Floral Design Class

I started taking a floral design class recently, so I could make nicer arrangements for my "after" pictures. This is the kind of thing I usually make for these shots:





This is the kind of thing I wanted to learn how to make:



And sadly, this is the Grandma Gulch arrangement we learned how to make last night:



Can you say, "funereal?"

Design Star Voting Dilemma

Holy crap, I never would've believed I'd be in such a quandry, come voting time for this show. The previous two seasons there was a clear winner, so completely obvious that there wasn't really a question. This time I'm really torn--which is AWESOME. Finally, there's a real competition! I guess the only way I'm going to reach a decision is to map out the pros and cons of both Matt & Jennifer...

MATT

Pros

1. Beautiful kitchen. So sleek! Very tailored and chic. Photo doesn't do it justice.
2. Dining room was sophisticated and elegant.
3. What a truly respectable guy. He behaved with such grace and dignity throughout the competition--the clincher being the way he handed Mikey over to Jenn so she could have an additional carpenter on the day she needed one most. Would others have been so generous? Probably not.

Cons

1. I don't think he truly understands how to combine colors or styles. I did not like the result of his furniture choices in the LR at all. Too many styles and solid colors, the mirror behind the TV was to die for but seemed awkward crammed behind the electronics (if it'd been shorter and elevated above the TV it would've been much better).
2. Was dying for a pop of color in his kitchen. That microscopic piece of art doesn't make much of an impact.
3. Thought the dining room table and chairs seemed oversized for a house of three. Would've been perfect for Jenn's house!
4. Level of enthusiasm over the marching band made me a bit uncomfortable.
5. Ultimately, if you put the best of Matt into a show of his own, I think you're talking about a level of design that can be intimidating to some DIYers.

JENN

Pros

1. That smile!
2. Her LR was much more warm and inviting.
3. Kitchen was superfun.
4. I think she'd inspire home viewers rather than intimidate them.

She also maintained real heart and dignity throughout the process, never resorting to catty or bitchy behavior.

Cons

1. I have a pet peeve about putting a breakfast table in close proximity to a formal dining table. It seems so redundant and ultimately makes a space feel more like a furniture showroom than a home. You could argue that this is more of a beef with the home builder, but I would have done something different with the breakfast nook, since there was such a clear separation between that space and the kitchen. Since they had so many kids in the house, I'd have turned it into a play space with closed/disguised toy storage, to preserve the adult atmosphere. It would've also made a great library space or wine bar.
2. The fireplace was all dressed up with no place to go. Beautifully done but sort of kicked to the curb in terms of there being no furniture arranged around it to make it a focal point.

Very much to my own surprise--since I have been such a big Matt fan all along--I will be casting my vote for Jenn. I just think Matt has another calling. He's meant to do what he's been doing--very high-end, sophisticated, minimal design. If they watered that down to make his work more accessible to the average DIYer, I think you'd end up with something like his parents' game/craft room, and I don't think anyone wants that. He represented his style and his character well--this should keep him busy for years to come.

Jenn, on the other hand, has talent that can translate to a show much better. Even someone who's not an artist herself can use a projector to create the oversized graphics Jenn habitually implements into her designs. It's far easier to demonstrate this kind of thing than to try and explain to the home viewer how to create something similar to what Matt did for the first challenge.

Incidentally, their online voting doesn't seem to work, so if you're going to vote, stick to texting.

Partie Traumatic

Was at Waterloo yesterday killing time before a late consult and got sucker-punched by this amazing CD by a band called Black Kids:




It sounds like modern 80s, kind of glam and retro with a funky twist. If their music was interior design, it would look like this:






I defy anyone to listen to Hurricane Jane or I'm Not Gonna Teach You How To Dance With Your Boyfriend and not burst into some seriously embarrassing crazydancin.

From the Ground Up

While watching the new green channel recently, I caught a promo for From the Ground Up, a new design-related reality show hosted by Debbie Travis. The big prize awarded at the end of the season is the position of Chief Designer for Travis' self-branded condos and homes. Intrigued, I set my DVR accordingly and managed to watch the episode tonight.

YIKES.

Contrary to other job interview reality shows, this is as real as you can get. Travis, someone I have equal parts enjoyed (Facelift, her surprise makeover show) and loathed (Painted House, faux finish a go-go), acts more like a CEO than your average competition show host. At first I gasped in shock when she replaced the team leader of this episode mid-project, when you might normally just see reality show hosts stand back and let the contestants rise or fall on their own merit. Travis, on the other hand, has higher expectations for her proteges and steers the ship as any business-minded creative director would in the real world. It's far more believable that she is truly grooming someone to work for her and not creating some mock position for the TV camera. She even fires people better than Trump--sending three contestants home in one mondo whack-fest this episode!

Personality-wise, I miss the Facelift version of Debbie Travis, where she showed a sense of humor underneath a sometimes tough exterior. In this series, she's not just critical...she's quite, ummm, bitchy.

As for the show itself, I may/may not watch again (it appears on Fine Living if you're interested)...but I have to point out how shocked I was when I saw this shot during the previous episode's recap:



Toilet paper used as art? My idea.

Way back when, I applied to be on the second season of HGTV's Design Star. In my audition tape, I mentioned that one thing I'd always wanted to do was to find a kooky client who would let me create a grid of toilet paper rolls on the wall and use it as functional art in a powder room. Swear to gawd.

I always regretted leaving that in my tape...but now that I see it on TV, I feel a bit vindicated.

Schadenfreu-duh

What does it say about me that I barely have anything to say about tonight's episode of Design Star other than it was friggin' HI-larious when Trish's carpenter accidently wacked himself in the face with Pergo flooring planks? He deserved it too, after his response to Trish's questions when he first arrived:

TRISH: Are you pretty handy?

CARPENTER: I brought a screwdriver.

*Crickets chirping*

Also, what kind of designer and what kind of carpenter puts MDF on a fireplace hearth? First of all, the paint is just going to melt right off the first time they light a match near it. Secondly, I hope Trish's parents have oodles of fire insurance.

Oh, and didn't you just want to hug Jenn during her hosting bit? She was positively gushing with love for her sister and it was incredibly adorable to watch. I love that kind of thing...I'm a total sap.

I don't know who's going to come out on top after next week's challenge in New Orleans. Fixing entire houses--yikes! That's pretty ambitious.

#2 Keyword Search Phrase for July

Considering that this is a blog mostly about interior design and decorating, wouldn't you assume those words would rank at the top of the keyword search phrases that drive people to my website?

Well, you'd be wrong this month.

The highest-ranked keyword search phrase so far for July is "room fu." Pretty normal.

What follows "room fu" is not "interior design" or "interior decorating" or even "austin designer."

The keyword phrase that comes in at number two is "mikey verdugo shirtless."

Seriously?

So of course this made me very curious and I did my own search using this keyword phrase...and discovered this article, which reveals that Mr. Verdugo, of HGTV's Design Star fame, evidently had a few star turns before his stint at HGTV, and not of the design variety.

The dude did gay bondage porn!

Having participated in the Design Star casting process before, I know they specifically ask you if you've got any skeletons in your closet that could embarrass the network.

I'd be willing to bet that this type of thing would fall into that category, Mikey!

Deathmatch: Design Star vs. Project Runway

In the Callan household, Project Runway trumps all other shows waiting on the DVR, so this evening's Season Five premier was a cause for celebration. If not for the crutches I'm on while under the care of an overeager podiatrist, there might have even been jumping involved...especially since I'd forgotten it was airing tonight and came home from a consultation to this welcome surprise. The reemergence of Project Runway means that Design Star got kicked to the curb again in terms of viewing priority.

Interesting cast of characters this season and all of them look the part. However, I was dejected when I saw Gristedes in the background and knew they were doing the supermarket challenge again. They've never ripped themselves off so boringly before. Has the well of ideas run dry already?

Then the contestants went and bored me some more with the barrage of tablecloth/shower curtain/lawn chair outfits. And when they were all surprised that so many people were also making tablecloth dresses? Well, duh, people. The only one who rose above the tablecloth curse was Korto, with her veggie collar.

I was amazed at the lack of on-air kudos awarded to Terri, whose loosely-woven top was ultracool. Granted, her skirt was just meh, but the top was pretty dang impressive.

I wasn't completely in love with Kelli's dress until finding out about the handmade hook & eye closure she made out of a spiral notebook. Good gawd! That's ingenious. However, I kind of thought the look of her outfit was a bit of a yawn.

Poor Jerry and his haz mat suit. Based his work displayed in his intro, I expected much more out of him and think this must not have been his night. Although I hated his outfit, I thought Blayne's (a.k.a. Tanny Boy's) hooker diaper getup was much worse. Plus, I know the models are used to designers playing Hands on a Hard Body, but it's total BS that that poor girl had this cokehead (what other explanation is there for all the sniffing he did on camera?) hand-sewing the crotch of her diaper together while it was on her body. That's just disgusting.

Show of hands, who was over Stella with all her complaining about the trash bags before the third commercial break? It was almost as if she thought they would let her go back to the grocery store. Plus, anyone who makes their own ass look fat should not be turned loose on the public. That leather thongish hotpant thing she wore over the wide plank striped pants created an optical illusion that made her butt look inflated, and not in a good way.

Not many other standouts, except whassup with Wesley wearing little boy short pants all the time?

Nice to see Austin Scarlett again, who looked wonderful, as per usual.

Marfa Redux

A day after returning to Austin, I'm feeling a little guilty about the harsh words I used to describe my first impression of Marfa, TX. When I began writing about the experience, I was...well, mad. I rolled into this ghost town and felt like I'd been duped by a great PR campaign. I wanted others to learn from my mistake.

It should be noted that my mind had changed about the town after less than 24 hours.

What I couldn't appreciate at first sight was how this town has adopted Donald Judd's minimal style and philosophy and embraced it as a way of life. You will not be overfed or overstimulated in Marfa (aside from the art displayed in the many galleries). You are forced to exist simply...without a lot of hoo-hah.

Pardon me if I kind of did a freakdance at first. I tend to like a decent amount of hoo-hah if I've driven 6.5 hours for the experience. All I could think at first was, oh gawd...I drove all this way and paid $4.29 a gallon (in some parts of TX) for this? I suppose I needed to chillax a bit...and I did.

So here's the thing.

Feast your eyes on the ghost town:



...and just know that you're gonna have to do without your Venti-Nonfat-No-Water-Chai for a few days. You're here for the art anyway.

What changed it for me? Look around:

You'd swear you were in South Austin, wouldn't you?

Great way to start our day.

Best art books.

The Austin Street Cafe's only open on weekends until 3. Normally a big fan of color, I warmed to their crisp white-black-latte palette and loved the mix of antiques and modern touches. The food was amazing too!

And then there's Cochineal, the perfect way to celebrate my birthday.

Locally known as "Tom and Toshi's," book a reservation and by all means try Toshi's Date Bread Pudding with Rum Caramel Sauce. Good grief, that was good.

I'm in love with the walls and the ceiling in the tiny dining room. Colorful and simple, the accordion-fold screens along the perimeter are literally highlighted through the use of uplights. The wool felt strung in wavy strips near the ceiling creates texture and adds a bit of softness to balance all the hard edges.

This doesn't even begin to cover it, but you get the idea. Sometimes it's nice to be reminded that hoo-hah is in the eye of the beholder.

Marfa Madness

I've read so many articles about how hip Marfa is and how great the art is, so when I requested a little getaway for my birthday, my husband surprised me with an excursion here.

Bitter disappointment occurred when we rolled into town last night.

The articles you read about this town don't really tell it like it is, so I'm going to attempt to do just that and let you make your own decisions as to whether or not this is worth the 6+ hour drive from Austin or not.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Imagine a dust bowl. Imagine a depressed and dilapidated ghost town. Now add 5 hip-looking establishments to the mix, and roll up the sidewalks at 9pm. That is Marfa.

Shell-shocked after arriving, we climbed back into the car we'd just spent the better part of a day in and decided to drive into the surrounding mountains. This turned out to be a supreme idea. Along the way we drove through Fort Davis, which is an incredibly picturesque (although tiny) town that called to mind Park City, UT in some ways. The restaurants and hotels along the Texas Mountain Trail looked very inviting and unpretentious, and the up-close-and-personal nature of the mountains surrounding the town made us wonder...

Why don't travel writers overwhelmingly recommend that you stay in Ft. Davis and drive into Marfa instead of the other way around?

We continued to drive up farther along the Trail and ended up at McDonald Observatory just in time for one of their Star Parties, where they give you a "constellation tour" and allow you to look into three domed and several large telescopes at various stars and planets. Maybe we're a couple of nerds, but Jeb and I got a real thrill out of this and we're looking forward to going back tomorrow for a look at the sun through a specially-filtered telescope.



DAY 2

Started the day at The Brown Recluse, which was comfy-cozy but the ultra-slow service and fly overpopulation left a lot to be desired.


Hit a dozen or so galleries conveniently located nearly door-to-door along an L-shaped path connecting Highland and San Antonio. One standouts was The Ballroom, where we encountered an installation titled "Hello Meth Lab in the Sun," an incredible, interactive piece illustrating some of the ways people try and fail to achieve happiness (drugs, mysticism, cultish religion, etc.). Can't wait to upload the pictures I took of Jeb amidst the charred remains of the meth kitchen and the lab...you'll have to wait for that because I forgot to pack the USB cord, unfortunately. Also thoroughly enjoyed Galleri Urbane, where I unknowingly admired the work of one of my favorite Etsy artists, Andrea Zuill (I'd never identified her Etsy prints by her name, only by her storefront). I'm not much of a fan of Donald Judd (cue the artworld ridicule) so we skipped the Chinati Foundation (which my brain reads as the Chianti Foundation)...which is ironic, considering that Donald Judd is the sole reason Marfa's on the art world map in the first place. But hey, diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, right? Steel cubes just aren't my thang.

We were fortunate to get the local hookup thanks to Anna at Galleri Urbane, who is on her seventh week of Marfa residency, having moved here from Sante Fe. She filled us in on Cochineal, a new restaurant in town locally known as "Tom & Toshi's" (because in a town with one blinking red light, everyone knows everyone, right?) and recommended we make reservations for dinner. Superglad to have gotten that tip...it was such a great experience, but I'll also have to fill you in on that later, as part of what I loved about it was the interior design and I'm heading back this afternoon to take a few pics so I can show as well as tell...

Between the amazing art that we saw today and the decadent meal at Cochineal, Marfa is truly growing on us. It's been incredibly creatively inspiring...

DAY 3
Today's my birthday (42, wow) and we are enjoying our vacation, so I may skip the Design Star dish tonight. I've DVR'd it back home, so if it's a particularly good episode, I may post about it at a later date. Truthfully though, I've got a lot of work to tackle when I get home so I may just skip it and pick up on it again next week!

My New Hoop-dee

This is what a Honda Fit looks like with a frowny face:



Or should I say, half-assed.

This is the second time someone has plowed into my adorable car since I drove it off the lot five months ago. Wassup with that? It's bright orange, people.

This may have to be my next vehicle:

Drivers of Austin (and elsewhere): Please respect the Fit!

Updated 7/10: The Plot Thickens
Strangely enough, I discovered last night that my mom was also rear-ended yesterday, in Tulsa, OK...five minutes after my accident.



Weird, huh?!

Design Star, Season 3 - Episode 5

Another snoozer of an episode. This week's challenge was to fulfill promotion deals with country music star Sarah Evans and the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. (Ha! How did anyone survive before product placement?!)

Seriously, this week's challenge was to decorate two suites at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, inspired by the personal style of country music star Sarah Evans. Who is still loving herself some shabby chic.

Still?

Isn't Shabby Chic's 15 minutes over yet? Goodness knows Rachel Ashwell is still making herself buckets of money, but this is a style I can only handle in low doses. Antiques and naturally distressed furniture, yes. Grandma pillows and faux finishes a-go-go? No. Little girl's room? Yes. Master bedroom? *shudder*

Forgive me if I just put it on a bumper sticker for you:

The winners bagged this challenge with biscotti.

The jars of biscotti on the kitchenette-ish bar really epitomized the differences between the winning team's suite and the losing team's suite. What I mean by that is the winning team (Trish-Mikey V.-Crazee) created a suite that revolved around creature comforts and not just aesthetics. As a viewer, that was really nice to see for a change.

After judging the two teams' suites and each individual's attempt at hosting an on-air introduction, the panel sent Stax, her bosoms, and her caterpillar eyelashes home. Although it was an appropriate choice--she's pretty but she doesn't command authority as a host--I must say I will miss her witicisms.

I do think Vern missed the mark with his ringing endorsement of Trish's hosting style...his comment that she was the new force to be reckoned with reminded me of McCain's recent fumbling of gas pricing knowledge. Vern's just as out of touch with the common viewer here if he thinks that forced delivery of hers is relaxing and warm. Trish has won me over in a lot of ways, but when she addresses the camera it's incredibly cringe-inducing. Shocking, that he would have such a different reaction to her.

Makes me think this kind of misfiring on the judging mentality is why we're seeing Star Jones hosting a few House Hunters episodes.

Am I alone on this, or is that just beyond wrong?!

SmackBerry

I have a love/hate relationship with my BlackBerry. When it's working and all systems are go? Love it. No other device has single-handedly helped save my sanity and the planet all at the same time. The TeleNav feature (an add-on) provides me with GPS service and gets me from one design consultation to the next, efficiently and expertly. This means no more printing Google maps, no more near-wrecks due to consulting the Google maps (with TeleNav, I can listen to the nice computer lady give me directions through my ear bud), and not only do I save the paper previously involved in this process, I save a bit of oh-so-vital time now that I don't have to hassle with said map printing.

But when the TeleNav service cuts out on my way to a new client's house and takes the Web browser with it...and stays in Puerto Vallarta (or wherever it went on its little holiday) for 9 days, and mind you the email forwarding hasn't worked in at least six months because I can't figure out how to reset the password...well, I might as well be toting around one of those cell phones from the early 90s that was the size of your average knife block.

What does this have to do with design, you may wonder? I loathe the interface design of this device. It's just not user-friendly. At least not for someone like me who was not born with the Third Eye. Based on previous experience with it, I know that any sort of troubleshooting/fix to my BlackBerry will require--at a minimum--three solid hours.

Who wants to give up three solid hours of their life working on a stupid handheld that should just WORK ALREADY?

If there's an enterprising person out there who knows the 8800 like the back of their hand and wanted a little decorating advice in exchange for clearing up the mysteries of the BlackBerry for me in one hour or less, please contact me ASAP.

It would especially help if you also knew my username and password, since it has been a hundred years since I set this up (let's be honest, more than likely it was my husband who did the honors) and I cannot remember any of that bunk...apparently they are not any of the 56 combinations I have already tried. Can't my BlackBerry just have some kind of handy-dandy thumbprint recognition so we can just skip this whole username/password B.S. anyway?

Heavy sigh.