COTE DE TEXAS: My First Apartment and Other Hysterical Jokes

My First Apartment and Other Hysterical Jokes

 

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This week’s The Skirted Roundtable discusses the demise of Metropolitan Home and design magazines in general.  We also talk about their last cover picture with very differing opinions.   Metropolitan Home had a long, successful run, first starting out as Apartment Life in the early 70’s – a magazine I read religiously as I was an apartment dweller myself.  Aw, what great memories of my first apartment after college where I lived alone.    I stayed there for about 7 or 8 years – until I moved uptown into a condo with gorgeous slate floors.   I loved that condo – too bad I can’t say the same about my first apartment:

 

 

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Stop laughing!    OK – pick yourself up off the floor now.  Here’s my first apartment as a young, single, working woman in Houston during the late 70s – over 30 years ago.   Isn’t it just so pretty?   In the living room,   I floated two white love seats – upholstered in some type of textured acrylic fabric – no slipcovers back then.  What gorgeous pink and green pillows those are!   Oy.   The coffee table is actually nice and was a hand me down from my parents.   On the left is an antique French buffet that was bought for my older sister’s first married apartment and was another hand me down.  I’m not sure whatever happened to that piece, it was most likely sold somewhere along the way, I suppose.   The carpet is rather beautiful, no?   Typical apartment beige variety  - certainly not wall to wall seagrass.  Please be sure to notice the wonderful window treatments – Aunt Poly and Aunt Esther creamy lace, I’m sure!   I’m especially loving the lone cactus.  In the corner hiding behind a fugly wicker screen was a white metal shelf unit that held my record albums – all neatly stored inside individual plastic wrappers that I would buy by the dozens.  Those albums were my prized possessions at the time.  At some point, the shelf unit moved across the room – to a better spot, much less conspicuous – as if it mattered.    Back then, storing bulky albums was really a decorating dilemma somewhat like hiding huge televisions used to be before the flat screen came out.   

Phew! What a stinker!   And to think that I actually thought this apartment was cute!!!!   I still have a few accessories from this picture – the Baccarat cigarette holder (the ashtray was lost somewhere) and the antique pink candy jar sitting on top of the buffet are both in my house today.  The pink jar is from England and came from my mother’s antique shop, “The Attic.”    In the dining room, I had a skirted table, yes – my love of skirted tables go way back.   My bedroom was painted blue and was a vision in more white lace with a faux canopy.    There was yet another skirted table in my bedroom between two chairs that sat in front of  the “bay” window.   Hard to believe I was a budding interior designer – maybe that’s why I took a detour and worked as a secretary until I finally found someone to marry me at the tender age of 33!   No wonder why I read Apartment Life religiously – I certainly needed some tips.

 

 

The Skirted  Roundtable

 

This week’s Skirted Roundtable is ready for listening HERE.    Our next program will be the last of just Megan, Linda, and me for a while – we have some fabulous guests scheduled in the upcoming weeks and you will love them, I guarantee!  But – if you prefer hearing the three of us alone – now’s your chance.  

 

And, please – don’t show this picture of my first apartment to anyone!  It’s quite embarrassing.  Just keep it between us, ok?

90 comments :

  1. i just love your sense of humor.... love it. x pam

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  2. Poor little apartment. We are so hard on our former selves. I'm sure you had some very happy days there!!

    xo Terri

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  3. I bet your buddies oohed and ahhhd over your sophisticated tastes while you basked in the glory! I bet if I showed this pic to some of my relatives they would think this was very "posh". Your blog is a blast and I never miss a post, thank you.

    xx Lyn

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  4. you should have entered this in velvet and linens contest as a joke:)

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  5. I wonder why you took pictures of the apartment without people!!! Back then we always took pictures of someone, mostly stuck in the middle of the frame. Could it be because you were already scrutinizing interior decor as you do now? could it be because you wanted the place to be published? could it be because you were an interior decorator at heart then? even if not knowing exactly what to do with it? Could it be all of the above?
    We should have a contest on the worst past decor we were able to achieve!
    I have sympathy for the cactus...and what did you hide in those two drawers than could not be open separately???
    Too funny!

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  6. You are so funny and entertaining, haha! It's always funny to look at older decor and think to yourself, "how did I like that?" haha ..I do it to myself a lott :0)
    Love the skirted roundtable too! You ladies are great to listen to.

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  7. If only the walls could talk Joni.....xv

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  8. We all have to start somewhere :)
    Irene x

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  9. Oh...I love this!What a blast from the past! I remember that pillow fabric!

    And Dang, girl...you kept your albums in plastic sleeves??!

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  10. Joni, what a memory trip you launched! In my own apartment I had a great coffee table (hand me down), and a 'great skirted table' (actually a few crates topped with plywood) on which my TV rested! At that stage, in the toss-up between TV cabinet and outrageously expensive shoes... the shoes won! BUT you beat me (and everybody else I know) with that lone ranger cactus! You are a brave woman bearing all, thus I salute you!
    Thank you for keeping us entertained.

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  11. Joni, I think you are being way too hard on yourself. Late 70's, early 80's I would have thought your apartment was so lush! What I'm frightened of is how we will see what we love today... in 10 years time! BTW, most real estate listing interiors today, in my part of the world anyway, look like your apartment from the 70's. Am I safe saying that from this continent? A-M xx

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  12. You're so funny, Joni! I'm at that phase right now - my boyfriend and I have our first apartment together and it is full of hand me downs. Thanks for sharing the photo of your first place.

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  13. So fun to look back and see what we all used to think was great decorating. I am sure that a lot of what we love today will receive the same treatment in thirty years!

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  14. You've made me want to dig through the photos for pics of my first apt. We were married, 31 years ago yesterday, so about the same era.
    We had navy blue carpet(!), white Haitian cotton sofa and love seat with navy and rust accent pillows, an end table with foo legs and burled wood top, still have it and, as the backdrop to all that, lap and gap siding on the wall behind the sofa. Oh, I forget, a Sears steamer trunk, my mother made sure I had and 87 bajillion plastic parson's tables for the stereo and tv!

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  15. Hilarious!!! Our taste does evolve over years, does it not? I too was into freely lace, self upholstered sofas (self meaning I was my very own upholsterer..)
    We had Samantha Nestor book launch in my showroom last night and so many of my MetHome friends were there. It felt like a reunion party...

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  16. haha loved seeing this!!! the pillows are my favorite part ;) At first glance of the beige carpet I thought it was some beautiful tone-on-tone antique rug (because of all the different shading) & then looked closer & saw it was carpet!

    I posted my fist apt a while & it wasn't pretty either... (you have a btter excuse though.., it was the 70s- mine was only 5 yrs ago! eek)

    xoxo

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  17. Just listened to the round table. So interesting..here are a few of my thoughts. Met Home billed more revenues than Elle Decor and had a wider distribution, however, when it comes to choose between two magazines, Elle Decor is the original French brand and Hachette Filipacci could not favor a US brand Magazine against the International Elle Decors brand. I have worked with both magazines and they have extremely talented people with very different design points of view. With the loss of Met Home, the Modern Design World has lost its voice. At least we still have the french Residence Decoration...No need for translations, the pictures speak for themselves.I have had many projects published in Met Home, my last one was shot 10 days ago which was supposed to be for spring 2010 publications.My Tara space is featured in the very last issue , this December issue. Here is how it worked, I will let you figure out the budget as I feel it is not my place to do so but i can assure you it is on a string line. Linda O' Keeffe, my friend and editor arrives at 8:30 Am with Antoine Bootz , my favorite photographer and his assistant and myself. Antoine and Linda scout out the shots, the light. We style, move a few things around and shoot all day until we loose the light. As Antoine shoots, linda and I style the next shot, his assistant is working editing images on his laptop, works on the light etc... Long grueling day, perhaps half an hour break for a sandwich. Fun work, no frills, no glam. The next day, Linda is off on the next shoot... then Antoine and his assistant work with Linda on the shots before they go for layout.
    The workload for editors at both magazines if grueling but they work with such enthusiasm, incredible energy, and at night...off to the party circuit as they are sponsored events they need to go to.
    Last night, at the event in my showroom both members of Met Home and Elle Decor teams were there including the publisher, cheering samantha Nestor for the launch of her great book: Living with Wine...make sure to get a copy, it feature the most fabulous wine cellars...I will miss my friends from Met Home. Francine

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  18. That was so fun! Thanks for taking us down memory lane Joni.

    Best,
    Jaime

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  19. Please, I look back at some of the things I did years ago, and wonder what the heck I was thinking! Although, when you're starting out, sometimes you just have to deal with the hand-me-downs and make it work.

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  20. I love your first apartment! It was your home and gave you a place to build dreams, make plans, look ahead. I will never have enough time or money to have a picture perfect home. But the fact that I have a home makes me truly grateful. And I love your blog, it completely inspires me! -Diane

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  21. What fun! - but what's the back story of the doll by the needlepoint pillow? My first apartment in 1986 was rent controlled in Cambridge Ma - a whopping $235 a month to live a few blocks from Harvard Square. I remember a wall of plastic milk crates filled with albums! As always - your humor makes me laugh. Thanks! Michele

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  22. It just shows that home decoration is fashion! At the time you loved it enough to take a photo (pre-digital!). LOVED seeing this! Can't wait to hear the new installation :-)

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  23. Hi Joni
    On the subject of shelter magazines biting the dust here is my peeve. Once the check for the subscription is cashed it is disconcerting to say the least to wait for the magazine while gazing wistfully at the latest copy at the newstand! Also one immediately receives an email pleading for renewal even as the current issue has not appeared in one's mailbox.
    Marion

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  24. Honey! "Hand me downs"???? That is all we had in our apt. We were 19 and 20 when we got married so had NOTHING of our own. BUT, we spent an entire weekend "decorating" the apt. for .....are you ready..... $5.00!!!!! Yes, you read that right. We bought a few packages of Rit Dye and DYED everything we had (even had a slip cover). It was all browns and rusts. A hand me down picture for over the sofa was the color inspiration. Now we are talking 1967 here:):):). I have SUCH fond memories of the FUN Joe and I had that weekend. We also took some bamboo placemats, shaped them into fans and used straight pins to affix them to the wall then hung oriental pictures on top of them and LOVED it!!! Thanks so much for letting me go WAAAAAY back in time! XO, Pinky

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  25. Yes, I remember back in the day! When I was single I bought a (used) burgundy velvet sectional. My boyfriend (now husband) slept on it one night and said that he dreamed he was sleeping on a huge spine. Hence it was named "the spine". I guess the stuffing was a little worn out on those cushions!

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  26. Hi Joni,

    How lucky for you that you took the pictures and still have them. I wish I had taken pictures of our first place. I loved it because it reminds me so much of simpler times. Times I'm trying to get back too. Is that a little dolly on the loveseat? How cute.

    ~janet

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  27. As the saying goes Joni: You've come a long way baby.

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  28. Had a good laugh Joni. Fun post. I had those same big pillows but mine were pink and blue. I had the duck motif back then too.

    Ruthie

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  29. What was that hanging from the top drawer pulls? It's interesting to look back, see the items we carried forward. That said, you've come a long way, baby ( a phrase the over 50 set remembers, yes?). Trish

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  30. Your first apartment looks like a palace compared to mine, which was filled with hideous hand-me-down furniture from my family in lovely shades of rust and gold plaid. Ugh. I'm having flashbacks now...

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  31. You're so funny with your descriptions. ;) And it WAS cute and perfect and special because your first home sweet {apartment} home ALWAYS is! <3

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  32. Very funny Joni, and quite stylish for 30 years ago (the cactus is the best part :)

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  33. Oh it's not so bad! I WISH I had a picture of my first apartment. Yours puts it to shame! We're talking 80's vibe - overstuffed vinyl sofa, cheap Van Gogh prints (I thought I was so hip & modern!), plastic milk crates for bookshelves, console TV. You get the picture! We've come a long way baby!

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  34. Remember we all had places like that back then! So you were in good company. We'll probably look at the homes we have now thirty years from now and cringe. Oh, I hope now! I hate to see magazines go to the wayside. Just hate it.
    Brenda

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  35. That was a great read, and you're so brave to share the picture. :)

    My first apartment (Arlington, Tx) was in the late 80's. I decided it would be so clever to do a "theme" for each room. *gag*

    Living room: Southwestern. We got a cool sofa (wish I still had the Southwest print pillows) and I had the glass tables on plaster stands and the 'log' through the middle of them. Lots of Dreamcatchers, howling coyotes, fake cactus, etc.

    Kitchen: blue geese. Sigh. I had them everywhere. Complete with ribbons around their necks.

    Bedroom: my version of Victorian. Mauve and blue, lots of lace and frilly stuff.

    Wow! I thought it was so cool, so did my friends. My apartment was one big cliche.

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  36. My first apartment against the white walls was a blazing array of purple, orange and yellow with measures of red thrown in for "color." Hello, 1972! When date (now husband) came into my apartment, he had to adjust his eyes, "Wow! Now there's some color." he said. We still laugh about it. Perhaps it's because the big boy sat in my personally reupholstered director's chair (it was a quilted fabric with all of the above colors on a ground of navy blue) and ripped the fabric in half. It was my first experience with men having different requirements for comfort.

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  37. Did anyone notice that House Beautiful has cut from 12 months to 10 for the coming year? Scary as this is my favorite.

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  38. Oh get over yourself! At least you had a couch - we had two twin beds with king size pillows (4) that I used as "bolsters" to make a faux couch. We didn't have a proper couch (and then it was a plaid couch and love seat combo from Lack's - yes, I said LACK'S furniture in Bay City, our first Amoco location) until 2 years into our marriage. I think it would be fun to have a post where everyone sends in links to their first "adult" place (where they went to from their parent's house or their college digs) and a "now" photo. Such a before/after scenario would make most of us much more content with our lot in life, I'm sure.
    Shoot, I didn't even have any carpet, just these "ugly" wooden floors, back in 1976 when the huz and I set up housekeeping. So I bought (for $1 each) carpet samples and literally SEWED them together to make my "Joseph's Carpet of Many Colors" living room floor covering - and thought myself SO clever! I used tea towels stretched across a canvas to have "art" and felt myself fortunate to not have to resort to the old glass block and 2x4 planks for shelving as my parents gave me my childhood bedroom furniture which included chests of drawers with shelf units on top. My two twin beds became the "ooh, la, la" couches aforementioned.

    Good times. Good times. But I was proud of that little post-WWII era apartment, even though I laugh when I see photos of it now. It was a beginning - of much bigger things to come. And a much BIGGER love to grow into!

    Thanks for sharing! :)

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  39. I just got the new HB and congratulations on being named there!
    Much love,
    Olga~ Dancing Through Paris

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  40. What? No mention of the doll? Were you hoping that one would slide by unnoticed?

    You're such a crack up. Loved seeing your apartment. Can you believe that when I was 19 I thought it was a good idea to "decorate" the closet doors of my dorm room in two contrasting patterns of CONTACT PAPER??? Woo ooh, Apartment Therapy, where we you then?

    By the way, what is this mention of you and HB? Don't have the new issue yet.

    XO,
    Jacci in Ohio

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  41. Sorry for the double comment - but, I just scrolled back up and "studied" your apartment some more. Really, Joni, if this were your living room **now** and if you had about as much money as then, it wouldn't be too terribly hard to update with what's in the room. Replace the curtains and pillows with inexpensive ones from IKEA or Target. Paint the bamboo screen... maybe black? Slipcover the sofas in white (I think the shape of them would look fine today - the upholstery is the issue, not the form). Change out the accessories and you'd have a totally current space. I think even the coffee table could still look good if it were accessorized well. So, really, you made pretty good choices back then!

    Jacci

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  42. Jacci - you are always sweet, but truly - that apartment is horrid!!!!

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  43. Oh I get it! You were rockin' ruralist thing back then!
    Just kidding - your first place shows thought, love, and coordination.
    We all had first places that looked the same. Only some of us have not moved on like you have ha ha.
    I love you more than ever Joni.
    xo xo

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  44. My first place had a tiger over the sofa and dried flowers on the coffee table that was so cheap a baby could turn it over...I glad we grew up. lol

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  45. Fun post!! You know, everyone's tastes and budgets change. I loved seeing this!
    My first apartment in Dallas 10 years ago had matching tan chenille sofa and chair, with damask chenille pillows, hand-me-down TV armoire (the same one I painted recently for our guest room), and hand-me-down tables. It actually wasn't all that bad, just a lot of tan chenille and damask chenille. Oh, and cheap Target mission-style lamps.

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  46. What no Marimeko fabric stretched over a frame??? No macrame plant hangers??? Oh wait that was my apartment in 1976!!!!! Love your posts!!

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  47. So funny!! It's nice to know that even you once were slightly imperfect :-).

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  48. Love your sense of humor! Sure brought back the memories and I must have saved those old Apartment Life magazines for years. As the old saying goes "You've come a long way, baby!"

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  49. isn't it amazing how our taste evolves? I read Apartment Life, too and was amazingly modern with this atrocious circle inside a square brown and orange (I think) color way!!! Yuck. One thing I always detested was shag carpet (still do). Thanks for the fun.

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  50. LOVED seeing the picture of your first apartment!

    I wonder if any pictures exist of the apartment my friend Elizabeth and I shared when we graduated from SMU. It was pretty bare bones and definitely furnished with hand-me-down everything, but we were so proud of it! We cooked from this "cookbook" called "4-Ingredients-or-Less" that was a series of colored index cards on a metal ring. I can't fathom that we made much that was edible, but there wasn't much take-out then (and we couldn't have afforded it) and I was very thin!

    I, too, am curious about the doll on the sofa!

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  51. Joni,

    You should do stand-up, you are too funny.

    Actually, compared to my "groovy" style from way back when, yours was much more sophisticated!

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  52. It seems all those who came of age during the 70's can relate here, myself included. The only thing missing from your apartment would be the macrame plant hangers suspended from the ceilings and holding clay pots filled with house plants.

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  53. I love the coffee table... it is timeless, don't you think?

    Loved this post.

    xo,
    cristin

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  54. That is so funny!! Love it! I too have "decorating" photos of all my apartments/condos! I'm especially fond of the doll on your sofa;)!!
    In my Houston apt. I needed big art for over the sofa... no Ikea, PB, C&B's- so I bought two of the exact same framed flower print from Joske's (remember them?!) and hung them side by side. oh well, we all have to start somewhere!!
    Thanks for the memories!!
    j.

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  55. Great post...it is up there in the thanks for the memories category for sure!

    It's all flooding back as I read the comments...macrame plant hangers ha, I had the best!
    One of the main living room windows completely covered with them, my husband always swore a little soldier might pop out of the jungle they created.

    It would be fun to have readers send in their first living area with what they have today next to it...

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  56. Great post...it is up there in the thanks for the memories category for sure!

    It's all flooding back as I read the comments...macrame plant hangers ha, I had the best!
    One of the main living room windows completely covered with them, my husband always swore a little soldier might pop out of the jungle they created.

    It would be fun to have readers send in their first living area with what they have today next to it...

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  57. I love all your stories about your first apartment!!!!!!! Thank you - I am having so much fun reading about them all. Great memories!

    Joni

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  58. It was rather interesting for me to read the post. Thanx for it. I like such themes and everything connected to them. I definitely want to read a bit more soon.

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  59. Hi,
    Cote de Texas was mentioned on page 71 of House Beautiful (dec/jan 2010 issue). They have you as a go-to blog for "the ruralists" design forces.

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  60. Honestly...for a first apartment it's not that bad! At least it shows a sense of style. You can't help the era it was!
    I just did a post about seagrass on my new blog. Thanks to you I have become obsessed with the stuff!
    Christine

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  61. This is what makes you SO wonderful and relatable and likeable Joni! You are who you are and you are not afraid to expose it to the world! =)

    Our first apartment was WAY worse...we HAD no furniture...so we had A FURNISHED apartment for a short while...I always called it "the BROWN BOX". Our dining chairs looked like they came from a DENNY's or some such dive. They had PLEATHER seats for crying out loud! haha! And all I can remember is that everything else was SOME shade of BROWN. HOrrendous! I "made" my first set of window treatments on our living room window there with random fabric from the clearance section of some store. But I was SO proud of those window treatments!!hah!

    Good times. Totally makes me cringe to think about it though!!ICK!

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  62. Hi Joni, Lets face it you would not do the same decorating now, but back then I think you did pretty well. You had two MATCHING loveseats, who ever had matching anything in their first apartment??!!! My first apt was furnished very badly. Having no money I made curtains out of white sheets for my kitchen, cut daisies out of contact paper and put them randomly on the front of the stained refrig I even cut out little polka dots to place randomly. Oh I forgot the curtains had ball fringe to go with the polka dots. Lets face it we were just happy to be married and have a place of our own. Sweet memories, Kathysue

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  63. I moved in to my first apartment by myself in 1986. I was able to buy the off white sofa and loveseat, yep both in a tiny apartment, that I so wanted. But, that was it. No artwork, accessories, etc. The only coffee table I had was a very cheap wicker one and the matching etegere' which I carried through the mall all by myself and forced them to fit in my tiny car. That tells you how cheap they were if I could carry both pieces by myself. Then I hung a lovely blue, white, and yellow duck/goose border in my tiny dining area. Oh yeah, I bought matching sheets at Target for my bedroom. Geese were all the rage back then, or so I thought. As awful as it all sounds now, there is nothing like your first apartment. Thanks for the post!

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  64. Cain't wait to listen :) Also so glad to see TY Larkins home featured in the new House Beautiful. The pictures are amazing! Another great self-taught designer.

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  65. Oh the cactus!
    Too many one liners are running through my head! Actually... it reminds me a little of Mary Richards' place! Or, maybe Rhoda's.
    Loved this!

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  66. My, my . . . you certainly have a different look today. ha. (but, then again, didn't we all? I was such a minimalist back in my day...I got into black and white with color abstracts (prints, of course), then I kept being drawn to a friend's cozy traditional place....I started liking a little clutter.) Love your memory stories!! If you like, plz check out my giveaway and play! see ya, -susan

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  67. Joni, your first apartment WAS cute! I see the talent even then -so clever - hiding your record albums behind the screen! I bet not many people had such a stylishly decorated first apartment. laurie

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  68. * Joni-girl~

    It can be soooo fun looking back NOW & laugh (or be horrified!) at how we all "started out"~~~ & we can all certainly enjoy comparing to how far we have come!

    ... Buuuuut, I'll tell you girlfriend, we didn't have a POT to PEE in (we were "babies"!)& Jim was leaving for VietNam (3 months after our wedding). When he DID (thankfully!) return, we were STILL poor as church mice, but I HAD managed to save enough to buy him the "welcome home present" he said he wanted~ his first Rolex. Annnd, I'd saved enough for a big down payment on our first Porsche (Hey, we're from California ya know, & it was the late 60's!)...

    (Annnd, I haven't SAVED a penny SINCE...Ha, no joke, but that's been HIS job all these years now).

    And the truth is, those days WERE FANTASTIC TIMES, weren't they? I mean, REALLLLLY, weren't they?!?!?!I wouldn't trade even ONE of THOSE DAYS for ANYTHING on earth!!!

    I think it also made US... may I say the MAJORITY of all of us YOUNGER newlyweds... appreciate each OTHER so much, annnnd now what we HAVE achieved thru the years.

    Sorry to get serious there for a minute, but I haven't really THOUGHT about all that for quite some time, & it has put a BIG SMILE on my face right now!!! (In fact, I think I'll go give Mr. Wonderful a big hug right now "just cuz"!)~

    Soooo, THANKS, Sweetie!
    Love,
    Linda in AZ*

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  69. P.S. I STILL LOVVVVE SKIRTED ROUND TABLES... (and "yours" TOO, GF!!! XO)

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  70. * Just went to give DH that "big hug", & we were smiling/laughing... then he asked me if I remembered to mention that OUR FIRST PLACE was: a "converted garage" in NC, one bedroom, fully-furnished (w/ W&D, but of course, they didn't WORK!), all utilities paid at $65/month... can anybody beat THAT deal??? (OH, and it has a SPARE REFRIGERATOR... on the front screened in porch, no less!)... (Annnnd, I was sooo in love I didn't even CRY when I first SAW it~ just worried that my FOLKS might visit... thank goodness, they didn't!)~ Thanks again!!!

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  71. Joni,I do have to agree with you that your first place is laughable. In a nice way. But all those details just reflect where you were in your life on an evolutionary scale. :)

    My first apt was actually a large room in a sadly run-down townhouse on Beacon Hill in Boston back in the 1970ies. The architecture was fabulous--tall ceilings, working fireplace, tall narrow windows and the 4th floor view of the Charles River was to die for.

    Unfortunately the furniture was horrific. I had no idea what design was. I did try to paper one wall with this hideous brown wallpaper and someone pointed out that I hadn't even matched the pattern. Ouch.

    What I could do with that room now.

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  72. Joni... fugly? Is that sort of like bugly? ;-)

    That is a cute antique dish on top of our bar. You did not comment on the fact that you obviously coordinated the pink pillow colors to match it. You get brownie points for that and for the repition of the two white loveseats (fabric can be changed!).

    I am from the days or record albums, too. Oh, I remember well! :-) And I made a screen I still have out of botanical wrapping paper and particle board. People thought it was an antique. Now, it is! ;-)

    XO,

    Sheila

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  73. On top of "your" bar. Sorry, it sounded like I was using the royal "our". ;-)

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  74. My parents had that exact loveseat, and the matching sofa in our living room in the late 70s! By the early 90s, the loveseat found its way to my college apartment in Santa Barbara. Thanks for bringing back some memories! Great post!

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  75. So, Joni - how about showing a photo of how you looke dwhilst living here? :) Joni at 22. We'd all LOVE it! Big time readership - guaranteed.

    I bet you looked just like your beautiful daughter!

    Jacci

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  76. Those chairs on the cover of the magazine look like they all have to get in the bathroom. Just saying.

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  77. Our styles all evolve. You have to start somewhere to know what works for you and what doesn't. Look where the journey brought you ... a GREAT sense of style.

    ReplyDelete
  78. I would never imagine this was your apartment. funny.


    P.S I gave you the Honest Scrap Award. If you've done it already let me know so I give it to someone else.

    ReplyDelete
  79. Joni, your first apt. looks like a palace compared to my first one in married student housing. I don't see bookshelves made of boards and concrete block! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  80. Who knew having such great style is hereditary. Your daughter tres stylish just like you! What a beautiful family you have. Thanks for the tour of Austin Zen country too. I live 5 minutes from the Four Seasons, and am always tempted to stay there even though it's so close to home haha.

    ReplyDelete
  81. [url=http://tinyurl.com/y9qxher][img]http://i069.radikal.ru/1001/35/75e72b218708.jpg[/img][/url]



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