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I am insanely envious of people who can take great photos. Right now, I am really enjoying Alex's pictures from her (ongoing) trip to Europe. You can check them out in her Flickr photostream and follow along on her blog.
Oh, and I didn't realize this until recently, but she also has a site —"How She Sees the World" — that documents her travels in photographs.
That's right. Jonathan Adler just released a collection of wallpaper.
In addition to the ready-to-go patterns and colors, you can actually have any of the designs done up in a custom color. Nice!
I have a real problem. I can't stop buying fabric! I have stacks and stacks of great textiles that will not be put to use any time soon. Still, I keep picking up more! But can you blame me when there are so many wonderful artists selling hand-screenprinted fabrics on Etsy? Like Melbourne-based Aunty Cookie:
I think the "Home Sweet Home" design (top image; also available in black) would be perfect for a pillow in the living room. But who knows when I'll actually get around to sewing that pillow ...
Hable Construction has teamed up with Pottery Barn Kids to make nurseries even more stylish. You can now order slipcovers in Hable patterns for most of the PBK seating. Cute!
Pssst ... Erin over at Design for Mankind kindly invited me to participate in her "The Dailies" series. You can read all about my Saturday — and check out some never-seen-before photos of my house — right here.
We are running out of empty wall space in our house, which may be a good thing. Because otherwise, I would be tempted to purchase some of the silkscreened posters in UK-based Soma Gallery's "It's Pop It's Art" collection. With the dollar falling, these are about USD300 each.
Wow. I have been a fan of Paula's work for some time. And I am really, really loving her new products for spring.
I may need to treat myself to one of her Panama shopper handbags ...
Remember the living room curtain issue? Elizabeth and I agreed that the Amy Butler fabric was a bit too pink, so we nixed it as the patterned band at the bottom of the grommeted panels. Then I remembered that I have a yard of Marimekko's "Liv" fabric.
We both think it works well with the rest of the room, but needs a little something more. (I've only pinned it in place to see how it looks.) A band of cardinal red or tomato red will probably be added between the curtain and the fabric.
The latest collection by this New York label is just starting to show up online. I like. Especially the dresses.
Pssst ... The arrival of the spring line means that the Fall 2007 goods are deeply discounted now!
The DwellStudio line at Target that is geared more towards adults is supposed to officially hit the stores this weekend, but some of the bedding and table linens have already arrived online.
Another day ... Another cool, new-to-me online shop!
Heather Knight's set of three urchin bowls
Lamps made with old umbrella handles and Ikea ceramic planters (clever!)
Valérydesignwrks' "Un thé" print
P.S. I thought it was a little odd that the product categories ("wear + carry" "space + place" "paper + prints") were identical to those on Elsewares, but it looks like some of the same folks are involved with both sites.
Why wasn't there a course on "How to Get George Clooney to Come Over for Dinner" when I was in J-School? I am jealous of this Time magazine reporter.
"He is good at slipping into many different worlds, even the one in my kitchen, where he is pouring in the egg mixture while I add the hot spaghetti for the carbonara. He reaches over and stirs the bacon, grabs a string bean from the pot and eats it. He is mad guesting, Olympic-level guesting. He's been over for two hours, and it occurs to me that the smooth bastard must have turned off his cell phone before he got here. When I leave the table to check on the lamb, he puts extra bacon on my pasta."
Now, that is my kind of dinner guest!
via Jezebel
I stumbled upon this great online shop today and there are so many things I want to buy. Sadie Olive has been around for about a year now, selling lots of French-inspired wares.
All images from Sadie Olive.
I never really met a windchime that I liked ... Until this weekend, when I came across this pinecone version at a local shop:
It's available in multiple sizes, but I thought the smallest sounded the best. So that's the one now hanging in my porch.
You may have noticed the addition of a button over their on the right-hand side of this blog. The "Let Levi Ride" campaign was established in response to the decision to keep Team Astana out of the 2008 Tour de France. I admit: I only recently got into the whole cycling thing, and in large part after I visited with Levi Leipheimer and his wife Odessa Gunn at their Santa Rosa home last year. I was in awe of the amount of work and sacrifice that their lifestyle requires; they are both so committed to cycling.
When Jon forwarded the LLR website to me, I immediately "signed" the petition. Because I can't imagine devoting my entire adult life, and most of my childhood, to a dream and having the opportunity to fulfill it so unfairly stripped away.
One of these days, I'll get around to adding a blogroll to my side nav. But until then, I'll just post from time to time about my favorites. Like a fairly new-to-me blog: Design for Mankind. I especially love "The Dailies" feature, which traces the life in the day of a creative type. Neat.
We enjoyed a super-mellow three-day weekend ... well, at least I did. Jon had to deal with a fair amount of work around the house, as well as in the office. (But the latter, although a bit of a pain, led to dinner at one of my favorite local restaurants — Hotaru — on Sunday night.) At least he got to check out the Tour of California, which kicked off in Palo Alto/Stanford on Sunday afternoon. (I quickly got bored and walked over to the mall.)
At home, I had a little to-do list for Jon that mostly entailed hanging stuff up. Here's one project that he wasn't responsible for because Elizabeth came over to help out:
P.S. In case you're wondering about the title of this post: During cycling races, it's a tradition to ring cowbells to cheer on the riders.
I am a big fan of Xenia Taler's tiles. But what I love even more? Her new tile boxes:
And did you know she also designs installation tiles? If only I had a surface that needed retiling ...
My new Lara Cameron fabric just arrived today and I cannot wait to make something with these great patterns. Maybe I'll copy her and put together some lamps!
Fantastic, right? And she even has a tutorial for the rest of us to follow.
Although I don't think I want my own bedroom to be bright and bold, I can appreciate well-designed rooms that are. For just a couple of nights, it would be fun to stay in a room that looks like this:
Or this:
Photos from the Maison 140 Beverly Hills.
A few weeks ago, at the Something's Hiding in Here opening at Rare Device, I picked up this stamp:
I don't live with many regrets. I feel like the decisions I've made, even the bad ones, have led me to where I am today. And that's a pretty darn good place, one I never take for granted — especially because there have been some rough patches along the way.
When I was 23, I dropped out of law school to pursue a degree in journalism. After journalism school, I passed up some fantastic career opportunities and ended up working for a failed dot-com. These might seem like mistakes. But you know what? That dot-com is where I met Jon. It's funny to look back and think about how something that seemed so simple completely changed the course of your life. (Oddly, going back a little further in history, I wouldn't have worked at that dot-com if it weren't for my three-month stint at a pet store while I was in grad school.)
Today, even though I'm not big into Valentine's Day, I'm wrapping up that stamp and giving it to my husband.
I've been meaning to post about this for a while now, but just kept forgetting. During our Christmas 2007 trip to Hilton Head Island, SC, we had a four-hour layover in Atlanta. While Jon napped in the Delta lounge, I flipped through the half-dozen magazines that I had picked up at the airport shop — including Decorating, which is one of those "special interest publications" released by Better Homes and Gardens.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there were several features that I really liked. My favorite was the profile of Erika and Joel Snayd's Savannah home. Check it out:
Apologies for the poor quality of my photographs of the magazine. I couldn't get the double-pages to fit on the scanner, so figured I'd go this route. Luckily, if you're interested, I think you still have about a week to try to track down the publication on the newsstands. Now I'm definitely going to keep my eye out for the next issue in case it's as good as the winter one!
Over at Apartment Therapy, I posted today about Christiana's San Francisco apartment. Here are just a few of the photos:
Christiana is the U.S. rep for Ferm Living; she incorporates their wonderful wallpapers throughout her apartment. I love love love her place.
While we were in Hayes Valley this weekend, we popped into Flight 001 (a store I love) and loaded up on Streetwise maps. These are my absolutely favorite. I also like the Moleskine City notebooks, which I carried with me in Prague and London last summer because they were small enough to fit into my pockets.
I'm excited about going to London again this year, but not excited about paying 30 USD for fish'n'chips. Stupid exchange rate.
If Jon would allow us to, we would be eating out seven nights a week. I'm just not one of those people who finds cooking to be enjoyable, relaxing, cathartic, etc. I have tried and tried, but it just feels like work to me. And I already do enough of that during the daytime.
So any weekend that involves good meals out = a good weekend to me. Some of the highlights from the past 2-3 days:
As if all of the above yumminess wasn't enough, we also snacked on all sorts of Miette treats throughout the weekend.
Yes, it's a good thing we're both seeing a personal trainer these days.
I really really really want one of these somewhere in my house:
Cute. The Happy Porcelain collection by Tina Roeder:
The strawberry and croissant are both on sale at Lekker.
Wow. How lovely is this:
It's Lisa Wong Jackson's living room (yes, the talented designer behind Good on Paper) — posted on the Bluelines blog today by Joy.
I am still searching for just the right wallpaper for our entry. Today, I found another contender: Camilla Meijer's patterns. The UK-based designer makes wallpaper, lampshades and cushions.
(You can also find some of her work in Soma Gallery's online shop.)
Jon and I don't exchange Valentine's Day gifts anymore. But if we did, I would be tempted to buy The Little Box of I Love You — which includes 40 postcards expressing adoration. Like these:
Even better? Make your own set of postcards to give to a loved one.
Currently lying on our living room rug, but (hopefully) soon to be hanging on our bedroom walls:
I really like Monsoon's collection of wallpaper for Graham & Brown, especially the Chrysanthemum pattern.
(You can order samples of any of the G&B wallpapers ... which I just did.)
And now I've got a case of the Mondays.
I think I need this:
"Roller Stop" is a new piece in Harry Allen's "Reality" collection. How perfect for our new shelving unit! (Available in April.)
