My Billy Baldwin Brown And Sexy Living Room

It's finally time to see what I've been working on for the past couple of weeks! I hope you enjoy it!
Here's a peek looking inside from the dance parlor. We put up the shutters, discarded for outside use because they are old and falling apart. I scraped and sanded them, and then stabilized the surface with satin finish poly. The stripe doors were painted four years ago, but now I did a free hand painted thin brown stripe to look like a chalk pin stripe to see if they'll still work out. What do you think?
The silk drapes and wall lamp with the brown silk shade and green silk wire cover are in the dance parlor which "looks" into the living room.
Now that you're inside, let's look around. I shot these photos using only natural light and a slow shutter speed. The light outside shifted quite a bit, as a rain storm was coming in. So I apologize for the dark photos. While the room has a deep color, it does not feel dark or dreary. It feels sexy and soothing and chic, and brings me back to my deep dark New York roots!

The paint is Color Place mixed into a Kilz base. Color Place is a Sherwin Williams paint made for Wal Mart (at about half the price). The color is called Buffalo. It is a warm brown with an undertone of gray. Light plays off of it beautifully. I painted the dance parlor this color four years ago, and decided to continue with it to fool the eye into looking like the living room is a much larger space. The new batch of paint matches perfectly. I use flat paint, and wrap the room in color - the walls, ceiling, and trim get the same color and paint. It hides flaws and make the boundaries seem endless.
I love the color of the old shutters against the walls. I needed to "center" this window to get the furniture placement I wanted. I would have liked to get a huge antique screen, and I mean huge, as the windows are 80 inches tall! But there's no budget for that! I love the old New Orleans shutters so much - it's Creole Regency! I think the tattered red paint looks like an old Chinese or Tibetan or Venetian paint finish. The shutters on the window can be opened.

I absolutely love the way the couch came out! The faux white leather is such a fabulous contrast against the deep color of the walls. I did not have the original skinny cushion re-used, but replaced it with a higher profile cushion to update the look of the sofa. The vinyl is very soft and fabric like. It's flannel backed. And of course the nail head trim is to die for!
I am so happy to finally achieve a symmetrical furniture placement. This is the first view of the living room. Previously the large Baker credenza with the flat screen TV and the off center window, were the first things you saw. The chandelier never looked quite right, though it has always been hung in the center of the room. Now it all lines up, thanks to the shutters.
I flipped the nine foot long credenza to where the couch had been. I had to block a door that leads to the guest bedroom. However there is another entrance to this room, and this door was seldom used. I think the door mural looks better then ever behind the credenza.
I did a Dorothy Draper trick (from her book Decorating Is Fun!), by painting the edge of the credenza doors the same color as the walls. She recommends painting furniture and picture frames to match wall color. I know some of you are cringing that I would paint a Baker piece. However, when I bought it years ago, it was just a $100. piece of thrift store detritus, not the Hollywood Regency treasure it has become. If ever I want to sell it at an investment piece price, I'm sure I can have it refinished. The top is pecan wood, and has never been touched.
The Baker piece is in the manner of Fornasetti from their Italian line (it has the label). I have a Fornasetti print resting on top, along with the caged glass lamps I rescued from the street. I have learned to live with the DVD and VCR, because it's important to the hubs. I just added a couple of pretty remote boxes and a piece of coral.
Here's a total view of the credenza. I try to make the flat screen a part of the art and objects. It's so weird to photograph a TV set - I don't know if it's better to have it on or off in the shot. There's a little French antique metal folding chair in front of the credenza.

Here's a view to the other side of the room. The light has shifted and it's a little dark. But I wanted you to see how tall my windows are, and how I a treat an unused "front" door as another window.One of my favorite views is between the two windows. I placed an antique rusted metal drinks cart there, and propped up a very distressed vintage mirror (it has been in the garden and survived Katrina!) on it. My old Ballard Design Della Robbia lamp got one of the PB black shades. I "layered" another table in front of this, a gold wheat sheaf base table. It has a huge square glass top, but I replaced it with a 30 inch round one. I love using it as a book and magazine table. And of course the Ghost Chair is one of my favorite things.

It may look a little cluttered, but I love it. I "needed" a floor lamp, so I fashioned one out of a small table lamp on top of an antique bamboo plant stand. The etagere holds a collection of white objects, that look so good against the brown.




A few little details: black tassel pull on a lamp; antique cherub peeking out from behind the distressed mirror (I'm selling the cherubs on eBay now)...

...the other cherub, one orange Foo dog, a little iron urn of shells, and an old brown transfer ware plate with bugs and a bird on it. You can also see the great patina on the drinks cart.

The view from the couch into the dance parlor. And in this corner the Eames chair (also for sale on eBay now soon to be replaced with a chaise lounge the hubs chose for himself). Above is the Will Barnett print "The Young Couple".


So now the doors are closing on the tour...

I hope you enjoyed looking at it, as much as I enjoyed doing it!
It's still just a little bit of a work in progress. I plan to try out a new striped rug I ordered, and get a lantern to replace the chandy. And of course the chaise lounge is coming on the 26th. Also sussing out an Ikat pillow. The French settee is being recovered in the same faux white leather. I bought 15 yards (60 inches wide), and there was enough fabric left over to do the settee. I am also going to recover my four antique Isabelina salon chairs (we use them as dining chairs) in the same white faux leather. It's good, it's really that good.



And now credit where credit is due...

Who's your Daddy? Want me to build you a couch?

Thanks to the hubs, my Alberto, for never getting in my madcap way when I'm on a decorating jag. He hung the heavy shutters, even when he didn't understand what I was going for; he took down ugly fire alarms (this was an institutional building when we bought it), and expertly patched up the huge holes they left; he totally redid the cable TV wires; he rewired lamps for me; he let me show him pictures of chaise lounges; and he keeps the wine poured and the kisses coming.

The chaise the hubs wants and is getting!

The staging area in my office

And a very special and heartfelt thank you to my angels Sabina and Joe who made it possible for me to do this. I can hardly wait for you to come and enjoy it in person!
And thanks to all of you my dear bloginistas, for reading and writing and egging me on.

The inspiration - a small sampling from the clipping file:

I don't know the top two interior designers
Do you?
Love the deep colors, screen behind the couch, symetry

Billy Baldwin Interior Design
Slipper chair, bibelots, books. French chair, deep color

Billy Baldwin Interior Design
Slipper chairs, little tables, books, deep color

Billy Baldwin Interior Design
Screen behind white couch

Jonathan Adler Interior Design
I still love ya Jonnie -
even though you made me crazy!
It's a very Billy Baldwin room don't you think?

Jonathan Adler Interior Design

The Process of The Mess That I Entered In The Domino Decorating Contest

These are more photos of the process of decorating my living room after Katrina. You can see more in the post before this one. Besides finding out about Jonathan Adler and Kelly Wearstler, and all about eBay, I also found out about Domino Magazine and blogs.
Domino had a little decorating contest last year, and I had the nerve to send in the one photo you were allowed to enter. I was thrilled that they chose it to be among the dozens that ended up on their web site. Of course I didn't come near to winning, but at least I added some color! To my great surprise and delight, this photo ended up on Desire To Inspire HERE
By now I had gotten some "new" things: an Eames lounge chair and ottoman; an antique French settee with crazy chenille fabric that looked very Colefax and Fowler; a cow hide rug; a very glam gilded wheat base coffee table; a slipper chair.
I ditched the Wassily chair and the red plastic hand chair. A couple of X-benches had come and gone. Also gone was the Jonathan Adler rug. A great vintage wing chair with a wonderful print, finally rotted to the point of no return, and the legs broke one too many times for repair, so out to the curb - somebody did pick it up, and I hope they get good use out of it!
I edited the art on the walls. I kept a great Carlo of Hollywood painting I got on eBay, and a Will Barnett print I got at a garage sale for $10., and of course the big clock. The mural on the door remained too, sort of becoming a piece of art work.
The couch had a couple of new white slip covers. One from Surefit, and a better one from Ikea (both purchased on eBay - there is no Ikea in New Orleans, the closet one is on Houston). Originally the sofa was a faded and worn out blue velvet, not chic enough to be shown in its shabby state. I also had a black and white toile slipcover, that I later over dyed pink.
The introduction of pink, orange, and turquoise blue accents where my crazy attempt to make something good come out of the yellow walls that I had inherited from the previous owner.
I liked the yellow, but still it wasn't really working, and I knew the day would come when I finally would repaint the room. In the meantime I beat that thing every which way, trying to make it look like a fabulous choice, rather then a make-do default.
Some little tables came in, and some little tables went out. I kept the Lucite table, and a very heavy metal one that looks like a piece of sculpture. Eventually the white two tier tea table left over from my Hamptons beach house days, went into the guest room. I swapped it out with the metal drinks cart.
I added a little black table from my friend Michael Pelkey, and eventually the two little yellow matching tables.
The drapes stayed, but got pink linen inserts to replace the taupe color theatrical scrim inserts. These green drapes came from our French Quarter apartment, our first in New Orleans, eight years ago. I purchased the fabric in New York, a whole bolt of it. It's a very fine velvet, with an odd kind of tie dye effect that somehow piqued my over active imagination into thinking it looked like an old Fortuny fabric.
Lamps have come and gone too, though not discarded, but rather moved from room to room. The two large glass lamps were found on the street after Katrina, right off of mansion row on St. Charles Avenue. They had huge ugly 1970's ripped plastic drum shades, and the bases were filthy and had paint drippings, but I cleaned them up and got new oval shape shades. I love the organic shape of the caged glass base. The white lamp with the Della Robbia fruit came from Ballard Designs many years ago when I was still living in New York. The blue shade came when I tried to copy Jonathan Adler's lamp on the cover of his book. No shades like his existed for sale, so I painted a white shade blue. It's also had the cream oval shade, and now it's changed again. The sweet little chandy was a gift from my friend Miss Anne's French Quarter attic, a treasure trove of 60 years worth of collecting. The pink lamps also came from Miss Anne, and have had black Pottery Barn shades. I acquired an oversize modern glass lamp with a turquoise and white and Lucite base; it's now on my desk.
The knick-knacks come and go too, though I always seem to keep shells and corals and fresh flowers. I had a fling with Fornasetti, and had about 60 coasters, a magazine rack and table (not real but great), a set of prints, and a huge out of print book. I've kept one print, and of course the Baker credenza is done in the manner of Fornasetti. The orange foo dog came with the jazzing up of the yellow color scheme. I only bought one, as the pair seemed too much. Yes, dear readers, even I think it's all too, too much!
Stay with me, the next post will be the reveal.

Jonathan Adler Made Me Do it

I live in New Orleans as many of you already know. And we experienced Hurricane Katrina. Our house remained intact, though our lives were shaken up. There's no sob story here, no boo-hooing. It's just a fact that Katrina changed everything for everyone who lived here when it happened.

We did not expect the storm to hit us. We left on the Friday before the storm to go away for a working weekend, a drive out to Tallahassee to teach a weekend tango workshop. We were due home on Monday.

Because of Katrina, we ended up away from New Orleans, and our home for four months. It did not look like the photos here.

Although the hurricane did not do interior destruction, I certainly did!

Somehow I bought a copy of Jonathan Adler's My Prescription For Anti Depressive Living. Maybe it was the title that attracted me, along with it being a decor book. I was vaguely aware of who JA was - I had skimmed a few magazines and thought the name and the style of work might be that of the author of the book.

Believe me after Katrina, everyone from New Orleans was depressed, whether you were in or out of the city.
Most of us ate more and drank alot more cocktails.
My addiction ended up being decorating the inside of my house, because I could not cope with the damage outside of my door.

When the book arrived from amazon, I was enchanted. It brought back my fun years in New York. I loved the color, the kitsch, the imagination, and the cheeky cheerful text. I thought it would be fun to take the medicine Jonathan was prescribing, and I thought I could do it, because to my eye it looked like alot of 60's and 70's junk I could find cheap in a flea market or second hand store.
There was only one problem -
there were no more stores like this left in New Orleans.

I had a brief experience with eBay before Katrina. I was not an eBayer YET. I had just cautiously purchased one or two things. But now I turned to eBay to look for JA junk
.
What an education it was. I found out about something called Hollywood Regency. I found out about Mid Century Modern. I found out that JA products existed and many sold on eBay. To my eye it was a candy store filled with things I grew up with, and mocked my mother for having the bad taste to own them!

My previous decor involved the words English Country; French Country; Hamptons Lauren Beach, and my mother was stuck mid century and I was a snot to her (sorry mom).

So it was with great amusement that I found myself so attracted to this happy world of Jonathan and his alter ego Kelly Weartstler.

The more-is-more layering of objects seemed easy enough to do. As the UPS man kept bringing me my eBay finds (I sold my designer clothes from my previous life in New York to finance my eBay Jones), I kept ordering more. I had a purpose, and I didn't have to leave the house. I was a recluse and very happy for it.

Somehow eBay led me to Rate My Space, as surfing the inter net is apt to lead to connections you never are really looking for, but then become valuable sources.

I was so proud of my handiwork, and I thought the idea of Rate My Space was so nice and user friendly, so with great enthusiasm I posted several photos of my home. I was prepared to wow them all.

Needless to say I got a big can of whoop ass. Most people thought I was insane, which I guess I was. I realized that most of the world didn't get me or Jonathan Adler or New Orleans.

I have always looked at decor books and magazines, but kind of in an off handed way, as a minor source of inspiration. Now I started really looking at the photos and analyzing what made a room look good, and what made mine look so bad to RMS!

I'm not an idiot, and even before I posted those photos, I knew something was off, but I was hoping RMS wouldn't notice. So I started to move it all around, sell most of it back on eBay, and try to find out what the hell I needed to do to make the living room not look like I was on some sort of decor crack.

In the meantime I started this blog, which really started another education onto itself. Forget books and magazines, the real information is on the decor blogs.
Little by little, the message that comes through is to just be yourself. So that's what I've been doing. Both on the blog, and with the redecorating of the living room.

I wanted you all to see the photos of my mess, alongside Jonathan Adler's work, to see where an interpretation can go. Granted I didn't have a budget to go out and buy all the JA stuff, and just copy his model rooms. But I think you can see the fun I was trying to evoke with like items.

I have to give Jonathan Adler and Kelly Weartsler alot of credit for making it look so polished. They are true originals with talent.

And guess what, so am I!

Anyway, I wanted to post the "before" pictures on their own, as there are many images of the "after" coming. I promise! I've kept some of the things, and perhaps you'll have fun seeing what's left, what's not, and how it's all been moved around in a tiny 14 X 16 room.

Happy Weekend - The Couch Is In The House!

Mine!
It is more than I hoped for.
I have more pictures of the entire room, but no time to post them.
Bed and Tango guests this weekend, and hosting a tango dance party Saturday night.
I'll try to get photos up sooner than later.
Also: Javier, Penelope, Scarlet this weekend in Vicky Cristina Barcelona - yum.

Now that's a tango!

What About The F Word?

Blog literature. I read alot of it. And make no mistake, it is literature.
There have been some great potty mouths in literature.
I have been taking the F word out for a drive on my blog. I got a couple of comments HERE
I share one along with my response. WTF do you think?

The first family of swearing...
...next to mine

Mary Kay said... So here's a comment for you: How do you know you're a successful blogger? Because I love to read your writing, even though I wince at the f-words, which were once a part of my vocabulary too, when I was younger - long about the time in the 80's when I met my husband-to-be in a Chicago bar.

Watching Sopranos bothered me at first too, except I'd lived in NJ for 4 years as a newlywed. That was the lingo and part of the cultural fabric of the place. Tony on A&E is just not the same.

I'm not a reader, I'm a skimmer or just a picture-viewer. Haven't read a book in almost 3 years. So for me to read your entire posts is a .... BFD!

Best, marykay

Lenny Bruce
A great proponent of the F word
He made it possible for all of us
to use it publicly
without going to jail for it

Visual Vamp said... About the swearing and the F word LOL. I wish it was forced ha ha ha. My mother was a lovely woman,a well reared Catholic lady from a lovely set of parents who never cursed. Yet she had the biggest potty mouth I ever heard. And she was loud! And she had 7 kids, so when she was screaming at us to try and get some fucking control, we were mortified that the neighbors could hear it. And guess what? All 7 of us swear. And every year we make a resolution that we'll stop, or at least cut back. I'm an old school New Yorker, and somehow the F word is just part of the vernacular.
As a writer, you make the choice to use it or not. I actually use it less to almost zero in my daily speech (I really am a lady LOL), yet when I write, it's part of my voice - sometimes. The blog is a process for me as a writer. I'm trying out all kinds of things.
I don't want to turn you guys off, but I want the blog to have the feeling of freedom, even if it means saying fuck.

My first dirty book along with Peyton Place
when I was a pre-teen

Henry Miller
Henry Fucking Miller
Another early influence

And my poetry teacher
Erica Jong
Poet, Novelist, Mother
Inventor of The Zipless Fuck

There are tons more of great potty mouths in literature. Who are some of your favorites? Famous or not, books or blogs...

Sheer Curtain Panels - Yes Or No?

I have a very tall window situation in my living room. One window is 10 feet tall, floor to ceiling, nine over nine window panes. It is just a gorgeous 150 year old girl! On the same wall is an old door with a glass pane, and a window transom above. I treat this as a second window, by hanging the same curtains as I hang on the nine over nine.
Living in a city, on a street that gets foot traffic, and being on the ground floor level with a small set back of a front garden and front porch, makes it easy to see inside. And it makes it easy to see outside, and I have a lovely view of a 300 year old massive live oak tree lined street, and of course all the pretty things I planted in my front garden. I also like to people watch.
However, I like a little privacy too. In the past I would do my windows like my mother did. Drapery panels with sheer panel inserts, or with match stick or tortoise bamboo shades. I can't do bamboo shades on the floor to ceiling window. I just can't. I hate letting them up and down; no matter how good they are, it is always a pain working that stringy thingee. I don't want a roller shade either, because it's too granny, and also because the size of these windows would be an expensive custom job proposition, and I think a roller shade going to the floor would be odd. Any shade would look odd, because of the panel on the door. I would want the shades to be closed or open at the same level, and somehow I can't see it working.

Nowadays, you see just drapery or curtain panels alone, with no sheer panels. Do people open and close them everyday? When they're open and the window expanse is revealed along with your flat screen, does this make you nervous when all the looky-lous peer into your fishbowl?
Before I order to sheer panels from Pottery Barn or Ikea (the only places that make long panels - I need 116 inches), I am having a good think on this. I do not want my room to look dated or fussy or maw maw.
I'm not doing tie backs for this reason. I have always swagged and tied back, but I think the tie back is just tired for me right now.
In the past I have used handkerchief linen panels as inserts. But I don't want to use the pink ones with my new color scheme. I'm keeping the same green velvet panels. They are just the perfect color and weight, and drape so beautifully, and still have the look of antique Fortuny. Right now they are hanging sans sheers. The have button holes for a rod pocket that usually just slide onto a narrow rod. I have attached clip-on rings to the the button holes, so the panels can open and close effortlessly. I mix the metals of the rings, and the little sparkle up near the ceiling is very pretty.
So what do you think? Let the looky-lous have a peek? Or add white sheers? It's funny because in the dance parlor I use French lace panels with silk side panels. I like lace, yet I get the granny complex. But the tango has such a lovely vintage, and the dance parlor harks back to its beginnings 150 years ago in Buenos Aires. So the antique look of the French lace panels hits the right chord.

PS The couch came back this morning from the re-upholsterer, and it looks breathtaking! Stay tuned for the big reveal!

Welcome Petunia Face

Visit Petunia Face HERE

I get these blog crushes.
I read alot of blogs, which really stinks because I hardly crack a book anymore. This blog reading is a new nasty habit that started last March (2008), when I was researching something I wanted to buy on eBay, some piece of cheap vintage crap that my over active imagination tricks me into thinking it will look like a million bucks once I play with it.
The first blog I came upon was Decorno. I was smitten. What the hell was this? The title was beguiling, combining the words decor + porn. The writing was funny, and pretty good. I was hooked, and for the first time I didn't think blogging was for assholes and losers scribbling their lives away. In fact I saw something of myself in Decorno, and thought, hey I can do that.
It has been many years since I semi retired from the design world, and I had never missed it before. I guess I was healed from the damage I let it do to me, and I was ready to allow that side of me live again.
So I started my blog. I didn't know jack about how to do it. Thank god blog spot, blogger, Google - makes it so easy a monkey could figure it out. It was so cool to learn how to play with photos, to learn about widgets, to discover Google Images, and to discover a world of super talented bloggers out there.
I got more crushes - Joni from Cote de Texas, and Meghan from Beach Bungalow 8, and Hab Chic, and Mrs. Blandings and Style Court, and M21, and The Perfect Red (now Fashion Phil), and Peak of Chic, and Optimism and White Paint, and Sneaky Chic, and so many others. Everyone has a blog roll of favorites, so I would check out one, which led me to another one, which leads to yet that other one over there, and well you know the drill - all of a sudden the sun is coming up and the laptop is burning up your fucking lap.
I wrote to some of my crushes, via comments and sometimes via e-mail.
I was accused of stalking Decorno by a very nasty Anon, so I didn't want to disgust her or freak her out (I was told she does not do e-mail so I didn't bother to write her about this), so I took her off my blog, and have stopped reading her, except for every once in awhile. I felt bad that she didn't want to be friends, but hey what the fuck is this, fucking high school confidential. I'm a grown woman with a full life, with accomplishments up the old yazoo.
Besides Joni was there and friendly from the start, and she helped me with so many things; Meghan wrote to me and egged me on.

Joni recently sent this beauty to me
after she read my post about
my lust for canopy chairs

So I learned that there is kind of a blog etiquette, unspoken rules of the road so to speak, and that if you mind your P's and Q's, you can make friends with your crushes without it being totally creepy.
But I have a huge crush again. And it's directed to Susannah who writes Petunia Face. She's on a ton of blog rolls, and she's kind of famous as a blog writer. She writes about her life and her daughter Zoe. I love this blog, and it has nothing to do with decor + porno.
It astounds me that there is a whole genre of mothers blog writing about their kids, posting photos, etc. I worry about predators, even though I don't have kids. But I worry about my nieces and nephews and my godchild Hailey.

My grand niece Brittany, and my godchild Hailey

Bloggers just seem to put it out there in such an open way. Not only that, but everyone single, dates on line! WTF! My ancient step father met a woman on line and they got married (it's been 12 years). I am so out of that fucking rodeo.
Joni told me there are two Jonis, the good Joni is the blog girl, and bad Joni is her real life ha ha. I found that vastly amusing, and I could dig it. But I am fooled if that's the case with all the blog girls out there, because it all just seems so real.
My only other inter net interaction has been on Rate My Space and eBay. I did my fair share of buying and selling, and I got alot of terrific letters from other eBayers, something that at first shocked me, then ultimately charmed me. I got a few letters from a woman in Israel who bought a Gerard Yosca bracelet from me, in which she described bombs bursting in air during some fucking war outside her door. Bombs and eBay!
It was like being a kid again with pen pals.
I made friends with one guy from Rate My Space. It was a whole song and dance as to how to exchange e-mails via the comments. Neither one of us wanted to post our e-mail address. So he would come and comment on an outdated posting of mine, and we would chat like magpies. We got busted by one of the other regulars, and it was very funny. He was the only straight guy in the hen house and had quite a little fan club. All in all it was cordial, and we wrote each other for awhile, but it eventually petered out once I got my blog.
One thing he did freaked me out. I posted a photo on RMS of the exterior of my house. The house number was visible, and everyone knows (because I proudly broadcast it) that I live in New Orleans. This guy sent me a warning about showing my house number, in a disturbing way: He revealed where I lived, my exact street address, and how much I paid for my house, and when I bought it, and other little things that I had not told him about. I tried to shrug it off, because I'm a tough cookie, and I'm street wise, and I live on the edge of the hood, but really I was queasy, and if the hubs found out how stupid stupid stupid I was, he'd kill me (actually he was very nice about it). So I took the damn pictures with the house number on it off of RMS!

My house without the house number LOL

So when I see so much information given (and I give it out too) by bloggers, I wonder about creepy stuff, like identity theft, and bad people preying on kids, of an axe murderer jumping out of the computer screen leering and taunting me saying so you thought I was a harmless decor freak you mother fucking asshole.
But the other side of me, the nauseating Pollyanna side, sees the good of all of it, the openness, the sharing, the talent, the love of what we all do, blog our fucking lives away for what?
Some get chump change from ads (at least I think it's chump change) or maybe writing gigs out of it, or nice little profiles on 1stdibs (and hey you at 1stdibs when are you going to do Joni Cote de Texas?), or in magazines. Some get a ton of comments, the comment queens I call them, and yes I do covet a comment or two. And Anon don't fucking write me anymore and tell me I am desperate.
Because yes I am desperate. Life passes quickly. We run out of time to do all the things we want to do. So I am a tad obsessed. So stick it in your ear if you don't like the passion.
I too have facets, and I do sleep, eat, take care of my loved ones, make a living, but sometimes I'm just on a writing jag deep into the night.
Oh yes, please, please do go to Petunia Face HERE
She's on vacation now, and has some terrific guest writers. I'd love to invite some of you to do a guest piece/posting once in awhile.
But anyhoo get your snarky asses over there and have a good read - it's almost as good as reading a book, and I say say almost because I am a dinosaur that likes to hold a book in my hands, no fucking heartless Kindle for me.

How To Make A Mirror Table

From Better Homes and Gardens HERE
This once ordinary table was transformed into a showstopping mirrored diva in just a few steps. Sand and prime the table, then brush the legs and the beveled edges of the tabletop with silver leaf and seal them with polyurethane. Trace a kraft paper pattern of the curvy tabletop, then have 1/4-inch mirror cut to fit and seamed to ensure a smooth edge. Have the side panels cut from 1/8-inch-thick mirror and topped with ready-made round mirrored coasters with beveled edges.

Sounds good on paper (and it looks really cute). Let me know if any of you try it, or have done a similar project...