Clutter IS a decorating style

Clutter IS a decorating style. In fact, it is my favorite style. There are two types of people; people who like a lot of stuff surrounding them and people who freak out when there is a lot of stuff around. What makes me feel safe and snuggled makes others claustrophobic and panicked. I have friends in both camps. At least 1/2 of my friends would like to bring over a dumpster. The other half live in homes that look similar to mine.

We all joke about hoarding but hoarding is different. Hoarding involves saving and protecting actual garbage, dead animals and fecal matter. I am not there yet. There is nothing about garbage, dead animals or fecal matter that makes me feel snuggled and safe....

People You Know - Even When You Don't

Watching ‘Open House’ this morning and the camera pans a turn of the last century, English Tudor. Spectacular. The next shot captures a Corgi trotting on a gravel drive. Hmmm, I may know this homeowner. The next shot is of a metal house plaque on a stone drive post that reads “Woodbury Farm”. Yep. I was absolutely prepared for the following shot of the owner. Blonde, very thin, petite and WEARING A SLING! Naturally, the requisite shot of the warmbloods in a pasture was next. Could not stop laughing as the owner led us through the visual feast that was her home. Rarely does one see every stereotype checked in such rapid succession…

Also babbling at : http://chorsechicago.wordpress.com/ Now I will have to babble in two locations.....

Ok, we do have Thai Gormet, Pacific Wok, and Hanada which makes life better. Why are commerical buildings usually so ugly? Do McDonalds and Taco Bell always have to compete to be the most garrish thing on the block? Why would Clint Woodman put his name on such an intolerably ugly building? Visually impaired? Intellectually disabled? Who knows? Maybe American architecture today is generally fugly.... Why can't the state of WI plant trees in its Hwy medians? Why won't the DOT of WI let volunteer organizations landscape the Hwys? Likewise IDOT? (read by us dyslexics as idiot)

OK, here is a list of some of the things that bother me (in no particular order)

Drinking and driving
Lack of education
Motorcycles
Horrible aesthetics
Noise
Asymetrical window placement
Moustaches
Tatoos
Smoking
Excessive Concrete
Smoking
Teddy Bears
Mauve
Bars
ATV's
Dogs kept outside
Nascar
Piercings other than 1 per ear
Vinyl Siding
Smoking

Did I mention my book problem? Basically my idea of home decor comes down to this: Bookman's Alley in Evanston. Preferably set in the middle of the Chicago Botanic Gardens. OK, so that isn't really true. My ideal would be a David Adler house on the lakefront with acreage for the horses. Just 21 million between me and my dream.... Feel free to donate to the cause. Why would someone with Michael Jordan's money build that ugly house in that hideous neighborhood when he could have had the very best lakefront house in Chicagoland? No accounting for taste I guess. A lot of people wouldn't think Bookman's Alley is decorated well but then those aren't people I would want to live with I guess. Lots of McMansion tacky modernist crap going up everywhere. Kills me when they destroy 1920's beauties to put up builders McCrap (with open concept kitchen/family room and granite of course!). I have invented an architectural term I call BRAILLE Architecture. It is a school of architecture designed by the blind for the blind and it is very much in vogue right now..... I guess it isn't the same as the prairie inspired soviet architecture known as MODERN but it is ugly regardless.

Well the nice thing about exurbia after a snowstorm is the views. It is gorgeous everywhere in Chicago right now but our woods is spectacular. Just having woods is spectacular but having snow covered woods even more so. The negative is the inability to get decent food delivered. In Evanston we had every imaginable type of food at our fingertips. Here. Forget it. There are only a few places that have decent food once you cross the state line and they do not deliver. Did I mention that the property looks gorgeous today? Fortunately I had stocked up at Sunset Foods and we are ok in the edible options department right now. Still, I wouldn't mind a Giordano's pizza right now...