You Know You're a Designer When...

....you can't shop in certain stores because of poor design. I actually wasn't planning to blog today, but the mall decided otherwise.

Have you ever heard of the store Love Culture?  Me neither, but apparently one recently opened at the mall by me.  I was intrigued and wanted to check it out- until I took two steps in.

The design was promising.  The entry portal was an amazing patterned mirror/glass glowing element. (Although it took me a minute to find the name of the store on the entrance... not the best branding).  Please excuse the poor cell phone pictures, but I just had to share/vent.

Your computer does not deceive you- that store is BLUE.  I first thought it was glass tinted for effect.

Nope!  This store is the WORST example of LED lighting I have EVER seen.  The overall design of the store wasn't bad- it was your standard young/hip store.  If you changed the sign it could be Forever 21 or Wet Seal or (insert generic "hip" store here)  But WOW, the lighting.  Being in that store hurt my eyes and my design sensibilities.  If I was a lighting designer, I'd be crying right now.

LED lighting is the current thing in lighting and can be completely and totally amazing when done right.

This. is. not. right.  Your store should not be blue.

Yes, LEDs are naturally blue, however modern technology allows you to get them in any color- including crisp white... even colors to mimic incandescent light.

Love Culture, you have now joined Hollister on the list of stores this design snob will not step foot in.  Congratulations.

Tighten up!

Now that the dining room is trimmed and painted, I surprisingly have no more large projects in immediate the pipeline.  Shocking, I know. I do have 2 items that are high on my To Do list, however.

The first is studying for the NCIDQ exam.  NCIDQ= National Council for Interior Design Qualification.  Its a 2 day long, expensive exam that I'm still not convinced will help my career, but it certainly won't hurt it.  After 3 years of putting it off, it was time to (pardon my french) sh*t or get off the pot, so I registered for the exam in Sept.  There's no turning back now!  Guess that mean's I need to turn my studying up to high gear.

The second thing on my To Do list (and much more exciting than studying) is dining room chairs!  The room is painted, so I guess it's time to finally do something with the 6 chairs hanging out in my basement awaiting refinishing.  I just got some of this stuff that's meant glue and swell the wood, generally tightening up all the joints.

I've never tried it before, but Handy Dad recommended a similar product (which I couldn't find anywhere).  We'll see how it goes, since all 6 chairs are in need of TLC.  Chair repair is another new frontier for me, so naturally I'll let you know how it works out (or doesn't work out).

Once refinished and upholstered in the same colors and fabrics, this collection of chairs is going to be AMAZING in the dining room, don't you think?

Veggie Garden Lessons

This is our second year making an attempt at a veggie garden.

We were quite a bit more successful this year than last, but it's still been a learning experience.  I do think it's still kind of remarkable considering where the veggie garden started.

And now:

This year we learned...

Morning glories would stage a coup of the whole yard if we let them.

I can't take credit for these, the previous owners had them and they keep coming back with vengeance.  I seriously have to go out and trim it down every other day to keep it from going too far into the path.  But I've figured out how to control them!  In addition to trimming them frequently, mulching on our side of the fence made a huge difference.  I still have to weed the little stragglers that keep trying to pop up, but it's finally manageable.  In the summer, they're 100% more attractive than the naked chain link fence.  No chain link fence is sexy.  Not even naked ones.

If you leave green peppers on the plant long enough, they'll turn into red peppers or even yellow peppers.  Who knew??  Ok, I know this isn't revolutionary, but I didn't know!

Our strawberries have been producing fruit ALL summer!  We didn't get to eat any until a month ago though.  Why?  Chipmunks decided they looked tasty too and kept beating us to them.  Thankfully, a neighbor recommended the perfect remedy.  Boil hot pepper seeds in water and then spritz the plants with the pepper water.  Works like a charm, and since we're also growing jalapenos in the garden, it was a free fix!  No, the strawberries don't end up tasting like peppers.

Tomatoes get diseased, but generally still produce tons of fruit.  Cucumber plans catch tomato's sickness and most of the plants wither away.  We've gotten several cucumbers, but we would have had dozens if the plants stayed health.  This obviously needs to change next year.  Since we don't have enough room to rotate our crops as recommended, I'm going to hunt for an organic treatment for the soil that will protect the plants next year.

Good thing eggplants don't catch the same sickness- I can't wait to try these!  Only thing I'd change about these next year is the location we planted them.  They get huge and are encroaching on my carefully planned path.  I'll forgive them though, since they're going to end up giving us several awesome looking eggplants.

One thing's for certain though- we certainly can grow tomatoes.  More than we can ever eat.

Time to make some pasta sauce!