Here's why you need to Edit those Pictures

Now this is some bad luck....that's why the picture I post tend to be more generic!

Published : Thursday, 17 Dec 2009, 10:29 PM CST (From Fox9News Minnesota)
CHASKA, Minn. - A Chaska homeowner says he’s feeling a huge loss off the ice after items were stolen from his home because of display pictures on a website.

The man said his home was broken into on December 7. He believes the person who broke into his home knew what they were looking for since pictures of his home were displayed on a website.
His home was displayed on www.showhomes.com , which is a home staging company for homes on the market.

The pictures include the flat screen television that was stolen, along with a picture of a teenager’s room with signed hockey jerseys and pictures also taken in the heist.

Police say there was no forced entry and the lockbox was missing. Police say that makes it possible the thieves gained access to the home by getting the key inside the lockbox.
"For sale homes are easy targets in the sense that people don't always think people coming and going are out of the ordinary," said Chaska Police Detective Lee McClure.

The man wants sellers to protect their homes by always knowing when someone is coming to their home for a showing and making neighbors aware of when people might be in the home.

I hate to say it out loud...but this has been a good week......shhhh!

This is one of those weeks that has had it's ups and downs. But the Ups have been way better than any of the downs.

And there was really only one down.

And it was something we knew was coming.

So it was really more like a pothole, not really a down. Got that?

Last night we got the great news that we have a new grandson. That makes three for us, two girls - who are 9 and 6 and now our newest. No pictures yet, but I will be posting something when we go out to visit them December 22nd. Stayed tuned to Facebook.

Then this morning, my darling son texted me to let me know he had been accepted at Rider University - one of his top five choices. (They had interviews at his high school today) This only leaves us waiting for the four others to make a decision. But it's the first one that you worry about the most. You know how great your child is, you just have to wait for everyone else to figure it out!

So I know that I am probably tempting fate or something, but I am just so thrilled about this two great things that I had to share.

So just know that I am humbled that I have good news to share.

This has been a good week.

But...shhhhh.

Trip Memories, Part 1

We recently returned from our wonderful 15 days San Diego - Panama Canal - San Juan cruise vacation (please no comments on the wastefulness of cruising - we enjoy it and are not making a political statement) and I wanted to share some of our favorite photographs.

Let's start with San Diego:


You all know that I love to take shots of architecture and I found this building really interesting - the outdoor space is incorporated in an way you don't see here in the Northeast.




This was a morning visitor each of the two days in San Diego. The gulls would sit on our deck and smile for the camera. I thought it was just neat that they were so mellow. We did not leave out any food, so it seemed like a social call...lol.

This is the San Diego Bay, you can see towards the downtown area which was very nice. We walked around a lot on Saturday and while I had hoped to get out to Coronado, we just did not have the time.

I just love this photograph! This was about 6:30 am off of our room balcony. The water was so still, the shadows and light so beautiful and the reflection of the sailboats waiting for the day to begin. This will definitely be made larger for a decorating project!

The Wyatt Earp Hotel is one (or the one) oldest buildings in San Diego. It's been restored and is in beautiful shape. The colors were amazing bright at this time of day. We stopped at a bar across the street and just hung out for a few hours. It was so sunny and pleasant and I understood why people rave about the area.

Next up, the Mexican Rivera....

Greetings from Mexico!

One of the great joys of taking a vacation is the opportunity to see other cultures and to find out how other people live their lives.

As you can see from my blog, I love to take photographs of many things, but I especially enjoy taking photos of architecture, in all different forms. Balconies, windows, the shapes of trim, photos both close up and far away.

These things inspire me. They also afford me the opportunity to work on my eye - for lovely vignettes, for details, etc. I also like to use the photographs for art in some of my staging or decorating work. Blowing up details of a balcony or using three similar vignettes in matching frames can set the mood for a room.

So we are now on the Mexico portion of our trip, soon to go through the Panama Canal and I cannot wait to get home (well, I can but I wanted to be polite) and post some of my photographs for you.

In the meantime, I'll keep taking them.

Shabby Chic Redefined

I have always been the anti-Shabby Chic gal.

While I certainly understood how it would appeal to so many people, I just always felt it was messy and too casual for so many styles of homes. I don't think anything was more shocking then walking into someones home and seeing the formal spaces turned into shabby chic without a real thought into how it fit your "modern" home.....

But it still shocked me when in January I had heard that Rachel Ashwell and the "Shabby Chic" brand had filed for bankruptcy. She had stores, lines in other stores, web sites and many, many books. So what happened?

Apparently, she was trying to expand (due to a deal) at the same time the economy was going down the dirt. This led to the downfall of the company and the eventual Chapter 11 filing.

Bus Rachel and Shabby Chic are making a comeback according to this article in the New York Times. "The business plan, he and Ms. Ashwell said, describes a line of lower-price upholstered pieces that will appear in furniture stores sometime next year. Her new flagship stores in Manhattan and Santa Monica (a third is to open in London early next year) have been conspicuously named Shabby Chic Couture, to differentiate their higher price point — the new $3,500 sofa, versus one that might sell for $1,500 — from the new line for other stores."

While I applaud the "lower priced" line, I do wish there was not a disconnect between that and the higher priced "Couture" line. Does it make that much of a difference if your sofa is $2,000 as long as it has that Shabby Chic title?

Just asking....

Anyway, it's great to see a decorating icon make it back after a difficult time. Let's look for more of those decorating icons to return...like some of those magazines we have lost.....

Shabby Chic....redefined for the better, I hope.