So, IN HER SHOES took a little break, because the lady in these shoes had lots going on, but now with the new year ahead of us it will be back and better than ever!

First up is my friend Sharon who I met on Facebook. After seeing her posts on FB I linked onto her blog and spent a day devouring it!

Not only goes she design interiors, but events are also a specialty. I’m not sure which I love more. I think it’s a tie. Here work was also recently featured on Design Sponge and for all you mommies to be it’s a must see.

I hope you enjoy reading a day in her life. I think she would make for an amazing Thrift store shopping buddy, but I would probably have to trip her in order to get to the good stuff first!

8:30am

I wake up and Sylvie, my 21 month old, is sleeping soundly next to me.  I quietly crawl out of bed wrap myself in my robe and uggs. The house is so quiet.  It’s a Snow day!  No school. All four kids sleeping in with happy cheery thoughts of sledding and hot chocolate. I tip-toe into the kitchen to make a break for the coffee and look for Will (my sweet one).  He must be in the basement or out building an igloo. Our house is a tiny little Victorian with really creaky floors.  I try my hardest to not wake up the whole house. The wind chill outside is 21 below. Even though it’s that bone-chilling cold, I still love a good, cold splash of water on the face every single morning! 

8:45 Check my e-mails and drink my coffee…and look at the couches in our living room that we’re about to get rid of. All our slipcovered furniture looks like it’s seen 500 years {NOT days} of summer! 

While out thrifting in the last few weeks, I have found two different black tufted, ‘almost-look-like-leather-sofas’ + chair.  I have gone back and forth on whether to sell them to clients or keep them. I have three clients wanting something like these! I just keep coming back to the visions in my head of the club chairs and sofas in SOHO HOUSE New York.  I finally decide they are keepers for our fam!  Whoo, Hoo! 

9:45

The teenagers and baby Sylvie have risen and try to laze around a little too long to my liking.

Louis, my fourteen year old, wants to go to a friend’s house right off the bat.  I ask him to shovel the sidewalk..  He says no.  I TELL him to shovel.  He says okay. Not even five minutes later, he claims the whole walk is shoveled.  Yeah right!  We then had our quarrels after I look at the job he has claimed to have done.  My observation: He might as well have just blown some air from the front porch. He did go back and do an exceedingly fine job…but I have to say, that between teens and my design work, I am seeing a trend in a lot of Quarrel and Coral!  Did I just repeat myself?  That’s a no-no!  (In both of those worlds!)

10am, Will {also my visionary} and I have a devil of a time trying to take the slip covered furniture to the garage thru the back door.  Heavy old couches + six inches of snow makes it a bit tricky.  "Tilt it this way!  Don’t go so fast!  I don’t wanna walk backwards! My uggs are falling off."  This was just the beginning of a typical crazy filled day here.  We are also in the midst of doing a makeover on Eleanor’s bedroom.  Will has been busy all week jazzing up her much neglected bedroom and closet.  Today he added the recessed lighting and dimmer switch to her walk-in closet.

10:30am The truck is now warmed up and ready to go to Thrift Haven to purchase the pleathers.  The older kids stay home with their chores.  Will and I take off on our mini-morning date to Thrift Haven.  We do a quick run thru. Find the sofa and chair and test out the comfort levels on them.  There is just a slight problem. The cushions are comfy enough…but they slide off the sides of the sofa just as soon as you sit down on them.  I say that the cushions would make for perfect sleds today.  It doesn’t deter us. That’s nothing a good heavy duty roll of velcro can’t fix.

Right around the corner aisle, Will finds the coolest little retro desk with a pocket in the center that is a slide in chair.  It looks like a cool console for $20.  Needs a lacquer job, but he’ll have that done by tomorrow afternoon, weather permitting. 

So, $245 bucks for the truckload of goods and we are out of Thrift Haven w/some fierce excitement for what our day will bring!  It’s not too often that we buy things for our own house, since I’m always looking my clients.

11:30am  Truck load arrives at 910 S. Pickwick…The kiddos watch us bring it all into the house..

I definitely do more grunting than work on this part.  Glad I changed into my new pair of snow boots.  North Face

12noon  We finally have all furniture in and placed just the way we want it. The Persian rug colors don’t do much for the black furniture, but it’ll have to stay til we come up with a better option.

12:30 The day is half gone and I haven’t done any thing for my clients. I ask Will to take the kids to lunch so I can finish up the inspiration board I’d been preparing for a client’s baby nursery meeting @ 3:30pm.  I make sure Sylvie has her sippy cup of juice as she heads out in her layers of socks, hats, scarves, and mittens.

Time to dive in to creative land…Luckily, the printer is now stocked up on ink for printing off inspiration images that I need to cut out.  I go online to  old Domino files, while eating my leftover Lentil soup that Will’s mom made.  The soup is lukewarm, but still very yummy.

I plop some vibrant green paint onto her inspiration board. Loving bright colors right now, so much so, that I get sidetracked w/the open can of paint and decide to paint a mirror that I quickly pull from the basement.  I’ll use it to stage the living room, and then later in the month for a green themed party that I am planning and designing.  Five minutes later, first coat of paint is on and drying.

2:30 rolls around…inspiration board is mostly finished…but I just remember that I promised sister Julie that I would go with her over to The Carpet Shoppe with her to check out their clearance sale.  All rugs half off!  I put my orange fly girl shoes on, but then take them back off. 

The weather is not so good. I jump into my boots again. Julie honks for me and we’re on our way.  We catch up on work and kids stuff on the ride there. 

At the carpet shoppe, I find a zebra printed rug.  I’m still not sick of this print.  I think it’s a classic. I find several options for a couple clients and take photos of them to e-mail to them later.

3pm  Julie and I swing by my newest client’s house.  The owner isn’t there. I want to check on progress of the renovations going on there before I meet with my client tomorrow.  Okay, let me just pause now, because here’s where I get a little sweaty just thinking about this house. It’s like no other. I mean I reeeallly get hot under the collar when I think of this home’s staggering beauty. First of all, it has a grand staircase, and then… The creme de la creme of all dining rooms!  The new owner wondered at one point if she should even keep the panoramic scenic wallpaper.  No judging on my part here, but there is no telling what I would do if I saw them trying to remove that incredible wall paper.  I wonder if I could get arrested for mural hugging??

The owner called me yesterday and told me she never knew she could be so thrilled about a hole in the wall.  The house now has a fully circular floor plan!!  Still aways to go, but this is huge.

3:15 running a bit behind, I run by home to pick up the finished nursery inspiration board and sketches. 

Will and the kids are home.  Sylvie asleep.  Will is working on the bedroom… slowly but surely.   Eleanor is baking sugar cookies to sell to local restaurants. 

I grab her really delish all natural ingredient sugar cookies to eat on the go and then scurry out the door to run to my meeting downtown at Staxx apparel boutique.

My client owns and operates her boutique. She’s expecting her first baby and she has asked me to design an something extra  special.  I hope it delivers. I pitch all my ideas to her in this two hour meeting.  The design concept of the room centers around a soft + serene palette.  Pops of bold unexpected color and mod/vintage mixes of furnishings.  We do some online searches for a rocker.  Of course the one we fall in love with is over the top expensive….Overall, she loves the design concept, including the pieces I selected for her. She did ask that I go back to work on drawing up new plans for the bedding/possible canopy scenario.

5:30 Drove home thru the falling snow listening to Lisa Mitchell.  Love her! Super slick roads.  Saw a truck getting towed from the side of the road.  Walked in the door to chicken fettucine alfredo and hungry kiddos sitting at the table.  {No picture of the alfredo . It was gone too fast.}  We had a relaxed meal and laughed about the quarrels we’d had.

Sister  Julie stopped by to see the new furniture and we opened some bubbly. 

Around 7pm, sister Rosie stopped by while out on a walk.  I hadn’t had a sister cocktail in quite a while.She is covered in snow.  They give me the thumbs up on the furniture while we watch the kids play Wii {on mute).  Julie admits that she is still playing her corny christmas tunes over and over again.  We hear there is no school on Friday!   Sylvie is now calling for her "nurse", as she calls it.  I nurse her to sleep in bed and think about all of the hillbilly junction piles we will have to go thru out in the garage come spring.  Nine couches is getting a bit much.  After Sylvie is asleep, I send some e-mails.  I kiss my older tkiddos good night. I look out the front door to admire the snow and our 24/7 burning Christmas lights.  I love them.  I can’t bare to take them down. 

Here’s to bringing in the New Year full of Christmas Lights + Dirty Hands! 

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What a day! She accomplished so much! New furniture, client meeting, shopping, enjoying her kids, hanging with her totally talented sisters. Sounds just lovely and like I need to kick my butt in gear!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

* I’m going to try and start posting on the weekends. Something short and sweet. Perhaps shout-outs for shops having good sales and letting all my readers in on must buys. We’ll see how it goes!