Urban Grace Interiors {the blog}

That chest I posted a picture of in the last post deserves a little more air time.  I really love it.  It’s a Guy Chaddock piece called the Country English Chest.  And yes… those are acorn pulls on oak leaf escutcheons.

We also saw some teeny tiny acorns on a Charles Faudree fabric at Vervain.  I keep thinking about that fabric.

And that striped bag that kept making an appearance in the last post was the Baggu Duck Bag.  It’s part of our Urban Grace uniform.  I actually use mine for my laptop, but it’s a bit dangerous since it’s not padded.  It’s a great bag, perfect size, lightweight, and has a cross-body strap that comes in very handy when it gets heavy.

This first photo is not related to our adventures in Miami, but did you see this in Coastal Living back in March? I couldn’t believe my eyes… swimming pigs.  I need to go here.  I bet Smokey would like these guys.

As I mentioned in the last post Allison and I journeyed to Miami.  Really we spent most of our time at the design center which is in Ft. Lauderdale, but managed to spend a tiny bit of time in Miami too.  I probably should have titled this post “things I want”… because really that’s the emotion that comes over me as I dig back through the photos and decide which ones to post here.  I did actually buy this little beauty…

Allison is buying me this green Baker Chesterfield sofa for my birthday, isn’t that so generous of her?  ;) It was on sale. One day I will have a green chesterfield in my library.

We skimmed the D*S Miami guide and decided to eat at the first place on their food list, Yardbird. It was unbelievably good.  Two blackberry bourbon lemonades, two slow braised short rib sandwiches, house cut fries with bacon salt, and blueberry crumb pie with sweet corn ice cream.  It was the best meal I’ve had in a very long time.

That’s it for the Miami recap, sorry for the lack of words.  Two posts in two days after nearly three months of silence is almost more than I can handle.  I’ll be back soon, and I mean it this time.

Where should one start when they haven’t blogged in months?  Many thanks to those of you who have checked in and said you are concerned and/or that you miss my updates.  Life has been quite hectic and as a result the blog took a backseat.  However, in my absence I did give the blog a little face lift.  She just needed tidying up, so I enlisted the help of two very talented people Carolyn and the Blog Burglar.  If you need help with your own blog I would highly recommend those two.

Can I just make a list of what’s been going on these last few months?  The thought of writing a post to get caught up causes anxiety.

1. I’ve been gardening.  Three new raised beds for vegetables are going strong.  Already harvested some beans and I might be up to my eyeballs in tomatoes in a few weeks.

2. I love instagram.  It’s like twitter minus the words.  You know my words aren’t always good, so this is easier.  I had the Blog Burglar load my instagrams into the sidebar of the new blog layout, so even if you don’t instagram you can see what’s going on in my world over there in the right column of this blog.

3. There’s a pet rabbit that runs wild in my neighborhood.  We call him Smokey.  I might have already blogged about him.  He comes by morning and night for carrots and it brings me such joy.  Say a prayer that the coyotes don’t find him, please?

4. Sloane is getting big.  I know that’s what happens with children, but I want to keep her little.  I want to cradle her in my arms like a baby, but she’s almost too big.  She wants to be outdoors all the time.  She likes to dig and garden.  She uses the word “importment”… for example, “Momma, I’ll be inside in a minute I’m working on something very importment!”  We look quite patriotic here, don’t we?  [I hate to make any assumptions, but someone might ask about our dresses.  Sloane's is Tea (thank you, Marla Carter, it still fits and is darling) and mine is Canvas.]

5. Sloane had her first Itty Bitty Ballet recital this past weekend.

6. I have been traveling quite a bit, which is fun and exhausting.  I think I am almost over the anxiety that comes along with never feeling caught up.  There are emails that need response that are weeks old.  Since last we spoke I’ve been to North and South Carolina, Scottsdale, Miami, New York, and Louisville, KY.   Oh, and Atlanta.  The thought of all that makes me tired.  All work related trips except Scottsdale where I turned my brain off and accidentally ended up at the wrong hotel when I arrived to town.  I met nine girls there for a girls weekend.  It was just what I needed.  We not only woke up early, but we were also in bed early each night, usually laughing as we compared vitamins.  We came to the conclusion that we are kind of old and tame.  I even made the comment at the dinner table the first night, “everyone looks more like their mothers since last I saw y’all!”  Nice.  Good thing they all have pretty mommas.  This is my dear friend, Cameron, the bride-to-be we were celebrating.

I’ve known Cam since I was 15 years old.  We had high school science class together, where we sat side by side and have been friends ever since.  We also played field hockey and tennis together, and went to Auburn together.  She is near and dear to my heart.  I’m so far behind on blog updates that she’s now married and lives in Florida, much closer to me, which makes me happy, I’ll be seeing more of her.

I loved Scottsdale, I had been before but was much too young to really appreciate it.  The cool crisp mornings with no humidity, leisurely sipping coffee by the fire pit (photo above), it was a wonderful break.  A couple of dining experiences worth mentioning: Chelsea’s Kitchen and The Mission if you find yourself in Scottsdale anytime soon, I loved both.

7.  Back in March I went to North Carolina with my new friend Nicole (seen below), from Coastal Living.  She is fantastic.  We have really gotten to know each other well these last few months as she is in charge of Coastal Living’s Idea Houses and I am working on their 2012 house.  It’s a rather large project that I’m fairly certain I’m going to survive, although there have been touch-and-go moments.  Moments where I realized the house is enormous and typically I’d have about 18 more months and a lot more money to work with, but let me digress, because if I think about it for too long I start to slip down the slippery slope of searching for loose tranquilizers in the bottom of my purse.  If you’re in Rosemary Beach this summer, come by and see the house.  Back to our trip, while in North Carolina we met with the head honchos at Lee Industries and Sunbrella, both of whom are sponsors for the house.  It was pretty exciting for someone like myself to see behind the scenes operations and the new introductions pre-High Point market.  Kinda felt like having a backstage pass.  If you’re wondering if Nicole did this Vanna White pose with all the fabrics, she did not.

8.  Allison and I went to Miami for a couple of days, but now I can’t remember if that was in March or April.  Bevenidos a Miami.  Our design center is there, even though we are closer to Atlanta all our accounts run through Dania.  So we went.  And we conquered.  And I left my makeup at home and did/said foolish things that I was glad Allison witnessed.  We put faces with names of people we talk to on the phone daily and found new fabrics and furniture pieces and other designerly things.

And I’m going to end this post like this… to be continued.