For the love of antique english ironstone

Do you ever sit back and wonder what specific thing, event or person triggered a new focus, energy shift or obsession in your life? For me it was this:

Being the local real-estate stalker that I am (yes, I check har.com about 3 times per day just to peek inside the homes in my neighborhood for decorating ideas) I saw this platter in a few homes including that of a well known local designer named Ginger Barber. After 'googling' (even ebay didn't have it) this item endlessly I finally found one antique store in the Houston area that happened to have ONE (thank you Carol Gibbins Antiques). Well for those of you out there who know how much ironstone costs you can appreciate the abrupt halt to my search for this particular ironstone piece once Carol told me the price over the phone.

Imagine my surprise when I was awakened early on Sunday morning (May 10th, Mother's Day), to the smell of eggs cooking, toast toasting and the sound of hushed giggles from the kitchen. Was I being served breakfast in bed (in my 5 yr olds pink canopy bed of course)? My eggs and toast were served on such a large, white, heavy, dairy-slab looking platter with the word 'MARGARINE' painted in large black letters on the rim. Could it be? YES!
I do have THE BEST hubby and daughter in the world.

This antique ironstone dairy slab (made in the 1800's by Higginbotham & Co) is now living happily on my dining room table since it's way too big and pretty for my quirky little kitchen. I am looking for a large glass cloche for it and am not sure what I'll place inside....any ideas?
This beautiful piece is responsible for causing me to fall deep into an interior design and home improvement obsession. The good news is at least I'm focusing on improving my own home now instead of wasting time drooling over other people's homes.



Here are a few pieces of ironstone that I've since acquired:

I'll leave you with this Ironstone mosaic of my collection of three. Do three things really constitute a 'collection'?

Current fashion obsession(S)

I'm always just a tad (a 'tad' bit of an understatement) bit behind everyone else on trends. I only recently got a facebook page, the blogging world is only NOW taking over my life, and prior to the last few months I could have cared less about the whole European antique thing. I did work in the fashion industry for 15 years. There was no excuse then. I was traveling to all of the top 'fashion' destinations in the country on a weekly basis so I had to stay on top of all of the trends. Once I got out and into a totally different environment (new family, new career, new house, new state) my desire to be on the cutting edge of anything other than motherhood, family and new career came to a halt.

We have quite a few trips planned this summer so I'm constantly on the lookout for cute and comfy things to wear in all of our destinations. This week I'm SO wishing I'd been a little more on top of the white jean trend:

I love these bootcut white jeans from JCrew and they do have my size online (although I'd prefer to go into the store and try them on) but they are one of the few retailers selling something other than low rise, wide leg white jeans now.

I'm also loving snakeskin sandals. This pair is from Piperlime (major weakness of mine). Gorgeous and pricey. :-(


I've also been searching desperately for a long, knit, racerback dress. I've seen a few people wearing them and they're SO cute and SO impossible to find! This one from Bobi at tee-zone.com is very cute but nothing in my size.


Handbags, on the other hand, remain an obsession unchanged by relocations, career changes, child rearing, graduate school, and economic recessions. I could dedicate an entire blog to handbags. I fell for Rebecca Minkoff last fall and santa left me one of these (minus the studs) under the tree and I absolutely adore this bag.


Happy Friday everyone. If you're out shopping this weekend and happen to spot any cute knit maxi dresses with a tank style top and racer back that's not too loose and not too many pleats (gee, wonder why I can't find it) please send it my way! :-)

Thursday eye candy

DIY botanical project over the long holiday weekend

I've fallen in love with framed botanicals and decided it was something I would have fun creating on my own. A few months ago I ventured out to my yard and clipped some plants (Boston fern, boxwood, grape leaves, lavender and a few others) and placed them inside a large book to let them dry and flatten. I then purchased vintage linen feed bags on ebay (for a whopping $2) along with 6, 12X14 gold flecked picture frames ($5 each at Big Lots). I cut the fabric down to 8X10 pieces and fringed the ends, and voila....

....after only a few hours work (hanging pics was the most time consuming part), here they are:

This purple hydryangea is extra special. When my husband and I were first dating {about 9 years ago} he plucked this hydrangea out of his neighbor's yard in Vancouver British Columbia {where hyrdrangeas grow like weeds} and placed it inside a copy of 'The Prophet' and sent it to me. :-)

This was such an easy project and my daughter had fun helping me cut the plants and put them inside the book.

If you're not feeling so 'crafty' you can always go to Wisteria and pick up 4 of these beautiful limited edition framed botanicals for $999.

Wildlife inside the loop

A few years ago we moved from Kingwood (aka the livable forest), a northern suburb of Houston, to a small city (West University Place) inside the loop (interstate 610). Although I welcomed the 65-mile cut out of my daily commute to work, I was a bit tentative of living in a more urban environment with fewer trees and birds. West U is actually a very lush community with huge oak trees and perfectly manicured yards and gardens. Well I have quickly discovered that these trees and gardens are home to many creatures.

While cleaning up our limb and branch-filled yard after hurricane Ike last fall we spotted two baby opossums seeking shelter under our front porch. I haven't seen nor thought of those creatures since, until....

....while putting out our trash early this morning (it was still somewhat dark) I saw something at the bottom of our trash can and I started to reach in thinking it was a branch or piece of trash I should grab to place into the trash bag. As I got closer I saw two eyes staring back at me and saw this little guy (no this isn't my picture, just something from the internet):

I have since read that opossums are welcomed in our community as they rarely bite people or pets, very rarely carry rabies and they actually eat rats, snakes, and bugs. We are actually encouraged to leave them be as they are considered helpful little pests.
(Hubby, flip the trashcan over so the little guy can make a run for it tonite after darkness falls).

This little incident this morning made me think about all of the other creatures I have seen (sometimes way too closely) in and around my community.

In the wee hours of the morning while out for my daily jog I regularly see small owls seeking a spot to slumber the day away in the tree branches.

We also have a plethora of pigeons and doves in our neighborhood along with some beautiful birds.

I have also had an unfortunate close encounter with a small bat that made it's way into my 4 year old daughter's bedroom (pest control dept says most likely came thru her ceiling fan from the attic) last summer. That's a whole post in and of itself but I'll conclude with saying that the bat didn't have rabies and luckily I was in her room sleeping with her and got us out of their immediately after being awakened by the flapping wings in the ceiling fan blades.
I'll leave you with that lovely thought and wish everyone a happy memorial weekend. Be safe out there!

Strange finding while dining in Puerto Rico

Returning back to the responsibilities of every day life after a vacation is difficult and depressing. Back to alarm clocks at the crack of dawn, preschool drop off, putting out fires that were started at work while away and then the endless list of projects at home leads me to need another vacation!

Although it was a short trip, our 4 days in San Juan were wonderful. We saw amazing historical sites, visited the lush rain forest, swam in the turquoise waters of the Atlantic/Caribbean, and had some phenomenal meals.

On our first night there we found a casual restaurant just a block away from our hotel. We chose this spot primarily because the entire back wall was windows which were open to the breeze created by the crashing waves just down below and the amazing sunset. While acting our part as tourists and taking pictures of each other in front of these windows I realized that I had seen these images somewhere before. The picture that I posted last Friday before we left on our journey, which I pulled directly from our hotel website was taken in the very restaurant where we were having dinner.

Take a look for yourselves and compare to the pic posted on my Bon Voyage post on 5/15.

Bon Voyage

In 6 hours, 35 minutes, and 15 seconds I'll be taking off on my highly anticipated (and much needed) family vacation to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We've never been (and honestly never desired to go) to PR but we 'randomly' chose this destination based on; beaches and pools (me, mini me, and my neice), Old San Juan history and good food (family), hotel casino (husband), and of course the price was right.

By 10pm ET tonite I'll be looking out at this:

And by this time tomorrow I'll be wearing this:

And drinking these (oops), THIS (singular):


Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Thursday eye candy

The age of innocence

Last night this little angel had her first ballet recital at school.


After 6 months of practice she had her 3 minutes in the spotlight and she didn't appear nervous one bit! It's moments like these that I know are just fleeting and before I know it I'll be asking where did the time go, how did she grow up so quickly?



I am a very proud mom who's trying desperately to hang on to these last few years (who am I kidding?) ok, months or better yet, weeks, while my daughter actually wants me around. Please don't hesitate to share your secrets on how to bottle time, make time stand still, or just make your kid stop growing up! :-)

Pack your bags!

YAHOO! After celebrating a 'big' birthday last week we are heading on a much needed VACATION (it's been a long and eventful 8 months since our last trip)! We leave for 4 days of rest and relaxation and hopefully some good food, shopping, and site-seeing in San Juan, Puerto Rico. My neice is joining us so that should make it extra fun (picture here of neice and my precious lil one).

I will post pics upon our return.