Despite meticulous planning, we did not have a hotel after we drove from the South of France to the North. We had just assumed that we would stop in Lyons, but as we entered the city at rush hour, it was clear we didn’t want to wing it. Lyons is huge and crowded and the prospect of GPSing our way to some random hotel at the city center, parking, then negotiating a room was too daunting.

I took our my phone and spent the next hour at very precious data rates finding a place between Lyons & Beaune. And what a place I found. In a tiny, tiny town in the country: Saint-Amour-Bellevue. One hotel. One wineshop. One restaurant. And that was pretty much it.

The hotel is called Auberge du Paradis – Inn of Paradise. When I walked in I couldn’t believe this 18th century humble country facade held a chic, modern Wifi enabled inn. Each of the rooms were unique, studio apartments (san kitchen) and were named after cooking spices. Our room was gingenbre (ginger). Valerie is the owner and designer of the hotel. I wish we could’ve chatted more about the design and her inspirations but she only had traveling English and I only have traveling French.

I did let her know the hotel was tres, tres charmant. She smiled. We previously had a rather unfortunate mis-communication over the breakfast table regarding yogurt (note: if in the French countryside and someone asks you if you want something that sounds like ‘Goat’ say ‘Oui, merci’).

To wish you all a happy Valentine’s Day!

Here are my sweetest captures from France in 2011 – we stayed one night in Coeur De Belleville in France in the cutest  bed & breakfast you will ever see. Here’s just a detail or two:

Two angels in the room and the room key, sewn to a little pillow that read "Gingembre" (Ginger - the name of our room)

And the little flower truck that sat outside the one restaurant in town: Coeur de Belleville, France

And from a stopover in Grenoble in the French Alps:

A Flower Shop in Grenolble

Peace, love, veal chops, champagne, tomatoes a la Provencale, Valentine’s and a happy Westminster Dog Show to you all. And BEST of all, Miss Ella is responding to her medication. A very happy Valentine’s Day at the Laurel Street Cottage indeed.

Did you know Mitt Romney is on Pinterest?

We had a scare yesterday. Two years ago Ella, our first dog, was diagnosed with Boxer Cardiomyopathy. Basically, it’s a congenital heart defect that is common in Boxers. Now there is a genetic test for this condition, but 11 years ago, nothing like that existed. It probably wouldn’t have mattered, I fell in love with her from the moment I picked her up out of the litter.

The vet at the time told me that there is no cure. And I cried then, a lot. I grieved the way one does when one learns of a friend or family member has a terminal illness – when you realize inevitably life cannot stay the same.

Ella - the first night at home

Five days at home

At the time of her diagnosis, she was collapsing quite often which would send us into a panic. But a heart medication called Sotolol brought her back to normal. We’ve enjoyed two wonderful years, and even the vet has been amazed at how well Ella has done on the medication.

Ella with a friend at an Oscar party many years ago

Ella & Richard at the beach

Wednesday night I came home to see Richard’s stethoscope out on the kitchen counter and I asked “Why did you bring that home?”

He told me Ella had been acting strangely and he wanted to listen to her heart. The arrhythmia had returned and it was quite bad. Later that night Ella began to cough, and I began counting the minutes to 8:00 am, the earliest I can get in to our vet. It was a long night, Ella was so weak and completely off her food, coughing hard every few minutes.

Our vet is wonderful. She saw us first thing in the morning and kept her to observe during the day and to do tests on her heart and lungs. Eventually she called me to say (or not say) what we know is happening, Ella is entering the late stage of her heart disease. We brought her home with a new medicine for congestive heart failure.

A silly picture of me and my girl

So of course my eyes are wet just writing this now. But of all the things I worried about yesterday, I worried most that it would be the worst kind of decision day, that Ella would not be able to come home.

But bless it all, Ella is home with me now. For now.

So there I was, just prancing along the Internet when I saw a wonderful thing on Victoria’s SF Girl by Bay blog in her recent post about  her lovely shell pink dining room. She discovered this amazing Etched Arcadia mural from Anthropologie. I was in love and deeply saddened I didn’t have a place for it in the cottage.

How beautiful is this?

Now I appreciate the Anthropologie aesthetic quite a bit,  it’s refreshing. And who doesn’t love decorative knobs of all kinds?

Since I’ve had sofas on the brain lately, I checked out that little corner of the site. I confess I did a double take when I spied this –  behold, the Splayer Sofa.

I almost expect this sofa to stop me on the street and ask me for a dollar.

This detail photo would be more complete with a cat sharpening its claws: Prrrr, prrr, prrrr.

It’s a steal at $6498.00 plus $300 shipping. I might pair it with the Pottery Barn Edison Chandelier.

The Edison Chandelier. PLEASE do not exceed specified wattage.

I was dragged into the living room to see this when it came on SNL this weekend – my love of Downton Abbey is well known in the household. I thought this was just too funny for words:

So obviously the $493 sofa is going to need something to make it sing a little, so I ‘covered the waterfront’ of online retail looking for fun sofa pillows and you know what? I’m not feeling it.

Happy surprises from West Elm aside, Pottery Barn, Z Gallery, Ballard, Wisteria are leaving me kind of flat. Here’s what I did find that – meh – could work.

West Elm: I go here to try to break out of my “Southern Accents” predilections. Of everything I saw, these are probably my favorites but at the same time, I don’t think they’ll work. I think the geometrics will make a fairly boxy sofa even boxier, and the colors are a bit muted. The ‘bursts’ are wonderful but perhaps a little too eye-catching.

Pottery Barn: They’ve certainly got a LOT of pillow designs, and they all seem JUST FINE (read that mentally in Ron Paul’s voice – LOL), but there  just doesn’t seem to be any  joy or surprise in their current collection.

Z Gallery: Well priced, but again, nothing inspired.

After an entire morning of this I’ve decided I’m going to Etsy.com instead. If I’m going to pay $60+ for a pillow cover, I’d prefer them to be handmade by someone who cares, with less ‘mass market’ fabrics. Do you have any favorite places I’m missing or favorite Etsy sellers? I’d love to hear about them!

I promised myself. Remember when I turned the back bedroom into a study? That entire room was put together through Internet orders. My FedEx delivery folks came to absolutely loathe me in the process (sorry about those desks, FedEx, really I am).

Well it’s been a while. And I’ve learned a few things. I’ve learned that a horribly unloved inherited sofa that then was destroyed by dogs and that I that I have to walk by 100 times a day can put me into a downright depression. A run-on sentence there. That’s how much I dislike this sofa.

The sofa is question is universally referred to in our house as “the green thing.” Witnessed from afar it doesn’t look that bad. I’d say 30,000 feet afar. Witnessed up close two sofa cushions have holes on both sides about 10 inches wide and the foam is literally crumbling to pieces. This is not a ‘just flip them over” situation anymore. It’s a “this thing is horrible” situation.

So I’ve been draping throws and pillows on it and leaving the morning newspaper in strategic places to cover the holes and thats been fine. But now there’s a problem. We’re having a party at the house. Lots of guests are coming, people will need to sit. And I really can’t have them sitting on “the green thing.”

Keep back. I said "Afar."

There's just only so much of this a sofa can take.

The above photos were taken over two years ago. The sofa apparently holds a grudge against me for being treated so badly and has been punishing me by collapsing into a pile of purple & green butterfly upholstery, foam rubber and dog hair from the day it came into the house.

I would’ve sent it to be recovered long ago, but no one has a sentimental attachment to it (other than the dogs) and it is the single most uncomfortable piece of furniture I have ever met. A human cannot sit on it in comfort. A human certainly cannot lie on it in comfort. It’s a wreck. Reboot.

So I put on my “gonna find a new settee” britches this weekend and set out to find a replacement. Let’s see what I found:

Hey Y'all - "Momma's Family" called - they want their settee back.

Oh, it's even more hideous than the first one. How is this possible?!?

The man in the store offered me $30 off the price if I took it home that day. He would've had to pay me.

This one was actually quite beautiful, in hand carved detail. But come on, it's fusty. Even with new upholstery. I really didn't want to buy something that needed do be redone as soon as I got it home.

That was the best Magazine Street antique stores had to offer. Pretty slim pickings, so I drove out to Metairie where I heard about a new (HUGE) home consignment store, Renaissance Interiors.

It was huge, and filled with a lot of great stuff at so-so prices. If I hadn’t been on a settee mission, I would’ve enjoyed browsing around a little more thoughtfully. I did find two gray & cane chairs which I admired:

I really wanted to take a pair of these home. But technically not a settee (I may come back for them

So no luck. I made the rounds of new furniture stores, but you know what, every sofa I saw was HUGE. It reinforced what I had read in the NYTimes a while back – Furniture: The Big Gets Bigger. My house is not a modern open plan with a cavernous great room to fill. I need something scaled for a 1860′s parlor.

So this is where I get back to breaking that oath I made to myself about not buying upholstered furniture online again.  I said “never again.”

At least “never again” until I have 30 people coming over in two weeks apparently. So it was Overstock to the rescue. I ordered the following for $493 with $2.95 shipping that will arrive in 5 business days.

I liked the lines, the color is inoffensive, and it’s made of dog friendly microfiber which I have learned cleans up VERY well, and it’s not a gargantuan sofa monster like everything else I saw in stores – it’s the exact same size as the old settee. And you know what? I think this sofa would look beautiful in a linen slipcover if I wanted to do that one day. And with its lines, it would be so easy.

This is what a $493 sofa looks like in the wild.

When I purchased it, I didn’t have the benefit of any customer reviews so I was really taking a flyer here. Since then two reviews have posted and basically said:

While I wished it was more: 

I can live with that.

Think again. I present to you the Alien vs. Predator Chaise Lounge:

Oh, it's just horrible!

I’m going to take a pass on the fabric critique – I’ll just describe it: pee scalamandre. However, I’m having difficulty imagining what fabric would be a good match for the rosewood tentacles. It could’ve been worse. I saw a chair around the corner in cheetah (plush). Alas, no photo. I was afraid for my camera.

All I can say about this chair is IT’S COMING TO GET YOU! RUN!!!!

Richard and I don’t give each other Christmas gifts. It’s a bit of a Grinch thing… He hates shopping any time of year, but especially during the holidays. So we don’t do it. But there has been something troubling about the Laurel Street Cottage that I’m even embarrassed to call my reader’s attention to… our mailbox.

What? What could possibly be embarrassing about a mailbox? How bad can a mailbox be?

Pretty bad. In fact, it's a downright scandalous state of postal affairs.

Please note the numerous things wrong with this picture starting with the fact that it is the wrong type of mailbox. Clearly it was not designed to be attached to a fence.

Let’s go on to note that the previous owners of our home were not daunted by the challenge of attaching the wrong type of mailbox to the fence. It was a simple matter of rope. At some point the rope was deemed insufficient to hold the mailbox so it was reinforced with loops of wire.

You may notice the curious angle at which the wrong type of mailbox (attached incorrectly to the fence) hangs. It’s about 30 degrees. Nothing like coming home to find your Christmas cards and magazines sitting in two inches of rain water on a wet day. And of course the mailbox acquired a lovely ‘patina’ over time.

For a long time I was in denial about the mailbox. I joked about the mailbox. “It’s the three times wrong mailbox!” I would say. “Three wrongs don’t make a right!” I would laugh.

I have to sympathize with the previous owners a bit. It’s not as if I hadn’t looked for one. You know what kind of mailboxes they carry at Lowes and Home Depot? Lots and lots of versions of the wrong type of mailbox, shown here.

It's even more lovely from the back. Please note the couturier-like detailing of the frayed and moldy rope edges.

In my defense, I bought a nondescript, modern wall-mounted box when we first moved in (a readily available style) but it was roundly rejected as inappropriate by the household and I was forced to return it.

I would just like to repeat, the bland wall-mounted box which I purchased for the house was rejected as INAPPROPRIATE for the style of our house. I am only now wondering at the logic which somehow allowed for the old mailbox to be considered APPROPRIATE. Regardless, the mailbox persisted. Until Christmas. I got us a gift.

They just don't sell these at Lowe's dammit.

I'm no longer the postal scourge of the neighborhood.

I love it sooo much. Yes the fence needs a bit of work now… but scraping, painting and iron finials will have to wait until spring.