firmly planted

Bordato illuminated planter, Design Within Reach

All this curb appeal talk has actually peaked my interest. I'm not claiming to be more interested in the outdoors, per se--unless by "outdoors" you mean sitting on the beach with drink in hand--but I am kind of into finding alternatives to your average patio pots (or planters...or whatever). Actually, anything irreverent will do:

Phillipe Starck garden gnome

I love this guy! I always have...even before Amelie made garden gnomes cool.

Vondom planter

I know what you're thinking: Chia Head. But these planters offer more than a bad infomercial. Here's the "pop of color" that realtors love to reference.

retro bullet planter

It's retro and it's pink (yes, I hate pink--but not really--and it's a great compliment to nature's green). When's the last time you saw a pink planter? Let me rephrase that: when is the last time you saw a pink planter that's cool?

will you buy me now?

It's time for the weekly status update. I'm not talking about Facebook; I'm talking about our everlasting to-do list. This weekend my parents came down to Charlotte--thank you for the 80 degrees and sunshine on Saturday--to help appeal the curb of our house. It's no secret that I don't go gaga for greenery, but at least Catcher had fun with the plants.

Scout was (once again) Bjorned (and snoozing!) during all the fun.

I got in on the action by taking all my pent-up frustration (why hasn't this damn house sold?) out on a bush that may or may not have been alive (it's dead now!) in the flowerbed. I even destroyed a pitchfork in the process. In case you're wondering, it's way easier to dig a plant up using a shovel versus a pitchfork--next time just wait for the text from your husband telling you the shovel is across the street at your neighbor's house.

One more look at the empty window box before (above) and after (below). Thanks to Catcher and my mom for their vision and planting skills.

The flowerbed before (above): take note of the naked twiggy thing sticking up by the porch. How's that "pop of color" in the after pic (below)? And do you notice a difference in the number of leaves encroaching on the flowerbed? No?! Remind me why I rake again...

The side porch. I have no before picture, but there wasn't anything there to compare it to anyway. That pot on the stairs is actually the first plant thing I've ever liked. My mom came up with the idea to do this mini herb garden, if you will, and I have to say it's not half bad. The hanging flowers are kind of cute, too, and I actually watered all the plants this evening when I got home from work. Catcher helped.

if the shoe fits

Dries Van Noten, Style.com

How much do I love this shoe? And it's not just a shoe. It's art and it's inspiration. What if you designed a room based on this shoe? I think it would go a little something like this...

The wall color would be dark royal blue by Benjamin Moore,

a throw pillow would look like this one from ABC Carpet & Home,

toss in a glitzy little light fixture like this twist pendant light,

and finish it off with a sleek side table from The Conran Shop. 

Voila: shoe becomes room. The funny thing is, it would probably cost you less to decorate an entire room like this shoe than to buy the actual shoe.

what's for dinner?

I always thought that someday when I "grew up" and had a husband and kids and a house that I would also have a stocked refrigerator. I took this picture this evening, and it has not been tampered with. These are the contents of our fridge: cheese (of the sliced, cream and queso varieties), milk (for Catcher, I hate the stuff), clementines, salsa, Scout's bottles for tomorrow, Pedialyte (left over from Scout's tummy virus last week), olives and tonic. There are no condiments because I don't like them; no fresh vegetables because they always go bad before I eat them; no lunch meat because I pack PB&J every day. So much for being grown up, huh?

People are always amazed when they see how empty our refrigerator is. But I think there are people in this world who stock refrigerators (not just hoarders) and people who don't. I guess it's usually bachelors who don't, but I'm one of those too. I'd rather just look at a clean, empty fridge than worry about expiration dates and stinky takeout. I hate leftovers, too, by the way. Our freezer (below) offers a little more...although it looks remarkably like the frozen section of Trader Joe's.

feeling groovy

Gypset Style, amazon.com

In case you haven't heard, Boho--as in bohemian, as in fancy word for dirty hippie--is in this spring. As much as I dislike this movement, I also love it. The Grateful Dead-following, gypsy-skirt-wearing, pierced-nose-girl inside of me cannot be silenced. She keeps the corporate, over-scheduled mom side of me in check. While the idea of living as a starving artist has long since dissipated from my dreams, I wouldn't mind being a hippie of the sophisticated kind as outlined in Julia Chaplin's Gypset Style (Jet Set + Gypsy = Gypset). I don't want to be the gypsy that picks your pocket in Spain, but I'd like to be the gypsy that travels glamorously and lives stylishly.

how's that list coming?

Tomorrow is March 15th. We gave ourselves a deadline of March 1st to have our house back on the market. We missed it. Remember the list? Well, here's where we stand: we've crossed 16 things off the list. And of those 16 things, one isn't technically complete yet (Alex has ordered new glass for the kitchen door but it hasn't been installed yet) one was half-assed (I decided I would replace the shower liner but not the curtain) and one was crossed off without being attempted (unless you call looking for uplights at Lowe's "attempting" to put uplights behind the TV).

Alex is about to embark on a 15-day journey through NCAA madness, so it looks like our March 1st is more realistically April 1st. How is it that the time goes by so slowly when you're house is on the market and you don't have any showings yet so quickly when you're trying to get your house prepped to be on the market? Although I look at this little delay as time wasted, I think back and remember when we first put our house on the market in the summer of 2009...

- before I was pregnant with Scout
- before Catcher turned 1
- before Alex went to the Olympics
- before I cut my hair
- before we installed granite counter tops
- before our neighbors moved to Germany
- before Alex's high school reunion
- before I dyed my hair brown then blond then brown again (I just colored it last week!)
- before our 5-year wedding anniversary
- before Michael Jackson died
- before the Packers won the Super Bowl
- before the iPad came out
- before my favorite color went from yellow to orange to army green
- before I re-read Harry Potter for the third time (and I mean all the Harry Potters!)
- before my friends moved to Dallas
- before Bob went to a better home

barbecue and turqouise

Alex is in Kansas City (not sure which one) right now for work. Do you know what they have there? Besides barbecue (I think they're known for that), Kansas City is home to one of the coolest homes ever. Take a look:

The home is constructed of shipping containers--seriously!--and painted a fabulous turquoise reminiscent of Tiffany. Talk about reusing and recycling...

Images from Kansas City Home & Garden