved this is not a happy birthday cake kind of movie. 

Though...it was thrilling. Fabulous movie, wonderful acting. Terribly sad. 

Then Dr. GHW had to rush off to marry some folks so the bday celebration was put on hold.

Post wedding, we hit the Peabody for some beverages. 

My pick, an ode to my pinky love...Pink Cadillac. 

F-U-N in a glass. 

Following the adult beverage portion of the evening at The Peabody, 

we loaded back up and headed to midtown for dinner at Restaurant Iris. 

Me + Him on my 32nd Birthday. 

Our dinner reservation was at 9pm. As we were driving back to East Memphis, we realized that since the next day was Superbowl Sunday that perhaps we should stop off to pick up some food to avoid the crowd.  Well we did get some food and we also came home with this delightful caterpillar. It was on sale and was purchased for $29.98.  I love it.

Fun evening indeed. 

Then, Sunday brought lessons and preparation for our 

"SuperBowl/Downton Abbey/Birthday gathering"

I share a birthday weekend with a lovely group of ladies from our church so we have celebrated around our collective birthdays for the past 7 or so years. I am the youngest, the next is 62 and the eldest is 82. We are quite the group.  

Dot with our shared birthday cake. 

And a birthday box from my family in Kansas. 

Being away from home is very hard. That will never get any easier. 

But, it does help to have a few treats from the fam at home. 

Here we go 32, let's do this.

New Photos of Me + Him

A couple of weeks ago, I had a new head shot taken for WKNO at WKNO by none other than Marci Lambert. The whole process took about 7 minutes. She took probably 20 photos and behold the very first one she took was the chosen photo. I haven't had one taken in several years - at least of a serious nature - so this was a treat not to mention just plain fun.

The hubs came with me so she snapped a couple of photos of him too. Which is cool because now we have a matching set. Our collection of Olan Mills Church photos are ridiculous - that's not my bag at all.  So this is fun to have photos of the two of us in a different light - Literally!

If you're in the market for a friendly photog - check out Marci Lambert!

Mid Century Renovation Inspiration Photos

Every morning I open my email, very nearly before my feet hit the ground. Amongst the myriad of emails, mostly junk these days, is one of my favorites, the daily email from Domain Home. I can always count on 2 things from that blessed email.  1. That I am going to ooo-ahh at the approximately 6 article links the email provides. 2. I am then going to practically rewrite some aspect of my "final" plan for projects in at #dwh2. 

On Thursday, February 5, this happened in a mega way.

Now, as I've clearly said about 3 other times in this post, these photos are from Domain/Pinterest. 

Not my house, not my monkeys, but man is this a circus I could be part of on a daily basis.

So without further adieu...

All photos via Domain Home/Pinterest

The Kitchen at #dwh2

We moved in at #dwh2 in late May of 2013. The previous 20 months have been a good time for discovery (figuring out what works and what doesn't), observation (what do we use and what is waited space), moving things around (as in it would be more functional if we moved it over here). A good period of time, but now, it is time to make the plans to really liven the joint up a bit.

Like any *good* house-dweller, I have a fully stocked collection of inspiration photos from Pinterest. Sometimes I like the whole photo, but most of the time, there is an element, or two that I like and would like some portion of it to resemble what my space will eventually look like. So, to begin with, I am going to start with the inspiration photos, THEN, we will go to what it actually looks like.  I like the reverse presentation in this particular instance.  Because, it is good to start with something positive!

 Kelly Wearstler is amazing.  Her style is very unique and it is used in some super chic places. 

The floor in the above photo is like the flooring in 80% of our house, Terrazzo. Ours is white and gray, as this is obviously turquoise/green. None the less an elemental feature that is similar. I like to see how this type of flooring is styled other than in photos of a post office or bank.  Additionally, I like the bar stools in this photo.  Good mix of hard and soft. When the kitchen gets the revamp, I want to open up one of the walls of the kitchen that is connected to the breakfast room that has Terrazzo floors.  Bar stools, such as the lovely ones above, would be a great addition.  Alas, those puppies cost about $2k EACH - so that's a no go. Let's see what else I can come up with.  Next photo...

 If you've read more than 2 posts on my blog you know I'm a fan of white paint. 

Moving forward in our kitchen *shocker* there will be more white paint. 

Now...let's get down to brass tacks and the super important first step towards rejuvenation. 

As this is project rejuvenation, not renovation.

 As you can see in the photo above and below...
1. there are 3 different types of flooring exposed in the kitchen. Green (old linoleum), Brown peel and stick planks I used in the den and ran out of and didn't buy anymore for the kitchen), and illustrious marble tile.
2. It looks like the stove is all by it's lonesome stranded to one side of the kitchen. More on that in another picture.
3. You can see into the breakfast room.  The wall above the stove is toast (hopefully) and will become a bar area so that the two rooms are combined.

Obviously, Handsome has to inspect to make sure it is up to scratch for his high/mighty standards.

 Okay so now back to the layout in the kitchen. 

Before I started laying the peel and stick planks in the kitchen, it looked like this.  This is after the original stove top was taken out and the stove was put in. As you can see, there's a space situation happening because the larger cabinet unit was removed. And as you will notice in the photos moving forward, there is also a lighting issue.  The kitchen is completely interior and doesn't have any windows to the outside world. So the only natural light comes from the floor to ceiling windows in the rooms that are next to it. Yet another reason to take down the wall above the stove, there's a huge window right here (more light for the kitchen).

And this fine thing is what was in the cabinet unit that was removed to make way for the new stove. 
It works, but it was really dirty and well...it was time to go. It is currently in our storage room if anyone wants it!

And this...this is the whole in the counter top where the stove top was removed from.
Yep, that's a big, giant stove top. 

The last photo I snapped before the electrician came to remove the unit. It was hardwired to the wall. 
And by the way, I had this project done last May about 1 hour before my parents arrived from Kansas for a visit.  As you can see from the corner of the photo below, the new(er) range was smack dab in the middle of the kitchen. That would be a no go for their time in the house.

 Nice green floor, huh? I know you're all super jealous.

Or should I say, GREEN WITH ENVY? 

Ha! Designer knee slapper joke. 

And yes, Handsome does try super hard to be helpful in any way possible in the kitchen as he believes that any good deed should be rewarded (with food/snacks).

Okay, so here's how the kitchen looked just before the stove was delivered in the kitchen.

Looked okay. It was waisted space.  On the wall to the right of the stove is a double oven, that will also be removed, and the entire set up wasn't quite right for this particular kitchen circa 2013/4/5.

Okay so now, about the stove...

Originally, I started looking for a 47" cookstop that could replace the one that was in the space. 

Well, that didn't go very well.  And after also trying to locate a 23" double oven to replace the units that are currently still in the kitchen, that was also unsuccessful.  The next option, Craigslist. 

And BINGO was her namo. I found this year old electric Viking stove from a fabulous house in an equally fabulous neighborhood in Memphis. I messaged the seller and went over as soon as I could to look at it. I promptly made the purchase. And it was delivered a few weeks later. They were in the midst of an entire home renovation and were converting from electric to gas which meant it was my lucky day.  And without (not very many more) thoughts, the whole cabinet would come out and I'd figure out what to do with the space moving forward.

We've been using this stove/oven for about 7 months now and really like it.  I was familiar with Viking as my family has a gas range and other Viking appliances in their kitchen. SO the only difference was the electric cook top.  I didn't even know Viking made an electric version. To my surprise, this had been a special order and lucky for me we were able to get it. Gas is nice, but let me tell you having the flat surface that is durable enough to basically extend the counter top space when it is not in use, that's priceless.  It heats up in a blink of a eye and cooks beautifully. Likewise, the oven has the full gamete of Viking options and it lives up to the name. Quite the deal if you can find one.

Now, after all of that perparation, and after the contracter made his visit, I want to move the stove to the wall the ovens are on to add a new vent hood and put a wine fridge where the current stove is.  Alas, back to Pinterest I go.  Flooring is selected (pics above) it's time to get this ship rolling!