I'm Making Big Changes!

So we have finally made the decision to move। In fact, school districts have forced us into the decision, but I don't care because I've been ready for a change!! So, currently I am in the process of preparing the house to put on the market and to somehow de-personalize my very, VERY personal space. Wish me luck!

Moving Right Along

This week marks Liam's 5th birthday! I'm having trouble adjusting to not having a "baby" around, anymore. He's growing and changing so much. Thanks to Grandma, he now has his own car to drive. Yikes! This things is so big, it needs its own garage. Thanks Mom, I think.
Speaking of growing up, at his birthday party I saw him holding hands with one of his little girl friends! Yes! For a second I thought I saw my life flashing in front of me...my baby!!!! Just last week he told me he was "in love" with a different little girl. Help me, Lord!

Goodbye To Tired Holiday Decor!

As the holidays approach I usually write about my dislike of boring decorating ideas. I never understand why so many of us can't let go of "Grandma's decorating" ideas when it comes to Christmas! As it turns out, the folks at Found feel the same way and they (unlike me) decided to do something about it. Tuesday evening they are opening their doors and sharing lots of fresh and stylish decorating ideas.

Great tip: Use fresh greenery! It has a wonderful aroma and looks amazing in any home.

When it comes down to it, what bothers me about most holiday decorating is its garishness. You know, most of us would never consider living with tacky, shiny objects on a regular basis; but we don't give it a second thought at Christmas time. Why? Subtlety, can be so much more beautiful. Also, subtle doesn't have to mean boring. It can be very unique and charming.

Don't you love this color!!

Okay, I admit I can be a bit of a Scrooge. Fortunately, even Found's lumps of coal come in a charming package. Ha, Ha!
Here's some more info. Maybe I'll see some of you there:)

Finally Recovering From The Market!

Wow, I'm finally back!
Its taken a few days to recover from the market. Not that I was exhausted so much, but getting my house back in order again! Yikes!!! Never mind the amount of things I put off last week that are now catching up to me this week. Thankfully, I can say that we still had a great time:)

As usual, there was an array of amazing objects everywhere. When I arrived early Sunday morning, I made the decision to only allow myself to buy things after I had sold some of my own. Also, I couldn't spend more than I made. That would not have gone over well with Mark, trust me.

The funny thing about the market is that now its a place to catch up w/ friends and acquaintances. I had a chance to run into fellow bloggers, favorite shop owners, and readers! It was great fun. Above, are photos of Cheryl Schulke's (Stash Studios) amazing handmade bags. They really more awesome than a photo can capture. As the bloggers who stopped by to show some love, I want to say thanks to the ladies of La Dolce Vita, What Would Jane Austen Do?, and Under A Paper Moon. I'm not forgetting anyone, am I? After a while, Sunday became a bit of a blur. Even my tireless 4 year old had to take an occasional break!

I had the amazing pleasure of sharing my space with several wonderful (and much better prepared) ladies. (Except I don't know blond lady in the middle. Oh well, it was like a big ole' party) Maura (on the right) thanks for all your help, and Mark said, "Thanks for the wine!"

I love the idea of an "Industrial Christmas!"

Don't ask me what these wire bowl type things are for, but I do love their shape.

Cool or creepy? Haven't quite decided yet.

I even had a chance to hang out with Mary of The Fabulous Flea. Some of you may remember and article I wrote about her shop here. P.S. if you want to see more of her amazing finds, The Fab Flea will be open tomorrow; (11/12) so check it out.
Finally, I want to thank all of you readers who stopped by and introduced yourselves. Its such a pleasure to meet you and I'm so grateful to know that you regularly take the time to read this blog:)

Happy Halloween!

Hope you and all the little ones have a fun Halloween!
Before I sign off, I wanted to share this great idea from a client's house. She purchased a cool, vintage "Skeletal System" poster from Etsy. We then installed it in her entry as a spooky welcome for all those trick-or-treaters. I also couldn't resist posting this little cutie in such an adorable dress:)

If Anything Can Go Wrong...

It probably will, and at the most inopportune moment. You know that saying, right? Uh, well that describes my week, quite well. I feel bad about not posting anything for an entire week, sorry everyone:(
Where to begin, about my week? First it started with no cable or internet for a couple of days. That alone is traumatic, let me tell you!! My lovely husband decided to move the cable connections around and told me the cable would be down for "a few minutes". Well, 3 or 4 hours later, we figured out that it was not coming back! Of course, at that point it was already evening, so when we tried to call for help we could only reach people with accents that are very difficult to understand, and who didn't really help in any way. So the three of us came to the harsh realization that there would be no vegging to our favorite shows and no internet surfing either. Aahhh! No reruns of The Office, no Dora the Explorer, no Twittering, emailing, blogging, NADA! Have you tried doing that lately? Its very hard, let me tell you.
Well, the next morning Mark calls me and says I need to expect a call from the repair man and I need to be at home. He is set to call at 9:00 in the morning. So I have just enough time to get Liam to school and rush back home. Around 10:30, I'm still waiting for the call and start worrying about the things I'm not getting done. At lunch time, I decide not to wait anymore, and gather all my things and start to walk out the door. Guess what happens at that moment? Yeah, my phone rings! The "9:00" call comes in at 11:45. So, I answer and you know what sage advice the technician has for me? "Why don't you unplug the box for a few minutes and then plug it back in". Like we hadn't already tried that about 30 times!!!! Since his technical help went nowhere, he now wanted to send a repairman. As I'm listening to this, I'm thinking "I've already wasted half of the day, now they're asking me to waste the other half. On the other hand, if I don't wait for them today; I will get to go through this process again tomorrow". I really didn't have a choice. Finally, by about 4:00 everything was up and running again and I was quick to remind Mark to let the experts move the connections around, for all of our sakes:)
After those two days, I spent a couple of days trying to catch up on work that couldn't get done sans an internet connection. I didn't realize how few people I actually speak to, or see in person. I do everything via my computer. Its kind of sad actually. I have also been trying to find flu shots for Liam, (everyone is running out), planning family affairs, blah, blah, blah. Sigh...what I really hate is that I never posted my Round Top photos. I am very happy with them, but they seem a little irrelevant now:( Here is a small peek. I will go ahead and post them on my Flickr site tomorrow...but again, I gotta run!
Happy Friday!

A Word Of Thanks

If you're wondering, yes; this is a re-post. I've never done this before, but I just wanted thank all of you for your comments. It reminds me of one my favorite things about blogging, kinship. So many of you mentioned cutting out pictures and ideas and then cataloging them in some manner. I didn't mention this in my original article (See Below), but that is something I do too. Now I say I do it for "my work", but lets face it. I also do it for fun, just like I have been doing since I was 10 or 11 years old. Sometimes I think I should outgrow that habit but haven't yet. I just love hearing from all of you who love saving all those pretty pictures for as long as possible. So again, thanks everyone:)

XO

Carolina

As I continue my efforts to renew inspiration, I decided to clear out mental and physical clutter. Last week, I attacked my closet and this weekend I attacked my magazine stash (gasp!)
I clear out old issues once or twice a year, but its usually only a handful. This time, I decided to be ruthless!! It wasn't easy, but I made a big dent. Now, I would like to say I got rid of half of my magazines, but that would be exaggerating. I can say I cleared out about 1/3 of the stash. I'm quite proud of myself! Now don't worry, I did drag all the mags to recycling. Lucky for me I had a very strong assistant:)

(Note: No back issues of Domino were harmed during this process)

A Quick Stop For Inspiration

On our trip home, we decided to make a quick stop in Austin. I say quick because we weren't even there 24 hrs. That didn't stop me from photo stalking;) (Annie, I hope you like these. Ha!) I've been itching to see the Saint Cecilia Hotel, since I first heard about it. Designed by the developers of the San Jose, I knew it would have to be amazing...and it certainly was!!!
I know many bloggers have written about this place so I hope you all will indulge me. I'm just so excited about it! Also, please excuse Mr. Liam who had to walk through almost EVERY photo I took. Here's a tip: Don't take small boys when taking photos. They don't exactly know how to sit still.

I don't have many photos to share, because I didn't actually stay at the hotel, I was just passing by. Yes, I know...the definition of stalking. Honestly, there is so much inspiration that just a quick walk around supplies more than enough eye candy. One of my favorite details was the black and white tile in a chevron pattern. Oh you all know how much I love stripes!

Yeah, he knows how to pose!

My other favorite part. This hidden courtyard. The design of it isn't complicated, but its just perfection. It occurred to me how simple it would be to find a couple of simple outdoor benches and paint them bright white. This bench is one large L-shape piece but two benches placed caddy corner to one another can have the same effect. The pillows are simply made with black outdoor fabric.

The jewel-tones and the stark lines are so striking. St. Cecilia, hopefully next time I can see you from the inside.
Love ya!

The Next Annie Liebovitz?

I say this as a joke of course:) Last week at the David Byrne concert, he announced that the audience could take as many photos as they liked. Luckily, I had smuggled in my point ant shoot camera. Yes, I was planning on taking photos dishonestly....its funny, I didn't really feel bad about it until I wrote this, oops.
It turns out the joke was on me because I could have taken my better camera and gotten better pics.
This was the first time I attempted this type of photo, and I found out that is not as easy as it looks. The varying lights, dancing, working around the audience! It was kind of crazy for this amateur photographer.

When I got home, I was somewhat disappointed. Only 2 or 3 photos were sort of clear. So I decided to make lemonade from my lemons. Since many of the photos were so blurry, I took them to another level of blur! It was a very liberating process. Since I didn't have to worry about "ruining" the picture, I was free to do whatever I wanted. Very cool.

So I'm not holding my breathe for Rolling Stone to hire me any time soon, but this was a new and challenging process for me. I think at the next concert, I will know a little more what I'm up against and have a better approach. In the meantime, these off-beat photos are my tribute to one of my creative heroes:)

The Fabulous Flea And A Fabulous Sale.

I don't often get to write about a furniture store in houston that I've never been too, but this is one of those times! This weekend The Fabulous Flea opened its doors to the public for a rare sale. I decided I needed to jump at the chance at seeing this place, and it was worth it! I was ready to move into this beautiful space. Its so quaint and romantic:)

(This little doorway captivated me. I imagined the curious places it might lead to)
Mary Daly along with the fabulous folks at Found For the Home, put together a beautiful collection of antiques and unusual objects. P.S. If you are reading this, live in Houston, and its before 5:00 pm on Saturday....go check it out for yourself!

This beautiful carved horse head was my favorite piece! Why am I so into horses now?
I grew up in West Texas and didn't care about them then...oh well.

Ooh, I even got to take a peek at the pool house, behind the studio. I tell myself that this was special treatment,
but I'm not really sure if it was. Anyway, just had to share. Don't you just love it?!

To The Market and Back!

(Peek at my booth)
Well, we did it! Over the weekend we showed at the Houston Urban Market for the first time.
I'm only now recovering enough to write about it. (I also had a kid who got sick on Monday).
It was quite an undertaking, I have to admit. Its funny that I never gave to much thought to the process of setting up a booth, whenever I was out shopping!
Both Paloma and I (and our handsome assistants) began setting up Saturday afternoon. Everyone was a little nervous because of some ominous looking skies, but we kept going. In fact, it did rain that evening, but
thankfully it mostly just cooled everything down. After that we returned early Sunday morning to finish preparing for the 9:00 opening.

Paloma's chairs were amazing! I can't believe I forgot to take more photos of the rest of them!

My two favorite guys were very helpful. Liam even set up his first display w/ his own cars! Of course I wasn't allowed to actually sell his cars. If you're wondering, Liam didn't hang out all day, Mark was a very accommodating babysitter.

Some of our blogger friends also made an appearance. It was great to see them!
Left: Lauren (Material Girls) and Paloma (La Dolce Vita) Center: Joni (Cote de Texas)
and her trustee Starbucks coffee. Right: Paloma and Courtney (Under a Paper Moon).
Unfortunately, I missed meeting Sarah of Jeune Marie. Sarah, I also missed meeting you at
Courtney's garage sale last month. Maybe we'll coordinate some day:)

I didn't have time to walk around very much, but I did find a couple interesting pieces I really loved. Including, what else; but a couple of amazing chairs!

I couldn't resist snapping shots of several interesting characters roaming around.
What surprised me was how willing they were for me to photograph them.

By the end of the day everyone was pretty worn out and I was wishing that I could be magically transported home.
I loved getting to meet several readers. I especially cracked up with a lady who called me by name to ask for a price and talked to me like we were old friends. That was fun! Thanks to everyone who stopped by and thanks to Paloma and Fabian for sharing a booth with me. Most especially I want to thank my wonderful husband for helping and supporting me. I had a great time and hope to do it again!