I Just Have to Brag One More Time...........enid and design* sponge

Lara and Tim Bobo's kitchen

I know there are creative people everywhere, but I swear, they just grow like weeds in Fredericksburg, Texas! Talented Lara Bobo, whose home I featured here , ( her kitchen shown above) and who has the wonderfully hip and fresh shop, enid, recently penned a guide to our town and it was featured on the popular blog design* sponge today! Between Callie Jenschke from yesterday's post,  and Lara Collins Bobo, I feel so proud of both of them. These  enterprising young Texans are going to continue to impress the design world, of that I am sure.

 

Photo from design sponge feature on Fredericksburg

It is a great guide, full of the best shops, restaurants, and sights to see.  Check it out here. Lara did a fabulous job of capturing all the great spots in our town.

The first place I plan to visit, (after I finish the antique show this weekend) is enid's new location on East Main Street.

Photo from enid website

 Lara started her shop in a small space on the west end of town. Her original shop was loaded with charm and great modern as well as vintage items.  I'll bet her move has to do with expansion and the heavy tourist traffic that we get on the more central part of Main Street.  Spring is a huge season for visitors here with bluebonnets and peaches galore, and the shopping on Main Street is always fun. 

If you want to get away for the weekend, or want a great destination for a wedding, Fredericksburg is the perfect spot. 

Come see us, and meanwhile, check out Lara's guide on to Fredericksburg on design*sponge!!

NEWS FLASH - Scout Designs Update

This just in - my charming and most talented friend, Callie Jenschke, and her partner, Nicki Clendening, of Scout Designs, have been recognized and endorsed by Daily Candy here !

I am so excited for this amazing design duo. Some of you may remember that I am especially fond of Callie as she was our first babysitter when we moved to Fredericksburg fifteen years ago. She has been such a delight to know over the years, and of course, I live vicariously through her adventures in design and her life in NYC!

    (Callie on the left, Nicki on the right)  Photo from Scout website

I posted about these two talented young women here last summer. They have added more fabulous design work to their project list and have a great blog as well.

Here are a few of their great designs, but you really need to visit their website to get the full gist of their amazing style and vision.

 Photo credit  www.imogenbrownphoto.com  

What a fabulous tablescape. I love the mix, and who would ever think to make a lamp out of alabaster grapes?!

                                                                 Photo credit: www.kristamburello.com

The vast scope of design vision these young designers have is fascinating to me. When I look at their work, I see a full range of vintage bohemian to sleek and sophisticated.

                                                                            Photo credit: www.kristamburello.com

          They are clever, hard working, fresh.  They will scout for that perfect piece of furniture or accessory. Obviously, they are connected to some great sources for antiques and unusual, interesting objects.

If I could, I would hire them in a heartbeat!

 See more at their website, Scout Designs.

Hugh Newell Jacobson, or, House Stalking in Nashville

 

Photo courtesy of Hugh Newell Jacobson 

Back in May of 2009, blogging friend, Laura Casey, did a post on red doors. Her photos were all lovely, but this one in particular caught my eye. It is a house designed by architect, Hugh Newell Jacobson.

Jacobson's designs are a wonderful combination of symmetry and gabled roofs of early American design, along with the simplicity, clean lines and open floor plans of modern architecture.

Laura mentioned that the house is in Nashville and I asked if it might be one I could drive by someday. (You know how we house stalkers are!)

So, this morning, my last in Nashville for a while, I got to thinking about that house again and quickly shot Laura an email, hoping she might be able to tell me exactly where the house is.

Sweet Laura got right back to me within a couple of hours and off I went! She was not able to give me the exact address, but a street intersection was all I needed.

My photo!

I do not think I would be a very good stalker - I mean,  a real one. I am too chicken.

I drove by three times before I even got up the nerve to pull over, roll down my window and take a picture. Finally, I did it!! 

The street is a long, winding road through an old neighborhood of beautiful houses set back on huge lots. There are no sidewalks or curbs, so there is not really any place to pull a car over.

After cruising the neighborhood for a while, I saw the house and did a double take. It sits at the end of this long, straight driveway, which runs right off the street. It is interesting seeing it against the cloudy sky and the snow covered lawn. It doesn't quite pop like it does in the first photo, but still......it is stunning. I would imagine in the spring and summer the trees hide the house from the road.

So, once I found the house,  I had to circle around the blocks several times, hoping that I might be able to drive by without anyone behind me. No luck. Each time I had a car right on my bumper, probably wondering who the old lady was poking down the street.

So, on about the third time around, I just pulled over as far as I could to the right, rolled down my window and shot a picture! I was so proud of myself, but also felt a little like, as my girls say, a "creeper".

What can I say? For me it was like seeing an original painting by a favorite, famous artist. The real thing is such a thrill compared to seeing pictures in books. 

Now, if I could just get inside that house..................

Blogging Detour and finally, the Nashville Antique Shows!

My friend, Barbara, and I have planned for months to visit her grandson and my daughter in Nashville in February. For antique lovers, February is a big month here. The Heart of Country Show is here, as well as the Music Valley Show,and the Tailgate Antiques Show.

We think it most convenient that we have kids in college here, especially this time of year!

I love this sign from an old furniture store. I found it at the Heart of Country show one year and had to have it! It kind of says it all, doesn't it?

As sometimes happens, our plans did not go exactly according to the way we imagined. My daughter and I had to make a detour for a funeral in Dallas and have just arrived a few days later than planned to Nashville.

While we saw amazing and beautiful snow in Dallas, and enjoyed the company of sweet family and friends, and attended a very touching and meaningful funeral service, we sure are happy to be back where we started - or where we wanted to start!

I will be selling at the next Texas hill country show in Boerne, Texas, but meanwhile I LOVE a good show to browse.

Who knows, I might just find something new to start collecting!

Photos from my personal collections in my home. 

Creative Block

My daughter is the Student Council Events Chairperson for her school. Translated, that means she plans dances, and a few other things. Nothing takes creativity quite like dances, though.

This Saturday, the theme of the dance is "A Walk to Remember". 

"Mom, I want it to be like we are in this beautiful park just full of flowers.....and we are dancing under the stars".

Lovely. One problem - maybe two.

Creativity, time and money - okay three problems.

The setting is a church gym - a big, plain, church gym.

Twinkle lights are good -with enough twinkle lights and the main lights turned down low, some good tunes............those can carry you a little ways, but not all the way.

Flowers - we found some lovelies at Michaels, Big Lots, and the Dollar Store. We can't afford the real thing, and besides it is freezing here and all my potted plants look pathetic.

 These pink garlands will wrap around the volleyball poles. Sweet.

Did I mention budget? $100.00

Fortunately, people bring cookies and punch and other snacks.

I know we could do a lot on one hundred bucks given the manpower, time and creativity.

We have a couple of park benches,  a few ficus trees, and lots of candles.

Still, we are just not feelin' it.

We bought some big paper lanterns today. Various sizes and color - they should add some dimension and color among the stars and imaginary tree tops.

The other day we went to the city - that's what we do for excitement sometimes - we go to Austin or San Antonio - anyway, we went to Anthropologie.

Oh - my - gosh....what those people can do with sticks and twigs and garden hoses and plastic bottles and some spray paint!

They had made vines and vines of "flowers" out of cut plastic bottles spray painted different spring colors. If only.............if only we had the manpower and the time.

 

Photo from flickr - ccerruti

But, the dance in the park is this Saturday, and I am not Anthropologie, as much as I wish I was.

I am just a mom trying to help decorate for a semi- formal - a big deal in junior high and high school.

Ideas welcome!

Have you voted yet?

If you haven't seen this room in the last few weeks, then you haven't been reading the design blogs! Several of my favorites, including Mrs. Blandings, Visual Vamp, and others have been encouraging us all to go to the apartment therapy website and vote for our favorite window design at Bloomingdale's flagship store in New York City. What a fun way to get through the January doldrums.

I am such a color girl and have an attraction to so many different things, that this room really did catch my eye. It is just plain fun. It has layer upon layer of high and low, expensive and not so expensive, design items.

I also believe in bloggers supporting other bloggers, so count me in when it comes to voting for Eddie Ross. Everything I have ever read about this guy tells me he is the nicest person who is most generous with his skill and knowledge.

So, hurry over to the website and vote for Eddie. Tomorrow is the last day! I got an email from Eddie this afternoon and have copied it to my page below. The link to vote in his email won't actually work here as this is just copied over, but go to this link to vote, now!

Be Still My Heart

It will not come as a surprise to you that I am mad for this house. It belongs to Kevin and Jane McGarry of Ft. Worth, Texas. Jane is an anchorwoman for NBC-DFW, Channel 5. She and Ft. Worth designer Ken Blasingame found they were sympatico and between his skill and their mutual taste,  they created a beautiful home full of texture, color and soul.

To read the entire article go here to the recent D Magazine issue.

Fabulous green doors, Spanish tiles, great lantern, sweet dog.....

Oh yes, Mexican pottery.....Gorky Gonzales (www.gorkypottery.com) and those sconces!

 

Oh my........this for a girl who just wanted to add a little color to my kitchen.

 More Mexican pottery - vintage , too!

Gorgeous - every detail.........

I wish I could run on over for a margarita on the back porch this afternoon!!

All Photos from D Magazine, photographer Aimee Herring

Final Word on Painting My Kitchen

My original post about painting my kitchen cabinets elicited many comments from readers. I was delighted to read so many differing opinions. No where else could one get so many passionate arguments, both for and against, than in this wonderful world of design lovers and bloggers.  Thank you all!

After much consideration and a fighting a very strong urge to DO SOMETHING, I have decided to take the advice of some: sit tight, put my efforts  towards selling my house, and save my time and money for our next house.

I heard everything from "PAINT! PAINT!PAINT ! and never look back!"

to a serious warning that antique long leaf pine is no longer available and it would pretty much be a crime to paint it.

Then,  I moved on to the possibility of painting my floors and wrote a post about that here.

I had one blogging friend ask me, most emphatically, "Ann, what can you be thinking??!!"

Another dear friend reached across the table one day at lunch and took my hand and said "I looked at your blog last night......Ann, are you okay?"

Do I sound crazy? Don't answer that.

 I am restless and wanting a change................a new creative endeavor. We plan to design and build a smaller, more contemporary house when we sell this one. We are staying here in Fredericksburg and hope to find a smaller parcel of land just outside of town.

Patience is my challenge, patience.

One thing I do know and probably knew all along, but just buried my wisdom somewhere deep inside so I would not have to acknowledge it, is this:

The materials used to build this Texas hill country house are to be respected. Indigenous limestone, antique long leaf pine, (everywhere! oh... did I already say that?), old pine floors, some old beaded board ceilings and some beamed ceilings, large, wide porches,  a standing seam metal roof  - they are all a vital part of the hill country style, both historically and aesthetically.

All these things make this house WHO it is, so to speak. I keep wanting to change it and make it more my house and my design, but what I must do is love it for what it is, and hope that someone else will come along who loves it, as it is, as well.

Meanwhile, just one last thought and then I must move on from this obsession! In the latest

 Traditional Home magazine, one of the top twenty young designers to watch is Emily Miller from Dallas. While perusing her website I came across this fabulous kitchen, with, of course, PAINTED FLOORS!! Isn't the subtle, aged pattern great!?

I know, I know, maybe in my next house.

Photo from Emily Miller Interiors website

Painted Floors

I posted a month or so ago about my kitchen dilemma - to paint or not to paint, that was the question I put out there.  Unlike some of the "big bloggers", I do not get tons and tons of comments every time I post. That is fine - I am regional (except when I travel and can't help myself) ,  and pretty random in my topics. I blog because I love the process and the sharing with like minded souls, so I don't really worry too much about how many comments I get each time.

It is fun to see what topics people respond to and are passionate about, though.

So, with the kitchen post, I certainly found out how to get more comments - ask people for advice! I loved each and every comment and have seriously considered all suggestions. So here it is - 2010 and I am still debating over the kitchen and what to do with it.

I think I had better tell you the whole truth now.

Our house is for FOR SALE...... so I am not sure this is the best time to make such a major change. With the way my life goes, I would paint the kitchen some fabulously wild color combination like this.............

and just the almost right buyer would come along and say "oh, if only she hadn't painted all that beautiful antique long leaf pine" and the deal would fall through.

I thought about a safe, but still lovely, color like this ...... (I have the black counter tops)

but I am not sure the flow is right with my dining room which looks like this..............

with the blues and greens and aged beaded board ceiling.........

Sooooo, my next thought is, painted floors! I love them and here are some of my favorites.

Love this large design like a hex sign from a barn in the northeast.

Big stripes would be fun.

 

Of course, painted floors might not be to someone's liking, either. I have mixed feelings about making changes to my house. Sometimes I think it doesn't matter - that we should do what we love and when the time comes for someone else to live here, they can do what they love.

Other times I worry about the whole "resale factor" and it really goes against who I am. Some people can live in a fairly vanilla house, or one that is safely decorated, but it is so not me. I am constantly moving furniture and accessories around and wanting to change things. I sell things out of my house and at antique shows, and then come home with new things.

I think about space and how we use it, and want to create rooms that are warm and functional and make me happy to live in them.  I think a home is a huge reflection of the people who live there. I know I am stating the obvious to anyone who is reading this, but there are people out there - I know them - who just want a nice, clean house to live in, but their passions lie elsewhere. I am not them.

So, do I follow my heart, and paint those floors or cabinets, or just the island, whatever - have some fun with it all,  or sit tight and wait for that person to come along who adores ALL the old pine and rock and antique, scraped dark floors and doesn't have that fundamental need for color?

Then I can design my own house and make it just like I want it - maybe something like this from Jon Pankratz, AIA......

 

or this, from my new friend and another favorite architect, Reagan George, AIA........

yes, another hill country house, but smaller and and tucked into the woods somewhere, designed just

 perfectly for my art and treasures.

Or maybe something like this...........

 old and quaint and distinctly old German Fredericksburg..........

so, my dilemma continues. Of course, comments and opinions are always welcome!!

All photos either from House Beautiful or from my collected files. I apologize that I do not have photographer credits.

Who Knew? Terrain.............I want to go there!

Photos from terrain website unless otherwise noted

 

I may be the last to know, but a friend mentioned going to a wonderful new shop, 

terrain, a new concept of the Urban Outfitters/Anthropologie group of stores, while she was visiting her daughter in D.C. recently.  I believe her exact words were" Ann, you would just die there!"

I have never even heard of this wonderful place! So, I did what we all do when we want to get information these days - went straight to my computer and did a search.

 Apparently this wonderful shopping mecca is a new concept for the company and is called Terrain at Styer's.  From the photos it looks like a charming place to visit, to wander through for hours, and probably to fill a shopping bag!!

Terrain sells similar housewares you might find at Anthropologie and also carries lots of garden related items.  The shop itself is set in an antique greenhouse on acreage in Concordville, PA, just outside of Philadelphia.

I found several sites for information about the new shopping brand.  One great source is a fun blog called Shelter Pop. Visit for all kinds of scoop in the fashion and design world.

What I would give for not only the dishes here, but the incredible faux bois pot they sit in!

I stumbled across these beautiful photos while searching the web. I contacted the ever so friendly Laura Novak  to ask permission to share them with you here.  Check out her blog for more great photography and interesting features.

Hmmm...........trying to think of a reason I need to Philadelphia soon............... meanwhile, visit the website for tons more amazing photographs. What a teaser - I hope they decide to open in the southwest one day soon!!