design blog

FLORALS FLORALS FLORALS!

2009-06-19T10:05:00.002-05:00

As we told you earlier in the year, we are wanting to be THE floral destination in Central Kentucky. And with that in mind, we have supplied ourselves with 1000's of floral stems, all of which are the best (you know that) and great prices (you know that as well).

We've been so busy with floral arrangements. It appears as though that statement of "if you build (have) it, they will come" is true! We knew we were taking a chance on this, but believed in our hearts that this was a true need in our area. And we're seeing that we were right. It appears that many of you out there are tired of those dated florals, you know....the ones that look like they were on the set of "Mama's Family"!

A number of florals lately, we've been able to salvage some of the stems and actually use them again. Of course, if it's ugly, it's ugly, and if it needs to be trashed, it needs to be trashed, but you know that we will work with you!

To say something about the recent arrangements we've made....many people got more than one done. They just wanted a fresh start with all of it, and the great thing is because of our prices...they were able to affored 2 arrangements for the price that they might spend at somewhere else in the city!

So come and see us and the florals that we have. Bring your own container, paint swatches, fabrics, old arrangements, pictures...whatever you want...let us create something beautiful for you!

Hope to see you!

J

FURNITURE!

2009-06-19T09:59:00.002-05:00

So for those of you that have been lately, you've seen our slip covered parson chairs, bar stools, and ottomans, all of which are amazing, well priced, 3 day turn around, and do not look anything like a slip cover. Well, what many of you haven't seen is our new upholstered furniture.

That's right...we're carrying sofas, chairs, chaise, ottomans, and etc. And what's the best thing about them, it's our own line! We have searched to find the best pieces and fabrics, and are providing our selection to you here. We don't exactly have a name for it yet, so look forward to hearing more about that. At this moment, I believe we have 3 sofa's out on the floor, and maybe 6 chairs? We have a catalogue for you to look through for styles, and many fabrics to choose from. We're very excited! Even though we haven't had it long, we've already taken orders!~

So come on down and see us!@ See what we have to offer....I'm trying to decide on a sofa for me as we speak!

J

I MISS VACAY!

2009-06-19T09:53:00.002-05:00

I know I told many of you that Jeremy and I were going on vacation again in May, well obviously that has come and gone...and I miss the boat and ocean! We had a great time visiting Half Moon Cay, St Thomas, San Juan, and Grand Turk.

There were so many amazing things we got to see, Megan's Beach in St Thomas (ranked in the top 10 beaches in the world), the architecture and beauty of Old San Juan, and the snorkeling in Grand Turk. Last year, Jeremy and I went snorkeling in Honduras and had a blast, so when we heard that the snorkeling here was amazing and ranked 3rd in the world, we knew we had to do it.

It was simply amazing. They took us to two places, the first the ocean was at about 40' deep, it was so beautiful, the fish and coral was surreal. The second places was at the drop off where the reef meets the deep ocean....so you were floating above the sea floor which was about 40' down, and then you say this drop off...which went to 7000' feet! it was amazing. Seeing all of the fish which just stayed right there. Jeremy say a sea turtle although I missed it somehow. I know I saw a big fish waaaayyyyy down there, the leader on the tour said it was a nurse shark..but I don't know.... POINT IS...if you go to Grand Turk......PLEASE PLEASE go snorkeling..

I hope to have some pics up soon so you can see somethings, we had a great time! I just wish it would have lasted longer! A week away is just not enough!

J

JSD is HOT!!!

2009-06-19T09:43:00.002-05:00

Stuart, Dwayne, and myself want to thank all of you for your support in our venture into JSD Designs. Our first collection, Grandeur in 2008, did extremely well for our first time, and they're are several pieces which are continuing on to be just as strong this year!

We're very excited for you to see what we came up with for 2009! We have 2 collections, one called "Holiday Cheer", and the other called "The Gift".

Holiday Cheer looks just like sounds. HAPPY! It's red and apple green. Harlequin, polka dots, stripes, swirls, and snowmen make up this fun and exciting theme! Don't worry you can't miss it, it will be the first thing you see when you walk in the door at Christmas! Our favorite piece in the collection is a little mini "theme" if you will, called "The Write Words". It is a 4" Black Chalkboard Picture Frame which holds a 2x2 pic, comes prepacked with chalk, and you can write little personal messages on them. SUPER CUTE!

"The Gift" is a traditional formal gold look. White, silver, chocolate brown, and pheasant feathers create this look. Our pround baby in this collection is our Santa figure, standing 17" I think, solid burnished gold, who is holding baby Jesus in a water globe! It's fab people....FAB. We all just love it! :)

We're continuing to work on pieces for 2010, actually trying to wrap it up! We started out with three collections, but ending up adding two of them together to make one. HOWEVER, we have a large mix match of extra pieces we've created. It really feels like we have come up with a ton of product this year (for 2010)...I think 3 or 4 times as much as we've done before! At least it feels it. We're heading to Chicago the week before the open house to see samples and etc, and also to look at the rest of the company's line so we can start getting a game plan for their showroom set up.

I can't tell you one of the things we are working on, which is something we really love, but I can tell you, that each of you will have your chance to "leave your mark on it" : )

Well....gotta go draw something!

J

IS IT JUNE ALREADY!

2009-06-19T09:34:00.003-05:00

You know, I've always heard that time flies when two things happen, 1. when you're having and 2. when you get older. Well if the last 6 months are any indication of what it's going to be like the rest of my life, I better sit down before I'm 79....lol

It just seems like we had our Spring celebration, nonetheless Christmas seems like it was a month ago! And now we're trying to get ready for our Christmas Open House in July....oh yeah, Sherry let us know that we have 25 working days until the Open House, which in our world means "CRRRAAPPPP!" Inevidably we will get it done, but MAN do we have some things to get done! We are continuing to get stuff in slowly, however everthing that is coming in we absolutely love! Which I would hope to be the situation, since we bought it in the first place, lol.

Guys, for those of you that are looking for Christmas trees, garlands, and wreaths....you're going to be so excited this year. Even though we believed that we couldn't work any harder, we tried in January to find a better, more economical selection of trees, wreaths, and garlands. And did we ever!@ If my memory serves me right...the garlands for example, are 18" wide (WOW...6" wider than last years) and more full that what we've had in the past, and is less expensive! WIN WIN!

We're doing some Christmas collections we haven't done in a while, such as Candy and Ice World. HOWEVER, our favorite theme (aside from our JSD collections of course) is what we affectionately refer to as "A Trailer Park Christmas"....and we have a trailer to prove it... : ) we had a lot of fun with that one!

Well I guess I should get off of here and actually do some "work" on the floor! Hope to see you soon!

Best in Business 2009

2009-01-23T15:18:00.003-05:00

Many of you may have seen us in Kentucky Homes and Gardens (we always hear how much love seeing us in there), but a new place you may have not seen us in before is Best in Business.

Best in Business is a local magazine that has lots of information in them about area stores, restaurants, and etc. You can find them in almost every hotel room in the city, as well as Joseph Beth, of course The Corman Marketplace, and a myriad of other locations. The publication will be out all year, so if you have any guests coming into town and are staying at a hotel, make sure you give them a heads up!

Make sure you take a second to stop and look at our ad, and also the feature store about JSD Designs in the back of the magazine ( I think it's the next to last couple of pages)

Fall Contest Winners 2008!

2009-01-23T11:50:00.007-05:00

OK...I know...it's really late......but here's the 2008 Fall Contest Decorating Contest Winners! Our designer judge could not pick between the two of these, and so we are awarding 2 first place awards!

Katherine Vallance

Nancy Thomas

Congrats again! The winners will be also shown on our website, as well as featured in our company newsletter, email newsletter, and will receive giftcards for The Corman Marketplace.

I'm sorry there couldn't be more winners, there were some truly amazing things that came in....it just shows....YOU CAN DO IT!

VACAY!

2009-01-23T11:28:00.002-05:00

OK...last year I shared Jeremy and my cruise with you last year, well we are going on another cruise this year as well! This time we are leaving out of Miami, and going to Half Moon Cay Bahamas, San Juan PR, Grand Turks, and St. Thomas....

We aren't leaving until May 22...but I'll be sure to keep you up to date on that... I'm SO EXCITED.... :)

If you've ever been any of these places and have some input on our shore excursions, please feel free to email me at jrice@cormans.com

J

Celebrate Spring in 2009

2009-01-23T11:27:00.001-05:00

Ok, so there are some ideas being tossed around for the Celebrate Spring. Although details I can't give yet, I can tell you to leave days the week of March 23-27 open.....

SPRING...I'm ready for Spring!

NEW JSD Design Products for 2009

2009-01-23T11:17:00.002-05:00

Released in Jan at all of the markets were two more lines of product that JSD Designs has developed. Traditional in nature, it is perfect for here at home! We have Holiday Cheer, which is red and apple green. It's very fun and includes a Santa Belt Ball Ornament, Snowman Face Orn, Bells, Grosgrain ribbon, and cute cute cute. It's very fun and cheery! There are some super cute items in this collection. As pieces come in, I will try to get pictures up.

The second theme is call "The Gift", which includes a key figure of Santa holding Baby Jesus in a waterglobe, washed in beautiful gold. It's truly the most beautiful thing we've done to date. The whole idea is that you can keep the "reason for the season" in the front of your mind, and at the same time celebrate the other side of Christmas as well. Various shades of gold, white, and bronze make this theme formal and truly beautiful.

When the lines are released, it's always a little scary...you never know how people are going to take to them. It was so comforting to here Sales Reps tell you that they just loved your themes, and that they were their favorites.

Obviously you will see them both here at The Corman Marketplace...I actually think we got a piece or two in a shipment yesterday....EVEN MORE EXCITING!

We're working on our themes for 2010 already of course, which include three new themes, as well as the ground work is laid for us to start working on something else, although we can't talk about that yet... :)

So exciting...

J

Market 2009!

2009-01-23T10:58:00.003-05:00

Well as hard as it is to believe that it's 2009, add even more disbelieve that Stuart, Dwayne, and I have already been to Market (in ATL) and are back. I think we say it every year, but this Market was harder and weirder than ever!

First off, we were down in Atlanta a few days early because we were designing another showroom, Vickerman (we hope to have pics up soon). So we were ready to go on Day 1, which was Tuesday Jan 6 at 9am. Now....we are usually there before the show starts anyway, finishing up Roman's showroom with a little of this and that, so being down early was nothing new, and we knew how the first day usually goes....fairly busy. Well, as we entered Building 1( the Market is called AmericasMart, and now has 4 buildings, which total 11.5 million square feet...yes..that's right million!), we noticed no one around...as we road the escalators up to the 18th floor...there was still no one! We actually stopped off, and checked to make sure we were there on the right day and at the right time...it was like a ghost town....weird. We had never seen anything like that!

Eventually people showed up through the week. Traditionally, the weekend is the busiest. It makes sense. A lot of store owners, mom and pop establishments lets say can't afford to take off during the week to leave the store, so instead they just wait until the weekend. The Market was still down, I think one of our vendors said that they were down 30% dollar wise. We were wondering how people would react to the economy, and you could definitely tell that people were scared to spend money, that is except for us, lol. We heard from many retailers that they were down around 40% last year....fortunately, we were blessed and were down nothing like that. Actually there's a retailer here in Lex that was down 80% in the last quarter....scary people...scary....

BUT enough about bad things...lol as if the media doesn't letter us forget...sometimes I wonder if they would just shut up people might not feel they way they do....

The market was hard in many ways, as to be expected, prices had went up like they do every year, so we had to weed through them! Also, it appears that many of our vendors were afraid to go out and make custom themes, and just went with what the factories had over seas (except for the JSD Designs products, they were all original! :) ) See, products get made in a few ways. 1: Our American vendors have product development teams that read trends and forecasts, and then develop product that they want to sell, then send that over seas to Foreign Factories to be made. 2: The American vendors come up with ideas and patterns, and then apply that designs and items they see over seas 3: Just buy what they see when they go overseas (foreign factories have their own showrooms, where American Vendors can walk through to get ideas) or 4: A mix of all of the above.

Truthfully, most of the time it is " a little of all of the above" ; however, this year, it appears that they just all bought what they saw, because truthfully all showrooms at Market looked 85/90% the same. I believe that this was possibly true because it's less expensive to buy something that a factory has in production alread, as well as probably will sell many of them to multiple vendors, not just one to having something created custom and have a limited run on quantity.

So we were left to delve in the mess, and make something unique and custom for us. And I think we did a really excellent job! It was very hard, I mean very hard! But as always fun, and exhausting...both mentally and physically!

Believe it or not, things are already coming in! We're trying to get those things priced and ready to go out soon!

Gotta run..Hope to see you soon!

J

New Santa Exclusive!!!!

2008-10-27T13:10:00.002-05:00

Many of you may remember the exclusive Santa Riding a Horse we had a few years ago. Since then, we have searched the world for a piece that was equal or better quality, and at a great price. Well guys, we found it!

And to make that even better, it's exclusive to The Corman Marketplace!

This resin figure, standing almost 8" tall, shows Santa, sitting on a stack stone wall, feeding a foal green and red apples. Santa's cloak is finely carved with damask inspired elemtents. Nestled at Santa's feet is also a rabbit nibbling at an apple, sitting on a bed of snow accented with iridescent glitter.

Truly, a Santa with a Kentucky heart.

Our Price: $24.95
List Price: $49.95

A Recipe to Share.....

2008-09-30T12:38:00.003-05:00

So as many of you know, (and hopefully tried) I shared my Stuffed French Toast recipe with you all last year. WELL...after sharing with you all, I had several recipes sent to me from many of you all. One of such recipes is listed below, it's a Holiday Cheese Ball with Cranberry Chutney. She swears by it, and says that if you are going to make it, be sure to make two....because one will be gone too fast!

Here are the directions she sent me:

CREAM CHEESE BALL INGREDIENTS:
1 pkg. 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 can 8 oz. crushed pineapple, drained
2 cups chopped pecans
¼ cup chopped green pepper
3 tablespoons chopped onion
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
2 tablespoons cranberry chutney (See recipe below)
1 ½ tablespoons Maker’s Mark Bourbon

CRANBERRY CHUTNEY:
4 cups fresh whole cranberries
2 Granny Smith apples – pealed, cored, and diced
1 pear – peeled, cored, and diced
1 cup golden raisins
¼ cup minced onion
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (can use ground nutmeg from spice jar)
¼ cup fresh orange juice
3 tablespoons Maker’s Mark Bourbon (optional or reduced amount)

In a heavy 3-quart saucepan, combine all ingredients except the Bourbon. Bring to boil over high heat; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until thick. (the cranberries will pop and get very soft. Do not dice them) This will usually take 45 minutes. Stir occasionally. Stir in Bourbon*, cool, and store left over chutney in the refrigerator. This will make 3-4 cups of chutney. *Adding the bourbon is your choice. I added 3 tablespoons to the mix before it was cooked. I did not detect any alcoholic taste. Perhaps that’s because it had cooked out or maybe it added a slight pleasant taste.)

DIRECTIONS FOR ASSEMBLING CREAM CHEESE BALL:
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese slightly. Gradually stir in all the other ingredients, reserving 1 cup pecans. Shape into ball and roll in remaining 1 cup of pecans. Chill until serving time. Serve with assorted crackers. Make the cream cheese ball a day ahead before serving to let the flavors mix well. (I only used ½ tablespoon of bourbon. The flavor was good. Use more at your discretion)

Note: Serve chutney over the cream cheese ball as appetizer or put it in a decorative jar for a quick hostess gift.

Grand Cayman!

2008-06-09T20:19:00.003-05:00

So our first port of call was Grand Cayman, which....had the prettiest blue water I have ever seen (the water shown here!)! Grand Cayman is a "tender" port which means...the boat stops out in the middle of the bay, and then you get in a little "tender" boat which takes you to the shore.

For our shore excursion, Jeremy and I decided to do Sea Trek. Now, the basic idea is this, they put this 80lb helmet on your head, and then it sinks you to the ocean floor where you get to walk around with the coral, fish, shark, sting rays, etc. NOW I have to admit, it was the absolute scariest thing I had ever done. It was the deal.

The helmet is developed by the company that does all of NASA's uniforms and stuff....so obviously, they know what they are doing. Obviously there is an air connection to helmet...but PEOPLE.......if thing falls off....well you're screwed. Of course before you went under you had to sign this waiver, which when you got to the "emergency contact" part, they suggested you "put God, because if something goes wrong that's who you will need". They thought all of this was funny, however I was scared beyond belief, lol.

Anyway, when you got down to the ocean floor, which was about 30 feet deep at this point, it was so cool! The fish were literally right there! The coral was literally right there! It was so cool! I've put a video below so you can see what I'm talking about.

If you go to a port that has one of these Sea Trek things, you must go! It's unbelievable! I'll be back with more vacay talk!

My worldly travels! Belize!

2008-05-30T10:31:00.008-05:00

First...SORRY it's been so long since any of us have blogged! I could give excuses, but we'll just say we've all been losers!

OK, Jeremy and I went on a cruise in May to the Western Caribbean.....and we had such a great time, I wanted to share somethings! We left out of Tampa on May 4 and were cruising to Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize, and Honduras (in that order). I had never been on a cruise, but had heard such great things! This was the 4th cruise for Jeremy, his mom was a travel agent when he was younger and they liked to experience the world. Truthfully, I think Jeremy just liked the access to fabu food 24/7, lol.

Anyway, I'm going to post several new blogs about our vacation. This blog is about Belize and the Xunantunich (pronounced Shu nan tun itch) Mayan ruins. So what do I have to say about Belize, well first I have to identify two things, one the country of Belize which is extremely poor, and then two...Xunantunich. We had heard from friends to not go past the "gate", that it was kind of sketchy in true Belize City. Well, let me tell you where the gate was...THE PORT. We seriously walked 10 steps out side of the port, and there was the gate.

We were taking a shore excursion to Xunantunich, so there was a bus waiting for us (which by the way was taking us on a 2 hour bus ride), it barely fit inside the gate! Anyway, the second we were outside the gate, you instantly new you were in a country that was truly in complete poverty. I couldn't believe the shape that the houses were in; how the balconies were falling off of homes, how there was trash just every where. Below you will see the shape of some of the homes, NOW..unfortunately this is the only picture that came out of the homes. I knew that I had to take pictures because no one would believe me. We also had to go through 2 military checkpoints (pic below). You can see two men in camo beside a car, although you can't see it, both of them have machine guns.....they were stopping cars making sure people had up to date insurance as well as had no drugs, there's a large problem with drugs down there. At this point of our vacation, I looked at Jeremy and said "what have we gotten our selves into!" Neither one of us could believe that we were in the middle of this! I mean roughing it for me and Jeremy is a Holiday Inn, lol

As we continued to drive for 2 hours in to Belize, all you saw were besheveled homes and trash. As well as hundreds of children walking to school. Most people live in small villages/towns, and each town had a small school for all of the children. It was very interesting to see the state of what these people were living in, however they all seemed happy, and all of the children were wearing uniforms walking to school. The kids would just wave and yell at all of us. It was touching. I have to admit I felt guilty coming to this country where people were struggling so much, and here we are tourist, in an air conditioned bus being driven around (by the way gas was $10.70 a gallon in Belize dollars, it would be $5.35 American dollars).

The terrain was amazing, so untouched...I told Jeremy I felt like I was in Vietnam...he thought i was crazy.

Anyway, when we finally got to the site, we had to take a hand cranked ferry across a river which had alligators/crocodiles ( I can't remember which). Our tour guide quickly told us that they weren't aggressive, but you try believing that when you're looking down upon them.... He also told us that children would bathe in this river and women would wash clothes as well....I was like sure right...but...there they were, just having a good old time with the "crocs"...

Xunantunich is so amazing. People were actually living there around 400bc, however the buildings weren't constructed until a little later. The size of these ruins is just amazing, the temple which I'm standing on at the top is 14 stories tall, and people...there wasn't a rope, a rail..nothing...I could have just jumped, tripped, fallen to my ugly death. Actually in Belize City, the Capital of Belize, there still isn't a modern building taller than this ruin! Where I'm standing above was actually the place where the high priests did sacrifices.

Anyway, after all of Mayans left this site, it sat for hundreds and hundreds of years untouched, which then caused the buildings to be covered up with dirt and trees started growing. Archaeologists have actually had unbury every building there, and there are several more to go! When you walked into the site, there was a weird feeling. I won't call it spiritual or magical...but you could feel something different was in that place. It was surreal.

By the way, did I mention that Jeremy swears it was 150 degrees when we were there, lol. So on we climbed up everything we could. And people when I said there was no ropes or rails..I mean it. The steps at the beginning had to be 16" tall (please picture me climbing up this ruin hands and feet screaming to our tour guide "weren't these people short!"). It was scary at best climbing the thing. Going up was easier than coming down, Jeremy who has a problem with heights took one step at a time coming down...of course so did I..I'm telling you people, it was tense and scary....but amazing at the top!

This was one of our favorite things we did on vacation. It's not everyday that you see something like this. SO....if you go to Belize, I would strongly recommend doing this.

On our way back, we were treated to an authentic Belizian lunch which consisted of chicken, slaw, and a beans and rice mixture. At this point, I realized that this food shortage and high price of rice truly does effect people. These people eat rice every meal! It had made me realize how blessed I am. By the way, the bean and rice mixture has been a favorite side dish of Jeremy to add to dinner since we've been back, lol.

SO....if you go on a cruise, and you go to Belize, I would stronly recommend this. It was amazing. And if we ever go back to Belize, we will probably revisit Xunantunich...they are still uncovering new buildings all the time. It was amazing.

If you go to Belize, please make sure you have something planned as far as shore excursion, this is not a place that you want to be walking around the streets.

More stories about more places coming!

It's "Saul Good" people.....

2008-04-01T10:39:00.003-05:00

In case you haven't heard, there is a new and very refreshing restaurant/pub out near Fayette Mall! And Saul Good Restaurant & Pub is the name! People....you simply must go! A menu full of soul foods awaits you! We started with the Southwest Dip...FABU...it was a salsa that was a mixture of corn and well...I have no clue what, but it was simply fab! It wasn't spicy....it wasn't hot....but it was full of flavor and was accompanied with blue corn chips!

For our entre, Jeremy and I both had the "Chicken and Waffles"! NOW....I'm not sure how many of you have ever experienced this "C and W"...but I beg you to put aside your fear and hesitance....and just jump in. In simple terms, you get a large waffle, with a couple of pieces of fried chicken, some garnish, and fab maple syrup (you will note the smell immediately upon walking in the door). It had a interesting texture, but a wonderful taste! I possibly could have used a little more syrup, (I've always been a fan of sauces and condiments...lol)...but it was the deal! NOW....I must also relay to you, that I don't like fried chicken...I know, it's somewhat un-American...it's just a fact..I DON'T LIKE FRIED CHICKEN....HOWEVER....this was the best fried chicken I have ever had...hand's down!!! People you must try this.

Their whole menu is very well priced. The servings are huge. The details are there!

For dessert (I know...we're fat).....we had the Milk Chocolate Fondue.....and THANK YOU GOD....! Strawberries, bananas, bits of waffles, and believe it or not...SMORES....people....you must try. We didn't even finish it all...we were stuffed!

The fact is people, you must simply go and try. You can visit their website http://www.saulgoodpub.com for more information.....

ALSO...if they aren't busy, ask for Stephanie. She was excellent! She had the best qualities as a waitress.....fast, sweet, and HONEST....! And you all know that I love honesty!

Go give them a try, and let us know what you think!
J

Calendar for the Rest of the Year

2007-12-11T13:56:00.000-05:00

Hey guys, just incase you wanted to stop in and see what is going on, below are our dates and times open for the rest of the year and a little in January

Sat Dec 15: 9am-4pm
Mon Dec 17: 8am-5pm
Tue Dec 18: 8am-5pm
Wed Dec 19: 8am-5pm
Thu Dec 20: 8am-12pm
Friday Dec 21: 8am-5pm
Saturday Dec 22: CLOSED
Mon Dec 24: CLOSED
Tue Dec 25: CLOSED
Wed Dec 26: 8am-5pm
Thu Dec 27: 8am-5pm
Friday Dec 28:8am-5pm
Sat Dec 29: CLOSED
Mon Dec 31-January 4: CLOSED
We will reopen for normal activities Jan 7 at 8am-5pm

Fabulous Filled French Toast Sandwich

2007-12-10T21:07:00.001-05:00

So Jeremy (the other Jeremy) just made this fabulous twist on French Toast for desert (which by the way finished possibly the best meal he's ever done....i don't know why we don't at home more often!)

He's calling this concoction his "Fab Raspberry Filled French Toast". It's totally perfect for a Christmas Brunch or for out of town guests for breakfast....or maybe even dessert (DON'T JUDGE!)

Here's the recipe, it's absolutely fab! You must try!

Serves 4

8 Large pieces of bread
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
1/2 stick butter
4 eggs
1/2 cup whole milk

With mixer, blend cream cheese(at room temp) and sugar, fold in raspberries (other fruits can be substituted...imagine the possibilities). Melt butter in frying pan over medium heat. Spread mixture between two slices of bread, place together. In seperate bowl, wisk eggs and milk. Coat both sides quickly in egg/milk mixture, as you would normaly do for french toast. Place raspberry filled french toast sandwiches into pan, and fry for 1-2 minutes per side. Plate, serve, and enjoy!

It's truly fab...you must try this...! POINT BLANK!!!!

Until next time....

let me introduce you to jsd designs!

2007-12-08T15:28:00.000-05:00

so as many of you know, dwayne, stuart, and i have been working on a christmas collection for one of our vendors, roman. the great news is that yes...it's moving forward...actually very forward. stuart and i just returned from chicago in which we were designing their showroom in the merchandise mart.

this was the first time we got to see a lot of the products, and well...WE ARE SO EXCITED! i promise there will be pictures up soon, but even better, we will have the product in soon as well.

the whole world gets to see the collection starting next month at the first market in atlanta, we are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited.

corman and associates were very gracious and let the three of us design the entire thing without them being involved in anyway. hence, the boys and i have created an "entity" by the name of jsd designs. We hope that there are many more things down the pipeline for jsd designs.

stuart and i go to atlanta on dec 15 to set up the showroom there, we will bring back pictures so you can see what everything is looking like.

till next time

Where's that house!??

2007-11-12T13:51:00.000-05:00

We've had many people ask about the house entrance that was used on our Christmas Open House Advertisements. Well, it is actually Stuart and his father's apartment building on 6th St.

Believe you me, it's even more lush and beautiful in person! The camera never gets all of the depth of the lush greenery nor the vibrance of the brilliant red amaryllis.

It's been decorated for some time now, probably over a month and a half! Wouldn't you just love to know what his neighborhood thought when it started going up!!!

FAKE IS GREAT!

2007-10-25T10:07:00.000-05:00

So the other night I'm watching HGTV, because yes I have a sickness...and along comes this show called something like "25 Biggest Home Decorating Mistakes...." I thought to myself, "What a great show! I can't wait to see these messes...."

As the show progressed, I agreed with almost every single thing I saw. As we got closer to the number one, I really started trying to figure out what in the world they would put first. They had already attacked bad kitchen hardware, and floating rugs, and all furniture against the walls....what could possibly be number 1?

To my surprise, their answer was FAKE FLOWERS! I was enraged! I couldn't believe was on TV before my eyes. When I was finally able to blink, I realized that all of the pictures they were showing of fake flowers, were all of those dreaded anemic looking cotton paper flowers from the 80's, you know those flowers which petals gradient from white to pink or teal....which are in containers with clear glass rocks.....

This is what kills me about artificial flowers. People don't know that there are great quality and aesthetic flowers out there. Instead they go to Michaels, Garbage Ridge, dare I say it Walmart/Big Lots and get flowers! Realistic flowers exist! And they are not much more than what people are spending on crap! Atleast that's the situation if you come here. I know other retailers are not as lucky as we and our floral pricing.

I mean, now you can get a magnolia that looks like a magnolia....! A good one! Not one of those that the petal is so thin, the wire that gives it the shape is poking out of the fabric!

I'm fine with bashing flowers that were on set of "Mama's Family", but people there are great choices out there! I am calling out to all man kind, asking that we start a revolution and throw away all of that trash that has collected dust sitting on the buffet or mantle. I don't care if your bestfriend or neighbor did it for you 20 years ago, just like real flowers....artificial ones must die too!

So please, grab them, toss them to that great dumpster in the sky and start over with something new, realistic, and refreshing!@

If you would like to see the HGTV Mistake List, click the links below:
Mistakes 1-11
Mistakes 12-25

Jeremy's Home Office

2007-10-03T07:53:00.000-05:00

Ok, so we finally started working on our office! As far as paint colors, Jeremy(the other Jeremy), wanted to pick it and decide what direction we were going to head. The color he picked was Cadet Grey....sounds nice and gray right....don't be mislead, it's purple....a hazy GRAY purple...but it IS purple. We were a little concerned about the color when we first put it up, he more than I. I knew once we got all of the other junk infront of it, it would just be the background color and not be in your face. (TIP: Don't freak out with the first swish of the roller, wait until you're finished and can walk away, and come back. By the time you move everything back in, that bold color merely becomes the background barely noticed)

As for the functionality of the room itself, to be an office meant we would need a desk to do work and etc. The room is rather small, and a desk would have eaten up a lot of floor space, so we needed to find another alternative. Fortunately to save space in the room, there was a small neche that was going to lend itself for built in shelves. This was going to test our carpentry skills!

Our concept for the area was a series of 3 floating shelves, the lowest at desk height for the computer. We would then back the shelves with mirror panels. Then adding to this, I always say..."If you're going to do it, do it right" and to do this right, we needed to add lighting to the shelves as well.

So here's how we did the shelves. (CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO PDF that shows graphics) On the back wall, we found the studs and attached a 1 x 2 running vertical on the stud. These wood pieces would allow us to have extra support for the back shelves, as well as a place to run the wiring later for the lights. See #1 on pdf or see image below (by the way, this is the other Jeremy standing infront of the wall.

The next step was to define the heights that we wanted the shelving at. We then jet railed other 1x2's horizontally on the two side walls, as well as the back wall, sinking them into the vertical 1x2's for each shelf. See #2 on pdf.

After this, we then laid down the wood that would be the top of the shelf on the jet rails and screwed them to the horizontal jet rails. For the actual pieces of wood that would be considered the top of the shelf, we saved money by going with 1/4" MDF from Lowes. You can paint, stain, wash...whatever you want, and it absorbs everything wonderfully! Because I am not great with a saw, and I couldn't cut straight to save my life, we had all of these pieces cut at Lowes. They will cut materials to whatever size you for free! Don't be afraid to ask! See #3 on pdf or see bottom image below.

The next step is very important to the aesthetic quality of the shelves! We took a 1x3 and attached it to the front of the shelf (See #4 on pdf). The 1x3's weren't MDF, but were actually..um...I can't remember, some kind of wood that had a nice grain in it. They were already cut and in a bin at Lowes. WARNING. As for all of these pieces, 1x2's and 1x3's, make sure to take them out and check them individually for straightness! The slightest bow makes everything more difficult! This front piece is added to increase the visual weight of the shelf. Thick shelves read updated and a little more modern, than skinny shelves.

For this same step, we took 1/8" luan and applied it to the underside of the horizontal jet rails. Luan was great to use at this point because it's very inexpensive, and wouldn't be seen to much! At this point, stain all of the plains. I suggest to use a stain that is combined with a poly in it. It saves a step, and isn't as runny and messy as a regular stain. We used a dark expresso walnut stain....3 coats....it looks great!

Now, as stated before, we wanted lighting in the shelving unit. Knowing this, we thought ahead and pre-drilled the holes for the wires, and attached the puck lighting. We found this great package of 6 Halogen lights that all connected at one plug, that came with a touch switch to turn it on. This was very simple and easy to install. Just read the directions, and think before you act. You can see an example of this on #5 on the pdf. You can see there how you don't see the wires because they are in the middle of the "shelving".

We ran the wires down the back of the wall, and then plugged it in at the bottom of the wall.

To hide all of this ugly, we measured the spaces, and ordered some mirror to size from Hek Glass, great people. We then used mirror adhesive and attached these mirror pieces to the vertical rails that were bolted to the studs.

Listen people...this looks fabulous! Just fabulous..and it really wasn't that difficult. ALSO a little side note, if you will notice on the middle shelf, there is a number sign. This was the original house number on the house when we moved. We decided to keep it....just inside the house, I think it's great!!!! By the way, please forgive the shelves not being completely merchandised with accessories, I wanted to hurry up and get this on the blog......!

Design Star....Design Flop.....

2007-08-27T11:50:00.001-05:00

Ok....it appears that I just need to get this off of my chest! As with most of our friends, I'm an avid HGTV watcher. Be it for getting great ideas/inspiration, making fun of bad home choices, etc etc etc. Whatever it may be, it is somewhat addictive, it appears that everything on my DVR is HGTV ( I can't tell you the last time I watched real time tv...or the news for that matter...is Bush still in office?).

One such show that I have started watching is Design Star. For me, this whole thing has become Design Flop. I am not saying that there aren't talented people on the program, but COME ON PEOPLE. Last night was a perfect example. Wayne Newton's home (well guest home anyway)....

(if you missed last night's episode, you can click here to see highlights- it is the Design Rewind Tab) under Exclusive Episode 5 Videos

Where should I start with this one. First they walk in his home...uuing and awwing...when they should have been throwing up from the tacky and ugly. LOL. I am hoping for the most part they were trying to be kind, but COME ON! It was only a chandelier and a mirror away from Liberace's home.....BAD.... I loved when asked about their taste in interior decor, Wayne's wife says "modern" (there wasn't a modern piece of anything in that house...)...his response was Louis the 14th. That's fitting, pull out his thrown. Actually I believe it was there, next to the God awful cherub thrusting, gilded piece of "gaw" that they called the fireplace (which dwarfed Wayne, who is no small man)..

OK, enough about the home known as "House d' Tacky", lets move on to what the "designers" actually did...without getting in to detail....Bad and Bad. I understand they want to look like Krafty Kathy's, but why does everything they do have to look cheap? Dwayne and I were discussing the living room earlier. They didn't need to build those frames for behind the candle sconces and stain them (ugly and bad color). The window treatments were blah...and well, there wasn't a thing in that room which was tasteful, lazy susan included. Please excuse me and pardon me if I don't want a "cheap" tilt - a- whirl in my living room.....and all of this "where do I look? where do I look?"....how about you give them something to look at. Where was the focus....how about that gigantic fireplace (which in my opinion should have been ripped out).... COME ON!

Kitchen......MESS. I still don't understand what they actually did in that space, other than paint and have their carpenter fill in a couple of holes with some improvised wooden shelving. The designers kept talking about warming up the spaces with dark espresso stained furniture, does this seem like a oxymoron to anyone else? Where was the warmth? Where was the cozy? This was a guest home for goodness sakes, it should feel like a retreat away from home, other than a room of well.....poor taste....isn't this "Design Star" and not "Design on a Nickle" (not even a dime!)

Unfortunately, because of my personality and not being able to turn my head from a "car wrecks" I will watch the remaining three fight out the remaining challenges with bad taste....who knows, maybe one of those fist blows might knock some sense into one of them. As of now, I'm supporting Kim, the only girl left. I don't know if she is the most creative, but she is certainly the only one with personality! She could possibly be the next Sandra Lee (Semi-Home Made on Food Network). For those who don't know Sandra, she is a talentless hack who seems to get by with her personality and very skinny tall figure.

Fortunately, for viewers, the cocky Rob went home, no tear hear. How in the world does he ever expect people to watch him, when he's already made an idiot of himself. And don't get me started on him calling the judge's fools. Blessings do rain from the heaven above.

If you're left wondering what kind of shows and designers I truthfully like, well honey...PLEASE and I MEAN PLEASE set your DVR's for Divine Design with Candace Olson. Although I may not love all of her work, I strongly appreciat 95% of it. That is a true designer. I can't wait to talk about her later, she always gets me excited, but let's please not talk about her budgets, I checked into some bar stools she used in kitchen makeover....really cute....and REALLY EXPENSIVE, try $2000 a piece....well lets just say I will be standing in the kitchen to eat for a little longer!

Until next time, COME ON!

Fall Preview Seminars!!!!!!

2007-08-20T12:24:00.002-05:00

We are just now releasing our 3 seminars to be taught on our Fall Preview that is on Saturday, September 22.

10am: The French Revolution Has Just Begun

12pm: Oh, Just Fluff It and Shove It Already

2pm: Company Is Coming, Get Off the Couch

For complete information, you can visit our website by clicking here.

Hope to see you!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT....

2007-08-15T08:05:00.001-05:00

OK...guys.....BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

Get ready!!!! On Saturday September 22, from 9am-4pm, we are having our first ever Fall Preview.......

with SEMINARS......more information coming soon!

Just make sure you mark your calendars!