Category Chez moi
Holidaying
One thing I’m loving about December in London is how I can sleep in until 8am and still have that slightly-type-A satisfaction of having gotten up before dawn to “get stuff done”. Today specifically, the cozy grey pre-dawn hours were devoted to wrapping all the presents while Justin slept (thank heavens for jet lag!). He […]
Christmas flowers
At Thanksgiving I told Lady I wasn’t getting a Christmas tree. [gasp; maternal gears start churning] Then I told her my plan to get Christmasy flowers instead. [whew] So that’s what I did today. Got up before dawn (which, let’s be honest, means about 8:00am in London in December), caught the bus to the Columbia […]
Fall clean-up
Nothing like a little yard work to keep the home-going blues away for a little while longer. (Also? I love my leaf vacuum.)
There may be a reason you haven’t seen pumpkins used as vases before
Cute and whimsical for a seasonal arrangement? Yes. Good at being a vase? I’ll let you be the judge: After only five days I discovered that the pumpkin had melted into a mushy, moldy, leaking mess. I salvaged what I could….
Birthday flowers
Leave it to Justin to take inspiration from my blog for a perfect birthday arrangement: yellow and floral and bugs! Well, maybe no bugs (that I’ve found yet anyway…).
Resilience
Let’s say you were chopped to the ground, uprooted, flown across the Atlantic, and buried in foreign soil. How long would it take before you dusted yourself off and pressed on with your life? As you think about your answer, please consider that it has taken my shamrock less than a week (see the story). […]
Who needs a place to stay in Seattle?
It’s official: Seattle’s hottest AirBnB property has just gone live and is open for business. I mean, if I’m not going to stay there, why shouldn’t you? You just have to promise you’ll let me back in when I move back from London. Here’s the listing. It’s perfect for weekend get-aways, longer-term corporate arrangements, and […]
I think I’m into floral and bugs and yellow this year
I’ve always been drawn to saturated primary colors when decorating. When I did my house in Seattle, blue and red were the dominant colors, with only little pops of yellow. I favored clean, modern lines in my furniture and geometric, tribal patterns in my textiles. It was a fairly masculine look. As I start pulling […]
I’m a sucker for pretty, clever things
I went to the department store looking for a set of dishes and was put off by the high price and boring aesthetic. I figured I would just get the basic IKEA set and move on. Then I stepped into In-Residence, the lovely little boutique across the passage from my flat. I met the proprietor, […]
Fire and fury
My landlady’s definition of a proper clean and my definition of a proper clean are not the same. I had her clean the flat twice before I moved in, and while the second attempt was a much more valiant effort, the bathroom still wasn’t habitable. Because mildew. Even after two allegedly “professional” cleans there was […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 