Jude Fitzgerald salvages items from a mud-filled basement in Brattleboro, Vt. The state took the brunt of the storm’s torrential rains. (Jessica Hill / Associated Press)

My heart aches for Vermont; for all my old neighbors and friends who are digging out from some of the worst flooding the state has seen.  And, tragically, most people don’t have flood insurance.  Whole towns are cut off from food and supplies by washed out roads and bridges.   This article from the Rutland Herald highlights the plight of the 300 person town of Pittsfield VT:

Many of the townspeople have been meeting daily at 7 a.m., doing head checks and making sure the day’s work assignments are clear. The meetings have been very well attended, he said, and the volunteers have been working long hours.

A bulletin board has been set up for public notes and notices. A curfew has been put in place. A 15 mph speed limit has been imposed across town because of all the pedestrians and children around. Gravel is being harvested using one of three excavators, two loaders and a small fleet of dump trucks.

Borden said there is no room for an emergency, especially a medical-related one. Even though there is a doctor, a physicians assistant and an emergency room nurse in town, “we can’t afford an incident.”

To Help: Text FOODNOW to 52000 and pay $10 on your cell bill that will go to the Vermont Foodbank, and be turned into $60 worth of groceries for local families in need.

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Dollhouses are on my mind. I recently purchased this dollhouse ($20 on Etsy!) as a sort of meme for the townhouse of my fantasy life.  I love this image from 1910 of the Carnegie playground on Fifth Avenue and feast your eyes on the third dollhouse  — made for a member of the Vanderbilt family in 1883 and a replica of an actual house that stood at 660 Fifth Avenue! Some part of my decorative arts heart exploded when I first saw this.  More here.  (Via Fuck Yeah, Victorians).

PS: Also loving this paper doll house.

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Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room James McNeill Whistler, 1834–1903 Oil paint and gold leaf on canvas, leather, and wood Gift of Charles Lang Freer Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution

For all the my decorative arts nerds and Cooper-Hewitt friends:

For the first time in 25 years, the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art will open the shutters of James McNeill Whistler’s famed Peacock Room for public view on the third Thursday of each month, beginning Aug. 18, 12-5:30 p.m. Visitors to the room will have a chance to experience the tonal subtleties and decorative variations of Whistler’s “harmony in blue and gold” visible only in natural sunlight.

The museum installed ultraviolet- and visible-light-filtering film on the windows, allowing visitors to see the beauty of the room in natural light while minimizing the effects of light fading. Peacock motifs that would ordinarily blend into the background, along with the glazed surfaces and complex textures of ceramics on display, are clearly visible. In the light-filled interior, the ghostly presence of the embossed patterns of the room’s leather wall hangings, which were part of the design created by the room’s architect, Thomas Jeckyll, and later covered in Prussian blue paint by Whistler, is discernable.

This series is offered in conjunction with “The Peacock Room Comes to America” exhibition and will continue through spring 2013. A docent will also be on hand to offer informal conversations with visitors from 12 to 2 p.m., along with an in-depth tour of the room at 2 p.m., where visitors can learn the story of Whistler’s controversial decorations and explore other works by the artist.

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Our entry way is my favorite part of the house.  Every time I walk in or out the door I feel happy.  So the view from our front door is directly into our bedroom (you can just see a snippet in the first photo), then the diagonal view is to the living room and to your right is Alex’s room. To your left is our kitchen (you can just see part of Alex’s play kitchen in the hallway).

The biggest change from when we first moved in are the amazing FLOR tiles Jenny suggested.  I also love the row of wooden hooks I put up (along with an ikea photo ledge).  Other details include: Nate Berkus sette in grey velvet, a selection of paint chips I threw together for Alex’s nursury in a fit of nesting and a mid-centruy modern bench that was our coffee table in our old apartment.

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I found these hot orange tissue boxes at Target a few months back and stocked up on them.  These are so simple, so orange, so chic if that word can ever apply to something as dowdy as Kleenex.  They are the Target house brand “Up & Up”.  PS this is a tiny peek into our bedroom.  Our bedside tables are from West Elm (I don’t think they carry them anymore) and the mural is a reproduction of a Zuber print from the 1830s.

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