LIGHT FIXTURES

I desperately want this light fixture. I have for years, ever since I saw it on an HGTV design show. It's a bit more than I want to spend at this point in my life though. Maybe I should try and make one. How hard could that be?

ETERNITY TO FOLLOW

I saw Matt Dorfman's invite on Design Sponge today. How can you not love the story! Great design too. (Stupid blogger, you'll need to click on the image to read it, because of the size restrictions.)

NPR

I love NPR and I love creative people and I'm really loving little dioramas lately. 3d artwork in general. Here they are all combined in a piece of artwork done by Grady Mcferrin for an NPR calendar. I love how he does the leaves on the trees.


Here is some other stuff he's done. Awesome.

OVERHEARD

"You have really cute feet."
"Are you sure you're looking at my feet?"
"Ya, they are really cute, well . . . except this big toe"
"Uh huh"
"And this second toe has a weird curve to it."
"Yes. . ."
"But this third toe, it's really cute."

BEFORE AND AFTER

So I was looking at my yard when I first moved into my house this weekend and comparing it to how it looks now. Wow, I am amazing. Seriously? Is it bad to have too much self pride. I feel bad for the number of plants I killed in the process of getting it here though. May they rest in peace.

Before






After

I'M A SCIENTIST

Once again I'm stealing photos from Jen. It was my Birthday last week and my team did the best desk decor I've ever had. Nothing like having a scientist in your midst to make these dumb artists around here smarter.

THE MAGIC OF CHALK

Wow, I am soooo digging this song, Autumn Story, by the Firekites and the animation that goes along with it completely sells it for me.

I am entranced.

Firekites - AUTUMN STORY - chalk animation from Lucinda Schreiber on Vimeo.

FLOWERS

I have found the most beautiful flowers today on Martha's website. The top one is a paper technique you can make with leftover scraps of paper. LOVE IT!  And while I still love paper flowers, I have now found these incredible clay flowers which may just trump the paper. So stunning. I might have to invest in the book at some point. They really remind me of the flowers people do out of fondant.

SILK RIBBON

A while back I was looking at the Oh Happy Day blog admiring the silk ribbon embroidery she was showcasing. I can't get it out of my head and think I might give it a try.


Wouldn't it be fun to do it along the bottom of a skirt. I do love how it's done on this J Crew Dress.

RICK-ROLL

This is my team. I love them. A creative group of awesome people that couldn't be cooler to work with. I stole these photos from Jen and will also steal her words, because why rewrite something so well written . . .

This past Thursday at work we celebrated Markus' birthday. Our theme? Rick-rolling! I won't get into how we came up with that as our theme...but let's just say...it was awesome timing. His entire cubicle was covered in Rick Astley posters...


I really wish I had gotten pictures/video of his card. We actually got a hold of one of those sound-bite mechanisms for musical cards, which was cleverly disguised inside the card behind a cut-out of Rick Astley's head, with a "Don't Push This!" reverse psychology button, right? ... & when you pressed it, it played a recording of "Never Gonna Give You Up". Brilliant.

Markus had brought in some of his vintage ties he collects, for a project he's working on, so later that day he gave us a quick lesson on how to tie a Windsor knot. Some of us had a bit of trouble (*a-hem* Lauren) workin' the tie...

After we were all rockin' our vintage ties we had a quick photo shoot...

My awesome design team members include The Ultra-Fabulous Patti B, 'Nessa VonThinkWe'reAloneNow, Julie Vogue McFly, Markus The Miami Vice Pimp, and Lauren McNailed-It (as in her tie...finally).

And the rest of these were too good not to share. I encourage you to click for a larger version of these...there's some classic face-work happenin' ;) I love these guys.

FIRST BIRTHDAY

Today was my little nieces birthday and she was completely adorable. I love her. We decorated her main "photo op" cake last night until 11 pm. This "dive in" cake is pink whip cream that made its way up to her elbows, ears and hair. I had to pull out my phone to get some pics. She's so cute even through a phone.

Happy Birthday! A year sure passes fast.

DECORATORS

If I were to ever win Powerball I would use some of the money to hire a decorator and it would be one of these women. One I saw on Design Sponge and the other I used to watch religiously when I had HGTV.

I wish I lived in a state that had Powerball. However, when I did live in a state that did have it I never played, but it didn't stop me from dreaming about it.

Jessica Helgerson uses neutrals in the most lovely way





Candice Olsen has the best lighting design.

I'M IN LOVE

And it's not with a man it's with the 2unfold bag from Hand Graft. (Although the man in the photo is pretty cute). All of these photos belong to one bag. Seriously, it can do all of these things. It can hold a 17" laptop or fold down into a clutch. I like the messenger look and the clutch look the most. The canvas comes from reversing it inside out. Genius. If I had 500 bucks just lying around I'd get one. How do I become that woman who needs $40K a week just to survive.

Venessa found some awesome inspiration online today.

PERFECT PILLOWS

Now, as a little girl I hated ruffles. I wore them because it was the 70's and the beginning of the 80's and my mom sewed my clothes. I guess I could handle it in the dresses until I hit junior high, but the underwear was more than I could bear, or bare if you like. I think I had ruffly underwear even before I was in kindergarten. I hated them and cried if I had to wear them.

Which makes it strange that I LOVE these pillows done by my childhood friend, college roommate for a time, and even sister, The Lazy Organizer. Sister is a questionable term though, if you were to equate her to a Woman of the Amazon, then I would be a Pigmy.

But I look at these pillows and I want to fill my couch and bed, then luxuriate in them like her little girl is. I want to be a girly girl. I'm just really digging the red, pink and lime green together. I wonder why?

Oh well, my Pigmy furnishings will have to do for now.<

LITTLE PERKS

My Etsy site gets a nice little lift when my stuff is shown on Etsy's front page. This time in the gift section, and two items listed FIRST! 

No sales, but it still adds a little cheer to my day.

TALENT

You guys should check out what my friend Kristina is up to. Talent oozing from ever finger.

101 & COUNTING

100-year-old celebrates her birthday by smoking 170,000th cigarette

Last night my Etsy site hit 100 sales and now it's up to 101. It's a red letter day! In celebration I stayed up late on the internet researching things to go with my 100 moment and it would be a mistake not to start with the above Winnie Langley.

Fittingly if Winnie's lungs haven't given out on her yet, she is now officially 101 (my current sales data) as this article I found was old. And she must be as sharp as a tack if she can remember the number of cigarettes she has smoked in her lifetime. I can't even remember where I park my car at work. What does Winnie attribute her longevity to? I quote, "Mrs Langley insists she's never suffered because of the habit as she "has never inhaled". . . That sounds strangely familiar.

Second we'll talk about how it is the 100 year anniversary of how Ernest Shackleton's expedition claims to have found the Magnetic South Pole, but the location recorded for it may be incorrect. So, what we are to learn from this Wikipedia entry of things that happened in 1909, is that even declarations are historically important, because apparently this dude didn't in fact find the South Pole, but some random spot next to it. So, in the spirit of historical declarations, I claim that I have found the Magnetic Mountain West Pole on my run this morning. You heard it here first. I put it in my back pocket. Did you get that Wikipedia?

Third is AFI's top 100 movies, selected by AFI's blue-ribbon panel. I really think that AFI should rename their blue-ribbon panel because now I can't get the image of large pigs at the state fair out of my mind. Anyway, I digress; the 100th movie is Yankee Doddle Dandy. I've seen and it was very entertained by it. Moving on.

Fourth, I would love to write what the 100th song is on Billboards Top 100 today, but apparently you have to be a subscriber to see the lowest numbers on the chart. Who cares about number 1! The rudest thing I can say about Billboard and keep this thing PG is that your all a bunch of Blue-Ribbon Panelists!

Fifth, on the S&P 100 Apple is trading at 95.93 and Microsoft is trading at 16.65. I wish I had stock in Apple. Well, I wish I had stock in Microsoft as well and had cashed out when it was high. Apparently Bill Gates' wife wants an iPhone SO bad, but she is forbidden from owning one. I have an iPhone. Na na na na neener, I have something you can't buy with all your copious amounts of money. . . Somehow I don't feel better.

Anyway, that's it. I was toying with the idea of making this a list of 100 Facts About 100, but truthfully a list of 5 is long enough.

BLAH BLAH BLAH

Sometimes, when things seem to be going awry, it's nice to look at something pretty. These letterpress items from Studio on fire are pretty luscious. Jen and I were drooling over them today at work.

CORALINE

It's been kind of a while since I've posted. I guess nothing profound has hit me. Good inspiration has happened however. I went with a group of girlfriends to the movie Coraline. I love stop animation and this was wonderful. You should really go see it. And don't take your kids. I think it's a little scary for them.

Here are a few photos. I love to see behind the scenes to get a sense of all the work that goes into an animated film.

THE ANTI-DIAMOND

I saw this ring on the front page of Etsy a couple days ago and fell in love. I call it the Anti-diamond ring. It's completely rocker cool and really a classic. Filled with silver instead of a gem, genius. So if your looking for something edgy and none traditional, but will still last a long time...I think this is your baby. You can find it here.


This is cool as well.


This is my favorite though.