design crush: annie selke

say it with me now:

annie selke is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s.

buh-nanas. seriously.

and here is why:

you guys. the legs. look like ropes. gilded ropes.

geometric antiqued gilded accents like this are such my jam these days.

this is a dining table:

and it can come with these demilune pieces for the ends:
genius!

awesome coffee table. bam:

festive etagere. done:


spindly chair. indeed:

and mirror. you're welcome:
this bed is like a building. like your own fabulous greenhouse gazebo trellis room-within-a-room:
and this upholstered headboard makes me want to bust out some plywood and a jigsaw for a little diy action:

this bench SLAYS me. slays me dead:


even this couch. which is just a couch. i want:

there's the furniture line. the pinecone hill bedding line, which i can't even begin to get into right now. or until someone is all "i'm having a baby, decorate me a nursery slash child's room."

and also, dash & albert rugs. are. my. fave.

especially these specimens:

dear annie selke,

i want to be you when i grow up.

sincerely,

me

still kickin'

i'm alive! no worries. please excuse my extended absence. blame summer. or me. whatev.

there has been much bbq-festing:


MUCH bbq-festing...

(homemade ice luge...does that count as a blog-worthy project?)

wedding attending (x3):


...where approximately zero decent pictures were taken at any nuptials by yours truly. obviously.

traveling:

(my alma mater in sewanee, tennessee, for one of the aforementioned weddings)

backyard hot wing cook-off blind taste-testing:

garden building:


and other such summertime tomfoolery.

progress has been made on home projects, but nothing to a blog-reveal-worthy point. so many ideas! so little time! also so many excuses. full to the brim of them. there's the ole 9 to 5, the husband & dog trio whose housekeeping skills are a combo of toddler/teenage boy/bull-in-china-shop, the fact that grandma here needs like 10 hours of sleep to function, operation run for exercise in full effect after work, eleventy-thousand other blogs to read, dinners to cook, friends to see, etcetera and so forth woe is me.

and do you want to know a secret? do you?

sometimes, when i'm not doing any of those things listed above, i'm also not doing a project...because you know what i'm doing? nothing! and it is glorious.

be back soon(ish) with the goshforsaken upholstered chair reveal (friggin finally!), completed garden built by my handy hubby and window treatments for the dining room. woohoo!

today: sconces

because why not?

my least favorite thing about sconces is how they have to be installed in the wall with electricity, and that requires an electrician, which requires time and money and planning ahead, and what if you change your mind or need to move them? complicated. my favorite thing about sconces is how they look awesome.

they can go so many places. sconces look great flanking a mirror over a console in the entryway, a painting over a buffet in the dining room, a mirror in the powder room, a doorway, windows, a bed, probably some other stuff.

i don't think i'll bother installing sconces in our current house (other than the pair with candles in my dining room, because guess what, no electricity), but for our someday house, these would do in various applications:

for a living room:

for a little girl's bathroom:
for a dramatic hallway:

all via lighting showplace

for a guest bathroom:

for a dining or living room:
for a kitchen or family room:
for a study (grasscloth included, please):

all via shades of light

for a hallway, dining room or powder room:

for an entryway:

for a bedroom:

all via circa lighting

for a master bathroom:

via restoration hardware

any other ideas of other sconceable places in the home? great sources for these lovely little lights? love or hate any of my picks?

hostess with the mostest

we are officially grown-ups. on sunday, team stone hosted both sets of parents for a mother's day lunch, then had the aunts/cousins/grandma on dad's side of the family over for the afternoon. i even have photographic proof of the grown-upness of it all. thanks to my dad. because i didn't take any pictures. because i'm not grown-up enough to host a gathering AND photograph it. yet.

i bought and arranged flowers from the fresh market. even created a table centerpiece out of small vases for all the lady guests to take home as a mother's day party favor. grown-up!

we used fine china, silver and crystal. and sat at the heads of the table. and remembered to light the candles. grown-up!

(please ignore the un-grown-up lack of decor above the makeshift buffet...i do have a plan)

we cooked food! and it was all ready at the same time! (but no pictures...too busy eating)

i put flowers in the hallway:

and on the coffee table (next to our fabulous wedding album, shout out to josh malahy):

and even in the bathroom:

grown-up!

the leftover table arrangements have been beautifying our lives all week in various spots about the house:


we even hung and hastily styled the plate rack:

and i finished sewing a pair of throw pillows for the living room couch. by hand. because the fringe was too thick for my sewing machine. ugh.

here is one with some fabric i found at calico corners to reupholster a stool from my grandma's old house:


on the flip side to all the grown-uppery, this evening we'll begin a long weekend of revelry with our team at the memphis in may world championship bbq contest:

where in years past we have done this:
and this:

and this:


aaaand this:

and where i will be the only vegetarian. with a purse full of luna bars for sustenance. good times!