top design mama

So do any of you watch Top Design? Every time I do I dream all night about the room I am trying to quickly design and put together. Last night, in my dream there were continuously two minutes left and every time I looked somewhere there was more clutter to put away. Edit, edit, edit I kept muttering to myself. But instead of thousands of dollars worth of accessories I was paring down, it was piles of folded clothes and extra couch cushions piled into forts in every nook and cranny of the room. . . at least the clothes were folded.

But what I adored, ADORED, about this last episode was that one of the top five contestants told the judges that she wanted to go home. The judges, of course, could not comprehend it; could not get their hugely inflated egos around this idea. Oh my gosh, oh good heavens what could possibly be more important than becoming America's next TOP designer? They fretted over her poor decision to not further her career, shook their heads disapprovingly, dismayed and were offended. But I thought Andrea (the contestant) said it very nicely. "I am a mother first". Amen sister.

And btw, if more of the rooms looked like this picture (which is not from the show--but the chandelier is similar to one of the ones the designers had to design around. breath.) I would be a more faithful viewer. Purple, red, neon green and life-size rattan horses do not constitute a well designed room in my humble (i really am not humble) opinion.