Easter Week Updates

Hi there. There's rarely enough time in the day to update you with all that's going on w/Pickwick House.  I have been running on fumes and thought I'd take a quick moment to update you with some eye candy.  

The kitchen faucet at our house was finally installed yesterday.  I love it so very, very much. I know Jesus turned water into wine, but I really think this faucet could too.  haha.  Maybe even chocolate {as one of my friend's mentioned}.  Chocolate's a more suitable option with it being Easter and all.  Haha.  

One of my clients is getting a whole home overhaul.  Today, we are making progress on her little girls bedroom and here's a sweet little daybed we purchased from Talula's {a new antique store right next door to Pickwick House}.  Anthonette, the amazingly talented owner of Talula's, reinvented an old canopy bed.  It will be perfect as a reading nook and also for her and her friends to cozy up on with stuffed animals and sweet bolster pillows.

Anthonette also paints furniture to your specification if you wish.  She does it for a nominal fee and I think this color pink called {pink gypsy} from Benjamin Moore makes it for an even more fantastic reinvention for Anna's room.  

The roman shades came back too short from the work room, but the panel top edging is the creme de la creme, don't you think?  So tailored and crisp.  

I was unable to make it to the second install of these puppies yesterday, but this is the picture sent to me from the client.  Do you notice something different?  Something very, very wrong?  If you guessed the edging, you guessed right. Sigh. Not such a happy install, especially since we waited weeks for these to come back.  But, hopefully third time's a charm.  Sometimes you just have to wait for a good thing.  

Hope you are having a good week.  Can't wait for a spring like return of weather, can you?

xx

sharon

BREAD & BUTTER

Good afternoon everyone!  I put together as close as I could the style board for our kitchen. As you may already know,  we are doing an all white kitchen with white appliances.  We were aiming for the classic style that the old house calls for.  We're doing just a regular white subway tile from Home Depot with the charcoal grout.   All the walls will be tiled midway up the wall, and then the range wall will be tiled from the countertop to ceiling.  We'll have carrara marble countertops, and a farmhouse apron front sink.  With it being all white and a LOT of tile, I know it might sound cold.  So I'm thinking we'll warm it up a bunch with warm woods, brass and aged silver trophies, oriental rugs, and other warming accents.

The kitchen is almost done.  Just waiting on the custom made brass etageres, some finishing paint touch ups, and extra tile work.  Our metal worker's boss recently had two unthinkable tragedies hit...his house was burned to the ground and within a few weeks, his daughter {a mom to four young children}, was killed in a car accident.  SO sad.  Unthinkable really.  Prayers for that family.  It's also been extra hard on our metal worker's work load too, who's wife is newly expecting and their young son has a disability.

I'm extremely grateful for the craftsmen and have come to love each one of them like family.  It's been a real pleasure. They have aimed hard to please and have worked with us on costs as well, in an effort to help us make our home a nice one that we can share with our readers and future clients.

I will tell you that our kitchen is nowhere close to the costs some might expect.  We sourced everything and every craftsman to the best of our researching abilities and hopefully it will pay off.  We didn't choose the local cabinet making company that carries a widely known name and a high dollar price tag.  And surprisingly, the marble we went with, is a marble that is comparable in price to any granite we could have gone with.   Oh, and the brass bucket you see pictured here is one I found at a local flea market for $19.  I found it retailing on OKL today for $450!  All this to say, yes, it might look and sound expensive or lavish, but in reality, we didn't break the budget like one might think.   We took the time to try to give it a thoughtful and reasonable renovation.

I hope to share pics soon.

Thanks so much for stopping in today!

xx
sharon

Pickwick House is a full service design/build company in the heart of the Midwest!  {Springfield, Missouri's Rountree Neighborhood}.  We handle all aspects of residential renovations from small to large projects and are available for full service and consultation design, and/or stylizing from East to West Coast.  Call or email us today.  We may be on location, but we'll get back to you in no time.

 417-459-8988 *sharontaylordesigns@yahoo.com

The Retro Mom

Hello!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

My sister, Julie shot the latest cover for New York Magazine, in an article titled The Retro Mom.   Styling by Amanda Carter Gomes.  The article is interesting and has made me think a lot about the progression of the feminist movement and how it relates to me being a mom today, after having been a daughter of a sahm and also having been a sahm myself for 12 years before my divorce from my former hubs and entrance into the work world.  I hope you can take the time to read it.  I wish I had time to explore with you some of my thoughts on it today, but alas, ironically...I have to get back to work on deadlines.

A few of my thoughts on the subject:
I will say that after having lived on both sides of the pond on this issue, I must say I am for mom's choosing what works best for themselves and for the balance of their family.  No matter where you are, moms, balance is a daily struggle, right?  For me, I work because I enjoy it.  I also work out of necessity.  I think women have a lot to share not only at home but in the real world.  Yes, there are days I wish I was a stay at home mom.  But, for me, 'working' works for us.  That's not to say that I don't wish that childcare and longer maternity leaves should be a built in for mom's who need it.


I often see and hear of a lot of mom's sucking up the brunt of the work load when it comes to kid's needs, kid's sick days, doctor visits, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping and childcare.  Regardless of where women find their main purpose {home or breadwinning in the work place}, we as women need to band together and start demanding a bigger change.  Women should be able to enter the work force without the middle name of guilt.  We should be able to tell our daughters, with confidence, that they can be any thing they want to be when they grow up and while our sons are fed the same thing, they should also be trained to cook, clean, sew, arrange childcare and pick up some groceries too.  I think we're gaining a little ground, since studies now show that guys are now openly acknowledging a nod for equality in partnerships at home and work. But when it all comes down to it, the reality is that we women end up making more domestic sacrifices in general and that pressure really adds up.  Now, I know I chose to have kids and that life is hard sometimes.  I'm not complaining.   I just think we can do better at sharing work load.

More on this topic later.  Would LOVE for you to share your thoughts.  I know all you women out there have MUCH to share. Do you see a need for change?  How can we demand a change?  A letter to Hilary Clinton?  A small strike at home?  haha.  Just kidding.

Funny thing is, I was going to post our retro kitchen sample selections today.  How fitting, huh?  Taking a break from the kitchen.  Until tomorrow:)

Stay tuned for an exciting new guest post blog series.

Have a great day!

xx
sharon

Pickwick House is a full service design/build company in the heart of the Midwest!  {Springfield, Missouri's Rountree Neighborhood}.  We handle all aspects of residential renovations from small to large projects and are available for full service and consultation design, and/or stylizing from East to West Coast.  Call or email us today.  We may be on location, but we'll get back to you in no time.

 417-459-8988 *sharontaylordesigns@yahoo.com

FRIDAY's Mixer

Happy Friday!  I have been a day behind all week.  I thought yesterday was hump day and I forgot that tomorrow is St. Patty's!

I'm totally loving these details above.  NAVY.  CORAL. CREAM.  STRIPES.  FLORAL.  IKAT.  MOROCCAN. GREEK KEY.  SMALL CREATURES.

BTW, I'm crushing hard on jcrew's spring colors and mixing of patterns.  Stripes with florals and polka dots is totally fresh to me.  What about you?  Do you like mixing patterns?

You can shop this look here.

What are you doing for St. Patty's day?  We're parading it up.  Not marching.  Just catching the candy:)

Have a great weekend and

xx
sharon

Pickwick House is a full service design/build company in the heart of the Midwest!  {Springfield, Missouri's Rountree Neighborhood}.  We handle all aspects of residential renovations from small to large projects and are available for full service and consultation design, and/or stylizing from East to West Coast.  Call or email us today.  We may be on location, but we'll get back to you in no time.

 417-459-8988 *sharontaylordesigns@yahoo.com

IT'S TIME?

Hi everybody.  In trying to update my blog with new buttons and gadgets and bells and whistles last week...I took it upon myself to make some changes to the blog template on my own.  AND I've messed it up, of course.  haha.  So, if you see text running over pics, that's me being a dumb-thumb once again.    I've put a call into my graphic designer, so expect some fun changes for sure by next week.

It's spring break and while I'm still working on client projects for the week, we all took took some time out as a family yesterday to wipe away the renovation dust and take our first batch of things to the new house.  It's starting to feel real, now.  Sylvia brought us over some home made cookies from Mimi's house while we were cleaning.  It sort of felt like a welcoming kiss yesterday.  I've been saying for a while that it doesn't really seem like it's our house, or that it really COULD be our house.  For the first time, it sort of did.

The upstairs floors won't be done for a while, but the basement is done.  One half of the basement will be the teen boys pad, the other half will be my office.   Will built their beds out of fence post lumber we bought at Lowes over the weekend.  

Here's Charlie and I testing out our vintage old-school USA map between their twin beds.  I LOVE old maps and globes.  Decorating with old maps is not a new thing, and it's certainly not a dying thing.  I think it will always be in style.  For any room in the house, really.  What about you?  Do you have old maps that you use in decorating? 

Here are some inspirations from pinterest that I thought you might enjoy...  

Sleekly framed and lit.  Classy.

South America old-school style.  Love the roll down maps.

 Do you recognize this one?  It's a map mural I had commissioned for jellybeans.

Decoupaged.  So cute.

French door framed.  Love the clever usages of maps.

Happy Hump Day!

xx
sharon

SPRING NEWS & TREND Predictions

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!  

Need help finding cool things to spring-ify your home? I'll make it happen for you. My eye muscle is trained well and my kids have been teasing me that my online shopping addiction is my own version of 'gaming'.  Haha.  I may not be knowledgable on a lot, but I do know I have some great current and colorful sources on things.  And if we can't find what you're looking for, we can usually customize something for you!

Here are my hot picks for spring.  With Easter coming up real quick, I'm loving this mix of MINT, PEACH, Ombre wheel of HOT PINK, and ICY BLUE.  If you'd like to shop this look, you can go here.  Can't find what you're looking for there?  Maybe you'd like me to create a board to suit your style?  Or have something customized to suit your needs?  I'm happy to do that.  Just give me a call:)

Here's a virtual room above that I put together using those items in the board on top.  What do you think?  I love the peach to pink ombre.  OMBRE is still hotter than ever.  Did you notice that House Beautiful 's magazine cover page text was ombre last month?  LOVE it!  For spring, I predict we'll see a lot of ombre in varying shades of spring colors.

IN OTHER NEWS...

I told you we have chickens, right?  We inherited them from Will's dad who passed away just before Christmas.  This is a pic of Sylvia when the chickens first came to the new house property.  She looks thrilled, huh?  You can tell we're city folk.  I wasn't quite so sure about doing this chicken thing either. But, it's actually really easy, and fun.  They are so pretty, too.  They didn't lay too many eggs at first, and Sylvia was shy with them,  but now she and baby John-John love taking care of them.  John clucks at them like crazy and then laughs.  We like to go check on them every day after school.  Sylvia gets so excited to see how many eggs they've laid.  A good day is four to six, but lately, it's gone up to nearly a dozen eggs per day!  We have an abundance as you see here below.  Now we just need to move in and get to scrambling some eggs on the new stove. 

Will did a little reading up about the chickens and feeding them. We've been giving them scraps of veggies, fruit, and peelings.  I think that's why they are producing so many.  

In other news, I HAD to share this sweet little invitation below with you all.  A young girl threw her dear friend a baby shower here at Pickwick House over the weekend.  It was library themed shower and the invitation is an old library check out card.   Isn't it adorable.  I thought it was such a sweet idea for a shower.  Babies can't have enough good books, can they?

Tea Bar and Bites catered the party with their yummy spread!

Speaking of Tea Bar...Eleanor {my girl} whipped up a most delish new blood orange cupcake recipe last week.  She filled the pastry case with this amazing delectable.  I kid you not, these are THE best cupcakes I have EVER, EVER had!  There is a homemade curd surprise in them too!   And, just so happens that the beautiful oranges are from Home Grown Foods.  How 'bout all that for a batch of local goodness from all our wonderful neighborhood market vendors here on Pickwick street!  I feel so blessed to be here.  I hope you do too.  

Be sure to stop by and say hi to us if you see us at the new house, or Pickwick House...and come see the chickens too.  Cluck, cluckety, cluck! haha.  

Have a great week, everybody:-)

xx

sharon

Pickwick House is a full service design/build company in the heart of the Midwest!  {Springfield, Missouri's Rountree Neighborhood}.  We handle all aspects of residential renovations from small to large projects and are available for full service and consultation design, and/or stylizing from East to West Coast.  Call or email us today.  We may be on location, but we'll get back to you in no time.

 417-459-8988 *sharontaylordesigns@yahoo.com

PSST!!!

Morning Lover-lies.  Thank you all for voting for my olioboards for the get published camp!  There were a LOT of amazing boards submitted.  I'm pulling for Jennifer Reynolds, an interior designer based in Atlanta, Georgia.  Her entry board was titled, 'Crazy for Stripes'.   The judges will be announcing the winners soon.  I had unrealistic hopes for winning, but that's okay, mine are not even close to being in the running.  I am now familiar with the wonderful olioboard tool, and now I am familiar with the rules to the contests. I will try, try, again:):)  Thanks again for voting!

While I am on the subject of voting for things, I have a dear friend's daughter who always makes strides to make a difference for the less fortunate.  She's a 19 year old asking for our votes so she can take part in a traveling campaign to help kids in Africa.  It would be so wonderful if you could take a minute of your time to read her short entry bio here and vote her in to the top 50 people who deserve to go on a Tom's Giving Trip.  Thank you in advance!  Btw...PSSST!!!! she's currently #79 out of 9,000 applicants as of today.  That's so close to the #50 mark!  GO ALEX!!

I'll leave you with a quick board I put together for a client recently.  It's very traditional.  While it's not the typical design style I choose for myself, I DO enjoy reading different people's/client's styles and wishes.  A home should be something you love, and if traditional is what you love, we can do that too!

xx
sharon

Pickwick House is a full service design/build company in the heart of the Midwest!  {Springfield, Missouri's Rountree Neighborhood}.  We handle all aspects of residential renovations from small to large projects and are available for full service and consultation design, and/or stylizing from East to West Coast.  Call or email us today.  We may be on location, but we'll get back to you in no time.


417-459-8988 *sharontaylordesigns@yahoo.com