Burn Brightly

May candles burn brightly in these delicate, colorful, and fragile glasses. For the victims and heroes.  Today and everyday.

Random Work and Play

Fortunately we took a few road trips over the last week.  I took the babies and Eleanor to the beautiful hills of Mineral Springs just outside of Cassville, MO.  This is the old Mineral Springs school house {circa late 1800s}. My grandpa went to school there as a young boy and he bought it went it up for auction in the 70's.  A place to escape the city life {and sometimes chaotic life of 10 children}.  It's been also been a great family gathering place ever since.  My uncle David hosts the family reunions every Memorial and Labor Day.  Favorite part is listening to my uncles play and sing blue grass tunes on their banjos and mandolins.

We always take a trek down the gravel country road to the largest un-commercialized cave in the Midwest.   Rock House Cave.  The property owner always mows a nice path for our clan to come visit so we can cool off and let the kids spelunk.   This land and these parts of the Ozark Mountains are virtually abandoned, but I love, love that they are still somewhat pure in a lot of ways.

Here's the mountain of kids.  Don't worry, we didn't let the babies ride loose in there.  Just the big kids.  That was a treat for us to ride with cousins growing up.  This is a little less than half of the Arnold grand kiddos.

Back at home, Will slaved away while we road tripped.  This is just a glimpse of the nastiness he's shoveled out of the house.  The kitchen had old asbestos linoleum adhered to the hard woods.  The muck you see in the bucket was the under side of the linoleum.  The underside of that linoleum floor took a lot of soaking, scraping, shoveling, and scrubbing down with bleach, then pine sol, then wet vacuuming.   They are in really good shape underneath all of that:) The floors in the rest of the house are a somewhat different story.  Dog pee stains everywhere. Refinishing is on the long list of things that cost $$.  Will is going to try to tackle it himself.  

Ever get so excited about something new, that you don't know where to begin?  Well, we can hardly wait to transform the whole inside and outside of the house.  Will decided to slap some paint on the outside, even though we should probably tackle the inside first.  You can see the new house color in the far left corner.  It's almost a chocolate brown.  I think it will set the white trim off nicely.  We're thinking no shutters, What do you think?

Will chose the aged looking urns and pedestals and I chose the new light fixtures.  What do you think?  The over grown ewes will be going, and gone soon.

Bubs is sitting so calmly in his lawn chair.  I think he's in complete shock that we decided to paint the whole entire family room black.  Even the ceiling.

I really want these antique Louis xv dining chairs for the house, but will try to sell a client on these instead.  How perfect would a pair of tall antique wing-backs look as the head chairs to accompany eight of these beauties?

Happy Monday ya'll!

xx

sharon

Pickwick House Feature

Pickwick House is ecstatic to be featured in the fall 417 Home Mag.  You can pick up your copy at Barnes and Noble and you can also read the article here.  The chairs, cypress coffee table, and large crystal have already sold, but you can be sure we're bringing out more cool things for customers and clients continually.  Happy Friday and Happy Labor Day weekend!

xx
sharon

Hop and a Skip!

Hi all!  With the change of seasons, we also have a new change of address on the home front.  Gulp.  AND.  Gulp.

I haven't quite come to terms with it because for those of you who know me, I've always lived here on Pickwick and in Rountree.  It's home.  Where I grew up.  And it's where I have raised all my kiddos to this point.  Mom and dad even blessed me with this house {910} before they both passed; which is right next door to where they raised nine of us kids, which is now currently my brother's family.

But the one bath and 2 closets is what it all boils down to.  It had me and all of us feeling a bit anxious.  The house is sweet, and homey but not so convenient for a family with four bouncing kids and teen boys. So, we're now moving from one family compound to another...Arnold's to the Lampe's.   A 'hop' of the pond, if you will.  Well, more like 'hopping over the Phelps Grove Park water run off'.  {Less than 2 minutes away.}

To this.... 'a little diamond in the rough'.  We got SO very lucky {thanks to Will's good charm}.  I am happy that we will now have three baths, SEVEN closets, a mudroom, a 2 car garage {with a driveway!!!!}, a 'play area' loft above the garage, a high ceilinged basement, a master suite balcony, mostly all original everything {hardware, door knobs, 5 paneled doors, a special mail slot, milk man's entrance, a sweet little telephone cubby in the wall} a stair case {which we've never had} a second lot as a yard, and lots and lots of elbow grease to boot!

I hope to journal the progress here, but meanwhile, you might want to check my regular snippet posts on instagram.  Will has been a working machine. I've never seen him more motivated to a create a display of sorts for 'what we do' as well as a life long home for our family.  I have to snap him out of 'the zone' on occasion because he'd be scrubbing in his sleep if he could.  Meanwhile I watch the babies, order paint, and pizzas and try to help where I can after my work day is done.  I should mention that Mimi Lampe's home will be right behind ours and our properties will be one big playground.  Another bonus.

Before we touched the house, it should have been on the Hoarders show for certain, but I do have to hand it to the previous owners, because underneath the mounds and mounds of stuff/trash and dirt, the historic integrity of the house was left in tact {for which we are pretty, pretty thankful for indeed}.

At the rate Will is going, we'll be in by Christmas:)

Hope this finds you all well.  We hope to have a house warming party once the dust settles.  In the meantime, feel free to stop by if you see us on University, or give us a ring if you need any thing for your own home or party or business or landscaping needs.  {Haha!  In order to spend money on this new house, we'll need to earn some money too!!}

xx
sharon

Living and Life

Hi Sweet Summer Friends!

Via Pinterest 

I love this glass cabinet above.  We are working on having some similar looking moveable furniture custom made to put into a kitchen.

Via Pinterest 

I love this kitchen for the open shelving and classic lines and that viking hood and wolf range!

My interns, Robin, Sara, and Shelbi have been working hard to get my back room organized among other things. This clipboard wall of to-do's and projects is in the process being painted with black chalkboard paint so we can change project names under each clipboard.

Summer time is here and it always makes me a little sentimental for my own childhood days and .  I'm flooded with my mom memories right now and thinking on all the days of summer that were so structured with 3/4th work day and 1/4th fun.  We never got to go the pool unless the thermometer reading was 90+ degrees and it was only after we had completed painting some piece of furniture, hung the laundry out on the line, read a book, and prepped the evening meal that we were allowed to take off for a bit of time.

There is something about summer this year that has me thinking more about my own mortality.  Maybe it's turning 40.  Maybe it's having an 18 year old and a baby mixed with those "mom" memories.  

I'm reminded of the quote "Don't get so busy making a living, that you forget to make a life."  

....So, on that note, I've been taking off a wee bit early lately to go do the following...

Decorating and rearranging with Will at our house.    

My Baby! So curious =) 

 Syl chose to wear her american astronaut suit to school one day this past week. She chose to go against her standard every day pink dress.  Even if the pink dress is dirty, she still wears it.

Instagram pic of sprinkler babies.

My 16 year old Louis is scoring an amazing goal here at State Cup.  Unfortunately the other team won by a one goal deflection off of us and ended up winning state cup.  Oh well, maybe next year.  It sure is fun to watch him play.

Charlie was in charge here for a pre-fourth sparkler fest.

Eleanor under her Grandma Carol's tree that was dedicated to Rountree Elementary after she passed away.  It was Eleanor's idea to have her picture taken here.  Talk about tear jerking me!


Well, back to work this am, but are you taking time off to slow down and enjoy life this summer?  I hope so!  Happy early 4th from all of us here at Pickwick House!!


xx
sharon

Summer Dreaming + Scheming

Hi there.  Believe it or not, I'm back to being a somewhat narrative decorator again {for today anyway}.  My posts have been occasional and few lately because frankly, I'm swamped with work and managing all the things that come along with the biz.   I don't know where to begin on updates.  It hurts to think about the amounts of things we have under our belt.

We do have three new interns at Pickwick House that I'm thrilled to have this summer.   They've been extremely helpful in helping me update Pickwick House internally and externally.  I will be introducing them to you soon.

Things I am loving right now...

Sun drenched light and a good, cold frappe from Boca Mocha.  I'm SOOO happy to say we found the time to shoot that great little coffee/cafe shop #commercial space that we designed over a year ago.  Scott Cotton Photography

While it's hot out there, I really do dream of days where I can lounge by the pool and read a leisurely good book without the interruptions.  In the mean time, while my business is taking baby steps and strides forward, I am taking small bites out of this book below....

The Business of Design book by Keith Granet.  It's teaching me much-much about balancing creativity and profitability.  

OVERBOARD in a good way

{My instagram from Lindsay White and Caleb Johnson's Wedding Set-up}

Hi All... I know it's been a while since I've visited this dusty old posting site called "the blog".  This week I turn 40.  Many hoo-rahs and a few brouhahas...

Balancing is a never-ending challenge.  This image above is a good depiction of how "overboard" I feel inside.  Now overboard can mean a good thing and it can mean a not so good thing....

My oldest had a graduation party over the weekend.

Now when we were planning details out for the party, I told her we didn't need to go overboard on things with too many indulgent desserts for the party.  She replied with "Mom, I LOVE overboard.  I'm doing "overboard".

I decided I liked her playfully energetic response and challenge to my boring, reserved, tight self.  6 dozen different flavored cupcakes of hers were gobbled up at that party...all on her "overboard" proclamation.    

Grateful for all of the experiences and celebrations, and sweet people in my life that are providing me with some insight, true colors, personal challenges, and richer ideas.

With LOVE and wishes for a fun week for you all!

xx
sharon