Wonderful New Giveaway–Jewelry by Karen Sugarman

 

One of my favorite sponsors is also one of my longest and most loyal sponsors – Karen Sugarman Designs.    I’m totally in love with her jewelry which she designs – and I love to read about the inspiration behind her pieces, which she writes about in her blog HERE.

 

Karen’s last blog entry was about this necklace – owned by Elizabeth Taylor, which she was inspired to recreate.

 

Elizabeth Taylor’s necklace was made of antique ivory opera tokens from the 18th and 19th century, and was valued at $1,500 to $2,000 but was auctioned at $314,500.00!!  

Inspired by the token necklace, Karen designed this one and offered others for sale either like this or with individualized tokens.

 

 

 

Recently she wrote HERE about a work in progress token necklace that she is currently making for a client – each token was hand drawn and created especially for the client.  It’s a fascinating story and makes me wish I had ordered one myself.  It’s just so beautiful!   

 

 

I especially love this necklace Karen designed – with an antique Chinese gaming counter hanging from a chain of peridot and pearls.   Beautiful!

Another favorite is this antique carnelian fob – love it.   And I love Karen’s styling too.   Her presentation is an art in itself.

There is this antique Victorian peacock blue guilloche mourning locket – hanging from pearls.

My absolute favorite – this antique cameo on a necklace of shells.  Perfection.

 

 

There are also bracelets and earrings – such as this stunning pair 0f red intaglios surrounded by pink opaline.

 

 

The giveaway necklace was inspired by Karen’s love of the Quatrefoil shape.

The quatrefoil is an ancient Christian symbol used in architecture – the name is derived from the Latin word for four leaves – as the Quatrefoil resembles a four leaf clover.  

In Christianity – the four sided shape is said to symbolize the four evangelists – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. 

The height of the Quatrefoil’s popularity was during the Gothic and Renaissance eras – but today, the Quatrefoil is experiencing a resurgence – and it’s shape can be found everywhere.

An example of a quatrefoil found in architecture.   This is at the Croyland Abbey and depicts the life of St. Guthlac.  

A stained glass quatrefoil found in a church in Chiswick, England.

Here is an architectural example from today – the kitchen in actor Robert Pattinson’s house boasts a quatrefoil window.

This gorgeous example is from the kitchen in Velvet and Linen’s new house.  There is a matching quatrefoil on the opposite side of this space in the living room. 

 

 

McAlpine Tankersley designed this quatrefoil window for a house in Nashville.

 

 

 

And another by McAlpine Tankersley – this window lays on its side.

 

 

Suzanne Kasler designed this chair using a quatrefoil for inspiration.

 

 

Kasler also designed this line of quatrefoil lamps.

Charming shutters using the design.

Fountains in the quatrefoil shape are popular.

The quatrefoil is a very popular design in papers, in linens, and in fabrics. 

 

 

You can even get the shape in tiles – in fact this is what inspired Karen Sugarman in her jewelry design – this tile is what she wanted for her master bathroom renovation – until she priced it.  Stunning!

 

And here is the giveaway – this beautiful mother of pearl quatrefoil necklace, hanging from a chain of pearls and crystals:

 

The Rules:

To enter the giveaway – you need to first visit Karen Sugarman’s web site HERE,

look around and find your favorite item.  Then, come back here and leave a comment telling me what your favorite piece was.  That’s all!

Be sure to leave your email address on the comment if you are Anonymous!!

The contest starts today – November 25 and lasts until Thursday, November 28th at 11:59 pm.

And as an extra bonus – any piece you purchase will be discounted by 15 per cent!

To receive your discount – be sure to enter the coupon code “Cote de Texas 2013” before you purchase anything.

 

Karen’s pieces make the perfect Christmas gift so look around in order to use the 15 per cent discount!!!

 

Good luck!!!

And finally, a huge thank you to Karen Sugarman for another wonderful giveaway!!!!

Kitchen Chronicles: Planning Stages

I realize we don't even own this house yet... but we're impatient, dangit!

It's 9pm 10pm almost 11pm and I'm exhausted from my 14 hour workday, but so much has been happening around here and I owe you guys an update!

Our loan agent is a rockstar and the home buying process is flying by. Originally we agreed on a 30 day escrow, but we're signing the loan docs tomorrow and closing by Tuesday or Weds (just two weeks after we made an offer!)

Not only have we been dealing with appraisals and inspections and insurance and loan stuff, but we've been trying to plan out all of our major renovations and purchases so we can get a jump start on them as soon as we close.

Our #1 concern: the kitchen.

I finally took some wide angle pics of the space so you can get a good idea of the layout (sorry, they're kinda dark).

Peekaboo to the dining room...

Why is this partition wall even here?

And then there's this bar in the dining room... it's the first thing on your right when you walk in:

Brad wants to keep it and update it, I want to demo it and turn it into a buffet nook.

What do you guys think?

Tough decisions...

The living room is behind that wall of railing. I love how open everything is.

And the best news we received all week came from the inspector when he crawled in the attic and told us that the wall dividing the kitchen and dining room is NOT load bearing. Praise sweet baby jesus, that just saved us a few thousand dollars in permits and plans and frustrations.

The day this place closes we'll be there with sledgehammers knocking that baby down.


What do we have in store, you ask?

Well I've been on Pinterest obsessing over kitchens and accumulating quite the collection of images.

Here are some of my favorites:

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As you can see—there's lots of white and gray, high contrast, modern mixed with rustic/farmhouse touches, bright and open, cozy seating areas. That's the plan.


Since we're gutting and changing the footprint of the room, we had to start from scratch with a custom kitchen.

My first thought was Ikea—and lucky for us they're having their semi-annual 20% off sale (we would just barely make the Dec 1st cutoff).

I am drooling over this kitchen—these are the cabinets I'd get:

It's surely our cheapest option (even without the sale), so I gave them a call to ask how their kitchen planning works—since this is such a huge project and we don't trust ourselves to take care of it on our own.

Unfortunately, they don't offer any measuring, planning or installation services for our location because we live out in the middle of nowhere. We'd have to hire someone who would be willing to deal with cabinets in 5,000 pieces.

I did some research and found that people were overall very happy with their Ikea kitchen, but it took them days of meticulous work, not without any delays or challenges.

Not something I want to or really am able to deal with right now, being the busiest four weeks of running my business (not to mention the upcoming holidays and all the other projects we have to tackle before moving in).

Knowing that Lowe's offers free kitchen planning services, I figured I'd take advantage of it and have them come up with the best configuration so I could compare it to Ikea.

After taking precise measurements, we handed them over to the Lowe's kitchen planner and watched him work his magic for 2-3 hours:

It was an exciting evening.

Here's the general idea of what we came up with...

It's pretty rough and missing some elements, but basically there's going to be a huge island where the existing wall is. Just to the left of the fridge is the door outside. The sink and dishwasher are under the window, and we'd put an oven with a separate cooktop and microwave in the island.

The three cabinets sticking out of the back of the island is going to be a seating area. I'll make cushions and have a big table in front of it, with chairs on the sides. I'm the most excited about this part!


Closeup of the island, but I think this might change a bit: 

From this viewpoint, you're standing where a pantry cabinet will be. I'm most likely going to use a shallow wardrobe from Ikea and give it a built-in look. On the right side of the sink window will be open shelving (which our kitchen planner can custom build himself)

As for colors—they aren't accurate in this program at all, but the cabinets up against the wall will be a light gray with white countertops, and the island will probably be white cabinets with dark gray countertops (not sure which type of counters yet).

Our planner talked us in to using one of Lowe's better quality cabinets, Kraftmaid, and upgrading to "all plywood construction" which is the best they offer. They're always running sales with $1k off plywood construction so he said it would even out in the end (I don't think that's entirely true, but still worth it).

I was expecting this to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $15-20k, so I was pleasantly surprised when the quote came back in the $9,xxx range. It's a very rough quote and we haven't finished planning all the way, but he said after the discounts and sales they are running, we should be able to get it in the $8,xxx range.

Plus, they do complete installation and project management for under 2k, and if we use their services we aren't charged any sales tax on the entire purchase.

Of course, we still have to buy appliances (planning on getting those at Lowe's on Black Friday), countertops, backsplash, lighting, flooring, etc etc etc....)

In the end we figured it'd still end up in the $20k ballpark, which is totally fine by us to get our dream kitchen. Especially since we bought the house way under budget and planned for this.


Just for fun, I decided to give Ikea's kitchen planner tool a spin this afternoon.

Here's what I came up with:

I used mostly the same measurements but had trouble in a few areas (like the panels around the fridge—it wouldn't let me make those tall enough).

The island didn't have exactly what we wanted (an open cabinet for a microwave), but everything came really close.

One thing I love about this kitchen is the farmhouse sink. If we went with the Lowe's kitchen, we probably wouldn't have the budget for this type of sink (considering Lowe's countertops almost always include a free sink). Maybe I can talk Brad into it though.

These aren't the style of open shelves I plan to build—they're just there to illustrate (excited about these too!)


Ok, so guess what the rough total was for this kitchen—including the countertops, fridge, sink and dishwasher?

$6k! So cheap.

But you know what? The more I think about it, the more I realize that it's just not worth dealing with. I get a headache just thinking about trying to figure this all out on my own, spending a full day at Ikea hoping they are ordering every little part correctly, and then spending 50 hours with boxes and bags of parts, hand tightening Ikea screws with those dang little wrenches.

I'd go insane. At this point in my life, I believe my sanity and peace of mind is worth more than the thousands (gulp) I'd be saving on an Ikea kitchen.

And I think it'd be the right choice for us in the long run—in terms of quality, customization, overall look and feel. We want something we won't have to worry about down the road. Installing a kitchen is beyond our DIY abilities and we are totally cool with spending more and leaving it to the pros (of course we'll stalk watch them very closely to make sure everything is up to par).


Alright, that's all I've got left in me for tonight. By next week at this time we should be the official homeowners and preparing to brave the Black Friday sales to score us some appliances (we need everything—fridge, oven, cooktop, dishwasher, microwave, washer & dryer!)

Oh—and if you're looking to get started on some holiday shopping of your own, tomorrow (actually, today if you're on the east coast) is my biggest sale day of the year: Blue Friday. Keep an eye on my Facebook page for the official announcement!

Have a happy and thankful Thanksgiving, everyone!

Make Me Cry

WARNING:  This blog story has NOTHING to do with interior design!  So, please indulge me this one time!

A friend sent me a Youtube video of a baby girl intently watching while her mother sings her Sara Evans’ hit song “My Heart Can’t Tell You No.”  This amazing and wonderful video has gone viral with millions of hits and last week even The Ellen Show joined in and had the baby and her parents on the program.

What made the video so special was that while her mother sang her the song, the 10 month old little girl began to cry – not because she was hungry or colicky - but because she was so moved by either the melody or her mother’s voice hitting the high notes.

Sweet emotional baby

Everyone knows that certain music can elicit tears – but from a little baby?

   That video reminded me that a few years ago I had written a blog story about music and why it makes us cry – but I never published it since it had nothing to do with interior design.  But now this video has inspired me to pull it out and freshen it up a bit.

Why DOES music make us cry?  Is it the melodies or the words or both?   Classical music with no lyrics can bring on the floodgates, and listening to music in a foreign language can also make you weep.  Is it the high notes that bring on emotion?

Twenty years ago, the British psychologist John Sloboda conducted an experiment on why we are moved by music.   He asked people to write down the passages of songs that made them either cry or have a physcial reaction, such as goosebumps.  There were 20 passages that induced tears and Dr. Slobada analyzed them - noting this trend:  18 of the passages contained an "appoggiatura" - a note that clashes with the melody to create a dissonant sound.   This sound creates tension in the listener.  When the notes return to the melody that is expected, the tension resolves, and it feels good.  At that point, the listener may experience chills.  If there are several appoggiaturas occuring next to each other in the melody - this will generate a cycle ot tension and release which provokes an even stronger reaction - and thus, tears.

I thought it would make an interesting discussion to have you see what songs make me cry and then you can leave a comment with your own choices – and we can all enjoy listening to some wonderful music.

In putting out my list - I realised how personal it really is.   Some of the songs are from my childhold, some from when Ben and I first met, and others are those I have enjoyed during sad times.  Another warning – I have a very eclectic taste in music!!

So, get out your hankies – but try not to cry too much!

The emotional baby video. 

I Don’t Want to Live Without You by Foreigner

This was a favorite of Ben’s and mine.  We would watch the video and just weep at both the lyrics, the images and the music.   Of course back then – we were in the throes of our great passion and this was “our song.”

Keep me in Your Hearts For Awhile

Warren Zevon wrote this song when he was dying of cancer.  It’s a love song to his family.   Enough said.

Probably my favorite score from a movie – just hearing the opening strains make me sob.  To listen to Atticus Fitch famous closing arguments in Tom Robinson’s trial, go HERE. 

This song by Lily Allen, Chinese, is a love song written for her mother.  The English Capital Childrens Choir singing this song makes it all the more sweet.  

The Book of Love

 It’s hard to pick ONE Peter Gabriel song that makes you cry – so many do because his voice is just so beautiful.  This song, The Book of Love, is so emotional – I can listen to it over and over again for one hour straight. 

Adele

OK I know this is a cliché.  But is there a better break up song to cry to than this?  No.  I didn’t think so!   This song inspired the Wall Street Journal to write an article of why songs make us cry!

The River 

My all time favorite Christmas song – by Joni Mitchell – the 60s singer songwriter who just celebrated her 70th birthday.  A total tearjerker – caused by her lyrics and the notes. 

I dare you not to cry at this one!   Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli’s Time to Say Goodbye.  I know it’s an easy choice,  but it’s so incredible.

Oh God, this song by Nanci Griffith is a killer about farmers - “you’ll be the mule, I’ll be the plow, we’ll work it out – there’s still a lot of love here in these troubled fields.”  Not sure why a song about the dustbowl makes me cry, but it’s the combination of the lyrics and her vocals.

This song, by my all-time favorite band, The National, is heard at the end of the movie Warrior.   I’m never sure if it’s the movie or the music that brings on the tears.  If you aren’t familiar with The National which features the fabulous baritone of Matt Berninger, the dual guitars of the Dessner twins, and impeccable percussion by Bryan Devendorf, I can’t recommend them enough.

A college boyfriend introduced me to this album by Frank Sinatra "Old Blue Eyes is Back."  So many great songs are on it – and his voice was so fabulous at this age.  Of course, college love make you cry over songs like this – Dream Away – written by Paul Williams.

Oh such a sweet song about a dying man - with all his faults - and how wonderful he is despite it all.   The King and I's Something Wonderful - sung by Carly Simon.

OK, OK - Bella's Lullaby from Twilight!  Of course!   Carter Burwell wrote this underlying song for his wife when they broke up.  When he was asked to write the soundtrack for the first Twilight movie, he asked his wife's permission to use their "love song" which she of course gave.  He didn't write the score for the second or third movie in the series, but, he was brought back for the final 4th and 5th movies - where he wove this love song throughout the soundtracks.  It's a beautiful melody.

This song sums up so much - growing up with the Beatles in the 60s,  John Lennon’s untimely murder – and this pure long song to Yoko whom I think the entire world hated, blaming her for breaking up the Beatles.  John didn't care – the bad press seemed to make him love her all that much more.  This song came out after he had been shot by a deranged fan.   John had such a beautiful voice.  I know many people thought of the Beatles as John Lennon and Paul McCartney - cowriting all the songs, but when you really know their individual voices you can tell who wrote which song.  John was the real talent there - in my opinion.  His Dream is one of the prettiest songs ever written – especially with his falsetto soaring  HERE. Imagine.  Julia.  Dear Prudence. Across the Universe.  I’m Happy Just to Dance with You, I Should have Known Better, Nowhere Man, Please Please Me and so many others. 

There is something about the falsetto voice of the rarely heard Eagle Timothy B. Schmidt – who also wrote this song – that tears me up each time I hear it. It is one of the few songs that both Ben and I love.

My favorite female singer songwriter, Ani di Franco.  She’s an acquired taste, but this song – the lyrics and the melody – gets me every time.   di Franco is an incredible woman in the music industry.  She refused to sign with a record label and did it all on her own, creating her own label.  In doing so, she lost out on a huge career, but she is a critic’s darling and has never once had to compromise her vision or art for the big bucks.  Yeah, I am a huge fan. 

So many great songs are from Funny Girl, which me and my family actually saw on Broadway back then!  But, My Man, still gives me goosebumps and tears when Barbra sings goodbye to bad-boy Nicky Arnstein.    Barbra is famous for tearjerkers, but this one is my personal favorite.

There are so many great Dave Matthews Band love songs – Satellite, Crash, You & Me, Baby Blue, Grace is Gone,  that bring on the tears.  It was so hard to decide though between Crash or Lover Lay Down

Touch your lips just so I know

In your eyes, love, it glows so

I'm bare boned and crazy for you

When you come crash

Into me, baby

And I come into you

In a boys dream

In a boys dream

If I've gone overboard

Then I'm begging you

To forgive me

In my haste

When I'm holding you so girl

Close to me

or when Dave starts telling her to hike up her skirt, a little more -

well.. DAVE!  He is the epitome of the sexy rock god. 

So although my first choice was Lover Lay Down, I had to go with Crash Into Me.  But I put them both on here anyway.  Who can choose???? 

This one is so personal.  Elisabeth, my daughter, was a huge Spice Girls fan.  We took a limo to see them in concert and she even had a Spice Girls birthday party with a fake Spice Girl that totally fooled her.  This song that the girls sing to their mothers in the audience against the backdrop of their private home movies was a killer for me.  I never make it through without crying – even ten years later.  Even writing this.

So this is a small compilation of music that has effected me emotionally through the years.  I tried to edit the list to keep it manageable and I know there are much better choices that I have forgotten about or just didn't think of.

I would love to hear your favorite songs that bring on the tears or the goosebumps or just good memories.  If you have a link on youtube to the song - include it in the comment.  If  not - don't worry - we'll find it ourselves.