#like six half finished ones in my drafts too btw

[genderqueerpond]

You know, I think Clara knew about Amy.

Not at first, of course, but Clara grew up with her --- that is, grew up reading Amelia Williams books. And they were precious to her, books she's read many times over the course of her childhood -- how else does she know exactly which chapter holds what in the book she gave Artie? Perhaps she has always felt connected to her, this moderately obscure children's fantasy author, following in the footsteps of E Nesbit; this contemporary (and sometime friend (oh yes!) ) of Edward Eager's; although not nearly as widely known as either of these. Perhaps because of her choice to publish openly under a "woman's name", thus, in the time in which she lived, relegating her books to the inferior realm of "girls' books", despite the more than equal balance of male viewpoint characters.

But Amelia Williams is different from these authors too -- often fantasy, but sometimes more like early science fiction, a barely- recognized pioneer in both genres. Her views were feminist and daring. In so many ways she was ahead of her time, and the innovations she imagined! almost as if she knew what the future would hold.

And if Clara knows and loves her books so well, she can hardly fail to recognize the most frequently repeated character archetype in them. especially after she rereads a few on a subconscious hunch, during that summer after the Maitlands found a permanent nanny and she insisted that before anything else, she go off and fulfill her original travel plans from 101 Places To See. (The Doctor purported to leave her alone to forge her own way with this, but was in actuality very bad at that, and kept popping up nearly every place she went.) She's Clara, she's clever, how can she fail to look up from her book and notice that the person who's just appeared out of nowhere to stand in front of her with a plate of jammie dodgers and a goofy smile has stepped directly out of the pages?

And then of course, there are the dedications. Sure, there's normal stuff like "to my daughter", "to my loving and patient husband", and "to my parents, who are children now" which is rather weird and whimsical, but fits in with the fantasy author's signature style of dream-like imagination.

But the majority of Amelia Williams' dedication pages say things like "to You", "to My Doctor", "to My Raggedy Doctor" "to my raggedy man" (weird but clearly connected to the other variants), and, cryptically, over and over again: "to you", "to you", "to you", "to you (wherever in time and space you are)".

There's "to my imaginary friend" and "to my imaginary friend, and to all children who have an imaginary friend" and "to my imaginary friend, and every child in the universe who's ever met him, or ever will". Nerds and English teachers have occasionally debated what, if anything, she meant by all this, and now Clara thinks she knows, but she can never say....

And then there are the nights that the Doctor wakes up crying out for "Amy!" and then refuses to talk about it when Clara asks, refuses to acknowledge ever even knowing an Amy, "well everyone shouts random things when they're asleep, it doesn't mean anything" and "I don't remember." if pressed for details about his dreaming. And later he might go off somewhere and cry quietly, reading a book he never lets Clara see.

And then he regenerates, and calls out for "Amelia!", "the first face this face saw."

There's newborn twelve, with his Scottish accent, letting her name slip. It's the first - and only - time he's spoken of her while awake and not actively dying. And Clara is too busy with the immediate threat to their lives to think about it in the moment, but at this point she at the very least has a hunch about the connection between him and the Scottish-American author with the rather opaque background --- that as far as anyone can trace it (although to be fair, no one really cares enough to try very hard) she and her husband just kind of appeared out of nowhere in pre-WWII New York. It seems kind of obvious, now, that the doctor would have had a hand in that.

And now with all the books everywhere, the library gradually migrating into the console room, what else is obvious is that he owns every single one of her books. multiple copies, first editions, last editions, signed copies, mass paperbacks, everything. There's a TARDIS key hidden in a well-worn, well-loved, tear streaked copy of The Cuckoo And The Doll's House, which Clara finds when she's cataloging all the locations of TARDIS keys, just in case she should ever need that information one day.

This all is enough for Clara to know. There doesn't really need to be any more proof, but there is. What totally and fully clinches it are the pictures. Tucked in the pages of another tearstained book (The Beast Below this time), are photographs of Amelia, looking just as she does in her black and white author photos, but younger, and in 21st century clothes. Elsewhere, later, she finds photo booth polaroids of a still younger Amelia, goofing off and smiling. Some of them feature another young man Clara doesn't recognize, and some of them feature the Doctor. He's wearing a tweed jacket instead of his purple wool, and no vest, but otherwise he is exactly the same as the Doctor she first met. The three of them hang off each other like old friends, like family.

idk how to end this.

[twistedmusings]

Congrats on 600+ followers! May I request fluff no. 18 with Azul with a g/n reader who works on campus catching him off guard because they're naturally suave? Love your works btw >w>

A/N: Ah thank you for the compliment! And the writer is going to be perfectly honest...I kinda went rouge with this prompt request. I didn’t expect to be so into it but I’m an Azul simp so maybe its just in my blood q wq. 

Warnings: None! Unless you count Azul embarassing himself as one. 

Azul Ashengrotto 

Azul hated everything about this.

It was just a simple question. Were you free tonight? Azul had planned out a perfect excuse to get you to drop by the Monstro Lounge as well as a brand new appetizer set that he had put on the menu that would hopefully keep you in the Monstro Lounge and in the company of Azul.

And then maybe, just maybe, Azul could believe that he had a date with you. 

The plan was flawless in his eyes

He knew you weren't doing anything tonight, had planned each appetizer based on what you usually ordered when you went over and  handpicked an array of conversational topics which were all ordered based on how interesting you would find them. 

All he had to do now was just...set it into motion. Which is good! No plan this good should be kept in the dark. 

So why did he hate every single aspect of this? 

Ever since your little 'hardworking' comment back in the Atlantica museum, Azul started drafting what ended up being a five page outline on how to get you to be his friend. After spending more time with you he extended the outline to ten pages in order to include how he would get you to visit Atlantica and his parent's restaurant. Followed that came several more hangouts as well as you offering to work for Monstro Lounge for some extra madol and Azul didn't necessarily know how a five page outline turned into a fifteen page outline complete with color coordination on events he deemed important in your relationship as well as future events he had already planned out that would get your feelings for him to change into something with a more...romantic overture. 

"Oh. Hey Azul!" 

This was it. No turning back. Every single muscle in his body was tensed despite how relaxed and poised he looked on the outside

"[Y/N]-san. Lovely seeing you here." 

"Feeling is mutual." you smile, "Need help finding a book?" 

First hurdle. Reply with a flirtatious comment or state his intentions clearly. 

"No,I am just here...to check out books..." 

Oh Great Witch, he wouldn't be able to pull this off would he? 

Azul needed to call the whole thing off, needed to go back and draft any other scenario that didn't start with him stating the blatantly obvious--! 

"Oh well good! Do you need my help?" 

Or maybe not? An excuse to stick by your side had presented itself and Azul would be damned  if he didn't take it. 

"I need a book on human's thoughts on Atlantica before the start of the 21st century. I thought it would be an interesting read for both me and Jade." 

Azul can't help the softness he feels in his heart as he watches you think to yourself before placing a finger on your lips. 

“Twisted Wonderland history...that should be over in the next couple of shelves. Wanna follow me?” 

Yes. YES! 

“If that would be alright with you.” 

Sky blue eyes take in your form, letting his mind wander as you talked about...well he wasn’t necessarily listening. With you being this distracted Azul could take all the time he wanted staring at way your lips moved and how your eyes looked when staring at him--

“Azul? Did you hear what I said?” 

He blinks when your words reach his ears, blushing when realizing that he had been staring so much he truly had no idea what you were talking about. No need to panic or get carried away, however, this was perfectly normal in conversations. 

“I apologize. I have been a little out of it.” 

You stop walking beside him, halting Azul’s step as you looked at him. 

“Are you alright?” 

Damn you. That was the sort of thing that Azul loved and hated about you. You were in a world that wasn’t your own and were almost pushed to take up odd jobs here and there to make ends meet and you were asking about his well-being? Friendship or possible romantic relationship be damned, Azul just wanted you by his side constantly. 

If he could rope you into a contract that would assure that it would be so much easier than having to plan out an entire situation to get what he wants, but you at least were worth the trouble. 

“More than alright. Even I tend to get distracted.” 

Your cheery smile comes back as you both keep walking, you speaking up after a few seconds. 

“I asked what had brought you here.” 

You. 

“Just the book I suppose...and the company that came along with it.” 

First flirtatious comment made and the small look of surprise was his prize. Catching you off guard was one of the goals he had set for himself in this conversation so he could promptly check that off. 

“And you?” he adjusted his glasses before smiling his practiced charming smile, “Do you come here often?” 

“Well considering I work here...yes.” 

Azul can almost hear a pin drop when you say that, his eyes somehow abandoning his tunnel vision and realizing what you looked like. 

A small name badge on your uniform, a lanyard with several keys that he guessed would help you open several library doors and a trolley (how did he miss a trolley!?) full of books that you were currently pushing. 

“Right...of course...I knew that…” 

A small chip cracks off from his pride, the whole thing coming tumbling down as you laugh. How did he miss such a BIG detail? 

“Did you really not notice? I was even putting books away!” 

All he can do is open and close his mouth like a fish out of water, face turning an embarrassing shade of red as he tries to excuse himself from your presence. He just wanted to hide in a pot and never come out! The moment he got to the dorm he would tear that outline in half because what was the point if he missed something so little! Why would you even want to be friends with someone like him when he didn’t even know the more basic things about you! 

Stars, he just wanted to die. 

You wipe a tear from your eye before putting a hand on a shelf, “Oh my goodness...that was really funny. You should find the book you want here, ‘zul.” 

“...thank you…” 

Azul sighs and goes to look for whatever title he had told you he wanted but stops when a hand tugs on his wrist. 

“Well don’t leave me alone just yet. I have a question for you.” 

You pull out your phone, “I get off at six today. Do you mind if I drop by the Monstro Lounge to hang out?” 

His heart does a little flip as his entire posture straightens out. 

“I--” 

“Yeah I know you guys close at five and don’t open until eight for weekends but I thought we could just hang out in your office. We clearly need to catch up if you didn’t know I work here now.” 

You move closer, the little flips in Azul’s heart turning into major acrobatic leaps as you smile at him. 

“Sounds like a date?” 

Azul doesn’t necessarily remember what happened after that, all he remembers is nodding far too quickly that his glasses almost flew off and then tripping on air when you finished helping him check his book out. 

[kallypsowrites]

Ok serious question you seem like the best person to ask ( love your blog and your fics btw you got me reading GOT fics when I wanna purge that show from my mind) because you're sort of optimistic but also realistic I think. What do you think we're going to get in S2 in terms of darklina I'm bouncing like a ping pong ball between thinking on the one hand they wrote everything before seeing just how popular it is and leigh was involved and they're building the other ship so how are they gonna give us darklina at the same time but also Ben only signed on bc they promised him a lot of involvement but he spends most of the second book removed from all of them so how are they gonna do that. I need to manage my expectations so in a year or a year and a half when the show comes out I don't get depressed when they give me nothing 🤣. Thank you for your service.

Oh wow! First off, I'm glad you read some of my GoT fics despite being burned by the show (same).

Secondly, I'm definitely an optimistic realist when it comes to Darklina. So I'll break it down for you:

1. We will get a lot more Darklina moments. The show knows, at the very least, that Darklina is the most popular ship. it does numbers every time. For over a month, the last post sitting on the official twitter was a pic of the actors. Even if its not endgame, they'll continue to give them moments with each other because that is the major draw of the show. Yes they wrote the scripts before seeing but TV scripts NEVER stay at the first draft. The studio orders changes. They make edits. TV shows live by appealing to an audience. They fear constant cancelation, especially on Netflix. So even if there wasn't enough Darklina in the initial drafts...they'll stick in more in edits.

2. Past that, as you said, Ben Barnes is one of the main draws and they got him on board with the idea he'd be involved a lot. Sure, he's not there for much of the plot HOWEVER he and Alina have their convenient telepathic bond which means they can bring him in regularly and do a lot of juicy stuff with that. They'll also probably give him non book stuff to show what he's doing while he's not with our heroes which I'm tentatively excited about. Ben will do it justice.

3. Ben himself has always fought for the humanity of the character, and of all the actors, he probably has the most sway over the writing. So his nuance and the way he says the lines is gonna continue to be great.

4. I don't think they're going to kill the Darkling in season 2. People have said that BUT unless they intend to end Alina and Mal's story in two season, I don't think it will happen. Remember that once the Darkling is dead, they're out too. And since there's a six of crows spin off being developed, we know the show doesn't have to rush to get to the Six of Crows content. So I think he's got a solid three seasons ahead of them, as they all do. And then the Crows get to go off an have their own thing (avoiding the curse of the post season 3 cancelation).

Like, do I think they'll actually give us Darklina endgame? No. Not a chance. But they will keep milking Darklina until the finish. They will let Ben give the character more consistency and humanity than he was allowed in the books. And there will be lots of delicious angst. And even if the Darkling's character does go more in the evil direction...Ben is so delicious when he's evil and consider the Lovers to enemies tension???

For actual Darklina endgame, fanfic is the way to go. I won't let myself hope in that. I just want them to continue lighting up that screen for long as the show lasts :)

[mallowstep]

the nature of folklore

today, i want to talk about the nature of folklore.

we're not divorced from it in the modern day by any means: the nature of folklore is that it is always there.

after all, how many times have you heard that if your roommate dies, you get an a? or listened eagerly to someone's tale of an impossible encounter with an impossible stranger?

folklore is omnipresent. it is woven into us.

that said, we don't have a ton of folklore via stories, oral history, and songs anymore. if i could singlehandedly change that, i would. i grew up telling stories, keeping the history of my family in vignettes i taught to my brother, making up comforting fables for my younger cousins when they couldn't sleep.

my mother sang me lullabies, amazing grace, you are my sunshine, tula tula, melodies i can no longer name but would recognize in a heartbeat.

i went to a summer camp where you were never too old for a bedtime story, where the greatest reward, even for a pack of sixteen year olds, desperately vieing for independence, was to hear another story. i can still tell you the story of the invisible prince, of how such and such and so and so met and married, recount the little prince or hatchet or my side of the mountain in impeccable detail.

unfortunately, i am but one voice, and i don't think i really want to change us back. let culture progress, it is the way of the world.

but i have so many stories for cats. trust me, i have about 20 drafts sitting of stories for these murder cats. but i want to take a moment to talk about how folklore works, what it does, and why it's important.

[3.7k words. 20 minute read. section headers, minimal formatting changes.]

oral history: a written explanation

i'm feeling a bit punny.

anyway, i'm not qualified to talk about oral history. what i am qualfied to do is talk about the broadest sense of it.

oral history is not an accurate way of keeping records. stories change, people forget things, the tales become exaggerated and tweaked.

but...it's not the worst way. it's a real, sincere, history.

for example, in my full moon, it's unlikely that one individual really mastermined this plan. especially not the same individual who sorted out some other important part of skyclan business, which in it of itself is a tall-tale.

realistically, the clans realized they had an error, decided on when they would meet, and just went with it.

but briarleap is one of skyclan's heroes. she's not the only one: rushfoot and dovestar are also important heroes. she fills a particular type of archetype: she's the young hero, who sees the world more clearly than those around her and comes up with a solution.

so it makes sense to assign her to the problems which are clever and had no obvious solution. she's not really a trickster archetype, but she is clever, young, and has no real power within the clan.

in other words, she's a ya novel protagonist.

likewise, the yet-unwritten story of briarleap and swallowpaw definitely didn't happen as it's told. that's just a nice box to put it in, a nice cover for an important lesson: mark unstable branches.

all the clans probably have a similar version of briarleap's story. i can't tell you for sure who the equivalent is, because i don't know, but it's worth remembering that almost none of these cats existed.

i think riverclan's will be a cat named briarstream.

you see what i mean, they're both named briar- because briarleap belongs to no cat. they just have a suffix that corresponds with common clan names.

now, i can't speak for anyone else, but in come back to you one by one, by solacefruit, there's a cautionary tale about catching koi. we get this line:

The koi were left alone because the tall folk loved them. That was the truth of the story. The real truth, not Linnetleaf’s version.

that confirms it, the story is a warning that's been polished into something kinder and more forgiving. (i highly recommend come back to you one by one btw.)

that's how oral history works.

it's not good for having a factual understanding of historical events, but...that's not really the point.

shared stories

another thing is, a lot of clans share the same stories.

i already talked about briarleap/stream/??? for the other clans, but it's more than just that.

every clan is going to claim that they have the right, correct story, that the other clans don't tell it well, etc., but with the exception of clan specific stories, that's not generally true.

okay this is hard to explain bc i'm still drafting/editing a lot of what i'm talking about right now and full moon is kind of a boring story for this. so i'm going to use the story of the long night, because that's the closest to finished and most likely to have been published by the time i finish this.

cw: the long night is a story that involves infanticide and cannibalism. i'm not graphic about it, but it's featured very heavily. we move into discussion at "STORY COMPLETE," and i move on entirely at "SAFE"

okay, so to summarize very briefly, the long night is a story about the seasons and about queen madness. it's one piece of clan creation mythos.

basically, before there were seasons, the night and day just took turns. during the night, everyone slept, but during the day, everything woke. one night, the night doesn't end. i'm telling the thunderclan version, because that's the version i'm working on, but this is a tale from before there were clans, so while every clan says their version is universal, it's definitely not.

there's a queen, slateflower, who has six kits (pigeonkit, harekit, fallowkit, dewkit, ripplekit, and muddykit), who are very young. her mate, silvershadow, has been hunting for her, because there was no clan to provide.

he's able to catch a small amount of prey, but as the night goes on, slateflower just doesn't have enough milk. she knows her kits are going to starve, so she picks the weakest one, kills it, and eats it. when silvershadow returns and asks what happens, she says that muddykit died and she buried her. this repeats itself until only pigeonkit and harekit are left.

silvershadow fails to catch anything, so he comes back, and sees slateflower try to decide who's weaker. he realizes what's happening, takes harekit from slateflower so she doesn't have to decide, and brings the kit into a clearing. he begs the moon to end the night so he can feed his family again.

it takes him a couple times, and he also is searching for another nursing queen. he finds a queen named flamepuddle, who also had a litter of six kits (silentkit, webkit, wildkit, dustykit, beetlekit, and talonkit), as well as taking in the kits of her sister, echofur, (heatherkit, redkit, goldkit, leafkit, cricketkit, and graykit), and right now, only redkit, leafkit, talonkit, goldkit, and cricketkit had survived. (the rest, and her sister, died of starvation.)

flamepuddle agrees to take in harekit, and the night eventually ends.

silvershadow decides that he, flamepuddle, and slateflower will live together. this isn't a thunderclan origin story, mind, just the beginning of collective cat behavior. but one of the reasons it is a distinctly thunderclan edition is because the implication is that later on, the other clans are all splinter groups.

there's also an implication that such large litters used to be more common, à la how in the bible, people used to be more fertile.

so anyway, because all cats are said to be descendents of these nine cats (silvershadow, flamepuddle, slateflower, redkit, talonkit, goldkit, cricketkit, harekit, and pigeonkit — leafkit dies later on), it's said they all carry the trauma of the long night and queens, feeling unsafe, will choose the strongest of their litter.

STORY COMPLETE

so.

in thunderclan's telling, flamepuddle and silvershadow are made to be the heroes, and slateflower is the villain. notice that slate is a windclan name, and the kits who die don't have very thunderclan prefixes. the implication is that this is because the other clans are weaker.

in a riverclan telling, instead of flamepuddle and slateflower, we might have puddlefeather and tallsong, and the kits who survive might be fallowkit and dewkit.

in skyclan, we might have mothpetal and nightstep, with surviving kits echokit and maplekit.

and so on. silvershadow usually keeps his name, tho. or at least half of it.

the 10th cat who dies is also variable. in thunderclan, it's another kit. slateflower is understood to not have intended her actions. in shadowclan, it's the slateflower analogy who dies. in riverclan, silvershadow dies and puddlefeather and tallsong have to work together.

so we always have the same story, but the details of it change, and there's a lot about the clan in that.

it might even be that the reason puddlefeather is able to keep five out of twelve kits alive is because she can fish for herself. tallsong can't.

and this is a story that's supposed to be universal, before the time of clans.

imagine how differnt briarleap and briarstream are. no, seriously, i don't have it in me to do five versions of every folk tale i write, so y'all have to live with one.

anyway, i could go on here, but wow, this section is...much longer than i meant as it is whoops.

SAFE

morals, protagonists, and antagonists

i'm not going to lie, i'm somewhat exhausted from the last section.

basically, the "protagonists" are often the ones who make mistakes. this is because that's a common theme for parables. you want the protagonist, who listeners relate to, to understand the mistakes and learn from them.

there's almost always a moral in these stories. they're not told just to entertain. they're ritualistic, nigh religious, tied in deeply with their culture.

finally, when an opposing clan is needed, (a) the clan telling the story is nearly always in the right, and (b) it tends to shift to whoever the clan is most antagonistic with.

a lot of my stories are shadowclan v skyclan because they have the strongest story-telling development and i don't have any aus planned for shadowclan and (old) skyclan, but i really like what i've developed for them.

in the case a friendly clan is needed, that also tends to shift, but it's less likely to change. it's significantly more likely to change if they're fighting with the clan in the tale.

for this reason, clans tend to be allies with cross territory clans in stories. you're just less likely to fight with someone who's territory you're across from, and you get fun flanking if you gang up on someone in the middle.

characters and archetypes

so i mentioned how briarleap is a certain kind of archetype, and that's pretty common in folklore. you've got your tricksters, witches, wise elders, w/e. i could do a bunch of research into folklore and find a canonized list but i'm approximately 90% sure it's going to tell me it varies by culture so. instead of doing that, i'm going to talk through some of the character archetypes i've been using.

please keep in mind that this is highly suspect to change. also, i'm referring to a lot of cats in my lore posts, so i'm sorry, because if you don't keep up with that, you might be a little bit lost. if you want to check out my folklore, it's here. maybe one day i'll make a kit simulation list that gives them to you in the order a kit would be told them.

the young warrior — characters like briarleap. smart, creative, and willing to speak up when something is wrong. they're who young kits should aspire to be. they're the most common protagonist in stories for young kits, and they're one of the only protagonists for stories with a "good" lead.

cassandra — prophetic characters who struggle to act on their prophecies. goosefeather types. they're cautionary tales, warnings about who not to be, because these are true seers who failed. sometimes, it is framed as the clan being wrong (e.g., berrymoon's main story is about this), but usually it's because the character said too much/too little, at the wrong time, etc.

impulsive apprentice — another warning. characters like swallowpaw. their actions are usually not actually wrong, but they end up being wrong with hindsight. they're tragic characters, and their warnings are usually about the rules established because of them, rather than not being like them.

wise leader/deputy — it's exactly what it sounds like lmao. usually, this is going to be the deputy more than the leader, because the deputy is a far more relatable position than the leader. these are your rushfoots and lilytails, deputies who make quick decisions on the behalf of their clan.

foolish/selfish warrior — warriors who take actions selfishly, which wrap back around to hurt themselves. these are the "protagonists" of the tales about feeding elders and kits first, and so on. they're actually the most common protagonist in stories over all. it's kind of a wide category, including everything from slateflower from "the long night" to lightningcall from "full moon." you know, a queen who only escaped the dark forest because it didn't exist, and a tom whose "mistake" was not showing up to a deputy meeting he was physically unable to attend.

there are, naturally, many more archetypes. there are archetypes for every role in the clan, often many. there's probably some amount of symbolism in the names — perhaps "-leap" is a skyclan indicator of a young warrior, etc., but at least right now, i'm not interested in that. i have more fun naming characters than worrying about the symbolism behind it, because i'm trying to also provide an understanding of clanlife, and that requires bending the rules.

(i mean, for what it's worth, this is true of many things. "the long night" as thrushpelt tells it is not the full version. usually, you wouldn't separate it from "the four seasons," but also, he glazes over the infanticide and cannibalism because he's talking to, like, four-year-olds, explaining how their mother had inherited a trait from slateflower.)

overall, though, i think these five are enough to give you an idea of what the archetypes look like.

interestingly, i also want to call attention to the fact that there's no specific trickster archetype. i mean, there is, because it's (a) one of the most common, and (b) it needs to exist for what i'm about to say, but it doesn't properly count.

see, cats are good at being sneaky and smart and clever. you know this if you have a cat.

clan cats also have to be good at following rules.

so basically every protagonist and antagonist in a story is some permutation of the trickster. the young warrior is the trickster but with less pointless trickery. the impulsive apprentice is probably the closest to straight-up trickster, but there's usually no associated deception. etc.

but in general, all cats should be clever and smart and finding new solutions, so there isn't a specific trickster.

names and times

on a related note, one that's significantly harder to demonstrate, the names of cats get repeated a lot.

in the real world, this is because the names are approximately 75% generated and 25% tweaked, and i have a bias towards certain names.

in the context of lore and worldbuilding, and why i'm not doublechecking against my database of every cat i've ever mentioned, this is because, well, it should make sense for certain elders to tell multiple stories, or, logically, for a kit to grow into a warrior grow into an elder and tell a story.

i mean, dovestar's nine lives are a huge part of skyclan, because each life is supposed to demonstrate some fundamental principle, and they're told over the nine moons of a kit's life (again, cats count kits' lives from the season before they're born for the purpose of holy nine, and from their actual birth for every other purpose, which is how brokenstar got around the warrior code fun fact), so yeah, i'll probably have some repetition in there.

likewise, there's no timeline for these. we don't know what happens when at all, except that the cats telling a story are younger than the cats in the story, and any "book cats" are younger than any other mentioned cat.

(that last point is because exactly one story is told by thrushpelt.)

so anyway, really hazy times and names because...that's how things go m8.

impact of the great journey

so as you can imagine, the great journey is a pretty big deal.

first of all, we're running out of cats who can remember the forest. in thunderclan, according to moonkitti, who i trust in this, birchfall is the youngest cat who can remember it. so considering birchfall could have great grandchildren in the next book or two, i'd say that we're pretty much done with cats who lived there.

even among the other cats, squirrelflight was an apprentice, and she went on the first journey, so there's that. cloudtail and brightheart won't be around for much longer, and graystripe might be immortal, but if he isn't, he'll be gone soon too.

i mean, i know there are non-thunderclan cats, but do you know their names? do you?

yeah. that's what i thought.

anyway, my point is, right now, in canon time, all of the stories are set in the forest. but like, that's kind of not helpful.

who knows, there's probably a story about sunningrocks that just doesn't make sense anymore.

i don't know for sure how the great journey impacts the folklore. this is because there's not an easy way for me to write it. my elders' den stuff is specifically set before tbp, so i don't have to think about adding in the villains of tbp.

why only tbp? because we have 3 wonderful, fantastic, folklore worthy villains. in tnp, we have the journey, in po3, we have interpersonal drama, in oots, we have rehashings of old villains, in dotc nothing matters, in avos, we have weird fuzziness i don't really remember what happened after darktail tbh, and tbc is ongoing. but wait! i hear you saying, what about hawkfrost? and darktail himself? and... no. shut up. they don't matter. just. they're not. they don't. they're not lore villains is what i'm saying very poorly. they're not the kind of villains who inspire lore. maaaaybe darktail? but he was far too recent for folklore.

anyway.

i'm sure in all of the po3 stuff i have on the horizon, i'll explore this more. dovefeather lore is in the awkward middle ground — everything is from the perspective of cats who never knew the old forest, but pretty much everyone older than them does, so it's unlikely anything substantive has changed.

but i have a lot of po3 extended universe plans that might dip in to this?

but for spitballing purposes, what probably happens is that most stories are just reskinned.

things like stories about sunningrocks are going to be repurposed. maybe about that weird strip of territory that they fought over? i'm not sure.

some stories will get to stay in the old forest, like the battle with bloodclan. and some stories will fade out, just as they always do. but for the most part, once the elders didn't live in the forest, they're just going to start plopping stories in the lake.

also, the great journey itself is 100% already folklore. i don't have to do that part, canon actually does it for me. kits are constantly being told about the great journey, or apprentices are telling us they were told about it, or someone is having a weird dream sequence that involves it.

the great journey is a major part of folklore, and that's cool. maybe if i run out of old stories, i'll do some post-canon elders' den stuff. we'll see, i'm definitely not feeling it right now, but that could change.

speaking of great...

this is a minor thing, but like, what's up with all the greats?

the great journey, okay, yeah, sure, makes sense.

and then we have the great battle.

also legit. it had been a while.

and then...the great storm?

look, i understand the storm in bramblestar's storm was a big deal. i have a lot of thoughts about bramblestar's storm as a book and this isn't that. but...

can we compare how many cats died in the great journey and the great battle? and we lost, like, three cats in the great storm

don't get me wrong, i sobbed like a baby when briarlight died.

oh hold on i lied that wasn't this book. never mind never mind.

i just, like, it's very strange IMO to have this great being a thing. or at least, i don't now, i guess it's evolution of culutre?

bluh okay i'm hungry and i do not focus well so i'm going to finish up but just. great. interesting.

conclusion

folklore is a topic i'm really interested in, and i try really hard to think through the consequences of, well, everything i can.

i'm definitely missing a lot of details — specifically, i scratched out my plans for a specific creation myth — but i like the general shape of the lore i'm building up.

[tothelasthoursofmylife]

“Malady 1″ Notes and This Shit is HOW Long???

*chugs a mug of milk*

Welcome. It’s time for a new update - pretty much exactly eight months after the last proper chapter (and about six months since the last upload in general).

I really did try to get this chapter finished before the end of 2019, but, well, things seldom work out the way you want them to which meant that the final chapter of 2019 was the Zucchini one and I’m so sorry.

Anyway.

I outlined like a third of Arc 4 all the way back in July 2018. Back then, all that mattered for me was to keep the arc as short as possible with as few chapters as possible. But then I started actually writing it and uhm, uh...

Well. The chapter-length exploded. “Travelling” was 18k, “Mystery” 19k + extra.

12k into “Malady” and only like 4-5 bullet points into my outline, I thought about either splitting the chapter into two separate proper chapters (Like I did before; the “Malady” content was actually supposed to be in “Mystery” too, July 2018!Me was super optimistic.) or just doing a Part 1 and Part 2. I chose the latter because I am too lazy to find a new chapter title I think they just belong very closely together.

Apart from not finding time to write, I actually had a bit of a hard time writing when I did find some. Trying to test my luck and just wanting to write something else for a change of pace so that I wouldn’t get sick of “Watchdog,” I applied for a zine last July. I actually got picked for it, and I wrote my piece in November. The word limit was 1,500 (!!!). My initial draft for it was more than twice as long and, of course, I had to cut it. It was super traumatic in a way (but also an interesting challenge) to trim it down through rounds and rounds and rounds of editing. Anyway, I’m sure something inside me short-circuited while editing my zine piece, and I just went crazy finishing “Malady.”

“Mystery” is 19,330 words long and the bonus file has a length of 1,511 (total: 20841).

And “Malady”? “Malady” ended up at a whopping 21,440 words. Less than 3k more and it would have been half a novel!

While editing it and seeing the word count hit 21k (the 21,000th word was “murderer” btw), my soul left my body for a second and I asked some other fanfiction writers about their average word lengths per chapter which ranged from 800-4,000 with 7,000 being a super long chapter. And I could have cut “Malady” not only once in half but many times more. I only didn’t because a) it has been months since my last update and I wanted to give you something longer as compensation and b) I wanted to trick myself because “relatively few chapters = short fanfiction! and I want to keep it short!” (We are only 23 proper chapters in and the entire thing has over 200,000 words yikes.)

Anyway, TL;DR: This chapter is 21k. It’s ridiculously long. I will try my very best to cut the chapters into more reasonable lengths starting with the next proper chapter (not “Malady - Part 2″, but the one after that which may or may not be named “Clockmaker,” let’s see).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Other Notes

The explanation for “Jeanne/Jean Gauthier” and “Alexandre Vidocq”: It’s John Watson and Sherlock Holmes :) Sorta.

Jean is a French John, Jeanne is a French female John. Watson derives from “Walter” and Gauthier is a French Walter.

“Sherlock Holmes” is just a super weird name. So I couldn’t do it the same way. Instead, I googled “real-life French Sherlock Holmes” or something like that.  Alexandre Lacassagne and Eugène-François Vidocq popped up, and I just combined their names.

The “anniversary” mentioned in “Malady 1″ is January 19, the day the events of the first three chapters happened.

Finding French food they could eat was a bit annoying. Because I would find sites saying that “Tarte Tatin is something eaten at French afternoon teas!” but Tarte Tatin was created in the 1880s. Anyway, now I know at least about the “Club des grands estomacs.”

Lastly, Tangled: The Series/Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure ends tomorrow. It saddens me beyond imagination, but it was a wonderful run and I am very grateful for it. The series and its songs influenced a lot of “Watchdog” and I feel quite bad not being able to talk about it because we are not far enough into the story. :( Still, I wanted to mention it here briefly because it’s ending and it means so much to me (and “Watchdog”). I will really miss getting new content.

(There’s a small song reference in “Malady 1″ which I added during the final read-through because I saw the opportunity and just had to change the wording to make it a little reference.)

[goodguidanceptc]

Ironman New Zealand Race Report  March 2, 2019

Welcome masochists and insomniacs. When people ask me about my races, I usually try to deliver a balance of facts (split times, data, total race time) and feelings (mind & body perceptions, key moments) in an entertaining yet succinct report. As usual, that often means STRONG LANGUAGE. Here goes:

Prologue:

A few weeks prior to the trip, I learned that I’d been selected for the “Ironman New Zealand Experience,” an online contest, administered with typical Kiwi approach by the local council. Read: relaxed, with ZERO Ironman lawyers involved. Six men and six women were selected--based on online posts--to learn a haka, perform at the athlete dinner and attend an after-race luncheon that included a presentation and performance of Maori history and traditions. 

I suspect my "pick me! pick me!” post got me plucked from a small applicant pool. Supporting evidence: of the twelve selected, two others were my training buddies from Chicago, Christine B. and Bernie Mc. SIDE NOTE: Each winner was allowed one additional guest at the luncheon--so a very special thanks to Christine for graciously counting my wife as her guest which meant I had both my wife and son at the luncheon.

Haka is Maori for “breathe fire.” Historically, hakas were performed by Maori warriors prior to battle. These days they are performed ceremonially to celebrate major milestones (marriage, retirement), honor important guests or--perhaps most notably--to intimidate opponents at athletic events (here’s a link). Outside of New Zealand, the most famous and awe-inspiring hakas are performed my the Maori All-Blacks National Rugby team prior to each match. 

I learned that there are hundreds of haka versions, each with its own inherent weight baked into the story it’s presenting. Although it was very different than the aggressive, male-only, pre-battle version the All-Blacks perform, I personally felt a tremendous honor and reverence for the one we learned.

The haka preserves indigenous culture, energetically injects traditional language into a modern forum, gathers and channels group energy by seamlessly melding ritual gesture and movement with raw emotion. It all adds up to a sum greater than it’s parts that’s simultaneously respectful and rebellious. Taken as a whole, the haka is something like how the Incredible Hulk would dance if the Incredible Hulk danced.

All of which is just to say that before I even started the race, I’d already experienced that tremendous joy that comes with receiving an unexpectedly perfect gift. IMNZ was already a success before the race even started. Now, let’s get back to facts...

Total race time = 11:33

Not a PR, but a mature result. “Mature?” you may be wondering, “Really?” Granted, few people would describe anything I do as mature, so perhaps a better word is un-deluded. Why? Because plantar fasciitis made for a “No-Run November” (all long runs performed in a pool), I hadn’t done enough resistance training, and winter holidays not only make it impossible to train, they make it nearly impossible to fuel properly. 

In his book, Elite Minds, Dr. Stanley Beecham suggests giving yourself a W when you trained your best and an L if you didn’t. My record for this training sequence (Nov-Feb) was 89-20-11. ( I gave myself T for Ties on days when training went right but something else went bad...usually diet.) In other words, a respectable-but-not-stellar W average (.741) earned a respectable-but-not-stellar result.

But still, the haka was awesome.

Pre-Race

Slept well. Ate well. No mechanical issues. Huddled briefly with most of the training buddies and Iron sherpas prior to warming up properly in the water.

Swim (1:06 total swim time)

Clear sighting, aggressive line, good tactics (drafted when possible), and even got some help from the current towards the end. That said, the two turn buoys at the far end were both a raucous scrum. First time I ever took a hard shot to the lip. My best swim ever. 

T1 (7:49)

"T1 is a 400 meter run from the swim out...” My ass. If that’s 400 meters, I’m Leslie Jones from SNL. Plus, AFTER the “400 meters,” a winding grass staircase comparable to any third-floor-walk-up or Wisconsin helix--easily another +50 meters at an +8% grade.

Once I did get up Mount Metric Bullshit, I moved right along. Sprayed on some sunscreen, stuffed a plastic bag under the regular bike jersey with some light gloves (in case it was nippy for the first hour), shoes on in the tent. Go.

Bike (5:38, technically a bike PR)

Two loops. Windy? A tad. The outbound tailwind was so strong, I struggled to maintain target watts. Get that? I didn’t have to pedal as hard as I’d trained to because I was easily traveling +20 mph on flat sections. Ditched the plastic bag and gloves at the first aid station because it was sunny and mild and I was feeling really great. Of course, logic dictates that inbound would be a shitstorm. Which it was. Oy. Mixed with some crosswinds too just in case you, oh I dunno...tried to pee on the bike and took too long...or wanted to take in some nutrition. Nasty. I caught myself using a bastardized mantra from IMAZ, “Frontside fast side, backside strong side” which morphed into “Out bound, throw down; In bound, get down.” whenever I was tempted to chase or draft.

A word on drafting: it’s illegal in Ironman races. BUT! By slipping into the draft zone of somebody passing faster than you are passing then letting them go, you can save energy and still stay within the letter and spirit of the rule. That said, 12 meters = 6ish bike lengths so don’t be the fucko that lingers.

Repeated that song and dance inbound on both loops. It’s a terrible thing when you can’t stay in aero-position because you gotta pee but can’t pee because the wind stuffs any momentum you need to keep your leg straight long enough to break the seal. But it WILL keep you legal.

For you data geeks: Normalized Power was 197 but I AVERAGED 20 m.p.h.

Another notable: the bone-shaking chip-seal they use to pave most New Zealand roads. It just rattled my whole rig from pedals to fingertips to helmet. That shit literally rattled my Torpedo bottle right out from between my aero-bars about halfway through. I’d already taken in the nutrition so I left it (apologies to all the Tidy Kiwis and the whole leave-it-like-you-found-it philosophy) and just held fresh bottles in with my thumbs as needed.

T2 (4:13)

Efficient but could have been a tad quicker. At this point in the race, I was on plan, feeling good and ready to attack the run. Nutrition was on point. Legs were solid, stomach was a non-issue and weather conditions were near ideal. Sunny and delightful low 70s. I was actually looking forward to Run Special Needs where I’d planted a fresh shirt and an extra bottle of nutrition.

Run (4:36 aka: avg 10:39/mi)

I went sub-4 hours in Louisville under raining mid-40 degree conditions. If I could have just matched that, I’d have delivered a juicy PR of under 11 hours.

It seemed reasonable that flat IM-LOU shitstorm would vaguely equate to hilly IM-NZ sunny delight, yes? 

No.

That three loop run over what my training bro Andrew T. would call offensive hills was having none of that nonsense. Turns out, I was woefully undertrained. My legs were just not up to the second and third loop of hills, despite biking to plan, executing nutrition properly, and taking the first loop at a very easy RPE.

In past reports I’ve shared some of the actual mental chatter that runs through my head but in this case none of my mantras were very interesting or helpful. What I have learned to do when I’m truly falling apart is to reinvest in technique. Focus on the extremely immediate present, which I used to counter punch one particularly angry and persistent neg that I just couldn’t shake. See if you can pick it out of the following scientifically gathered brainwave transcription:

...chatter-chatter-chatter...BREATHE...left-right-left-right-Toe-off-knees-up-hands-up-lean-easy-at-the-ankles-glutes-tucked-somebody-fucking-LIED-to-me-goddamBREATHE!-Toe-off-knees-up-hands-up-lean-easy-at-the-ankles-glutes-tucked-somebody-fucking-LIED-to-me-goddamnit-Toe-off-left-right-left...chatter-chatter-chatter...BREATHE

On a slightly more-vulnerable note, I will share this: typically, a few tears leak out at special needs. Hormones? Pain? Mental breakdown/relief that the marathon is half over? All of the above, probably. Just a few moments of a grown man losing it. (Do NOT watch Ricky Gervais’ After Life while jet lagged. But DO watch it. Amazing. Shut up. Don’t judge my process.)

Anyway, I was all business during the Special Needs of this run but lost it right after a particularly steep descend where some guardian bros had set up an “unofficial aid station” consisting of Red Bull, handles of vodka, and liters of Jaegermeister. A runner just ahead of me had grabbed something off their card table and their robust cheering were suddenly horrific screams warning him off of chugging it. I was just tickled and toasted at the same time and it all came gushing out. Just all kinds of quads burning gasping ugly face craughing (learned that word from a tweet praising After Life, btw). Of course my male ego would NEVER allow me to overly express vulnerability in front of the drunken bros, thoughtful though they were. So I kept running. A woman running along side me kindly asked if I was okay, I said, “Oh...yeah...this...just happens,” between gulping breaths, “The good...news...is...it’s much...later...than usual.” Which cracked her up, so... y’know, pay it forward.

After slogging my way through the third loop, and making my way through the finishing chute, where the normally incomparable Mike Reilly butchered my last name, I was told that I’d been on the leaderboard during the bike and immediately fell off during the run.

So even though I did not over-bike, I did under-train. Plus, I did not need to go directly to Medical in shock, which suggests that my race plan, nutrition strategy and execution was pretty spot on. IMAZ was a PR of 11:19 and IMNZ was 11:33.

OVERALL RACE GRADE: C. Just a C. 

OVERALL EXPERIENCE GRADE: A+

As with prior races, IMNZ yielded some incremental improvements. As I said at the top, this was a mature result, with which I am unsatisfied. I haven't yet done my best race. I haven’t yet DONE MY BEST. There is clearly opportunity for improvements to all five aspects of my racing:

Swim was well executed. Still room for growth.

Bike was properly executed. Adequate. If anything, I could have pushed more.

Run. Ugh. Time to throw myself into Runner’s World and CARA and make like Forrest Gump and Prefontaine and Mo. Also, back to Hokas. Or maybe Altras. The Brooks I ran in were farts. The blisters on my toes had blisters. Not kidding.

Fuel strategy and execution was on point, although I was a few kilos heavier than previous races. Holidays and too few resistance training sessions.

Transitions were adequate.

Am I one of the guys at the pointy end of the bell curve? Clearly still yes. Maybe I’ve just evolved beyond a standard group training plan. Self-Coach? I’ve got the credentials and experience. Back to a previous coach? Maybe a new coach? I’d take some applications. Yes.

In the meantime, I’ll see you in Chattanooga for some 70.3 action in May, 2019. That’s only two build cycles. Ima go noodle around in TrainingPeaks.

WAIT. HERE’S THE BERNIE STORY...

Bernie McNally is one of those people I am just glad to have in my life. This race report would be wholly inadequate if I didn't share how this amazing woman is absolutely unstoppable.

First, she got everybody who trained for New Zealand (at Well-Fit) a fleece.

I forgot to mention she broke her ribs in a bike accident a few months ago.

Then, in what can only be described as the luck of the Irish, she charmed her way into the “New Zealand Experience” haka class. Just showed up and got in. Turns out one of the women selected didn’t show up. Classic.

Here’s the unstoppable part: at around Mile 110 of the New Zealand Full fucking Ironman race, she hit a cone and went over her bike handle bars. Road rash up her arm, split her knee open and cracked her head/helmet on a curb. A bystander said, “Do you need some help? I’m calling an ambulance.”

Her reply?

“Just help me get my chain back on.”

So he did. And she finished the bike. The medics in T2 told her she needed stitches.  She said she didn’t have time, to just patch her up so she could get on with it. She finished the race with half an hour to spare. Words fail.

All I know is this: whenever I’m feeling like I can’t get it done--and it can be anything from driving in traffic to folding laundry to a holding pace on a long run--I know exactly what I’ll hear. 

A thick, sassy, Irish brogue doing the haka.

WITH GRATITUDE FOR…

I’m very grateful to my lovely wife Susan and my wonderful kids, Peter and Veronica for their support. Susan, you are my salvation.

I’m grateful to have the expert professionals Coach Russ and Coach Sharone and the entire Well-Fit staff and athletes who generously share their wisdom.

I’m grateful to my inspiring and impressive training partners. Especially the seven hardcore savages that got it done in New Zealand--Adam, Christine, Dan, Kelly, Megan, Mike, Will and Bernie.

I’m very grateful to anybody willing to excuse my terrible smell, deplorable language and barbaric sounds during training.

Maximum gratitude to Well-Fit, Get-A-Grip, Fleet Feet and all the pools I use.

I’m grateful for Crushing Iron (C26), Matt Fitzgerald, Joe Friel, Training Peaks, Scott brand bikes, Apple, Ironman.

Thank you to all the on-course maniacs cheering and making signs and wearing all sorts of crazy outfits to show love and support. For strangers exercising.

I’m grateful that I’m able to race triathlons. I’m grateful to you for reading.

[therewillalwaysbeapril]

Chapter 4: Sixteen Hours

6:30 AM The alarm rang abruptly in the stillness of the morning, a rude shrill noise, splintering our warm, nocturnal embrace and throwing us both into the coldness of the day. 

“April, we gotta get up”, I said, mumbling as I shook off the last remnants of sleep. She groaned softly, rolling over and pulling the covers away. “Hey, get up. Geee-tta UGH-PUUUU! Get TU DA CHOPPAH!” I did my terrible Arnold Schwarzenegger impression loudly and poorly, adding in a loud grunt for full effect. 

“Argh, I need muh clothes, my boots, my motorcykalll”, she said, in the same bad Austrian accent without opening her eyes. “Come ONN, do it. Do it Nah-OW!”

Stumbling out of bed, vision still blurry, and nearly tripping over the corner of the blanket now fallen to the floor, I reached over and grabbed from the basket the first item of clothing on the pile of clean laundry that we neglected to fold from the previous night. I pulled open the top drawer of her dresser and felt around for a bra. I threw both toward the bed as I made my way to the bathroom. April put on her top as she stood up. Hair a mess and eyes barely open, April exuded a dreamy, other-worldly quality as she floated from the bed to the sink wearing the dark red floral patterned shirt dress I had bought for her the weekend before. I blow dried my hair into a more presentable state and shaved as she washed her face and finished combing her hair. 

I packed April’s belongings into her backpack for her, the both of us hurrying downstairs to my car. After stopping by a McDonald’s drive-thru on the way, we ate Egg McMuffins sitting in the early traffic heading toward Downtown LA. I looked at her as she opened a ketchup packet.

 “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful!” she said, laughing as she carefully squirted the ketchup onto her hashbrown.

 Briskly walking up the parking lot escalators and half-skipping across Pershing Square, April got to the bus stop just in time as the vehicle screeched to a halt. “WESTWOOD/SANTA MONICA” said the display. A quick kiss goodbye and she was off to class.

8:00 AM The office was dark as I stepped out of the elevator. Walking toward my desk, I was greeted by lights flickering on as motion sensors began to stir. Fresh cup of coffee in hand, I left the kitchen for the far side of the floor toward my favorite viewing spot. 

The Los Angeles morning was peaceful when viewed from high above. Cars moved slowly down Broadway; I could hear their distant honking noises in the early rush hour. Construction workers below near Third Street walked carrying their equipment, passing by the shops just beginning to open in Grand Central Market. From my hawk’s nest I saw a cyclist zipping down Grand Avenue past the Museum of Contemporary Art, in front of which a food truck was beginning to set up shop. My breath and the steam from my coffee fogged the glass as I stepped closer to look at the crowd of people gathering by the Broad. The early light bathed my city in a warm amber glow, thawing its sleepy commuters as a new workday began. Flecks of gold and saffron twinkled as the dawn bounced from the stirring skyscrapers and automobiles, blinding me. I, too, was beginning to wake as I finished my coffee. 

With my headphones on, back at my desk, I continued sketching out the wireframe concepts from the day before. Wireframes are the foundation of plotting out designs for interactive products such as apps and websites. They are a high level way of designing ways in which someone can use a product and the organization for which types of information and interaction appears on which screen, before a designer has to focus on the finer details such as animations, visual appearances, and the style of smaller items such as buttons. Even though the other designers created wireframes in programs I was also familiar with such as Adobe XD or Sketch, I always took great care in sketching out early ideas neatly on paper. I felt there was a purity in shaping ideas away from a computer, a kind of humility in making things with my hands.

8:30 AM The office is still dim as I make myself a second cup of coffee. This was one of those sluggish days; I felt slow to start, and was glad to still be the only person in the office. There was less pressure this way. I returned to my desk and cleaned up my lines with an eraser, reinforcing others with a Sharpie. Boxes with crisscrosses represented images, various other shapes representing icons and call-to-actions. Simple line patterns signified text, clearly showing the underlying grid to the layout. Adding final touches, I drew an outline of an iPhone over all of the screens before using a green colored pen to create the markings that showed how a user interacted and navigated from screen to screen. I felt pride for the cleanliness of my draft, as I never knew whether the second draft in the computer would be made by myself or a different designer. Finished, and satisfied with my work, I walked over to the simple Kanban board on the far wall and moved the task’s corresponding post-it note from the column labeled “in work” to the column labeled “done”.

Aside from a few coworkers from accounting, the floor was still mostly deserted. Sitting back and listening to the rest of Bach’s Goldberg Variations on my headphones, I fidgeted at my desk for a while. Impatient, I walked back over to the job board and grabbed one of the tasks from the column labeled “backlog” and moved it to “in work”. This should keep me occupied, I thought.

10:00 AM Standup was always kind of fun. Normally I have always preferred to work alone, with headphones on, lost in thought as I built designs and mockups, in an almost-meditative state of flow. However, I liked my coworkers very much, and it was also nice to see everyone at the beginning of the day and update one another on our work progress in the morning as we created the pieces of our product together. I enjoyed this kind of organized interaction that afforded me boundaries and space to create.

 <Walalala..>, texted April. It was her way of greeting. Warm and cheerful, albeit at times a little silly, it was a greeting that I had come to love. It would also be a salutation I would receive less and less over time until I would not see it at all. <What you doing?>, she added.

<Designing more apps. What about you?>

<Nothing bored in class>

<Lol. You should pay attention! I’m pretty tired too. I don’t think I woke up yet>

<I miss you.>

<Haha, I miss you a little too.>

<Only a little bit? Fine! Text me when u miss me a lot!>

<Ok I miss you alot>

<Pfft, you still need me to remind you?>

<Ha, you should pay attention in class. Your mom will kill me if you fail because of me>

<Well you can always quit and go to engineering or med school!>

<YOU can go to med school. I’ll make more apps!>

<Too hard~ And I’m so tired today I don’t want to do anything. Head hurt.>

11:00 AM Sketches spread out on the table before me, I began to create the second round of digital wireframes. As much as I enjoyed sketching, this step was also one of my favorite things to do. The useful aspect having hand sketches was their looseness — from a high level perspective, during this stage there were still so many possibilities. Creating the first digital wireframe versions, despite their inherent roughness, narrowed down those possibilities. To do so felt like taking a camera lens and turning it slowly into focus. At this stage, it was not a crisp focus, but much more recognizable as a coherent direction. The process was therapeutic as it was methodical; moving through it step by step, there was room to make improvements on the fly, perfecting each idea. However, today, my process of refinement would be interrupted by a different task.

There needed to be a version of our project for a new client, said marketing. A simple mockup of our app must be made in the style of our new client, a baseball team. The refinement of the new screen designs would have to wait. Grumbling to myself a little, I closed the program and neatly piled the sketches into my drawer.

<Heyyy, why u ignoring me?>

<Sorry, some other stuff came up at work>

<So sad but it’s okay. I feel so sleepy and tired>

<Maybe have some coffee? I’m on my second cup already>

<I dunno. Stomach hurt a bit too>

<I’m sorry. Would you feel better if you ate something? What are you gonna get for lunch?>

<Expensive grass, haha>. “Expensive grass” was April’s name for salad. They always cost more than they should, she would remark.

<btw…>

<what’s wrong?> Nothing good ever happened when April said “by the way”.

<If I go back to Taiwan after graduation, can we still be friends?>

<We’re not breaking up. We can make this work>

<I mean, if. Can we please stay friends? I can’t imagine a day without you, even if we’re only friends>

<I want you to stay though. We can figure this out>

<I don’t know…>

12:00 PM It is lunchtime. Mood now sour, I didn’t feel like leaving the building. After informing my deskmates that I was taking my lunch break, I grabbed a stale bagel from the kitchen and microwaved it with a slice of cheese. Taking that and a diet soda from the fridge, I returned to my viewing corner.

We had only recently moved into the forty fourth floor of the building from six floors above. The company had now grown bigger and the fiftieth floor was not enough space. However, it was only the design, marketing, and accounting teams on this floor, leaving most of it empty. In fact, we only occupied one corner, leaving the other three quiet and deserted. I enjoyed taking walks around the empty areas, sometimes even bringing my cello to work and practicing in one of the empty rooms during breaks. Today though, I only wanted to look outside and think.

Now midday there was visible smog in the Los Angeles air.  Protestors were forming on Grand Avenue. I looked closer, curious as to the reason for this group. I could not make out the writing on their signs. A car accident was visible further down on the 2nd Street intersection, blocking it off. The authorities closed off one of the lanes, backing up traffic. A bus awkwardly took up both lanes as it attempted to merge into the available space. An adjacent driver made a rude hand gesture out of his window. I sighed, feeling exhausted as I learned against the wall near the window. I sat on the floor as I drank my soda and looked out of the floor to ceiling window, thinking. The conversation I thought of was not with April, but one with someone else, from a different day, in a different language.

•••

<Your girlfriend is really pretty! I saw the pictures you posted to WeChat yesterday>

<Yeah, I took her to the airplane museum the other day.>

<Do you spend everyday with her?>

<Well, she kept asking me to stay over, and then I had to stay with her after she crashed her car. Lately though, she tells me she just doesn’t like it when I’m away. It feels weird, but I’m really happy with her and I love her, so I guess I’m not complaining. She’s been coming to work with me and taking the bus to school too>

<Hey, you should pace yourself. All couples need their space from time to time.>

<Maybe? Sometimes I go to work and five minutes after I leave she texts me that she misses me. I think she’s very sweet.>

<Okay, I’m just looking out for you. What if she turns out to be one of those possessive types?>

<She told me she gets jealous easily. A lot of my female friends came to my birthday party and she told me she felt weird about it. ‘I’m very jealous’, she said.>

<Hey! I knew it!! Is that why you didn’t answer any of my calls or texts last winter in China?>

<Sorry. I guess it’s just weird, what happened between us.>

<Why would you tell her that…>

<She had someone else she was trying to get over and I was trying to comfort her.>

<Well, nothing happened between us!>

<I know! Well, I don’t know. You are one of my best friends, and what happened affected me very deeply. It may have been nothing to you, but it was definitely something to me.

<I’m sorry about that. I really am. I was as confused as you too. I never meant to be cruel. I hurt you, and I ended up hurting myself too.>

<I’m glad we’ve moved past it and we’re still friends>

<How long have we been friends? I was still ten or eleven years old I think? We’ve been best friends for so long even though we are in two different countries. Don’t you think this is a friendship worth keeping?>

<I know! I’m trying to figure this out>

<You promised not to throw this friendship away after you meet some girl remember? You made me a promise.>

<Yes, I remember. And I will keep my word. I just need to figure this out. She’ll come around eventually. I really think the two of you would become great friends.>

<Well, you gotta figure it out eventually, because this is just awkward what you’re doing>

<I just need time…>

••• 

1:00 PM I snapped back to reality as my phone alarm went off. It was time to go back to work.

The caffeine was beginning to wear off. Still debating whether or not I should have a third cup of coffee, I flipped through the Android Material Design Guidelines online, pondering what visual branding treatments were acceptable within Google’s design parameters. Writing down the correct color hex values on a notepad, I began to change colors on app elements in Photoshop, reskinning the interface. The phone beeped again, as another text message arrived from April.

 <I’m sorry. I want to stay with you too. But I’m so worried>

<About what?>, I answered.

 <What if it doesn’t work out between us? In a year? In five?>

<Why are you worried about this now? April, I love you and I’m perfectly happy with you>

<Yeah, but what if we DO break up eventually? You’re not a doctor and I’m supposed to marry a doctor.>

<Come on, I can’t change that>

I stopped working. Taking off my glasses, I sat back in my chair, rubbing my forehead. I was getting very tired.

<I just wish you could accept me for who I am>, I texted back.

<I do! I really want you to make it. I love who you are I just don’t love what you do>

<There’s nothing wrong with what I do. I am a designer and I’m good at it. I make a decent salary and I like my life>

<It’s different>

<Well that’s just your viewpoint. We’re just different, I guess>. I saved my work and walked to an empty conference room.

 <Why do you even love me?>, I texted. My thumbs began to sweat. Typing was becoming difficult.

<I love you because you are kind. I love you because you value family, like me. My friends ask me why I love someone who is not what I want and why I want to change him knowing how much effort I have to put in>

<The only complaints MY friends have about you is these things you say from time to time! It’s so messed up. Maybe your friends are full of shit. At least I love you for YOU>

<I do too! Doctors are all over the place, especially with my family background it’s easy for me to just marry one, but I can’t find a doctor who is YOU>

<I’m getting back to work>

I stomped back to my desk, angrily chucking my empty soda can into a nearby wastepaper basket. A couple of coworkers stared.

3:00 PM For the next two hours, I tried my best to focus on creating more animations. More interactions. I compared the mockups I made against the Android and Apple guidelines. So far, so good. Sending the finished mockups back to marketing, I went back to the kitchen and made myself the third cup of coffee. 

I chugged the hot beverage, nearly searing my throat. I went back to designing the wireframes. There were only three hours left in the workday, and I originally wanted to have had this perfected at the end of the day. 

<Are you done with class yet?>. There was no answer from April.

Frustrated, I placed my phone face down on the table and returned to the designs. These have to get done, I thought. So little time. Fuming, I angrily threw the boxes together on the computer screen, connecting the button hotspots together as violently as someone could inside a digital space. 

 “Hey are you ok?”. It was Julie, who sat across from me behind my monitor. “I can hear you breathing from here”

“I’m fine”, I said. I sat back in my chair and looked at what I’ve made. It was sloppy and nowhere near the level of detail that I have been known for around the office. 

 “Take a break man. I just got an email that we have until the end of the week for these screens now”

“Oh…”

“Yeah. You can just chill”

“I think I’m gonna take a walk then.”

4:00 PM I looked at my watch as I waited in the elevator. Who does she think she is, I thought. So what if I’m not a doctor? Life can’t only be about status. I was so mad. That is such a shallow way of thinking! And it wasn’t me who started all this. I was just minding my own business working. She was the one who had to bring up Taiwan, and her parents’ crazy expectations for who she should be dating. 

 I walked outside briskly in the shade of the tall buildings. It was much louder now that I left the lobby. A street performer was beating a drum across the intersection. A crazy person was yelling about the end of times on the other corner. Good. Noisy enough that no one could see how angry I was.

And I hated the way she texted. How am I supposed to always be at her beck and call? I have a job to do; I can’t be there to simply answer every time she worries about crazy hypotheticals. I was doing fine today, I should’ve simply not answered. And now that she’s finished ruining my day, she’s stopped texting and has gone back to whatever she’s doing leaving me to pick up the pieces. Every single month, we have to have some fight about something completely stupid like this. Every single month — 

Oh. 

April had complained about being tired. April had experienced stomach pains during class. I counted the days since the last time I remembered similar complaints. There were many things I remembered for her. April could be so forgetful.

“Twenty-seven, twenty-eight….”, I counted in my head. I knew what she was going to need.

I stopped at the Rite Aid on 5th and Broadway. Quickly making my way through the aisles, I picked up a pack of Ibuprofen, a box of what appeared to be feminine pads, and a bottle of water. The cashier handed me the items in a paper bag after I made my purchase. Strolling further south, I began to think about what transpired.

Did she really mean all that she said? Perhaps a deeper question was, WHICH of what she said did she actually mean? You can’t tell someone you love them for who they are but also want to change them, I thought. Girls just say crazy things during their time of month right? I checked my phone.

 Still no answer.

 This is bad, I thought. Perhaps I was too harsh. Her car is in working condition. She chose to take the bus because she genuinely wanted to spend time with me. And now she’s probably on the bus home, in pain. All for me. I’m such a jerk, I thought.

Ducking into Bottega Louie on 7th, I bought a box of half dozen French macarons. They were rather pricey, but came in a beautiful box and were, I had heard, delicious. The small rigid box was not unlike jewelry packaging, with beautiful calligraphy and gold speckles dotted throughout its powder purple surface. It was a small gift that was sure to brighten up anyone who was having a less than perfect day.

6:30 PM The workday was now over as I closed my work laptop and packed away my things. The bus from UCLA arrived as I waited on a bench in Pershing Square.

“Hey what took you so long?”, I asked as I took April’s bag from her. 

“I had the most horrible day!” she said.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize I sounded so mean—

“No, not you! My period started and I forgot to bring pads so I had to use tissues. And my phone died, and then the bus had to take a detour. So I needed to get off and wait for another bus, but I couldn’t use Google Maps and I’m so tired and I just want something to eat”

“Well, first things first I guess”

I handed her the box of macarons and discreetly showed her what was in the paper bag. “Let’s find a bathroom,” I said.

She looked into the paper bag. She looked at me. She started giggling, the happiest I’ve seen her all week.

“What? What is it?”

“Have you never bought pads before?”

“Well, no, but I figured you needed them. Was I right?”

“Those are panty liners, not pads!”

“Oh.”

“It’s okay, I’ll be alright. Cmon, let’s eat”

•••

8:30 PM After April had a chance to change, I took her to a nearby Hong Kong styled cafe. It would be nice to have some porridge, she said. 

As we sat down and waited for our food, by reflex I folded April’s chopstick wrapper into an origami chopstick stand, as I have always done since our first date. I looked out the window into the dark. 

The San Gabriel traffic outside was a lot calmer compared to the city. It was quiet and I could just make out the sounds of crickets. A high school couple walked out of the boba shop across the street, laughing to themselves, carefree. An elderly man picked out a newspaper from a box near the entrance. I felt a soft caress on my forearm.

April handed me a crudely folded flower made from a chopstick holder. 

 “I’m sorry about today. I keep forgetting how to fold that fancy origami, but I want to thank you for taking care of me.”

She smiled the familiar funny smile.

•••

9:30 PM As we walked in the darkness at a nearby park, digesting our meal, I stayed quiet. How can I make all nights like tonight?, I thought.  Is there really an expiration date to our happiness? 

Perhaps reading my mind, April said, “I don’t know what we’ll do if I really have to leave…”

I looked at her and kissed her forehead.

“Whatever”, she added. “If I have to go back to Taiwan, I guess I’ll just get another boyfriend, and it’ll be a doctor this time! HA HA!”

I did not laugh.

I let go of her hand and walked a few paces ahead, sullen.

 “I’m kidding!” April grabbed my arm. “I really do love you, alright?”

[endlessarchite]

Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair!

I’m not sure an emoji even exists to capture how THRILLED we are to announce that our furniture line is finally out! The one that represents me would probably be the salsa dancing woman, except she’d be wearing all black with a skull for a face because I’m 95% dead from the excitement. Also let’s add a taco in her hand because that’s always a good idea. Am I already talking about tacos? That got off track quickly. Anyway, I know a lot of you have been following along as this day has crept closer (thank you for that, btw!) so now you can officially shop the whole collection (over 30 pieces! way more than we could cram into this post!) at Wayfair.

Valet End Table | Mellow Sofa | Stenciled Coffee Table | Mellow Armchair

I’ll do my best to keep the cliches to a minimum, but designing furniture has been a dream of ours for years and it still feels like this isn’t real. There’s actual physical stuff that you can sit on, sleep on, eat at, and rub your face all over (is that just me?) and we’re just so happy with how everything turned out.

Keen Dining Chair | Trestle Dining Table

Both the finished look and the quality exceeded our expectations when we saw everything in person – and we LOVE how they mix and match together. I CANNOT WAIT for you guys to have it your houses.

Scalloped Sideboard | Spiffy Armchair

Like I’m actively preparing to have my brain explode when you start tagging me in your pictures.

Skirted Upholstered Dining Chair | Pedestal Table 

So today we wanted to share some of the pieces (there are way more over on Wayfair) and show you some behind-the-scenes of how it all came together.

Wisp Chest | Marble End Table | Swoon Upholstered Bed

Speaking of which, here’s a peek at what it took to get that shot above. This is from the photoshoot we did back in August down in North Carolina and, if you follow us on Instagram, you saw us road trip down there with a car full of accessories to excitedly style each shot (you can view a recap of it all here).

All of the photos of the furniture “in situation” were photographed in a real person’s home that we rented for a week (she’s an interior designer, so she had THE BEST architecture to work with). Things were constantly getting moved around, the garage was filled with tables of accessories, and there was camera equipment everywhere you looked. These photos are of the living room, which became a makeshift bedroom more than once.

We had some of the samples from the photoshoot delivered to our house a few weeks ago – which fully completes the dream of designing things we’d love to live with in our own home! And let’s just say that moving in with them has taken our relationship to the next level. “Our” meaning me and the furniture. But hey, at least I let John third-wheel it in this armchair that basically acts as a chair-and-a-half when you take the side pillows off. Plus the performance fabric means I don’t have to fear the kids or the dogs smearing it up – or myself spilling tea on it – both literally or figuratively speaking (Atlanta Housewives, anyone? No? Bueller?). 

Mellow Armchair

We’re working with a company based in High Point, North Carolina that also makes Universal Furniture, a name you’ve probably heard advertised on our podcast. That’s actually how we first got to know them, and about 18 months ago we started developing a line of furniture with them too. We traveled to their showroom a few times to gather inspiration and they came to our house to see our style firsthand. And together with their team of designers we started drafting up a whole slew of furniture ideas.

That sheet above is partially blurred because not everything survives the development process. Sometimes the design doesn’t work out the way you hope, it may not be feasible or cost-effective to produce, or the retailer just doesn’t pick it up. It’s certainly sad to let go of some things, but the good news is that we’re already working on more stuff and can hopefully revive and reimagine some of what didn’t make it into this first batch.

Stenciled 2-Drawer Chest

We’re also hoping to release alternate colors and fabric finishes of the bestsellers as time goes on. Like I’m DYING to do these x-back chairs in white, emerald green, light gray, and a natural wood finish (and in a counter-height stool version – AHHHH! Somebody stop me!).

X-Back Dining Chair | Drop Leaf Table

And how great would these white chairs be in a soft mint or pink color with a lightly bleached all-wood version of this table?

Keen Dining Chair | Chipper Dining Table

We snagged those navy chairs shown above from the photoshoot, along with this white pedestal table, and have used them to upgrade our kids’ crafting corner in our bonus room. There used to be a kid-height table with some cute little green chairs in that spot, but our tall kids were ready for a more regular-sized set-up. Added bonus: now we can sit with them without developing butt cramps from the old mini-chairs.

X-Back Dining Chairs | Pedestal Table

Overall, our goal was to make super versatile pieces (says the person who just used a dining table as a kids’ craft table) that are classic but still interesting. Like the dresser below that has a fun diamond pattern (inspired by my beloved diamond windows in the duplex) but comes in two goes-with-anything colors (white or gray).

Diamond Chest in White | Spiffy Armchair

Interesting details in easy-to-integrate colors make it so simple for these pieces to slip in seamlessly with your existing furniture. So you can upgrade that old dresser, coffee table, media cabinet, or dining table without having to redesign (or rebuy) your entire room. Or even just add this cute little side table next to your sofa for a soft hint of greeny-blue color and some bonus setting-things-down space.

Valet End Table in Blue | Mellow Sofa

In our bedroom, we swapped out my former dresser (the one with the stuck drawer that you saw on my closet video tour) for this 6-drawer one so I can finally have a fully functional piece. The vintage dresser that used to live here now happily resides in the guest room – where that sticking middle drawer bothers nobody – and I finally have six drawers that open and shut without a fight! Everyone wins!

Mellow Armchair | Wisp Dresser

We wanted things to feel like us, so we worked in lots of little nods or details – like the dentil molding along the Wisp Dresser above (just like the dentil molding along the roofline of our house). Several pieces have an inlay-inspired pattern (you know that makes me SO HAPPY), and the Noble Dresser below is based on the aforementioned vintage dresser that John’s dad handed down to us. It’s hard to find pieces with cool old details like fluted legs or tops that aren’t just rectangles (see how the top of the dresser below is so much more of an intricate shape?) so we LOVED working those in.

Noble Dresser

It was also important to us that everything was well constructed and durable. So all of the dresser drawers have dove-tailed joints and there are no paper-thin cardboard backs on anything (these pieces are SOLID – believe me we have carried them up and down the stairs – ha!). Plus all the sofas and armchairs are made with performance fabric – which isn’t chemically sprayed, but actually created from tightly woven durable fibers to better repel stains and wear. We also snuck in some fun bonus functions and features on some of the pieces too, like these:

Skirted Dining Chair | Noble Dresser | Debonair Dresser | Valet End Table

I’ve already said more than I need to because I’m probably just distracting you from actually looking at the furniture. There is SO MUCH MORE than what we’ve shown in this post, so feel free to head over to Wayfair to browse it all.

Dashing End Table | Mellow Chair

There are sofas, coffee tables, nightstands, dining tables, chairs, headboards, a bed, and even this mirror that’s earning all the extra credit in our bedroom for reflecting my capiz chandelier (it’s like I have two of them now ;)

Debonair Dresser in Grey | Stenciled Mirror

So this is me officially zipping my trap, getting out of your way, and spooning with my new chair boyfriend (John’s fine with it because he’s busy gushing about how smoothly the dresser drawers glide).

Mellow Armchair

Thanks so much to everyone who has been so excited and supportive about this whole new adventure for us! We are SO EXCITED to have these things out in the world!

The post Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair! appeared first on Young House Love.

Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair! published first on https://bakerskitchenslimited.tumblr.com/

[truereviewpage]

Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair!

I’m not sure an emoji even exists to capture how THRILLED we are to announce that our furniture line is finally out! The one that represents me would probably be the salsa dancing woman, except she’d be wearing all black with a skull for a face because I’m 95% dead from the excitement. Also let’s add a taco in her hand because that’s always a good idea. Am I already talking about tacos? That got off track quickly. Anyway, I know a lot of you have been following along as this day has crept closer (thank you for that, btw!) so now you can officially shop the whole collection (over 30 pieces! way more than we could cram into this post!) at Wayfair.

Valet End Table | Mellow Sofa | Stenciled Coffee Table | Mellow Armchair

I’ll do my best to keep the cliches to a minimum, but designing furniture has been a dream of ours for years and it still feels like this isn’t real. There’s actual physical stuff that you can sit on, sleep on, eat at, and rub your face all over (is that just me?) and we’re just so happy with how everything turned out.

Keen Dining Chair | Trestle Dining Table

Both the finished look and the quality exceeded our expectations when we saw everything in person – and we LOVE how they mix and match together. I CANNOT WAIT for you guys to have it your houses.

Scalloped Sideboard | Spiffy Armchair

Like I’m actively preparing to have my brain explode when you start tagging me in your pictures.

Skirted Upholstered Dining Chair | Pedestal Table 

So today we wanted to share some of the pieces (there are way more over on Wayfair) and show you some behind-the-scenes of how it all came together.

Wisp Chest | Marble End Table | Swoon Upholstered Bed

Speaking of which, here’s a peek at what it took to get that shot above. This is from the photoshoot we did back in August down in North Carolina and, if you follow us on Instagram, you saw us road trip down there with a car full of accessories to excitedly style each shot (you can view a recap of it all here).

All of the photos of the furniture “in situation” were photographed in a real person’s home that we rented for a week (she’s an interior designer, so she had THE BEST architecture to work with). Things were constantly getting moved around, the garage was filled with tables of accessories, and there was camera equipment everywhere you looked. These photos are of the living room, which became a makeshift bedroom more than once.

We had some of the samples from the photoshoot delivered to our house a few weeks ago – which fully completes the dream of designing things we’d love to live with in our own home! And let’s just say that moving in with them has taken our relationship to the next level. “Our” meaning me and the furniture. But hey, at least I let John third-wheel it in this armchair that basically acts as a chair-and-a-half when you take the side pillows off. Plus the performance fabric means I don’t have to fear the kids or the dogs smearing it up – or myself spilling tea on it – both literally or figuratively speaking (Atlanta Housewives, anyone? No? Bueller?). 

Mellow Armchair

We’re working with a company based in High Point, North Carolina that also makes Universal Furniture, a name you’ve probably heard advertised on our podcast. That’s actually how we first got to know them, and about 18 months ago we started developing a line of furniture with them too. We traveled to their showroom a few times to gather inspiration and they came to our house to see our style firsthand. And together with their team of designers we started drafting up a whole slew of furniture ideas.

That sheet above is partially blurred because not everything survives the development process. Sometimes the design doesn’t work out the way you hope, it may not be feasible or cost-effective to produce, or the retailer just doesn’t pick it up. It’s certainly sad to let go of some things, but the good news is that we’re already working on more stuff and can hopefully revive and reimagine some of what didn’t make it into this first batch.

Stenciled 2-Drawer Chest

We’re also hoping to release alternate colors and fabric finishes of the bestsellers as time goes on. Like I’m DYING to do these x-back chairs in white, emerald green, light gray, and a natural wood finish (and in a counter-height stool version – AHHHH! Somebody stop me!).

X-Back Dining Chair | Drop Leaf Table

And how great would these white chairs be in a soft mint or pink color with a lightly bleached all-wood version of this table?

Keen Dining Chair | Chipper Dining Table

We snagged those navy chairs shown above from the photoshoot, along with this white pedestal table, and have used them to upgrade our kids’ crafting corner in our bonus room. There used to be a kid-height table with some cute little green chairs in that spot, but our tall kids were ready for a more regular-sized set-up. Added bonus: now we can sit with them without developing butt cramps from the old mini-chairs.

X-Back Dining Chairs | Pedestal Table

Overall, our goal was to make super versatile pieces (says the person who just used a dining table as a kids’ craft table) that are classic but still interesting. Like the dresser below that has a fun diamond pattern (inspired by my beloved diamond windows in the duplex) but comes in two goes-with-anything colors (white or gray).

Diamond Chest in White | Spiffy Armchair

Interesting details in easy-to-integrate colors make it so simple for these pieces to slip in seamlessly with your existing furniture. So you can upgrade that old dresser, coffee table, media cabinet, or dining table without having to redesign (or rebuy) your entire room. Or even just add this cute little side table next to your sofa for a soft hint of greeny-blue color and some bonus setting-things-down space.

Valet End Table in Blue | Mellow Sofa

In our bedroom, we swapped out my former dresser (the one with the stuck drawer that you saw on my closet video tour) for this 6-drawer one so I can finally have a fully functional piece. The vintage dresser that used to live here now happily resides in the guest room – where that sticking middle drawer bothers nobody – and I finally have six drawers that open and shut without a fight! Everyone wins!

Mellow Armchair | Wisp Dresser

We wanted things to feel like us, so we worked in lots of little nods or details – like the dentil molding along the Wisp Dresser above (just like the dentil molding along the roofline of our house). Several pieces have an inlay-inspired pattern (you know that makes me SO HAPPY), and the Noble Dresser below is based on the aforementioned vintage dresser that John’s dad handed down to us. It’s hard to find pieces with cool old details like fluted legs or tops that aren’t just rectangles (see how the top of the dresser below is so much more of an intricate shape?) so we LOVED working those in.

Noble Dresser

It was also important to us that everything was well constructed and durable. So all of the dresser drawers have dove-tailed joints and there are no paper-thin cardboard backs on anything (these pieces are SOLID – believe me we have carried them up and down the stairs – ha!). Plus all the sofas and armchairs are made with performance fabric – which isn’t chemically sprayed, but actually created from tightly woven durable fibers to better repel stains and wear. We also snuck in some fun bonus functions and features on some of the pieces too, like these:

Skirted Dining Chair | Noble Dresser | Debonair Dresser | Valet End Table

I’ve already said more than I need to because I’m probably just distracting you from actually looking at the furniture. There is SO MUCH MORE than what we’ve shown in this post, so feel free to head over to Wayfair to browse it all.

Dashing End Table | Mellow Chair

There are sofas, coffee tables, nightstands, dining tables, chairs, headboards, a bed, and even this mirror that’s earning all the extra credit in our bedroom for reflecting my capiz chandelier (it’s like I have two of them now ;)

Debonair Dresser in Grey | Stenciled Mirror

So this is me officially zipping my trap, getting out of your way, and spooning with my new chair boyfriend (John’s fine with it because he’s busy gushing about how smoothly the dresser drawers glide).

Mellow Armchair

Thanks so much to everyone who has been so excited and supportive about this whole new adventure for us! We are SO EXCITED to have these things out in the world!

The post Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair! appeared first on Young House Love.

Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair! published first on https://aireloomreview.tumblr.com/

[statusreview]

Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair!

I’m not sure an emoji even exists to capture how THRILLED we are to announce that our furniture line is finally out! The one that represents me would probably be the salsa dancing woman, except she’d be wearing all black with a skull for a face because I’m 95% dead from the excitement. Also let’s add a taco in her hand because that’s always a good idea. Am I already talking about tacos? That got off track quickly. Anyway, I know a lot of you have been following along as this day has crept closer (thank you for that, btw!) so now you can officially shop the whole collection (over 30 pieces! way more than we could cram into this post!) at Wayfair and Wayfair Canada.

Valet End Table | Mellow Sofa | Stenciled Coffee Table | Mellow Armchair

I’ll do my best to keep the cliches to a minimum, but designing furniture has been a dream of ours for years and it still feels like this isn’t real. There’s actual physical stuff that you can sit on, sleep on, eat at, and rub your face all over (is that just me?) and we’re just so happy with how everything turned out.

Keen Dining Chair | Trestle Dining Table

Both the finished look and the quality exceeded our expectations when we saw everything in person – and we LOVE how they mix and match together. I CANNOT WAIT for you guys to have it your houses.

Scalloped Sideboard | Spiffy Armchair

Like I’m actively preparing to have my brain explode when you start tagging me in your pictures.

Skirted Upholstered Dining Chair | Pedestal Table 

So today we wanted to share some of the pieces (there are way more over on Wayfair) and show you some behind-the-scenes of how it all came together.

Wisp Chest | Marble End Table | Swoon Upholstered Bed

Speaking of which, here’s a peek at what it took to get that shot above. This is from the photoshoot we did back in August down in North Carolina and, if you follow us on Instagram, you saw us road trip down there with a car full of accessories to excitedly style each shot (you can view a recap of it all here).

All of the photos of the furniture “in situation” were photographed in a real person’s home that we rented for a week (she’s an interior designer, so she had THE BEST architecture to work with). Things were constantly getting moved around, the garage was filled with tables of accessories, and there was camera equipment everywhere you looked. These photos are of the living room, which became a makeshift bedroom more than once.

We had some of the samples from the photoshoot delivered to our house a few weeks ago – which fully completes the dream of designing things we’d love to live with in our own home! And let’s just say that moving in with them has taken our relationship to the next level. “Our” meaning me and the furniture. But hey, at least I let John third-wheel it in this armchair that basically acts as a chair-and-a-half when you take the side pillows off. Plus the performance fabric means I don’t have to fear the kids or the dogs smearing it up – or myself spilling tea on it – both literally or figuratively speaking (Atlanta Housewives, anyone? No? Bueller?). 

Mellow Armchair

We’re working with a company based in High Point, North Carolina that also makes Universal Furniture, a name you’ve probably heard advertised on our podcast. That’s actually how we first got to know them, and about 18 months ago we started developing a line of furniture with them too. We traveled to their showroom a few times to gather inspiration and they came to our house to see our style firsthand. And together with their team of designers we started drafting up a whole slew of furniture ideas.

That sheet above is partially blurred because not everything survives the development process. Sometimes the design doesn’t work out the way you hope, it may not be feasible or cost-effective to produce, or the retailer just doesn’t pick it up. It’s certainly sad to let go of some things, but the good news is that we’re already working on more stuff and can hopefully revive and reimagine some of what didn’t make it into this first batch.

Stenciled 2-Drawer Chest

We’re also hoping to release alternate colors and fabric finishes of the bestsellers as time goes on. Like I’m DYING to do these x-back chairs in white, emerald green, light gray, and a natural wood finish (and in a counter-height stool version – AHHHH! Somebody stop me!).

X-Back Dining Chair | Drop Leaf Table

And how great would these white chairs be in a soft mint or pink color with a lightly bleached all-wood version of this table?

Keen Dining Chair | Chipper Dining Table

We snagged those navy chairs shown above from the photoshoot, along with this white pedestal table, and have used them to upgrade our kids’ crafting corner in our bonus room. There used to be a kid-height table with some cute little green chairs in that spot, but our tall kids were ready for a more regular-sized set-up. Added bonus: now we can sit with them without developing butt cramps from the old mini-chairs.

X-Back Dining Chairs | Pedestal Table

Overall, our goal was to make super versatile pieces (says the person who just used a dining table as a kids’ craft table) that are classic but still interesting. Like the dresser below that has a fun diamond pattern (inspired by my beloved diamond windows in the duplex) but comes in two goes-with-anything colors (white or gray).

Diamond Chest in White | Spiffy Armchair

Interesting details in easy-to-integrate colors make it so simple for these pieces to slip in seamlessly with your existing furniture. So you can upgrade that old dresser, coffee table, media cabinet, or dining table without having to redesign (or rebuy) your entire room. Or even just add this cute little side table next to your sofa for a soft hint of greeny-blue color and some bonus setting-things-down space.

Valet End Table in Blue | Mellow Sofa

In our bedroom, we swapped out my former dresser (the one with the stuck drawer that you saw on my closet video tour) for this 6-drawer one so I can finally have a fully functional piece. The vintage dresser that used to live here now happily resides in the guest room – where that sticking middle drawer bothers nobody – and I finally have six drawers that open and shut without a fight! Everyone wins!

Mellow Armchair | Wisp Dresser

We wanted things to feel like us, so we worked in lots of little nods or details – like the dentil molding along the Wisp Dresser above (just like the dentil molding along the roofline of our house). Several pieces have an inlay-inspired pattern (you know that makes me SO HAPPY), and the Noble Dresser below is based on the aforementioned vintage dresser that John’s dad handed down to us. It’s hard to find pieces with cool old details like fluted legs or tops that aren’t just rectangles (see how the top of the dresser below is so much more of an intricate shape?) so we LOVED working those in.

Noble Dresser

It was also important to us that everything was well constructed and durable. So all of the dresser drawers have dove-tailed joints and there are no paper-thin cardboard backs on anything (these pieces are SOLID – believe me we have carried them up and down the stairs – ha!). Plus all the sofas and armchairs are made with performance fabric – which isn’t chemically sprayed, but actually created from tightly woven durable fibers to better repel stains and wear. We also snuck in some fun bonus functions and features on some of the pieces too, like these:

Skirted Dining Chair | Noble Dresser | Debonair Dresser | Valet End Table

I’ve already said more than I need to because I’m probably just distracting you from actually looking at the furniture. There is SO MUCH MORE than what we’ve shown in this post, so feel free to head over to Wayfair to browse it all.

Dashing End Table | Mellow Chair

There are sofas, coffee tables, nightstands, dining tables, chairs, headboards, a bed, and even this mirror that’s earning all the extra credit in our bedroom for reflecting my capiz chandelier (it’s like I have two of them now ;)

Debonair Dresser in Grey | Stenciled Mirror

So this is me officially zipping my trap, getting out of your way, and spooning with my new chair boyfriend (John’s fine with it because he’s busy gushing about how smoothly the dresser drawers glide).

Mellow Armchair

Thanks so much to everyone who has been so excited and supportive about this whole new adventure for us! We are SO EXCITED to have these things out in the world!

The post Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair! appeared first on Young House Love.

Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair! published first on https://ssmattress.tumblr.com/

[additionallysad]

Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair! https://ift.tt/2PcZqN1

I’m not sure an emoji even exists to capture how THRILLED we are to announce that our furniture line is finally out! The one that represents me would probably be the salsa dancing woman, except she’d be wearing all black with a skull for a face because I’m 95% dead from the excitement. Also let’s add a taco in her hand because that’s always a good idea. Am I already talking about tacos? That got off track quickly. Anyway, I know a lot of you have been following along as this day has crept closer (thank you for that, btw!) so now you can officially shop the whole collection (over 30 pieces! way more than we could cram into this post!) at Wayfair and Wayfair Canada.

Valet End Table | Mellow Sofa | Stenciled Coffee Table | Mellow Armchair

I’ll do my best to keep the cliches to a minimum, but designing furniture has been a dream of ours for years and it still feels like this isn’t real. There’s actual physical stuff that you can sit on, sleep on, eat at, and rub your face all over (is that just me?) and we’re just so happy with how everything turned out.

Keen Dining Chair | Trestle Dining Table

Both the finished look and the quality exceeded our expectations when we saw everything in person – and we LOVE how they mix and match together. I CANNOT WAIT for you guys to have it your houses.

Scalloped Sideboard | Spiffy Armchair

Like I’m actively preparing to have my brain explode when you start tagging me in your pictures.

Skirted Upholstered Dining Chair | Pedestal Table 

So today we wanted to share some of the pieces (there are way more over on Wayfair) and show you some behind-the-scenes of how it all came together.

Wisp Chest | Marble Accent Table | Swoon Upholstered Bed

Speaking of which, here’s a peek at what it took to get that shot above. This is from the photoshoot we did back in August down in North Carolina and, if you follow us on Instagram, you saw us road trip down there with a car full of accessories to excitedly style each shot (you can view a recap of it all here).

All of the photos of the furniture “in situation” were photographed in a real person’s home that we rented for a week (she’s an interior designer, so she had THE BEST architecture to work with). Things were constantly getting moved around, the garage was filled with tables of accessories, and there was camera equipment everywhere you looked. These photos are of the living room, which became a makeshift bedroom more than once.

We had some of the samples from the photoshoot delivered to our house a few weeks ago – which fully completes the dream of designing things we’d love to live with in our own home! And let’s just say that moving in with them has taken our relationship to the next level. “Our” meaning me and the furniture. But hey, at least I let John third-wheel it in this armchair that basically acts as a chair-and-a-half when you take the side pillows off. Plus the performance fabric means I don’t have to fear the kids or the dogs smearing it up – or myself spilling tea on it – both literally or figuratively speaking (Atlanta Housewives, anyone? No? Bueller?). 

Mellow Armchair

We’re working with a company based in High Point, North Carolina that also makes Universal Furniture, a name you’ve probably heard advertised on our podcast. That’s actually how we first got to know them, and about 18 months ago we started developing a line of furniture with them too. We traveled to their showroom a few times to gather inspiration and they came to our house to see our style firsthand. And together with their team of designers we started drafting up a whole slew of furniture ideas.

That sheet above is partially blurred because not everything survives the development process. Sometimes the design doesn’t work out the way you hope, it may not be feasible or cost-effective to produce, or the retailer just doesn’t pick it up. It’s certainly sad to let go of some things, but the good news is that we’re already working on more stuff and can hopefully revive and reimagine some of what didn’t make it into this first batch.

Stenciled 2-Drawer Chest

We’re also hoping to release alternate colors and fabric finishes of the bestsellers as time goes on. Like I’m DYING to do these x-back chairs in white, emerald green, light gray, and a natural wood finish (and in a counter-height stool version – AHHHH! Somebody stop me!).

X-Back Dining Chair | Drop Leaf Table

And how great would these white chairs be in a soft mint or pink color with a lightly bleached all-wood version of this table?

Keen Dining Chair | Chipper Dining Table

We snagged those navy chairs shown above from the photoshoot, along with this white pedestal table, and have used them to upgrade our kids’ crafting corner in our bonus room. There used to be a kid-height table with some cute little green chairs in that spot, but our tall kids were ready for a more regular-sized set-up. Added bonus: now we can sit with them without developing butt cramps from the old mini-chairs.

X-Back Dining Chairs | Pedestal Table

Overall, our goal was to make super versatile pieces (says the person who just used a dining table as a kids’ craft table) that are classic but still interesting. Like the dresser below that has a fun diamond pattern (inspired by my beloved diamond windows in the duplex) but comes in two goes-with-anything colors (white or gray).

Diamond Chest in White | Spiffy Armchair

Interesting details in easy-to-integrate colors make it so simple for these pieces to slip in seamlessly with your existing furniture. So you can upgrade that old dresser, coffee table, media cabinet, or dining table without having to redesign (or rebuy) your entire room. Or even just add this cute little side table next to your sofa for a soft hint of greeny-blue color and some bonus setting-things-down space.

Valet End Table | Mellow Sofa

In our bedroom, we swapped out my former dresser (the one with the stuck drawer that you saw on my closet video tour) for this 6-drawer one so I can finally have a fully functional piece. The vintage dresser that used to live here now happily resides in the guest room – where that sticking middle drawer bothers nobody – and I finally have six drawers that open and shut without a fight! Everyone wins!

Mellow Armchair | Wisp Dresser

We wanted things to feel like us, so we worked in lots of little nods or details – like the dentil molding along the Wisp Dresser above (just like the dentil molding along the roofline of our house). Several pieces have an inlay-inspired pattern (you know that makes me SO HAPPY), and the Noble Dresser below is based on the aforementioned vintage dresser that John’s dad handed down to us. It’s hard to find pieces with cool old details like fluted legs or tops that aren’t just rectangles (see how the top of the dresser below is so much more of an intricate shape?) so we LOVED working those in.

Noble Dresser

It was also important to us that everything was well constructed and durable. So all of the dresser drawers have dove-tailed joints and there are no paper-thin cardboard backs on anything (these pieces are SOLID – believe me we have carried them up and down the stairs – ha!). Plus all the sofas and armchairs are made with performance fabric – which isn’t chemically sprayed, but actually created from tightly woven durable fibers to better repel stains and wear. We also snuck in some fun bonus functions and features on some of the pieces too, like these:

Skirted Dining Chair | Noble Dresser | Debonair Dresser | Valet Side Table

I’ve already said more than I need to because I’m probably just distracting you from actually looking at the furniture. There is SO MUCH MORE than what we’ve shown in this post, so feel free to head over to Wayfair to browse it all.

Dashing End Table | Mellow Chair

There are sofas, coffee tables, nightstands, dining tables, chairs, headboards, a bed, and even this mirror that’s earning all the extra credit in our bedroom for reflecting my capiz chandelier (it’s like I have two of them now ;)

Debonair Dresser | Stenciled Mirror

So this is me officially zipping my trap, getting out of your way, and spooning with my new chair boyfriend (John’s fine with it because he’s busy gushing about how smoothly the dresser drawers glide).

Mellow Armchair

Thanks so much to everyone who has been so excited and supportive about this whole new adventure for us! We are SO EXCITED to have these things out in the world!

The post Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair! appeared first on Young House Love.

[interiorstarweb]

Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair!

I’m not sure an emoji even exists to capture how THRILLED we are to announce that our furniture line is finally out! The one that represents me would probably be the salsa dancing woman, except she’d be wearing all black with a skull for a face because I’m 95% dead from the excitement. Also let’s add a taco in her hand because that’s always a good idea. Am I already talking about tacos? That got off track quickly. Anyway, I know a lot of you have been following along as this day has crept closer (thank you for that, btw!) so now you can officially shop the whole collection (over 30 pieces! way more than we could cram into this post!) at Wayfair and Wayfair Canada.

Valet End Table | Mellow Sofa | Stenciled Coffee Table | Mellow Armchair

I’ll do my best to keep the cliches to a minimum, but designing furniture has been a dream of ours for years and it still feels like this isn’t real. There’s actual physical stuff that you can sit on, sleep on, eat at, and rub your face all over (is that just me?) and we’re just so happy with how everything turned out.

Keen Dining Chair | Trestle Dining Table

Both the finished look and the quality exceeded our expectations when we saw everything in person – and we LOVE how they mix and match together. I CANNOT WAIT for you guys to have it your houses.

Scalloped Sideboard | Spiffy Armchair

Like I’m actively preparing to have my brain explode when you start tagging me in your pictures.

Skirted Upholstered Dining Chair | Pedestal Table 

So today we wanted to share some of the pieces (there are way more over on Wayfair) and show you some behind-the-scenes of how it all came together.

Wisp Chest | Marble End Table | Swoon Upholstered Bed

Speaking of which, here’s a peek at what it took to get that shot above. This is from the photoshoot we did back in August down in North Carolina and, if you follow us on Instagram, you saw us road trip down there with a car full of accessories to excitedly style each shot (you can view a recap of it all here).

All of the photos of the furniture “in situation” were photographed in a real person’s home that we rented for a week (she’s an interior designer, so she had THE BEST architecture to work with). Things were constantly getting moved around, the garage was filled with tables of accessories, and there was camera equipment everywhere you looked. These photos are of the living room, which became a makeshift bedroom more than once.

We had some of the samples from the photoshoot delivered to our house a few weeks ago – which fully completes the dream of designing things we’d love to live with in our own home! And let’s just say that moving in with them has taken our relationship to the next level. “Our” meaning me and the furniture. But hey, at least I let John third-wheel it in this armchair that basically acts as a chair-and-a-half when you take the side pillows off. Plus the performance fabric means I don’t have to fear the kids or the dogs smearing it up – or myself spilling tea on it – both literally or figuratively speaking (Atlanta Housewives, anyone? No? Bueller?). 

Mellow Armchair

We’re working with a company based in High Point, North Carolina that also makes Universal Furniture, a name you’ve probably heard advertised on our podcast. That’s actually how we first got to know them, and about 18 months ago we started developing a line of furniture with them too. We traveled to their showroom a few times to gather inspiration and they came to our house to see our style firsthand. And together with their team of designers we started drafting up a whole slew of furniture ideas.

That sheet above is partially blurred because not everything survives the development process. Sometimes the design doesn’t work out the way you hope, it may not be feasible or cost-effective to produce, or the retailer just doesn’t pick it up. It’s certainly sad to let go of some things, but the good news is that we’re already working on more stuff and can hopefully revive and reimagine some of what didn’t make it into this first batch.

Stenciled 2-Drawer Chest

We’re also hoping to release alternate colors and fabric finishes of the bestsellers as time goes on. Like I’m DYING to do these x-back chairs in white, emerald green, light gray, and a natural wood finish (and in a counter-height stool version – AHHHH! Somebody stop me!).

X-Back Dining Chair | Drop Leaf Table

And how great would these white chairs be in a soft mint or pink color with a lightly bleached all-wood version of this table?

Keen Dining Chair | Chipper Dining Table

We snagged those navy chairs shown above from the photoshoot, along with this white pedestal table, and have used them to upgrade our kids’ crafting corner in our bonus room. There used to be a kid-height table with some cute little green chairs in that spot, but our tall kids were ready for a more regular-sized set-up. Added bonus: now we can sit with them without developing butt cramps from the old mini-chairs.

X-Back Dining Chairs | Pedestal Table

Overall, our goal was to make super versatile pieces (says the person who just used a dining table as a kids’ craft table) that are classic but still interesting. Like the dresser below that has a fun diamond pattern (inspired by my beloved diamond windows in the duplex) but comes in two goes-with-anything colors (white or gray).

Diamond Chest in White | Spiffy Armchair

Interesting details in easy-to-integrate colors make it so simple for these pieces to slip in seamlessly with your existing furniture. So you can upgrade that old dresser, coffee table, media cabinet, or dining table without having to redesign (or rebuy) your entire room. Or even just add this cute little side table next to your sofa for a soft hint of greeny-blue color and some bonus setting-things-down space.

Valet End Table in Blue | Mellow Sofa

In our bedroom, we swapped out my former dresser (the one with the stuck drawer that you saw on my closet video tour) for this 6-drawer one so I can finally have a fully functional piece. The vintage dresser that used to live here now happily resides in the guest room – where that sticking middle drawer bothers nobody – and I finally have six drawers that open and shut without a fight! Everyone wins!

Mellow Armchair | Wisp Dresser

We wanted things to feel like us, so we worked in lots of little nods or details – like the dentil molding along the Wisp Dresser above (just like the dentil molding along the roofline of our house). Several pieces have an inlay-inspired pattern (you know that makes me SO HAPPY), and the Noble Dresser below is based on the aforementioned vintage dresser that John’s dad handed down to us. It’s hard to find pieces with cool old details like fluted legs or tops that aren’t just rectangles (see how the top of the dresser below is so much more of an intricate shape?) so we LOVED working those in.

Noble Dresser

It was also important to us that everything was well constructed and durable. So all of the dresser drawers have dove-tailed joints and there are no paper-thin cardboard backs on anything (these pieces are SOLID – believe me we have carried them up and down the stairs – ha!). Plus all the sofas and armchairs are made with performance fabric – which isn’t chemically sprayed, but actually created from tightly woven durable fibers to better repel stains and wear. We also snuck in some fun bonus functions and features on some of the pieces too, like these:

Skirted Dining Chair | Noble Dresser | Debonair Dresser | Valet End Table

I’ve already said more than I need to because I’m probably just distracting you from actually looking at the furniture. There is SO MUCH MORE than what we’ve shown in this post, so feel free to head over to Wayfair to browse it all.

Dashing End Table | Mellow Chair

There are sofas, coffee tables, nightstands, dining tables, chairs, headboards, a bed, and even this mirror that’s earning all the extra credit in our bedroom for reflecting my capiz chandelier (it’s like I have two of them now ;)

Debonair Dresser in Grey | Stenciled Mirror

So this is me officially zipping my trap, getting out of your way, and spooning with my new chair boyfriend (John’s fine with it because he’s busy gushing about how smoothly the dresser drawers glide).

Mellow Armchair

Thanks so much to everyone who has been so excited and supportive about this whole new adventure for us! We are SO EXCITED to have these things out in the world!

The post Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair! appeared first on Young House Love.

Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair! published first on https://novaformmattressreview.tumblr.com/

[lowmaticnews]

Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair!

I’m not sure an emoji even exists to capture how THRILLED we are to announce that our furniture line is finally out! The one that represents me would probably be the salsa dancing woman, except she’d be wearing all black with a skull for a face because I’m 95% dead from the excitement. Also let’s add a taco in her hand because that’s always a good idea. Am I already talking about tacos? That got off track quickly. Anyway, I know a lot of you have been following along as this day has crept closer (thank you for that, btw!) so now you can officially shop the whole collection (over 30 pieces! way more than we could cram into this post!) at Wayfair and Wayfair Canada.

Valet End Table | Mellow Sofa | Stenciled Coffee Table | Mellow Armchair

I’ll do my best to keep the cliches to a minimum, but designing furniture has been a dream of ours for years and it still feels like this isn’t real. There’s actual physical stuff that you can sit on, sleep on, eat at, and rub your face all over (is that just me?) and we’re just so happy with how everything turned out.

Keen Dining Chair | Trestle Dining Table

Both the finished look and the quality exceeded our expectations when we saw everything in person – and we LOVE how they mix and match together. I CANNOT WAIT for you guys to have it your houses.

Scalloped Sideboard | Spiffy Armchair

Like I’m actively preparing to have my brain explode when you start tagging me in your pictures.

Skirted Upholstered Dining Chair | Pedestal Table 

So today we wanted to share some of the pieces (there are way more over on Wayfair) and show you some behind-the-scenes of how it all came together.

Wisp Chest | Marble Accent Table | Swoon Upholstered Bed

Speaking of which, here’s a peek at what it took to get that shot above. This is from the photoshoot we did back in August down in North Carolina and, if you follow us on Instagram, you saw us road trip down there with a car full of accessories to excitedly style each shot (you can view a recap of it all here).

All of the photos of the furniture “in situation” were photographed in a real person’s home that we rented for a week (she’s an interior designer, so she had THE BEST architecture to work with). Things were constantly getting moved around, the garage was filled with tables of accessories, and there was camera equipment everywhere you looked. These photos are of the living room, which became a makeshift bedroom more than once.

We had some of the samples from the photoshoot delivered to our house a few weeks ago – which fully completes the dream of designing things we’d love to live with in our own home! And let’s just say that moving in with them has taken our relationship to the next level. “Our” meaning me and the furniture. But hey, at least I let John third-wheel it in this armchair that basically acts as a chair-and-a-half when you take the side pillows off. Plus the performance fabric means I don’t have to fear the kids or the dogs smearing it up – or myself spilling tea on it – both literally or figuratively speaking (Atlanta Housewives, anyone? No? Bueller?). 

Mellow Armchair

We’re working with a company based in High Point, North Carolina that also makes Universal Furniture, a name you’ve probably heard advertised on our podcast. That’s actually how we first got to know them, and about 18 months ago we started developing a line of furniture with them too. We traveled to their showroom a few times to gather inspiration and they came to our house to see our style firsthand. And together with their team of designers we started drafting up a whole slew of furniture ideas.

That sheet above is partially blurred because not everything survives the development process. Sometimes the design doesn’t work out the way you hope, it may not be feasible or cost-effective to produce, or the retailer just doesn’t pick it up. It’s certainly sad to let go of some things, but the good news is that we’re already working on more stuff and can hopefully revive and reimagine some of what didn’t make it into this first batch.

Stenciled 2-Drawer Chest

We’re also hoping to release alternate colors and fabric finishes of the bestsellers as time goes on. Like I’m DYING to do these x-back chairs in white, emerald green, light gray, and a natural wood finish (and in a counter-height stool version – AHHHH! Somebody stop me!).

X-Back Dining Chair | Drop Leaf Table

And how great would these white chairs be in a soft mint or pink color with a lightly bleached all-wood version of this table?

Keen Dining Chair | Chipper Dining Table

We snagged those navy chairs shown above from the photoshoot, along with this white pedestal table, and have used them to upgrade our kids’ crafting corner in our bonus room. There used to be a kid-height table with some cute little green chairs in that spot, but our tall kids were ready for a more regular-sized set-up. Added bonus: now we can sit with them without developing butt cramps from the old mini-chairs.

X-Back Dining Chairs | Pedestal Table

Overall, our goal was to make super versatile pieces (says the person who just used a dining table as a kids’ craft table) that are classic but still interesting. Like the dresser below that has a fun diamond pattern (inspired by my beloved diamond windows in the duplex) but comes in two goes-with-anything colors (white or gray).

Diamond Chest in White | Spiffy Armchair

Interesting details in easy-to-integrate colors make it so simple for these pieces to slip in seamlessly with your existing furniture. So you can upgrade that old dresser, coffee table, media cabinet, or dining table without having to redesign (or rebuy) your entire room. Or even just add this cute little side table next to your sofa for a soft hint of greeny-blue color and some bonus setting-things-down space.

Valet End Table | Mellow Sofa

In our bedroom, we swapped out my former dresser (the one with the stuck drawer that you saw on my closet video tour) for this 6-drawer one so I can finally have a fully functional piece. The vintage dresser that used to live here now happily resides in the guest room – where that sticking middle drawer bothers nobody – and I finally have six drawers that open and shut without a fight! Everyone wins!

Mellow Armchair | Wisp Dresser

We wanted things to feel like us, so we worked in lots of little nods or details – like the dentil molding along the Wisp Dresser above (just like the dentil molding along the roofline of our house). Several pieces have an inlay-inspired pattern (you know that makes me SO HAPPY), and the Noble Dresser below is based on the aforementioned vintage dresser that John’s dad handed down to us. It’s hard to find pieces with cool old details like fluted legs or tops that aren’t just rectangles (see how the top of the dresser below is so much more of an intricate shape?) so we LOVED working those in.

Noble Dresser

It was also important to us that everything was well constructed and durable. So all of the dresser drawers have dove-tailed joints and there are no paper-thin cardboard backs on anything (these pieces are SOLID – believe me we have carried them up and down the stairs – ha!). Plus all the sofas and armchairs are made with performance fabric – which isn’t chemically sprayed, but actually created from tightly woven durable fibers to better repel stains and wear. We also snuck in some fun bonus functions and features on some of the pieces too, like these:

Skirted Dining Chair | Noble Dresser | Debonair Dresser | Valet Side Table

I’ve already said more than I need to because I’m probably just distracting you from actually looking at the furniture. There is SO MUCH MORE than what we’ve shown in this post, so feel free to head over to Wayfair to browse it all.

Dashing End Table | Mellow Chair

There are sofas, coffee tables, nightstands, dining tables, chairs, headboards, a bed, and even this mirror that’s earning all the extra credit in our bedroom for reflecting my capiz chandelier (it’s like I have two of them now ;)

Debonair Dresser | Stenciled Mirror

So this is me officially zipping my trap, getting out of your way, and spooning with my new chair boyfriend (John’s fine with it because he’s busy gushing about how smoothly the dresser drawers glide).

Mellow Armchair

Thanks so much to everyone who has been so excited and supportive about this whole new adventure for us! We are SO EXCITED to have these things out in the world!

The post Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair! appeared first on Young House Love.

Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair! published first on https://landscapingmates.blogspot.com

[vincentbnaughton]

Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair!

I’m not sure an emoji even exists to capture how THRILLED we are to announce that our furniture line is finally out! The one that represents me would probably be the salsa dancing woman, except she’d be wearing all black with a skull for a face because I’m 95% dead from the excitement. Also let’s add a taco in her hand because that’s always a good idea. Am I already talking about tacos? That got off track quickly. Anyway, I know a lot of you have been following along as this day has crept closer (thank you for that, btw!) so now you can officially shop the whole collection (over 30 pieces! way more than we could cram into this post!) at Wayfair and Wayfair Canada.

Valet End Table | Mellow Sofa | Stenciled Coffee Table | Mellow Armchair

I’ll do my best to keep the cliches to a minimum, but designing furniture has been a dream of ours for years and it still feels like this isn’t real. There’s actual physical stuff that you can sit on, sleep on, eat at, and rub your face all over (is that just me?) and we’re just so happy with how everything turned out.

Keen Dining Chair | Trestle Dining Table

Both the finished look and the quality exceeded our expectations when we saw everything in person – and we LOVE how they mix and match together. I CANNOT WAIT for you guys to have it your houses.

Scalloped Sideboard | Spiffy Armchair

Like I’m actively preparing to have my brain explode when you start tagging me in your pictures.

Skirted Upholstered Dining Chair | Pedestal Table 

So today we wanted to share some of the pieces (there are way more over on Wayfair) and show you some behind-the-scenes of how it all came together.

Wisp Chest | Marble Accent Table | Swoon Upholstered Bed

Speaking of which, here’s a peek at what it took to get that shot above. This is from the photoshoot we did back in August down in North Carolina and, if you follow us on Instagram, you saw us road trip down there with a car full of accessories to excitedly style each shot (you can view a recap of it all here).

All of the photos of the furniture “in situation” were photographed in a real person’s home that we rented for a week (she’s an interior designer, so she had THE BEST architecture to work with). Things were constantly getting moved around, the garage was filled with tables of accessories, and there was camera equipment everywhere you looked. These photos are of the living room, which became a makeshift bedroom more than once.

We had some of the samples from the photoshoot delivered to our house a few weeks ago – which fully completes the dream of designing things we’d love to live with in our own home! And let’s just say that moving in with them has taken our relationship to the next level. “Our” meaning me and the furniture. But hey, at least I let John third-wheel it in this armchair that basically acts as a chair-and-a-half when you take the side pillows off. Plus the performance fabric means I don’t have to fear the kids or the dogs smearing it up – or myself spilling tea on it – both literally or figuratively speaking (Atlanta Housewives, anyone? No? Bueller?). 

Mellow Armchair

We’re working with a company based in High Point, North Carolina that also makes Universal Furniture, a name you’ve probably heard advertised on our podcast. That’s actually how we first got to know them, and about 18 months ago we started developing a line of furniture with them too. We traveled to their showroom a few times to gather inspiration and they came to our house to see our style firsthand. And together with their team of designers we started drafting up a whole slew of furniture ideas.

That sheet above is partially blurred because not everything survives the development process. Sometimes the design doesn’t work out the way you hope, it may not be feasible or cost-effective to produce, or the retailer just doesn’t pick it up. It’s certainly sad to let go of some things, but the good news is that we’re already working on more stuff and can hopefully revive and reimagine some of what didn’t make it into this first batch.

Stenciled 2-Drawer Chest

We’re also hoping to release alternate colors and fabric finishes of the bestsellers as time goes on. Like I’m DYING to do these x-back chairs in white, emerald green, light gray, and a natural wood finish (and in a counter-height stool version – AHHHH! Somebody stop me!).

X-Back Dining Chair | Drop Leaf Table

And how great would these white chairs be in a soft mint or pink color with a lightly bleached all-wood version of this table?

Keen Dining Chair | Chipper Dining Table

We snagged those navy chairs shown above from the photoshoot, along with this white pedestal table, and have used them to upgrade our kids’ crafting corner in our bonus room. There used to be a kid-height table with some cute little green chairs in that spot, but our tall kids were ready for a more regular-sized set-up. Added bonus: now we can sit with them without developing butt cramps from the old mini-chairs.

X-Back Dining Chairs | Pedestal Table

Overall, our goal was to make super versatile pieces (says the person who just used a dining table as a kids’ craft table) that are classic but still interesting. Like the dresser below that has a fun diamond pattern (inspired by my beloved diamond windows in the duplex) but comes in two goes-with-anything colors (white or gray).

Diamond Chest in White | Spiffy Armchair

Interesting details in easy-to-integrate colors make it so simple for these pieces to slip in seamlessly with your existing furniture. So you can upgrade that old dresser, coffee table, media cabinet, or dining table without having to redesign (or rebuy) your entire room. Or even just add this cute little side table next to your sofa for a soft hint of greeny-blue color and some bonus setting-things-down space.

Valet End Table | Mellow Sofa

In our bedroom, we swapped out my former dresser (the one with the stuck drawer that you saw on my closet video tour) for this 6-drawer one so I can finally have a fully functional piece. The vintage dresser that used to live here now happily resides in the guest room – where that sticking middle drawer bothers nobody – and I finally have six drawers that open and shut without a fight! Everyone wins!

Mellow Armchair | Wisp Dresser

We wanted things to feel like us, so we worked in lots of little nods or details – like the dentil molding along the Wisp Dresser above (just like the dentil molding along the roofline of our house). Several pieces have an inlay-inspired pattern (you know that makes me SO HAPPY), and the Noble Dresser below is based on the aforementioned vintage dresser that John’s dad handed down to us. It’s hard to find pieces with cool old details like fluted legs or tops that aren’t just rectangles (see how the top of the dresser below is so much more of an intricate shape?) so we LOVED working those in.

Noble Dresser

It was also important to us that everything was well constructed and durable. So all of the dresser drawers have dove-tailed joints and there are no paper-thin cardboard backs on anything (these pieces are SOLID – believe me we have carried them up and down the stairs – ha!). Plus all the sofas and armchairs are made with performance fabric – which isn’t chemically sprayed, but actually created from tightly woven durable fibers to better repel stains and wear. We also snuck in some fun bonus functions and features on some of the pieces too, like these:

Skirted Dining Chair | Noble Dresser | Debonair Dresser | Valet Side Table

I’ve already said more than I need to because I’m probably just distracting you from actually looking at the furniture. There is SO MUCH MORE than what we’ve shown in this post, so feel free to head over to Wayfair to browse it all.

Dashing End Table | Mellow Chair

There are sofas, coffee tables, nightstands, dining tables, chairs, headboards, a bed, and even this mirror that’s earning all the extra credit in our bedroom for reflecting my capiz chandelier (it’s like I have two of them now ;)

Debonair Dresser | Stenciled Mirror

So this is me officially zipping my trap, getting out of your way, and spooning with my new chair boyfriend (John’s fine with it because he’s busy gushing about how smoothly the dresser drawers glide).

Mellow Armchair

Thanks so much to everyone who has been so excited and supportive about this whole new adventure for us! We are SO EXCITED to have these things out in the world!

The post Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair! appeared first on Young House Love.

[nothingbythebook]

I.

My day is interrupted by a puking child, and…

No. Not like that. Interrupted?

The definition of interrupt:

Stop the continuous progress of (an activity or process)

Stop (someone speaking) by saying or doing something.

Break the continuity of (a line or surface)

Obstruct (something, especially a view).

(So says the Oxford English Dictionary, which also adds, btw, this:

“Late Middle English: from Latin interrupt- ‘broken, interrupted’, from the verb interrumpere, from inter- ‘between’ + rumpere ‘to break’.”

– I learned something new, and now so did you.)

But for something to be interrupted… there has to be an expectation that it won’t be. An assumption that the activity will be continuous—that you will get to finish your sentence—that the line will go on forever, or at least for a while.

So. My day is NOT interrupted by a puking child. Let’s try this again.

II.

My sleep is interrupted… No, here I go again…

Take three:

I’m in that marvellous liminal morning place of sleep-not-sleep, and I am thinking I will wake—soon, but not just yet—when I hear footsteps on the ceiling (on the ceiling, yes), and then footsteps tramping down the stairs—doors opening—laundry bags being stepped on—and… there he is. In the crook of my arm, not quite as long as I am yet but definitely not small, and yet in that moment of crawling into bed beside me, so tiny.

He doesn’t whisper, “Upstairs?” as is his way when he wakes up before me or Sean. He just curls into me. And wiggles. “Maggie?” he says, searching for the dog in the dark.

I shush him.

“Your Dadda has to get up so early today, he needs to sleep until it’s time. Be still.” He stills, a little.

But Sean gives up on the remnants of sleep and gets up before his alarm clock.

Ender falls asleep, in my arms, for a while.

I don’t.

I mind-wander. Sad thoughts, happy thoughts. Heart-piercing, heart-breaking thoughts.

But happy thoughts too.

I like thinking.

At some point, my eyes are wet and I can’t exactly say I like that, but… it’s part of the experience.

Ender stirs beside me, awake in a flash. Starts to torment the dog.

“Upstairs?” I whisper to him.

He’s out of bed almost before I finish the sentence. Me, I stretch. Rub my eyes, forehead, neck. Sneek a peak at my phone.

6:17.

Early.

Ugh.

By the time I follow Ender upstairs, he’s already ensconced in one of the armchairs in the kitchen and wrapped in a blanket. Sean’s made coffee and I play the game I’m playing these days every morning, with every cup. Yes? No? A choice? A compulsion?

I pour a cup. Drink half of it while it’s hot… pour the cold remains down the sink later. A choice. Not a compulsion.

Sean’s got a 9 am presentation that he’s still refining, so I get Ender his cereal before going back downstairs with the coffee. Sit down in the space-that-is-me and write the morning pages.

Don’t whine in them very much, although at one point my eyes do get wet again.

Then—work. The tasks I MUST do first thing in the morning. And—go. Tedious. Unfulfilling. Necessary. Not ideal—I will not schedule a project like this again. My mornings need to belong to creative work, not this. These thoughts dance in the back of my head—but the front of it is all focused, disciplined, working.

About to be interrupted—but no.

It’s not an interruption if you know it’s coming.

“I need to cuddle.”

Ender in my armpit, under my blankets. I wonder if the reason I work on a couch, on the floor, on a chaisez-lounge is this? So I can accommodate one child, two, three while I write?

It’s hard to type AND cuddle an eight-year-old at a desk, in an office chair.

It’s not, by the way, an idyllic moment.

He keeps on grabbing my right arm. And I keep on snapping. We have a deal, Ender and I—the mornings are MINE and he can come into my space and BE with me. But I am working. I am not HIS at that time. He can be present—but all he gets is my presence. No interactions. Except ones that sound like this:

“I need my arm to do my work, stop pulling on it.”

“Ender, baby, you know this is my work time.”

“For fuck’s sake, stop yanking on my arm!”

He wiggles down and curls around my feet.

I do my work.

Get to the goal I set out as my “finish” for the morning stretch.

He says it this time before I do:

“Upstairs?”

Upstairs.

Upstairs, I make him his second breakfast and myself my first. And I break a rule—a new friend sends me a text that brings a smile to my face and so I text back (more on my texting rule later, maybe)—and I am flirting and moving around in the kitchen and trying to plan the day—I’ll read a bit with Ender, make sure Flora eats protein for breakfast when she wakes up—but then, I’ll probably be able to get the second block of my work done, and then, in the afternoon, will I have time to…

And that’s when Ender comes into the kitchen, and pukes all over the kitchen floor.

III.

My week, by the way, has looked sort of like this:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

But of course, this is only the public part of the story.

IV.

I’m trying to read, for the second time, Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project. I’m reading it because I got it as a birthday present for Sean, because he heard Rubin on a podcast talking about how different personality types are motivated and thought she was insightful and because he is very interested what makes people happy.

I’ve tried reading it before, when it was first released and there were 64 people ahead of me on the holds list for it at the public library. When my turn to read it arrived… Rubin lost me in February.

This time, I’ve persevered til June. I’m looking for the nuggets. But it’s hard.

Rubin’s relentless search for happiness (while claiming she is very happy to begin with) exhausts me. Really, that is what’s happening: as I read about her resolutions, projects, and initiative—I feel utterly drained.

It’s fascinating.

Her frantic energy vibes off the page and into my rather sensitive and strained… shall we be New Agey and call it aura? … I don’ t know. Something. Her frantic energy infects me. And not in a good way. Reading about her quest for happiness is decreasing mine.

It’s kind of interesting.

Also, insightful, although perhaps not in the way Rubin intended.

I’m not sure if I will persevere with the book through to December. It does have some good stuff, and quotes and insights from others, and I was going to pull one out for you, but I can’t find it, and really, fuck it, because the point is–Rubin’s desire to be even more happy (while denying that she’s unhappy) is making me tired.

And even those of her insights that resonate with me… I think we apply these insights in very different ways.

Anyway.

Happiness.

Sean is also reading—er, listening to—Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. The subtext of which—or maybe its main point, actually—is that chasing happiness does not make people happy.

We talk about that for a bit on Thursday night. About the difference between “happy” and “meaningful.”

I am, right now, definitely not happy. Oh, I have moments of joy and pleasure. And even the occasional second of bliss.

But happy?

No.

And I don’t even want to be happy.

But let’s not talk about that today.

V.

I send Ender to the bathroom to wash his face and hands and I clean the kitchen floor. Settle him in bed with a puke bowl and his iPad.

“And Mommy?” he asks.

So my office for the rest of the morning is his sickbed, and I do most of my work with my left hand, as he convulsively holds onto my right.

When he falls asleep, I go downstairs and feed Flora protein, although it’s more lunch than breakfast now.

I should sit down and work. I start to draft this post instead—it seems important.

VI.

I don’t want to be happy or chase happiness, but I don’t want to be dysfunctionally unhappy either. I try to create my life, consciously and conscientiously. I want it to be meaningful, purposeful. Good, which to my mind is not the same as happy. Fulfilling. You know?

Right now, I have a project on the go that’s, ironically, meaningful and purposeful, and overall critical to the creation of my meaningful and purposeful life, but which has me doing things that are making me dysfunctionally unhappy.

So I’m looking at those things and trying to figure out… do I need to do them? If I do—if they are indeed unavoidable—can I do them differently?

It’s an interesting exercise. I’m trying different things. They all have few things in common: or maybe, just one thing.

They are a quest for… stillness. Silence.

My texting rule—I break it for you, I broke it this morning—is part of it.

My project requires me to be online, plugged in, sharing, responding, six out of seven days at least—and that seventh day, even then there are things…

It has, so far, been a 40-day long experiment in what happens to a creative person when they are never truly alone for 40 days.

It’s fascinating… and it ain’t pretty.

VII.

After his nap, Ender wants to play with his friends and go sledding, and I, the worst mother in the world, don’t let him. But I bundle him into a snowsuit—myself too—and we go for a slow loop around the Common. He barely makes it, all the while insisting he wants to go sledding and to play with his friends.

Back home, I make him tea with honey, but he’s asleep again when I bring it back.

The day continues like this—Ender waking up, falling asleep, whining, the elder two gaming, reading, fighting, me remembering at some point that I should feed them—finding out they’d already fed themselves (“But can you ask Dziadzia to bring buns and milk when he comes?”).

My dad arrives in the evening—with milk and buns, and also chicken wings—to take Flora to her martial arts class. I leave Cinder in charge of the not-puking-but-clearly-not-well Ender—then my mom comes to pick me up, and we go to the premiere of Sean’s film project (which, btw, you can now view at Art Enabled Life).

When we come back, Ender is asleep.

Turns out, Cinder took him sledding.

“Seriously?” That’s me.

“What?” That’s Cinder. “I made him wear a helmet.”

Ender sleeps like the dead; wakes up perfectly healthy.

VIII.

I want to finish writing this post in the evening, in my space. I think that will be the perfect closure to this day and this story: me, in my space, mostly uninterrupted. It was going to go like this, I had it all written in my head, scripted perfectly, and it was going to go like this:

“I have this… affirmation, I guess? words, ugh… that I’m working with right now. Well, there are two—the one I need to work on more I’m not ready to share with you. This one, though, you can hear:

“My days flow with a rhythm that nourishes and inspires myself and others.”

I’m chasing… not happiness. But flow.

Rhythm.

And I think… my rhythm will never be really smooth. Or uninterrupted. Sometimes, I will get planned or unexpected hours that flow gently, naturally into one another. But most of the time—I don’t expect, I can’t expect it.

Someone will puke. The furnace will break down. You will need me. My eyes will be wet.

I can’t control for any of that, and trying to paves the way to dysfunctional unhappiness.

But there are other… interruptions—and ways of being and thinking and acting that nurture interruptions—which all pave the way to dysfunctional unhappiness—that I can control.

So that’s my next project. Adjacent to the ongoing one, and my other creative and professional work.

I’ll tell you about it, bit by bit.

Now I have to go meditate. Then let my mind wander. Have some fabulous sex.

Sleep.”

But, um… instead, after the film, I come home to was-asleep-but-is-now-awake Ender and sit with him for near an hour until he falls back asleep, and then, I want to sleep, not write, myself. So, I do. And the next day, I’m up at 6:17 am doing all the things, and getting picked up before 8 am by a friend and going to an all-day workshop and…

I finish the post there, in-between presentations, pitches, meet-ups.

Rhythm?

Flow?

Sort of.

Rhythm, interrupted?

Sure. Hey, there’s my title.

xoxo

“Jane”

PS A shameless plug for Sean’s amazing work again—Check out the ART ENABLED LIFE project, either via its website, or if you’re a Facebook user, on its Facebook Page. The eleven films featuring eleven artists in dialogue with middle school students about how art builds resiliency (and other beautiful insights) are also live on Youtube now, and they will change your life.

Rhythm, interrupted I. My day is interrupted by a puking child, and... No. Not like that. Interrupted? The definition of interrupt:

[truereviewpage]

Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair!

I’m not sure an emoji even exists to capture how THRILLED we are to announce that our furniture line is finally out! The one that represents me would probably be the salsa dancing woman, except she’d be wearing all black with a skull for a face because I’m 95% dead from the excitement. Also let’s add a taco in her hand because that’s always a good idea. Am I already talking about tacos? That got off track quickly. Anyway, I know a lot of you have been following along as this day has crept closer (thank you for that, btw!) so now you can officially shop the whole collection (over 30 pieces! way more than we could cram into this post!) at Wayfair and Wayfair Canada.

Valet End Table | Mellow Sofa | Stenciled Coffee Table | Mellow Armchair

I’ll do my best to keep the cliches to a minimum, but designing furniture has been a dream of ours for years and it still feels like this isn’t real. There’s actual physical stuff that you can sit on, sleep on, eat at, and rub your face all over (is that just me?) and we’re just so happy with how everything turned out.

Keen Dining Chair | Trestle Dining Table

Both the finished look and the quality exceeded our expectations when we saw everything in person – and we LOVE how they mix and match together. I CANNOT WAIT for you guys to have it your houses.

Scalloped Sideboard | Spiffy Armchair

Like I’m actively preparing to have my brain explode when you start tagging me in your pictures.

Skirted Upholstered Dining Chair | Pedestal Table 

So today we wanted to share some of the pieces (there are way more over on Wayfair) and show you some behind-the-scenes of how it all came together.

Wisp Chest | Marble End Table | Swoon Upholstered Bed

Speaking of which, here’s a peek at what it took to get that shot above. This is from the photoshoot we did back in August down in North Carolina and, if you follow us on Instagram, you saw us road trip down there with a car full of accessories to excitedly style each shot (you can view a recap of it all here).

All of the photos of the furniture “in situation” were photographed in a real person’s home that we rented for a week (she’s an interior designer, so she had THE BEST architecture to work with). Things were constantly getting moved around, the garage was filled with tables of accessories, and there was camera equipment everywhere you looked. These photos are of the living room, which became a makeshift bedroom more than once.

We had some of the samples from the photoshoot delivered to our house a few weeks ago – which fully completes the dream of designing things we’d love to live with in our own home! And let’s just say that moving in with them has taken our relationship to the next level. “Our” meaning me and the furniture. But hey, at least I let John third-wheel it in this armchair that basically acts as a chair-and-a-half when you take the side pillows off. Plus the performance fabric means I don’t have to fear the kids or the dogs smearing it up – or myself spilling tea on it – both literally or figuratively speaking (Atlanta Housewives, anyone? No? Bueller?). 

Mellow Armchair

We’re working with a company based in High Point, North Carolina that also makes Universal Furniture, a name you’ve probably heard advertised on our podcast. That’s actually how we first got to know them, and about 18 months ago we started developing a line of furniture with them too. We traveled to their showroom a few times to gather inspiration and they came to our house to see our style firsthand. And together with their team of designers we started drafting up a whole slew of furniture ideas.

That sheet above is partially blurred because not everything survives the development process. Sometimes the design doesn’t work out the way you hope, it may not be feasible or cost-effective to produce, or the retailer just doesn’t pick it up. It’s certainly sad to let go of some things, but the good news is that we’re already working on more stuff and can hopefully revive and reimagine some of what didn’t make it into this first batch.

Stenciled 2-Drawer Chest

We’re also hoping to release alternate colors and fabric finishes of the bestsellers as time goes on. Like I’m DYING to do these x-back chairs in white, emerald green, light gray, and a natural wood finish (and in a counter-height stool version – AHHHH! Somebody stop me!).

X-Back Dining Chair | Drop Leaf Table

And how great would these white chairs be in a soft mint or pink color with a lightly bleached all-wood version of this table?

Keen Dining Chair | Chipper Dining Table

We snagged those navy chairs shown above from the photoshoot, along with this white pedestal table, and have used them to upgrade our kids’ crafting corner in our bonus room. There used to be a kid-height table with some cute little green chairs in that spot, but our tall kids were ready for a more regular-sized set-up. Added bonus: now we can sit with them without developing butt cramps from the old mini-chairs.

X-Back Dining Chairs | Pedestal Table

Overall, our goal was to make super versatile pieces (says the person who just used a dining table as a kids’ craft table) that are classic but still interesting. Like the dresser below that has a fun diamond pattern (inspired by my beloved diamond windows in the duplex) but comes in two goes-with-anything colors (white or gray).

Diamond Chest in White | Spiffy Armchair

Interesting details in easy-to-integrate colors make it so simple for these pieces to slip in seamlessly with your existing furniture. So you can upgrade that old dresser, coffee table, media cabinet, or dining table without having to redesign (or rebuy) your entire room. Or even just add this cute little side table next to your sofa for a soft hint of greeny-blue color and some bonus setting-things-down space.

Valet End Table in Blue | Mellow Sofa

In our bedroom, we swapped out my former dresser (the one with the stuck drawer that you saw on my closet video tour) for this 6-drawer one so I can finally have a fully functional piece. The vintage dresser that used to live here now happily resides in the guest room – where that sticking middle drawer bothers nobody – and I finally have six drawers that open and shut without a fight! Everyone wins!

Mellow Armchair | Wisp Dresser

We wanted things to feel like us, so we worked in lots of little nods or details – like the dentil molding along the Wisp Dresser above (just like the dentil molding along the roofline of our house). Several pieces have an inlay-inspired pattern (you know that makes me SO HAPPY), and the Noble Dresser below is based on the aforementioned vintage dresser that John’s dad handed down to us. It’s hard to find pieces with cool old details like fluted legs or tops that aren’t just rectangles (see how the top of the dresser below is so much more of an intricate shape?) so we LOVED working those in.

Noble Dresser

It was also important to us that everything was well constructed and durable. So all of the dresser drawers have dove-tailed joints and there are no paper-thin cardboard backs on anything (these pieces are SOLID – believe me we have carried them up and down the stairs – ha!). Plus all the sofas and armchairs are made with performance fabric – which isn’t chemically sprayed, but actually created from tightly woven durable fibers to better repel stains and wear. We also snuck in some fun bonus functions and features on some of the pieces too, like these:

Skirted Dining Chair | Noble Dresser | Debonair Dresser | Valet End Table

I’ve already said more than I need to because I’m probably just distracting you from actually looking at the furniture. There is SO MUCH MORE than what we’ve shown in this post, so feel free to head over to Wayfair to browse it all.

Dashing End Table | Mellow Chair

There are sofas, coffee tables, nightstands, dining tables, chairs, headboards, a bed, and even this mirror that’s earning all the extra credit in our bedroom for reflecting my capiz chandelier (it’s like I have two of them now ;)

Debonair Dresser in Grey | Stenciled Mirror

So this is me officially zipping my trap, getting out of your way, and spooning with my new chair boyfriend (John’s fine with it because he’s busy gushing about how smoothly the dresser drawers glide).

Mellow Armchair

Thanks so much to everyone who has been so excited and supportive about this whole new adventure for us! We are SO EXCITED to have these things out in the world!

The post Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair! appeared first on Young House Love.

Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale On Wayfair! published first on https://aireloomreview.tumblr.com/