toasting

We haven't quite made it to Christmas, but are already getting excited about New Years, because the Tuscaloosa Magazine New Year's Eve photos were just posted online. We haven't seen the magazine yet, but are thrilled with these images. Many thanks to Kyle Office, Spirits Wine Cellar, Letters Hops and Vine, Mary's Cakes, Madeline Passerini, Donna, Janet, Robert, Holly, Debbie, Caroline, and the MCD team for pulling this together! Here's to ringing in the New Year with lots of sweets, bubbly, friends and family!

tour de noel

The Arts 'n Autism Home for the Holidays home tour is tomorrow! Here's a snap shot of Matt's trunk this morning...we're polishing off the odds and ends of our decorating adventures. We anticipate droves of folks to come out tomorrow - it's an event not to be missed!

vintage gold

This beautiful vintage chandelier may have found itself a new home...

did ya see?

The Arts 'n Autism Home for the Holidays tour is on Sunday! We've been up to our ears in cedar and glitter decking halls and trimming trees. Check out the article in today's paper for more info. The image above is of the Tucker home, compliments of Tuscaloosa News photographer Dusty Compton.

crimson

Just in time for an epic Iron Bowl, one of our favorite blogs pulls together a lovely color inspiration story of scarlet, crimson and vermilion. Roll Tide and Happy Thanksgiving from Matt Clinton Designs!!

simply exquisite

The newest addition to our library arrived recently. Aptly titled "The Encyclopedia of the Exquisite," the book's elegantly alphabetized entries explain curiosities and commonplace. From the origins of confetti to how to make the perfect omelet (a la Julia Child), Jessica Kerwin Jenkins' compilation of luxuries is highly entertaining and an excellent holiday gift. The book has been featured in the November issue of Vogue and on Daily Candy's highly popular Gift Guide. Naturally, we have them here at Matt Clinton Designs, a few copies wrapped and ready to gift.

trending: adirondack

Elle Decor's November issue landed on our desks this morning and we're loving one of their top trends: Adirondack-inspired style. Being in Alabama, many of our clients and friends channel this cozy Americana decor in their camp houses, hunting camps or mountain retreats. Matt Clinton Designs carries one fabulous line of fabric by Eric Cohler for Lee Jofa that is spot-on to this trend (pictured above)...just add hot chocolate and a roaring fire, and these rainy-day blues might disappear!

sarah bernhardt

Just about every lovely lady we know adores peonies (the Sarah Bernhardt variety is pictured above). We have a grand order arriving in early December to send along to a few lucky folks who have been given a Flower of the Month membership as a Holiday gift (more on that soon - for immediate details, feel free to call the shop at 205 464 0488). We also have a handful of special customers who have reserved a few stems. Let us know if you would like to get in on the action...these beauties only come around every once and awhile!

light up

Matt Clinton Designs loves NEST and we are thrilled to share that their Holiday Candle has arrived! It is - hands down - the BEST holiday fragrance on the market. It is the reason we started carrying the NEST line (seriously...). If you haven't experienced it, you must stop by the shop and try it. The image doesn't do justice to the packaging - the rich red velvety box and gold designs pretty much eliminates the need to gift wrap. Not too Christmas tree-y, not too sweet, the blend of mandarin orange, pine, cinnamon and eucalyptus is all we need to put us in the spirit.

a glam fete

Today, the Matt Clinton Designs team spent the morning staging a New Year's Eve fete for Tuscaloosa Magazine. Inspired by the Black and White Ball, we accented our palette with gilded accessories, bubbly libations and sugary confections. Many thanks to everyone that helped us pull the "event" together...keep an eye out for the piece in Tuscaloosa Magazine's Holiday issue!

black and white ball

We love this shot of Candice Bergen at Truman Capote's Black and White Ball in 1966. These images from the evening (compliments of Habitually Chic) have inspired a glamorous entertaining concept we're designing for a Tuscaloosa Mag shoot tomorrow. Details to follow!

apt with lsd

Vogue.com launched a new column that we think we're really going to dig. It's called APT with LSD. LSD??? Yep, that's Vogue's uber-socialite contributing editor, Lauren Santo Domingo. She's ducking in some of Vogue's favorite people's homes and apartments. Above is a view from model Coco Rocha's pad in Gramercy, which just happens to be one of our favorite NY neighborhoods.

adding flair to your library

Matt Clinton Designs' selection of books are our go-to resource when we're generating ideas for a project. Instead of keeping our library private, we picked up a few fun reads at market this past summer that our clients and customers have been scooping off the shelves for their reading pleasure, as well as thoughtful gifts for friends and family. A few of our current favorites are above. Pulling together a small soriee? Flair, a fun compilation of party planner Joe Nye's favorite tablescapes is a great source to get your creative juices flowing. Consider yourself a fashionista and planning to visit, er...dreaming of visiting, Paris? Check out Pairs Vintage Couture. Want to be surrounded by classic style 24/7? Pick up The Well-Dressed Home for interior is inspiration.
We're getting in even more books - cookbooks du jour, Christmas classics, and maybe even a few children's books - for the holidays! Yep...it's already time to start thinking about THE HOLIDAYS...more on that soon!

glorious gloria

NY Mag's Home Design issue is out (well, it's been out for over a week, but being in Alabama we are just now getting around to blogging about it...) and our favorite piece was Wendy Goodman's peek into Gloria Vanderbilt's pad. An eccentric angle on traditional glamor, her Fifth Avenue dwellings are saturated with boldness, out-of-the-box details and design elements evolved from Vanderbilt's colored past. After seeing this fascinating view of Vanderbilt, we can't wait to get our hands on Goodman's new book, The World of Gloria Vanderbilt.

diffusing the situatiuon

We're pretty excited about our Nest candle line and their new diffuser line has finally arrived at Matt Clinton Designs! Perfect for dorm or sorority house rooms, the diffusers live up Nest's celeb-worthy reputation. We just love the sharp, yet unassuming bottle design. The most popular blend, Bamboo, is pictured above.

t design fall 2010

The New York Times Style Magazine ( or T magazine as we call it here at Matt Clinton Designs) sent out their Fall 2010 Design issue last week. High design, modern Boho, fancy toothbrushes, and a seven-sided house with a view are a few of the gems you'll find inside. While you're at it, add the ever-brilliant The Moment blog to your list of daily reads.

florida friday

A snapshot from last Friday. Matt Clinton Designs intern Karrie fearlessly guides two grand arrangements to the Sky Boxes before the Florida game. Gorgeous red roses, white dendrobium orchids and palms...we added towering red ginger to the arrangements on site. It's a feat to get the large-scale arrangements up to the boxes, but they make quite an impression on football fans. If you've got a Sky Box or a tail gate that needs a fresh edge for homecoming, feel free to give us a call!

think pink

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and Matt Clinton Designs is offering a special on pink roses and pink rose arrangements in honor of the cause (also in honor, Matt wore a pink shirt to work today!). Send a pink "happy" to someone you know and we'll take 10% off.

A UA sorority kicked off their Think Pink campaign for Breast Cancer Awareness with a bbq on Friday. One of the two fabulous arrangements we did for the event is pictured above. The pink rose we used is called Topaz - they were some of the grandest hot pink roses we've seen in a long time!

bamboo is back

Matt Clinton Designs' best-seller is back. A new shipment of Bamboo candles from Nest arrived at the shop this morning. We'll be sending out a few to place in powder rooms for private events this weekend. If you're entertaining this weekend - or just need a fresh scent for your home - come by and pick one up ASAP!

fall flowers

Yesterday's autumnal equinox marked the first official day of Fall! We're using a beautiful fall palette for Matt Clinton Designs' Friday deliveries (one arrangement pictured above). The colors were inspired by changing leaves...just a few more weeks until Tuscaloosa's trees start turning. Check out our facebook album featuring a Fall cocktail party where we used branches and foliage from the home owner's yard. Just gorgeous!

dorm room delight

Over the summer, we teamed up with Tuscaloosa Magazine to pull together the quintessential Matt Clinton Designs dorm room. Over the summer, girls flocked to the shop for dorm decorating tips and ideas, so it was an honor to work with the magazine to design our ideal one-room collegiate living space. Although many people in this town gravitate towards crimson and hounds tooth, we decided to take a new direction with a fresh, bold color palette. We have the look styled in our windows and we must say, it's been a hit, even among those who bleed crimson and white.

The magazine is on stands now and here's a link to the article online.

workin' for the weekend

Home game weekends are a reminder of how lucky we are to be in business in Tuscaloosa. If the traffic on campus doesn't deter our friends and clients from coming to the shop on a Thursday or Friday before the Tide plays in Bryant Denny, they're sure to find us working on floral arrangements bound for private parties, UA events, fraternity and sorority houses, Sky Boxes and, last but not least, tailgating tents on the Quad.

We're in our second season working with the stellar team at Game Day Tents to bring their clients a fresh approach to top-notch tailgating. Each home game we get an early start to deliver flowers to the tents. And, although we're night owls over here at Matt Clinton Designs, there is nothing like the energy on a Saturday morning during football season to get us revved up for Fall. Roll Tide!

rushed week

This week is one of the busiest weeks of the year at Matt Clinton Designs: Sorority Rush. On top of orchestrating parties for a few houses throughout the week and preparing for Bid Day flower deliveries (and a wedding this weekend), we have boxes of fun new merchandise trickling in from market.

One of our new favorite additions to the store is the NEST candle line (fan them on FB). From Moss and Mint to Moroccan Amber, the fragrances are fabulously fresh and a much welcomed addition to the shop. NEST is also launching a diffuser line this fall and we'll have them in stock in about a month. Diffusers are great for dorm rooms (no candles allowed!) - almost as great as a Trina Turk clad dorm room.

While we're on the subject of Rush and dorm rooms, we must plug our Bid Day flower delivery. Orders are pouring in. If you haven't called us yet, pick up the phone ASAP!

look book

We're huge fans of Rita Konig and her Inside Out column on The Moment blog (where we swiped the image above). On Tuesday, she posted about something we're quite fond of: filling and organizing bookshelves. When Matt Clinton Designs' interiors team is on a decorating project, no shelf is left untouched. Whether we bring in a few accessories from the owner's attic (or the shop!) or rearrange by size and/or color, fluffing up the shelves is an instant way to add a decorator's touch.

We recently rearranged our bookshelves here at the shop with chromatic groupings, and we must admit, it looks pretty sharp.

market musings

This past weekend we ventured to Hotlanta for America's Mart Home Market. We kicked the weekend off at Lee Kleinhelter's chic boutique, Pieces, for a party honoring our favorite colorful designer, Jonathan Adler. As wonderful as it was to meet and greet with Mr. Happy Chic, the most fun part of the evening was the impromptu photo booth (complete with mustache and granny glasses props!) by Naugle photography (our favorite/funniest shot from the evening is pictured above). We attended a confab with Mr. Adler on Friday at market and our favorite piece of advice he shared was this: “Every room needs a dash of hippie and a dollop of socialite.”

We kept Mr. Adler's words of wisdom in mind through Friday and Saturday as we scoured endless floors and mazes of home décor. We picked up a few gems, including our favorite candle line, NEST, a fabulous new furniture line and wonderful fine art source. Perhaps our top find was in Currey and Company's showroom – in addition to the fantastic lamps we bought, they had an exquisitely catered cocktail hour. It was so good, we came back to visit Saturday (many thanks to Joy and the Currey team!). It inspired us to plan an open house when we receive the lamps (and other market finds) with an exquisitely catered cocktail hour...any exquisite caterers out there who would like to show off their skills at Matt Clinton Designs' open house in early fall??

Speaking of food and wine, we checked out Miller Union on Friday night. It's one of Atlanta's acclaimed new restaurants, and if fine farm to table food is your thing, we highly recommend it. It was delicious!

seedy fashion

Matt Clinton Designs is always on the look out for inspiring floral designs and our most recent obsession hails from the most fashionable city in the world. Paris celebrated nature's finest designs last week when John Galliano debuted Christian Dior's floral-inspired line during the Haute Couture fashion shows. His elegant, thoughtful, drop-dead gorgeous creations gave a whole new meaning to floral design. In addition to watching flowers day and night, through every stage of bloom, Galliano also studied up on Irving Penn's and Nick Knight's photography. Couture is all in the hand-sewn details and we couldn't be more impressed with the fabric to petal transformation. And the shoes!!!

We pulled the image from Style.com – check out a fab article and the rest of the show here.

Beautiful clothing aside, we're wondering what the French fashion house did with the gigantic Parrot Tulips used as runway décor after the show...

bright brides

Weddings may be the most stressful of all the events we do, but hands down, they are our favorite. A garden-inspired wedding ceremony and reception we recently designed at North River Yacht Club had several extraordinary homemade touches added by the bride and her family. Pictured above is her creative spin on the traditional bride's bouquet. Heirloom and vintage pins on delicate lace were a nice way to accent elements important to the theme of the wedding. The altar and buffet florals we designed were inspired by the lush colors – rich purples, creamy whites and all shades of garden green – in the fabric the family brought in for the table linens. Take a peek at more images from the wedding from photographer Kelly Cummings of Spindle Photography.

summertime blues

Sunday was designated as an official day of prayer for the Gulf Coast and since our recent trip down there to work a wedding, our thoughts constantly turn to the devastation from the oil spill. The oil arrived on the Orange Beach coastline the day we left and luckily, the bride and groom kept a positive attitude throughout their wedding weekend. Selflessly, they weren't concerned whether or not the oil would affect their celebration and we all quietly mourned the changes and challenges our culture is experiencing.

MCD cannot express our heartbreak in words – it is impossible to fathom the uncertainty we face in the weeks, months and years to come. We stayed down in Orange Beach to work with Tuscaloosa Magazine on next year's Beach Issue and did our best to help stimulate the local economy for a few extra days. Matt is also helping with the relief efforts and has made plans to visit 4th of July weekend and volunteer with wildlife clean-up.

We're pleased to share that we've spoken with a few folks from T-town that also have plans to vacation on the coast for the 4th. In the spirit, we wanted to share a picture we snapped during the wedding weekend from the bay at Ono Island.

without a hitch: stitch witchery

After A long jaunt on the coast for a wedding and photo shoot, were back in the studio. There's much to share about our adventures in destination wedding world, but for now, we wanted to take a break from plugging our floral designs and give a little DIY lesson on how to make your own table runners.

We used these for a Bridesmaid Luncheon at Cosmo's restaurant in Orange Beach, AL. Check out an this article on the establishment from Tuscaloosa Mag. We came across the fabric at Old Time Pottery (the infamous craft/home accessory store on steroids – it can be a little overwhelming, but you never leave without a good find). You'll need about four yards of fabric, Stitch Witchery, an iron and a pair of scissors.

Start by cutting the length of fabric in half to give yourself two two-yard pieces. Then, cut the width of each piece of fabric in half. Following the directions on the Stitch Witchery package, create a two inch seam along the underside of the fabric edge and fuse it together by ironing over a length of fabric tape in the fold of the seam. Repeat along the two long lengths and one short width of the fabric. Along the other short width, create an even-angled point. To do this, fold the corners of the width down over the back of the fabric to meet each other. Seal the seam with Stitch Witchery. Voila!

Props to the Bride for this lovely image.

a breath of fresh air

We have lots of decorating projects moving and shaking right now and are thrilled with our newest client, a homeowner in Birmingham. We visited her yesterday and though she already has exquisite furnishings, we helped fluff-up her space, toss what she didn't need and place her furniture in a way that would impress anyone who walks through the door. The day was quite productive (finished product above), and we parted ways with a plan to take her living spaces to the next level with a few more essential touches.

Oftentimes, we find that houses have many of the elements to make a homeowner proud, but they are cluttered with useless accessories, and/or not placed to achieve the most potential and balance that the home is capable of offering. Additionally, our expertise in recognizing the few décor components that make a house a home take the stress (and needless spending!) off a client's agenda. MCD offers one of the lowest decorator fees in town ($65/hour) and our talent is tops. Give us a call if you're thinking of revitalizing your home this summer.

magnolia

Pardon the iPhone image, but we had to share this shot of a freshly harvested magnolia. They are about to burst into bloom across Alabama, so keep your eyes peeled and your snips ready!

college prep

Sometimes we miss coed life at The University. Fortunately, we get to stay in touch with our alma mater throughout the school year, working on parties for various University, sorority and fraternity functions. Now that summer is here, campus is a little quieter (and traffic is much lighter!), but not for long. A new crop of kids (err...young adults) are gearing up for summer orientation visits and starting their next chapter in Tuscaloosa. As we've mentioned, we outfit some fun and fantastic dorm rooms each year, and oftentimes students can keep most of their fabrics and accessories for years to come.

Yesterday, we met with a lovely lady from Schumacher fabrics who shared some of her favorite bright prints. Many of our top picks hailed from fashion designer Trina Turk's collection. It's an upper-end indoor/outdoor line (worth every penny!) that will hold its pizazz through just about anything during a four-year jaunt on campus – even an impromptu toga party with John Belushi and Otis Day and the Knights.

au courant

The NY Mag Home Design Issue arrived yesterday (actually, it was issued in NY last week, but being in Alabama, we only received it yesterday...). A series of apartments were profiled as the Neo Classics of New York. Now, we usually yearn for the fresh comfort of English design (and absolutely love Rita Konig and her Greenwich Village abode shown in the feature), but every single facet of Hervé Pierre's Neo Versailles design took our breath away. We'll never be the same after seeing the brilliance of the Balmain Glove and will always hold these words of wisdom: “To live as if you were in Paris, you need Evian, confiture, foie gras, and Céte d’Or chocolate”

In the spirit of our fond love for Lucite-inspired pieces, we also cooed over the translucent Chiavari chairs and the acrylic-top Drafting table featured in The Brat of Classicism.

All in all, four thumbs up from the MCD team – we'll be holding on to this issue for inspiration for years to come.

and here's to you, mommie dearest

We're prepping flowers for mothers and graduates this weekend, and thought it would only be appropriate to pay tribute to one of the greatest movies ever made, The Graduate (although paying tribute to Mommie Dearest was a close second). We'd prefer to wake up in Mrs. Robinson's Hollywood Regency style house from the 1967 classic. The bold black and white stripe, animal prints, futuristic mod furnishings and and a killer bar scream timeless glamor. And the SCUBA suit!

As for this weekend's flowers, we received several gorgeous rose varieties, pure white hydrangea, fabulous Casablanca lilies and rich greenery to create beautiful, glamorous arrangements for the dearest mothers and eager graduates we are honoring this weekend. (It's not too late to get an order in for delivery!) Which leads to us to wonder...would you rather be sending Mother's Day flowers to Mrs. Robinson or Joan Crawford?

role model

We picked up the May 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living this weekend – it's packed with lots of tips on adding color to your “life.” (We especially liked her spin on “Superneutrals.”) Like so many others in the design industry, we constantly turn to Martha for ideas and inspirations. Her awesomeness is untouched in the world of entertaining. Her creativity and knowledge of any and everything DIY goes far beyond anyone on Earth. Her floral designs take our breath away. We could go on and on (in this overly dramatic fashion) about how much we love Martha, but would rather share some pictures from her pre-domestic goddess phase. She modeled to put herself though college! The picture above is our favorite, but there are more gems here.

alabama eye candy

We've been redecorating the store the past few days and have been a bit too overwhelmed to post the updates. For the time being, we thought we'd share a refreshingly Southern Spring photo, compliments Ms. Dabbs Anderson. Most of the azaleas in Tuscaloosa are past their prime by now, but this is how we'll always remember them.Also, the sale is still going on, with many gift items added this week. Stop in soon if you're looking for a wedding gift - they're going fast!

inspiration from the park

Right about now, New York is probably getting the storms we weathered in Alabama this past weekend. And while showers typically rule in April in Manhattan, there are always a few lucky days of spring-like tolerable weather. This picture of the Plaza Hotel was taken on one of those days (exactly two years ago today) during a visit to the city. The greens against the natural stone and steel tones with the little pops of pink and red inspired one of the flower deliveries we sent out today. We used one of our last few stone containers with lots of young, vibrant green hydrangea and a couple of stargazer lilies - very fresh and pretty with a bit of an industrial edge. There's nothing quite like Central Park in Spring to bud inspiration...except, of course, Tuscaloosa in Spring.

adler for seven

Jonathan Adler is one of the top name-brand interior designers in the biz. His hilarious musings, penchant for color and playful themes bring smiles to our ever-natural-toned world. Want to see the proof? Just ask Barbie. He designed her Malibu home. Adler's throw pillows hit cult status a few seasons ago and continue to be one of the hottest accessories in contemporary interior decorating. Word on the street is that he's designing a line of denim for Seven Jeans. We're anxious and curious to see how his pop-arty inspirations will translate into designer denim. Without a doubt there will be at least one look on our wish list.

The image above is a dressing room Adler designed. We swiped it from his Web site.

it's electric

One more post on fabulous floral hues. The roses above are called Star 2000 and they are the most intensely color-saturated roses we've ever seen. They are making quite an impression on our weekly deliveries – yesterday's administrative professionals raved at the sight of them in their arrangements!

We used them for a fall engagement party last year and are loving them for spring and summer. We bet that if we paired them with the perfect shade of citron green and a few other reds, they would be refreshing in holiday arrangements, too. An impressive rose for all seasons!

milva rose and antique blue

This past weekend, one of the four events we juggled was an intimate cocktail party at a lovely historic home in Tuscaloosa. Though the home's interiors have an air of fresh glamor, we decided to take it to the next level of modernity with tablescapes and arrangements inspired by renowned floral designer Jeff Leatham. We used a simple color palette of salmony orangish pink and muted blue-green sea tones, then layered in lots of glass, water and floating candles. It was gorgeous and the roses smelled amazing.

We carried this color palette into some of our weekend deliveries (pictured above) and look forward to more experimentation with these summery hues in the forthcoming months.

belgravia

Here is a sneak peek into Carrie and Big's apartment in the new Sex and the City movie, and look who's staring center stage – Lee Jofa's Belgravia fabric (pictured on the dining room chairs in the foreground). How beautifully do the natural tones in the fabric pick up the bold colors in the background? We have memos of the fabric at the store and think it looks smashing upholstered on dining room chairs. Here's another look from an ad campaign Lee Jofa ran about a year ago.

The pattern is actually inspired by historic English country home design (which we are quite partial to when it comes to a tradtional design) and is licensed under the Royal Oak Foundation. We'll save our praises about the benefits of joining the Foundation for another post, but feel free to check out more info via Alice Marshall PR (NY's esteemed boutique travel/spa/design firm) here.

Interested to see more on the interiors from SATC2? Check out Habitually Chic.

sale

We're having a grand sale at the store with most of the furniture marked down 50%. Need we say more?

clearly

Inspired by Phillippe Stark, the fresh, contemporary Ghost Chair design adds clean style to any space. We recently used a set of four in a breakfast nook and are awaiting custom shagreen seat cushions, which will add another dimension of modern glamor to the chairs. Some retailers sell them for over $400 each, but Matt Clinton Designs has them for $275. They're going fast, so if you're interested, give us a call ASAP.

We gleaned the image above from M. Design Interiors out of L.A.

dorm room decor 101

As families and friend make plans to visit campus this weekend for the big A-Day game, we are reminded of a few weekends ago, when swarms of soon-to-be freshmen girls came to town for the University of Alabama Panhellenic Weekend. Panhellenic Weekend is an opportunity for the girls and their parents to get to get acquainted with all of the sororities and campus life. Over 1,000 girls showed up (!) and the MCD team, along with a few other local vendors were invited to meet and greet with the girls and showcase how we can work together. (Our tablescape is pictured above.)

Matt Clinton Designs offers flower delivery on Bid Day (one of the busiest days of the year for us) and – believe it or not – dorm room decoration. Some people raise their eyebrows at the thought of custom bedding and window treatments for dorm rooms, but it helps bring a sense of home to the dorm-life and is very sensible in some cases. For example, it can be tough to find a dust skirt with a 31" drop! Additionally, we have all of the measurements for the dorm rooms on hand, which helps to take a little stress off of the parents. We already have a few appointments set for the summer and will be sure to post some before and after images in the fall.

early to bed

We're hoping our restful weekend will prove to be the best preparation for a busy week! A handful of big events and some very important meetings are sure to keep us on our toes these next few days. Juggling several projects is nothing new to the MCD team, as each football weekend in the fall is a whirlwind of similar scale. We've learned that the best way to balance the chaos is by treating our minds, bodies and spirits with 6-8 hours of sleep each night. Although we're strong believers in making our beds with custom bedding, our top pick for a ready-made quick fix is the soft, comfortable beauty of Pom Pom at Home Collection bedding. Pictured above (and available through our store) are pillow shams from Pom Pom's Mathilde collection. Always partial to a neutral color palette, we love the look of the gray and white, especially in the soft morning light.

longing for long island

Lunch isn't something we take lightly at Matt Clinton Designs. Neither is food, for that matter! Pictured above is the famed roadside lobster roll shack, Lobster Roll Southside, in Amagansett, NY. From a design standpoint, the retro-Americana look ties in well with the subtle nautical themes our clients and customers gravitate to when the weather heats up.

Back to the food...for those not privy to the New England lobster roll, it's lobster meat, a little mayo and a few other ingredients mixed together (sort of like chicken salad) served on a hot dog bun (or a fancier roll). If you ever get your hands on some fresh lobster meat – which can be quite a feat in Tuscaloosa – we recommend trying this recipe straight from the restaurant. We've also used fresh crab meat or Gulf shrimp. It's not quite the same, but serve it al fresco with some iced tea or a cold beer and it's sure to evoke lunch hour on the East End, or any coastal getaway. Bon appetit et bon weekend!

softly spring

This image (compliments of Dabbs Anderson, our artiste friend) is from a few weeks ago. That's Dabbs carrying a lovely arrangement we used at Kozy's restaurant for our friend Caroline's birthday. It was mid-March and the Japanese Magnolias had just burst into bloom at Caroline's house. We foraged those from her yard and along with a few other stems and some pretty greenery, we made a lovely table scape for dinner.

spring cleaning

After Christmas, we put all of our recycled magazine (and grain sack, and tire) products on sale. We still have a handful of the merchandise left, including these boxes. A new survey shows that the top reason for “spring cleaning” is to rid of clutter. There's some stuff you just can't part with, though. So instead of throwing out the clutter, we recommend sticking it in a cute box for storage. We've got these in assorted sizes and the price is right (ranging from $18-30).

polka dots

Arranging flowers for a funeral or memorial is always a bit somber. Today, we worked our craft for the memorial of dear friend's mother, Penny McAllister. Like mother, like daughter(s) - the McAllister women are always upbeat and enthusiastic. We hope the flowers reflected Penny's spunk and creativity and we are keeping our thoughts with the family.

On a sunnier note, we met with our representatives from Thibaut this morning. They showed us some of the most fun new wall paper and fabric designs for summer. One looks like it might be a perfect fit for the home office we started working on yesterday. It's so new, there aren't even images of it up on the Thibaut Web site, yet. We also saw Thibaut's new sister line, Anna French and are smitten! Wall coverings with flair and gorgeous fabrics with lots of color. We've included fun metallic paper above called Spot. We think Penny might have been a fan.

scallop

A full morning of billing, clean-up, fabric orders, inventory, etc.

Our afternoon was brightened when Suzie, one of our best friends/clients, popped in to get some ideas for her home office. We poured over some black and white prints and pulled some accessories from around the shop. Shown above is a print from the Studio Bon collection called Scallop – one of the top contenders for her window treatments. We're thinking about painting the walls a buttery yellow and pulling in some charcoal and coral tones. As Matt would say, “Yummy!”