Mini Maven’s retro rockstar bathroom

Our whole little household has been a bit under the weather this week with head & chest colds. I’ve always said that February is the most brutal month. I am NOT a winter person. I grew up in Florida where we wear flip-flops and tank tops to Christmas dinner. Whenever winter comes around, there’s that Winter Wonderland magic that happens for a brief stint, based on never knowing it until my late 20s, but the bottom line is that it is not even second nature to me — it is simply NOT in my nature at all! When I start bemoaning, bewailing, & carping on and on about the cold temps and gray drear, I always say the same thing, “I have reptilian blood.” All native Floridians feel this way. If I were an iguana, I would be falling out of a tree and be kicking a bucket right now.
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Our former retro-modern combo kitchen.

As most of you know, we have bought a new home. We are SO hopped up! This Saturday we get the keys and will be free to start painting, mild renovations, and moving ourselves over. We have just a couple days under a month to do so. SOOO thrilling! And busy. We’re going to be some seriously busy, buzzy bees until April 1st (and after with all the decorating & furnishing)! Whoosh.

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Introducing country music singer & songwriter, Abbi Scott!

It’s time for the formal introduction of country music’s fresh and new sweetly spunky face! Country music fans all over the world, meet the ever-so sensational Abbi Scott! She’s been compared to the likes of Miranda Lambert, Gretchen Wilson, and Kellie Pickler… Yet, the talented truth is that there simply is no parallel to this petite, plucky little superstar — Abbi Scott is an unrivaled and rare gem striking out in the industry like wildfire. Her bold and bright musical style is a bona fide blaze of raw, striking spirit. Abbi Scott, AND her music, are full of pizazz, pluck, pep, potency, passion, purpose and power that packs a solid punch, all the while doing it in the most virtuous, good-hearted, and wholesome way. This country girl is all heart with the right stuff! You know it the instant you see her face and the genuineness behind her blazing blue eyes; the color of an open, clear sky up ahead.
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Fabu flapper girl in an equally fabulous Cloche!

We’re all in the know that chatty Angelika Frangelico fancies hats. Fancy might be a featherweight word, to be frank. “Total madcap ardor & amour” might be more beseeming. However, hats from the 1920s are my most favs. And though I may feel inclined to write about them today because of an equally madcap ardor & amour for Downton Abbey, this was long before DA came into my life like a televised, theatrical book put to technicolor. I continue to love hats up until the mid-1960s (and there’s just about nothing I like about the 70s, not fashion, not film, not art, and certainly not automobiles! Bleck!), but the 1920s win out on my hatrack. I love the Bell hat, the Bowler hat, the Dotty hat, and even the sequined beret, but there is one 1920s style of hat that I can’t find a single outfit in my wardrobe that it doesn’t wear well with, and that’s the forever fetching Cloche hat!

(And I did say in *MY* wardrobe, so yes, it might not compliment a flannel shirt or football jersey. ::lookaskance::)
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Welcome to our NEW HOUSE!

This is not the regularly scheduled program: Today’s Maven Mall Monday is being forfeited for something MUCH BIGGER & much more THRILLING…! What’s Ravin, Maven? now has a SPANKIN’ NEW headquarters — Darling Hotbuns & I BOUGHT A NEW HOUSE!!! We’re officially HOMEOWNERS as of this morning at 9AM! We close on March 3rd and will be free to start painting walls & moving in (and up) immediately! By April 1st, just a little over a month from now, we will be all moved into OUR divine, new home, the home we plan to stay in until retirement age. We will turn in the keys to our current residence to new habitants and start the next phase of our life in our new gorgeous place for years to come. I can’t EVEN express to you how hopped up we all are! The degree to which I am hyperactive today is borderline schizophrenic & that of Augustus Gloop and Violet Beauregarde in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I am bouncing off the walls like a pinball wizard, then whizzing through the air not unlike a balloon that got let go of before it was tied off. I am full of helium & blissful elation! On top of finding my dream darling gent, together we will all now be living the dream in our dream HOME — a beauteous & beloved black & gray 3-story Charleston-style home with 2-story porches & the proverbial white picket fence. Somebody pinch me, pronto! I need to get out of La-La Land because this is REAL, dearies! #ohmygoodnessgraciousme
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