Cose Cosi'

Otherwise known as, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Sorry for my absence lately. Some of you have told me you miss my posts, and I appreciate the feedback. Today, I am home recovering from surgery.  I am doing fine, but forced to stay put....WOW, what a concept. It almost makes me feel guilty. Yesterday, I had my fair share of cooking shows and couch time. This morning, Lorenzo and I ventured out to the corner at a snail's pace. The beautiful fall weather has inspired a blog post on what I'm looking at, working on, and dreaming of these days. Here we go....

But first, a little confession: I have the seven year itch. We have been in our house seven years now, and I am dying to move. For a variety of reasons, that is not happening anytime soon, like not even in the next decade. To appease my itch, inch by inch I have been whitewashing the walls, and have finally decided to take the plunge and do the family room too. In a perfect world (with no medical bills), I would also add beams and planks like this...

...off-white walls and Paris grey bookshelves, just like the mirror finish below.  Those are our sofas too...love the pillows, but these are too bedroom-y for our family room.

My office would go from light to dark, yet warm, clean and classy (below):

In the kitchen, I am on the lookout for new-old pantry doors, below...

The guest room would get a tiny makeover too, with a new striped headboard and touches of blue again.  I already have the pillows below (a total fluke), just need to recover the headboard.

How about cocktails on the chevron terrace in front of this spectacular fireplace?

And dinner under the Virginia Creeper pergola...

Here's what I'll be wearing this fall...

With grand plans of a client's bonus room looking something like this...

I also adore the vintage, yet modern look of this dress...my husband would hate it, I'm sure.

Once my swelling goes down, I am breaking out the belts.  I can't wait to try this Hermes version with a horse bit I have sitting around.

Add this to the wrist....yummmm!

At a client's we are adding striped panels tied with ropes to the basement windows...

 Their stairs are getting a make-over too...

(All images above via Pinterest)

Another couple got a new bedroom last week.  I will post before and afters once the back-ordered rug arrives.

Lunch break. I am on the look-out for iron rich meals, and am not really a huge fan of red meat, although the sugo bolognese tasted pretty good today. Please feel free to share some of your favorite recipes!

On another note, check out my Dad's recent blog post. He puts those cute little twenty-something DIYers to shame!  Here is the link to his blog.  Also in the news, the two of us will be guests on a local radio show next Thursday, September 19th from 3:00-4:00 pm. I will send details ahead of time if you care to tune in. This is a first for me, so I have mixed emotions of excitement and fear. But as my lovely son so bluntly put it:

"You can't be a wimp if you want to succeed."

                                              -Luca G. Russo

OK then friends, let's forge ahead. Thank you so much for following. You absolutely MAKE MY DAY!