Homie say what?!

Someone here (thank you!) nominated me for Apartment Therapy’s The Homies awards!  At first my stomach dropped, thinking the award was limited to people who feature design and style regularly.  I don’t think my foray in stain removal cuts the mustard in terms of design content, and we all know putting together a simple style post for my own home nearly killed me.  So, the lawyer in me read the fine print and, what do you know, I am eligible in the Kids at Home category.

Now, there are many, many, many wonderful bloggers in the mix and a whole slew of new to me blogs I plan to go through tonight.  If you would like to nominate me, please go here.  Voting is open until December 29th.  If you would like to see who is in my list of favorite blogs, go here.  It is woefully incomplete right now, as I am off to do some last minute Christmas shopping.  (When will it ever end?!)  When I return tonight, you can bet I will be adding all my favorites.

Lately I’ve been imaging injecting my house with a more rustic, lodge  look.  Maybe I’m just tired of battling my stone wall fireplace (you’ve seen it, right?) or maybe I’ve been inspired by all the western boots in stores or maybe my style is changing again.  Either way, I’ve been appreciating dark leather, worn wood and, of course, my beloved Ralph Lauren Polo Green.  If I had any hopes of moving quietly past this phase in my personal style, all was lost when I saw this picture of the boys.

A few weekends ago we went to a birthday party at a ranch.  The boys loved it and, as usual, I brought my camera and took hundreds of pictures of them playing with the animals and riding the ponies.  I was happy with many of the pictures, despite the background noise present in some of them (SUVs, people, houses, etc.)  This one I loved because you can’t see any of the activity happening directly to the right–and, yeah, that’s why Mikey’s feet aren’t really in the picture.  Kind of a bummer, but I liked the sun coming through Nicholas’s hat enough to overlook my other child’s footless state.  Long story short: I saw potential in them and emailed Tristan straight away and begged her to employ her insane editing skills on a few of the pictures.  (She is crazy good at post processing images.)  Plus, she has been working on developing photoshop actions for Besotted Brand, so I knew she had some tricks up her sleeve.

The above picture is the result of her post processing, using a photoshop action that will soon be available in the shop.  I knew she wouldn’t let me down.

Unfortunately, she did send me down a rabbit hole of ranch and lodge and frontier inspired design.

The hole is so deep, I asked Nicole to design our toyroom/den around a series of these photos, a la Jenifer Altman’s darling triptych of her daughters.  I’m going to blow up the pictures and frame them with the large barnwood frames I have hanging in the living room.

Then I went a little deeper into the rabbit hole and thought, hey, why not design the whole house around the great estancias (country estates or working ranches) of Argentina?  I’ve always wanted to do that, but haven’t wanted to seem obsessed with Argentina.  Oh well, I’m 37 now.  In a few years I’ll be wearing a red hat and a purple dress.  Might as well turn my house into a dude ranch.

So I decided to play around online and see what I came up with.  You know, how hard could it be?

VERY.

I don’t know how design bloggers do it.  The sourcing.  The images.  The cutting and pasting.  And then you find something you like that changes everything and you have to start all over again.  After several days and countless hours I was ready to toss my computer in the street.  But I kept plugging away because by now I was completely invested in this stupid thing.  And, since I can’t work photoshop and iphoto crashes every time I open it because my separate hard drive thingy isn’t accepting the 11,000 pictures on my computer, I decide to use Polyvore.

Things were going along okay (aside from the fact I couldn’t upload everything I wanted because I HAVE NO IDEA) until I tried publishing my polyvore set and instead lost it.  OH MY WORD I thought the top of my head was going to blow off.  But then…somehow I found the set?  I don’t even know how I did that, if you don’t count saying 12 rosaries.

Of course, when I uploaded it to my 1997 version of photo shop elements I noticed that some of the pictures were off.  That’s when my eyeballs slipped out of my head, flipped me the bird, and rolled off into the bedroom in disgust.  Since I can’t work without my eyes, you’ll have to enjoy my half-finished, crooked attempt at a fun diversion that almost killed me.  I have posts on Modern Estancia/Argentina inspired kitchens, dining rooms, bedrooms, and backyards started.  You should expect those sometime in the year two thousand and NEVER.

Sources

• Map: 1800s Map of Argentina, Chili, and Peru (reproduction)
• Blue Chair:  Astrid Chair in Tarkashi print, Anthropologie
• Chesterfield Sofa: Kensington Leather Sofa, Restoration Hardware
• Art: Palermo Roto, Llama Designs (still out of stock!)
• Wool Blanket: Italian Military Surplus blanket, Cheaper Than Dirt (I am not even kidding.)
• Throw Blanket:  Colossal Cable Throw, Anthropologie
• Mirrors: Roost Burl Slice Mirrors, Velocity Art and Design
• Console: Richardson Reeves Console, Sundance

We are debating having the boys share a room.  It isn’t necessary, but The Mister always enjoyed sharing a room with his older brother and has this idea it will “be good for Mikey and Nico.”  I like the idea because it opens up a room in our house for guests, crafts, and other nice sounding things that will probably never happen.  The room, being in a mid-century home, is plenty big for two twin beds.  In fact, I’m sure its size reflects the assumption that siblings would be sharing the space.  Nicholas’s room is much smaller by comparison.

What are your thoughts on siblings sharing a bedroom?

{The above photo is from the talented Jenny of Little Green Notebook.  Her daughters share a room that she recently redecorated.}

You know what this means.  I am one step closer to making my kitchen look like this inspiration picture.  I haven’t yet convinced The Mister that a Polo Green kitchen is the way to go, but he also didn’t like this table when we saw it weeks ago in a local antique mall.

He’s modern, I’m traditional; with it’s turned, slender legs and apron front, this mahogany table said a whole lotta Jules and not much The Mister.  I bought it Sunday using my super negotiation powers (on both the vendors and The Mister.)

But, The Mister is nothing if not a noble gentleman, and he admitted (without me asking him to) that it looks mighty fine underneath our kitchen window.  It will look even better with a Polo Green backdrop, fully opened and drooping under the weight of a pile of yummy food for Christmas.  I promise.

{not Ralph Lauren Polo Green, but hotness all the same}

I don’t have to tell you I love this picture.  Thanks, Jennifer, for providing endless inspiration to those of us with updated/traditional taste and bringing me that much closer to painting my entire kitchen Polo Green.

The Mister, consider yourself warned.

I want this Palermo Roto print from LAMA quite badly, but it is out of stock.  Fingers crossed this is a temporary situation.

p.s.  This Buenos Aires girl is thrilled with how many items from Argentinian artists and wares LAMA has available. I’ve been seeing more and more Argentina references in popular media, even yesterday on an episode of Oliva on Nick Jr.!  Me likey.

My love of black continues.  Funny, because for years I hated black.  I didn’t own a scrap of black in closet or home.  Now I credit my new love of black to my friend, Nicole, of Pink Loves Brown and Making it Lovely.  I had been on the hunt for curtains for some time (nothing expensive, since we’ve only been here 3 years and my style for this house is still in a state of flux) and it was Nicole who recommended to me the IKEA curtains I bought last year.  When I first saw them in the store, I thought the were awful with that busy, black pattern.  In fact, I walked by them countless times without looking at them twice until Nicole convinced me to put them up.

She was right.  Once I put them up, the black helped so much in balancing the room against all the brown I have everywhere.  Since then, I’ve been adding black where I can on a conservative budget, which brings me to my indecisive moment of the day.  Should I dye these ottoman covers black or just make new ones?  (Ignore the terrible picture, please!  Consider it for survey purposes only.)

I think they will dye easily enough. I hope the stripes will take the dye differently, resulting in a tonal look. Maybe charcoal, black, and gray?

Oh, and that’s a rubber carrot on the rug.  Obviously, I didn’t notice I had a rubber carrot on the rug or I would have removed said rubber carrot.  The eyes of a mother turn blind to plastic toys.  Blind, I tell you!

Also, I am very tempted to paint my front door black or, if not black, the color I painted my back splash last week (pictures coming!), which is a green so dark it occasionally looks black.