That Tray ... And A Hide

Picking up where I left off regarding all things interior design - or not ...

One of my guilty pleasures prior to moving to the UK was watching practically every show on the Bravo TV channel.  When we moved I told myself, "Self, you are above Bravo TV, leave that smut behind, explore the treasures to be found in this new old world."  Guess what?  I couldn't leave it behind.  A little research revealed that my favourite Bravo TV series could be purchased for a few bucks on iTunes.  Money well spent.  This season Bravo TV premièred Million Dollar Decorators and I bought it.  The show profiles five well known interior designers from Los Angeles, CA one of which is Martyn Lawrence-Bullard.  Hold that thought ...

As well as keeping up with the American smut TV I also purchased the DVDs from eBay and have been watching the 1st season of a British TV drama from the 1970s called Upstairs Downstairs.  This series is set in the townhouse of 165 Eaton Place in Belgravia, London in the early 1900s.  The show follows the lives of the Bellamy family that owns the house and lives "upstairs" and their servants who live "downstairs". Think The Young and the Restless and you've got it.  Hold that thought ...

On last weeks episode of Million Dollar Decorators Martyn Lawrence-Bullard travels to London with representatives from the interiors sale website One Kings Lane for a shopping trip for items to be sold on their site.  (An amusing as always review of the episode was written here by my friend Raina Cox from the blog "If The Lampshade Fits":  http://curbed.com/archives/2011/07/06/episode-six.php.)  One stop during this shopping trip is at what ML-B refers to as being a designer's secret in London, Alfies Antique Market. I think the word "secret" is a stretch since even Frommer's England travel guide mentions Alfies, but no biggie.  While at Alfies ML-B finds a tray he is going to buy not for the One Kings Lane sale, but for his client Elton John.  ML-B thinks it will be perfect for one of Elton's ottomans.  (Elton and I have babies about the same age.  My Mother hopes he and I will end up in a Kindermusik class together with the boys. I think it is sure to happen.)  Hold that thought ...

So, I'm watching an episode of Upstairs Downstairs and what do I spot, but a very familiar looking tray -

Oh my gosh!  ML-B bought an Upstairs Downstairs tray for Elton!  Score!

Now you can process all the thoughts you've been holding.  One last visual from Upstairs Downstairs.  Look at that hide draped on the sofa. Covet.  I do.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Caused by discovering all new decor magazines from the UK during my recent house hunting trip in England -

Further enhanced by finding this treasure left in the seat back pocket in front of me on my flight back to Indianapolis -

A Change In Plans

There has been a change in plans.  I've started another blog.  I know!  I know!  I haven't even done what I set out to do with this blog which was to document the remodel of our current house.  I promise I will follow through on that in the next month.  Until then, please visit me here:  http://achangeinplans.blogspot.com/

Better Late Than Never

My favorite "HAPPY NEW YEAR" television scene -

Designing Women - Bernice - Happy New Year!

Chile-Cheese Rice

Logan's preschool had a luncheon for the teachers today. Parents were asked to volunteer to do one of the following:
1)  Stay in the classrooms with the kids for an hour while the teachers were at the luncheon
2)  Prepare a dish for the luncheon
3)  Do nothing
Since I normally do nothing and am much more the chef type and much, much less the preschool teacher type I volunteered to bring a side dish. I made Chile-Cheese Rice from the Grant Corner Inn Cookbook that I've written about before. The rice was great! All but one serving was left in the casserole dish when I went to pick it up this afternoon and I had a teacher ask for the recipe. So, I thought I'd share -

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Chile-Cheese Rice

1 bunch scallions, most of green tops removed, finely chopped

1 jalapeno chile, finely chopped

½ stick butter

3 cups cooked white rice

1 ¼ t salt

1 ½ cups sour cream

2 cups (8 ounces) cubed Monterey jack cheese

2 cans (4-ounce) chopped green chiles, drained

½ cup (2 ounces) grated Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 2-quart casserole dish.

In a small sauté pan sauté scallions and jalapeno in butter until softened. Stir into cooked rice; add salt, sour cream, cubed Monterey jack cheese and green chiles. Pour into prepared casserole dish; sprinkle with Cheddar cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until cheese topping is melted and casserole is bubbly.

Serves 8.

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This recipe would also be good with cooked and cubed chicken breast mixed in casserole-style.  I am going to make it again this weekend and serve it with Cilantro-Lime Shrimp.  Yum!

Mailbox Surprise

I literally just yelled out, "Oh my God!!!" while standing beside my mailbox when I discovered this at the bottom of the mail stack -

Vanity Fair

There's nothing like Johnny Depp to motivate me to get back to blogging.

An Evening With ...

Guess who I had the pleasure of seeing in person last Thursday night?  One of my imaginary friends and one of my imaginary boyfriends. Celebrity chefs Anthony Bourdain & Eric Ripert!  They were at a sold out show called "An Evening with Anthony Bourdain & Eric Ripert" at Clowes Memorial Hall at Butler University in Indianapolis.  Can you guess which one is my imaginary friend and which is my imaginary boyfriend?  If you've seen either of them on television I'm sure you can quickly figure it out.

Anthony Bourdain - my imaginary friend.  I feel like kissing him would be like licking an ashtray so I don't want to imagine him as a boyfriend. You know he'd be fun to hang out with though.

Anthony Bourdain

Eric Ripert - my imaginary boyfriend.  I feel like kissing him would taste like chocolate and butter and petit fours and creme brulee.

Eric Ripert

The show was just the two of them on stage discussing all things food.  Both of the men seemed in person just as you'd imagine them. Anthony is rough around the edges yet very funny.  Eric is polite and elegant and handsome.  Together they were both very entertaining.

I'm Back!

My very sweet Auntie M. sent me a Facebook message yesterday that said, "I'm missing your blogs."  I thought that was a sign I needed to come back to life and sign on to Blogger.  I've been on a horizontal hiatus for the past couple of weeks.  Let me give you some hints to describe my condition ... "knocked up" (my husband's favorite), "bun in the oven" (my uncle's favorite), "feeling pukey all the time" (from me). You guessed it.  I'm just a few weeks along pregnant and all I've wanted to do is lay in the bed most all the time up until the end of this week. I think I'm now ready to join the land of the living.  For a while there everything made me feel nauseous - even reading, commenting on and writing blog posts.

There has been a LOT of action going on around our house though on which I should be reporting.

For example, this -

And this -

Oh, and remember my husband's handy tree-scaping from some time ago?  Let's just say that plan didn't work out so well.  Here is where those trees ended up prior to their trip to the landfill with a ton or two of broken concrete -

More to come soon.

UGLY

Restoration Hardware has officially lost me.  You should see the look on my face as I just saw this lamp in a RestorationHardware.com email...

UGLY

eBay Seller

I just listed several home-decor type items for sale on eBay.  The best item I have for sale is this lovely light fixture which I tried to find a place for in my house but failed.  It needs a happy home!

If you want to see my goods do an advanced search for eBay seller ID mrsbrowndog or click on this link: http://tinyurl.com/2cczoek.  I'll be adding more items in the next few days.

Just Spotted

This kilim ottoman on Horchow.com. I feel it is slightly kick-ass.

$199 ++

I would like to be it's owner.

God Bless The Indiana State Fair

The Indiana State Fair is in town.  Indiana has a good state fair.  The layout of the fairgrounds is great and the parking is surprisingly well organized.  It is clean and just the right size, not too big and not too small; however, this year I am taking issue with a situation displayed at the fair.  A traveling sculpture inspired by (knocked-off from) Grant Wood's famous 1930 American Gothic painting is on display in a prominent location on the fairgrounds.  I saw it first hand last week and I just didn't dig it.  The sculpture is by American artist J. Seward Johnson (a Johnson & Johnson heir) and is titled God Bless America.  It is on loan from The Sculpture Foundation which encourages the placement of public art.  The sculpture had previously been displayed in Chicago (also to mixed reviews, per my reading) so I realized this was a, "Hey we're in the area and have got this sculpture and you guys have the state fair going on do you want us to drop this thing off before we move it on to someplace else?" kind of situation.

(sculpture display in Chicago)

The angle the Indiana State Fair is taking with Johnson's sculpture is that they hope God Bless America will remind fair visitors of the importance of agriculture in Indiana.  Huh?  Isn't that what the fair does in general?  Anyway, the American Gothic painting does not remind me of Indiana, ever.  It reminds me of Iowa.  So, instead of me seeing the God Bless America sculpture and thinking about it as a sculpture I was left thinking of the people and personalities that are actually from Indiana and how great it would be if the Indiana State Fair commissioned 25-foot sculptures of influential, well-known or even popular people or personalities from Indiana.  You know, celebrated their own.  (I am choosing to ignore the general weirdness of having the same sculpture mean something different depending on its placement, another topic appropriate for discussion on it's own.)  As I pretend the state fair has the budget to commission giant sculptures I have compiled a list of both past and present Hoosiers that that I am nominating for consideration.

Here we go...

Abraham Lincoln - lived in Spencer County, IN from age 7 - 21 - 

James Dean - actor - born in Marion, IN - 

Karl Malden - actor - starred in A Streetcar Named Desire, On The Waterfront & Patton among many others - I've always liked him - raised in Gary, IN - 

Steve McQueen - actor - born in Beech Grove, IN - 

David Letterman (with his Mom of course) - born and raised in Indianapolis, IN - 

Steve Kroft - longtime correspondent for 60 Minutes - I've always liked him too - born in Kokomo, IN -

Sydney Pollack - director, producer, actor - some of my favorites from his best known movies include Jeremiah Johnson, They Shoot Horses Don't They?, The Way We Were, & Out of Africa out of many, many others - born in Lafayette, IN - 

Michael Jackson - no explanation on who he is - born in Gary, IN - 

Axl Rose - if you don't already know who he is you probably don't want to know - he would surely cause controversy, but he'd have a lot of fans - born in Layfayette, IN - 

David Lee Roth - ditto on knowing who he is already - even thought I place myself in the Sammy Hagar over David Lee Roth camp - ditto on controversy potential - born in Bloomington, IN - 

John Mellencamp - Mr. Indiana himself - born in Seymour, IN and lives in Bloomington, IN - 

Larry Bird - duh - born in West Baden, IN and grew up there and in French Lick, IN - 

Chuck Taylor - How cool would a big pair of these be for a sculpture? - born in Azalia, IN - 

Halston - fashion designer - went to high school in Evansville, IN - 

Bill Blass - fashion designer - born in Fort Wayne, IN - 

Orville Redenbacher - Mr. Popcorn - born in Brazil, IN - 

Robert Indiana - artist - a giant version of his LOVE sculpture would be nice - born in New Castle, IN - 

Kurt Vonnegut - cooler than cool American novelist - born and raised in Indianapolis, IN - 

Colonel Eli Lilly - without the business he founded the city of Indiana would practically collapse and I would not be able to enjoy my position in life as the "financial anchor" around my husband's neck (as he affectionately likes to call our daughter and me) - grew up in, became, was, is Indianapolis - 

Garfield - Who doesn't love this cat? - his cartoon is set in Muncie, IN - 

And last but not least, my very favorite ... 

John Dillinger - gangster, bank-robber & one time "Public Enemy" to the US Government at least - born, raised and buried in Indianapolis, IN - 

My Heart is Going Pitter-Patter

I posted about the store CircaWho.com recently.  Look at this pagoda headboard they have for sale right now -

CircaWho.com

Oh how I wish I needed a headboard!!!

Three Little Worlds

After almost 10 years of marriage my husband has three little words he says to me on occasion that make me very happy.  These aren't the three little words:

"I love you" 

or 

"You are beautiful"

or even

"You look thin".

 The three little words he says to me on occasion are:

"That's your deal".

OK, maybe that is three and half words, no matter, these words often occur when I ask his opinion on something to do with decorating our house.  Music to my ears!

Circa Who

I have discovered the web site of a great store in West Palm Beach, FL named Circa Who.  It is a resale shop and they describe their inventory as being 20th Century funishings from Mid-Century modern to Hollywood Regency meets vintage Florida.  Below are some of my favorites.

Pair of faux bamboo benches at $1,200 -

2 faux bamboo arm chairs with KWID fabric at $350 each -

Gilt faux bamboo coffee table at $950 -

Faux bamboo console at $350 -

Pagoda chandelier SOLD, bummer - 

Pair of pagoda mirrors at $550 -

I emailed the shop inquiring as to if they would ship their goods and received a very nice message back that indeed they would ship and to email for a quote on shipping costs for any of their items.  Click below on their logo to go to the CircaWho.com web site.

I Really Like This - The Cold Version

I recently bought one of these swell faux to go cups -

It is a sturdy plastic cold beverage tumbler with a twist on and off lid and a straw with a stirrer at the bottom.  It holds 24-ounces, has a non-slip brown hand grip and is dishwasher safe.  It is made by Copco.  I am a super duper clumsy woman so this sippy cup for big girls has been making me very happy.  I bought mine at Bed Bath & Beyond for $7.99 (less their coupon discount, never shop there without a coupon), but the Copco.com web site lists many other places that sell them.  See it here.

On Another Note

I bought a pagoda mirror just like this yesterday from a resale shop in Indianapolis named DomiStyle.  The only difference is that my mirror hangs with the pagoda at the top vertically versus horizontally like this one.

I like this room.  A highlight from the September 2010 issue of House Beautiful, especially considering my previous two posts.

You've Got To Be Kidding Me - Part 2

I'm concerned.  Very concerned.  About House Beautiful that is.  This is their Kitchen of The Month for the September 2010 issue -

Wow -

These are the refrigerator / freezers - 

I'm so confused.