Time to end the hiatus

Dear Hannah,

Happy birthday, again! I love your 30 Rocks! post on artisallaroundus. But does it really rock? I'm seven months away from the milestone today and, I have to admit, I'm dreading it.

(By the way, friends, Hannah and I both have our own blogs now. Hannah's is about her ability to see art in almost anything including dirty dishes and donuts. The address is http://artisallaroundus.wordpress.com/. Mine is about being in an interfaith marriage and learning how to be a household that supports Christianity and Judaism. The address is http://goymeetsboy.blogspot.com/. Check them out!)

Well, after our conversation yesterday, I've decided to quit my decorating hiatus. I realized I've been living in a state of fear. Fear of commitment because I still think this house is too good to be true, fear of failure because you are not here to catch me if I fall, and fear that my taste just plain sucks. For the past five and a half months, I've tried to go neutral, minimal, and natural and it just isn't me! I love kitch. I miss the kitch! I also love clutter.

I was reminded today how much I love the colors and design of my all time favorite show EVER: Gilmore Girls. I found this post from Hooked on Houses. So many images of Lorelai's house! There's also this post about the inn.

Another house I love is from Harry Potter (goodness, I'm a dork). I love the Weasleys' kitchen, especially.


While I was looking around, I remembered how obsessed we were/are about the set design from It's Complicated.


Then I stumbled upon this site and saw these images:


Also, I found this post from Apartment Therapy - check it out! Decor in the form of food. Yum.

As I was driving home from the grocery store, I saw the West Elm window. It was full of wooden pallets painted white. I thought, why couldn't I turn one into a coffee table? Turns out, I'm not the only person to think of it. I'm going to try to build one. I found these images:


This one is from Papernstitchblog.com and comes with directions here.


This one is from Apartment Therapy Los Angeles


This one is from Shelterness

I think I'll paint mine orange or poppy.

What do you think?

xoxo,
E

Missing you

A Tale of Two Beginnings

Dearest Hannah,

Wow! The illustrations are beautiful and evoke the exact tone of nostalgia mixed with irreverence that I love. You have nailed Mama Cile's (pronounced seal's) house.

For those of you who don't know, Hannah and I are creating a children's book. It is set in my old neighborhood and is about a little girl who learns some valuable life lessons by learning how to knit. We're all about process, so we thought we would share some of our conversations about how we are working together on this project.

Hannah, as you know, I obsess about beginnings. Here is the original beginning to Ella and then, an alternate version. Let me know what you think!

Original:

More than anything, Ella loved the basket of yarn that sat beside the old brown couch at Mama Cile’s house. She loved the scratchy red wool, the squishy gray alpaca, the stiff blue cotton, the glossy green silk, and the fuzzy purple mohair. Plunging her hand into the basket, Ella closed her eyes and hunted for her favorite prickly pink ball of tweed that still smelled like a sheep. She began to sort the skeins by color on the floor just as she sorted her favorite things in her head. Ella loved to play with the basket of yarn more than… munching on crunchy, orange cheese puffs from the blue tin. She loved it more than swinging on the squeaky, steel gray jungle gym in her backyard. She loved it more than making biscuit cookies with her mama’s leftover dough scraps. She even loved it more than the smell of dirt and ripe tomatoes on her daddy’s hands when he worked in the garden. She loved it more than Aunt Bonnie’s jelly bean jar or when Puddin’ the dachshund licked her face. Ella loved to watch Mama Seal turn the colorful yarn into hats, scarves, blankets and slippers. It was magical. Ella wished more than anything that she could make beautiful things out of yarn, but her hands were clumsy and always dirty.

Alternate: (by the way, I am still working on names)

One morning, during share, Miss Priss asked the class to share their favorite things. Ella thought and thought. She thought about munching on crunchy, orange cheese puffs from the blue tin. She thought about swinging on the squeaky, steel gray jungle gym in her backyard. She thought about squishing sticky biscuit dough through her fingers. She thought about the smell of dirt and ripe tomatoes on her daddy’s hands when he worked in the garden. She thought about counting the beans in Aunt Bonnie’s jelly bean jar. And she thought about wet licks on her cheek from Puddin. She did not think about her little sister, Kate. But, more than anything, Ella thought about the basket of yarn that sat beside the old brown couch at Mama Cile’s house. She loved the scratchy red wool, the squishy gray alpaca, the stiff blue cotton, the glossy green silk, and the fuzzy purple mohair and her most favorite prickly pink ball of tweed that still smelled like a sheep. When it was finally her turn, Ella said, “My favorite thing is yarn.” Her classmates gave her a funny look.

What is the verdict?

Love,
Ellen

Ps. Remember this little guy?


Pps. Check out my new blog goymeetsboy.blogspot.com

How's Ella??

all images copyright hannahmcdonald.com


Dear Ellen,
Good morning! I am drinking my coffee!! Hey, I am wondering how our spunky (or did we say impertinent?) Ella is doing? Here are some of the pictures to get you in the writing mood!!

Ben's Night Table

Dear Ellen, you once posted an image of your hubby's night time reading, did you not? Here's Ben's! As for me, I find great comfort in the nightly ritual of reading old children's books, and recently, I've been devouring everything Beverly Cleary!

Ellen!

Oh, well done, well done, you! Beautiful!! I saw a magnolia tree last night. It was big, in full bloom, and sort of brooding in the grey twilight. I've never seen a magnolia tree in such a setting before....it almost took my breath away. Go buy some Mucinex! Say yes to drugs!

Spring has done sprung

Dear Hannah,
One of the best parts of living in Nashville is also one of the worst parts. With the spring blooms comes fleeting beauty and lasting allergic reactions that turn into sinus infections. Yet, it is difficult to feel too under-the-weather when this is what you see:




Magnolias remind me of you!





Even the fallen petals are beautiful.











Miss you.
xoxo,
Ellen

Sam's Birthday Present from Your Mama

Dear Ellen,
Your Mama's package was waiting for Sam when he woke up all cranky from his nap. He was fascinated...and quiet. Hallelujah!

Quilt?

Dear Ellen,
Did you ever finish your quilt from last summer?

Silly in Spokane

Dear Schmellen,
Last weekend we went to Spokane and one of the unexpected things that happened was we had a mini-family reunion. We started in Andy and Kris's shops, Atticus and Boo Radley's, and we ended up at Riverfront Park because Mr. Crankypants no-nap (and ear infection, still, it turned out) wanted to go down the slide. As we headed back to the shops after being outside, it started to hail. We ducked into the covered Carosel for shelter, and somehow I knew we were all going to get on that thing. The question is, how do you not smile when you're on a carosel? You can't help it.