Decorating

Revenge, I Now Know, Is Lime Green

/ Ally Bean / 27 Comments

A few years ago I attended a good-bye party for a woman who lived across the street.  At this party were other neighbors who I met for the first time.  One was a nice woman who, until not too long ago, lived up the street.

During the party this woman got talking about her husband who feared color.  She told me that he would only allow her to have pure white walls and trim in their house.

Fear?  Allow?  Say what?!  What decade is this?

Naturally I was curious.  So I asked her how fear of color manifested.  I mean, I dislike certain shades of color but I do not fear them.  They are not my enemies.  I do not cower in their presence.

She told me that for her husband seeing anything that wasn’t uniform made him uneasy– so much so that different shades of any color, including white, were anxiety producing for him.  She also said that they had nothing hanging on the walls because that made him crazy, too.

I asked her if she, too, feared color.  But she didn’t.  In fact, she volunteered that she liked all colors a lot.

# # #

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I was out for a walk and saw a For Sale sign in the front yard of this couple’s house.

Not surprisingly, they had divorced.

She had kept the house for a while after the divorce, but now had put the property on the market using a realtor who always puts photos from inside the house on the For Sale sign outside the house.

When I got a close-up of the For Sale sign I almost couldn’t stop laughing.  On the sign was one large photo of the interior of this modern, open-concept house which features 14′ cathedral ceilings on the first floor.

And what color were these large dramatic walls inside this house?  They were a shade of citrus-y lime green so glaringly bright that parrots would look pale standing near them.  Bold + loud.  A decidedly in-your-face color.

Yes, that’s the color that this newly divorced woman painted the walls after all those years of living with a color-phobic husband.  And, damn, do those walls look good.  Finally.

Way to make a statement, girlfriend.  Way to go.  😉

Answering Your Questions, I Am [Part 2 of 2]

/ Ally Bean / 11 Comments

•  From Lori P who just happens to be my SIL… If you had to do it all again, specifically targeting the choices you made for yourself, would you change anything?

I think the one thing that I’d change is I would have stood my ground about taking a year off between high school and college.  For various reasons, I was emotionally exhausted and mentally unclear about my future when I graduated from high school.  I knew that I needed a break from academics so that I could figure out what to do next, but my mother wouldn’t hear of it.  She forced me to go on to college straightaway.

Had I followed my own instincts, I would have been more mature, rested and focused when I arrived on campus as a freshman.  I suspect that I would have gone to a larger university that had a more diverse student population and offered a wider variety of majors– one of which would have prepared me for a career in something or other.

•  From Kristen Plumer at Kristen Loves Design… What would you describe as your decorating style? Does it match who you really are?  And a related question, if you could decorate however you wanted (money being no object), what would you do?

Our decorating style is relaxed traditional with family antiques, hints of mid-century modern & splashes of spirited color.  It’s eclectic, but to keep it from looking too jumbled the walls are in shades of warm neutrals like khaki gold, creamy white or warm gray– with white trim everywhere.  The style matches who we are to a tee– cheerfully mixed-up with the ability to pull it together when need be.

If money were no object and I could find the right interior designer, I’d like to have a home that has more of what I’d call a California relaxed vibe to it.  Mostly neutrals inside the house because the outdoors is colorful.  Open, sliding doorways from inside living areas to the outside.  Black trim around the windows.  Lots of amazing original artwork.  And perhaps some stucco, arches, Mexican tiles, too.

•  From Zazzy at Zazamataz… What are your favorite foods – to make? to eat? What’s comfort for you? What can you absolutely not stand? 

My favorite foods to make are fruit-based deserts like strawberry shortcake with homemade whipped cream or bread pudding with raisins or applesauce spice cake with caramel icing.  I also like to make stews and soups in the winter.  All that chopping and blending of ingredients makes me happy.

My favorite foods to eat are fresh fruits and vegetables.  Plus grilled fish + chicken.  I like sourdough bread, and pasta or rice done very simply with a bit of olive oil/butter, onions, herbs.  Also, I am a nut for unsalted nuts.  I really like eating healthy, but do not always have the time & energy to do so.  Which is a bummer, but a reality at this point in my life.

As for comfort food, I occasionally eat a bakery white [or yellow] cake cupcake with vanilla icing– for medicinal purposes, mind you. And the one food that I cannot stand is green or yellow or red peppers.  Yuck.  Won’t eat them at all.

[Yesterday, Part 1]

Odds & Ends

/ Ally Bean / 27 Comments

::  We started putting together pots of flowers and herbs and vegetables this past weekend.  The project turned out to be more difficult than I thought that it’d be.  With our revised backyard [2 summers ago we added a lower level terrace at the back of the yard], we have fewer trees near the deck and more deer in the backyard.  So I’m looking for sun-loving flowers that deer won’t eat.  Not so many of those around.

Hence, the pot project has been postponed until next weekend when I hope that I will be more clear about what plants I want to put where. Hello Google.  Time to research.

::  We like coffee cake.  Once upon a time there was a product for sale in our grocery store called Aunt Jemima Easy Mix Coffee Cake.  In the box there was a small cardboard baking pan.  The dry coffee cake mix came with a small plastic bag that you could use, instead of a bowl, to mix the batter with water and an egg.  Then there was a small packet of streusel topping.  We liked this small coffee cake, but it is no longer available.

So, I decided to try Martha White Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake Mix instead.  It isn’t as small nor as fun to make as the Aunt Jemima Coffee Cake, but the results were good.  We’ll use it again, but with much less streusel topping on it.  Oy vey!  It was way too sweet for us.

That being as it may, Martha White has gifted us with a new family saying:  all streusel, no cake.  [Think “all foam, no beer” OR “all hat, no cattle.”  That kind of saying.]  Clearly, we are a simple people who are easily amused– or maybe it was the sugar talking.

::  Over the weekend our new loveseat arrived.  We ordered it a few weeks ago from Arhaus, but because it was a standard style + fabric there was hardly any wait time before it got here.  It is gorgeous and looks perfect in the living room– very grown-up, but not at all stuffy.  Plus it’s a mid-century modern frame which I find comfortable to sit on.

Now, I need to get going and find a rug to put under it.  It’s been over 3 years since I started this living room make-over, but I promise when it is complete I’ll post some before & after photos.  Well, definitely the after photos.  I don’t know if I have any before photos to share.  Huh.  Bad planning, that.

[Hello FTC!  Blah, blah, blah.  Not getting any kind of compensation for my personal opinions here.  Blah, blah, blah.  Disclaimer written.  Blah, blah, blah.] 

2 Movies, 2 Books & 1 Inspirational Quote

/ Ally Bean / 20 Comments

As part of my attempt to live a more balanced life in 2013, I have given myself the assignment to watch 2 movies and to read 2 books each month.  Here is my March report.

2 Movies

Butter – Satirical + jumbled.  With Jennifer Garner, Olivia Wilde, Rob Corddry, Alicia Silverstone and Hugh Jackman in it, this uneven movie has its moments– and those moments are hilarious.  All the action revolves around the Iowa State Fair butter carving competition– and the politics associated with it.  Recommended if you can overlook the mocking anti-conservative slant and want something light [and rather pointless] to watch.

How Beer Saved The World – Informative + upbeat.  This is a short, fast-paced documentary about beer.  The narration is wonderful, the cartoon reenactments of history are delightful and the interviews with academics are great.  Recommended if you like history and smart, happy people.

2 Books

Mad About Undead You: A Zombie Apocalypse Love Story – Clever + unique.  A  mad scientist miscalculates and suddenly San Francisco is overrun with former water drinkers turned zombies.  This is the backdrop for Carl S. Plumer’s fast-paced novel about love.  Yes, love.  With characters that could easily be your friends, this slightly campy novel is a different sort of love story that made me laugh out loud.  Recommended if you like San Francisco and enjoy a modicum of gore.  [H/T to Kristen at Kristen Loves Design for recommending this book– that just happens to be written by her husband!]

Things I Wish My Mother Had Told Me – Not what I expected.  I picked up this book thinking that I was buying a book of essays written by British mums a la Listen To Your Mother.  I was wrong.  Instead, Lucia van der Post’s book is a charming, well-written guide to living an upper class, stylish life in London or NYC.  I enjoyed it, but will admit that I skimmed through parts of it that seemed too high brow for me.  Recommended if you want detailed information about where to shop and how to create a glamorous lifestyle.

1 Inspirational Quote

Winston Churchill said: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.”  I’m focusing on this quote because March was not the productive month that I had hoped it would be.  In fact, there were a few days when I wanted to crawl into bed and never come out again.  Nothing seemed to go right.  With the weather.  With how I felt.  With what I said.  With what I planned on doing.

In other words, March, one of my favorite months, was a bust.  But then I remembered this Churchill quote and figured that for me the lesson of March 2013 was to just keep going.  Which I did.