The Interior DIYer

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Dear Martha

I’m a couple days late as I only saw your blogger slamming video yesterday morning. Before I start, for any of you – like me yesterday morning – that have yet to see Martha’s unsavoury statement and wanna know what my impending rant is in regards to, this is what Martha Stewart recently said during an interview –

“I do have a minor gripe about that too {social media} because who are these bloggers? They’re not trained editors at Vogue magazine. I mean there are bloggers writing recipes that aren’t tested, that aren’t necessarily very good or are copies of everything that really good editors have created and done. So, bloggers create … uh … kind of a … uh … popularity. But they are not the experts and we have to understand that.“

Oh Martha, where do I start? You let your verbal diarrhea get the better of you. Allow me to compare what you said to that of a school teacher. You’re at your desk in class when your teacher all of a sudden not only fails you, but stands up on his or her desk, points and ridicules you in front of the entire class. That’s what your statement does, Martha. You made bloggers feel unimportant and wrong for no reason whatsoever. We thought you got our backs.

But I do feel sympathetic towards you Martha, I really do. You don’t know what it’s like to have a blog. You have a writhing team of people to do it for you. You have an indisposable amount of photographers, stylists, editors, writers, designers, and coders. Us bloggers however, are the stylists. We are the photographers, the editors, the writers, the Photoshoppers. We mindlessly arrange and rearrange a space to get a photo to look just right. We are hunched over our computers in our pyjamas with no bra on, Googling code with needy cats on our laps, endlessly editing our posts and tutorials.

Here’s a cute picture of my cat to break up all the text. 

May I ask you Martha, when you started your catering business, did you start off using someone else’s recipes? Albeit you maybe changed an ingredient here and there but as the legend of Martha Stewart goes, you started off baking cookies in your basement. I’m no expert when it comes to cookies, but I’d say there’s about 6 or 7 ingredients that go into a cookie, and chances are, your first cookies were a copy of someone else’s. I’m not placing the blame game here Martha, but if you’re going to go down that route, you best be taking a long hard look at yourself first. 
I’m not the only blogger to write about Martha’s statement this week. Most bloggers, like myself, can barely keep their hands still over the vast amount of expletives they’re shouting at their computer screens. Some bloggers chose to write about how Martha in fact supports bloggers, but to that I say Martha’s brand supports bloggers. She sure doesn’t sound like she likes them. She even kinda backhandedly apologized on Twitter. 

The thing that gets to me the most Martha is that if you were starting off now – you and your homemade cookies in your basement – you would have started a blog about them. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve always been in awe at your creations, creativity and what you’ve achieved from such humble beginnings. But for now, that open wound needs to scab over.

p.s. As more bloggers have stepped forward and voiced their opinion, Holly Becker of decor8’s post inspired me the most. After my blood pressure resumes, I’m hoping to do as Holly says, and take it as constructive criticism {not that I consider myself an expert in the first place}.

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New project – Localise youth room at Sophia House

I’m tore up from the floor up excited to share with you today a new project I’ve been co-piloting. Emily approached me last week about a project that was sent her way. Derek of Localise got in contact in regards to a room they were looking to redesign in Sophia House for the local teens. Emily asked if I’d like to jump on board and I think I answered her before she finished typing her sentence. For a much more detailed insight into the workings behind and how Emily was approached for this great project, you can read more on Emily’s post here. 
To give you an idea, here are some shots of the space as it is now. It used to consist of 4 rooms – a very small hallway {you can still see the outline in the lino}, two offices, and the boiler room which will remain …

The space is much bigger than I was anticipating, which was the cherry on top. It’s a really bright space, and for the days {like today} when it’s not so nice out, the overhead lighting is warm and inviting and not your typical florescents. We had the opportunity to sit down and get input from the teens who would be using the room, and I’d like to say my mind was blown. Some of their ideas were amazing – multi-functional furniture, well defined areas, interactive walls and even somewhere to do homework. When I was their age, I wanted to kill homework with fire. And on that subject, one of the guys noted a first aid kit should be included in the room too. I’m horrified to admit I was nowhere as tuned in at their age. 
So off Emily and I went with our heads in the clouds. We started a private group board on Pinterest which was a big help as we could see what route the other was going down. Here are a couple of the images that inspired us the most …

Inspiration image cred 1, 2, and 3. 

We were on a very tight turn around and had less than a week to send in our design proposal. We put a plan in place and divided the room into 3 sections – homework, games and TV. Here is the very rough initial plan we came up with … 

I whisked up some visuals to go along with the plans, and this is what we sent off bright and early yesterday morning as part of our design proposal. Did I mention they were rough images? Please do not make judgement on my skills …

That last image for the games section is to represent a geometric wall treatment in the corner of the room that dissolves into the surrounding white walls. I’m not sure how well I depicted it though. Just goes to show what a brain at 2am thinks is a good way to depict a corner. But it must have worked, as we got their feedback and not only do they love it, they couldn’t fault any of our ideas or designs! I cannot wait to start, and have a couple of DIY projects in mind that I’m hoping to work on with some of the teens. Also – writing the word ‘teen’ makes me feel really old. Am I the only one who still thinks I’m 18? 
This project has a very tight turn around and the official opening is November 9th. Slight eek, but we can handle it. I hope. I also have a couple sneaky projects lined up between now and then, so the next couple of weeks will be chock-a-block. Not to mention tonight is the second Lifestyle Blogger Meetup as organized by the guru herself, so for the local bloggers out there, I do hope to see you later! I apologize in advance if I make awkward conversation or my potty mouth gets the better of me. 

xx A

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One year in

To add to my ongoing love affair with autumn, this year, October is extra special. Exactly one year ago today, husband and I tied the knot. Neither of us can believe a year has already passed, and we’re still weirdly in disbelief. Tonight we’re heading back to Dunboyne Castle where we got married, and spending a romantic evening drinking lots of wine. I took a trip yesterday and got my hands on some of our wedding cake especially for today. You see, we didn’t get a hugely ornate cake for our wedding. We both adore carrot cake, so we ordered a massive cake from Manning’s Bakery {Homer drool sound}. So whenever we want, we can sneak to our local bakery and pick up a slice or two. Or four slices. And then accidentally eat two slices for breakfast and tell your husband you only bought two slices like what I’m going to have to do today. Oops.
For our first anniversary we stuck to the tradition of paper. Well, I did at least. I got husband tickets to one of our favourite comedians, and a card too. However, it took me about 45 minutes to write on it because I was crying so hard {good tears}. I closely resembled Alice Cooper by the time I finished writing. 
I’m always interested to hear other people’s traditions, so all the lovey couples out there – do you have your own anniversary traditions? And do you follow the ‘wedding anniversary rules‘? xx A