Category Archives: Wishing_True

One New Addition (Almost One Week Late)

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Last Wednesday, I promised that “tomorrow” I’d be posting a picture of my brother Matthew’s Christmas present to us. Tomorrow – as in last Thursday.

Sorry about that! But the additional time works out for the best since I got inspired to take some pictures of all of his paintings that we own (don’t worry – it’s not THAT many).

First, our new piece:



It’s the second panel in a series titled “Amiable Virgin Cycle”. To see all three, you can visit his website HERE.

I love that we’ve collected his work over the years, because you can see a definite progression of style and mediums.

The very first painting of his that I acquired was probably a high school art project.


He deigned to let me have it (as in “that old thing?“) over ten years ago. But I loved it and still do. It’s in my dining room.

Then there are these two – both presents for different occasions:



The first is larger and was originally framed in the smaller painting’s frame. I never liked that skimpy matting, but I did love the frame. When I decided to frame the smaller painting later on, I realized that I could just switch them. And it worked out perfectly.

This is one that Chris “commissioned” for my birthday close to ten years ago.


It’s fairly unique among his other paintings from that time (or any time really). I don’t think I’ve seen any others with similar colors. I love looking at it every time I walk up the stairs (I placed it at the landing).

Finally, these two smaller watercolors are a couple of my most treasured possessions. They’re like little jewels and I never tire of looking at them.



I especially love the moon (or sun? sorry – can’t remember…) in that second one. Matt let me choose from several and when I made my selection, he said he knew I’d want that one. Apparently, I’m very predictable.

And predictably enough, I’m a proud big sister. God – my brother’s talented. His work is full of light and texture that isn’t well captured by my terrible photography. His website has far better quality photos.

In the market for some art? Matt and his girlfriend would like to attend a wedding in Greece this summer…and those plane tickets don’t come cheap!

Two New Additions

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This Christmas, we had a couple of exciting new additions to our dining room.

The first was a present from my mom. This pretty little chandelier:




She really hated the admittedly ugly lighting fixture that was up when we purchased the house three years ago (sorry – no before pics – never occurred to me to capture its hideousness on film). I never cared for it myself, but when pregnant with twins, moving house and chasing after a 17 month old, one can only focus on so many home improvement projects…

The other gift was from me: a charming oil painting from Lisa Hirst, whom I’ve featured here before.



She’s beeen a favorite of mine for months and it makes me so happy to have one of her pieces in my home.

We actually got another painting from my brother, but I’m going to do a separate post on that tomorrow. So check back then!

Fairlyte Hand Painted Interiors

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Speaking of Lobster and Swan… (I mentioned the site in my last post)


That’s where I found this wonderful artist, Melissa White of Fairlyte.


Her “fresco secco” technique reflects old, cracked and aging walls. After plastering on a flexible surface, various methods of distressing the surface are employed to make it appear appear time-worn. The final piece is either left dusty and matte or finished with bee’s wax for a rich, shiny patina. Finally the piece is mounted onto a box frame ready to hang or use for lining furniture and walls.


She draws inspiration from vintage and historic designs “from across Europe and as far as Japan.“


How I would love to own one of these… For now I’ll just file them away in my list of dream purchases.

The Well Dressed Home

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I completely forgot to tell you about the best giveaway I won on coco + kelly a couple of months back. But this post on Lobster and Swan reminded me.


The Well Dressed Home by Annette Tatum is by far one of the most beautiful design books I’ve ever seen. It’s like the sugar frosted French pastry to your typical baguette of a coffee table book. Just paging through its loveliness is like an act of decadence. And the copy I won is SIGNED (I have a bit of a thing for signed first editions).


The topic is personalizing your living space so that it reflects your fashion and style sensibilities. And the photography would inspire the least style minded reader.


It’s not uncommon to hear a differentiation between “being into fashion” or “being into home interiors” but personal design taste really has to encompass both. What you choose to put on your body and what you put around it are so closely related.


Especially since both are terribly challenged by the amount of money you have to spend. Possibly one of the biggest reasons why many choose to just give up and not even try.


In the end, it takes more than a few days to dress a home, and for most it can take a lifetime. But the process of collecting treasured things and developing personal style can be enjoyed just as much as the end result of home dressed to the nines.

My favorite thing in the new Anthropologie catalog is…

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THIS HAIR!




Seriously. I’m dying. There are only two things that keep me from flying out the door to demand an on the spot haircut appointment at Aveda right now: fear of bangs and the sheer amount of product that I would require to keep my hair looking that sleek.

So instead I’ll just drool over the catalog and fantasize about a parallel universe in which I have no wrinkles and THAT HAIR.

I’m also swooning over the photography which is, as usual, extraordinary.





But my real favorite item is this blouse.


I have a Anthro gift card from Christmas burning a hole in my pocket right now… If I could only find the time to drop by a store to try it on… This of course, says a lot about the number of opportunities I will have to wear such a thing of beauty. But it would be nice to have it on reserve, to wear around the house during nap time, to stick my head in the closet so I could rub it against my cheek while nobody’s looking…

My New Style and Design Blog

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I know that there is this idea floating out there among my friends and family that I have like 100 blogs. Actually – I only have two, this site and The Big Piece of Cake (where you will find a copy of this post today). The As Good As Cake site is just a page for giveaways and reviews – so I consider that to be part of The Big Piece of Cake.

Sure I had that Underdogs site for a big – but it fizzled. So yeah – two blogs. That’s it.

Until this week.

Because I have now added Style Key West to the list.

My parents live in Key West and own a great home furnishings shop and design service, and they are now expanding with an online store (still under construction at the moment).


I’ve been trying to convince them to start a blog to help drive traffic to the online store, and they finally agreed! The decision was contingent upon my availability to help set it up (they’re creative people and not so techie – unlike me – snort!) So I put together a little blogspot for them as a start:


And I will be writing one or two posts for them each week in addition to their own. The site will focus on their shop, their design work, their daily life and the party island that they call home. It should be a fun blog since they are some of the most interesting people I know.


My mom has amazing taste and has a long history of putting together beautiful spaces on small budgets in addition to the high budget work she’s done for her decorating clients. She’s also the sweetest, most beloved person I’ve ever met. Everyone falls in love with Jo Coveny.


And my dad is a real character (maybe one of the driving forces behind their move to Key West?) His lifelong hobbies include wine tasting, breeding hibiscus flowers, landscaping their homes (without formal training) and songwriting. He even wrote a musical. I mean – who does that?! Anyway – life is never dull with Terry Coveny.


So I would LOVE it if you would help support this new endeavor by subscribing to their blog, following them, tweeting about it, forwarding the link to your design-minded friends…telling your own parents… Whatever. Any traffic they can get would be fabulous and a wonderful start to building their own social networking community.

Here is the link to the first post I wrote for them: An Introduction…

Since then, mom has posted some pictures of their home and a huge Dachshund Walk (seriously – a wiener dog walk – only in Key West) that just took place last week. Future posts will cover happenings in their shop, interior design projects they’re working on, lovely online finds, crazy stories about their life in Key West, ideas for DIY projects and ways to use color in your home…and who knows what from there – but that’s what we’ve discussed so far.

It should be a fun read. So make sure to visit Style Key West. And come back often!

Kelly MacDonald: A New-to-Me "Daily" Painter

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I recently came across another “daily” painter (meaning an artist who produces several small paintings each week in addition to bigger projects). And I would love to own one of her pieces.

Here are some of Kelly MacDonald’s small paintings that caught my eye:





You can see more of her work on Kelly MacDonald’s Daily Paintings or on her secondary site (which features some lovely cloudscapes), Current Paint Adventures by KCM.