austin Charles Benton's Profile

i think all forms of gift registry are tacky and have an air of desperation for attention in them. that is why i refuse to give gifts when a registry is presented to me.

so wonderfully luxurious and charmingly bohemian (in the real sense)

the house i grew up in in connecticut was dismantled in my freshman year of college due to a country club expansion, and the fact that my family, which had been in the house since the 1840's and was a distant relatives prior to that was very difficult for me. the house was historic, so it couldn't be torn down. the original owner was the first graduate of yale back when it was yale college in old saybrook, connecticut. it took a crew about 4 weeks to take almost three hundred years of memories apart. when i dream at night, it is usually set in that house. i long to see the faded 100 year old wallpaper in my old bedroom and see how the light moves through the old draperies. i had national geographics stacked in the corners of the room that were my great uncle paul's as it used to be his room. the furniture and bed were all his back in the 1930's and it was always referred to by my family as uncle paul's bedroom even though i spent most of my childhood in that room. there was a large hemlock tree with a crows nest right outside my window and a secret floorboard that popped up revealing an ancient hiding space. it was actually left over from when the family put electricity in it, but my great uncle paul and i both used it to hide things three generations apart. i know i'll never get it back, and it is so sad to see it gone when i drive through town, but my childhood there will always be filled with memories of ghosts, mustiness and magic.

the books on my floor are not a design aesthetic. they are there because i ran out of shelf space and are awaiting new shelves for them to move too. books on the floor are dust magnets.

reminds me of "temple of doom"

looks like the installer did a really BEAUTIFUL job levelling the floors before putting down ceramic tile. contractors... *sigh*

I agree with mirandabee, i live in philadelphia and often take long walks in the winter to get some fresh air and clean my head, i usually take my clippers with me and take clippings of whatever greenery or native grass that i can find. i call them my little house on the prairie bouquets. i find taking long walks out of doors in the winter really helps with the cabin fever of winter in a bleak town like philadelphia.

all of this is well and good, but i think that most of us here on Apartmenttherapy have better taste than some hgtv devry graduate "desigher" 99% of what i see on HGTV makes me want to kill... it's so goddamned cutesy wootsey with the fake laughs and the snappy one liners. alot of those shows are probably geared to the des moines housewives who just adore tuscan style..

wow. now it looks like it belongs in florida.

i have that ikea trash can. i bought it in white and did a little switcheroo with a red lid. looks awesome. and the best part was the self checkout!