Not to worry, they went to a good home. A decorator bought them, recovered them, and then they showed up in Harper’s Bazaar (attributed to the wrong designer, they are not Dunbar, I wish they were…). Here’s a link to the Harper’s Bazaar article: LINK.

I then bought a smaller chesterfield sofa, one that was perfect (size-wise) for our new (smaller) apartment in Manhattan. This picture is from the former owner of THAT chesterfield. His apartment is amazing.

However, this sofa was really only good for one person at a time. It was bigger than a love seat but not as a big as a regular couch. We toiled with it for a few months and then it too was sold, this time to a woman who works at The Rug Company. Which reminds me, I should email her and invite her to a party, she’s new in town and super nice.

The search was ON for a new chesterfield. It took some hunting but I finally located a grey linen chesterfield out in Queens. We went to see it. The husband and I both fell in love with it. It’s deeper than a standard sofa and functions very nicely as a twin bed for overnight guests. It’s so comfortable! Thrilled, we paid cash and hired a mover. We moved stuff around and made room for the new (much bigger) sofa.

Fast forward…

My husband has decided that he needs THE WHOLE DAMN COUCH. I can’t whine too much, he has 3 herniated discs and he’s comfortable on it. However, this leaves me with nowhere to sit. I’ve been hunting for a chair for months. Months. I am picky. Also, cheap. Mostly picky.

Today I wandered into Housing Works (a nice chain of thrift shops in NYC) and saw a grey and teal spotted velvet channel back club chair.

Like a child I jumped on it and planted my ass so that nobody else would claim it. I crawled all over it and checked it out. Pristine. Not a single mark on it. Even the feet had no scuffs. NEW! It’s NEW! No manufacturer tags. Custom? Reupholstered vintage? Such a unique outline. Custom? I don’t know. It won’t tell me. A friend suspects it has DesignTex fabric.

Two hours later this baby was delivered.

Penny *really* likes it.

I still have nowhere to sit.

So here’s some pretty stuff that has been in my path lately…

I did not buy these crates but they are so lovely!

I did buy these old juice/water bottles! I paid about $2.50 each. I washed them up and we are using them for water and iced tea. Is it just me? I think water tastes so much better from a glass bottle and it seems colder. Am I a freak? Anyway, we had one before but it somehow got pushed up against one of the vents in the fridge and it froze and cracked…so I have been looking for a replacement. Voila.

Then I saw this young (hat pin?) lady. I took a picture. I posted it on Instagram. I walked away. I thought about her for over an hour…then I ran back and bought her. She was just too awesome to pass up. The nice vendor sold me the dome too.

She’s happily tending bar these days. Don’t forget to tip!

I’m on the hunt for a shallow storage cabinet for our hallway. I love this old dental cabinet but that price tag…ain’t happening. Plus, let’s be honest, the 5 billion “honey, which drawer is my hat in?” conversations would make me bonkers. Still, gorgeous!

I’ve also been on a plant bender. Home Depot had geraniums on sale 4/$10 so I grabbed a few.

Then we happened upon an adorable nursery and I went on a real bender. Fern! String of pearls! English ivy! Baby tears! I bought them all.

I’m slowly getting everyone settled into their new homes…

I bought that terra cotta & metal wall pocket at a rummage sale for $1. I love it so much! I wish I had more!

Sam has been on a potato skin bender and at $12+ tax, tip & delivery each time, it was getting crazy expensive. I bought a 5 pound bag of potatoes, baked, scraped, and stuffed them with cheese & bacon. All he has to do now is toss one of the 7 containers in the oven.

Total cost? About $8.50 and my bacon is way better than the junk that was being delivered. The easiest way to dig the potatoes out? Grapefruit spoon. Works like a charm!

There was also a fudge incident. It was my first time making fudge and I can see room for improvement (I cut down big marshmallows that were a tad…stale). That said, tasted pretty awesome and the chunks of sea salt are definitely a *do*.

I boxed up a little batch in that berry box and froze it for my Mom. She’s coming to visit soon!

It’s been almost 9 months since I used my sewing machine (!!!!). I quite literally forgot how to put zippers in. I messed around and made 4 little bags. The zippers are rough but the cuteness of the bag makes up for my diminished skill. I’m rusty!

I also zipped up a cute little blue gingham tablecloth for our kitchen.

Penny and Tucker send all their love (and ask for cans of Sheba’s salmon).

Coding is fixed, hallelujah. Still, crazy-pants busy. Like a lot of folks I’m working three times harder for half (ok, less than half) of the pay from my old job. If you’re new to this blog, I had a great corporate job that I dearly loved (most days) for 15 years. In 2010 the company was bought by another company and everyone was booted out the door. Blah, blah, blah, retail market tanked and my industry relies on retail sales… :::insert violins here:::

That said, I sense a  little increase in the pace of our rebound. Stuff is shifting for the better – a wee bit faster. In the meantime, the agency that I founded is growing. Tough work but I love it (most days).

So the blog, she has suffered. At some point I’ll find a balance between 16 hour work days and recreation, right? RIGHT?

In the meantime, Facebook and Instagram are my quick fix for updates and creative bursts.

I’m writing books. I’m selling books. I’m treasure hunting for antiques and cool items via my Henry Marche shop. The beat goes on.

We planned to stay in London for 5 days. Then Sandy got ugly. Our apartment never lost electricity or heat but so many friends lost power, heat, and 2 of them lost their entire homes. Travel within NYC (not to mention to/from the airport) was clearly a disaster. We extended our stay in the UK and arranged with Lynn (and our awesome Landlord) to get the keys to our apartment over to friends who were living in the dark without heat.  So happy to know that our apartment kept someone warm at night!

London gets expensive, fast. After a few days in London we decided to rent a car (yikes!) and drive around the country in the hopes of seeing more and finding prices that wouldn’t deplete us. We drove north and spent some time outside of Manchester and then finally a few days in Manchester before heading back to London for 2 days and then finally flying back to the US. All in, I think we had 12-13 days in the UK. I am in love with Manchester. LOVE. It has all the best bits of London minus the prices, it’s a bit more gritty/creative  and a lot less touristy. I’d happily rent an apartment in Manchester for a month or two. Husband, are you listening?

Did I tell you that I opened a shop (online) and at the Antiques Garage in NYC? The shop is called HENRY MARCHE. I’ll do a separate post about that soon. Till then, here’s a peek at my bad stapling skills:

Anyhoo, back to the UK (where I bought lots of stuff for the Henry Marche shop)! Here are some pictures from our epic escape…

It was much colder than we had packed for so I bought this hat for  £2. Sam hates it, I love it. Too bad for him!

Piles of China at an antiques shop. Literally, piles.

I wanted all of them. I bought none of them. Regrets, I have a few…

Tea and snacks with Sam at Harrod’s. He’s cute. Glad I kept him. He became a tea freak in the UK and has almost entirely given up coffee. You really don’t want to know how much tea he bought over there. LOL

We went to see World Party at Royal Albert Hall. Love them. Love. Love. Love.

As we were walking in, Sam said to me “that’s Karl!” and sure enough it was. Sam asked to take a picture. I took the picture but was too shy to say “me too!!” so I just smiled and thanked him profusely. :::swoon:::

He’s a super nice and he puts on a damn good show. Not to mention, hellooossss AMAZING songwriter.  My ace husband scored front row center tickets. Magical night.

No trip to London is complete without at least one trip to Liberty of London. This may be my mercantile church.

Pies. Dear Lord, I ate so many pies in the UK. Pies. Pies. Pies. I could go for one right now…

Carnaby Street’s Christmas celebration is Rolling Stones branded. Given that they are one of Sam’s favorite bands, we had to stop by.

…and of course check out the shop.

I bought another hat in Manchester. Pies and hats, that about sums up my trip.

Pies & Hats. Good name for an adventure.

Now we have to wait for the fab editor to review and send it back to us with all her notes. Also, lots of recipe testing for friends and family.

The new apartment is basically unpacked and set up, just a few little things that I want to tweak.

- The tv needs to be mounted to the wall. Initially we weren’t going to mount it but space is an issue in almost all NYC apartments. Mounting the tv will allow us to put the stereo on the dresser (the tv currently lives on the dresser).
- Buy/install a pot rack. Same space saving issue. Also, I truly hate kneeling down to search for the right pan in a cabinet.
- Curtains. I bought curtains at two different big box stores and I truly dislike them. The fabric is so unnatural that it makes my skin crawl. I’m weird – and on the hunt for some vintage cotton curtains which brings me to…

I picked up these curtains at a thrift store a few years ago. I lurve them. LURVE.

Anyone want to take a guess at the name?  They seem very New Orleans/French Quarter to me. They are cotton and hang so nicely. Did I mention that I lurve them?

Renovation Therapy on Facebook. 

In other news, last week was my Mom’s birthday. She’s on the way to NYC to visit me!

I went a little nutty with the decorations.

Plaid. Glaze. Seeds. Candy hearts. Plastic hearts.

She’s lucky I stopped myself before I made a macaroni necklace.

A few days after moving our stuff into the apartment, I took off for 3 days. Sam was in LA for work and I needed a break from packing/unpacking/stress to just flat out decompress. I headed out to Ocean Grove, NJ to see Laura and Mike who are quite frankly two of the nicest people on Earth, for realz. As an added bonus, their house is gorgeous and so relaxing. I went on a little Instagram bender when they weren’t looking. Shhh!

This was my bedroom at their house. I crawled into that big bed with a stack of shelter magazines and was pretty much the happiest clam in all of Jersey.

From the hallway…

Hardware, I puffy heart you.

Living room vignette…

The mirror in the bedroom that I considered shoving into my suitcase more times than I’d care to admit.

We went to a few antique and thrift stores. I didn’t get much, just this set of 3 silver spreaders. They shined up so nice!

We walked around Ocean Grove and I finally got to see a few of the tents that I’ve been obsessed with for years. So cute!

Wouldn’t you just love to have one of these?

I also stocked up on veggies at the market. Yum!

Then it was time to head back to the new apartment to sort out all of our stuff.

Eek!

We moved in a few days ago.

We’re surrounded by boxes, there’s no art on the walls, and we can’t find the garbage can but I can tell you we haven’t been this happy in a long time. We knew the old apartment was dragging us down (really, how many times can the NYPD, FDNY, and EMT visit your Landlord before you simply don’t sleep anymore?) but we weren’t fully aware of the degree till we GOT OUT.

We’re headed to the hardware store today to get lumber and shelving and other stuff.

I AM SO HAPPY!

I even did a little project last night. I haven’t done a project in a long time, that old apartment sucked the light/life/love/lolipops right out of me.

I bought this table a few years ago for something like $10. I’ve been meaning to recover it. That white fabric wasn’t doing it any favors. At first I thought I’d play it safe with the ticking, but I’m ready for something BOLD.

I bought this Waverly fabric at Calico Corners (outlet) for $12. I pulled out the nail head trim (pro tip, collect the nails in a twee mug), trimmed the fabric, reused the nail heads…

Party with the staple gun!

I’m not too worried about messing up the fabric but I may get a piece of glass for the top.

More posts soon, I gotta find that darn garbage can!

Whoops!

Between a few big publishing events and generally trying to get rid of stuff and pack in anticipation of moving, this little blog has gotten ignored.

First up, Tucker wants you all to know that he misses you.

He promises to make me post more often.

We found a wonderful apartment in Manhattan but we have to wait a few weeks for coop board approval. Once we have the approval there will be a mad scramble. I’ve gotten rid of a lot of stuff but there’s more stuff to donate. I have not started packing up the kitchen, clothes, my office, or general day-to-day stuff because if we don’t get approved…oy.

In the meantime I’m self-medicating with Dolce gorgonzola, crusty bread, and fig jam.

My lemon tree has gone nuts! There are no less than 15 lemons growing on it.

The new apartment doesn’t have as much light. If we get the place, I may buy a special lamp for my zesty friend.

Due to the quasi-packed (chaotic) state of our current apartment, we keep running away for mini breaks to escape the chaos. This picture is from the we-must-eat-lobster-and-coleslaw-or-we-will-surely-die evening.

Best coleslaw I have EVER had. Ever!

Hope your summer is going well!

Today I tossed a bunch of cornflakes, Kosher salt, Italian seasoning, and a (very) generous scoop of Parmesan cheese into a bowl. I dredged the chicken in butter then the cornflake mix, plopped the chicken onto a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper, and baked it at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.

Pure yum!

In other news, my little lemon tree has lots of little baby lemons. I am so excited! I have to admit, I was nervous when I brought the plant home. I’m good with plants but I’m not great and this one bears fruit, and well…I fretted and then finally I just put it outside to let nature take its course. Nature, always the right medicine.