Tag Archives: home

holly jollies

Posted on December 17, 2012 | 25 Comments

IMG_1989

Let me start off this otherwise lighthearted holiday post by saying that I hope we can bring our baby boy (due Dec 26) up a country with less access to guns and more access to help for mental health. The news out of CT is gut-wrenching and my heart goes out to all those affected.

***

While we have been spending a lot of time in the last month decorating the nursery (you know there will eventually be a post on that) and trying to proactively earn a PhD in the finer points of baby swaddling, we have also squeezed in a little bit of Christmas. Okay, more than a bit. Here are some favorite holiday baubles we have around the nest, both old and new.

Like the arrangement above, which I call the “vignette.” We love this silver leaf floating shelf left behind by the previous owners. It seems a perfect spot for my first white poinsettia. I’m digging how this flower (plant?) goes with our 1932 New Yorker cover featuring none other than Santa (thank you Martina), and the “Hans Brinkner and his Sister” skating on a canal print I snaked (with permission) from my mom’s house last year. I suppose some day I’ll get around to framing those. That tall, flute-ish, flute-wielding angel is from Marshalls circa 2010. And the little slate Xmas tree to the left? I’ve been schlepping that little guy around for years – he was one of my first Christmas decorations.

We are also enjoying this macrame Santa made by my mother-in-law Sandy and given to us last year:

Macrame Santa

She made him for Christmas in 1976. I know my mom was also into macrame around this time and we had a few homemade hanging planters in our house back in Wisconsin, but I don’t personally know anything about it. Sandy told me she went to classes at a woman’s house in the neighborhood where they lived in Columbus, OH. She also learned how to make a Christmas tree that was so easy that she volunteered to teach some 4th and 5th graders how to make it. She remembers that there was a special project board she sat on her lap to help line up the knots and she had to pull the cords apart and brush the beard to make it look fluffy. (Cute.) She hung this in her Cape Cod-themed kitchen around the holidays for years. We are honored to have him in our kitchen now! (Don’t you think he’s a little bit gnome-ish?)

It’s difficult to express how happy this ornament makes me. My friend Martina gave it to me a few weeks ago:

smurf ornament

It should probably also be difficult to admit that The Smurfs were my favorite cartoon when I was a kid. But, in fact, it’s not: the Smurfs lived in MUSHROOM cottages, people! I shouldn’t have to justify myself further.

I’ve already shared the jaundice and replacement of our actual Christmas tree, but here’s our little disco tree:

disco tree

This was purchased by Rob four years ago – he used it to decorate his apartment in a super-magical way the night we got engaged at Rockefeller Center rink. I would be remiss to not mention here the Queen of Disco Christmas, Victoria Elizabeth Barnes – check out this blog – can you say sparkly?

I can’t claim to fashion anything near as elaborate as Victoria, but this year I did feel a bit clever when I hung some white star ornaments (Tarjay) from our dining room chandelier:

Star ornaments

I like how they look with the red berry twig things I try to get every year:

star ornaments red berries

And just because I’m not drinking wine at present doesn’t mean I can’t accessorize it, right? (I got these from the Sundance catalogue a few years ago.):

wine hat and scarf

Many of you know that for a while there, I made punctuation-themed ornaments for my friends and family. Then they stopped making/selling these exact frosted bulbs (or I couldn’t find them, anyway) so I discontinued. But here is the one that is displayed most prominently on our tree this year, as if to ask: When will our Christmas baby arrive? How will it all play out? What will he be like?

question mark ornament

This old-fashioned, polka dot skate from my friend Ann-Marie snazzes up our front entrance:

old fashioned skate

Speaking of our front entrance, I know I featured this last year, but I have to give a shout out to Rob Strati and his outdoor LED lighting installation fashioned around our pergola and culminating in a chandelier-ish centerpiece:

ornament chandelierornament chandelier pergola

Rob prefers that I do not refer to this “piece” as art, and I am trying to respect that. What I will do instead is brag that he has a fantastic solo art show in Brooklyn RIGHT NOW at Robert Henry Contemporary at 56 Bogart in Bushwick:

outlines Robert Strati

It is featuring his digital prints, wire sculptures (i.e. above) and a wonderful balloon installation. Check it out, or check out this link, anyway! He also has another show coming up in LA at Arena 1 in the Santa Monica Studios next month.

And finally, I leave you with an image of the very LAST pizzelle in the box:

IMG_2031

These crisp, light, anise-flavored waffle cookies have fueled all of the above and have become a bit of a joke around our house because the word is so fun to say. Most obviously, this word nicely combines one part pizza and one part gazelle, but if you draw out that second syllable in an extremely breathy, theatrical fashion, as in pizzellllllllllllllllle, I promise it’ll feel good.

Hope you are enjoying your holidays…Will keep you “posted”!

Here are some other holiday decorations I have been admiring from fellow bloggers…check them out:

Aluminum tree and chalkboard tree from A Goode House: here.

Up-cycled star wreath at Northstory: here.

Pear and Cherry Christmas Root at Scrap and Salvage: here.

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why oh why did our christmas tree turn yellow?

Posted on November 26, 2012 | 24 Comments

yellow christmas tree

It’s a tragedy. It’s a mystery. It’s a crying shame: Our artificial white Christmas tree turned an unfortunate shade of yellow. Of course, a white Christmas tree is meant to imply (okay maybe only half convincingly) that it is a green tree covered in a fresh dusting of pristine snow. But if it has suddenly become splotchy with yellow, what does that imply? Don’t answer that – I think we all know.

To our knowledge there are no animals to “leave their mark” in our basement where the tree has been stored for the last year. Our mistake: we didn’t cover it. But we didn’t cover it last year, and this didn’t happen. So I have been left to theorize. Readers of this blog know that I am terrified of our unfinished basement. No matter how many bare lightbulbs Rob has tried to rig up, it’s still dark. It’s cobwebby. It’s never been wet down there but, like many basements, it does have a bit of a dank-ish scent. Though the stairs are solid, they do have a creepy creek. This is all to say that I avoid the place as much as possible.

While I was ignoring the tree down there, thinking it was on deck and ready to make it’s third annual appearance in our living room, it was transforming into something…something straight-up unsightly and somewhat gross.

tree in basement

I’d posit that it’s a simple matter of dust build-up, but no amount of rubbing at the branches changes the situation. Clearly some kind of chemical reaction has occurred. Here are some hypotheses:

  • Did he get a suntan from the nearby window?
  • Overheated/burned by the furnace? (Which is not that nearby; we’re not complete idiots.)
  • Radon poisoning?
  • Jaundice?
  • Spider pee?
  • Coffee addiction? After all, the same thing is gradually happening to my formerly white teeth.
  • Spontaneous case of self-antiquing?

A quick internet search revealed that we are not alone. Sounds like it’s pretty common for white plastic to turn yellow and there is little you can do about it. Some suggest trying to scrub it with vinegar, others suggest spraying it with fake snow. Neither of those things were likely to happen at this point, so after this sad discovery we ordered another tree online, and got a cover for it. Granted, the concept of having a fake tree is an attempt to be a bit environmentally conscious – to keep one less tree (or thirty, over the years) from getting chopped down. I love the smell and the look of a real tree, but I also like the retro-vibe of white and colored ones. Of course, now we’ll unfortunately be putting one in a landfill. Feeling guilty about this. (But I’d also feel bad subjecting Santa to that yellowing mess, too. He shouldn’t have to look at that.)

The good news is that new tree has arrived, and it’s white as freshly, fallen snow. Rob set it all up and I did the trimming. There are few things I enjoy more than busting out the ornaments, and thinking about all the kind folks who have given them to us over the years.

white tree day

I love how the tree reflects off our picture window.

white tree reflection

And I especially love how it looks from the street, through the trees, as I drive home from work at night.

tree from street

With any luck (and I often am this lucky) the fire-place is a-blazing and a warm, delicious dinner is almost done. Cozy epitomized. Gotta love this time of year.

***

Do you have any theories why our tree turned yellow? Has this ever happened to you? Do you think the cover is going help? Please advise.

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candy corn salad and the chipless wonder

Posted on November 20, 2012 | 23 Comments

candy corn(image source here)

Due to Superstorm Sandy, Halloween was weird this year: no costumes were worn here at the home tome (we weren’t in the mood to don the nifty gnome suits we got last year), and, thanks to downed power lines, live wires, and no electricity in the ‘hood, there were no trick-or-treaters to be seen. Rob, who knows that getting trick-or-treaters on our front stoop once a year is one of the main reasons I wanted to buy a house, very kindly put a flashlight upright in a coffee mug by our otherwise darkened front door as if it were a beacon, trying to indicate that we were here and open for binnis. Alas, this well-meaning gesture did not lure in kiddies by the droves. Not even a one.

Even our Halloween-themed bookgroup meeting got postponed by a few weeks. We read the thriller Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and were going to bring food with a Halloween flair. Even though the spooky holiday had long past by the time we finally met, I decided to stick with my original plan: candy corn salad. I was curious to see if my concoction would indeed look like candy corn (and if it would be edible.)

Fear not: no candy corns in this salad. And it was hardly rocket science. I just defrosted some frozen corn (for the yellow), chopped some carrots very small (orange) and opened up a can of white kidney beans (white). Voila: it did look somewhat candy corn-ish:

candy corn salad

Then, since it seemed this was going in a Mexican direction, I added some jack cheese, cilantro and scallions and whisked up a dressing with olive oil, chili powder, cumin, a bit of ketchup, salt and pepp:

candy corn salad close up

I am happy to say it was indeed edible. Here is the teeny serving I left for Rob before heading out:

candy corn salad serving

To transport it over to my friend Sylvie’s house, I covered it with my newfangled lily pad cover, given to us by my mother-in-law, Sandy, (who wasn’t exactly thrilled about the name of this recent storm…) These are made by Charles Viancin, Paris:

charles viancin lily pad cover

Have you seen these things? They are silicone and create a suction on the top of your bowl. It’s bizarre: you can even lift up the whole thing without the lid coming off – magic!

charles viancin lily pad

Speaking of magic, I must share something that has recently come to my attention. It is simultaneously the best and worst news that could have possibly hit my world (and waistline.) Though this might be old-ish news, I have just discovered that cookie geniuses at Tate’s Bake Shop over in Southampton, NY are making chocolate chip cookies WITHOUT the chocolate chips. The Chipless Wonder.

Tates Bake Shop Chipless Wonder

Not that I have anything against chocolate or chocolate chips, but if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, I like the cookie even more than the chips. (Rob claims I’ve never mentioned anything about this, ever, in his hearing, so maybe I’ve just thought it…) It has even crossed my mind to bake these myself but I’m glad that Tate’s beat me to it. If you’ve never had these cookies, keep your eye out for them – they are very light, crisp and buttery.

Chipless Wonder

Anyway, it may seem a little strange to you cookie purists out there but they’re amazing. So. Candy Corn-less Candy Corn Salad, Chipless Chocolate Chip cookies, and Stylish Silicone Suction Cups. I’m feeling thankful for these things as Turkey Day approaches. But that’s not all: also grateful for my great friends and family and all my wonderful blogging buddies, near and far.

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we’re getting a roommate!

Posted on November 12, 2012 | 44 Comments

roommate wanted

Well, it’s a crazy thing to do, especially at this age, and especially after not having any for so long, but we are getting a roommate!

We don’t know much about him yet, but here’s what we do know:

  • He’s moving in some time around Christmas.
  • He promises to not take up too much space, at least at first.
  • He will not be cleaning up after himself.
  • He guarantees that he is going to be loud and keep us up at night as much as possible.
  • We were not able to get any references on him but we do have a pretty solid lock on his DNA.

That’s right: Rob and I are having a baby!

Are we thrilled? Yes. Are we terrified? You bet. Are we having fun decorating his little corner of the world with modern, funky cuteness? Indeed.

Jocelyn and Rob plus 1

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diy: gettin’ twiggy with it

Posted on November 8, 2012 | 21 Comments

decorating with twigs

Super Storm Sandy: Check.

Power back on: Check (though it has flickered several times, in fact twice while I was trying to post this, and many in our area haven’t gotten it back AT ALL yet.)

Internet, Phone and TV Service finally restored: Check, check and check.

Price-gouged gas in the car, obtained by waiting in medium-long and tension-filled lines: Check.

Nasty Nor’Easter kicking up a lot more wind last night and a dumping of snow significant enough that Rob’s commute home took three hours and meant he couldn’t get up the moderate hill by our house: Check and check, plus sigh.

Lots of twigs and branches strewn all over the place making a mockery of our already-leaf filled yard (but feeling VERY thankful that no full trees came down on us this time – again, many of our neighbors were not so lucky): Check.

Just in case you suddenly find yourself with lots of twigs and branches laying around, I thought I’d share a twig-centric DIY project Rob and I did in our guest bath when we first moved in. (Of course, there are issues FAR more serious than fallen twigs here in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut area, but we try to look on the lighter side here at the home tome…you know, lemons/lemonade, though of course that particular bev doesn’t exactly seem seasonal right now…)

Our house was built in 1965 and the bathrooms are still pretty much stuck in this era. Although the guest bath has a newish pedestal sink and a newish toilet, the tile work and bathtub are an old-school color that could best be described as…well, mushroom (And while I’d usually use this word as a compliment, that is not the case, here.)

Mushroom tiles and tub

Sure, we intend to update both this and our master bath when we can, but I suspect it will be a while. In the mean time, we were inspired by a branch-covered shower curtain we picked up at CB2 a few years ago: we wanted to give this bathroom a modern yet natural vibe and try to distract away from some of the more dated aspects.

cb2 branch shower curtain

Our property boasts lots of old trees, which means that even when a hurricane hasn’t swept through we have a surplus of fallen branches and twigs year round. I gathered together some handsome ones. Then I sprayed a light coating of craft enamel on them to prevent shedding over time, and to protect them from those steamy conditions.

I configured them the way I wanted then Rob attached them to the wall with short pieces of wire. He poked one end of the wire on one side of the twig and poked the other end on the other side, so that the wire acted almost like a round staple.

installing twigs

Next, we interspersed some sand dollars my mother in-law found on the beach at Cape Cod.

sand dollar

Finally, I added a few small mirrors I picked up from Target. These reflect the branches from the shower curtain across the room. And voila! Twiggy Guest Bath Installation. All for under $10.

Twiggy Guest Bath

Since then, I must confess that I have bravely foraged in our yard for other decorative reasons. I’ve made bouquets out of weeds and used fallen leaves for dining table centerpieces. I just hope I don’t get out of hand with this newfound practice: if, for example, you see me gathering grass clippings, please make sure I’m not planning on weaving a bathmat out of them, or something!

***

Hope any readers who were affected by Sandy are getting back to normal now or will soon. Times like these certainly remind us how fragile our infrastructure is and how important our friends are. Thank you to Sara, Kevin and Nora over at Shmooples for eggs-n-internet right after the storm. And all my best to Katie and Ira at Rock and Roll Yogi who literally had a gigantic tree fall on their kitchen and ON THEM while cooking what I am sure were some excellent brussel sprouts: May you come out of this nightmare with the kitchen of your dreams!

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what do your fall decorations say about you?

Posted on October 29, 2012 | 23 Comments

scarecrow

Halloween is upon us – and Thanksgiving will be close behind. Surely you’ve already busted out your favorite fall decorations and decked out your house with kooky, scary, or tasteful autumnal flair. But, as with all seasonal decorations, I think it’s important to consider what these items say about you.  After all, like a flag or a political sign, whatever you place on your lawn, front porch, or on your dining room table gives a definite impression.

For example, though we don’t have one (yet), one of my all-time favorite fall decorations is that “witch who ran into the tree.” I’m sure you’ve seen her – she comes complete with striped socks and a broom. Attaching this whimsical decoration to one of the trees on your property not only indicates that you have a sense of humor, it might reveal your inner klutz. Maybe you can relate to her haphazard flying skills and you secretly wish people would be a little more forgiving when you accidentally bump into their shopping carts in the supermarket…or their cars in the parking lot.

The message behind some of the most common decorations is obvious. If you put out a cardboard black cat, you’re admitting that you’re not superstitious and that you also adore cats, even if everyone else in your family is allergic.

Scarecrows, like the extra-happy one pictured above, signify a yearning for simpler times, when more people really did wear overalls to work, and when crows really were one of the biggest threats to crops.

I used to think that putting out fake pumpkins or jack-o-lanterns was a cop-out but I have had a change of heart. I’ve realized that while I happen to love a good pumpkin soup and some toasted pumpkin seeds, not everyone wants to get so up-close and personal with pumpkin goop. And that really is everyone’s right. But here’s the other thing: I think people who put out those rubbery pumpkins are actually demonstrating a great deal of respect for their neighbors. Because when marauding teens inevitably come around to squash the squash, these will not create a splattering, rotting mess. In fact, once the teens realize that they bounce, they may actually abandon their mischievous ways and re-channel their energies into a nice, healthy pick-up game of basketball.

bendy skeleton

Who doesn’t love skeletons? We have a little bendy one who shows up in all kinds of locations around our house, but most people have those cardboard versions that fit so perfectly on the front door. If you get a good version, many of his joints are mobile, so you can place his arms and legs akimbo in a good dancing position. What you’re telling the world with this one, though, is surprisingly complicated: 1) You are not afraid of death. 2) You are fascinated by human anatomy, and, 3) You’re upset that you put on those extra ten pounds this summer and, though you have no interest in being quite this skinny, you’re on the market for any daily inspiration you can get.

I think the least convincing fall decoration of all time is the fake cobwebs. The message here is obvious: you are able to fool yourself easily. Let’s face it, that stringy, cottony substance draped in clumps across your hedges looks about as much like cobwebs as that carrot cake you ate for dinner last night looks like carrots. (By the way, see number 3, above.)

And finally, one of the most difficult decorations to interpret is the black caldron filled with dry ice. This might say that you are very in touch with your inner-child and love Halloween more than any other holiday. OR it serves as a “gone fishing” type sign, except instead of fishing, you’ve gone out to obtain three frog eyeballs, two hairs from a troll’s beard, and some gravestone shavings for your deadly brew.

Hey, I don’t want to make too many assumptions here, but this fall, you might just want pay attention to the message you’re sending to the neighborhood.

***

For those of you bracing yourself for (or enduring) Frankenstorm Sandy here on the east coast (the wind is building here in Nyack, NY), I urge you to consult the “How to Prepare for a Hurricane” section in Chapter 5 of my book The Homeowner’s Guide to Greatness for some “extremely helpful” coping mechanisms.

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diy: confessions of a napkin addict

Posted on October 25, 2012 | 24 Comments

pile of napkins

I have amassed an embarrassing number of paper napkins. A whole mountain of them, all with a different theme: holiday napkins, striped ones, napkins featuring cartoonish slices of watermelon. My collection once fit in a large bowl in our pantry, and having outgrown that container, they’re now overflowing from an extra-large shopping bag in our living room closet. (The above photo represents only a fraction of them.)

I know that my love of napkins, like so many of my home-making tendencies, comes from my mother. Over the years, she has proven to be a magnificent hostess and table artiste – she was crafting great “table-scapes” long before the phrase was coined. Her own napkin cache takes up an entire, overstuffed kitchen cupboard. Well-organized as this cupboard is, it’s a good thing napkins are light and soft, because when you open this door (looking, perhaps, for some honey or salt) a few packages are bound to topple onto your head. So it of course shocked me, when, a few years ago, she politely requested that I stop giving her napkins for Christmas and her birthday. She asked, in other words, that I stop enabling her. And I respectfully complied. For the most part.

I’m not sure that I have the strength to kick the napkin habit like she did. In fact, I suspect that I am becoming a napkin hoarder, and not just because I buy new ones but mostly because I don’t want to use up the old ones. Here’s a weird confession very similar to the throw pillow confession I made a few months ago: if you come over to my house, I will secretly hope that you don’t have the good manners to use, or even touch the napkin I put at your place setting. Why? So that I can re-use it! So that I never run out of that specific pattern.

I’d hate, for example, to run out of the ones depicting a map of Cape Cod we got on a trip there:

Cape Cod napkins

Or the napkins with the hula dancer I used a lot leading up to our wedding and subsequent honeymoon in Hawaii:

hula napkins

Someone gave us an adorable set of napkins for our housewarming party featuring a house with flowers coming out of the chimney:

Housewarming napkins

Likewise, I love the bright green ones I purchased for my book launch party this past summer — they match the cover perfectly:

green polka dotted napkins

Oh, the sentimental pull of material objects.

This is the point where you might understandably wonder, why not just use cloth or linen napkins, since they last longer? I do also have a lot of these in my collection – but they require laundering, de-staining, and ironing, all skills I did not inherit from my mother. (Details on my ironing deficiency here.)

The good news is that I know I have a problem. And I believe that even the silliest of problems have solutions. The even better news is that I recently came up with a way to save and covet my beloved paper napkins – behind glass and encased in a frame as a piece of colorful kitchen art. We had a new IKEA frame in our basement that we never ended up using after we first moved into our house.  I dusted that off recently and pulled out some of my favorite napkins. I arranged and re-arranged until I had the napkins configured the way I wanted then attached them to the paper backing that came with the frame with some double-sided tape.  Voila:

napkin art

The whole process took less than 40 minutes. I think we are going to hang it in the tiny apartment attached to our house. It will hopefully cheer up the woefully un-renovated kitchen in there.

napkin art close up

Now, I think I can more freely use these beauties without worrying about them running out. After all, they’re preserved; this collage, of sorts, turned out to be an easy nod to parties gone by (and parties yet to come.) Hopefully, when I offer napkins to my guests it will now come from a more genuine place, in other words without a cringe. If you have any of these same “unique” concerns or pseudo-problems surrounding paper napkins, consider whipping up some quick kitchen art with them. As a matter of fact, even if you don’t have any quirky issues in this area, it’s a fun project to try.

***

Thank you to The Huffington Post for posting a version of this installment.

Thanks also to The Rock and Roll Yogi for the recent shout-out. And a big welcome to wordpress for this new friend. Woo! Check out her blog here.

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saturday scandal

Posted on October 20, 2012 | 26 Comments

nibbled pumpkin

I don’t know who is more at fault here: YOU (whoever you are) for thinking that this little decorative pumpkin trifecta was yours for the tasting, or ME, for assuming that you wouldn’t think this little decorative pumpkin trifecta was yours for the tasting. Either way, not cool.

Just so you know: Infrared Punkin’ Cam will be set up, as of tonight.

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Posted in Garden, Shelter

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vintage: our almost-tulip dining room chairs

Posted on October 15, 2012 | 22 Comments

Burke Inc. chairs four star base Gonstead

When does a person develop his or her design sensibility? I’m not exactly sure, but I think my own interest in mid-century modern stuff was born at a fairly young age, even if it was sub-conscious. See the chairs above? They were located in the women’s waiting room of The Gonstead Clinic of Chiropractic, in Mt. Horeb, WI, which my father owned with his brother (my uncle) for many years.

Everything about this building was (and still is) funky and extremely cool. It is 19,000 square feet, and construction was completed in 1964. Commissioned by legendary chiropractor Clarence Gonstead, this building was designed by Wisconsin architect John Steinman who designed lots of mid-century modern public buildings and private residences around the state. Check out the roof line:

Gonstead Clinic of Chiropractic

Back to the chairs. I must have seen them a zillion times in my youth: I walked past them, probably sat in them, ran around them in circles. But it wasn’t until I went back to visit about 10 years ago that they really caught my eye. I said to my dad, “If anybody ever wants to get rid of those chairs, let me know. Or PLEASE save them for me.” At the time, I had no room for them — I was apartment hopping around New York and my living spaces just seemed to be getting smaller. I guess on some level, though, I trusted that I’d one day have the ideal place for them.

Then I met Rob, who also loves mid-century modern design and we found our house, built in 1965. My dad had, in fact, secured four of those chairs for me a few years before. Once we got the house, he got two more to complete the set. As a house-warming gift, he re-painted the fiberglass. Though we liked the mustard-yellow vinyl, it was somewhat beat-up and stained from over 40 years of use. So he and my ultra-kind, can-do step-mother, Sherill, had them re-upholstered in a fabric of our choosing. Then they shipped them half-way across the country in three gigantic boxes. We lined them up on our front walkway in order to apply copious amounts of Scotch Guard stain protector:

Burke Inc chairs four star base on walkway

Once they arrived, I was able to do some research. Alas, these chairs are not Knoll. They are not Saarinen. They are in fact modeled after those iconic tulip chairs, and the design comes pretty close, but they have a “four star” base instead. They were manufactured in the 60′s by Burke, Inc. out of Dallas, TX.

Burke Inc Chairs 103

Fun fact: it’s rumored and highly likely that these chairs were used in a modified form on the set of Star Trek.

Rob and I love how they look in our open concept dining room, located between our living room and our library/book nook. I am happy to report that so far (knock on fiberglass), the chairs have remained stain-free.

Burke Inc Chairs in dining room

We paired them with a Danish modern table (reasonably-priced from good ol’ IKEA), for which my mother gifted us a customized glass top.

Burke Inc chairs dining room 2

Like several items in our home, such as the vintage Hanova Double Candle Holder I wrote about recently, it’s wonderful to be surrounded by things with a past, objects that remind us of a certain time and a particular place. These chairs fulfill a purpose and they do so perfectly. But they also hold a meaning that goes far beyond the first glance. And this, I think, is one of my favorite aspects of having a home.

As a chiropractor, my father has helped thousands of people in pain feel better during his lifetime. Many of these patients waited anxiously in these very chairs, hoping for relief. And they got it.

On this note, you might be wondering, are these chairs comfortable? The answer is: Extremely! They give excellent lumbar support, indeed.

Thank you to Dad and Sherill for this wonderful gift…

***

Does anyone know anything more about these chairs or about Burke Inc.?

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memo: to the groundhog

Posted on October 9, 2012 | 24 Comments

groundhog

To: Groundhog
From: Jocelyn and Rob

We have been observing you for quite some time now. We see you across the street on our neighbor’s lawn. We’ve also seen you at various locations on our yard. But it wasn’t until a few days ago that our suspicions were finally confirmed that you are using our shed as your pied-a-terre. So, GOTCHA!

We KNEW that hole was exactly your size and your style:

groundhog hole

When I pulled into the driveway the other day (that was me, Jocelyn) I saw you look back at me in a rather alarmed fashion then “bust a move” across our driveway, past the hydrangea bush, through our rock garden and finally squeeze yourself under the shed. Though I was frantically trying to fish my camera out of my bag and get it turned on in order to document this (to no avail), and also texting Rob simultaneously, I managed to keep my eyes trained on you, with fascination and extreme excitement, the whole time.

Okay, “bust a move” isn’t really the appropriate way to describe the way you moved, and this is actually one of the more urgent reasons why we are contacting you. What, pray tell, do you call your particular mode of transport? It’s not really walking, and not exactly crawling, though it is on all fours. It’s more of a waddle, and kind of a shimmy, except more lumbering. Until I hear back from you, I think I can best describe it as a “scooch.”

I hope you won’t be offended if I say that you seem slightly too heavy for your short little legs and yet somehow, by shifting your hind quarters side to side so vigorously you really do make it work – it’s truly impressive. Whatever you call it, it is entertaining indeed. I hope you won’t take further offense to the fact that you have given Rob and I many a good laugh trying to describe/imitate/honor this unique way that you get yourself from one place to another. For the record, we assume that you are laughing at us, too, and our attempts to figure out what’s going on around our yard. That scratching of the head thing we do? It’s not lice – it’s confusion.

This segues perfectly to our next question: those four holes located back in our wooded area, not too far from the shed…are those yours too?

groundhog tunnels

We have not yet seen you enter or exit this series of four distinct holes, but a quick search on the internets indicated that this could very well be your country home. Again: impressive!

groundhogs-moundImage source.

Perhaps we are being a little bit intrusive and somewhat nosey, but after all, we do pay the rather hefty taxes on this land. And we haven’t noticed you chipping in for these.

This leads us to one last question for you: do you prefer to be called a groundhog or a woodchuck? Because we find ourselves making reference to you more than we could have ever predicted back in our city dwelling days, and we’d like to get the nomenclature correct. We again consulted the internets and they tell us that you are one in the same. Please instruct: is this in fact the case and if so, we’re curious: just how much wood can you chuck? As you can see, we have a lot of stray wood around the property that could use a proper chucking, hint hint. (See passive aggressive mention of taxes above.)

Come to think of it, there’s something else you can do for us: see these super-cool mushrooms that just popped up on our property?

mushrooms in enclavepink mushroom

Can you do us a favor and not eat them or “scooch” across them, and ask your friends to refrain as well? Thanks a bunch.

***

Do you have any resident groundhogs/woodchucks? Or if you have any other ideas on what to call their way of “walking,” please share.

Thank you to Rob for his cute groundhog illustration at the top of this post.

And finally, if you are interested in learning more about the fine art of writing memos to critters who show up in your home and on your property (trust me, it is an extremely effective form of communication), please see Chapter 4 in The Homeowner’s Guide to Greatness, available in paperback and on e-readers at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

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