Tuesday, July 22, 2008

My New Love - The Shark!



It's cheap and fast ... just how I like it!

We recently moved into a new home where there seem to be miles of flooring that the kids and cat track in dirt and grime. So we popped over to the local Sears for new vaccuum bags and left with both a carpet sweep and floor steamer. Roughly 40 bucks each.

The Shark sweeper gets DAILY use - my kids fought over who got to use it for the first week or so, then the novelty wore off. But just this morning, my 7 year old voluntarily retrieved the Shark and vacuumed up the crumbs under her spot at the breakfast table. THAT was worth $40 bucks right there!

The Steamer pulled up a lot of grime this weekend, and it uses plain water - so it doesn't add any nasty chemicals to the household environment.

I doubt they will last for years, they are rather lightweight. However, in my book, the pluses are outweighing the negatives.

Not bad for a total impulse purchase!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

I'll Be Watching You!

I am in the process of buying a new house -sorry 425 Magazine readers, it's in Seattle! But... It has a bit of a view of Lake Washington, and I just learned something:
With a telescope I can peek into the lives of my Eastside neighbors. Apparently, a friend who has a lake view house told me this little secret: Her husband can peer all the way across the lake and see what's on others televisions!
Now, I'm sure the telescope works in both directions... but trust me, you won't be seeing anything too exciting at my place!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Fathead Fun

Not all design has to be serious.
I just saw a product today that is all about fun. They are super-oversized wall graphics called Fatheads. If you are keyed into sports you probably already know about them - um, well... they were new to me! This Ichiro image is 6'8" tall, for example.
Market research has shown that people are wary of investing in wallcoverings. One of the reasons is the thought of removal. With these babies, it's peel-and-stick. And peel-right-off. Sort of like a Post-It Note on steroids (no sports reference there!).
We are considering the possibility of bringing them into our store, in the meantime, check out the website, http://www.fathead.com/

What really got me (and this shows that I have a pre-teen boy in the house) was the bigger than life-sized Darth Vader. Cool!

Saturday, March 1, 2008

425 Mag Debut!

I stopped by the downtown Seattle Barnes & Noble yesterday, and there it was... the March/April issue of 425 Magazine! Of course I bought two copies (one for Christian) and immediately looked for our article.

Hey! We look pretty good!

Wait... it's all about CONTENT, right?

Say! Our writing is pretty good!

Thursday, February 28, 2008

The Office

At the beginning of the year, my husband officially joined Daly's - working from a finance and strategic background. A lot of people teased us, commenting that they'd certainly never be able to work with their spouse... and how far away were we planning on sitting from each other?

Until Tuesday, we were down the hall from each other - too far to yell, too close to always bother trotting down the hall for small things. Add to the fact that I have the floor-to-ceiling window with roomy office, and he had a measly high window (and let's not even get into what his folding table of a desk looked like!). That's all changed now...

Now we are sharing an office. We have two large desks facing each other, and it creates a neat six foot square work surface. Reaction has ranged from "Wow, you much really like each other" to "Well, if it doesn't work out, you can always add a hutch on top of your desks to create a barrier!".

However, we STILL needed to bring in professional help in choosing a new paint color... "Hello Christian?"

Christian popped by this morning and within a half-hour we settled on a new color scheme that makes us both happy - and Christian, too. You'd think that because we co-own the paint store (and I'm a designer) that we'd have an easier time finding a paint color. Ha!

What colors are we using, you ask?
On the walls: C2 Paint "Riff" (a mid-value taupy beigey latte color) (calming and perfect against our new, almost black furniture!)
On the ceiling: C2 Paint "Whitewater" (a tasty aqua that we will probably mix at half-strength)

Monday, February 4, 2008

shake,rattle and roll

What a dreary time of year. No parties, no fun holdiays....just cold and grey. A perfect time to change things up a bit. I managed to stay home one entire weekend day and set the wheels in motion for a much needed refresh of home plate. Feels good to look at things in a diffrent place and light. I even did a bit of editing to lighten the look up a bit. These little mini design lifts help the spirit, soothe the soul....and sometimes create the opportunity to buy something to add to the mix.....art, new towels, a lamp or simply a beautiful new coffee table book, or two. I like spending time in my home and listening to what it needs. If it's happy, I'm happy. Happy is good.

shake,rattle and roll

Monday, January 7, 2008

Brooke, You Are So Good!


Here are a few shots from Brooke at Studio B Portraits... Hey, not bad considering the somewhat challenging models she had to work with!

Friday, January 4, 2008

We Have TWO New Homes!

The new year is off to a grand start.

At the end of October we were quite glum about the demise of The Seattle P.I.'s "@Home" Saturday section of the paper (and our subsequent loss of a column). It was a great run - we enjoyed connecting with readers, writing about great Seattle neighborhoods and their unique design personalities, and answering peoples interior design questions both in the paper and personally.

We didn't want to stop.

Well, now we are off and running in two different publications and we are excited about each one!

In keeping with the newspaper tradition, we are pleased to be writing for the Journal Newspapers. There are 10 different editions of the paper, each one crafted for their specific community - spanning all the way from South Everett and Mill Creek to Seattle's University District. What I like about the Journal publications is that they are really keyed in to the people that make up their communities - and in this day and age we can all use that personal touch to balance out the homogenization that is all around. Look for us in this month's latest edition for our debut column.

Breaking into a new medium, we are so excited to be regular contributors to 425 Magazine. This is a beautiful glossy monthly magazine that focuses on Eastside living. The magazine debuted in 2007 as a quarterly publication, and is already increasing to bi-monthly. It's long been known that the Eastside is no longer just a bedroom community of Seattle, and this magazine has it's own distinct attitude. Love it!

Today, Christian and I sat for our portraits at Studio B Portraits in Issaquah. As contributors to 425 Magazine, they wanted us to have new images (yay!). You never realize how lacking your wardrobe is until you need to choose outfits that will be representing you for a long time to come...

Brooke (the 'B' in Studio B) was a delight to work with. She just let us play and relax into the session - and I think we will get some great images coming from our session... I can't wait!

So, we've met two new deadlines - and passed with flying colors. 2008 is off and running!