The WarLock Wedding: Seating Arrangements

My family can attest to fact that on each of our wedding venue tours, I asked one question...

"Can we bring in different chairs?"

I suppose it won't surprise my readers that my dare-to-dream wedding fantasies have centered around furniture. I envision an autumn evening, dark flowers, flickering candlelight, and a room full of graceful golden chairs.

Where slipcovered conference chairs merely add bulk, these chairs are an airy complement to my elegant (and slightly gothic) theme. However, Chiavari chairs can be an expensive rental- and I'd never choose chairs over the guests sitting in them!

Doesn't it seem fateful, then, that the venue we've selected already has hundreds of gold chiavari chairs at the ready? Meant to be!

PS: For those of you wondering, "WarLock" is a combination of our last names (Adam Wargacki & Elizabeth Lockhart). In my opinion, it's another thing that's meant to be, but for some crazy reason Adam seems reluctant to use WarLock as our married name...

My Fall Wish List

Berkeley's November has alternated between warm rainy days and clear chilly days. I can't decide which I've enjoyed more- snuggling up and staying in, or venturing out to splash around town!

"Squirrel Love" Print by Mike Geno, The Nigel Chair from Jayson Home & Garden, and Michael Kors Stormy Boots in "Fatigue"

All that's missing is a stack of new books and a mug of spicy apple cinnamon tea...

D-I-Whyyyyyyyyy!

Here's a pet peeve for you: when a weekend project stretches into a Monday project.

Consider this a PSA to all you DIYers out there. Having run out of my go-to aerosol paint stripper, my enthusiastically green local hardware store guilted me into trying Ready Strip. The label states that the product takes at least 30 minutes to be effective, but I figured I was better off killing time than braincells. Ha! Let's see if I can reenact the process for you.

30 minutes after application: Is it ready to strip? Hmm. No.

1 hour: Ready? No.

4 hours: No.

8... 12... 24: No, no, NO!

Hour after hour, this useless goop just sat on top of the paint. When I finally got frustrated with all of the pointless scraping and reapplication, I gave up- only to find that cleaning up this disgustingly sticky mess would take another hour of scrubbing. Now I've got a patchy chair and a whole lot of aggression (though I guess that might help with the sanding process).

What a disaster! Anyone else have a DIY-Gone-Wrong to share?

The One That Got Away

I found the perfect green velvet chair for $30 on Craig's List...

Envision it with a limed wood trim and a ruffly pillow.

And I missed it!  Nooooooooooo!

Life at the WarLock House

Another mellow morning in Berkeley. It's gray and chilly today, so I'm lingering over a second cup of hot tea before I venture outside. This afternoon's errands will have me zig-zagging all over town, so I'm sipping extra slowly...

Tildy is savoring some quiet time as well, lounging on her favorite chair in my newly-lavender dining nook.

Poor Matilda. Her moments of peace are always brief thanks to the pesky new kitten.