Lilacs and a Thank You!

I want to thank Michele of My Notting Hill for naming my blog among her favorites in a fantastic interview done by Emily Leaman at Washingtonian magazine! Read the entire article HERE: she has some great solutions for common design problems that I think everyone will appreciate. All of our April showers have brought us beautiful May flowers!...

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Save our Urban Centers!

While reading this months Preservation magazine (magazine of the national trust for historic presevation) I came across a plea to save a bank by Louis Sullivan (whom I've blogged about recently here). Of course, Sullivan is a great architect. He was a key innovator in the modern movement and was mentor to such great architects as Frank Lloyd...

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Modern touches

I've always loved the juxtaposition of the modern with the classical and we're seeing a lot of that latey here in DC. One of my favorite buildings is the Wilson building, otherwise known as the District Building, which houses the offices of the Mayor and city council on 14th street.The beaux arts facade with the crisp glass curtain wall always...

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Nature and Stephen Drucker

This past Thursday I was able to hear Stephen Drucker (current editor in chief of House Beautiful magazine with quite an impressive resume behind him) speak here in DC about how Nature informs interiors. Unfortunately, the opening of the DC showhouse at the design center meant a small audience. He spoke in the beautiful neoclassical lecture...

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Finally

Last year I was looking for new knobs to update a console I have. The ones that came with it are just boring and cheap looking, but I love the lines of the piece (see that old post here). I basically wanted to just freshen it up a bit.You can see the old knobs above: Cheap aluminum finish and just a boring design. I've tried out a few different...

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Iron Work

While walking home yesterday I snapped some dramatic looking photos of the beautiful ironwork gate surrounded the Cosmos Club in Dupont. Aren't the finials really elegant? The ironwork is so fluid: a true art form!...

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Foreign living....

One of the great things about travel is to see how people live in different cultures. The 'westernization' of the world scares me because I think we're getting too close to a homogeneous culture and I haven't even experienced a lot of the differences yet before they disappear ( I like to call this the walmartification of the world!). A good...

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Restoration Hardware

Can we talk about Restoration Hardware for a minute? They really have their game on lately in my humble opinion! I'm not talking about those hideous lamps they're really pushing lately which shall remain nameless here (which i like in concept but they just really got the scale totally wrong. Just wrong like whacked out hard-core beefy lamps...

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a splashy idea

I was watching some home design shows this weekend and most were about kitchens (Divine Design, one of the few shows I like on HGTV). A focal point of most kitchens beside the appliances (big, metal and shiny -sort of boring if you ask me, I'm over all of that stainless steel) is the backsplash. I love a simple white subway tile in an all...

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Traditions

How do you unwind? Any traditions? I like to spend my Saturday mornings catching up on emails, blogs and magazines with a pot of tea and some great toast with marmalade or some sort of jam. I look forward to this every week like you wouldn't believe! I hope you're doing something today that you enjoy just as well! Happy Weeke...

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Grey Gardens Movie

I hope Saturday night at 8:00 everyone will be watching 'Grey Gardens' movie on HBO! If you don't have it, find someone who does and barge in (thats what I'll be doing!). I've been waiting for this movie to come out since I first heard about it a year ago.Drew Barrymore, who plays Little Edie, has been out and about promoting the film,...

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Dancing and fashion....

I thought some of you might appreciate this video of Sophie Ellis Bextor performing 'Take me home' -not just for the fun dance music but for all of the beautiful outfits! It reminds me a bit of the fashion sequences in old movies like 'Funny Face'. Enj...

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2 stone houses.....

While visiting family this past weekend, I drove through my old neighborhood, Squirrel Hill and took a few pictures of my 2 favorite houses: both are stone. The first is a more finished stone -limestone maybe? Very sophisticated.The house isn't large but it is certainly grand: A lot of character in this little house! And check out the view...

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