I was tagged by carolina eclectic. Thank You! Here are the rules.
Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog. Share seven random and or weird things about yourself. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

i love it when i stumble across something that takes my breath away; orche does just that. this company offers a line of furniture, lighting, and accessories that are beautiful. the lines on the pieces are modern with elegant, classic propotions. the company is headed by british couple harriet maxwell macdonald and andrew corrie and you can go to their store in nyc (462 broome st. to be exact). i love the earth tones that are found in the upholstery and the sleek wood finishes. another thing they are famous for are their beautifully handcrafted lighting. i inquired about this company and immidately got a response back (thanks dana) to see if they worked with the trade. it seems like they are very designer friendly.

one of my favorite things about having this blog is that i feel like it keeps me in the "know"; i am challenging myself to want to keep up with the latest and greatest, as well as educating myself on things that i may not have known previous to this....which leads me to today's post on pickling... i think we are going to be seeing a lot more of the "pickled" look in wood finishes. it seems like the weathered, distressed, almost drift wood look is where designers are heading- and i love this. maybe it's because i live in a beach town but i love the soft, gray hues that are given off by the wood and the rawness that it produces. i guess i am kind of over the really dark stained cabinets and this is my way of opening myself up to a new evolution of wood cabinetry. i adore this kitchen done in the pickled white oak. it is so clean and crisp...something that i find myself gravitating to much more in design. pickling is definitely not limited to cabinetry; it looks amazing on furniture, applied on floors or ceilings (oh, love it on the ceilings).

i was intrigued on how they actually do the pickling stain to the wood so i researched it a little. it was created to make new wood look old or "dusty". stainers took the wood, generally oak, and created a formula...take a handful of rusty nails and soak them in vinegar for 3 days; this would produce a gray solution that was then applied to the raw wood. today, they have come up with a much more calculated approach to pickling...it involves primer and paint thinner. either way, the look is gorgeous and i think something we will be seeing a lot more of....

suzanne from simply magic totally makes me envious of her kitchen backsplash tile, custom designed by her super fab design team woodson & rummerfield...i noticed this little beauty in a display of her christmas card. i emailed her and told her it was amazing and that's when she informed me that ron and jamie had this ann sacks tile custom colored green, gray, and white for her space! the top pic is a view of her entire kitchen/ dr/ lr space. lucky lady! i read in one of her previous posts that her husband had mastered the art of tile installation...wonder if he installed this? btw, great talent to master. tile installation can get pricey, especially the decorative, art inspired tiles that are now available. finding someone who has this talent is a true gem! (you can check out other pictures of her house at w & r, it is to die for...love the powder room wallpaper!!)

the idea of a family style bathroom featured in House and Garden...great for children who are sharing bathrooms. i especially like the idea of everyone having their "own station". my husband and i could benefit from this...he always leaves a glob of toothpaste in the sink and i get water everywhere when i wash my face!! i especially adore the long drift wood top that the sinks sit on...kind of makes you feel like you are at camp!

i remember being pregnant and showing my husband this picture and saying "i want our nursery to look like this"...you should have seen his expression; he was like "are you kidding me??" he couldn't get past the chairs. i still love this nursery and i think it's the juxtaposition of the david netto crib w/ the ornate antique side chairs and exposed pipes in the ceiling. i don't know, sometimes i think it's nice to have a "non- baby" nursery. i think that this is definitely a baby's room but i like the grown up aspects of it and the fact that the homeowner simplified the baby items. i think sometimes we can be too influenced by the "babies r us" crap and think that you must have all of that stuff in order for the baby to survive. we have it, however, i keep the ugly stuff in the closet and only display the "prettier" baby items like her manuella duck or the dwell baby blocks, the bla bla mobile...maybe that is the same technique this homeowner used and if the photographer shot the other side of the room we would then see the elmo, winnie the pooh, baby einstein, leap frog, dora toys scattered all around...but somehow i doubt it.

to paint a precious antique?? i have loved these painted chairs since they appeared on the cover of Charleston Home last sept. which brings me to my dilemma...is it okay to go there...there begin taking an antique that has been in your family for decades and painting it!! my finger tips sweat a little just thinking of that thought!! i am all about painting an antique that you pick up at the local antique mall but what about one that has meaning and a past w/ your family??!

lately, i have been having this epiphany that i can do anything if i set my mind to it...well i want to be oscar...aka the man with that spray can featured in the picture! (ha, for people that know me, they would get a real chuckle out of that!) i don't know if it is me reading style court's guest blog this week (she is doing the best posts), but man i am obsessed w/ wanting to find the perfect flea market bargain and making it something sassy like Lee from Pieces or Ruthie from Chapman Radcliff. and i think if i had this spray can and of course the gas station shirt w/ my name on it, i could create some real masterpieces!! we have a garage and my father-in-law has that spray can tool...why couldn't i. i called my husband at work yesterday and said, i want to paint our china cabinet! he wasn't too excited about this idea (maybe b/c our garage has the bookshelf that he built over thanksgiving still sitting in it needing another coat of primer and 2 coats of paint...but wouldn't it be so much easier if we sprayed it) i also want to paint my DR chandelier, our LR armoire, and my foyer console....i need to be oscar. plus, i think you look a lot cooler w/ a spray can vs. a paint brush!

i think it was from forest gump and jenny was standing in the fields and said "lord, make me a bird so i can fly far, far away"...that's how i feel about my office...better yet, make me a bull dozier. my office is utter chaos!! there are fabrics, wallpaper, random papers, and magazines EVERYWHERE! it is not a pretty site at all (thank goodness clients don't see this part).

well, isn't that great, my tree decided that it wanted to be the leaning tower of Pisa this AM... luckily, i saved Christmas and rescued it. i had to do a little speaker phone action to my husband at work in order to save the crazy thing. it was about to eat my wing chair and then the floor! we thought we would be ahead of the game and bought this super- duper tree stand that swivels so if you have a crooked tree trunk, it doesn't matter...well that thing swiveled a little too much apparently last night...

because the darby's don't play around!!! seriously, i think we did pretty darn good! and the best part was that my husband actually got into painting one of them. i did the cream background reindeer and he did the chocolate background reindeer. not that it's a competition...but come on, mine is the best! hee hee. anyways, this was a lot of fun, easy to do and makes a great statement when you walk into our house at Christmas time! oh, and i also did the snowballs...don't know if they are blogger-worthy though but i like them none-the-less!!

i absolutely love using an element like this industrial sink from kohler to think outside of the box for a jack and jill bathroom. while it maybe a little pricier than your standard sink, the impact that it gives off will be worth it. plus, you save by not having to outfit a vanity in the bathroom. i love what designer jackie terrell did to the underside of the basin...painting it avocado green! how much fun is that? if you are interested in this look but think that it's too expensive to achieve, check out local salvage stores...you might stumble across an old one which would make it just that much more fabulous!

as i flip through magazines the color that is really standing out to me is gray. i see it used in a ton of design elements right now. i use to feel like this color was cold and i couldn't imagine using it on the walls but i have a new outlook on gray. it seems so peaceful and pairs beautifully with blues, browns, corals, etc. i will say, i tend to lean to the brownish/ gray version of the color...i think that the added brown pigment gives off a warmth that makes the color not seem as well, how do you say it- gray! i was thrilled when a client/ indecisive friend of mine wanted to use the color. we looked at a ton of paint for her walls. we wanted the house to feel neutral but not look like a "spec home" where the walls seem like an institution. i can't wait to see how it reads on the walls.

so every time i get a new Cottage Living, i get another inspiration. last month, it was fran's letters (which i need to show y'all) and this month it's kitty's dining room. i love the diamond wall treatment....however, i think it's over my head. the homeowner, kitty, did this by hand, three times until she finally got this result- which i think is stunning. i would go absolutely crazy trying to perfect this look. for pete's sake, i went crazy trying to paint 6 letters...can you imagine the stress i would be under! plus, it's all about the straight lines, good painter's tape, and math. i love the white and chocolate...my dining room would look more like a tiffany's box b/c it's robin's egg blue and i can visualize the diamonds in white....my husband would kill me...i can see me now, on a ladder attempting to get a straight line...yep, this project isn't going to happen. but way to go kitty!

after my daughter had her meltdown last night, i needed some time for ME....what do you do when you need time to veg? my husband thinks i have turned into an internet nerd...i love searching it for ideas, reading other people's blogs, celebrity gossip, etc. but after 2 hours of crying (just b/c she could) i wanted to relax. my poor husband took the brunt of the crying...which i hate b/c he only has 2 hours with her when he gets home from work and when she is crying bloody murder, it doesn't make it pleasant. especially after working all day in a place which in my mind is identical to the office.

it's so funny how your taste evolves over the years being in the interior design business. i started working in interior design back in college. i worked at a well-known design firm downtown for 7 years before taking the plunge (well maybe cannonball) into starting my own design company. now, it's safe to say that Charleston can be very traditional. it's a town surrounded by its love for historic preservation and we take pride our historic homes. so there was a lot of swag and jabots going on in window treatments...something that made me want to throw up (and still does make me a little queasy). i remember my boss laughing at me b/c i hated them so much! and balloon shades- oh my, those were just terrible....maybe it was the application of them in a lovely chintz or some stuffy floral. i use to think that osborne and little would always be my favorite fabric company and i would never grow tired of my Manchu wallpaper. granite was the best thing since sliced bread and that distressed wood was really a "hot" look...flame stitch use to make my skin crawl and contemporary was not even in my realm of thinking for design....

while there are so many things that make me happy, the andrew reflector is up at the top. i was lucky enough to use them in the downtown house i featured two days ago. they looked amazing against the old charleston brick. urban electric is a to-the-trade lighting company that started here in charleston. the showroom use to be located on historic King Street and i loved going in there and being captivated by the creative window displays and beautifully designed lighting. i just received their new catalog and as i was flipping through it, i saw that Tom Scheerer was one of the lighting designers....as you can see to your right, he is one of my new design heroes. chloe warner told me about him on monday when we were exchanging emails. if you haven't taken a look at urban electric, i think its time. the lights speak for themselves... they are gorgeous, current, and classic in their appearances. here are some others to drool over if you have a second: gunston, hightower, paraply, the quarter, and sheridan...as always, beauty does not come without a stiff price tag but these are really worth it.

you know, i'm not going to lie...sometimes i have nothing to write about. so i decided to scroll through my inspiration book and i ran across this page which i have loved for the past year and a half...i decided to look at the picture closely and i started relating it to my life....

does it get any cooler than these circa 1950's Baker chairs? The arms just kill me. gosh, they are just gorgeous....i am envious of the home that they will one day belong to.

i love this light from simon pearce. it's so simple but elegant and could work in numerous spaces, traditional or contemporary. for those of you that aren't married yet, than you may not be familiar with this company. i was introduced to it three years ago when my husband and i got married. they offer beautiful hand blown glass products and pottery. our "everyday china" is simon pearce's belmont dinnerware. after viewing the website, i saw that they also offer a beautiful restaurant, glassblower cafe, that reminded me of the one in "Sweet Home Alabama"....you know, the one that the hottie owned....might be a great place to visit if you are ever in vermont.

can you say christmas? how great is this little diddy? what a fantastic clutch from kate! the color is awesome! happy saturday! its beautiful here and the weather is perfect...a jeans and t-shirt kind of day.