Back Yard Swing

March 13, 2014UncategorizedResourcesMrs. Blandings

I do not have a back yard swing, but rather one on my front porch. As the days are getting warmer, I find myself there creating the most relaxing rhythm with only the slight push of my toe. As a friend mentioned the other day, “The soothing contemplation done from a porch swing compares to nothing else in the world.” I’m finding this is true.

A reoccurring springtime rumination is where to find good skirts. I like skirts. In fact, I like skirts best. Perhaps the years of wearing uniform skirts, picked up from the floor of my bedroom and pulled on for the second or third day, left an impression of ease and reliability. One day in high school, walking down a long breezeway, a particularly sour sort of girl said from behind me, “I wish I had a swing like that in my backyard.” It had embarrassed me at the time, but now I think she would have been a lot more fun if she had.

Skirts then appeared by magic (otherwise known as “Mother”) and hung, briefly, three in a row on the low bar in my closet. Now I must find them myself. So many are either too expensive or two short. But today, this gem landed in my e:mailbox and a quick click turned up several attractive cousins as well. Ann Mashburn, no surprise. Here.

Blushing

March 12, 2014UncategorizedMrs. B DIYMrs. Blandings

Some things seemed obvious. The color of the kitchen should be charcoal. The color of the living room should be white (for now.) The color of my bedroom would be the same perfectly creamy neutral as the last house. But the dining room did not call out to me, did not whisper in my ear what color she wanted to be.

The room’s important. It is in the very center of the house. We eat all our meals here. I write and read the paper here. The boys sometimes do homework here. No matter who settles here, Dexter moves in and out under the cloth playing hide-and-seek. Last week I entertained two separate groups here. The first sat round the table and spoke of family and friends, connection and loss; the second stirred cocktails and talked about Crimea and the early days of internet dating. Each brought something to the room that will seep into the walls and settle there like the scent of freshly cooked bacon.

The color needed to be right. I toyed with those blues I love so well, their grays making them moody and complex. But I could not see my friends in that light. I feared we would all look ashen, the circles under our eyes deep and dark.

And then a book designed to provide inspiration offered up just that, not on its pages, but along its spine. Pink. Girlish, yes, but cloying? No. It’s barely noticeable yet casts the rosiest glow. Everyone should be as flush with excitement as this room makes them appear.

Wrap It Up

February 20, 2014UncategorizedResourcesMrs. Blandings

It was warm. It was warm for few days and I was not fool enough to think that it would last, but secretly I hoped that it would. I envy you for whom it is always 75 and sunny, but it’s not my fate. Not my place. So I adapt. And wrap. Lately, this travel wrap from Mer Sea is my constant companion. She’s chic and dramatic looking while being incredibly low maintenance. A perfect friend. Not only is she keeping me cozy now, I do think she’ll be happy to tag along and keep me company on cool Spring evenings and airplanes headed East.

I purchased mine directly from Mer Sea, but you can find them in Kansas City at O’Home and a few other spots around town. They are incredibly reasonable ($100 on line) and you can toss them in both washing machine and dryer. I worried that this convenience would mean they’d have that unfortunate non-natural-fiber shine. They do not. Loads of colors. Here.

I received nothing from Mer Sea for this post, other than a little good will, I assume.

Romeo, Romeo

February 14, 2014UncategorizedResourcesMrs. Blandings

Who could resist quite so handsome a character as this, on bended knee or no? While I’m long past fair maidenhood and there’s not a balcony in sight, this new wallpaper by Martyn Lawrence Bullard for Schumacher makes me weak in the knees. You can find Romeo, above, and the rest of the collection here.

Pick Me Up

February 11, 2014UncategorizedMusings from the Dream HouseMrs. Blandings

A friend brought flowers a week ago with a note that said, “You can’t kill these.” I’m paraphrasing. She says she is not good with plants and I say I am not good with plants, but she assures me that the cyclamen will survive. It was a particularly endearing gift as she loves color, but knows I like white flowers so she gave me what I would want instead of what she would want. That’s a good friend.

A few days after their arrival I came into the kitchen and they had collapsed over the edge of their bowl in a melodramatic heap. Like my youngest child they quickly learned that to get any attention around here you have to have a very big reaction. It was either their location by the breezy subzero window or a lack of water, but they made their point.

(As an aside, it was during this discovery that I realized that there is no good connotation of the adjective “limp.” While one can have a “wicked” back swing and that sort of thing, I could not think of one situation in which limp is good. I’ll go as far as to say that limp is something I never want to be.)

I gave them a good drink – not too little, not too much – and waited. I sat at the table and talked to them a little, pointing out interesting things in the Times. Nothing. Back and forth to feed the dogs and let the dogs out and let the dogs in, all the while looking at the patients out of the corner of my eye. No. I was sure I’d killed them.

But after my shower I came downstairs to refill my coffee cup and they were as jaunty and jovial as ever. They called “Hello!” as I passed by and, thankfully, did not hold a grudge. I can only say that I am disappointed that they were too shy to let me see their rejuvenation as I would have surely enjoyed the ballet of each bloom on its slender stem rising from its bow.