Heading Home

I'm going home today.

I want to see this:

And this:

And I want to eat this:

And two of these with butter:

Oh, and see these 2 small people who run around and call me Meya and eat my ice cream and play on my phone and crawl on my lap and tell knock-knock jokes and scoff at the site of too much green on their plates:

Oh, and these two also:

Designer Scrabble

Last night, Husband and I drank wine, ate chocolate and played Scrabble. It doesn't really matters who wins, it' just the fun of the game, right? Right. So, I won't even mention that I won and I'll get on with my story.

Half way through the game, Husband says, What's "AWA"?

I look at the board and "AWA" is there right next to "CEVA".

A misbehaving E had scooted it's way down the board and by doing that had changed 3 of the words along the way. It was a cluster. It took us 5 minutes to figure out what had gone awry and place all the letters back into words Webster would ok. I know along the way we both thought, albeit for a very short time: That Rascal over there is playing non-sensical words while I got up to get him/her more wine. Last time I get up for wine refills. Humph!

The issue is we have the cheapy version of Scrabble - just a plain ol' folding board with wood letters. Nothing fancy, nothing Delux, nothing Limited. And really, to eliminate this E Scooting Situation we just witnessed, we decided we needed Limited or Delux or this:

Andrew Clifford Capener's Scrabble Typography Limited Edition

HOW RAD IS THIS?

It's Scrabble for people who like fonts and interesting things that come in pretty boxes and to top it all off the letters and board are magnetic so no Scooting E!!! I'm in love.

Pretty Box

Pretty Box Inside a Pretty Box 

Pretty Letters on a Pretty Board

Go here for Andrew's website where he talks about his masterpiece.

Go here if you want to buy his masterpiece. There are only 30 left!!!!

It's a Bug's Life

If you know Husband and me, you'll surely see that Rifle Paper Co. has painted us . . . in bug form! I've got freckles and am wearing a very stylish hat with just a hint of floral and carrying a matching purse. Husband is sporting a good ol' fashion bow tie and his super cool round glasses. Now I can't say that I'm that round or Husband has a tail, but all-in-all these bugs are so us, it's scary!

I think I might need them.

Lady Bug Me

Ant Husband

I love everything Rifle Paper Co. does. Like this and this and this!!! Oh, and this too!

In other news, I'm off this morning to NYC on a spur-of-the-moment trip with my friend, K! More on that when I return!!!

Winter Pots

The other day I told Dad that we had decorated our pots for winter. Here's how that conversation went:

So, we just decorated all our pots for winter. They look great!

Oh???????

Yea, we put evergreens and dried lilies and all sorts of fun stuff in them. I didn't go Christmas-y - just more winter-y!

Oh??????

Yea, so no more colorful mums and pansies, on to winter pots but they are supposed to last until March.

Oh?????

I'll post a photo or two on my blog so you can see them Dad.

Now Honey, what is it that you decorated? Pots? Why would you do that?

Dad. My pots. Outside. On the patio.

Oh!!!!!! I thought you had decorated some pots in your kitchen. Oh, your outdoor pots. That makes much more sense. Yes, please post some photos. I'd love to see.


Ah, Dad. You gotta love him! Poor guy thought I had gone insane and started decorated my Cuisinart!

Here are the photos of our winter patio. Wadda think, Dad?

Back Door & Pots

Love the hint of sparkle!

Dried Lilies

I mixed a sparkly wreath with a boxwood - fun combo!

Back Patio

Mushroom Stem Balls . . . who knew???

The Gang  . . .  all together!

The Front Door . . . couldn't be left out!
Gold gilded leaf wreath mixed with evergreens.

Lemon Street debuts in Fig Magazine

Fig is Lancaster, PA's hip little quarterly magazine. They did a cool spread on the town homes we live in for their Winter 2012 issue. These town houses are old soldier's barracks that were remodeled and opened up a bit to make them lovely little homes. Fig took photographs of our house for their magazine article. Here's the spread of the photos they used.

The first photo is our living room. It's our favorite place to sit because there is no TV and a lovely fire place. The fabulous tin mirror is from my cousin's company, Mariza & Co. and imported from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. You can catch a peek at the kitchen on the far right of that photo. The middle photo is a little seating nook in our guest bedroom on the 3rd floor. The collection of Retablos, a New Mexican folk art tradition of saints painted on wood hangs above the fun little chair from Anthropologie. Husband started that collection and I've helped him add to it over the years we have been together. The vivid colors of this nook help liven any winter day. The last photo is our patio with all the Fall flowers in high bloom! Fig captured our home nicely and it was so fun to see it in print!

Living Room, Guest Room and Back Patio

If you want to see more of what Fig has to say, go here.

2 Men and Philly

Our friend, Double M was in Philadelphia this weekend. We took the train into the city and met him at the Reading Terminal Market. The Reading Terminal Market is like a Farmers Market meets Speciality Food Store meets Gourmet Food Court. You can get everything from diner food to oysters, from onions to chocolate and from foie gras to to sausage. It's a sight for the sense. Double M loves food as much as Husband and I so we knew he'd get a kick out of it!

We each treated ourselves to a Philly Cheese Steak (with cheese whiz, of course) and then spent the rest of the afternoon walking it off until we needed a bourbon, and then walked that of until we needed to share a bottle of vino and then walked that off until dinner. That, apparently is what you do with 2 men in Philadelphia. I can't say I minded it a bit!

Here's what The Reading Terminal Market was like for us:

The Menu

My Cheesesteak!

And here's some other stuff we saw at the Market:

Fish

Flowers

What the heck???

And here it is . . .Pumpple Cake!

Pizzas

Juice

This little kid was playing up a storm on the keyboard!
He'll be famous some day.

Junkanoo

Last night we had drinks with our uber-cool neighbors, H & C.  H asked if we were interested in going to Junkanoo in 2013. Husband and I told him that sounded like a very personal question. (Giggle!)  H went on to tell us that Junkanoo is the annual NewYears parade in the Bahamas. He then showed us some pictures. It's like Cirque Du Soleil meets beach front property!

Take a look:

Here's what they (www.bahamas.co.uk) says about it!

What happens at Junkanoo

Long before the spectacular 'rush-out', the exuberant Junkanoo dance troupes - groups of up to 1,000 - will have been busy rehearsing their dazzling routines. The musicians will have perfected the hypnotic rhythms they'll perform day and night on a cacophony of goatskin drums, cowbells, whistles and horns, and the imaginative costume designers will have worked non-stop to weave their own special magic with beautifully coloured crepe paper and cardboard.

As the Junkanoo parade moves through the streets of downtown Nassau in the early hours of the morning (generally from 2am to 10am), the energy of the dancers and the beat of the music motivates the vast crowds of supporters and spectators to start moving in their seats, or on their feet, or in the trees, or on balconies - wherever they have found a spot from which to watch this soul-stirring festival! At the end of the famous Junkanoo procession, judges award cash prizes for the best music, best costume and best overall group presentation.

I love the costumes and the music sounds like a lot of fun. I bet all the drinks there come with umbrellas in them. Sounds like a perfect combination to me!

Long Live the King

The summer before we were Seniors in college, I flew back to see my super fun friend, S and her family in Maryland and then drove back to college with her in LA. If you have never done a massive road trip like that, I highly recommend it. It's one of the best memories of my life. S and I will always be close because of that trip. We ate, we sang, we laughed, we talked, we found every state's license plate, we pulled over just for Diet Cokes and we stopped at Graceland.

Now, I will admit, I was not interested in stopping to see Elvis' home in Memphis. This was all S's crazy idea! I thought, the man is dead, his music was ages ago and his outfits were insane. Well, I'm here to tell you I think differently now. The man has got to be alive somewhere, his music is still magic and his outfits are inspirational! Thank you S for enlightening me!

The tour of Graceland was fabulous! You see all the funky rooms in his house (an interior designer's dream!) and hear background stories on him, his family and his home. I can still picture the family room, formally called The Jungle Room with all this hand carved, rustic furniture. It looked like it should have been in a 70s A-frame cabin! I remember that he saw it in a window of some store and went in and bought the whole set! There were also very formal rooms with white carpeting and garish drapes and some of his costumes were on display at the end of the tour. It all sounds hokey I know, but really it was darn good fun.

Jungle Room 

Dining Room

all photos courtesy of graceland.elvis.com.au

 I was reminded of all this fun I had with S when I stopped in Lowe's yesterday and saw this:

You know my feelings about bad Christmas decor but this was in a whole different category. This hit a soft spot in my heart. In fact, I'm still thinking about it. It's a singing, light up Graceland accessory good for any shelf or magical spot in your home. Oh, I fell in love with Elvis all over again just seeing this.

Guess it's time to plan my trip to DollyWood now . . . !!!

Christmas: Meya Style

For all of you who are bit concerned about the lack of tree in our house, I thought I could put you to ease by showing you how we are decorating for Christmas. I'm not a huge santa and snowman and red and green Christmas person. I know, I know, how do I even call myself human? I like things to be festive and sparkly but I don't think you have to do that with just red and green. Plus, those colors don't even remotely go well in my soft hued home and when you're an interior designer, that bugs you. And we can't have things bugging me especially during the holiday season!

So, here is a little sneak peak into our Christmas living room as decoration progress . . .

living room windows

Side note on this wreath: there are 2 of them and they need to "spritzed" twice a day. It's like having a baby in the house, they are so much work! But they're beautiful so I'll "spritz".

Just a hint of Christmas on the bookshelves

Chocolate just screams "Christmas", doesn't it?

Along these same lines, I'm not into making my dog look like a reindeer at Christmas and I saw that happen yesterday and it looked like this:

It's a Chihuahdeer!

Now, this is what a festive holiday pup looks like:

Miss P waiting for Santa!

Do you think she hates me for putting her in horizontal stripes?

O'Christmas Tree!

On Sunday, Husband and I started getting out our Christmas decorations. It seemed overwhelming in a new house because I had no idea where anything was going to go. To make a good dent in it, we decided we would start with the Christmas Tree.

Husband got it out, put it up and called me downstairs to see. We both looked at the tree and then we both looked at each other and said, "I hate it". It was the saddest looking tree you'd ever seen. I don't remember it looking so bad in our old house but the ceilings were lower and it fit perfectly into a snug little corner. In this house it looked short and sick and sad - kinda Charlie Brown Tree looking but with none of the Charlie Brown charm. We packed it back in it's box and within 2 minutes he had the little guy listed on Craigslist!

So this will be the only tree in our house this year and you know what, I am perfectly happy with that!

Yum!

Meya's Wish List

All these great blogs are doing fabulous Holiday Gift Guides for everyone under the sun - the hostess, people under 5, the lady in your life, the modern man, etc . . .

Here's my version of a gift guide. It's simply 10 things I love right now! This very minute. Maybe it will inspire you. Maybe you'll find something you'll want to give to someone else. Or maybe if your name is Husband, you'll make that purchase for a little something fun for moi under the tree!

Merry! Merry!!

1. Monthly subscription to Adobe Design Cloud : subscribe here!
2. Rad GIANT gold bowl for someplace in the house: buy me!
3. Funky warm attire for the expected very cold winter : Size M!
4. I know I already have one but I like this color too : It's Tangerino!
5. Funky warm robe for the expected very cold winter : Here's to happy mornings!
6. Signet ring with my new monogram on it : You name it!
7. iPad Mini : NECESSARY for life!
8. I loved Harry Potter : Just a fun read!
9. To leave the expected very cold winter in February : You know you'll wanna come too!
10. I love this whole outfit - really anything at Anthropologie would be fine! Pretty! Pretty!!

Sad Pooch

What do you do for a depressed dog?

Since my parents left last Saturday, Penny has been one sad pooch. She usually follows me around the house and races up and down the stairs like a maniac. For the last week she goes up the stairs one at a time - almost in slow motion and then I find her laying in the corner of my closet. When she is not in the closet, she has to be sitting on my lap whether I'm at my desk, on the sofa, or trying to wrap Christmas presents.

I tried talking to her about it but she just looks at me with those sad eyes, rolls over and wants her belly rubbed. She won't say a thing.

If her grandparents are reading this: COME BACK SOON or send Doggy Prozac!

It really is so sad to watch. It's depressing me! I mean, look at this face:

A Pretty Table is a Happy Table

Even though we had the The Great Fall of 2012 we still managed to have a nice Thanksgiving day. We had course throughout the day. We started at 1:00pm with a butternut squash soup and a glass of prosecco. After a nice walk and a glass of wine, we sat down again for a pomegranate, pear and goat cheese salad. We sipped a bit more wine and around 5:00pm we ate the turkey and it's usual sidekicks. We ended the evening with pumpkin and pecan pies that we washed down with a little bourbon.

It was a lovely meal day to share with 3 of my favorite people.

I like to cook but I wouldn't say I LOVE to cook. Thank goodness Mom, even with only one arm, was still around to oversee the handling of the turkey and the making of the gravy. I had done both once before but not for a long time. Needless to say, I needed some coaching from a pro.

What I really LOVE to do is set pretty tables. I think if I could get a job at people's homes just setting their tables; creating something beautiful for families to eat around, I'd be a happy camper. This was our first big holiday in our new house so, I had some fun with our little table for 4.

• The napkins were a gift from my mom parents that started the whole scheme. Aren't the colors perfect? Very Fall but the hint of blue/aqua makes them so much more interesting and stripes are always a favorite
• The candlesticks I picked up at one of my favorite little shops in Phoenix and the Juliska vases were a gift from our wedding. 
• The place cards I found here in Lancaster. They were so beautiful that I didn't want to use pen on them so I could have them forever! 
• The runner is a beautiful raw silk that my folks gifted us as a thank you. It's texture set off the silver candlesticks and glass vases perfectly.
• I don't think you can see it in the photos, but each person got a little chocolate at the top of their place for every course!
• The china is our wedding set. I love how free form all the edges are and the faint color changes throughout the plates and bowls.

It was lots of fun. I can't wait to host another dinner party just so I can set another table!

Oops! I took these pictures before the silverware was set.

Meya's Place

Snow update

Just incase you questioned my video. Here is my car. It's usually blue!

Gotta go refill my tea and turn up my Christmas music!