From Living Etc.:

Tom Baker:

Rosie Brown:

Needing some inspiration today—it was a long one. Laura’s farmhouse is featured in this month’s Domino and I immediately loved it, so I looked her up online… white is the best! The below isn’t of her home, just some of her photos that I liked. Enjoy.

Laura Resen:

There’s been much talk about Christmas lately… mainly in the form of the question “what would you like?” We could analyze the cultural flaw that is the American Consumerist Christmas, but let’s save that for another year, one where the precedent of no presents is set long before December 7th.

I am a terrible Christmas shopper in the sense that once I start looking for other people I get instantly distracted by what I like, and it spirals out of control from there. Online shopping is the worst, as I can easily navigate from one site to the next and be buried in my wish list before I know it. But when presented with the question of what would I like for Christmas, I find myself at a loss for ideas. Sure I can find things I like, but the idea of putting them down on a list and committing brings up a whole set of issues on it’s own.

When asked this morning what I would like for Christmas, I immediately started to panic. The things listed previously, do I really want those (yes)? What if I don’t like them once I get them? What if they look good online, but in person they lack the textural quality that I would really be hoping for? What if… what if… what if…

To my surprise, this morning I really did think of two things I really wanted. Both are too big to ask for, but if I could ask for them, I most certainly would. And really, I already have asked for them, it’s just that the delivery for the one is about six months, and for the other, the price tag is too high for me to ever ask for from anyone other than our own savings account. The first one is [drum-roll please] a finished house. Complete with light fixtures, wood work, paint, porches, and furniture. The second is the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT which my friend Mike so graciously recommended for me. The first one is five years in the waiting, the second leads me to my next thought—originality and blogging.

Nathan and I were talking about “art” and blogging a few nights ago (just for the record, I’m a little opposed to the use of the word art, as well as harbor a deep hatred for anything with the word graphics in it… especially if there is an x on the end, as in graphix). Nathan was talking about an article he read a while ago that talked about blogging and how since it started to hit mainstream, that a lot of blogs really just regurgitate the same content from other bloggers, or from other sites. I am guilty of this for sure, seeing as I like to find photos of charming and inspiring photos and post them, all of which are from other artist, photographers, magazines, and so on. It was a long and interesting talk about originality in the blogging world, but I won’t exceed the thirty-word limit I seem to have established thus far on every post I’ve had, by too much more. The point is that it got me thinking and since I have hibernated my need to create since art school 7 years ago (and really, even then I wasn’t very good at expressing myself creatively), I really want to get back into things… making things, designing things, finding things. And a camera is number one on my list of ways get from head to internet, which brings me back to the second item on my can’t-ask-others-for-Christmas-list.

So because a finished house is in the queue of things to be done, and the camera fund is still a little short, I found some more inspiring images… ones that I find inviting, warm, and cozy. Soon little one, soon.

Living Etc.:

Jo Barnes:

Here’s some more interior inspiration… I love white!

From Bolig:

It’s a shame I like white interiors so much, because I’m the last person on earth who should be allowed a white interior. I’d like to think it’s the rehab that turns everything we own from fresh and clean, to dirty and disgusting, but I think it would only be a half-truth. Two dogs and my aversion for mopping is probably the real reason. But really one of our dogs is sort of a non-dog, so it’s really like we only have one-and-a-half dogs, but that’s not helping my case any so I’m not sure why I’m mentioning it.

Anyway, I just found these two really lovely images on Bo Bedre, that I find really inspiring. If you look closely to the photo on the left, you’ll see my favorite cookbook of all times nestled there on the shelf. Everything in there is absolutely delicious and the images are beautiful as well. And while I’m at it, the uncoated paper gives the book an amazing feel. Essentially, buy it, it’s awesome! And after you buy it, you can join me in what I wish was a room in our house… the image on the right.

I love warm interiors. Love them. Love them. Love them. I found a link to Marie Claire Maison off desire to inspire, and found these delightfully warm beauties!

And these…

And yesterday I was exploring Living, Etc. and found this lovely hall:

I absolutely cannot wait until the rehab is complete and it’s time to decorate! Sweet mother of Jesus I can’t wait!

I was reading the December 2007 issue of Elle Decor and was wowed by Malene and William Waldron’s home. It has such a warm, cozy, and elegantly modern feel. I completely respect the patience and time that went into picking out each piece, and I especially like how they refuse compromise and instead wait until they wholly agree on something before they bring it home. I can’t wait until it’s time to look for furnishings!

Or really if I could be IN a room…

I would regularly complain to Nathan that the house isn’t warm enough, to which he would roll his eyes and throw up his hands. But I meant it, and looking at insulation coming out from the sides of windows, seeing drywall edges that need trim, light bulbs hanging from the ceiling, spending money on the house rather than the interior, all made me feel like the house was more of a building than a home. A warm home. So I would spend my days scouring the internet for photos of “warm” places I’d rather be in (I didn’t have to go much further than desire to inspire), and here are some of my favorites.

James Leland Day: If I could make our house look like these… oh man!

Dwell Studio (2007 catalog)…

And Living Etc.…