My Little Office

I set up a little office in the bonus room at the top of the stairs. This is the stuff we had on hand so it isn't yet what I envision. I want to paint the desk either charcoal or white, add a rug, get the seat cushion recovered in a new fabric and get a little daybed or cozy chair for the other side of the office. I thought I'd be really into the lamp, but I might swap it for a task lamp and then get a globe light for the room.

In the frames are pictures of my grandmothers (one is weaving and the sad girl is one of her weavings). This was my solution for getting all the framed stuff up off the floor and hung. There's still more but this is what would fit, in the meantime, on this wall.

It is so nice to be able to shut the door to a separate office. And also to make a big mess and only have it affect me!

Have a great weekend everyone. I'm running in a 5k on sunday and then planning to indulge in a host of sugar related treats!

Great Minimal Decor: Axe in Venice

Axe in venice is one of my favorite lunch spots. Now that I don't live in venice it's a great excuse to meet my dad there for a rice bowl with chicken. The food is delicious--a fusion of asian and fresh farmers market ingredients. Get there early and beat the lunch rush.

I really appreciate how minimal they've kept the space. The wood ceiling with the simple light track, concrete floor and boxy furniture is soothing (although noisy once everyone is talking). They have a nice outdoor patio in the back too (but I didn't get a picture).

Also, great coffee.

Living Room Inspiration

I'm shopping for a sofa for the living room and I'm still in the brainstorming stage. I have a danish modern chair and we have a giant TV and a simple white ikea TV stand at the moment. Otherwise, everything else is up for discussion so I'm really able to start from scratch. We've got two little girls and a lot of video game action happens on the sofa so it needs to be durable/comfortable and stain resistant. But it's also the first thing you see when you come in so I want it to look amazing!

Please chime in with favorite styles because while I love mid century and all things modern, there's a vote over here for tufting. Yes you heard that right, Big E thinks something with tufting would be....awesome? So here are some living room ideas in no particular order:


Here's our living room for reference. It's not huge, but there's room for something awesome.


A bright color and neutral furniture from apartment therapy.


My original inspiration via Domino. I love that it's modern but warm.


Total Mid Century Inspiration with lots of color from apartment therapy.


Sophia Coppola's place is glamorous, modern and well... comfy.


Lydia Pearson's Home in Vogue Living is chic and simple. Via Happy Mundane.



I'm a sucker for anything Swedish like this living room from desire to inspire.


Beautiful Parisian Mid Century apartment on Design Sponge.


A bold burst of color in a sleek room. It's fun, it's liveable, but it's still risky. From flickr.


AB Chao's living room is crisp and white and modern but with cozy traditional elements.



Love love love Jeana Sohn and her cute living room with little plants and plenty of empty space.


I like some glam elements like the coffee table in Cassie's Living Room.


And I want to make sure it stays light and bright like this image from Domino.

Valentine's Day Weekend

I just had a lovely weekend filled with old friends, lots of baking, LOTS of eating, a beautiful hike, a good run and time with my sweetie.

We attempted red velvet cupcakes using a mix and our wits and only sort of succeeded, next time we need more red food coloring and more chocolate. We'll use this recipe if we do it again.

They sure looked good before we baked them, though.




Most impressive were these heart shaped pear and raspberry tarts that Jamie and Thea made using a recipe from the last page of the February issue of Martha. They came out light and fluffy and delicious.





Then we all sat around the table, eating and catching up for hours. It was great to have my oldest friends over to help break in the house and fill it with good cheer. Here's the dining room, it's coming along slowly:

Portland: Ink and Peat

I've been a fan of the blog Housemartin for years. It's just a great resource for beautiful flower inspiration, housewares and things happening in the Portland area. It was great to be able to visit their brick and mortar store, Ink and Peat.




As expected the shop has tons of great housewares that, in a lot of cases, I've only seen on etsy. I loved their blankets and wanted to curl up with these wooly cozy numbers.

And this chandelier!

The owner had it made using vintage style bulbs from Hippo Hardware, a Portland fave. It's a little like the classic from Jean Pelle but has more of a laisser faire quality to it.





Ink and Peat also carry fresh flowers and make custom floral designs. They're in the NE, find them here and check out their blog, Housemartin.

Tiramisu for Two

Over the weekend I decided to make a quick Tiramisu (more or less with this recipe) in little coffee cups. I like making individually portioned desserts because somehow it makes them feel really special.

Tiramisu is one of those desserts that seems like it would be complicated but is actually pretty simple as long as you have some kind of mixer (I use a Kitchenaid Stand mixer).

I'm also dying to make some of David Lebovitz's desserts. Have you read the Sweet Life in Paris yet? It is so good.

Bulgarini Gelato

In the most out of the way, totally hidden strip mall in Altadena is the best gelato I've ever had (and I've been to Italy). The owner of Bulgarini is Italian and shuts the store for months at a time while he's gone researching flavors and bringing back key ingredients like Italian Espresso or Pistachios. It's worth the trek for those of you further away. Lucky for me I'm just a couple of miles away!

I got three flavors last time: Pistachio, Coffee and Chocolate.

As the sign says, it's crazy good.

During the winter, Bulgarini Gelato is only open on weekends, FYI.

Dark Bedroom + Curtains!

I spent a good amount of time over the last two days getting the curtains done for the bedroom and it's finally starting to come together and at least is a serene place to rest my weary unpacking eyes!





The walls in the bedroom are a dark grey (Kendall Charcoal From Benjamin Moore in the flat Aura Finish) and the curtains are just from Ikea. I wanted to keep the bedroom dark and simple (see my inspiration right here).




I'd like to get a rug to put towards the bottom of the bed and we still haven't figured out night stands (um, yeah, that's a moving box I'm using). I love that we get so much sun in here during the day and that we can see the neighbor's orange tree from bed!


UPDATE: Here's a before picture (oops, forgot it the first time)!