Tis the eve of my birthday and twas a glorious weekend full of all things delightfully Spring!

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Just back from a wonderful weekend with my Mother, sister (happy Birthday Tine!) and wonderful sister-in-law to celebrate birthdays and have some together time. So yes, life has been good and I’ve been doing some awesome exploring this year with family and friends. If you ever get a chance to visit Doylestown or New Hope, PA, I highly recommend it – wonderful for a romantic weekend or girlfriend get-away. My highlights of the trip were the visit to Fonthill, Anthropologist Henry Mercer’s eclectic Victorian era home (cement and tile abound), and our Sunday visit to New Hope where we explored some fun boutiques, I scored some awesome Spring clothes, and we had a patio lunch at the  The Landing restaurant. We couldn’t have requested a more beautiful day to sit in the sun.

So on to the design part…

Online design magazines have hit their stride, just in time for all of you iPad users. Read the full article

My hubby and I have been wanting an art wall in our bedroom for a while, and as usual,  just never seemed to find the right time to execute. We finally got rid of the TV armoire which freed up the wall – the last time we watched TV was Obama’s election night. We’d been collecting photos and prints, and had recently picked up some amazing band posters from the incredibly talented Nate Duval when we were browsing the Crafty Bastards show this past October. Well, this weekend it happened! All that dreaming and planning made it easy to pull off, and in a few hours we had it done, done, done! (Happy dance here!!) Things take for-eva at our house. Seriously. Read the full article

Did ya know your property doesn’t have to be in Arlington to work with me?

My friend who is also a client hooked me up with one of his family members in Chicago and now I’m working on interiors in their large home room-by-room. Ah, the Internet! So, if your Martha’s beach house needs some designing…let’s chat!

On to the space — it’s large, traditional and pretty formal with a large fireplace, columns at the entrance, and it’s the first room you see when you come in the front door so it’s got to be tres chic! Read the full article

One of my fabulous long-standing client’s has asked me to make-over her much used office into a more inspiring and comfortable space. We are moving through her house room-by-room. We’re tackling the worksurfaces and file storage with the Ballard Original Home Office desk components. The desks are running along a large picture window and turn the corner for his and hers workspace. We’re putting in tons of smart storage and wall storage to maximize the work area so it’s functional and not cluttered. Read the full article

Everyone needs one of these… I’m just back. It was a “design field trip, need some sun, time to get inspired, see as much as I can” trip to Miami. Thanks to my darling hubby and his work for making this happen! I had never been – and let me just say -  beyond my expectations for sunshine, architecture and design. Here are some photo highlights. I could do this every January… Read the full article

I am currently working with a lovely newly-wed couple who is REALLY into plants. The husband is into potted plants and the wife is into terrariums (more to post on that later!). And that got me thinking about using plants in interior design. I appreciate plants and have a mixed history with them. They are sorta like little pets. We have a few now in our home, including an often shedding banana plant that looks good only half of the time – when it has it’s leaves – and a cute little Mother-in-laws tongue that won’t grow, but won’t die either. It is easily 15 years old and seems to have a growth problem. Read the full article

Just in time for fall, the Serena & Lily catalog has arrived!  This is a catalog worth getting in the mail. It’s easy on the eyes – laid out more like a design magazine than a retail catalog – and full of wonderful color, texture and ideas. It’s a great way to bring the exotic and well-traveled  to your home, in an tastefully eclectic way. And it’s a refreshing change from Pottery Barn… Here are some of my favorite new products – can you imagine any of these in your home? Read the full article

This week I had the pleasure of meeting Christiane Lemieux, DwellStudio’s founder and creative director. She was at the DC Design Center doing a book signing for her recently published Undecorate and to speak with us about her growing business and her new furniture line. She is creating original lines of fabric for Robert Allen (I can get these!) and I have access to her full DwellStudio line if you are interested in seeing some samples and ideas on how to include them into your home decor. I don’t usually gush over meeting design celebrities, but Christiane was such a treat! She’s incredibly personable and real – I wanted to follow her back to her Manhattan studio and soak up all she had to say! Read the full article

I’ve been looking at wallpaper for a few clients and am absolutely loving these patterns. There are so many amazing options available, machine printed, hand silk-screened to custom everything. I even found some 3-D hand-made paper – but that deserves it’s own post. Wallpaper can make such a visual impact and transform a room. This is not the scary wallpaper we remember from our youth. I love it for a small space like a foyer or powder room, or as a statement wall in a bedroom or dining area. Here is just a sampling of what’s out there and some of my personal favorites. Read the full article