Archive for June, 2011
June 30th, 2011 | 
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June 29, 2011
In honor of her friend who is losing hair to chemotherapy, 8-year-old Kayla Couch wore a bandanna every day during a family gathering last month in Rhode Island.
“They asked her why, and she told them,” said Kimberly Lengyel, 34, Kayla’s mother. “She came home with 80 dollars.”
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That was the start of their family’s fundraising for Kylie Simonds, 8, a second-grader at Hop Brook Elementary School who has rhabdomyosarcoma, a muscle cancer most common in children.
Kayla wanted to do another fundraiser for her classmate, so Lengyel put together last Sunday’s “Courage for Kylie” festival on the Green, which netted the Simonds family at least $3,000 to help pay medical bills.
Hundreds of people dropped by the festival between noon and 5 p.m. to buy food, play games, jump in the bounce house, decorate cupcakes from Edible Dreams and enter to win a TV, bicycle or stay on Cape Cod.
The raffle prizes, food and games were nearly all donated by companies like borough-based Personal Pampering, New Haven-based Hommel Bros., Duncan Hines, Frito-Lay, Pepsi and Home Depot.
Organizers spent only about $500 to put on the event, which many Lengyel family members ran along with Boy Scout Troop 102, Lengyel said.
Kylie was diagnosed with cancer in March after a bout of tonsillitis, said her father, 33-year-old Michael Simonds.
After the swelling in Kylie’s throat went down, her doctor noticed something amiss, which turned out to be a tumor in her uvula, Simonds said.
The cancer was caught early, and Kylie had surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital to remove it, Simonds said.
She has undergone a month of radiation and is now in the middle of 40 weeks of chemotherapy, Simonds said.
“It was a blessing that she had tonsillitis,” Simonds said.
Chemotherapy costs $1,400 a month and Simonds’ insurance only covers 70 percent of it, he said.
There are other bills that insurance doesn’t cover, such as a $10,000 custom-made mouthpiece that Kylie had to wear during radiation, Simonds said.
Family members said Sunday’s fundraiser, in conjunction with “Courage for Kylie” rubber bracelet sales and individual donations, has given them a boost.
Adam Grella, 27, of Wallingford, raised an additional $270 from people who sponsored him to have his hair and beard shaved on the Green.
Kylie’s mother, 33-year-old Kelly Simonds, said the festival’s success left her speechless.
“I don’t know how to thank people enough for their generosity,” Simonds said. “It just amazes me.”
Kylie, in line for a snow cone at the festival, said she was having fun and especially enjoyed the bounce house.
“She’s doing well,” Kelly Simonds said. “She’s a trooper.”
AP-WF-06-29-11 1332GMT
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2011 Independence Day Celebrations
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Photographer Chris Reilley was tired of seeing the same faces at gallery opening after gallery opening in the area. Local artists were only being seen by the same individuals, their works only being bought and paid for out of the same wallets.
Meanwhile, he said, the general public still buys mass-produced artworks from big chain craft and home decor stores to decorate their walls at home.
So in the beginning of May, Reilley launched QueenCityPrints.com, a website devoted to making artworks and prints by local artists easily accessible to the general public.
“A lot of people, instead of looking for local art, they’ll go to Bed Bath and Beyond,” Reilley explained. “I’d eventually like for QueenCityPrints.com to be the place people go to to find art.”
Reilley said he started brainstorming the website two years ago as a way to sell his own photographic prints. He didn’t like the fact that there wasn’t an easy way for people to browse local artists’ works in one place.
“I was looking for pieces for my house, driving all over the place and I thought (a website) might be much more convenient for people who might not want to spend their Friday evening at a gallery opening,” Reilley said.
The benefit, he said, is to two-fold: Local artists are exposed and will receive support from the community, while the community can decorate their homes with unique pieces at an affordable price.
Not everyone can spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on an original piece of art, and that’s something Reilley says he understands. QueenCityPrints.com offers individuals the ability to buy that original artwork or a museum-quality duplicate print at a lower rate.
But first, he had to find some artists.
The University at Buffalo graduate, whose day job is graphic design for the Reilley Group, started pouring over notices in the papers around town to find gallery openings. Reilley wanted to hand-pick the artists whose works would appear on QueenCityPrints.com.
“The goal was to create a place where people can browse all different styles, different media and different price points,” Reilley said. “I tried to keep everything diversified as far as artist style.”
QueenCityPrints.com currently features the works of 11 local artists, although Reilley plans on including more in the future.
“Best case scenario, I’d like, throughout the years, to grow and represent a lot of artists (and) maybe even open up a storefront somewhere,” Reilley said.
QueenCityPrints.com is up and running online, but is also available on Twitter and Facebook by simply searching the name “Queen City Prints.”
Contact features editor Danielle Haynes at 693-1000, ext. 116.
Category:
- Home Garden
Places:
- Paris (70)
- France (191)
In France, you’ll see window boxes stuffed with cascading blooms and gates dressed in wisteria, roses and other flowering vines. (SHNS photo courtesy Nell Hill’s)
Since opening Nell Hill’s 30 years ago, I’ve had so much fun growing the stores and working with so many amazing customers that I’ve hardly taken a day off, let alone gone on vacation. So in May, I did something completely radical for me. I packed my bags and ran off to France! During my magical time in the Aquitaine region of southwestern France, I learned some invaluable things that will influence the way I decorate, and the way I live.
Most of you probably already have this one mastered. But for me, it’s been a hard lesson to learn. I love my job and draw energy from being with people at the store all day. But even though I find work exhilarating, sometimes going 100 miles an hour, seven days a week, can wear you down. (I know what you’re probably saying right now: Duh, Mary Carol!)
My husband, Dan, gets it. He works hard running the business side of Nell Hill’s. But he is also great about setting aside time each year to travel, exploring new places, learning about its people and their heritage.
Usually when Dan asks me to go with him on his journeys, I say no. There’s always too much to do at the stores to take time off. But this year, I decided to give myself an anniversary gift: I took a week of vacation for each decade Nell Hill’s has been in business and went with him. Our trip was an amazing one, not just because of the drop-dead-gorgeous scenery, the fantastic food and wine, and the opportunity to experience such a rich culture. It was amazing simply because it gave me a chance to stop and replenish and spend time with someone I love.
Make it a goal to take time off this year, whether it’s going abroad or a stay-cation in your own town. Escape your daily grind, restore your soul and revel in those you love most. Life is fleeting, so stop and smell the roses.
After a quick stopover in Paris, we settled into a darling farmhouse in Fumel, taking day trips to picturesque towns like Biarritz and Montinac. Each place we stopped, I enjoyed seeing how the French use color in their daily decorating, whether it was a muted palette of neutrals or an adventurous mix of bold hues.
The home-decor shops were showing a very modern, sleek, sophisticated style that revolved around the hip color “grange,” which is a cross between gray and taupe. Similarly, the farmhouse we rented was decorated in pure white. The owners of the cottage, reflecting a hot trend among France’s younger decorators, painted nearly everything in the home white, from the walls to the antique furnishings. At first, I found this pure palette refreshing. But after a few weeks, I was craving color.
In sharp contrast, many of the homes, hotels and chateaus we visited embraced an adventurous use of color. We ate dinner one night in a crusty old chateau where the decorating was as memorable as the roast duck we enjoyed for dinner. In one seating areas, the formal chairs were upholstered in a rich burgundy velvet and piped in a playful lavender — two colors I would never have recommended putting together. Yet it worked. And so did the peppy parrot-green ottomans tucked up at the foot of each chair. I think it’s wacky yet wonderful color combinations like these that made so many of the elegant rooms we viewed feel warm and inviting, not stiff and off-putting.
When you live in an older home, like I do, it seems like something is always in need of repair. You finally get one project ticked off the list, then have to add 10 more in the constant quest to keep your aging dwelling looking fresh and new.
But on vacation, I noticed that the French didn’t seem overly obsessed with the upkeep of their older homes. They seemed to be at peace with the imperfections in the buildings and gardens around them, knowing these quirks gave their dwellings more personality and character.
I left my time in the French countryside resolved to not get so uptight every time something breaks or goes wrong with my 140-year-old home. I am determined not to fret over every episode of peeling paint, every loose cobblestone or dripping faucet, knowing that these things help make my home unique.
During our visit, we saw all sorts of gardens. But my favorites, bar none, were the window boxes stuffed full of cascading blooms and the gates dressed in flowering vines, like wisteria and roses. Picture-postcard perfect, these little vignettes weren’t complicated — sometimes they just featured a few pots of red geraniums — but they were so romantic that they changed the look and feel of the homes they accented.
Years ago, when we converted our backyard into a walled courtyard, I planned to enclose the area with an antique or replica iron gate. I never got to it. But now, installing a romantic gate at the entrance of my garden is at the top of my list. I can’t wait to replicate some of the treatments I saw in France, decorating the gate with a grape vine, wisteria or climbing rose.
While I wait for my gate to become a reality, I found one garden look in France that I’m going to do right away: Plant smaller garden urns with a mix of succulents, like hen and chicks. I’m going to find two shorter iron urns at Nell Hill’s, fill them with succulents and place them atop the pillars that stand on either side of my garden.
(The column has been adapted from Mary Carol Garrity’s blog at http://www.nellhills.com. She can be reached at marycarol(at)nellhills.com.)
STYLE AT HOME
Wall decals quickly have become the fast food of home decorating. Inexpensive and easy to install, these peel-and-stick pieces of vinyl are popping up on walls in every room of the house.
From pithy sayings and motivational phrases to bold graphics and even wall-size murals, decals come in every shape and size.
The convenience is obvious: They add a dash of color and graphic punch with practically no commitment. Bored with one? Peel it off and move it elsewhere. Or, assuming it cost you only a few dollars, throw it away when you’re ready for something new.
Do decals pass the style test? We asked three designers for the scoop on how, where and whether to decorate with this new generation of decals.
“Those old-fashioned, ‘Home Is Where the Heart Is’ kind of sayings in that script, I think those are a little cheesy,” says designer and TV host Sabrina Soto, a guest designer on HGTV’s new series “HGTV’d.”
Still, Soto, Betsy Burnham of Los Angeles’ Burnham Design and Brian Patrick Flynn of decordemon.com all agree there are ways decals can work well especially if they are used with a dose of irony and humor.
“For the right person, and it’s usually a young person, I have no problem with any of this. I think it’s decorative, it’s whimsical, it’s kitsch,” Burnham says. “But I’m going to be the devil’s advocate here and say I don’t want it in my clients’ living rooms.”
In traditionally decorated homes, decals can look tacky. But in homes decorated with a modern sensibility, decals definitely have their place.
Small spaces
In a spare room or an awkward space that is difficult to decorate, try a single, graphic image decal.
“It gives depth to a room and gives some interest to the architecture,” Burnham says.
Many retailers offer black silhouettes depicting things like
lamps or chandeliers that add interest to an otherwise blank wall. (Just remember, Soto says, that adding a lighting fixture like this does not actually add any light to the room.)
In small bedrooms, a headboard decal is “a great way to have fun without taking up any space,” Soto says.
Decals also can depict chairs or other furniture.”Having one object like that is kind of cool, especially if you have a space in a room that you just don’t know what to do with,” Soto explains. “It’s kind of the same thing as wallpapering an accent wall. This is just a lot easier.”
Cook kids rooms
If you avoid the licensed-character decals depicting popular cartoon characters, you actually can bring some style and sophistication to kids’ rooms with decals.
Try oversize images of the outdoors (Target.com offers a wall-size close-up of a patch of bamboo) or letters and words (but not those excessively heartwarming ones).
To evoke cartoons without putting actual cartoon characters on the walls, Scribbleoneverything.com offers words like “Bam,” “Pow” and “Kaboom!!!” in decal form. They also offer customized “thought bubbles” that can be printed to say anything you can dream up.
Dorms, apartments
Decals are “excellent for dorms because they’re trendy in spaces where you can’t actually paint anyway,” Flynn says.
With little expense, young adults with rental homes can get creative with images and colors. Their options for indulging in irony and sarcasm are endless (those customizable thought bubbles mentioned above are just one example). And if short attention spans prevail, it’s simple to move designs around the space as often as you wish.
“In rental spaces,” Burnham says, “it’s such a better idea than having to paint and then paint it back” again before you move out.
The upcoming Atlanta International Gift Home Furnishings Market will be featuring one of the world’s largest, most integrated selections of holiday, floral and home decor products. More than 90 percent of the major holiday/floral companies will exhibit in the product center on Floors 16-20 in Building 1. In addition to florals and holiday, exhibitors will be offering expanded collections of products from weddings, birthdays, spring parties, showers, bar and bat mitzvahs, graduations, St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween, Easter and more. A series of feature events will complement the holiday product offerings. They are: The market runs July 13-20, 2011, with the Temporaries taking place Friday, July 15 to Tuesday, July 19. For more information visit www.americasmart.com.