Be the first to vote...

...on a poll I'm taking over at my other blog, Dispatches from Suburbia...

Inaugurating a new blog; formal wear optional

Since some of my recent posts have veered off the topic of design and staging, I've decided to tart another blog, Dispatches from Suburbia, for those. It's meant to be a (hopefully) humorous look at life.

If that interests you, I'd love to see you there. If not, please keep checking back here for future decorating posts.

2 women, 1 lady in a hot city

I'm back and refreshed for the new year.

Just returned from a mini-vacation with my sisters in Miami.

Because my sisters begged me to join them. The sun won't shine as brightly without you there, they said. The soothing waterfall in the spa, not so soothing. The fruit smoothies by the pool, not that smoothy, they intoned.

I feigned modesty, but knowing that was all true, I decided to leave frigid Rhode Island and join them in their vacation-already-in-progress that they had accidentally forgotten to invite me along on when they made plans months ago.

(But, you are so important, we didn't think your family could survive without you. Your work so critical, and what with the economy already struggling, we didn't want to interfere with the global recovery. Your bank account so skinny given your propensity for charitable giving... So true, so true, I said, and forgave them for the inability to see what I can pull off to save my sisters from the dullness of a vacation without me.)

My sisters are both quite attractive, if you judge beauty in the conventional sense, of course. One has curly locks and is tone and muscular, clear to all thanks to her insistence on wearing a bathing suit in the pool. Truth be told, it's only the hours in the gym that make her that way. But is that natural beauty? I'm not sure...

The other is tall and thin with a mane of thick hair. You hear whispering about "Super Model" when she's around. True, it is she who is whispering, but still others get the point. But is beauty like that without work truly beautiful? I'm not sure...

From time to time, probably because I am generous enough to talk to people whatever their mental capabilities, people mistake me for their mother. I know what you are thinking: While you are the oldest of the three, aren't there only two and a half years between you and the youngest?

Yes, that is true. But I don't think people are judging physical attributes here. Take for instance, the massage therapist at the spa where we stayed in Miami. After appointments with my two sisters (who, as I mentioned, started the vacation earlier than me by mistake), it was my turn.

Another Harrington? he asked. Are you the mother? My initial reaction: I asked him to pinch himself - hard, on his upper arm, on the fleshy part where it really hurts. I was on vacation after all, and wasn't about to do that myself.

But, after that, I realized several things: One, he was clearly looking into my eyes and not at my body that has, after all, given birth. He could see the maturity, I am sure. He could see the way I have counseled my sisters throughout the years, guided them so well that one now owns a successful business and the other manages accounts worth millions. He could see that without me, they would stumble their way through life, accidentally taking dull vacations together.

And then there's the language barrier. "Mother" in his culture probably means "most kind of the three" or perhaps "willing to talk to the mentally deficient." In the end, we had a laugh. Well, actually, he may have been whimpering from the pain in his arm, but he saw the folly of it all.

We're home now, relaxed and ready for whatever '09 brings. I'm still keeping tabs on my sisters, with a maternal instinct of sorts. I have their travel agent on speed dial, for instance, checking in every few hours, keeping a close eye on their plans.

What's better than eating candy? Decorating with it, of course

Two purposes for this post:

• To verify that I am still alive. (Just been very busy, so sorry...)
• And to make you hungry.

A local real estate firm hired me and my friend Marianne from Consignments Ltd. to decorate their window for a Holiday Stroll on Main Street (East Greenwich, RI).

The company didn't have a window so much as an entire room, a corner conference room with floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides.

We settled on a red and white theme, with candy, lots and lots of candy. Our theme was Home Sweet Home (get it, real estate company and candy...)

Two reasons to be bummed about this post:

• I don't think the photos do the window justice.
• You can't really drink those candy martinis...

I can move a fridge in like, seconds

A long-distance client needed help figuring the layout of a large room with a few twists and turns in it. (That's the kitchen in the lower right corner. In the sitting area across from it, there's a fireplace.)

She gave me the dimensions of the room and of a few furniture pieces that she wanted to use (the large china cabinet, the dining table and chairs, a curio cabinet, the desk tucked in the lower left and a TV). She also emailed me a video of the room she shot on her cell phone.

The client wanted to imagine ways to lay out the room before she bought some new pieces.

When I re-arrange furniture, I always try a couple of options. You can never truly tell what will look best until you try. For this client, I drew up four options... cause moving furniture online is so much easier than in real life...

I have a favorite plan... but I think any one could work. (By the way, if you'd like an online consultation with a certain interior redesigner you could find out more here.)

Room makeover, a before & after: Making the inside as lovely as the outside

A client recently called me with a challenge: She was tired of the layout of her family room/dining room, which had essentially been the same for 20 years.

The challenge: The room was already quite nice, with beautiful furniture and a fine layout. Its water view along an entire wall didn't hurt either.

But I did see a few ways to improve the room. Notice how boxy and square the furniture arrangements were, both in the living area and the dining area in the "before" photo? I put the dining table at an angle to add some interest.

And I place the sofas opposite one another. This not only adds furniture on the water side (the room was a bit furniture heavy on the non-water side before), but now you get a direct view of the fireplace as you walk in the room.

Overall, the arrangement really opens up the room, giving you an expansive feeling, similar to what you get when you look out the windows at all that water.

The room also felt too brown before. I borrowed red accents and accessories from other rooms to add splashes of color.

Finally, I created a third use for the large room. The table that used to be behind the sofa is now in a corner, where it can serve as a desk or a spot to play a game...or stare at that view...

And she has impeccable fashion sense

There's a new kitten at Casa At Home Redesigns. Her name is Clare and she's about 8 weeks old, a pound kitten with a feisty personality and a need to snuggle.

But how to nuzzle Clare and type? I created the Kitty Sling, using a generous scarf. So I can work at my computer. And it makes breast-feeding easier, too.