I will make dinner...

...and we will sit here

{Monique Lhuillier collection as seen in House Beautiful}

and eat and drink champagne. {Yes, I will have the menu printed and laying delicately on top of the place setting.} Then we will watch a little TV here...

{Susan Ferrier designed townhouse in House Beautiful}

and then go look at my fancy black chandelier from France in my bedroom...

{Room by designer, Susan Ferrier, as seen in House Beautiful}

This Alabama townhouse by designer, Susan Ferrier, is featured in House Beautiful this month. It is terribly tranquil and very well designed for such slight spaces and neutral architecture. {Which I can appreciate since I have seen many poorly designed townhomes and live in a little space myself.} It's funny, I thought that this looked like a home designed in Alabama before I saw it in print.

The tablescape is from the same issue but different article. From the Monique Lhuillier Collection for Royal Doulton: Femme Fatale dinnerware and Atelier stemware and flatware; available here at Bloomingdale's.

A happy Saturday...

{Urban Standard cafe/ boutique}

I had an awesome low key Saturday. My sister and I started out here, Urban Standard, in downtown Birmingham. We ate this for breakfast:

{breakfast}

Look at how great my Mocha looks! Such artistry for a cup of coffee! We were then on to the Pepper Place farmer's market where we saw these beautiful zinnias. We took this pic to send to her friend for wedding color inspiration:

{zinnias at farmer's market}

We continued on to several interiors stores and antique stores and got great ideas for our apartments. I was particularly inspired by an old and worn kelly green shipping container of sorts from the boutique at Urban Standard. I am thinking that it would make the perfect coffee table for my living room simply covered with a piece of glass. There are so many options for what I could store inside. I am thinking my books stacked inside would be great. Then I would top it off with a silver tray or other contrasting objects to dress it up. I am going to be on the look out for a more reasonably priced option on ebay or a thrift store, but I think that I may just have to go back and get the one I saw. I have been coffee table-less for two years and this is the first thing that seems right. I'll keep you posted on what I come up with. Oh! Also, there were these great lamps- but I think I can make one myself (ha, we'll see how that goes). I think I am going to have to go back with my camera and sneak a few shots of the boutique. It was great inspiration for eclectic homes with flea market finds. I also browsed through this book, Urban Country Style. I am off to amazon to try to find a used copy...

"If you start me up..."

image by Paul Costello

This is my first post to my new blog! While I have been reading many of your blogs for a long time, I have yet to join in and share. So, we'll see how it goes. I've never been good at sharing. I'd like to say that I will be sharing things/places/people I love, but sometimes I am a glass half empty kind of a girl. So, I am sure I will be sharing a lot of things/places/people that drive me crazy. Oh, also stories about stupid things I do and think and stupid things that other people do. (Yes, that does include famous people and people on reality tv I love to watch.)