Form Follows Function (I'm Not Lazy, Swear!)

Most of us have heard the quote "form follows function." Maybe you're better informed, but I was unaware that the original quote (which is technically "form ever follows function" and is attributed to American architect Louis Henry Sullivan)  had more to do with efficiency and construction profit margins than poorly chosen billboard fonts and prohibitively ornamental bathroom faucets.

Regardless of the original spirit, the saying is apropos to any form of design. So that's what we're going to talk about. And specifically, we're going to discuss my bedroom. The blinds. And how I don't want to cover them in fabric anymore.

(Side note: I'm going to make a scientific hypothesis here and say that fabric left at rest stays at rest.)

 

Okay, yes. I realize that it sounds like I'm just being lazy. But hear me out: my laziness was actually a blessing in disguise, because it allowed me to live with the blinds for a bit. (I hung them before Christmas so that when I covered them I could just pop them right back into their mounting hardware, easy peasy.)

During this past month, I realized that my bedroom window coverings need to both provide privacy and let in natural light; the window is street-facing and it's a darker room. If I cover the blinds with fabric, I will achieve privacy but I will lose the delicious filtered morning light that I find so precious in my east-facing room.

No matter how pretty the fabric is, or how great it would look, I can't sacrifice the function simply for the sake of a beautiful window. That would be foolish. So now I'm not sure what to do. No window coverings at all? A small tailored valance? What are your thoughts?

Gift Guides 2014

This time of year is dangerous for the shopper in me + I love lists. So without further ado, let's look at some gifties.

(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

P.S. Don't forget to check out my books-as-gifts recommendations, too!

Bedroom Blues

 First, you need to know that I'm always cold. Even inside with my furnace running.

Second, I'm really bad at blogging. Sorry about that.

Third, I'm also sort of lazy.

I can't excuse my blogging laziness, so instead I'm going to blame the slow progress in my bedroom on my perpetual shivers. Y'all don't understand how hard it is to go outside when it's 10°F (especially to do something as dumb as cutting pieces of trim). This whole winter thing is for the birds, and if someone in San Diego wants to trade houses with me, I will throw in my kids chickens to sweeten the deal.

(pretend this is a roman shade. I know I am.)

To sum up, I'm practically incapable of doing anything productive when it's cold. It is one thing to venture into the freezing temperatures for a pair of boots at 50% off on Black Friday. It is another thing entirely to do anything else during the months of December, January, or February (and November, March, and April if you live in Idaho).

Last week it warmed up to a semi-reasonable temperature and I finally got the casing done. Baseboard, not so much.  Paint, not so much. Baby steps.

You can still see all the progress I've made. I really need to turn those blinds into DIY roman shades, and I've realized over the past week that staring at the box and willing it to happen isn't getting the job done.

I'll keep you posted (about if anything new happens while I stare at the box).

Books to Gift

I am a hopeless book nerd, and one of my deepest desires is that both of my boys will love reading with that same passion. Maybe not 'spend your entire summer vacation under the tree reading the entire "The Baby-Sitters Club" series' passionate... but passionate nonetheless. Normal passionate. I digress.

Books are one of my very favorite gifts to receive (and give) at Christmastime. Some of my other favorite gifts to receive are: everything else. See what I did there? In fact, I'm working on a post with some fun ideas for the ladies in your life (or yourself, in case you're stuffing your own stocking this year like I am!).

Today though, let's talk books. Here are some books that I can't wait to read, or love and want to share. I've also thrown in a few books that I'm getting for my kiddos or as gifts.

"If I Stay"

"The Paying Guests"

"The Skinnytaste Cookbook"

"Barefoot Contessa Foolproof"

"All the Light We Cannot See"

"The Fault in Our Stars"

"The Year of Billy Miller"

"Diary of a Worm"

"The Book With No Pictures"

"The Essential Calvin and Hobbes"

"Hatchet"

"Treasure Hunters"

Some honesty (and a bedroom makeover for good measure)

Sometimes, life sucks a little. I'm just being honest. If we can't stop bumps in the road from coming, we just have to hope that they make us better, not bitter; right? I'm going with that. Suffice it to say, the past couple years have been a challenge for me personally... the last couple months, even more so. Maybe I'll share one day, maybe not. I've felt like I lacked any control over my life, and if you know me, you're aware that I'm a fan of the control... there's that darn honesty again.

When faced with the grim, humbling, horrible, awful, no good very bad reality that I didn't have control over a lot of the things in my life, I started to fall back into some old, unhealthy patterns of "pretend-control" that I used to practice. Things involving food. Not good, friends. Not good.

So I decided to stop. This time around I've benefited from being older (oy), wiser, and therefore possessed with the ability to recognize "pretend-control" behaviors a little easier, so hopefully it will be easier to redirect them... into home projects! Of course. 

Believe it or not, I've missed you, and I've missed toiling away in my little house. If I have to control something, it should be the color of my walls and the alarmingly slow speed at which I execute any sort of carpentry project. Measure forty-seven times, cut once (or three times and then go back to the store) - that's what they say!

Right now I've decided to tackle my bedroom. I never really finished it and have been living without baseboard and with lots of plans for several years now. It's time to put an end to all of that silliness. So what did I do? I slapped some paint samples on the wall, duh. That's pretty much my solution to most existential crises.

I've been in love with navy for a long while, and decided to take the plunge. On 1/4 of my bedroom walls (I have commitment issues and/or my bedroom lacks in the natural light department).

I'll spare you the suspense, because I totally already chose one, since I'm used to not blogging anymore and I'm learning how to be zen in making design decisions alone. I chose Benjamin Moore's Hale Navy for its delightful greyed out, deliciously pensive self. And then I painted the other three walls white.

And then I forgot how to clean up for blog photos and left my sock monkey pajamas and half of my earthly possessions at the foot of my bed.

This is where I'm going:

And the next stop, besides replacing all the baseboard and casing that I ripped off this morning, is picking some fabric for some roman shades. I'm thinking something geometric, gray or mushroom maybe? This is what I'm looking at:

(Source: 1, 2, 3)

As always, hit me up if you have any amazing ideas.

It's good to be back! I can't promise quantity... but I'm just happy there are still people out there who read. xoxo