Last weekend Wendy and I hosted a New Orleans inspired dinner party for several of our friends with a rather lovely tablescape that didn't suffer one bit from a lack of white napkins. We had a great time with some wonderful food, fun company, and our fair share of debauchery. However, we had a little bit of an issue with our dining room set that we had to deal with in the hours before everyone's arrival.
A little while ago we were moving one of our dining room chairs around and I noticed a little bit more of a wobble than normal. The dining room set we own is a solid wood 1940's table, chairs, china cabinet, and buffet that we purchased back in 2003 just after we bought our house. It's quite solidly made and absolutely wonderful, especially given the roughly $2000 price tag for the whole thing.
Throughout the years it's been a great dining set and has served us quite nicely. However, the chairs have always been a little bit unsteady since the day we brought it home. Unfortunately, this one more-wobbly-than-the-others chair had a failure of a more catastrophic nature. Let's see if you can spot the issue?
Do you see it? Let me give you a hint and a closer photo -- look at the area where the seat meets the leg on the right.
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The frigid winter temperatures are slowly giving way to longer days and the sound of birds chirping. It can only mean one thing: Spring is in the air! And what better way to celebrate the changing of the seasons than creating a fresh and fun spring-inspired tablescape.
Recently we hosted several friends for an informal dinner party, and although the gathering wasn't fussy or fancy, I still wanted to make sure it felt like a special occasion. This meant taking a few extra steps to dress things up just a little and give that little extra attention to detail.
To add a bit of softness to the center of the table I picked up an inexpensive bunch of tulips from the grocery store, trimmed their stems, and placed them in a very simple round glass vase.
I feel like a floral display is one of the easiest and best ways to make any table decor or event look and feel just a little bit more refined and polished.
With the centerpiece established, I got to work pulling together items from my pre-owned stash of table decor. I keep all of my various dining accoutrements in the buffet in the dining room. I've worked very hard over many years to collect anything and everything that can be used in a general way to liven up any dinner party, and I'm always excited to use it. I started by covering the table in a simple white tablecloth and topped it with informal rattan circular place mats I purchased from Ikea several years ago.
Atop the place mats I arranged our heavy silver chargers. These chargers are large and hefty ceramic chargers, not the more commonly seen resin or plastic. It took us quite a long time to find these chargers when I was on the hunt but I discovered them on sale at Pier 1 Imports about ten years ago. I really like the juxtaposition of the rough and natural place mat with the more formal charger.
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Jump to 5:10pm totally dejected update.
Inevitably over the next several days, you're going to hear about the weather in the Washington, DC area. It doesn't matter if you are a local and the news is plastered with status updates, or if you live 3000 miles away and Brian Williams mentions it briefly on his evening report. If there's one thing at which DC is great, it's totally freaking out about snow.
Here's a live look out of our front window so you can keep tabs on the storm.
Since Wendy and I grew up around Cleveland, and we're both serious snow lovers, the mere mention of snow conjures emotions of giddiness rather than concern. It's true, the DC metro area isn't particularly prepared for snow, but the frequency of big snow events is such that we aren't inconvenienced too often when they occur. Besides, the last time we had a snowfall of more than 2" from a single storm was an astounding 769 days ago, so I'm for welcoming this potential late season snow with open arms.
The calm before the storm. Ominous clouds on my commute home.
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Alex and I have a project list a mile long these days, but that doesn't mean we aren't totally excited to take a little time out of our schedule to support a great local organization with a wonderful cause. Saturday, March 8th, marks the third annual celebration of Mardi Growl, a gala fundraising event held to support the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria. We're very excited to attend this event for the first time, and can't wait to share the fun and excitement with you.
In anticipation of the upcoming Mardi Growl event and to learn a little bit more about the organization, Alex and I took a trip over to the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria's Vola Lawson Animal Shelter for an opportunity to meet Patrick Cole, AWLA's Director of Communications and Outreach and to tour their operation. Hey, I'm not going to lie, we were pretty excited about going on a tour of the complex simply for a chance to meet and play with some of their adorable adoptable animals.
Though we had furry four legged friends on the brain, our primary purpose for the visit was to take a look at and learn more about the wonderful local organization that the Mardi Growl event supports. After all, animal adoption and rescue is a cause near and dear to our hearts (we rescued both Ollie and Lulu), so we'd love to make our readers aware of our local shelter, shelter staff, and volunteers that place their time, efforts, care, and devotion into giving abandoned or sick animals a better life.
The Animal Shelter facility opened in late 2002 in Alexandria's west end after moving from an outdated facility in southeast Old Town. Wendy and I visited the older facility just after moving to the area, and I must say, this new location is leaps and bounds ahead of the old one. Though it was getting dark as we arrived, the following photo should give you an idea of the building's more modern aesthetic.
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The boob is staying. Or at least that's what the popular vote dictates, much to my dismay. I'd like to thank everyone who voted in last weeks "au natural or cover that shit up" vote in regards to our feminine looking (in my opinion) Victorian doorstop, despite the fact that my preference of breaking out the paint didn't come out on top. And to be honest, that makes me a little grumpy since I really like to be right.
Sore loser? Maybe. But given more than 200 readers took the time to voice their opinion, I have to respect that and go against my instinct to paint the doorstop. Naked boobs are in the hizzouse, and they're staying. For the time being at least. Oh the horror.
We still may experiment a bit, whether it be wrapping the door stop in white tissue paper (thanks to a commenter for that awesome idea) or even Photoshopping it to see how the color change might play out, but sadly I don't see a full blown makeover (and by that I mean a coat of paint) in the near future, I guess that's what I get for allowing us to put the decision in the hands of our readers.
In all honestly, I find the idea of inviting readers to vote on aspects of our home to be a lot of fun. We already welcome you into our home and lives in a virtual way most days of the week, and share the things we work on or plan to work on, so why not involve you all in some of the decision making that goes along with the process?
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