My hero

Little Guy is starting to have quite the imagination.

He dug up this vintage hard hat from a collection I used to have (don't ask), promptly stuck it on his head, and ran around the house saying he was a fire fighter. He kept asking for a hose, so I made him one from an old paper towel holder that I found in our recycle bin and some fuzzy green yarn.

And of course, he played with that darn antique makeshift craft gone wrong set-up for a solid week!

The way the cookie crumbles

Yesterday another favorite lifestyle magazine bit the dust.

Sure, most of the material was heavy in over-the-top uber-cool haute Mama fantasyland, but then again, Parents, with all of its cute crafts and happy Mommy stuff seems just as unreachable to me. Cookie was stylish, well-edited, and gorgeously photographed, more of an art installation tribute to motherhood than a parenting guide.

Along with Domino, it will be missed.

Been there, done that.

I went to the Wonderland exhibit produced as part of the Phoenix New Times Best of Phoenix on Friday night and it was just what the doctor ordered for my post-retail pre-writer career funk. While I was there, I met a gal who has a couple of businesses in town and after a brief chat, I remembered why I should be counting my lucky stars that I sold my business last year. Not that she isn't doing well, but it is just crazy hard to keep it all going and the economy is pretty much squeezing every last drop of fun out of it right now.

Anyway, at one point I am nibbling a cookie, chatting with a few friends and a couple of new artsy types, telling some story, when I notice it. My girlfriend is nodding along, stifles a yawn, and then she says "Oh yeah, I read that on your blog."

Oh snap!? My blog is stealing my best material! And I don't think I have enough cleverness stored up to be interesting online AND in person.

So what to do? Introduce a time delay? Make stuff up? Cozy up to complete strangers?

Can I help you?

I almost applied for a job at Anthropologie yesterday. I miss working that much.

I miss my store. I miss the buzz of retail just before the holidays. I miss talking to people over the age of seven. I miss putting on cute clothes and chatting up shoppers. I miss obsessively rearranging displays. I miss stacking the tissue paper under the counter. I miss the delicious smell of a new box of bath products. I miss giving myself 100% discount at the register. I miss the drama of managing twenty-somethings and the subsequent relief that I am no longer one of them.

I miss making money doing something I love to do.

I miss making money, period.

Madam Chairperson, You may now have the floor...

Is it weird to say that I am in love with a chair?

Okay, not a chair, but an entire set. Weird?

Since I found my dining room table a few years ago I have been on the prowl for the perfect dining chairs. The ones I had went with my old table and were all wrong. I kept them slip-covered for awhile, and that was okay, but not great. My dining room table is turquoise, and like most of us, the table's greatest virtue is also it's biggest hang-up. So for the last two years I have struggled over what to pair with a fantastic turquoise table without going too cliche or too country or too modern. I needed something eclectic and stylish, but not over the top. Something that would allow the table to stand out, but not in a sore thumb kind of way.

After much research and many hours of prowling online, I had something in mind and was describing it to my good pals Cyndi and Jeremy from laboratory5. These guys are crazy talented artists and they make their entire living, supporting themselves and their two kids, from art and art related projects. How cool is that?

Jeremy collects mid-century furniture and occasionally even sells a few pieces when he can bear to part with them. He leads me to his studio where he plucks from what I swear was a pile of wood, my dream chair. He had recently purchased a dilapidated mid-century dining set just to get his hands on a small bar cabinet. The chairs were a little banged up, but he said he could repair and refinish them. He then threw out a ridiculously wonderful price and I pretty much cried (okay, maybe not full on tears, but my eyes were a little watery, though it could have been the sawdust).

Anyway, I brought four of the six chairs home yesterday

and I am in a full swoon!

Behold the perfect vintage modern chairs!

I know I should have waited for the entire set to be ready before I snapped a picture, but I just couldn't wait to share them. Because I am in love, and love makes you do crazy things. Now that the chair issue is resolved, I feel like I can move on to more important things. Like obsessing over the perfect dining room rug.

I wonder what else Jeremy has stashed in that workshop of his?