Gift in Clay

During the summer, my lovely friend Marian was here for the month of July helping with stuff at work. She is super awesome, and she was so even before she and her equally lovely husband Steve brought Will and I a lovely wedding presents. As you can see, there was lots of love going around in July.

The tile is handmade at Marian's and Steve's favorite store in Austin, called Clayworks, which had a variety of styles and motifs for tiles, house numbers, and sconces. Our tile's theme is their tree of Life, very appropriate for us gardeners.

We decided to hang it above our stove, along with three smaller tiles Will has picked up in his travels. It has added to our kitchen and never fails to make me smile, or think of my super awesome lovely friends Marian & Steve.

Thank you two!!

If it's not Scottish...

For Will's big Christmas gift, I found a 1795 map of Scotland....in German (frame included)! It's perfect, since his heritage is Scottish and mine, German: A perfect melding of us. We have hung it in the dining room, so our dogs have something at which to look.

After much searching, we found the Cunningham region on the map. It is in top left of the orange bit (see the different colors of the different sections on the photo of the big map?) it is right on the western border of Scotland, near Arran Island. If you look at the second photo, you can see "Cunning......h....a..m" spreading out towards the east.
I totally think that this means that Will *has* to wear his kilt at our wedding. I mean, he has to honor his family's heritage. I plan on wearing a drindl, after all.

Bah bah ...

No, I don't have a sheep thing (I have a giraffe thing, actually), but when William and I were in Scotland in August 2007, and we saw these at Castle Eileen Donan, we could not resist.







We have them hanging in the powder room. (The horse one being my favorite.)

So, when Jen, Lydia, Jean, and I (my shopping partners!) went to the Junior League of Washington's annual Christmas Bonanza and I saw these hand towels, *of course* I had to get them to match the other sheeps.




The sheep is wearing a sweater and a wooley hat. How sweet is that? Totally irresistible as well as necessary to complete the decor.

Doesn't it make you want to come over and visit our powder room?

Care for a lounge with me?

We bought a new sofa. And by "bought", I mean Will saw a sofa online, IMed me the link for my thoughts, and then he got it. It took all of 3 seconds.

It arrived in pieces and (thank goodness for her!) Kelly and I pushed, heaved, carried, slid, and pulled them into the house. We put it together, much to our amusement (and equal loathing of Allen wrenches), and then we spent the better part of the evening arranging the living room. All in all, an excellent cardio workout.

The sofa really is a twin bed in disguise. It looks like a sleigh bed, it has numerous pillows as a day bed would, and two people can lay on it, shoulder to shoulder.

At first, I didn't approve. It is so big and....well, bed-like. Will came home, saw it, sat on it, and then fell asleep on it for the entire night. Thus proving the point that this sofa is not a sofa but an extra bed...in a house with 3 extra beds already (and yes, all of them booked for the Inauguration, sorry!). It completely met with Will's approval.

But having now spent my own time on the couch, enjoying the view out the windows, stretching out with my kitty AND Will, I approve.

Now, you can't really sit in this couch, per se. Case in point: if I were to sit with my back against the back of the sofa, the end of the cushion hits my ankles--and I am a tall girl. Imagine if you were shorter?

You really lounge in this sofa. But, really, isn't that the point??

This Cheese is...

Lydia, Jen, and I had a shopping adventure last weekend. We were going to the Leesburg Outlets about an hour away from here, but on the way out of town, Lydia sees this sign.

She asks the car, "How do you all feel about estate sales?" Jen and I both say, "Which way do we turn?"

It is amazing what you can find at sales like these. In some ways they are sad, but you have to think that whomever has died and whose stuff is on sale, their children have already gone through and picked out what they want and now are sharing it with the rest of the world.

This one was a great estate sale. There were a ton of things I would buy: silver tea set, beautiful Japanese dining set for 12, lovely dressers. Lydia found a great globe circa 1968 (the decolonization seminar has come in handy! I could figure out about when the globe was based on which African countries were still called by their colonial names. Aren't I clever?!), and two sweet leather bound books, one entitled "Fifty Great Stories". Jen got a few things (though to be honest, at the moment I can't remember what).

And I bought these:


Aren't they even more clever than me? It is a set of 6 porcelain cheese tags! You can write on them with a wax pencil (the marker has long gone). Now you can read cheese type and, for example, avoid the goat cheese. Though *why* would anyone want to avoid goat cheese.

Lydia and Jen are totally excited for me too. But I think it is more because they want me to host a party at which I actually use all 6 cheese tags.... I think I am up to that challenge. Gouda, anyone?

New Pets

Will and I have new "pets." We bought a Kessler painting. Kessler is an up-and-coming artist who shows his wares at Eastern Market. We have started seeing his works around the country and so we made our first art investment purchase. With the way the stock market is going, it was a wise a decision.

Here are our new "pets": the Three Amigos. They are hanging perfectly in the dining room. We couldn't be more pleased.