Readers, I dare you to watch this without dropping your jaw.

I recently came across a site by the same name as a “family magazine.” There was a nice little design article about children’s rooms and bookcases. It showed four or five different kid’s rooms and the featured furniture. The lovely photos were paired with the usual sprightly comments about the accessories shown and where you could buy them. So far, so good, right?

Is it just me, or does $4,000 seem a tad high for a chair in a child’s room? Perhaps I’m too fussy, because it did look stunning next to the mid-century-look bookcase (a mere $560.) Still, I have to wonder about the bone china lamp.

Not $4,000

It kind of makes you wonder: what kind of families is this family magazine trying to reach? Tori Spelling was on the cover. Maybe that should have been a clue. I don’t know.

Do rich kids not have pillow fights or turn cartwheels in their rooms? Or, is a broken designer lamp (a) disposable and (b) something the maid cleans up?

Perhaps my favorite you-gotta-be-kidding item was a $2,000 Tulu rug. Turns out a Tulu is a natural fiber shag carpet made in India by native tribal people (whom, I’m betting aren’t getting any $2K a pop for them.)

These you can wash!

I once had a remnant of 70’s shag carpet in my kids’ room. I can tell you from experience that when your toddler and four year old both start spewing flu-related fluids, your shag carpet will definitely be a disposable item. Surely, even Tori Spelling would think twice before putting a $2,000 version in a child’s room. Don’t you think?

Or, maybe it’s just me.

© Marilyn Woodard 2009

Fortunately for my creative side, virtual decorating takes very little energy. Hence, I was able to fantasize a whole new Christmas decor and share it with you, my gentle readers.

I’m Dreaming of a Blue & White Christmas by Miz Woody

I got all excited about a beautiful bed made of branches and tried to imagine the room it would go in, which led me to wonder how many other twiggy items I could find. There are quite a few: more than I put in my Set (the official Polyvore term for a collage or dream board made on their site.)

If you are ga-ga over one of these items, you can click on the picture and be taken to the site where it is for sale. How cool is that for putting on your wedding page? Great Uncle Harry doesn’t even have to go to Bed Bath & Beyond and look up your registry items. I hate traipsing round and round the store with 14 pages of printouts in my hand, trying to find the items on the list. If I hate it, I bet your Great Uncle Harry hates it!

So here are my lovely Nature – ish finds. Enjoy!

Bough-ery by Miz Woody

Building a Family in a Falling-Down House, by David Giffels

This is a must-read for anyone that has ever wanted to buy an old house and rehab it into a thing of beauty. We’ve all seen the interior decorating magazine articles and home decorating tv shows: the before and after pictures. That’s what snares us. The dreary before pictures and the lovely, completely harmonious, light filled spaces of the “after” photos. What a wonderful thing that would be, to transform a dark old hulk into the pristine wonder of the neighborhood.

This book is neither the before nor the after. This is the in-between: the reality of buying your dream home and the nightmare of turning it into the home of your dreams.

It is also the story of a Grown-up Kid coming to grips with being a Man who must provide a home for his family. The Grown-up Kid provides us with plenty of humor along the way. He’s having a blast playing with his tools, inventing solutions and battling wild beasts (in the attic, no less.) The Man gives us cause for concern: will his family survive intact? He has to somehow balance his family’s need for livable shelter with their need for his physical presence.

Giffels’ prose makes this journey from Kid-to-Man and Hulk-to-House a wonderful read. Just listen to this, about a trip to the giant home-improvement store.

I came here for three things:

1. a can of expanding sealant, that magical stuff;

2. another three bags of mortar because this much I’ve learned:

a single bag of mortar is a fool’s errand; and

3: possibly a hinge.

The hinge is a lark…It’s heavy and antique and I know I will not find one here. But I have to look.

Looking for something we don’t think we’ll find—this is an understanding we share here in the wilds of the superstore.

We are people afraid of what might happen if our lives became comfortable.

We are people who don’t know nearly as much as we want the world to believe we know.

We are fathers. We are desperate to understand our place among people who desperately need us.

Our ambition is complicated…

I’ve stopped now, between Lighting and Doors.

A hinge—is it “hardware” or “fastener”?

We do not ask. We seek and discover. We, in the aisles: we are seekers and discoverers. This is our frontier. This is what we have left.

My one complaint about this delightful book is the lack of pictures. How did this get published without pictures? I mean, really!

And this is why I love the Internet. I Googled Mr. Giffels and found this wonderful slideshow.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/04/17/garden/20080417akron

_index.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Now we can sit back, enjoy the before and after photos, and pretend it’s as easy as the television shows make it look!

Blessings on you!

Marilyn