Obsession with a ghost

I'm a little obsessed with home decor at the moment... and obsessed with pieces that I've recently decided I need. I've always liked to decorate, but I don't think I have a real flair for it. I can't look at an old house and see what it can become. I can't even really look at furniture and see them in my house. Our house is a big ole mix of this and that.. and some things have been around forever (like, since college). 

In the past few years our friends have all "grown up" decor wise - really doing things like investing in pieces and putting together amazing living spaces and I've become a little more conscious of our home style and liking more than things you find in a Pottery Barn catalog. I also realized that our house was way more than just an old beach house - but a classic "mid-century modern" with amazing atomic ranch features. All of a sudden it clicks why our couches and chairs never have looked quite right in the space.

It's also made me want ALL NEW EVERYTHING. 

If you haven't noticed this about me, I'm not good with "one thing at a time". So, needless to say, this is painful for me. 

One thing I figure out how to incorporate into my house are Ghost Chairs. Ideally, they would be around a large turquoise table like the the on in this Mantauk beach house. They are just so clean and have such a great shape to them. 

And apparently they also come MINI SIZED. SQUEE.

The only thing standing in my way of Ghost Chair happiness? The price tag. Just like everything else I lust for, the price tag is just that much too high to justify. I've been on a search to find them used, and while they are out there, the ones I've seen have been a tad too beat up for even the used price tag. 

Oh dear Ghost Chair - one day you WILL be mine! And I will sit in you while wearing my Chanel Clogs.. sigh. 

Have a sweet Christmas!

for all the picture insanity...

It's a mod holiday

EEKKKKK!! That was a squeal of excitement as some of my holiday decor has been featured on The Design File. 

As you may know, we are about to embark on the "de-grandmafication" of our 1957 "atomic ranch" style house. Not a full remodel .. more like a make-over to really bring out the utter coolness of this little house that has been in Jason's family for 50+ years. One of the coolest things about this house is that every member of his family has amazing memories of this house, and of his Grandma who lived here since 1960-something. Of course, over time and age, some styles have fallen out of mode, but lucky as we are to be able to continue raising little Avants here, a lot of it is now back in fashion and almost, dare I say *hot*, in the MCM (mid-century modern) world. WHO KNEW?!

Of course, with some direction from my dear friend Maria J, I threw myself head-first into obsessing over what to do to this place to make it UBER COOL and really bring out it's unique features. That's how I found Baz over at Atomic Indy, a place I go regularly for inspiration. Since we are currently stuck on phase one, floors.. this is going to take a while. So I threw myself into something I could create at this moment... the holiday decor. I've already posted pictures here and there of some of my items, and when Baz asked for fans of his facebook page to post some pictures of what they are doing in their old 40-50 YO houses, I was thrilled to share my crafty-crap. Which lead me to the The Design File... and here we are. Oh, the wonders of social media. 

My crowning achievement of my Holiday Decor - my "gingerbread" house replica of our little abode - has yet to be seen. While its soooooflipppiiinnnncute, it's needs a little something before I'm ready to share it with the world. So check back later for it's debut.

In the meantime, head over to The Design File and look around over there for great ideas, tips and articles on MCM design!

Put on your yarmulke...

This is the first year that Lucas has been asking questions about different religions. Since Jason and I are both half-Jewish, we decided it was a fabulous time to pull out the menorah and start the celebrations of about 1/2 of our ancestors. 

While Mama needs to brush up on her Hebrew, we had a wonderful night learning (and re-learning) about the meaning of the celebration of light.

Those of you that have been following me for awhile may know that we are lucky to live in a house that has been in Jason's family for about 50 years. A uber cool "atomic ranch" beach bungalow that hit an unfortunate time in the 70's for an upgrade and ended up with a little too much pink and carpeting... Living in a 50+ year old house has challenges, a major one being that wall and roof insulation apparently was not the norm for new construction in 1958 and we had been told the fireplace was not in working condition. While we are lucky enough to live in an environment where we don't need to worry about the physical elements, it DOES get chilly in the house. A few weeks ago we had an inspector come out and he delivered the wonderful news that our fireplace and chimney were fine working order and could be used.

The little fire transformed the living room. On a stormy wet night, the whole house was warm, cozy and glowing. We all put on our jammies and piled on the couch to watch a few Xmas shows and it really felt December around here. 

*One more note...

Let me just say, after years of hating the fireplace and decorating it for various holidays and swearing at the hard stones, just putting up a new screen and grate made the whole area 10000X better. Really?! Why had NO ONE suggested that to me in the past 4 years?! $25 at Target updated my living room by 50 years. After smacking myself on the forehead, I begun to get excited for some more of the little things we are planning and looking forward to 2010 when we can get this house party started!

Snow-ish

While it's no secret that we live where we do because of the weather, for 6 weeks a year we do admit that it would be nice to have a snow flurry outside our window... well, in theory that is. Since we live in a 1950's-era PRE-INSULATION house with a tar and rock roof and north-west (towards the ocean) facing windows, actually having a flurry of any type would translate into frostbite. Alas, we can "dream"...

And make fun "snow flake" decorations!

I got this idea off some craft site that I can't find now in my bookmark maze. But simply, it's various size labels in white, off-white and silver, stuck front to back in random patterns on clear fishing wire.

When hung over glass they move and "sparkle" a bit.. creating a perfect modern snow flurry in your window. I hung ours over the glass of our door - just taped to the top and hanging freely to blow in the breeze. I used labels from The Paper-Source but any round labels would do. You could also use a craft punch for perfect circles.

Fairly simple and I'm loving the look on the front door. 

Oh, and if you head into Paper Source (Heaven!) pick up a pack of the paper doves to put up around the house. Another super simple "hand-made" decoration (in "parentheses" since really all you do is punch them out of the paper) that look adorable but are easy to do.