Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Hanging on the sofa, listening to Beethoven sonatas and playing with my iPhone.

'Memba This?

Remember the Tunic Dress I was making? You can read about it's beginnings here and here.



Well, it's done. I wore it for the first time yesterday, to a production of my son's acting class at college.

I hadn't planned yet on how to wear it; ultimately I decided it looked better with a belt, and I pulled out an old gold chain belt for yesterday's outing. It was okay, but I think I will make a simple self-belt of the dress fabric and wear it at my natural waist. I had problems with the sizing. Sewing patterns (this was a McCall's) DO NOT have the vanity sizing that we're used to at J.Crew and Banana Republic, however the pattern charts aren't quite accurate either. I customarily wear a six on the bottom and eight on the top in the store; according to the pattern chart I wear a fourteen! So I originally cut the fabric to a size fourteen, and ended up trimming it down to a twelve. I still think it's a little big which in my opinion, in this sort of tunic shape, adds pounds; I like to think a more body-skimming (say, a ten in the McCall's size chart) would have been a bit more flattering. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking?

Here it is with the chain belt:



And here it is without.



What do you think?

Chez La Vie Home: Living Room

During the past few months, we've engaged in a bit of amateur interior design here at Chez La Vie. In February, I shared with you our updated Dining Room, finished late last year. We purchased paint for our living room too last fall, but when it was apparent that we weren't going to get around to doing the work ourselves, we finally (and for the first time) engaged the services of a professional painter. Also, we treated ourselves to a long over-due new sofa and chair!

We selected our paint, Benjamin Moore 1640, based on a living room from the March 2003 of House Beautiful. That room coupled dark furniture with metal and mirrors and the effect was airy but elegant. Unlike that room, we have red accent pieces that we didn't want to part with, so our room is less ethereal. Still, because of the many windows, it's sunny and bright in the daytime yet cozy at night.

Our new sofa is white leather, from Elite Leather by Lulu Kwiatkowski. The pillows are mostly from Pottery Barn.


We also indulged in a comfy leather reading chair.



My writing desk was purchased using funds from a year-end bonus years ago; it was designed by Alexander Julian. In this case, I had clipped out a picture of the desk from a 1999 issue of Victoria magazine and when some extra cash came my way, I ran to the furniture store to order it!


Above the piano is an R. Atkinson Fox print of a sweet cottage surrounded my an amazing English garden. It once hung in my grandmother's farmhouse living room; if I recall correctly it was a give-away from the furniture company when she and my grandfather purchased their living room set. I think RAF might have been the cheesy equivalent of Thomas Kinkade in his day, but I don't care. If you are into this sort of thing, I've seen a mess of RAF prints in antique shops, for cheap.

Below are very special caricatures of the family that my husband drew with crayon long ago when he was coloring with our young sons. The baby at the bottom is now 19, almost twenty! As you can see in my portrait, although my hair was short then, I am wearing my trademark red lipstick!



What's next? I don't think I'm going to bother with draperies. We're exhibitionists thus not really concerned with privacy (;-P), and I like all the sunlight. I realize that I am going to need to do something about the eyesore speakers surrounding the armoire, but right now we'll take sound quality over expensive aesthetics. I'd really like a rug--I love hardwood floors but they're not very conducive to sitting on, especially in front of the fireplace in winter! French doors leading out into the garden, where the armoire now stands, would be lovely. However, we don't know how long we'll be here and there's other house repair things we should do to buck up our resale value. And I still have my grandmother's old sofa--the one with the springs poking out--that I'd love to re-upholster. Right now it's sitting out in our backyard waiting for me to decide how to proceed. I have the fabric picked out, but we're currently saving for a trip to Germany this summer so funds are an issue.

And so it goes--life dilemmas. Hope you enjoy this peek into Chez La Vie!

Feeling Chanel

I'm sitting outside grading papers. Making the task more bearable is a cup of Harney's Paris tea and marking the students' work with my favorite Cross fountain pen with Levenger Pinkly ink.

Also, it doesn't hurt to be surrounded with small Chanel luxuries:

tortoiseshell shades

and Nouvelle Vague lacquer on my toes.


Also breaking out the Bonnanos!

Husband's Quote of the Day

"Sometimes I can't reconcile my pretty, sophisticated, fashionista wife with my silly, prankster, farting wife."

Poor beleaguered Husband with his new Kiel James Patrick bracelet.

A Teenager Once Lived Here

Yesterday I moved some papers sitting on an old desk my sons had used while they were growing up, and I had to laugh when I saw this carved graffiti from days gone by:


Wow, I am glad those days of angry puberty are behind me!

So nice to have two wonderfully gentle and loving adult sons.

The Gnome Room

Welcome to the Gnome Room.


When we first saw our house, looking to buy, my youngest son dubbed the small room off his soon-to-be bedroom the Gnome Room because of its tiny door. (If you look closely along the right side of the window, you'll see a little gnome dangling.) When my sons lived here, we kept our futon in the Gnome Room along with a TV and video games. Yet, since it's unheated and un-airconditioned, one must be pretty desperate for space in order to use it for most of the year.

Well, I was desperate for a sewing room, so I packed up the video games, moved the futon to our basement library (once son #1's bedroom), and set up my sewing machine. Before, when I wanted to sew, I'd have to drag all my accessories out of the closet, take over the dining room, and generally it would be too great an effort to even consider. Now, as long I am willing to freeze or swelter, I can sew whenever I like!

I hope you were not expecting a decorator's dream craft room, because this isn't it! But allow me to give you a tour, anyhow.

When my boys were small, I went through a major counted cross-stitch phase: above are cross-stitched baby statistics for both boys as well as a wedding sampler. The blue embroidered piece is a Hmong creation purchased long ago at a craft fair in Minneapolis.

Taking over the Gnome Room also allowed me to finally move my out-of-season clothing from my tiny, over-stuffed closet and store them neatly and covered behind the curtain. Can't wait to trade out my woolens for all those stored Lillys!

Do you remember the yard sale score from last May? One of the pieces turned into my sewing storage. Note the Liberty of London from Target storage box! (I also found the watering can I wanted!)

My mom needlepointed the butterflies for me in the 1970's (can't you tell?).

And here's a peek at my fabric stash.



Now that it's spring, the Gnome Room is actually comfortable. And I've got the itch to sew.

This mess on the floor will ultimately become the Tunic Dress I mentioned a couple of posts ago. I hope to cut it out this afternoon and work on it this coming rainy weekend.

These beautiful Anna Maria Horner fabrics just arrived, along with two patterns. There's enough to make the Socialite Dress, the Multi-Tasker Tote, and a Tunic.

The fabrics looked so pretty stacked together that I took several pictures:



Happy weekend, everyone! I hope to share the fruits of my labors very soon.