Oh That Snarky Quinoa

Have you seen this on Pinterest?  Am I the last to know?  I had something else entirely planned for today’s post but a wise woman sent this my way and I just. couldn’t. stop. laughing.

Quinoa is ironic

but also pragmatic

and in spite of an inflated sense of self we love her

because she farts and poops glitter

so that her elitism is oft forgiven

Her complete willingness to go there

and there

coupled with her altruistic heart

helps us to overlook her consumption

but Quinoa's piccolo playing cousin and his cock are still my favsies

Check it.  The kiddie pool version of this.

kisses,  mrs. V 

Design Profile - Blue and White Porcelain

An Affair with Blue and White…

We have a saying in our family, ‘Don’t gam it up,’ the precise origin of which is unclear but I am fairly certain it surfaced around the same time that the shabby chic style gained momentum. This cautionary directive is usually aimed at our familial tendency to enthusiastically add MORE.  And as these things go, the saying has gained a life of its own in our family lexicon, particularly between my sister and I, slipping seamlessly from noun to verb to adjective and back again, clearly carrying a negative connotation.

Mary McDonald

For instance, instead of adding a few pieces of patinaed furniture, my mother filled her living room to the gills with aged furniture and probably more than a few tattered chairs hanging on the walls.  Similarly, when embracing the transferware craze, her parlor walls were often covered top to toes with oil paintings surrounded by scads of blue and white plates.

In the same fashion, when I first moved into the Stamp, I immediately slammed an over large oil painting on the wall and promptly surrounded it with tons of my own collection of blue and white plates that I had been dragging around from apartment to apartment during my tenure as a singleton.  I scattered blue and white ginger jars, cache pots, and delft here and there.    I was very pleased with my efforts and smugly thought, ‘how very un-Pottery Barn.  Success!’ That is until my college friends visited Chez V and said, ‘wow, your house looks just like your mother’s.’  I was devastated.

the only evidence I can find of the plates/painting situation at that time...

more paintings and plates...

So it would seem that I had gammed it up. I practically ripped those plates off the wall as their car was pulling out of the drive.  I called my sister.  She understood.  I wrapped up all that blue and white and shoved it into the garage pile of stuff.  And so began a self-induced purge of all things overly traditional and to my mind, gammy.  

I feel it important to pause here for a qualifier:  my mother has great taste and has TONS of beautiful things.  In fact, I am lucky enough to have a fraction of her cast-offs.  But the fly in the ointment, or rather the gammy in the hammy, is that she has so much of it on display that each becomes lost in a sea of STUFF.  So I hope you can understand my reaction to  my friends' well-intended comments about the house.

Ruthie Sommers

However, time and again, at least according to my tear sheets and Pinterest, I find my eye returning to rooms with traditional influences, particularly with blue and white, that are reinterpreted for today.  My heart skips a beat when I see mass groupings of ginger jars.  And here I find myself, some years later, pulling out all that blue and white and trying to mix it back in with a fresh eye and a determined effort to toe the fine line between tastefully en masse and moons over my gammy.

home of Mark D Sikes via Habitually Chic

home of Scot Meacham Wood

Anna Spiro

Michael Penney

via And George

Anne Hepfer

Ashley Whittaker

Cote de Texas

Grant K. Gibson

Like with any affair, it seems I am destined to move seamlessly and sometimes painfully from love to hate and back again with all things blue and white.   At this moment, it is true love again, and not gammy over my hammy.

kisses,  mrs. V

A Few More Thoughts on Manners, Pinterest and Online Platforms

Welcome, Again and the Thing About Online Communities…

Wow. First, let me start by saying hello to those of you who are new around these parts.  Welcome to Chez V.  Make yourself at home and take a look around.  You can find out more about me and Chez V here, here, and here. 

And let me say how touched I am by all the wonderful comments and phone calls and pep talks I have received on yesterday’s post about chasing pipe dreams.  If I could, I would kiss each and everyone one of you!  I have a head full of plans for turning my pipe dreams into reality thanks to some invaluable counsel from this wildly successful gal behind La Plates.  She is a dear friend and sorority sister from back in the day.  You might have seen her stuff featured, um, everywhere.  

via

In the spirit of those darling Avetts, I am going to go be it!

I made this as part of a graduation gift for my cousin

Of course I would be insanely remiss if I didn’t mention the Pinterest Manners post.  Great conversations are happening and I just feel lucky to be part of the dialogue.  Really.  I am learning firsthand that this wonderful world of blogging and social media is truly built upon support, spontaneity, risk taking, community, and collaboration.

the picture that launched a 1,000 words...

 

After 4 years of avid blog reading I am still just as inspired today by all the great stuff happening out there as I was when I stumbled upon my first design blog.  So glad I finally joined the party.  It is just so ding dang exciting I could pee myself!  Sadly, or hysterically depending on your perspective, it has been known to happen.

photo of our Chez V family by Merrilee Luke Ebbeler

But I want to share one more thing about Pinterest and online communities.  As shocked as I was about silly, negative comments on someone’s pins, mr. V was not the slightest bit surprised.  He is a long, long time online gamer and tech blog reader before they were even called blogs.  He is used to the vitriol that comes with online platforms.  He actually chuckled and said, ‘wait until you get your first troll.’  Why would someone make it their mission to purposefully cause fights?  I am not talking about differing opinions here.  If we all agreed on everything the conversation would get pretty boring.  I am talking about malice with intent.  Or even unintended malice.

It is my hope that the next time these folks decide to post comments on other people’s pins or walls or what-have-you, they will ask themselves if they are contributing constructively to the conversation or just being a troll.

Back tomorrow with a quick and delicious weeknight dish!

kisses,  mrs. V

Thumbs Up or Down - Pinterest Manners

Thumbs Up or Down – Shoes, No Socks, No Service

I admire people who make fearless fashion choices.  Typically, they have a fearless personality to match.  I especially applaud men who have the confidence to rock some color or pattern mixing or shoes with no socks.

via

Nick Wooster via

Recently, I was a bystander in a cyber kerfuffle over the whole concept of men wearing shoes without socks.  I had no idea this was such a polarizing topic.  I wear shoes without socks all the time.  Loafers, high heels, ballet flats, chuck taylors etc.  Why is it generally accepted for women to wear shoes without socks but for men it is considered a no no?!

via

I love the look of a man wearing a slipper or brogues sans socks.  To me it shows a certain self-assured swagger.  An insouciant jauntiness that says, I don’t take life or myself too seriously.

Nick Wooster via

Scot Meacham Wood of SMW Design

But the point is not really about men wearing shoes without socks.  The point is about manners.  This little kerfuffle happened over on Pinterest.  Scot Meacham Wood, whose design skills, taste, and style I have long admired, was pinning these images of men sporting shoes without socks.  And men mixing prints and wearing bright colored pants.  I was surprised to see a bunch of negative comments posted about these pinned images.  At first, I thought perhaps these were close friends of his poking a little inside fun.  But that doesn’t seem to be the case, as he eventually had enough diplomacy to politely ask them to ‘unfollow’ his boards.

look at his drawing room!  so great.  via

Isn’t the intent of Pinterest to be a place to catalogue images that are important and meaningful to each of us?  And share them with like-minded folks - people who choose to 'follow' us based on similar tastes or aesthetics?  And if so, then why the need to be so nasty?

To be sure, I don’t like everything pinned by the people I follow.  I might even snicker a bit to myself – wondering what in the world you were thinking.  But I wouldn’t have the bad breeding to post snide comments.  Unless of course, you are my sister, in which case I would tell her she was being bonkers.    

Scot's wonderful red pants!  And that rug in his office! via

I follow Scot precisely for his vision and for his taste.  We are like-minded in our aesthetics but he has the added experience, confidence, and self-assurance to sport any of the looks that he has pinned.  And that is why I follow his boards and read his blog - The Adventures of Tartanscot.  He inspires me to push beyond my comfort zone.  And I haven't even touched on his amazing work.

his bedroom!  look at all the details.  via

a small sampling of his shoe collection.  dying over here.  via

Scot and his friends at home as featured in Rue Magazine

In an homage to Scot, I donned a bright and cheery outfit the other day complete with loafers sans socks. Scot, if we lived in the same city, I would give you a big momma hug for always displaying such style and grace.  Then I would squeal with delight over your red pants and not so subtly beg an invitation to your next holiday fete.  Who wouldn't want to be smashed in the middle of these jolly gents having a laugh?!

no socks!

If only I had a bright colored pant-yellow or minty green!
And why do I look possessed?!

Every time I try to photograph myself it ends
in peals of laughter over my ridiculous faces.
What is up with that dang eye?!

So, I say THUMBS DOWN to petty comments on Pinterest.  And I say THUMBS UP to men wearing shoes without socks AND women!  What do you say? Have you encountered any mean comments on your boards?

kisses,  mrs. V