What's going on?

Oh, not too much.



You?

Beget, begat, begot

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my neighborhood? I wouldn't say my block, necessarily, as I live at the dodgy end of this particular street. But generally my East Dallas neighborhood is lovely. Specifically Lakewood. And all of its nooks and crannies. And distinct lack of McMansions and little boxes.

So one night, watching House Hunters begat an internet search that begat this article from the DMN last year. Which begat this renovation crush.



The folks that bought the Parks Estate were featured on House Hunters as a couple trying to decide between three different houses, of course. But per the article, it seems they were smitten on this 1922 house from the start. Can you blame them?



Well, it looked pretty bad when they found it, indeed. It had served as the East Dallas YMCA from 1957 until 1999, when the Y moved out and the house fell into disrepair. In 2007, Preservation Dallas took over and started seeking a buyer who could restore the home to its natural beauty.



The Parks Estate is only a little over a mile from my pad. I think I need to walk over there someday soon, just to see it. And what a pretty walk it would be, too.



Holy geeze, the kitchen is my favorite. We saw much more of it on the show. And the Batchelder tiles on the fireplaces. Oooh.



Built in 1922, Mr. Parks had moved out of his old home on Swiss Avenue into this, his new house, which today is just a few blocks away. But at the time, a few blocks distance meant you were just outside the city limits, and could build an estate on 22 sprawling acres. Ha! Bearing in mind we are only about 5 miles from downtown. Ah, such simple times back then.



Don't you just love old houses? Sigh. If you follow the link to that article, you'll find a few more photos and details on the house and its renovation. You know, if you're into that sorta thing.

I has a Labbit

A hazard of Christmas shopping, when you haven't been in stores much lately, is that you might see things you like.

Meet my Labbit.



I found him in We Are 1976, a new shop just about a half mile or so from my apartment. I was in there this past week after work, looking for gifts, and the Labbit caught my eye. I brought him home under the guise of gifting him to a child, but yeah. I'm keeping him. I think he is swell.

Labbit comes in many variations as you can see on the Kidrobot site. Labbit also smokes, though I have discouraged this.

Labbit's tag instructs me to pet him daily so that he doesn't get lonely and run off to join the circus. So I'm going to go do that now. Then I gotta get to bed. I've got to be up early to go cheer on the runners in the White Rock Marathon tomorrow!

Polar Bear Report

What the eff?! So cute. Holy geeze.


polar bear painting by LoucheLab on etsy

Just cos I've been spending a wee bit too much time on etsy lately. It's bound to happen. The polar bears, they find me. And then I share.

Picked one

Thanks for the lovely suggestions everyone! The key suggestion, though, came from Meg, who directed me to Pandora, where I plugged in "White Christmas" by The Drifters (another all-time favorite), and in the mix it produced for me, I stumbled upon an album I'd tried to buy years ago only to discover it was out of print. Could not be had. Unless you had an old copy, of course.



I hadn't searched for it in ages, and so I logged onto Lala.com (my mp3 purchasing and downloading service of choice), and there it was. Turned out it was re-released only just this past October.

Holy crap, so worth the wait. Phil Spector's wall of sound meets Christmas. Go buy or download it now. iTunes has it too. XOXO