We (meaning mostly Jason) recently replaced all of the pine mulch in the front of our house with pea gravel. From a distance it doesn’t look all that different.
But closer up it looks really nice and clean.
And it won’t decompose and need to be refreshed twice a year.
A little piece of Arizona style xeriscape in Nashville, Tennessee.
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Art, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation, Art: modern design | Tagged: landscaping, mulch, pea gravel, rocks, xeriscape | 
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Posted by mahlbrandt
Everyone who collects mid-century antiques knows about craigslist. Heck, anyone who buys and sells secondhand anything knows about craigslist! But have you heard about Craiglook? Our friend Sean tipped us off to it a few months ago. It’s an RSS Browser for craigslist that can save searches, broaden your results up to 250 miles from your zip code and best of all: search results have photos and you can quickly look at details without having to leave the search results page. Brilliant!
Thank you, whoever created craiglook, for making the great local classifieds database more user-friendly! (And thanks Sean!)
1 Comment | Art, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: craiglook, craigslist, craigslook | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
No, I’m not pregnant. Did I fool you for a second? This post is about an addition we’re adding to our home … sometime in the yet-to-be-determined future. As in, we’re just dreaming for now.
Our mid-century (1955) ranch is 1420 square feet. Plenty of room for two people. Plenty of room for two people who frequently work from home, even. It’s a 3-bedroom, 2 full-bath home* which allows us to have a comfortable master suite, a music studio for Jason and an office/craft room for me. (*Originally it was 3-bedrooms, 1 full-bath and a den.) The only problem is that we want to have kids. And we don’t want to move. Ever. We love our house and our garden and our neighborhood that much. Our lot is .36 acres and our house is average size for the neighborhood so there is justification for an addition. Commence daydreams of building on.
Commence? What am I saying. We’ve lived here 3.5 years and we’ve been talking about where and how and what we could build for 3.5 years. Just recently though, Jason was talking to one of our friends who is an excellent carpenter/handyman about some possibilities and suggestions. JB said, “If I was y’all I’d build off the front. You have a big front yard.” Jason heard less grass to mow. Current home layout:
We had never considered that. All of our previous ideas were to build off the back, near the driveway. A few days ago I had time to draw some sketches of how we could make it work. I love drawing out floor plans. Am I weird? I used to do this all the time when I was a kid … drawing out my dream house or the house of the made up family I was writing a story about.
The first sketch is the simplest solution – cut off 1/3 of my 11’x10′ office to create a hallway and add two modest size bedrooms with closets. My office could even be further cut down to say … 6’x6′ to create a playroom area or a reading nook or something. Total addition: approx. 300 sq. ft.
The second sketch takes the same idea but shoves it further from the existing house to create a den or study area and possibly an enclosed outdoor courtyard area off of the master bedroom. An enclosed outdoor living space is a little fantasy of ours. Total addition: approx: 500 sq. ft.
I showed Jason my sketches and he loves the second one. Sweet! Let’s do it! Oh wait, we don’t have kids. We don’t have $50,000 lying around. That’s OK. For now, I’ll just map these out in Illustrator.
What do you think? Do you have experience with adding on to your home? Would our house lose it’s ranchiness if we had an addition that made it L-shaped (or gun shaped)? We don’t have room on our property to expand on either side. This box I added on the tax assessment schematic shows it would be about 26’x20′ for the larger of the 2 addition plans:
I wonder how much these plans will change in the next … oh … 7 years or so.
5 Comments | Art, Art: graphic design, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: addition, floor plan, floorplan | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Jason and I have been with Verizon for at least 8 year but this summer when our contracts were up we came the closest we’ve ever been to parting ways in favor of getting the iPhone. As much as we love Mac products and even after weeks of research, the idea of dropping around $400 on making the switch didn’t sit well. Truthfully, we wanted them so bad but we prayed about it and had no peace about making the move once we were standing in the Apple store.
All that to say, we got what we decided was the next best thing: Palm Pre Plus. It’s not an iPhone but at least we have Verizon’s excellent coverage and the phone is very, very close. It has a large touch screen, tons of apps, unlimited data usage and a slide out QWERTY keyboard (which I think is a lot easier to use than iPhone’s touch keyboard.) Another nice feature of this phone/Verizon is that it’s as easy as pie to turn the phone into a mobile hotspot so I can use the internet on my laptop from anywhere. Anywhere … like poolside or on a tour bus. That means I. can. work. from. anywhere. (Please, Boss?)
Jason and I have never had smart phones before and these things are rocking our world. Here are some of my favorite applications / the best palm pre apps I’ve discovered so far:
Standards like YouTube, Facebook of course
1. Pandora – free customized online radio
2. TweeFree – apps make the Twitter experience so much better
3. Flashlight – bright white screen
4. Evernote – photo and text notes that can be accessed online from any computer
5. Asphalt5 – super fun driving game. drive with the phone like steering wheel. Bonus points for including a Mini Cooper.
6. Speed Brain – good brain exercise
7. AP Mobile – news
8. AccuWeather – I find it to be more optimistic than Weather Channel (which is also a free app) and usually right. I like how it just shows a red thermometer for the days when the high is 100º and up.
9. Scoop – RSS blog reader that works with a Google Reader account
10. Yelp – restaurant/store/attraction finder. I use this all the time to find out what’s nearby or to call the place we’re going to order ahead or check their hours and to read reviews
11. Topple Ball – fun, phone-tilting puzzle game
12. Pink Pad – cycle management for ladies. Make notes about what’s going on and it helps me plan ahead
Most of these apps are free because we’re cheapskates.
After a month we only have a few complaints about the Palm Pre Plus. Jason’s and mine have frozen 5 times collectively. Three of those required popping the battery out to reset and once popping the battery out and letting it recharge. The other complaint is short battery life but we expected that and we do use them a lot. We got car chargers (and cases) cheap from Amazon.com and we take our chargers with us everywhere we go. I can usually get by with only charging it though the night.
4 Comments | Art, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Me | Tagged: iphone, palm pre plus, smart phone, verizon | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Our fruit/vegetable garden is in a bit of a slump (more on that tomorrow) but thankfully our flowers are doing just fine. Zinnia are one of my favorite flowers to plant for cutting. They bloom for a long time outside and they hold up in vases for quite a while, too.
Jason and I have been collection glass soda caps on our window sill for the past 6 months or so. I’m not sure why or what we’re going to do with them. If the bottle is pretty enough it gets saved on the windowsill, too. I like to use them as vases.
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation, Art: modern design | Tagged: cut flowers, vase, zinnia | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Art Deco, the modern art and architecture movement of the 1930s and 40s, was the launching pad for mid-century modern design. I don’t know if I would have been able to describe art deco two weeks about but after a day spend in Miami Beach, I have a much better understanding of and appreciation for the style. Pastel colors, rounded corners, geometric shapes, modern angles, neon. I’ll let the photographs speak for themselves.
1 Comment | Art, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: art deco, Miami, miami beach | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Naples has a lot of mid-century modern architecture: lots of peach and turquoise ranch homes with concrete block, flat or slow slung roofs. There was even an A-frame walk-up Dairy Queen. But … I did a lousy job documenting all of that. I was too busy looking out the windows and taking it all in. And leaving my camera and cell phone at the hotel for fear of sand somehow working it’s way into my precious electronics. Sorry. I did take a few mediocre pictures. Next time I’ll do a better job of documenting the neighborhoods.
1 Comment | Art, Art: Drive-By Shooting, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: mid-century modern | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Since I now have an excuse to have babies on my brain, I’ve been keeping an eye out for all things baby-cool.
Check out this multifunctional bassinet/rocker called Koo that I saw on Design Milk. Baby sleeps in the bassinet until feeding time. Mom can rock baby back to sleep after nursing. Smart, huh?
6 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: modern design | Tagged: babies, bassinet, koo, rocker | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
If you have lots of money, don’t care about American-made quality, want new things or don’t have time for vintage and thrift shopping but you like mid-century modern design … Urban Outfitters is just what you need! They’ve got some great looking mid-century inspired designs. Let’s see …
There is the Night and Day Convertible Sofa …
And the Mid-Century Rocker Chair. I want this! I would gladly accept an authentic vintage mid-century version but if all else fails, this will do.
There’s this Mid-Century Sofa.
Manchester Media Stand for your record player and records, of course. (Or books and a lamp.) Lovely peg/cone legs.
A 36″ Round Woven Mixed Rug that would have looked right at home at grandma’s house.
I love this printed 50’s Birdcage Duvet Cover but I’m not sure I’d want it on my bed.
And a 70’s Clock. If you’ve ever been to my house, you know I love clocks! Every room has one. Some rooms have two. I need more rooms!
3 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: furniture, Mid-century modern design, Urban Outfitters | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Actually, I could have called this post Gifts are Fun! But that sounds kind of … materialistic. Maybe gifts is my love language. Regardless, I’m so thankful for each of my thoughtful, wonderful friends and family members and I got some really neat things that I thought I’d share with you. Not literally, you know, just in pictures.
I mentioned yesterday that my first birthday gift was Gee-Wiz.
My sister and brother-in-law sent this beautiful bag from a recent trip to Nicaragua. It seems to match almost everything and is the perfect size!
My brother and his wife sent The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey since I’ve been wanting to read it. I forgot to take a photo but really, it’s not a pretty book anyway.
I got a canister of my all-time favorite tea, Mango Ceylon Republic of Tea, from our friends Nate and Kala. Yummy! I have this everyday and somehow never get sick of it.
My sister-in-law found some great things, just my style. A cute screen printed burlap bag containing a cute little retro journal, gift certificate for a manicure (we’ll go together), and this really fun book by Pop Ink called Fluffy Humpy Poopy Puppy. Tons of wonderful illustrations and funny quips. I need another copy to cut up and frame.
And the mack-daddy of crafting inspiration: Martha Stewert’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts. My parents got me this lovely book and a metal water canteen.
My dear husband got me some new tank tops that I LOVE! I can only find a photo online of this one, which is actually more of a beach cover up. (Hooray for beach vacation next month!)
And our friends Leila and Jeremy went over the top giving me a new outfit (skinny jeans and a shirt), candy (that I’ve already eaten), swimming googles (that are already in my pool bag) and a handmade pocket mirror (that I’m too lazy to dig out of my purse to photograph.)
Thanks everyone!! I feel very loved!
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: crafts, Art: fashion, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends, Family: Jason, Family: Me | Tagged: birthday gifts, books | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
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Graphic designer, MCM interior design enthusiast, wife to amazing guitarist and hard working realtor, mama—by way of foster care, adoption and biology—and follower of Jesus Christ.
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