Prayer Shower

02/10/2011

Last Monday Jason and I gathered around his brother Dan and his wife Ginger along with 7 of their closet friends to give them a baby shower. Not the gift kind of baby shower—we’ve already done that—this was a prayer shower. We all went around and prayed blessings over their baby girl, the upcoming birth, the new parents, their home and gave thanks for the gift she is and will be to our community of friends and family. It was relaxed and informal but a really special time for the parents-to-be. (I didn’t take any pictures that night but here’s another one from the maternity shoot two days before.)

Have you ever hosted a prayer shower or been to one?

5 Comments | Faith, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends, Family: Jason | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Master Bedroom Redecorate: Before

02/09/2011

This month we’re celebrating 4 years in our 1955 brick ranch. When we moved in we quickly painted and decorated our living room, kitchen, guest bathroom and master bedroom. Each room has undergone a few changes through the years but generally have stayed the same. I’m ready for a change. Specifically, I’m tired of the brown and blue in our bedroom.

I’m dreaming of the white, airy, clean hotel rooms that I saw behind Jason on Skype while he was in Sweden last summer. We don’t have a white wall anywhere in our house. OK, not totally true—we do have 2 small walls in the unfinished laundry room that are still builder’s beige. But generally, every room in our home is painted. And now I’m craving white. Fresh, minimalist, feather-light white.

5 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: master bedroom redo, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Update on the MCM Post-Flood Rebuild

02/08/2011

At the beginning of the year, our friends’ house was torn down. (Remember, it had been destroyed in the May 2010 Nashville Flood after having standing water 4 ft. above the foundation level.) The new house must be built up off the ground and follow all sorts of ridiculous FEMA regulations. Construction started last week:

The house basically has an above-ground unfinished basement. They’re not allowed to use this space for any habitable living space. Half of it is graveled and the other half is paved for a garage and storage area. And possibly a roller rink?

If I can get their permission to do so, I’ll keep you posted with the design and interior development. If not, I’ll just kept tabs on the exterior changes.

(CBB 3.0)

3 Comments | Art, Art: CBB 3.0, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Do You Know About Publix?

02/07/2011


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Back in the days when I lived in Erie, PA (from age 10 to 20), I was blessed to have a great grocery store called Wegmans nearby. Despite the poorly planned brick floors in the produce department, I loved Wegmans for the bakery, huge selection of teas and fresh produce, diverse international section, quality generics, good prices and the bulk candy section. Moving to Nashville, TN in 2004 required that we find our new favorite out of the unfamiliar grocery store chains. Which brought us eventually to Publix.

Except for the legendary bulk candy section, my favorite tea and the cart rattling brick floors, Publix has everything that Wegmans had. And actually Publix brand products are even better. The quality seems the same goodness to me but the packaging is beautiful, minimalist, and I believe greatly influenced Target brand’s recent redesign. Publix is quickly making me forget about Wegmans.


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I call this blog My Mid-Century Modern Life because there are many aspects of my life that are modern (which I love) and there are many aspects of my life that are reminiscent of my grandparents’ generation (which I love). Sometimes the modern and mid-century collide into a beautiful blend (homes, fashion, graphic design). Publix is an excellent example of the mid-century modern meld.

Publix brand is fresh and clean. It is high tech and modern in every way that a grocery store can be. But it also has the charm and class of a different era. The decor has some vintage mid-century imagery but what I’m really talking about is the employees. From their retro aqua aprons to their exceptional customer service. Publix employees are genuinely friendly and kind. They often ask if we need help finding anything. I have had real conversations with the woman behind the produce counter and the man behind the seafood counter about where I got my hat, our cookout plans for the weekend, the photo shoot I just had with my very pregnant sister-in-law, a hot sauce that goes great with fried catfish. It’s as if they actually take pride in their jobs and truly like people. To top it all off, they always offer to help me out to the car with my groceries which involves a chatty grocery bagger pushing the cart our to my car and loading all the groceries into the trunk for me. I usually decline unless it’s a nice day and I know they’ll enjoy getting some sunshine. Someday when I’m wrangling kids, I’m sure I’ll take advantage of this offer.

(Source: •)

Publix exemplifies how mid-century values can set a modern supermarket chain apart from the rest.

What about you? Do you know of any other places with great customer service that reminds you of a simpler time? What’s your favorite grocery store?

6 Comments | Art, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design, Other | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Phone Photo Friday

02/04/2011

The days are getting longer and lately I’ve been catching the sunset on my way out of the office. Breathtaking!

1 Comment | Art, Art: God's creation, Art: Phone Photo Friday | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Retro Renovation Love

02/03/2011

I got a ping-back notice that my Hall Closet Turned Home Office (AKA Cloffice) was mentioned on Retro Renovation today. RR is the flagship of mid-century home blogs. I’m flattered! I had no idea that my little blog was on their radar. If you’re a new visitor here after seeing our recent renovation project on Retro Renovation, WELCOME!

5 Comments | Art, Art: before & after, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Expecting

02/02/2011

On Saturday I had the privilege of snapping some last minute pregnancy pictures of my brother- and sister-in-law. They were going to have a photographer friend of ours do some portraits but it never worked out and we’re down to the wire (2.5 weeks to due today) so I offered my free but mediocre photography skills. I was happy to try out my new Nikon in a portrait setting and I’m pleased that a few good ones emerged. Not bad for a point and shoot.

I played with some different photo treatments in Photoshop. Mama-to-be requested some black & white and some without her face in the shot. (Full term pregnant women are always a bit self-conscious about looking puffy in the face. I think Ginger looks radiant!) Photographer friends – feel free to offer your constructive criticism on my skillz (or lack of skills).

I think she looks so lovely in this one:

They’re silly. I’m glad I captured this moment because I don’t think it could be reproduced. Their house is always full of laughs and I know they’ll be super fun parents.

This is one of my favorite shots because Dan didn’t know I was taking it. I was setting up for the next shot while Ginger when to change clothes.

This is the only shot that I actually had a vision of creating the night before. I think it works and captures them fairly well. Daddy Dan, the thinker, a man of few words, a planner. Mama Ginger, always rubbing her baby bump and speaking sweetly to her daughter, lovely and content.

Marty can’t wait to have another master to lick…

Jason and I are so excited for them and excited to meet our niece. It’s been really cool to see how Dan and Ginger have grown so much the past 9 months in maturity and spiritually. I know that they will be great parents. I’ve been so encouraged and inspired by how positive Ginger has been through the entire pregnancy. She hasn’t had any complaints and has enjoyed every moment of carrying a baby (except maybe for that couple of hours early on when the mid-wife said she couldn’t find the heartbeat, but that all worked out). Her pure love and joy for their baby girl is contagious. Or maybe it’s just that as her auntie, I already have a lot of love and joy for her, too.

We love you guys and are looking forward to walking with you into this new adventure!

7 Comments | Art, Art: graphic design, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

My Favorite Tea

02/01/2011

If you know me well you know that I’m a tea drinker. I have been since I was young, thanks to my mama. I prefer black teas and for the past 10 years or so, my favorite tea has been Republic of Tea Mango Ceylon. I have never gotten sick of it. The problem, though, is that it’s not sold many places. Since I ran out recently I’ve been trying other teas. I saw this Mango Black Tea at Trader Joe’s the other day. It looks like it might be a perfect replacement and it was cheap!

It’s good but it’s a lot more tangy/fruity than my favorite. Oh well. It was worth a try. I suppose I should just start ordering it online.

1 Comment | Art, Art: Cooking | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

January Spring

01/31/2011

This weekend was January Spring! What’s January Spring, you ask? That’s what Jason and I call the weekend we seem to get every winter, usually in January, where we get a preview of spring and a respite from winter. This past Saturday and Sunday were sunny with highs of 65º. A glorious change from all the snow we’ve had in Nashville this year. (We had 4.5 inches in December and I think it’s been more than that in January.) I left the doors hanging open hoping to lure the warm sunshine into the house!

Here’s a little weekend recap:

Friday night I had dinner with my parents and we saw 127 Hours. It was intense and disturbing so be forewarned if you go. It is inspiring to see how Aron Ralston went through what he did and survived. Talk about a will to live.

Saturday I had the privilege of snapping some last minute maternity pictures of my brother- and sister-in-law. More on that later this week. After that: grocery shopping, lunch outside, a Vanderbilt – University of Arkansas basketball game, and a movie with friends.

Sunday Jason got home—if you’ve been reading this blog for the past 6 months you know how much I love homecomings!—and we enjoyed the warm weather with breakfast outside, weeding the garden (Jason) and a walk with Lucy. After that his family came over to hang out for the evening. We ate tortilla soup and berry delight and played Apples to Apples. Jason and I topped the night off with catching up on the past couple episodes of Modern Family. It was a wonderful weekend!

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By the way… sorry for the unannounced blog hiatus the past couple weeks. I was feeling uninspired after weeks of cold, snowy winter and decided I needed a break. Five posts a week is a big time commitment and though I enjoy it, sometimes I feel like I put too much pressure on myself. So I’m back. I’m not sure if I’m 5-days-a-week back, but I’m here.

2 Comments | Art, Art: God's creation, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends, Family: Jason, Family: Me | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Bringing the House Down

01/19/2011

Back in May I wrote about the flood that impacted Nashville and the surrounding Tennessee areas, including our friends and downhill neighbors Leila and Jeremy.

As a reminder, here’s what their house looked like after they purchased it and worked to fully renovate it:

Here’s what the house looked like during the flood:

And here’s the house at almost the peak of flood level. It’s the one on the right. You can see that the water is up to the base of the windows. It eventually made it half way up the window to a level of 4 ft. in the house. The water was too deep (and disgusting) for me to get a picture straight on:

So here we are now, 7-8 months later, and their house is finally being demolished. FEMA regulations required that the house be raised 4ft to be above flood plain. When the costs were evaluated it made the most sense to demo and start over. This process has been long and painful for our friends and it was so good to see tangible forward progress just before New Years.

Demolition was set to begin just around sunrise on a crisp morning:

A quick peak inside before it’s gone; everything of value had been striped out: windows, insulation, wiring, plumbing…

And before the sun was above the tree line, the house was a pile of sticks and bricks:

It turned out to be a bright, beautiful day and brought new meaning to a clean slate for a new year. I’ll do my best to keep you updated on the progress. Soon (once the snow melts…) the foundation will be poured and construction on their new home will begin. I’m hopeful that they’ll be in their new home by the anniversary of the flood.

(CBB)

3 Comments | Art, Art: mid-century design, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

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