What's in a Name?

What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other word would smell as sweet.
--"Romeo and Juliet" Act I scene II

The other day at Lineage (my new restaurant job), I saw some of the servers chuckling over a bill. I wandered over to see what was so funny, and apparently, it was not the bill, but the person who had signed it: the unfortunately named "Lenny Poon." I giggled -- but then it occurred to me how often my name is probably the source of humor in restaurants and, let's face it, anywhere that strangers encounter my moniker.

In 18 months of blogging, I have never posted anything about my, er, unusual surname. Which is odd, considering that my blog's title directly alludes to the fact that my last name is two letters from being "vagina." For years, I HATED my name. I vowed that I would get rid of the pesky silent "g" as soon as possible. My father, when he went into the wine business, did just that -- his label was Vanino Cellars. It didn't seem to affect sales.

And yet....Vanino. It just doesn't look quite right, does it? That's basically how my name is pronounced (for those of you who have been too embarrassed to ask) -- though technically, the "gn" is not truly silent (think "lasagna"). To be honest, I like how my name sounds. "Katie Vagnino" has a nice, memorable ring.

Arguably, my brothers have it worse. They are males with a last name that resembles the female genitalia. I can only imagine what a horror middle school must have been for them. Somehow having a vagina makes having a name that looks like "vagina" not as bad.

Recently, I've come to terms with my name. Or rather, I've figured out how to deal with the inevitable conversation that happens at least once a month.

INSENSITIVE PERSON: Hey, you know what I thought your name was, when I first saw it?

I used to just roll my eyes and brace myself. But now I put on my best poker face.

ME: No.....what?

IP: (suddenly embarrassed) Uh...you know....well, it looks a lot like....um....

ME: (still playing dumb) Like what? I don't know what you're hinting at.

IP: (almost inaudible) Vagina.

ME: (in shock) Really? Oh my god, that's so crazy. No one has ever told me that before.

Which highlights the fact that OF COURSE I know what my damn name looks like, and you are only the 3,000,000th person to bring it up, thanks. With this blog, I feel like I am taking ownership of my name. Now I'm in on the joke, instead of just being the butt of it.

Butt....now THAT would be a hard name to grow up with.

Well Dressed Home by Annette Tatum

This holiday season I have been trying to tuck into my new favourite home design book, The Well-Dressed Home, borrowed from the library. Relatives and busyness has vied for my time and I find myself going back to the beginning to savour the photos again and again!



Annette Tatum's book The Well-Dressed Home is filled with beautiful photos... Annette shares about how one's wardrobe (wished or real) is able to render a beautiful home... and it is so inspiring. Photographs in this lovely tome are by Karyn Millet. (Read an interview with them here.)



Cococozy has also done a blogpost on it with an interview by Miss Tatum in which she talks about the mantra she firmly believes in: look to your own creative fashion style to guide you in your choices for your own home decor.



Of course, not everyone has a couture wardrobe, but restrained by body-shape, body-size, affordability, suitability, but the "wished-for" wardrobe equally plays a large part in being able to inspire your home decor...



I am one of those who have a wished-for wardrobe... I adore the vintage green Chanel coat that stylish Anne Hathaway wore on The Devil Wears Prada (which she then later bought at auction after the movie was produced):



Or this gorgeous trim look by said same woman:



I am drawn to boldly coloured but tailored, smart pieces. I also am drawn to luxurious fabrics like pure wool, taffeta, boucle... What does that translate to?

Back to Tatum...

In an interview with Free Spirit Fabric house blog, Annette Tatum mentions that she allows everything to inspire her, from "vintage textiles, old trims, wallpaper samples, colour chips... old documents and fabric samples that I have found from traveling" right to architectural building elements in old cities like NY or Paris.





I'll just HAVE to buy this book. It's too good to put down. It's too good NOT to have. I love that this is a how-to-style guide too, not just "Ooh have a look at this and that"....

Photos by Karen Millet

So You Think You Don't Like Poetry

First poem of 2010!

One of my resolutions is to send out more of my work this year in the hopes of getting more of it published. So I've been reading poems published recently in poetry journals by emerging poets and came across this poem by Heather Bell. It's brutal and beautiful, arresting as all good works of art should be.

Love

The truth about Klimt is: when he painted “The Kiss,”
he was also beating his beautiful wife. He beat her
with one hand and painted with the other. He got
two sad blisters on his right palm from this. His wife
sometimes slowly pulled up the roots to his favorite
willows and cut them, delicately, and then buried
them again. He jokes, “that’s what I get for marrying

a woman from a sanitarium!” but she was from
Vienna, they met in the street, he stopped her and
she believed his eyes said, “I do not want to die,
do not let me die,” so she touched his face, there,
in the street, as a person touches a comma on a
page after they have returned home from a place
that has no commas. On their wedding night, she

ran him a lukewarm bath and his testicles looked
like overripe plums. He raped her until a low moan
seemed to come from the walls, as if wolves were
angry and coming and Klimt went to bed forcefully
and his wife went to bed with dirty blood around
her nostrils and mouth. It goes on like this for years,

just as it goes on for years for everyone who marries
someone they cannot love. You step, body over
body, into the kitchen to kiss your sweat and rot
good morning. “Let me tell you something,” she
says on the day that he paints “The Kiss” and he
hits her in the head before she can remember the
something. She thinks it might have been important.
It might have been something. When he shows

the painting to his friends, they say he must be
the most romantic man in the world and she nods.
And the man in the painting pushes the woman
down further, flows into her, gold and angry, and
her eyes are shut and they do not look clenched
and this is puzzling, but no one else seems to notice.

The Best and Worst of 2009

2009.

Was anyone sorry to see it go? What a hot mess of a year. It was a very turbulent year for me and I definitely overdid it in terms of celebrating its end on New Year's Eve. In the tradition of People, one of my favorite magazines (stop judging me), I thought I'd reflect on some of the zeniths and nadirs of my last year in the first decade of the 21st century.

2009 was my first full calendar year in Boston. It was the year I became a published poet. A year in which I was single for less than a month (compared to being single for virtually all of 2007 and none of 2008). In 2009, I worked at an incompetently-run sushi restaurant that is now closed before getting hired at a legit high-end establishment. I traveled a good deal in 2009, visiting friends in Chicago and San Francisco, hiking in Telluride, and getting stung by a jellyfish in Puerto Rico. I joined a vocal band and spent time with a radical feminist. I watched one of my brothers graduate from college and one of my friends from college get married. I saw Britney Spears in concert for free. I discovered that two people I thought were close friends actually were not. I cooked a prime rib roast and rode a mechanical bull. In 2009, I drank too much, spent too much, and wrote too little. I went skiing for the first time in three years. I became a sex columnist and an Elite Yelper. I felt lonely, I felt exhilarated, I felt exhausted. I tried and failed to get a job at Uno's Pizzeria. I threw myself two birthday parties. I won $100 in a karaoke contest. For the first time in years, I kissed someone I loved at midnight on New Year's Eve.

I could go on, but I'm ready to let 2009 go, aren't you?

Colin & Justin

I am a big fan of the wonderful people Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan are, and the work they demand and produce. I discovered them in 2006 when I was in Canada for 3 months, watching HGTV day in, day out...

Colin and Justin's book, the Home Heist

Now they have finally arrived to Australia's FreetoAir on How Not to Decorate, which is such a cool move by Channel Seven! :) But of course, this is 2 years old stuff... But anyhow, I love their work and thought I'd gather some of my favourite before and afters floating around www from their Home Heist seasons:

LIke this fab basement makeover:



Black, white and yellow living/dining:

Nugget of wisdom from the duo: One of the easiest ways to create a changeable interior is to opt for a predominance of neutral walls against which other detailing can be layered as and when required.

One of the things I love about the duo is their versatility in being able to create stunning diverse styles... to suit the tastes of the home owner.. like this gorgeous bright country-feel living room:



I do love Justin's more flamboyant's personal style... esp his trademark OTT brooches:



And what about the gorgeous chocolate wall backdrop for these two funny designers? I love the sideboard with the white Ikea framing black and white shots, with the lime green vases ... mmm chic, no? A makeover for a office boss!

Another tip from the duo: Unify! If you're not starting from scratch, unify mismatched existing furniture with a coat of paint or spray varnish.

I love this next touch of the bright orange light shades in this Toronto loft space, so totally individual!

Another tip: To help create a successful kids bedroom, good storage is paramount. With this in mind, make sure you add loads of sleek drawer systems, tons of roomy storage boxes and legions of bottomless chests!

Not my favourite look, but this lustry bathroom is sensational!



And this masculine, and striking black, grey and white living room:



And this sweet yet modern purple and white living room, with custom stripes flanking the fireplace!

Tip: If your rooms are small and you have to work with a staircase, dispense with the idea of a drywall banister (that could have made an already small home feel even tighter). Opt instead for two- by two-inch timber struts placed at two-inch intervals at either side. Painted crisp white, they help sharpen the scheme and provide wondrous decorating pop against a backdrop.

And one of my favourite wow rooms, a glorious modern take on a very traditional foyer.. love the sharp navy blue and white wallpaper, painted staircase... with the traditional rounded base round table painted glorious white... mmmm:

Tip: An auspiciously hung mirror will help bounce natural light (not to mention a last place to check your pucker before leaving for work) while carefully positioned lamps will provide atmospheric glow upon entry. If you've space for a console, pop a lamp either side, and a mirror between, to make a wonderful statement.

Another tip: If you have a long skinny hall which you'd like to visually foreshorten, then choose a paint shade a tone or two darker than main areas and use this on the wall furthest from the entrance. You'll be amazed at the difference.

Yet another tip: Hallways with extra tall ceilings can be tamed with a dado rail. Paint the area above the rail a few shades darker than your main wall colour to bring down perceived height.

Love this raspberry (more watermelon to me) and white living room update too!



I love yellow as you might have discovered... but this BRIGHT yellow kitchen feels a little too much, but nevertheless, stunning!

Hot tip: If you're planning a top-tier shade such as this, the duo recommend detail-free doors. Extra carving or scribing plus such a bright colour spec would simply be a stage too far.

Another great point: Because the yellow is so eye poppingly bright, another dramatic shade on the walls would have confused matters. Select a soft colour to create diffused contrast. Warmer tones such as cream or magnolia would be completely wrong in tandem with our bright primary shade and would have diminished impact resulting in "muddy" or visually "dirty'' aesthetics.

A white bedroom with restrained red touches that feel almost restful!

Another tip, of course! The before walls was a deep red, so the duo advise to save money, using big-box-store budget latex for the first couple of coats of white, then finishing off with a coat of premier quality product.

I'm not a fan of feature/accent walls, but C&J assuade my trepidations with painting the adjoining wall AND the stair treads the same colour!



What about a tartan-check bedroom? Sounds awful? Not when C&J get to it!



Those gorgeous Home-Sense-prettied-up lamps were only $50 a pop!

Oooh. My heart stopped when I first saw this yellow, white and black bedroom...



Another country feel bedroom with a smart pale blue and white feel... and more white furniture:



Ohh. Another beautiful room in white and charcoal, restrained, smart and definitely chic.



What about pink? Soft pink living room



And this great idea for a bedhead: paint it on!



How funny that these two unabashedly gay comedic design gurus grace the covers of 2 Harlequin romances??

Lastly I leave you with Justin's oft-used phrase: To fail to plan is to plan to fail!

Any chance of getting full DVDs of seasons, guys??? Since we'll probably get to watch Home Heist on Australian TV in 2014!!

All photos are from Your Home, Canada.

Zara Home for iPhone

Zara Home has a gorgeous app for iPhone :) Loving the pretty pictures!!

The Classic Chic: The Little Black Dress of Interiors

Via Etsy seller KittyKatKards

There is an old adage that if a woman walks into a room and is complimented on her dress, then it is not a good dress; if she is told that she looks good, then the dress is a success...



The dress is designed for the wman, not the other way around.



For a home interior to endure, it too has to suit its wearer, the inhabitant.



It takes time to form a multi-faced home into a fluid whole. A mere collection of beautiful furnhiture is not nenough, nor does it make for wellbeing.

Suzanne Trocme, The Classic Chic.