i am so delighted to be included in boulder county home + garden magazine’s winter 2021 issue. this story about mixing antiques with modern pieces is the first time all of the projects represented have been mine. MANY THANKS to heather knierim of HBK photography for the lovely photos and to all of my wonderful clients for allowing me to share their homes. x00xx
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happy new year 2022
i am writing this on the afternoon of new year’s eve 2021. i am relieved for the start of 2022 because generally, i like even numbers much better than odd ones (which is why i skip the odd birthdays and just stay an even age for two years which CAN lead to some confusion and me not always knowing exactly how old i am, but then i just check my bumble account because that thing updates automatically) and because 2021 was mostly a shit fuck of a year…not so unlike 2020.
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the monkey
(even at 15 my grandmother seemed to know exactly what she wanted)
my paternal grandmother was fierce. she lived the way she wanted and you pretty much just went along. she liked things a certain way and if something wasn’t to her choosing she would wave her hand, say, “oh FISH!” and carry on as she deemed appropriate. you didn’t really want to get in her way.
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holiday baking
we spent the weekend baking and frosting and assembling and decorating and sprinkling our gingerbread houses and christmas cookies. (this was NOT the most successful year for the houses - despite a year of studying autocad my construction drawings must have been a bit off or the builder was not paying close enough attention to the dimensions - one collapsed completely and another one got a big crack by the front door. we did manage to get that one to stand but it will be pretty drafty in there and it is not coded for a fireplace.)
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holiday marzipan
we spent five christmases in amsterdam while we were living there as expats… there is no more magical place to spend the holidays… there are strings of lights outlining the bridges and arching across the streets so that the whole city is lit up, there are pop up outdoor ice skating rinks and holiday markets and olie bollen (DELICIOUS big round donuts doused in powdered sugar) trucks suddenly appear all over the city. but my favorite tradition was the christmas candy. pompadour, our beloved neighborhood chocolate shop, made whimsical marzipan characters (funny frogs, little piggies, red, polka-dotted toad stools) and fruit (oranges, pears and a pokey, round one that i could never identify) each december. i still don’t know what those guys had to do with christmas, but i looked forward to seeing them (and EATING them) in pompadour’s front windows during the holiday season.
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holiday photo 2021
in family, holiday, hank, photography
once again my kids completely lucked out for our holiday photo. my super talented friend, stephanie beresford, wanted to try out some new camera lenses and did a little shoot with them in the backyard. i have no idea when we did this… just that it was “some time” during the pandemic (i think i have permanent corona brain, which has left me unable to remember when anything happened) but it WAS in 2021. theo’s hair is even longer now and lucy has more of a “middle school” air about her, but beyond that they look the same. after all that these kids have had to process in the last two years: the corona, home schooling (especially “math with mom”), me being in school and FREAKING OUT over autocad and sketchup, endless door dash, multiple horrendous shootings, me too, BLM, all the wild fires and smokey air, the loss of our beloved GG AND the loss of our grandma on the “i” street, my vacuum being in the shop for so long (which has lots of ramifications for MY mental health and subsequently theirs) and just the loss of “normal life” (i keep imagining them sitting in a bar in their forties chatting with someone about this pandemic period, “how crazy was your mom during corona?”) i just couldn’t put them through further trauma for a more recent photo… i’m an AWESOME mom like that!
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nancy drew
in family
(nancy when she finds that elusive clock)
mothers take on many roles: taxi driver, referee, party planner, aesthetician, tutor, home chef, nurse, cleaning service… but one gig no one talks about when you are pregnant is that of detective.
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thanksgiving grandmas x0x
in dining room, family, holiday, recipe
i was lucky enough to have three grandmothers (FOUR if you count the grandma we used to wave to on the “i” street): my father’s mother, my mother’s mother (who i never met because she was gone long before i was born) and my gg, my grandpa’s second wife. all of these women had a huge impact on my life.
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thanksgiving gratitude
(hank LOVES dressing up for thanksgiving!)
even though the corona is STILL effecting us all (nearly TWO YEARS later… HAY SEUS!) the pandemic has made me really grateful for a lot of things i took for granted PP…
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my lovely gas fireplace
in pet, residential interior, hank
(hank snuggled up by the fire)
even after eleven years in boulder, i am always caught off guard by the weather. this year we had a stunning, temperate fall with outrageous rainbow colored trees and then POOF - the wind rolled through, the leaves fell down and we got this freezing sleet/rain/snow with temps in the low thirties. my body just could not process the drastic change (hank’s didn’t have to as he simply refused to go outside) and i was FREEZING, despite my hat, scarf and jacket.
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devil's thumb
lucy and i recently had a special mama/daughter weekend at devil’s thumb ranch. theo was meant to come, but i got mixed up (corona brain!) and thought he didn’t have school on friday (it was the monday that was off and theo would have missed three tests) so lu and i played hooky instead.
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happy, happy halloween! x00xx
halloween is one of my least favorite holidays… i don’t like bloody stuff or getting scared or being out in the cold - more than once we’ve had halloween SNOW here in boulder - or staying up too late. (one year lucy got the barfing flu and she could not go trick or treating - i have to say i was so HAPPY to stay home and just hand out candy - she wasn’t feeling TOO bad. it WAS a little unnerving because i wasn’t sure i should let her rest on the sofa in case she threw up again, but other than that nagging concern it was the BEST halloween!) i DO like candy and i LOVE seeing my kids dressed up (as long as there is no blood or wounds or axes or spooky masks.) unfortunately, they don’t appreciate when i weigh in on their costumes anymore… PRAISE JESUS i have hank.
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I GOT MY VACUUM BACK!*!**!
PRAISE JESUS! my vacuum and i are reunited. it was a TOUGH separation but now we have an even greater appreciation for each other. THANK YOU to all the lovely friends who offered to lend me yours. and a bonus… lucy showed me a new anime filter that allows you to smile. i do love the original one but you always look a bit glum with it and that is NOT how i’m feeling now… just beside myself with excitement! x0x0x
life without my vacuum
in family
(me and my vacuum in happier times)
i’m sure you’ve all been on pins and needles wondering how i am faring without my vacuum… NOT WELL i would say. as i write this my vacuum has been in the shop for NINE days and we have never been separated this long. i DID make some rookie moves in the first two days - i served toast and eggs for breakfast on day one. lucy munches her toast like a wood chuck… crumbs go flying. normally, i don’t let this flap me (remember she has not yet attended cotillion) because i have my trusty vacuum to clean up her storm. but this time i had to wipe down the floor myself.
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an eclectic mix of modern and traditional on hawthorn
in this architecturally traditional home, we wanted to create an eclectic mix of modern and antique furnishings to give the interior dimension, texture and personality. the color palette for the finishes is a range of whites and soft grays and warm woods, punctuated with hits of black. we brought in lots of color through the artwork, photograph and textiles.
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my vacuum is my security blanket
in family
i may have mentioned how much i love my vacuum… there is something about the way it sucks away all the yucky stuff that has fallen on my floor and makes that satisfying clickety sound as the crumbs or the little edges of lined paper from a spiral notebook that theo tears off his homework or the bits of the chewed up sticks that hank brings into the house go into the tube that gives me a much needed sense of peace. i imagine it’s how most people feel after meditating. when i try to meditate, i end of thinking about all the things i need to do, like vacuuming, which is calming in its own way, but not as nice as actually vacuuming.
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creating a home office
in office
just when it seemed we would all be going to back to work (outside of our homes) the delta arrived and dashed those plans. it might be time to consider how to make your home office space as useful and beautiful as possible so that “going to work” (even if your commute is just downstairs) is a pleasure.
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hank's FOURTH birthday
(baby hank at his first birthday)
hank celebrated his fourth birthday last week…he’s TWENTY-EIGHT in dog years. this year his birthday fell on yom kippur… that’s a bit of a bummer because it’s not the most festive day (it’s “the day of atonement” in judaism.) the morning before, he skipped his breakfast. i can’t tell you how unusual that is so i thought maybe he was fasting a day early in order to get yom out of the way so we could properly celebrate on his special day. or maybe he was just being really cagey. of course, the fact that he wasn’t eating made me super worried so i scrambled him some eggs to entice him. he DID happily eat those. i forgot about his food bowl full of kibble and left for a meeting. when i returned he had eaten that too, so ultimately he had TWO breakfasts.
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yom kippur
(theo at his bar mitzvah)
this week is yom kippur, the day of atonement in the jewish religion. while i never converted, i am raising my children in the faith of their father (with santa and the bunny thrown in) and i have spent more time in temple than i have in any other religious setting. i have hosted loads of seders, rosh hashana dinners and break fasts (i can cook all of the holiday food, except brisket - my brisket is TERRIBLE - so we have roast chicken instead), i know a fair bit of the prayers, or at least the tunes and i have a general understanding of the fundamentals of the religion.
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published in "inspired interiors"
i was so delighted to be invited to share some of my projects in this book, “inspired interiors” that features interior work from various talented designers from coast to coast. THANK YOU heather knierim of HBK photography for the beautiful photos and to my wonderful clients for the opportunity to create these spaces! x0x0x
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