Well….Christmas may have been yesterday, but it’s not too late to wish everyone a merry one….right?!  (Don’t hold it against me b/c I had no internet all weekend.)  Anyways…here’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and hopefully lots of laughs too as we made our best effort at an awkward family photo moment. 

Our hallway is starting to look just a little bit better now that we have our new map framed and up on the wall!!

This weekend we did a lot of staying in in spite of the beautiful weather.  Just felt like having some old fashioned fun.  First up was making savory waffles (with Parmesan cheese, chives, rosemary, parsley) served with bacon and poached eggs.  So good that it hurts.   

The batter looks (and smells) delicious.

You want some of those, right?   We had them both Saturday and this morning.

Fall leaves!!  Those colors are gorgeous!

We went shopping for board games at the Complete Strategist in the city.  It was a lot of fun playing both.  It’s been years since I’ve played Yahtzee!!  And Gloom….a new favorite! 

I like to daydream about one day when Nick and I get to build our very own dream house / cabin out in the quiet hills of Someplace, USA.  And that’s why I save those images here to one day be able to pull and show our dream builder.  Well, this house in Missouri posted by Desire to Inspire is my new #1 choice.  I love every single thing about it’s design.  (I wouldn’t decorate it as cleanly though.)  Here are some of my favorite pics from their post.

Special thanks to Aaron over at West Elm Facebook for pointing me to it!

I’ve always been a sucker for maps, and thankfully so is Nick.  So I was thrilled to find this gem on Fab.com just now.  It’s a World Map from These Are Things.  Also, I love to save money, and it was 30% off the normal retail price.  Woot woot!!  Now hopefully our apartment survives Hurricane Irene so we have a place to hang it! 

And as always, if you need an invite to Fab.com, you can click HERE.

Just a couple of the things that I can’t wait to nab when the collection hits stores.  In the meantime, note that this is just a mere smattering of what they’re offering.  There’s women’s, men’s, kids, accessories, and home.

Poncho-thingie.  Love it!!

Must own these gloves.  MUST.  OWN.   THEM.

Missoni baby clothes?!  Oh.emm.gee.  Totes adorbs!

I don’t necessarily need a martini shaker, but if I did…this would be the one that I’d want to own.

I love it.  I would feel a bit conspicuous riding it, but nevertheless I love it.

Well, hello there! It’s been awhile since we’ve seen each other, no?  I’m a bit like a bad girlfriend that never calls when she’s supposed to…  Ahhhh, please forgive and know that I’ve been working furiously on a variety of things which include (but are not limited to) our lil apartment in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Recently, we’ve painted the living room, finaaaaally received our new sofa from ABC (after 5 months of waiting) and also got our new dining table and chairs. (You may remember our old one from the last place. Well, we sold it when we moved here.)

Anyways, without further ado, here’s where we are now after all that jazz.  And I’m repeating a few photos that you may have seen before so that you can get a sense of the apartment as a whole.

This is what it’s like entering the front door.  Man, do I love a long hallway!!  It just makes the apartment feel more like a home to me for some reason.

This is our new dining table, and I’m absolutely in love with it.  We sold our previous mid-century set when we moved from the old apartment down the street.  It was sad, and even though I loved it…it really wasn’t “our style.”  I always felt it was too precious and I constantly worried about people setting a drink down on it, etc.  The new one is made from old cypress from a Mississippi barn, and I had it custom-made from a lovely man that I met via Etsy.  If you need a table, I’d highly recommend him.  I copied a design that I found at a clothing shop in Williamsburg.  I should have taken photos of the corners of the table, but they’re wonderfully rounded…and the planks are really wide. And to compliment it, we mixed some old chairs from Nick’s parents and the Salt Chair from DWR.  Some black spray paint made the old chairs look perfect with the new ones!  Here’s another angle of the dining area looking into the kitchen.

This next photo is the “office” which is next to the dining room.

This is one that we’ve shown before, and we’ve done nothing to it since this pic except made the desk a lot messier! 

Here’s the latest update to our little “living room.”  It’s right between the dining room and the bedroom.  We ordered the sofa and storage ottoman from ABC back in March and it FINALLY arrived last weekend.  I don’t think I’ve ever been more in love with a piece of furniture in my life.  It’s perfect.  The PERFECT sofa!  It’s the Martha slipcovered sofa from their in-house Cobble Hill collection (which is manufactured by McCreary Modern in case any of you were wondering.)  We had it special ordered using COM fabric from Joe’s Fabric Warehouse here in NYC.  It’s a gunmetal colored linen.  And lastly, the storage ottoman was one of those last minute purchases…and yes, it’s a tad bit big for the space, but actually looks a lot bigger here than it is in person.  And even though it’s a tad big, I’d not trade it for anything.  (Although I wish it didn’t have wheels.  And we will be replacing those at some point in the near future.)

Here’s the bedroom.  Not really anything new or different here except that we did finally get new wall sconces.  These are from one of my favorite shops in Brooklyn, Holler & Squall.  If you want to meet some lovely people and also find unusual pieces, then this is the place to go!  And that’s pretty much it!  We love our new apartment and I’m glad to finally have some pics to post.

Now go out and enjoy the weekend!! 

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. And especially after I went and said I’d be good about doing it at least once a week?! I’m terrible. Oh well, all I can say is that it’s been a great summer so far, and if it hadn’t been for the awful heatwave in NYC right now I probably wouldn’t be posting now. Ha!

But seriously, Nick and I decided to stay inside [in the AC] this weekend and do a little chore that’s been looming ever since we moved in. Our living room walls were 3 different colors. An icy grey, a salmon pink, and spackle white. So finally this weekend, we decided to head to the local hardware store and get a new color. It’s Benjamin Moore’s Brushed Aluminum.

Anyways, here are the before and after pics!

Sorry it’s so fuzzy.  I snapped this pic really quickly because I only realized about 20 min into it that I hadn’t taken a before pic.  You can imagine me holding the camera and a wet paint brush at the same time, can’t you?  Well…that’s what I was doing.  And also apologies that it’s only one picture.  Trust me, the other walls look about the same.  And the furniture placement is the same before/after.  It’s a small room!!

Thanks to my friend Ben for pointing out Olson Kundig Architects’ work in designing little modern cabins out of basic materials like poured concrete, steel beams, concrete block, and plywood.  These are some of the best looking little spaces I’ve seen in ages, and they’re definitely going on my idea-wall for our future, dream modern-cabin.  Hey, you have to dream big, right?!

This is their Tye River Cabin and it looks so absolutely perfect that I could cry!!  And here’s another interior shot of it.

This is the Chicken Point Cabin.  Cement block has never looked so chic.  And this gigantic glass garage-style door is amazing!

This next little cabin is the Gulf Islands Cabin.  It looks pretty modest in design…and I cannot imagine that it would be expensive to build.  One of it’s best features.

The thing that appeals to me most about each of these cabin designs is that they each look pretty modest in terms of cost, but high on style & design.  They are simple and yet feel rustic.  The idea of “modern rustic’ is something that I am constantly striving to define and explain.  In my head it’s the idea of the style that I’d like to have one day in our own little place in some spot like the Catskills or Maine.  Who knows where it will be, but I know I will be taking away some design ideas from this architecture firm!

All photos from the Olson Kundig site.

Do you want to sign up for great daily design deals on fab.com?  Here’s a signup link!  It’s invite-only for now…”Membership is free, but numbers are limited.”  I’m a sucker for sites like One Kings Lane, Rue La La and Gilt City…so of course I want to see what Fab.com has to offer when they start selling in 8 days.