This is not going away any time soon.

First lemme just say that I'm a little disappointed in myself for waiting a whole month to post another entry. My life is still half packed away boxes. My brain is full of "to-do lists". My day follows a relentless rhythm: unpack, arrange, clean, repeat.

However. I did have a fabulous break last week. Went home and hung out with my fam- Daddy, Mama, all my sisters and my nieces. It was fabulous. Then we had a big wedding weekend for my cousin Sarah and her new husband, Jud- the entire fam was there! Aunts, Uncles, cousins, Grandmama- we all had our party pants on and OH MAN what a party it was!
Heres a few pics of my week.......

It's Wynnie-poo!!!!

Sisters and cousins rockin' the karoke!!

Don't really remember whats going on here, but I'm pretty sure it was fun.....

Now I'm back in bham and doing the unpacking dance once again. Its gonna be great tho. At least once its all done. And then I'm gonna have a rockin party!!!! You are all invited!! Wanna see my little house? Ok.



But what I really wanted to write about, whats been driving me totally crazy is this horrendous oil spill disaster. Oilpocalypse. Oilmageddon. This is whats not going away any time soon. Friends, this is SERIOUS. What are we going to do? I just can't stop thinking about it. I don't think enough people understand how devastating this is. We are poisoning the ocean. We are killing sea life. We are killing wetlands. Fishermen are going broke. The tourist industry is in the toilet. This is not going away. That thought makes me feel helpless. And I'm angry! I'm angry at British Petroleum, but I'm even angrier at myself and the American people as a whole. We continue to insist on driving gas guzzling cars, flying in airplanes, buying plastic products and refusing to recycle them, propping up this antiquated and unsustainable system. For so long we have refused to change our ways and now, my friends, we are going to pay for our ignorance, for our flippant attitudes, for our hubris. Tens of thousands of barrels of oil are spewing, into the ocean every day and BP has NO IDEA how to stop it. This is not going away. This is going to permanently change the landscape. Our beautiful beaches are going to be black, sticky, and smelly. Men and women will be out of work and our already high unemployment is going to surge even higher and for far longer than this government is prepared to sustain. And the wildlife... it just kills me. What are we going to do?

I hate to end on such a depressing note, but the reality is.... well.... our reality is not looking good. If there is any silver lining, I pray that this disaster drives home the fact that oil is unsustainable, destructive, and must be supplemented by alternate forms of energy. Its no longer the dream of hippies and people from Vermont. We have to make a change. Whos with me?

I'm hanging pictures on the walls

I guess that means i'm pretty serious. About living in this house. I am actually expending energy to arrange and hang my art on the walls of this house that i live in....dare I call it my home? I dare not. I'll tell ya a little secret though: I'm begining to LOVE THIS HOUSE. I knew i would. Its really so great, and if my effing camera wasn't broken (oh yeah, my effing camera is broken thats why my posts have been so wordy and not at all picture-y) I would be posting pictures of my sweet little bungalow. Theres just so much light! and space! and there are so many rooms! And my husband and I can stomp around on the floors and sing at the tops of our lungs and there are no neighbors to bang on the walls and yell, "shut up!"

Heres some great news: For the past two days we've had electricians, plumbers, and HVAC dudes at our house installing heaters and AC units and roto-rooting....
Heres some not great news: my bathroom and EVERYTHING IN IT is blanketed in a fine white dust becuase when the dude cut through the ceramic tile to make a space for the new vent, he DIDN'T TAKE ANYTHING OUT OF THE BATHROOM. If I had known they were gonna be cutting holes in the floor, I would have cleard out the room myself. But now our toothbrushes are covered in tile dust which, as it were, is terrible for your enamel.

theres your update.

Heres a picture of my favorite sneakers and the fabulous socks i like to wear with them....

Dreaming of paint and fabric and more time and more money

Its killing me. I want to spend a solid week in my new house arranging, rearranging, painting, sewing, and decorating. I also want about 500 bucks. I think I could do it with 500 bucks. Last night i finished designing our bedroom in my mind. I am going with a deep turquoise, mustard yellow (Frenchs...not Grey Poupon), pea green, and white color scheme- with dashes of chocolate brown and sandy tan... and maybe a pop of sunny yellow or orangy orange..... I have big plans that involve curtains, a fabulous paint job on my 2 dressers, and maybe some throw pillows.... But of course, this is all in my dreams because i have no money and no time. GAH.


But I'm not complaining- things are gonna get better. They can't get much worse! I know!! Lets take a look at some inspiration pics i've been collecting for my bedroom...

This is the look I'm going for on my big chest of drawers...

I think I'm gonna use the technique shown in the first image- letting the wood show thru to create the image- but I like the yellow of the last image- and i think the image in the middle is the most like the flower design that i want to use (and its a sweet little room- check out those framed silhouettes on the wall- made from wall paper swatches!!)

More later.... i'm gonna be scouring the fabric stores on line and in my hood for the next week or so to find fabulously affordable and fabulously fabulous fabric for my bedroom and living room... we have 26 windows which I love..... but thats quite a few curtains.... So bedroom and living room take priority- then I will move on to the windows in the dining room, guest room, office and maybe the kitchen... my goodness. This is gonna be fun.

I still don't want to talk about it.

So, the moving into a new house situation is still a little "up in the air".... and I don't think I'm quite ready to discuss. I'm afraid of jinxing myself. I'm also afraid I might burst into tears or rip my landlord's head clean off his shoulders. Either option would be strangely satisfying.

Anyhoo. lets talk about the fact that TODAY i am THIRTY YEARS OLD!!! Yepp- thats right.

I'm glad to be 30. I'm glad to leave the uncertainty of the 20s behind and look toward a decade of focus, creativity, and abundance..... I think thats my birthday wish- that my family and I would be blessed with fabulous ideas, will-power to put those ideas in motion, and sucess! Doesn't that sound good?

Guess what else sounds good?

Looking at more pictures of BABY FABULOUS!!!! These were take this past weekend at my parent's house. Sally was precious in her fabulous new party dress. Her mama taught her how to say "Happy Birthday" and "Aunt Fabby"..... my heart melted. Enjoy these pics and stay tuned for more. I have some great shots of my most delicious b-day cake...baked just for me by the culinary genious, Caroline Varner!!

But now, I give you Sally Beck....aka Baby Fabulous.....

9am: The Snow

I woke up at 8:45 and peeped out my window to see the snow tipping down! Immediately flipped to the weather channel to gague how long I could sleep in and still not miss the prime snow time. Mr. Weather Man told me i had until 10:45..... "Get up Clarke!!!!" Below is a pictoral journey through my first Alabama Snow Day.

Anyone remember that art installation in Central Park, NYC called "The Gates"..... We have our own version at the Red Mountain Villas!

This was taken in the back yard of my NEW HOUSE!


These are the steps leading up to my NEW HOUSE! and no, that blurry-ness is not an effect- I had just taken a substantial spill (slippery boots) and broke my fall with my camera.... That blurry-ness is snow tightly packed into the lense area... whoops!







The last time I ever saw my Grandaddy Varner he was in the hospital, sick from cancer. He was wearing a bright red union suit. We all told him he looked so handsome and cheery- just like a cardinal. Now whenever I see a cardinal, I feel like its my Grandaddy, stopping by to say "I love you" and to make sure I'm doing ok.

this photo was retouched by my awesome hubby-- I love photoshop-- and my awesome hubby.

WHOOO HOOOO!

We got a house!! We are now the proud renters of 1045 Green Springs Ave-- I will have pics for ya on monday. Its perfectly fabulous. And I can't stop thinking about it. I couldn't sleep last night cause i was decorating all the rooms in my head- arranging furniture, hanging pictures on the walls, painting.... I was busy :)

Anyway- I got to work and immediately hit up all my fav interior design sites.... I got a little hung up on wallpaper. Heres what i love at this moment:

How fun would it be to hang mini pics inside each of these frames? you could even color them in.... I am LOVING that idea.

So, I am discovering that i lean towards a nature theme or a 1960's acid trip! But this is just a start.

I have 15 or so picture frames and mirror frames of various sizes and would love to frame pieces of wallpaper- That way I'm not covering an entire wall that i will have to rip down when we move again- If ya frame it, ya take it with ya! I'm imagining a wall covered in frames, some filled with wallpaper, some empty... it would feel a little something like this:

I also have a vision of a baby's nursery (surprise surprise)- I'll paint the ceiling and walls just down to about 3 ft from the floor a nice pale blue or turquoise, then go green down to the floor. Then i find some funky patterned wallpaper and cut out a huge tree- smack that on the wall- cut out some birds out of a diff design to sit on the branches and fly in the sky- and maybe a few fun animals to walk around the room-- these are not going to be detailed cutouts, just sillhouettes really....I gotta find the paper and then i will do an inspiration board of the design to share with ya- Stay tuned!!!!