Organizing Some Books.

While the fireplace is the the major "bookcase" in our house, I also have some of my favorite books on the shelves in my room.  These books were stacked randomly and always looked a little messy.  Yesterday evening while Scott was working upstairs I decided to organize them. Yes they are color coded and they look fabulous!

I am now wondering if I should try to color cordinate the books in the fireplace as well...

Isaiah Zagar Mural.

Ever since my first visit to Philly in 1995 I have been obsessed with the Isaiah Zagar murals coverning numerous buildings and walls in South Philly.  When we moved to Philly in 1999 we went for a walk down South Street and spent hours admiring all the murals on the buildings.  The colors were amazing the details stunning and the best thing about them was that they were accessible to the public for anyone to admire.  Never did I ever imagine that I would have one of Isaiah's fabulously beautiful murals on the side of my house!


Our Mural up close.

Our house has an extensive side wall that is clearly visible from the street.  While the old brick walls of our house are beautiful, the cinder block wall separating our house from the neighbors was just ugly.  So on a whim I started to research how I could get one of Isaiah's murals on the side of our house.  It turned out to be much easier than I anticipated...which really shows that sometimes all you have to do is try and you could get something amazing. 

Isaiah started the mural by making the larger pieces in his studio, then attaching the larger pieces to the wall and drawing the outline for his students to complete. 


Isaiah starts the mural (as Kiran watches). 

Then one weekend his students started working on the mural and they finished it in two days under Isaiah's strict guidance.

Isaiah and his students working on the wall.

Scott and I Help with the Mural.



Isaiah adds the finishing touches.

The completed mural.

We've had a lot of people give us their comments on the mural.  Most of them love it and some people  think that we have reduced the value of our house.  Neither Scott nor I worry about the "value" of our house while we renovate it.  We are renovating the house to accomodate our lives and our tastes.  I think that the value based approach to renovating is unnecessary not always necessary and prevents people from being creative in their living space because they want to play it safe for resale purposes. 





Ending Summer and Beginning New Projects.

I haven't done many new projects since my last post.  I spent some time organizing drawers, cleaning out my closet, and in general clearing out cluttered drawers, cupboards, etc.  Summer has officially ended and I've started  a few projects.  My first project was framing some "Art."

"Art" means a lot of different things to different people.  For me everyday objects, shells, letters, notes, photos and Kiran's paintings are all Art.  I like to include these personal mementos with more tranditional works of Art that I've bought at auctions, on eBay or at thrift stores.  Art can be anything that evokes a sense of beauty and nothing does this better (for me) than objects that evoke beautiful memories. 

I used to scour eBay and thrift stores for old frames which generally needed a lot of work.  So framing things would always be very time consuming.  Then I discovred the Ribba frames at Ikea and framing is now a snap! The smaller sized frames are made well, come in a variety of sizes and include a great matt. 

So here's what I framed yesterday:


The painting to the left is something Kiran did last week using blue acrylic paint and some water.  He doused the paper with a lot of water and then lifted the edges up and watched all the water roll off onto the floor.  I love this painting because I love the way it looks and also because it conjures images of him squealing with laughter and delight when the water kept rolling around on the paper. 

The painting to the right is a drawing I found in my father-in-law's attic.  It is a drawing by Scott's mother in 1966.  While it is sad that Kiran will never meet Scott's mother (because she passed away when Scott was young) it will be nice to have her drawing in the house so that Kiran will at least know something about his paternal grandmother through her drawing.

Second Floor Bathroom Update.

I realized that I haven't posted any good pictures of the second floor bathroom.  Yes the bathroom is very pink!  Instead of trying to hide the pink we decided to embrace it and go a step further, with the mint green walls.  Since my earlier post I have been working on little things on the bathroom.  We had to re-grout the tub, replace the stems of the faucet and do a few other not so exciting things.  I have added more pictures all in black frames which I think was necessary to minimize the pinkness of the room.  The only thing left for us to do in the bathroom is remove the old sink and install a new sink, faucet and cabinet. 
This is what you see when you open the bathroom door:

To the right of the door to the bathroom (below) is a little nook with the sink and a cabinet below the sink which also has two drawers.  Because there was hardly any space for toiletries we installed this shelf to the right of the nook.  Please excuse the wiered angle of the picture. I was trying to take a picture that looked decent without me being in it.

The pictures are vintage prints that I framed.  The light fixture and towel rod are from Restoration Hardware.  The shelf is from Ikea.  The flowers are from my stoop.

To the left of the nook we installed a magnifying mirror which we found at a yard sale (below). 

This picture below shows the main wall in the bathroom.  To the right is the bath and to the left is a huge window which faces south.  I keep rotating my plants in here.  I love succulents but the humidity is a little too much for them.  I think that I have finally found the right plants for this spot.

I have a bunch of vintage candle holders over the heater cover (below).  The heater cover was in pretty bad condition but we primed and painted it white and it is really convenient and hides the ugly radiator.  To the right of this picture is our linen closet.  I love my petite chandelier which was a total score on eBay.

This is what you see when you leave the bathroom (below).   The sink nook is to the left and the bathroom leads out to the second floor hallway.

The bathroom, like the rest of the house, has a strange layout but we've made the space work for us.

I am over this house! (not really).

The back yard

I should be relaxing in my back yard but I am not!

Sometimes I feel like I spend every waking minute, at some level, thinking about what needs to be done on the house.  This combined with my slight obsessiveness  makes it really hard for me some times to just relax at home.  This seems absurd because I used to be the type of person who wanted to always relax, read and enjoy my home.  I am not sure if everyone who buys a house gets house-nuts or whether it is just me.

Last summer I loved my backyard...this summer not so much.  This is mainly because I hate the slope of the yard and now I'm obsessing over what I need to do to it...slate tiles, break the concrete and pour new concrete and level it, etc.  The previous owners in an (overzealous) effort to keep water away from the house inclined the yard at such a steep pitch that it slants sharply away from the house.  Therefore everything always looks crooked...no matter what I do!

It surprises me when is people come over and don't notice the slope...is it all in my head? When did I decide that things had to be so perfect? I used to love old imperfect things. When we bought this house I fell in love with it because it alluded to grandness in its past lives in a very atypical row house sort of way. I really wanted to restore it to its original grandness but keep all the personality.  Well now somehow I have entered a house renovation world where I embrace the imperfections but at the same time need everything that we do to be perfect. I am not sure if I could ever reconcile these two emotions. I am making a pact with myself that from today onwards I will make more of an effort to just let things go (just a little).

I will leave you with this picture of my back yard:

P.S. Look closely and you will see that everything slopes to the left.

Weekend Away.

Scott, Kiran and I went to New York City for a mini vacation.  We spent Saturday wandering around Central Park.  Kiran took his afternoon nap in his stroller and when he woke up he was just amazed (as probably most city kids would be) at the expanse of grass! We spent the rest of the day running around after Kiran and playing in the fabulous water park in Central Park.

Kiran in his Marimekko bathing suit.

I can't help but compare how much my life has changed.  Before having Kiran, Scott and I would have probably spent the day scouring thrift stores, flea markets and antique shops for clothes, furniture and other random things.  Then we would have showered and gotten all dressed up for a night of diner, drinks and dancing.  Now we spend our days in NYC  jumping, running and getting wet in Central Park!

Not everything has changed however.  On Sunday morning we went to one of my favorite shops in NYC, Pearl River.  I love their ceramics.  I am not a fan of matching all my dishes, plates, and bowls so I have a random collection of dinnerware.  I have a small collection of mostly blue and white ceramics, with some colored pieces thrown in.  Here are some of my purchases:

I love the swirly designs on the bowls with the swirls on the fabric on the chair (below) and the color and design of this tablecloth which is a design by Liro A. Ahokas for Marimekko, called Kimara.

I wasn't sure what I would I would do with this cup since I am not a big fan of cups without handles.  This cup however turned out to be the perfect size to hold pencils on my desk.

Here's a small peek inside my kitchen cabinets filled with unmatched dinnerware:

Do I need another lamp?

I love these E27 pendants, designed by Mattias Ståhlbomand.  I love the colors and I love the fact that they are so colorful yet so simple.

I am tempted to buy one of these even though I have no idea where I could us it.  My resolution lately has been to only buy things after carefully planning and deciding where I could use the item.  I do make exceptions for things that are absolutely fabulous...then I buy them even if I have no use or space for them!  These lamps don't get me that excited, so for now (sigh) I won't be buying one.  I will however keep scrutinizing each room to figure out where I could use a E27 pendant.