How to Make Dinner Tonight in Less Than 10 minutes And Be All OMG THIS IS SO GOOD

First, go to Trader Joe's. I suspect other groceries have similar products but these are all available at TJs. They are also all frozen or pretty shelf-stable, so you can stock up in advance for when you are really pressed for time.

Buy a bag of individually frozen raw shrimp, peeled or not -- wild caught American shrimp, if they have them. If they don't you'll have to settle for Vietnamese farmed shrimp. They are half the price of American wild caught, but there is a reason they are cheap. Don't google it.

Now buy a bag of sweet frozen corn -- roasted, or just regular. The roasted is nice and makes the final dish look like you actually spent time in the kitchen.

Now three more ingredients: one lime, one chipotle pepper (they come in cans of Adobo sauce. They are very spicy so use just one. But they lend the dish a great smoky flavor) and one clove of fresh garlic.

Mash the garlic and chile in the bottom of a bowl.

Rinse the shrimp in cold water, peeling it if necessary. You can leave the tails on or take them off. Toss it in the bowl with the garlic and chile. Squeeze half a lime over all of it. Mix the shrimp around each piece gets covered in what is now a sort of brownish red liquid. If you leave it too long the shrimp will begin to cure from the lime juice, so don't do this too far in advance.

Put the corn in a frying pan and heat it up -- medium heat I guess. It's already cooked so you're just trying to warm it up. The corn will give off a bit of water -- let it get almost as hot as you'll want to serve it, then put in the shrimp mixture with all its collected juices. Stir it a bit so the shrimp comes in contact with the hot pan. When everything is pink (shrimp) and warm (corn), it's done.

Now you have several options:

if you have corn tortillas, warm them up (I usually throw them right on the gas burner till they soften and char a bit) , if you have cooked potato cubes (of course you don't, but maybe next time you'll make them in advance to serve with) or butternut squash, toss them in the pan with the corn and shrimp.

Serve the shrimp and corn -- which is now smoky, slightly spicy, sweet from the shrimp and a little tart from the line -- in a bowl, or in corn tortillas, topped with sour cream and tomatillo salsa. I'm going to have to insist on the tomatillo salsa -- it's tartness and spice is exactly what the rich corn and shrimp need. You can chop a little cilantro on top, or serve in the tacos with baby arugula, cooked or raw.

This is the kind of meal you can eat the hell out of. It makes a really great first course for a more elaborate meal (followed, perhaps, by goat cheese and wild mushroom enchiladas) or as the main course, or just to eat in front of the TV. Everyone loves it, and as I said, takes 10 minutes. It looks a little like this but better. I don't have a picture of it so I did the Googles and Better Homes and Gardens offered up Grilled Shrimp and Corn. Trust me; mine kicks its butt. But still, nice to have a picture.

How To Get Over a Broken Heart in 7 Easy Steps

I speak here of the romantic variety. The other kinds .. the ones that matter... I can't really help with. (Well, I can, but the advice is very much like the below).

These rules work, if you are a relatively well functioning human. I know this because one day I was sitting at Murky Coffee on the Hill... I don't think it had yet turned into Peregrine... and my neighbor, a dead ringer for Angie Harmon, wandered by with her friend.

"Do you know what happened?" Angie asked me.

"OMG what tell me," I said because I love a story.

And good lord did she have one. Her husband, whom I also considered a friend, had taken her dog (whom I also considered a friend) to the dog park whereupon he had met another dog lady, and knocked her up. This ended his career (conduct unbecoming to an officer), and he moved to points west to raise the baby.

The most galling part was that he had used her beloved dog as his ticket to the neighborhood hussy.

All of this had come to a head in rapid succession and just a few days prior. Angie was in shock, of course, and I told her to sit down and said here's what you need to do.* This may seem heartless but when you break up with someone there are no end of people, for a while at least, who will sympathize and listen and pat your hand. No one will tell you what to do, and you must move in a direction. That in itself is empowering, which is the first step toward healing. This is the direction to move in. (Angie later told me she did exactly as i said and it totally worked. She has a gorgeous new house and loyal boyfriend now. See? These steps are road-tested.)

1. If you can manage it, get yourself to a war zone. I was like the walking dead after an old boyfriend broke up with me just a few weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks (which included an attack on the Pentagon, where I then worked). But the Afghan war started, and there's nothing like a war zone to put your own problems in perspective, like Rick said... a hill of beans.

She got herself to I think Lebanon and won an award for her coverage. I got myself to Kabul and a valley in the shadow of the Hindu Kush, and gave an Afghan family water when the car I was in broke down. They had a camel and all their earthly posssessions piled on top, including a live calf, which was folded into a rug like a package with just his head poking out. There was also a mine field there. That will make you forget your boy troubles. (stay on the outside of the white stones. Do not step toward the red side. V bad.)

2. Immediately plan a great pleasure trip. Angie went on a two-week crazy adventure in Alaska and lord knows where else. All I know is it involved crampons and some super hot executive who lived in Japan and a rip roaring affair. The point here is to remove yourself, quickly and spectacularly, from your normal routine and all the things that remind you of him. (Or her). I, having had my plans for 2 weeks on Martha's Vineyard dashed, headed instead to the San Juan Islands and a 4 day, camping/kayak trip. Exhausting yourself physically and being with people who know nothing of your troubles: very helpful. You can talk about it if you want, but you can also keep quiet and begin to experience yourself as a person without a broken heart again. It starts from the outside in. Your trip should involve learning a new skill and challenging yourself in some way so that you come back a different person than when you went -- someone your ex doesn't quite know everything about. Go to all-girls surf camp. That'll fix you right up.

3. Upon returning home from your trip or your war, you must do something physically to your environment, and I don't mean burning all your photos and mementos. I mean paint a wall; redecorate. DEFINITELY get new sheets for the bed, and a new duvet cover. You are not only changing your environment for the better; you are taking life in your own two hands, making decisions, and will have something to show for your time. You may be sobbing throughout the painting ("He helped me pick Great Barrington Green!") but you will have accomplished something. You can be miserable; you can't avoid that. But you can put your miserable time to good use. You will eventually get over this. If you do constructive things -- things you've been putting off, or meaning to do -- when you do get over it, you'll be able to think: huhn! well I didnt totally waste that time. Tote up experiences. Become, in this time. Become something different and new and better.

4. On that note: Angie took my list of instructions and bettered it. She decided that every day she would do a random act of kindness for a stranger. It had to be a stranger -- one day I ran into her buying cold drinks for some work men laboring in the sticky August heat across the street, which is how I learned of her technique. The genius of this is it's NOT volunteering for some do-good organization, which involves: commitment, schedules, pressure -- and some days you just may not be up to it. Don't lock yourself down. But the brilliance of this is that it forces you out of your head; you must be paying attention to the world around you so you see your opportunities for these acts of kindness, and they can be as big or as small as your heart, head state and pocketbook allows.

5. If you go on a crying and ice cream jag , make french bread at the same time. It's very easy, fool proof almost, and will fill your house with a gorgeous smell and will paint your day with again the all important sense of accomplishment. It involves only flour, yeast, salt and water, and time. You get to knead it, and watch it change, and it drives home the fact that time does indeed accomplish wondrous things if you just sit back and let it. Plus, french bread! Good butter, jam. Read MFK Fisher's How to Rise up Like New Bread. Ooh, then read The Flaw (both of these are essays, in two different books).

6. Pay attention to what your ex is revealing about him or herself by their behavior toward you. They invariably expose themselves. Your task is to take it in -- to learn who they are, at their heart. Few people conduct themselves well during break ups (you should: be self contained and be kind. You never regret the high road.) and when you open your eyes to it -- to who they are, not to how they feel about you -- it makes the getting over much easier.

7. Time. It passes. That's the saddest part, really, that with time, you get over just about anything. There will be a morning when you wake up and it's not the first thing on your mind, and you'll realize that, and you'll feel a loss that you lost your sense of loss. But this is good. Congratulations. Eventually you will realize this was the best thing that ever happened to you, if you make it so.

*this is especially applicable if you are a reporter. War zones are far more accessible to reporters than regular people. Please don't be a war tourist. You'll just end up in jail in Iran.

How To Make Naked Scones

Scones are terrible things, usually -- dry and crumbly and you pay $1.85 for one at Starbucks.

Stop doing that. Make these instead. They are moist and mix up in less than 3 minutes (I timed it) and require only 5 ingredients and about 10 minutes in the oven. they are referred to in my house as Naked Scones for reasons that shall not be elucidated here.


Before you balk, let me tell you there is NO creaming of butter to be done. no cutting of lard into flour. Just dump, mix, briefly knead, pat, cut, bake. There is one trick that will make your overnight guests/lovers/tea party companions pass out from joy. Will get to that in a moment. Here's what they look like when they are done, if you use a heart-shaped cookie cutter, which I recommend:




Here's what you do. The recipe is more or less stolen from Tricia Foley's Having Tea.

Measure 2 cups all-purpose flour into a large mixing bowl. Measure out 2 teaspoons granulated sugar. Drop it into the bowl. Add a teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon (TABLESPOON) baking powder (NOT BAKING SODA! Powder). Then mix it all around with the measuring spoon. Now add 1 cup heavy cream. You may need to add a bit more. Mix it quickly with a wooden spoon until it holds together. (If you only have 1 cup cream, you can make up the difference with a little milk or half and half. But the full cup of cream is a necessity. I'm sorry. I don't do low fat baked goods and neither should you.)

Flip the bowl out onto a board or your counter. Quickly and gently knead the dough so it sticks together. Don't overwork it; you want to leave it as springy and full of air as possible. It should take you just a minute till all the flakes are holding together.

Pat it or roll it out to be about 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick. You can either just cut it into pieces with a knife or cut it into heart shapes with your cookie cutter.

Oh yeah: heat the oven to 450.

Put your unbaked scones on a cookie sheet -- I always use parchment underneath the scones (or cookies or or or) to keep things from sticking. Now here is what elevates them to perfection: brush them with some leftover heavy cream, then sprinkle them with sugar. Sanding sugar -- big shiny flakes of it -- is best. You can get it at Sur la Table or someplace similar. But granulated sugar works too.

That's sanding sugar, but that is not my hand. I think it might be Martha Stewart's. I got it from the Googles.

Bake them till they are golden brown, about 10 minutes.

Eat them warm with butter and tell me these are not the most perfect, rich, moist, delicious things you have ever put in your mouth. Serve them to friends, prepare for applause, pretend it was difficult, repeat next weekend. I'm serious: fool proof. If you feel you need to, you can add candied ginger or currants or dried cherries or cranberries etc. Add them BEFORE you add the cream, please. Makes distributing them evenly throughout the mix possible.

Make these, report back below.

You're welcome.

How to Be Freakishly Organized

My friend Allison, a tall, beautiful personal trainer (somewhere between Brooke Shields, that woman who played the woman who killed herself on Desperate Housewives. and Gabrielle Reese) ...

...is, in fact, the Most Organized person You Will Ever Meet. I don't mean this in an OCD-label-everything sort of way, but in a Waste No Effort, Put Nothing Off kind of way. The way that I dream of being but seem to be constitutionally incapable of achieving. The way where you wake up and your house is clean and your morning sane and your laundry folded perfectly -- and she does this as a single mother with a full time job, a full time boyfriend who has kids of his own. It's pretty breathtaking.

We met when we were in our early 20s -- she managed a personal training gym and she hired me to fold towels (you fold them in half, then each side in into thirds, then in half vertically again. She was VERY SPECIFIC about this and God help me when I failed to do it correctly). And she used to take me on her errands (because by then we were pals, opposites totally attracting) -- giving me a break from constant towel folding. These were excellent chances to observe her personal brand of crazy-organized up close. On one visit to the bank she rejected several of the 20-dollar bills she was given by the teller because they were not crisp enough and therefore did not slip easily into her perfectly organized wallet.

So I decided to ask Allison for some of her tricks. I emailed her and within 5 minutes (of course) got this list of 21 Rules To Live By For An Organized Life back:

1. Kitchen must be cleaned before going to bed. With a small child kitchen must be cleaned up before HE goes to bed -- must not waste the precious moments you have once he is asleep.

2. Better yet, clean up as you cook. Eat out or get take out often. Let others cook for you -- or take you out to dinner.

3. Be a gracious guest. Send thank you notes IMMEDIATELY. People just don't write them anymore. Have stationary ready to go. Write it that night.

4. Have a small stash of "hostess gifts" ready to go. I pre-wrap them. My current stash is a small boxed set of teas. ($12.) I have a few boxes ready to go. Overnight at boyfriend's parents, host of the soccer brunch, kids art teacher, host of book club... it's wrapped and ready.

6. Make your bed as soon as you wake up. Ditto with the kid's bed.

7. Fill your gas tank when it is half full. You never have to worry about running out of gas. You are still filling it with the same frequency-- just at half full, not totally empty. (Ed's note: Really? I can't do the math on that. Hmm.)

(UPDATE! We just had a long conversation and determined that she in fact fills up her tank TWICE as often as someone who lets it get down to empty first. But Allison points out this gives her twice as many opportunities to clean her windshield. Garbage in the car is cleaned out every time she leaves the car, so there's never any garbage in it.)

8. Wash your car every week. Then it's always clean. (Ed's note: Allison's car is ALWAYS clean, inside and out.)

9. Do laundry often. I do it daily. Then it is never this overwhelming -- "f*ck I have to do laundry thing"-- also, the child's soccer uniform is always ready to go!

10. Pack the child's lunch the night before -- and choose their clothes. No discussions in the morning.

11. Balance your checkbook the day that your statement arrives. Only keep the current statement on file. No, I do not do this electronically.

12. Freezer gets cleaned out every six months. If you have had it for six months and did not eat it -- toss it.

13. Water your plants on the same day every week. My day is Friday. I put the water out the night before so that the chlorine can evaporate.

14. Junk mail obviously goes right out the door. Catalogs must be looked at the same day as received. Recycle or keep a few that you know you will order from -- currently I have four-- two for my son and two for me. (Ed.'s Note: I literally have 300 design magazines but I use them weekly, if not daily.)

15. Magazines -- if the next month arrives-- the previous month goes. It does not matter if you have not finished it! I take mine to the gym. Other people don't seem to mind reading last months mags. (Eds Note: HAHAHAHAHHA. I love her perplexed condescension!)

16. Books: love it -- give it to someone who will enjoy it too. Didn't like it: donate it ASAP. I put mine in a book donation bin by the Safeway in my 'hood.

17. Kids clothes: find a child one year younger to donate clothes to -- let them sort through want they want to keep. The rest goes in a clothing donation bin.

18. My clothes: one year rule-- if I haven't worn it, off to the bin -- lucky for me, same Safeway parking lot.

19. Wipe up your kitchen floor and bathroom floor once a day-- takes two minutes, then it's always clean.

20. Kids paperwork -- send it to their grandmother! Max's grandmother lives in Michigan. Once each week, I send her a "Max packet" with all of his old school work and math and spelling tests. She loves it and I don't have extra paperwork around. Ten minutes time to go to the post office.

21. Max's artwork: I framed a few things that I liked. Makes Max feel special. Toss the rest. Pottery too!

(Ed's note. I'm adding a couple of her habits I already knew:)

22. Clean out your purse every night before you go to bed.

23. When you get back from the grocery store, immediately wash the fruit you will eat out of hand (peaches, apples, grapes..) and put in a bowl in plain sight in the fridge. That keeps it front and center as a snack choice and lets family members know it's clean and ready to eat. (Don't do this to berries. They should be washed right before use, or they will get soggy and rot faster.)

Who out there can top Allison? NO ONE. Go ahead, try, in the comments below.

How To Drive Me Crazy: Finding Studioren a Great Couch in Brooklyn But Not Having Her E-Mail Address

Studioren, in Brooklyn, is looking for furniture for her new 483 square foot apartment (it's disturbing that I know off the top of my head the dimensions of strangers' apartments. But so it is. It's a gift and a curse).

You will find more about her here:

http://howtorunyourlife.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-studioren-can-spend-1500-and-outfit.html

I just found her couch on Brooklyn's craigslist -- exactly what she seems to be looking for.

Grey velvet! Room & Board...
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/1973539580.html

These is also this one, which is a Look -- very ladylike and could be fusty but we won't let it. It is schlubby grey silk. Could be fun paired with a really masculine chair and modern furniture. Update it by painting the woodframe glossy white or black or grey. Or red! Who cares! it's just paint and can easily be redone. Oooh, pink. Oooh, grape. Or light blue?

Probably white. Needs squashy angora covered pillows.

Pair the couches with one or two of these chairs. I'd say the orange MidCent would have to be recovered. My favorite is the third one, in the top row. That's a must. I like the squatty gold one with the grey velvet couch. But there are some classics -- the ghost chair, the potato chip chair...

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/1973472884.html

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/1973356953.html

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/1972204134.html

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/1972077806.html

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/1971669538.html

I seem to have misplaced a link. You'll find it! It will be like an Easter Egg hunt, only without the sulphurous smell.

She should get this dresser, painted high gloss white, for the TV to sit on and the drawers used for clothes or whatnot

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/1973581922.html

or this one, as is

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/1973513046.html

or this one. http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/1972890368.html
She could actually get one and 2 -- the Tibetan chest -- together, or one and three together. If she gets the first 2, number 1 should probably be painted black or pewter, or a color pulled from the Tibetan.

And she's going to need this coffee table. I cannot resist natural wood (alert: this picture will make you think your are crazy or I am messing with you. You are not, I am not. Somehow this guy 's table is floating in the air. I can't explain.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/1973834322.html

This coffee table goes in a completely different direction but I kind of like it. Its maybe a bit twee, but it sort of screams out for the vintage silk couch and would bring some feminity to the grey velvet. I'd prefer it were solid wood rather than glass and wood... but this is Craigslist. The 80 percent Solution applies.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/1973598141.html

this might work too - totally opposite direction -- especially good with the first couch

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/1973297993.html

And you can never go wrong with glass and chrome:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/1971962692.html

and this knock off Arc lamp

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/1972583301.html

How Memphis Jen's Plans Are Coming Along

I have no idea how Memphis Jen feels about being called Memphis Jen. But I wanted to give you an update on where things stand in her living room and dining room.

To remind you: Jen is an artist in Memphis, has a very compliant husband named Bill who apparently doesn't mind Internet Strangers dictating design direction via the webs, and she is looking to redo her 16' X 16' living room. It appears thusly:





She reports she will begin painting all the walls white. Jury is still out on whether she will do a green accent wall on the widows (I strenuously oppose.)

(see: http://howtorunyourlife.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-i-love-it-when-plan-comes-together.html )


Here are her/my latest furniture thoughts. The green couch is a little out of her price range but she and her husband love it so they might shell out. I totally approve.

To walk you through: She wants the green couch and the two blue chairs you may recognize from an earlier post. Her husband is going to go drive to get them AN HOUR AWAY. He is a keeper. I want her to get the cypress table (also about an hour 's drive, on Craigslist...hopefully in the same direction as the blue chairs) because see how nice it is between them?

I've recommended the mid century dresser (walnut?) for use in the living room -- a home for the TV?

The green dresser is super feminine. I'd want to see it painted -- either the white of the walls, a deeper shade of the green of the couch, a deeper shade of the blue on the chairs, or plain old black (or grey... maybe charcoal grey. with silver handles) and pushed upagainst the back of the green couch (provided it doesn't tower over the back of the couch).

Next up is a 5 -foot silver mirror on Craigslist, then some wall paper -- for the entry way, you can just see it from the living room (maybe also use it on the wall of the dining room? ). And of course, elephant lamps. I have provided two views. They should be painted white. or Turquiose. mmmm. With white drum shades (and they should live on the fancy dresser). Fancy dresser can also be painted the green of the wall paper and pushed up against a wall covered by said wallpaper on the back wall in the dining room to serve as a buffet. Elephant lamps in white. or the same green! The picture below is in no way green and in no way a dining room, and in no way depicts a sideboard, but if you squint and pretend its a green dining room with a sideboard, you can get what I am going for... the contrast, the slightly retro-Asian feel, the tropicalness. (can you tell I grew up in -- not "on" -- Palm Beach?). I have no idea how Jen feels about such things, but I think it would be lovely.

Ooh, this is more like it:

OMG then this gorgeous thing popped up. Providing it for eye candy. It doesn't exactly meet Jen's specs.

How I Love It When A Plan Comes Together: Memphis Jen

More about the above photo in a second. (Courtesy House Beautiful)

If you are just joining us, Jen in Memphis contacted me through this blog to ask whether I would have a go at giving her some thoughts on her living room. Have a read, then come back here when you are all caught up. And don't forget to read the comments because Jen is digging me telling her how to run her (living room decoration project).

http://howtorunyourlife.blogspot.com/2010/09/jens-memphis-living-room-redo.html

We're going about this kind of backwards but... here are questions and answers I asked Jen in Memphis to try to figure out what her new living room needed to feel and look like, and how it would be used. These are good for anyone beginning to rethink a room...

1. How would you describe your style currently?

ummmmm, hodge-podge, mis-matched?, a mess. This is not how we feel, so our surroundings are not cohesive with our core beings. We have purchased a lot of furniture from estate sales and thrift shops, so we ended up with a mixture of strange things that have some of the elements I like, but everything doesn't work together. Maybe they can be used, but we are willing to change all the furniture. My husband and I are both artists and musicians. I had a huge garage sale recently and got rid of a lot of clutter, so now we have a nice free space to work with..except some pieces I kept that I thought might work somewhere. If I had to describe our current style in one word, it would have to be eclectic.

2. How would you describe the style you would like to have (if it's different)?

contemporary, eclectic, a nice mix of old and new, and most importantly, stylish and together.

3. How do you want the room to feel?

Cohesive. Stylish. Fun. Artsy. Comfortable. Neat and together.

4. How does it feel to you now?

It felt cluttered. Awkward. I had a huge sectional (gone now), it took up too much room and made the room look cluttered and messy...lots of loose pillows. I have a tendency to make clutter, I have to refrain from my urge to do that. I think that being an artist makes me want to put lots of visual stimulation around me from all kinds of sources. But there is a place and time for that..I don't need it all over the entire house! But what you are going to see now is what is left after we purged. (a weird rug that was the same color as the wall (too much!), and the sectional and the traditional style coffee table that was functional but I hated it, tons of knick-knack stuff...I condensed and put away..these things are all gone now.)

5. How do you want to use it? (if dining room -- family dinners? elegant dinner parties? if living room: watching tv with friends? napping/reading/relaxing)

Family dinners, fun but casual parties, relaxation time.

6. What time of day do you expect to use it most?

Evenings and weekends

7. How much natural light does it get?

A lot in the morning. You will see there are a lot of windows on the east wall.

(random eye candy. to break up all this writing. Jen is eyeing these Eames chairs in Memphis for her dining room. I am all for, with either a white glossy new dining table -- in fiberglass? powder coated metal? or a gloriously beat up antique... Juxtaposition R Us)

8. What do you like about it?

I like the vaulted ceilings, the open feeling it has. I love the windows and light. The simple layout. the big fire place, the big living room.

9. What do you hate about it?

The wall color(s). I used to like it, but I found it so difficult to hang art on the walls and
I like a clean, crisp look. I like this color as an accent color, but not a wall color. I do not like the dining room wall color with the living room wall color. I came to the conclusion that it doesn't seem to work to "split" the room wall colors like that. So...the color is not so bad, just not straight leading into the red wall..it looks kind of like Christmas where the two meet.
The way the dining room and living room are painted and the flooring...yuck! We bought our house as a fixer upper. When we bought it the floors were left as they were which was an unfinished mess. We want to put in new floors. Possibly ourselves. We have thought about tiling, wood, stone and everything in between. I like natural looking flooring...like wood or slate tile...maybe?

10. Go look in your closet. What color do you see most?

whites, lots of shades of purples, greys and teals

11.What is your favorite color?

mine: green, purples and pinks and turquoise, greenish blue and bluish green...from top favorite down. He likes the same kind of colors. He likes yellow, blue, turquoise, purple, green and red. We both love bold, vibrant colors. Neither of us likes dark colors much. (such as dark green, navy blue, dark brown, etc. although I could consider brown as a leather sofa color)

12. Essay question~! why haven't you been able to get this room looking the way you want?

I am not certain how to answer this. I think we have been trying, mixing and matching..trying to come up with a look...but we had to many disparate elements thrown together. Now that everything is cleared out...its easier to think about. I really can't wait to see your ideas! We have ideas...but still are a little scatter brained about it. We are trying not to be in a hurry so we won't make any big mistakes.

13. Which words appeal to you most -- ie, words you would like someone who came to visit to use to describe the room after you are done:

airy
modern
eclectic
crisp
fresh
vibrant
youthful
casual

14. What's your budget (be realistic.. if its $300, that's fine. $1000, that's even better)

Well, we see this as a work in progress, so our budget is pretty big. We won't be able to do all the big stuff at once, but we can afford to buy some big ticket things. I love anything that's a bargain...LOVE LOVE LOVE thrifting..so that is a big plus. But on some things we are ready to spring (such as a nice sofa...just to let you know what we've looked at so far...Room and Board...and Scan Interiors...average price...1800.00 to 4,000. I have also been checking craigslist for sofas that I could recover. Naturally, the cheaper the better, but I do want quality for a sofa. Let's put the budget at (ed: redacted for Jen's privacy!) dollars for now. We are looking for:

A new couch. (He likes comfort...I like style) and definitely not too big
lamps, tables, flooring, window treatments, paint, media center (or something that would work..even thought of custom wall bookcase), rugs, pillows, maybe chairs, mantle pieces, I plan to do paintings for our house, so we don't need artwork. (but what I like are abstract and whimsical pieces.) Our entrance hall, living and dining room all can be seen clearly from one another...somehow, they should flow together.

15. How much work are you willing to do (paint chairs? sew curtains?)

I can't sew, but my mom can...so its possible that she could sew curtains. I am willing to paint furniture, walls, and install what ever I can. My husband is very handy, and can do a lot!

Jen and I have moved to e-mail because we have MANY things to discuss.

Jen will start painting everything white this weekend. She is considering an accent wall of an apple or mossy green. I tend to oppose accent walls, as I told her -- they look like you're not brave enough to commit to color. So I'd rather see the living room white, and perhaps the dining room -- which you can see from the living room -- green. (Update! I have granted permission to paint the back wall of the dining room green and the rest white .. .yes an accent wall.. because there is a strange point where the two rooms meet on a single plane. Hard to paint them different colors. ) And in the living room she should paint a large piece -- a wooden sideboard perhaps, with shiny metal knobs -- the exact shade of green she chooses for the dining room in semi or high gloss.

The entrance hall/ foyer could be the same green but in either a lighter or darker value... just move up or down the paint chip, if it is one of those traditional ones. I also really like fabulous wallpaper for entrance halls. Maybe something graphic in green and white. I feel a Greek Key coming on. Or a lattice. Definitely a lattice. Dig it! (and! If she gets bookcases or a glass fronted corner cabinet, she could paste the wallpaper in the back of the piece... a tiny little wink tying the foyer into the living room.)

http://wallsandfabrics.com/Store/images/hcs-21x2707212wallpaper.jpg

For the place to feel airy, she's gonna need to limit the color palette -- otherwise it can get a little circusy.* I used to have a gorgeous pumpkin living room with an adjoining red study and they looked fabulous together but eventually were just too much Ringling Bros. for me.

*(that is, unless she does every room in the same strength of different colors -- say a pale blue in one room, a pale lavender in another, a pale green in a third. That can work. There is no jarring the eye when you move from one space to another.)

And super hooray she wants to cover the stone fireplace in wood -- something modern and sharp. That's where the above picture comes in. Something along the lines of that red wall could be built up around the fireplace with minimal trouble for a good carpenter. It could be painted that nice rusty red, or black, or white, or a glossy chocolate brown.

I found, and she wisely is going to buy, these fantastic tomato-red suede lamps. $99 for the pair.

And these wonderful couches are in Birmingham, Alabama. A couch and a love seat for $325! Jen likes and flirted with getting them to Memphis. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them and think they are fabulous in an Austin Powers way and should be purchased immediately.

But Jen is also enamored of these... so she's trending Midcentury. One is in Delaware, one is in Philly, and one is in...I can't remember. None are in Memphis. Sigh. But in any case, I want to see a long, low slung clean-lined couch in there, preferably in white. I pasted in a couch from Room and Board below that would work well - but she'd have to bite the bullet and spend $2,800.

http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/product/detail.do?productGroup=3183&catalog=filter&menuCatalog=room&menuSubcategory=201198

And Jen JUST bought these totally awesome blue chairs (there is a pair.) FANTASTIC and just $50. While Memphis is slim pickins on Craigslist compared to New York, LA or DC -- when something cool pops up, there doesn't seem to be much competition. She can leave them as is, or have them reupholstered. I like them as is, flanking the above couch. In this case I might paint her existing sideboard cobalt blue and push it up against the back of the couch, with the two suede lamps. So cheap they make the above couch affordable! Jen, you must tkae pictures as you go along!