Decor club went on a little excursion yesterday to a stone works warehouse because my friend Stacie is redoing her mantel. She’s having it custom done and was interested in something modern and subtle, like brushed limestone—until I got into the picture. She invited me along to make sure her choice would be bullet proof and would ensure she could resell her house easily when the time comes. Her mantel is going to be this shape:

But I think the real reason she invited me along was to have a moment to fantasize before she played it safe, so I tried to persuade her to make a statement. First we stumbled, literally onto this spectacular piece of blue Lapis. When I pointed it out to her, the owner said, “You like that? Its the most expensive thing in here.”

But he can’t sell it because it has too much white and was dropped and has a lot of little cracks in it. Then I found this:It’s gorgeous and scary and a crazy risk. Stacie tried to imagine it but it made her dizzy, so much so she had a tripping incident.But I still think it would be spectacular. It’s Turkish marble and very rare. It looks like mountains from the Hobbit. I know it would be like inviting friends and family to have an LSD trip in your house every time you hung stockings (not that you would on that kind of fireplace), but I just love it. I admit that seeing it dusty and undiscovered probably makes it seem more chic than seeing it in installed and polished in your home. It is a brown, mindbending slab of marble and there’s a good chance it would plunge her home back to a time when women actually wore Jean Natay in an unironic way so I didn’t push too hard. When I asked the owner about it he laughed again and told Stacie she shouldn’t shop with me. The Turkish slab is the second most expensive piece after the Lapis. More than seven times what she wants to spend. Clearly I need to stick to throw pillows. But I know it could work, I really do.

The bar I recently set up and motherblogger is mentioned in the Time’s Home section in a story about the super fun bar cart trend. Unfortunately, the wrong url was printed in the story, but they fixed it online.

When Maria, the reporter for the Times was interviewing me, I realized that I received a bar cart one Christmas from Santa. I had forgotten about it, but while we were talking I remembered coming downstairs one Christmas morning to find an orange plastic cart with metal trim and bright shiny wheels decked out with a tea set and glasses. The mod tangerine plastic gleamed next to the tree lights and even though I didn’t ask for it, I didn’t even know a present this chic existed in child size— it was a wildly reassuring gift. The cart was my mother’s way of saying to me, I know who you want to be and who you will become. That summer I was voted clumsiest camper at Camp Chinqueka, but by giving me that cart, my mom was telling me that I could also be Grace Kelly.

My mom is still that kind of gift giver and she manages to surprise me every Christmas. When I was in college I was too controlling and specific about what I wanted so she stopped taking risks and I received lots of gift cards. It was what I had asked for, but when I’d open the little card it felt like our connection was diffused into an institutionalized transaction. Parent = Shopping spree at Anthropologie. It made me feel like a favorite neice, not her daughter and her gifts had been her unique way of mothering me.

So I stopped telling her what I wanted for Christmas because I didn’t want checklist gifts. I wanted her imagination. And it worked. In the years since, she has given me a vintage Tutu from a performance of Sleeping Beauty; a limited edition of The Flair book; a fur scarf; a set of Leeds china. This year she gave me a ruffled purse. Where I’ll use it, I have no idea, but it’s her way of saying, you need this as much as a new pair of yoga pants. All her gifts are her way of guiding my taste while boosting my confidence to be who I wanted to be in a way that only she can.

When my mom gives me advice, sometimes I can hear the worry in her voice. Her gifts, however, are clear they all say I believe in you. And often enough, her presents are ideas of myself that  haven’t even occurred to me. So it was funny to realize, that while Maria was interviewing me, I had said I set up the bar because I was having two parties and I didn’t want anyone crowding up our tiny kitchen, but I really set it up because I wanted to have that life that she whispered into my ear when I was seven on Christmas morning.

Merry Christmas to my house. Thank you honey. It’s perfect.

File under totally uncessary but still worth fantasizing about. This Hayworth Shelf in melon by Serena & Lily is the kind of thing I’ll furnish my office in heaven with.

The December issue of House Beautiful featured home bars and inspired me to set one up, especially because I’m having a dinner party for friends Christmas week and then hosting family on Christmas Day. The bar is my way of hoping to shoo guests away from gathering in the kitchen.  Normally, I like kitchen parties, but our kitchen is small and not the prettiest room in the house and  it’s just going to stress me out if everyone ends up in there. Ta da: my solution:

The tray is over 90 year’s old and it was given to my husband’s great grandmother from his great grandfather as a “push present” when his grandmother was born so she could have breakfast in bed. The lamps are from Pier 1 and were $30 each! The crystal decanter was a wedding gift. When I opened it as a 27 year-old newlywedI burst out laughing, certain I’d never have a use for something as formal as that. What a difference a decade plus can make.

The wall needs something, so I’m going to ask David for this convex mirror from West Elm for Christmas. I’ve had my eye on it for a while because I thought it would be fun to hang a starburst mirror over our canopy bed. But now that the bar is set up, if I get it, I most likely put it here.

None of the lamps I bought for the guest room worked out. They were too big for a bedside table so I ended up heading back to Home Goods that Sunday and returning four out of the six I bought. That said, two worked out really well in the living room.

And that’s my favorite part of decor club, seeing how things work out spontaneously. I went out for the guest room and came back redoing my living room. Plus, I got these lamps for $40 each at HG. Later that week I saw pretty much the exact same lamp at on sale in a local shop by Le Jardin, a furnishing company I covet (below), marked down from $550 to $239.

Am I right or am I right?

Some women have book clubs, but my friends and I have decided to start a decor club.

First rule of Decor Club: Talk about Decor Club.

Second rule of Decor Club: Never talk about Decor Club with your husband. He’ll just start asking questions that start with “How” and end with “much” that take all the fun out of your ingenious plans even if  they are based on going to Ikea and buying those Lack tables that are reduced to $7.99!

Decor club doesn’t require formal meetings we just email, text and talk about our latest   rearragement brainstorm, wallpaper obsession or can-you-believe-this-was-on-sale discovery whenever we have one. Case in point, knowing that my mother was spending the night with us for Christmas Eve (the first time she has decided to stay at our house and not in a hotel) I wanted to tweak our guest room so that she’d be comfortable enough to consider doing it again next year. First task: lamp shopping for bedside tables.

Home Goods was having a sale.

My favorite furniture trend has arrived at Urban Outfitters at just the right price. Once my “high summer” decor moment is over, I’m thinking of adding these into the mix. At $325 they are less than a trendy fall handbag!

Now if only I can sneak a pair into the living room without David noticing.

You’ve heard me talk a lot about my plans for holding on to my kids when they are in their 20s and dating girls and wanting nothing to do with me. Well, I figured out  that one of the best ways is to retire to Rockport, Massachusetts. It’s a darling seaside town in Cape Ann where David grew up and his parents still live and we just got back from a 10-day vacation there. On our last night there Conrad and I walked downtown, listened to the fog horn, drank Moxie and watched fireworks light up the sky before the fog rolled in. He asked if we could live in Rockport. I explained that it’s more fun to live in both worlds, a little Montclair where Dad can work in the city and a little Rockport in the summer, but he turned to me with a very serious look on his face and said, “Mom, living here is my dream.” So now I’m creating a Rockport ambience in my home décor, it’s always been part of my aesthetic but now its congealing into a permanent “high summer” look— a term I’ve always loved ever since I read it on the cover of  an August issue of Martha Stewart Living about 15 years ago.

Rockport is filled with all the taffy shops, t-shirts stores and seascape painting galleries you would expect, but in the last couple of years there have been a few hip little stores that have opened with a sophisticated vibe selling home decor and gifts at perfectly reasonable New England prices. One of my favorites is Sycamore Hollow, a mix of new and vintage home finds. Sara, the owner is a painter and I snagged these tables she refurbished. She had a lovely display of cobalt blue chairs and oar in her window but unfortunately there was also a “For Rent” sign too. It seems that the recession and a new baby is causing her to close shop. I can’t blame her but another very cute store called N. Cassel closed earlier this year and what’s a vacation spot if you can’t really find a treasure or two?

I was going to pair them as a coffee table but liked them better as side tables. I also decided to swap out my beige upholstered chairs and add these yellow wood chairs, they were my grandmother’s and I loved them as a kid, skirt and all. I’m still thinking of reupholstering them but I have to find the right fabric.  Now the living room feels like we are on vacation whenever we sit here.

Seaside living in landlocked suburbia

Detail of table tops.

It’s too hot to garden and I’m the heat is turning my endless summer sky blue hydrangas a deep auburn. They are pretty but not the summer blue I crave this time of year. I want constant color in my garden but short of buying plastic plants, I have to let nature take it course and deal with the aubergine shades all over my garden.  My solution: bright patio accessories!

Here are some of my favorites

I love this bird cage from Conran. So unexpectd and possibly by now also sold out.

Surprise! Would you ever think this was from Pier 1? Me neither.

Design Within Reach cart, so sharp and chic.

This crazy chaise is fun and even if its is somewhat impractical, its from Ikea and not going to break the bank.

This fushcia garden stool from Mecox Gardens is better than any flowering plant, it never fades and no water needed.