Attic vs. AirBnB

It's been a quiet Saturday of work, snugged away in the Attic, which while snug, sometimes is TOO snug -- especially when the neighbors are tromping away upstairs, your next door neighbor has decided to pull out his upright bass to work on scales (I mean, why?), and you would like to escape to another room ... Except, there isn't another room to escape to.

How lovely would it be to go outside and work, or an office, or to spread out on a lounging piece of furniture that is NOT your bed? Or to indulge in your favorite decor styles, or experiment - except ... you can't because it's snug?

Oh well. Since I didn't win the lottery to make this happen, I can pull out my photos from my recent New Year's trip to Long Island courtesy of Christine's very generously extravagant Christmas present, where we stayed in an out-wardly unassuming late 70/80s split-level ranch, which had been updated to a very lovely AirBnB, basically lifted from shelter magazines, and the pages of Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and Restoration Hardware.

Look at this beautiful back porch table. 

All the light. The room. The seashells.

(It was really hard not to pocket this blue hunk of crystal!)

Even beyond the hot-tub, fancy Kohler showroom bathrooms, the chrome kitchen, 

and the downstairs wet bar that is fancier than my entire kitchenette, 

 the three bedrooms mixed with my favorite blue and white, wood, and nickel finishes,

 or vintage school desk/beach cottage features, 

A dedicated OFFICE,

my dream entry wall, color schemes, finishes, salvaged stained glass, and beach-combed chic,

there were two places that I could have willing never left.

This lounger.

Doesn't it just invite you to spend an entire Saturday on it, 

reading, blogging, and/or sleeping?

EXCEPT ...

It looked directly at this assumedly vintage wooden advertising sign.

I love the graphics, but ...

it still irritates me for one HUGE reason.

 If you don't know why it irritates me, we can't be friends.

And then there was this couch in the "basement." 

The deepest leather couch I have ever had the glory to curl up in.

Next to the "fireplace," in front of the sharpest HDTV ever.

What with an all-weekend Downtown Abbey marathon, a wet-bar behind us, a bathroom within steps, the only thing to figure out was how to maneuver to the snacks and drinks when it was so deep. 

If you ever can't find me, maybe check that I haven't checked myself back into this AirBnB, or decamped to a Restoration Hardware showroom somewhere.

Who needs shelter magazines? A lot of THIS is exactly what I wish I could afford ... 

One day.

Okay. Enough dreaming.
Back to work.

AFTER I bang on my neighbors' wall in a very passive-agressive kind-of way.
 
 
~ photos by iPhone

Framing Up a New Year with a New View?

Rounding the bend, in fields of gold.

Fire Island National Seashore

Delightful lighthouses - with absolutely necessary - necessities.  

I want that window.

 Close as a selfie as you are going to get.

 No one, except me and my friend, as far as the eye can see.

 Focusing in on the tiniest details, right underfoot.

~photos by iPhone

2016 Washes In

Fire Island Beach, January 1, 2016

Looking West, and then looking East.

Here's to washing away the last of 2015. 

May 2016 bring you only waves of good things.

~ via iPhone

Lake Life: Devo Does a Thing

At one of our Development ("Devo") Department retreats earlier this year, we made a slew of goals to try and achieve this year. In addition to working on things like fund-raising dollar amounts, there were personal and professional goals in a variety of categories. (Communication/Outreach/Professional Development, etc.)

One of these things was:

DEVO DOES A THING.

It didn't have to be work related. It didn't have to be serious. The goal was just: DEVO DOES A THING.

We finally settled on ... playing hooky and going to a beach.

FORTUNATELY, one of our lovely teammates lives in a gated lake community in CT, not too far from the office.

Thank you, Karla, for introducing us to Lake Waubeeka and hosting us. Not to mention leading the canoeing expedition.

 

 

Thank you, Mother Nature, for cooperating, not raining (though we need it), and for being comfortably non-humid and in the low 80s, with a slight breeze. (Sunscreen and shade were important. It was cool and cloudy enough to forget about the burn factor. Whoops.)

Thank you, ladies, for your wonderful array of snacks that overflowed on the picnic table and kept us munching for the entire time we were there. Yes, we bring gourmet salads to the beach to be dressed. We're fancy like that.

Thank you, Lake Waubeeka association members, for the CLEANEST Porta Potties I've ever used.

Thank you, Alex, for carpooling and carting my stuff around for an entire weekend. (I promised no photos.)

Thank you, other beach goers, for ignoring the group of yakking ladies sprawled over half of your beach and the fact that we didn't share our copious foods. (These photos were taken right at 10a.m. when we arrived, before the other regulars arrived and had to regroup.)

It was a wonderful day of hooky. Going back to the office tomorrow is going to be hard. This was my desk today. Sigh.

Lake Life = life goals

~photos by iTouch