"It is a beautiful ocean today, isn't it? What would you say that is, sort of sapphire? I've never seen anything like that ocean! "

Long time no see...I have been caught up in the hustle and bustle of daily life and have been neglecting home projects and this blog.  Making little progress I felt defeated.  But today I had a break through!  I finally cracked open that gallon of paint sitting in the corner, got some paint brushes and went to town.

 Before & After painting of our front porch/mud room.

Before & after of the front porch/mud room windows...

still in progress but 90% there! 

I found this warm, welcoming color in a 

bin full of returned custom colors for $3.99...

Original price $32.99.  

It is quite accurately named "Mocha Suede".

 It is amazing the immediate results you get after 

painting a room.  It can change the mood completely.

 Pugsley perched high on his pedestal 

beneath his mighty self portrait.

Not quite finished but this side of the room 

has all 3 coats dried and waiting for shabby chic decor-

I could not resist hanging a few things up.

I already rearranged some things 

as you can see in the photo above haha.

The trim obviously still needs to be painted 

and touched up a bit.  Just in time for autumn.

I feel like this photograph when I am in this room haha.  

As if I am on vacation in a craftsman cottage in the 1930's

Searching for some inspiration I came across 

this room that is almost the same color!  

I love the bright white trim against the warm mocha brown.

A cute and cozy setup.  

I want to feel like I am lounging in East Hampton.

The most adorable set up.  Notice how it is in a 

city right along a street?  Looks like a cottage in 

the woods at first glance!

I want to stick to Victorian style furniture 

in this room.  I am on the hunt for a chaise 

to put in the front room where you can sit

and put on your shoes or just sit 

and chat for a while have an Octoberfest or two.

Built in bookcases which also serve as a bench.  

Need I say more?

The prefect place to flop down in my corduroy La-z-boy 

reading a hundred year old book.

Sun drenched days and star lit nights...

So Dan and I drove up to Oswego today to do a little treasure hunt.  We were meeting someone who had thousands of movie posters.  But the entire drive through Oswego's back roads was absolutely poetic.  There were huge turtles everywhere crossing roads left and right.  The forest were thick and made me want to go on an age long hike.  All we kept thinking was this would be a perfect place for a little summer cabin.  Just a modest place you can tuck away for a day or two to relax during the week.  I of course immediately started planning it out in my head.  I have to find someone selling their land for cheap (under $10,000 ideally) and I have to build my own tiny cabin.  A few of the following also came to mind:

I would love to sleep out in this cozy tree house and climb through the treetops.

 This one has the tree directly inside the house!

  "solarcabin" has his own youtube channel where he shows you how he built this cabin for $2,000 and runs off of solar panels.  I can't handle the amazingness!

 Sandra Foster completely remodeled this old hunting cabin into this beautiful romantic cottage.

She was featured in the New York Times.  Everything is from recycled materials.  This gives me hope I can achieve similar results.  I like how the white paint gives the cottage a crisp, fresh, airy feel.

Summer time and the livin is easy...

In winter I get up at night...

...and dress by yellow candle-light....

...in summer quite the other way...

...I have to go to bed by day....

...I have to go to bed and see...

...the birds still hopping on the tree...

 

...or hear the grown-up people's feet...

...still going past me in the street...

...and does it not seem hard to you...

 ...when all the sky is clear and blue...

 ...and I should like so much to play...

 ...to have to go to bed by day?

Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson

Reflections of the way life used to be...

A house just sold 5 houses down the road and this Motorola record player cabinet was on the curb with an empty Styrofoam coffee cup tossed inside.  All it took was one look and I fell in love.  I ran back to the house asking Danny to help me carry it assuring him it was not heavy that is was "hollow and light."  In fact, it was the exact opposite of that.  I have never carried something this heavy in my life.  Oh, and we were going up a hill.  I almost died, twice.  We hauled it into the sun porch and plugged it in...nothing.  Dan said, "Let's haul this back to the curb."  My heart sank, "make it work" I pleaded.  I was so disappointed then he turned a few knobs and the record started spinning!  Glass tube lights lit up it was a thing of beauty. I just love the crackling sound of old speakers coming to life. 

The wood is in incredible condition there are virtually no scratches. I think I am going to put this in the dining room with the hutch and set up a little Mad Men style bar on top with silver trays and glass decanters. It has 4 cabinets for records or other various things such as liquors for the bar. Behind the middle doors is a big old speaker with a textured tweed cover.

. 

I found this very last minute at the Salvation Army on Erie Boulevard in Syracuse on the 50% annual sale. I almost didn't pounce on this one. It was marked for $10 I got it for $5. I had to have it. The aluminum legs and despite the worn appearance this is probably the most comfortable swivel chair I have ever had the pleasure of taking a seat in.

The entire chair is made of solid aluminum. You can even recline in it and the back pillow moves as well right along with your body. It is ridiculously heavy!

I knew this had to be pre-WWII since most metals were melted down and used towards the war efforts.  Indeed it was, I searched The General Fireproofing Company and found the original ad for the chair manufactured in 1932.  During my research I found a genuine copy from a magazine published in the 1930's with the ad on it.  It was only $1.00 so I had to purchase it immediately. Wherever I set up my little office it's hanging above my desk and chair.  

Good Form Aluminum chairs! A cute little advertisement from 1932. Apparently this particular model was their most popular office chair.

 Here is one somebody else has on display in their home. It looks like it is in the same condition as mine. A little bit of rust underneath, honestly I think it just ads to the character knowing it is 80 years old and doesn't even squeak.

 

Another bold example of this chair inside the home instead of the office with matching tank desk. It is a great feeling finding out the history behind all these artifact I find, give you a first hand look at the past. People come and go but their possessions remain to be re-discovered and cherished again. 

Movement never lies.

I am absolutely breath taken by this man's movement.  I first learned of him a couple years ago watching The Legend of Leigh Bowery but just recently I found myself picking my brain trying to remember the young fellow who was choreographing the dances while Leigh designed their costumes.  


 
It was Michael Clark. In 1984 I believe he began to collaborate with Leigh to create something truly unique.

I started dance classes at age 4 and continued until I was 13 years old because I choose to focus on school and soccer.  That was a big regret for me looking back now.  But I never stopped dancing, ever.  Often I'd find my self doing an arabesque upon entering a room in my home like some prima ballerina I wish I was.

Michael sparked my imagination so I did a little research on him and I thought, this guy gets it.  Not just dance but everything; like understanding people and how this twisted world works.  Not to mention his submerged passion for honest underground music, which he expresses through dance with incredible grace. 

 

This is my favorite dance of all though choreographed to The Fall's "Copped it"

How gorgeous are these shoes?  This was a costume created by Leigh Bowery for a Michael Clark production.  Platform shoes like this weren't being mass produced so they had to construct them by hand.

Here are the classic Leigh Bowery polka-dots and blonde wig combination we all know and love.  Always duplicated never replicated.

I highly recommend watching Hail the new Puritan it is a nice little documentary that follows Michael and his dancers as they rehearse and perform their routines.  It must have been an incredible experience dancing in this group.  I wish I could hop in a time machine and go back to be a part of this I would've been right behind him like hey I need some more polka dots please *high kick* hahaha

He still continues with his own dance company The Michael Clark Company that is about to perform at the Tate Modern in June.  I would adore seeing a dance created by him in person.  Too bad I don't live in London.

I love at the end where he falls along the wall then into a perfectly discombobulated pile. 

"Nothing so clearly and inevitably reveals the inner man than movement and gesture. It is quite possible, if one chooses, to conceal and dissimulate behind words or paintings or statues or other forms of human expression, but the moment you move you stand revealed, for good or ill, for what you are."