Showing posts with label live. Show all posts
Showing posts with label live. Show all posts
I Want To Live A Pottery Barn Summer
I Want To Live A Pottery Barn Summer
When I look at Glamour or Self Magazines, I feel inadequate about my body, skin, hair, wardrobe, etc. But to a certain extent, I can make noticeable changes in my life with regards to healthy eating, exercise, attitude and thrift stores. LOL But when I look at a Pottery Barn catalog, I feel completely helpless! The only way I could ever live the Pottery Barn life is if I win the lottery.
Perusing the latest summer catalog, I absolutely wanted to jump into the pages and live that life. It never ceases to amaze me how, year after year, season after season, holiday after holiday, they can come up with so many items which just resonate in my soul.
I decided to share some of my favorite "swoon worthy" items from their latest collection. Hello Summer!
SHARK! Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the kitchen, I am in love with this shark drink holder. He looks so ominous and spectacular! You could use him to hold drinks, shots, bowls of chilled salads, fruit, etc. OMG I need him to swim into my house NOW! C*H*O*M*P!
Id like to be... under the sea... with an octopus drink dispenser ... in the shade. How fantastic is this? And this could also be used for Halloween too with some questionable purple drink inside. Little Mermaid movie night. Love it!
Doesnt this look heavenly? I can just hear the splash of the water and feel the sun on my skin. This raft is also pretty nifty and navy blue is my favorite color. I just love this picture!
I LOVE whales and I love orange juice and lemonade. Alas, this whale juicer is a must get! How can I ever use a regular juicer again? LOL
These barracuda snack plates are SWEET. Why put olives and tid bits on a regular round plate when you can carry around this bad boy during your next summer soiree? Unfortunately, I am not sure I could purchase these only because of the barracuda scene in Disneys Finding Nemo. And we all know how that turned out - how could you Mr. Barracuda?
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| NOT NICE Mr. Barracuda. You ate Nemos mother and all of his siblings. No table setting for you! |
Sailboat place card holders? Really? Like these couldnt be more adorable. "Honey can you please run down to the beach and get some shells so I can use them for place cards? Thank you. Um... yeah that is never happening in my life. At my house we just look at each other and say - "You sit there!" LOL But I could totally use these for food descriptors or little messages.
A sailboat fruit bowl - this is adorable! I would even name the boat like SS Antioxidants or SS Fruitcase! I am sure the fruit tastes so much better in a sailing vessel rather than a plain old round bow. And I am not even kidding.
I am not normally a melamine (aka plastic) plate person. I understand the whole unbreakable thing and they just scream summer but I would really prefer ceramic. BUT - that being said - I would totally make an exception for these little beauties. Nothing screams AMERICA like, well.... AMERICA. Although I am guessing these may not be huge sellers in Alaska & Hawaii - just a thought! ;-)
And these recycled glass chandeliers? SO pretty. I cant even! And the price. Um... no. Just no.
So those are just a few thoughts on the Pottery Barn Summer 2015 collection. So many adorable things which inspire me to go thrifting and hacking.
I Want To Live A Pottery Barn Summer
To Live and Breathe a Garden
To Live and Breathe a Garden
This past summer my husbands niece and her boyfriend scored a job as garden builders and keepers for a saw mill in Montana. This family owned mill wanted to provide farm fresh food to its employees on a regular basis. The kids are very earth oriented and this was something they dove headlong into. The lived on-site and this was their job everyday all day long.
It gets colder earlier and stays cold later into the spring in Montana, so they concocted ways to extend the season on both ends to accommodate a variety of more tender veggies.
This photo shows the saw mill in the background. The scale of this garden must have been enormous. If they do it next year I may have to go check it out myself. You know I am intrigued by huge gardens.
Here is my mother-in-law, Vonda, and Tracey harvesting something out in the garden. Huge garden to weed.
I had a few rows of beans that were only 10 feet long. I cannot imagine picking beans when you have rows this long. Yikes, what an undertaking.
The number of unique and standard crops was staggering. The kids said that many folks that received the bounty from the harvest didnt know what a lot of it was.
They had drip irrigation which made water conservation much easier. Jesse, Tracys boyfriend, has done some large scale gardening in the past. These kids are only in their early twenties, it took me till my thirties to even have a grasp of some of the things they did this summer.
They obviously had a successful season. The garden grew with amazing results and I must say I am impressed. Its hard to impress me and they certainly did. If they do it again, I am going to see.
To Live and Breathe a Garden
Beyond Live Work The Architecture of Home Based Work
Beyond Live Work The Architecture of Home Based Work
There are plenty of attractive books about sheds, garden offices and colourful introductions to working at home, but at last there is a book which is not only well illustrated but also tackles the subject intelligently and comprehensively while still being readable.
In fact its so thorough that its hard to do justice to the book in a single blog post and Frances Holliss - an architect and Emeritus reader in architecture at London Metropolitan University - will be writing a guest post for Shedworking next month on the subject. But in brief, Beyond Live/Work looks at the history of people working at home (not just in the UK, theres particularly good coverage of Japan for example too) and the types of location in which they do it, including garden offices. There are also many interviews with homeworkers to emphasise the human element in homeworking.
There is plenty here to get your teeth into, from cottage factories (of which I was shamefacedly ignorant), a fascinating list of homeworking occupations made by Victorian work researcher Charles Booth (are there many gold-leaf beaters still shedworking today?), and suggestions for the future (from courtyard workhomes to flirting benches so homeworkers get a chance for romance...).
But its also a book with several messages, not least that the 20th century idea of going to work is likely to look like a blip in the history of working as homeworking continues to rise. "This represents a radical change in our society," she writes. "It has huge implicains for how we inhabit, think about and regulate our homes, workplaces, and cities."
Frances mentions how many of the people interviewed for the book are the backbones of their community. "All are visible, well-known members of it and generally work long hours in some form of public service." She also strongly argues the case for the eco-friendly nature of homeworking and against the nightmare of commuting.
In short, this is the best book Ive read about working from home and you should all certainly buy a copy. For a taster, have a look at Francess website WorkHome which holds a vast collection of homeworking resources. ----------------------------------------------------
Beyond Live Work The Architecture of Home Based Work
Ecodom Could you live in your garden office
Ecodom Could you live in your garden office
-Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.
Ecodom Could you live in your garden office