Posts by compound complex

My pet beavers, Leva and Tuu, have occupancy of the master bath, their aqueous home being the not small Roman tub. Being the literate and clever cleavers they are, Leva and Tuu went through my entire collection of ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST and HYDRAULICS FOR DAILY LIVING and conspired to render them into a dam spanning the estimable breadth of said Roman tub.

What shall I do?

June

Dear June,

Send the Beavs to college. Get new magazines (back copies are pricey but eminently obtainable).

Rather than allowing yourself to get bent all out of shape and giving these rascally rodents the business, I'd recommend that you should see the aqueous humour in this incident fraught with mandible mirth!

Dam droll, but I do sympathize. No one touches my ADs!

CC

11

COsmo's COrner: Household Hints, from soup to nuts

by compound complex in

hi, cosmo.. my name is rosemarie.

i come from a long line of wonderful italian cooks and chefs.

however, it seems i am missing the cuisnart gene.

compound complex

Dear Cosmo,

I am stuck in a time warp of sorts, decor-wise.
My childhood home was very nice but dull and uninspired. Mother had good taste and Dad allowed her to buy any furniture she wanted. It all came from a rather tony establishment, H.H. Croft and Sons, as I recall. It wasn't that the furniture was unattractive. The problem was the artificial and impractical arrangement of the pieces in the living room and dining room, in particular.
While my husband and I haven't the means to go out and buy like my parents did (I do have some of my parent's upholstered furniture and occasional pieces), I find myself reverting to old patterns that are pleasant to look at but say, "You may look but do not touch!" We want to live in all our rooms and not be neurotic about a little clutter or an odd but novel approach to things.
Do you have any suggestions, just for starters?
Thank you for your time.
Jeannie Glover
Dear Jeannie:
Our beloved Cosmo is on a buying junket in Istanbul but has, nevertheless, forwarded your inquiry.
Let us say that that decor, circa-1950 (an estimate of your parent's era), was an incalculable misdemeanor of faux pas dementia, and you are certainly justified in coming to your designing senses, no disrespect intended toward your poor misguided but, well . . . misguided parents! May they rest in peace. (They have passed on, I assume.)
We'll chat later about cozy, intimate areas for meaningful conversation amongst friends who pay you a visit; how to render more open and accessible your hurly burly traffic areas; how to emphasize minimally through understated elegance; and how to visualize and understand spatial concepts with regard to opening up a tiny room both metaphorically and literally (no need to go hammer-and-tongs with a sledge hammer).
Cheerio!
Staff Dweeb

11

COsmo's COrner: Household Hints, from soup to nuts

by compound complex in

hi, cosmo.. my name is rosemarie.

i come from a long line of wonderful italian cooks and chefs.

however, it seems i am missing the cuisnart gene.

compound complex

Always prefer them in those clear, glass, vases - so simple and beautiful. -- LV101

Yes, simple always works and makes the better statement. I was raised Italian and still must have pasta daily.

Tante grazie!

I never said I could sing................ -- punkofnice

I was trained in the classics, but your musical episode, strangely, resonates with me on a whole new level. Reminds me of the punk on the bus whose ghetto blaster was screaming out "I hate you!" The scene is from Star Trek: The Voyage Home.

Thank you!

11

COsmo's COrner: Household Hints, from soup to nuts

by compound complex in

hi, cosmo.. my name is rosemarie.

i come from a long line of wonderful italian cooks and chefs.

however, it seems i am missing the cuisnart gene.

compound complex

11

COsmo's COrner: Household Hints, from soup to nuts

by compound complex in

hi, cosmo.. my name is rosemarie.

i come from a long line of wonderful italian cooks and chefs.

however, it seems i am missing the cuisnart gene.

compound complex

11

COsmo's COrner: Household Hints, from soup to nuts

by compound complex in

hi, cosmo.. my name is rosemarie.

i come from a long line of wonderful italian cooks and chefs.

however, it seems i am missing the cuisnart gene.

compound complex

Fresh-cut flowers: an ephemeral but lovely addition to a room . . .

Bringing Spring's first blush of color inside your home is an immediate and simple means to liven up an otherwise static interior. Not to mention, a surefire means to deal with SAD.

While you may prefer the hued profusion and visual cacophony of a wildly mixed bouquet, Cosmo finds rest and repose in the simplicity of a volume of white blossoms -- paper whites -- set against their green foliage [stems showcased through a clear vase] as Nature's inimitable way of soothing the savage breast.

Need a bit of warmth, however, to perk up a room gloomy from Winter's overstayed welcome? Is this season ever happily anticipated? Well, then, choose a yellow floral arrangement. Jonquils -- particularly the old standby, King Alfred -- are ever in favor as elevators of heart, spirit, soul. They smell good, too!

You may be pleased to discover that your sticking to a single color of blossoms will serve as a glorious focal point as Nature's evolving decor takes you from bud to blossom to blast.

18

Eldub that get stuck on a word or phrase!

by DwainBowman in

eldub that get stuck on a word!.

over the years i have been around a few, that if a "big" or "unusual" word or phrase is used at the assembly or by a co/do, to stress a point.

then eldub "somebody" will use it at every meeting, if they can find a way to squeeze it into a part or commit.. most of them get over it after a few meetings.

compound complex

Hi, Dwain:

One frequently used "specifically" but pronounced it "pacifically."

Another used "basically" way too much. Also, my Bible study teacher from 57 years ago declaimed "as it were" at least a dozen times per talk.

11

COsmo's COrner: Household Hints, from soup to nuts

by compound complex in

hi, cosmo.. my name is rosemarie.

i come from a long line of wonderful italian cooks and chefs.

however, it seems i am missing the cuisnart gene.

compound complex

People! People!
Don't let's go nutty over too many patterns in a confined area of your living quarters.
We're heading back to the dining room as our current example of being imaginative and colorful yet not endeavoring to outdo a mid-eastern bazaar for brazen color and loud displays of uncontrolled textile exuberance.
You have likely spent an earl's ransom on a colorful and vividly patterned oriental rug. This woven wonder, of its own accord, takes center stage in any room where it happens to be lying in glorious horizontal repose. If you have chosen to set upon it your dining arrangement of table and chairs and discover that -- due to ill-advised and/or ill-planned juxtaposing of various furnishings -- there is a blinding flash of visually chaotic color and pattern because of fabric found upon seat cushions, well, let's do something about it and not titter unduly!
It stands to reason that you're not about to toss the carpeting that cost you so dearly. Taking a color (I prefer the deeper tones, personally) from the rug, find a suitable (by suitable I mean both durable and color-correct) new fabric for your cushions that complements the floor covering but that does not compete visually with it.
You are seeking (it is sincerely hoped) an aesthetic harmony between chair cushions (that, I might add, if I have not already made my point sufficiently clear, are newly of a non-patterned fabric) and rug.
The resultant ambience will promote better digestion and family concord.
CC