What a shame my birthday has just passed, as I’m rather enamoured of these and can think of quite a few places they’d fit in our house. I may have to sneak one or two in.
The cushions are hand silk-screened on sturdy barkcloth by graphic designer Erin Flett in a variety of gorgeous on trend colours.
I think this chair is crying out for one, don’t you? Going to see if I can get some in the shop too. Find Erin at www.erinflett.com and buy her pillows on Etsy.
You were going to get a ‘Go Fug Your Room’ post today, but I’ve just discoved that my scanner software has been updated and I have NO CLUE how to operate it. Sometimes I think there’s a conspiracy amongst software designers to make me grumpy.
But I digress.
I first came across gurgling fish pitchers when I was living in France as a student. The parents of one of the kids I was giving private lessons to would often invite me for dinner and a jump in their swimming pool afterwards (AND I got paid!) and at dinner would bring out their gurgling fish jug.
Air gets trapped in the tail-shaped handle, making a delightful ‘glug glug’ sound when it’s poured. To this day that sound will always remind me of chilled rose’ on a summer’s evening. The jug was an fearsome majolica beast though, that looked something like this.
I’ve never wanted to have something so butt-ugly on my dining table, so you can imagine how happy I was to discover that the clever people at Gurgle Pots have reimagined the fish pitchers for the 21st century, giving them a simplified and streamlined design and producing them in a range of on-trend colours.
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Buy them here and listen to them gurgle here. I bought mine (the aqua one in the top picture) at a little cookshop in Fairhaven in Bellingham. It makes the whole family smile every time we use it.
People often say that what’s seen on the catwalk will show up pretty soon in interiors, but it’s not so often that interiors inspiration shows up on the catwalk.
Greek designer Mary Katrantzou gave her first stand-alone collection at London Fashion Week, taking as her inspiration old pictures from The World of Interiors and Architectural Digest.
Katrantzou heightened the colour and symmetry of the images in creating her digital prints, ending up with surreal but stunning patterns, colour combinations and abstractions.
She then went a step further by embellishing her prints with interiors-inspired accessories – chandelier necklaces, pelmet shoulders and curtain-like drapery, though it does start getting a bit silly when she goes into lampshades-as-skirts.
I adore these to pieces and would wear one of those little suits in a heartbeat if I were much taller, younger and skinnier and had been invited to a swanky gallery opening or some such. I’d also love to be able to buy the prints themselves to hang on the wall, or maybe made into separates or bags. And I bet Katy Perry is wetting her knickers just looking at these pics.
Magical stuff.
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The whole collection is worth looking at here. I first found it on my beloved TLo. {All images by Yannis Vlamos / GoRunway.com via Style.com}
Oh and it’s lovely to see from all the London Fashion Week reports, that the old Eurostar terminal at Waterloo is being put to good use. I loved that architecture.
Or, welcome to my new life.
Dawn over the I-5
Recently, and rather belatedly, I came across a goal-setting Internet meme called 101 Things in 1001 Days. 1001 days equates to about 2.75 years, which is a more substantial (and less daunting) time frame in which to get stuff done than the usual year of resolutions we set ourselves.
Since it was my birthday this weekend, and since I’ve got rather a big birthday coming up in 3 years time, I spent my birthday eve putting together my own list which I’m going to give myself 3 years to achieve. Putting the list together was fun - the site DayZeroProject is very useful, as it both gives you a place to put your own list and lets you search other peoples’ for ideas (I’m PaolaCT on there). Start Googling and there are also plenty of sites out there with other ideas.
I’ve tried to put together a list which includes a mixture of horrid stuff that needs to get done, self-improving stuff, things I’ve always wanted to do, downright treats and pie in the sky fantasies – a combination of ‘quick wins’ and stuff that currently seems totally impossible. Looking at it I feel inspired, excited and somewhat daunted, which I suppose is exactly the right mix of emotions.
I’m writing out the list here and will link to the full list somewhere on the blog in the coming days. I’ll give you periodic updates, especially when I’ve been able to tick something off.
Currently I’m working on the sock monkey challenge (of which more anon), have completed 1 out of 80 cryptic crosswords, did a new thing this month (visted Ballard Locks) and am about to embark on the power walking and peanut butter challenges. This latter one is putting me in a cold sweat already. I am a peanut butter ADDICT.
If anyone else is inspired to make their own 101 list, do let me know, and very many thanks to Lou at Happy Serendipity and Nicole at MakingItLovely for their initial inspiration.
This is going to be fun!
I was hoping to give this list as the first page on a newly-redesigned blog, but unfortunately the mirrormirror technical support team (aka the Husband) has been rather busy with his proper job this week. Which only goes to prove that goal-setting is a dangerous exercise. But whatevs. I’m hoping to be back to daily blogging now. I’ve missed you guys…
101 Things (In No Particular Order)
1. Get a little red dress (I don’t usually do dresses, let alone red ones)
2. Volunteer at a food bank at least once a year (0/3)
3. See Niagara Falls
4. Attend the 2012 London Olympics
5. Lose 50lbs (0/50)
6. FINALLY Get the ACL in my knee repaired (as so many of my fitness/weight loss goals depend on this oneI’ve got an appointment to see the specialist this week).
7. Get my missing tooth replaced (I want to get my body as perfect as it can possibly be)
8. Finish a Babette blanket. (Still working on finishing my other blanket first).
9. Go somewhere in South America
10. Visit the Grand Canyon
11. Go to Santa Fe
12. Open ‘mirrormirror’ US
13. Organise all the photos on my computer
14. Do 30 straight days of Bikram yoga
15. Do a triathlon
16. Win something. Anything!
17. Break 5,000 followers on Twitter
18. Sell some photos.
19. Knit a sock monkey (Have plans for that one that I’ll talk about soon).
20. Get a personal wardrobe/shopping consultation
21. Acquire a sewing machine
22. Complete a sewing project
23. Learn to cook Thai food
24. Build raised beds and grow veggies
25. Finish landscaping and planting the front garden
26. Get whole house painted inside and out
27. Go sugar-free for 30 days (0/30)
28. Go to 30 restaurants I’ve never been to before (0/30)
29. Get visible abs (ha ha ha ha ha! my abs don’t exist, I’ve NEVER seen them before)
30. Go to Hawaii
31. Visit Australia
32. Write up and catalogue all of my family tree research
33. Visit my aunt in Southern California
34. Eat 5 foodstuffs I’ve never tried before
35. Knit something in Fair Isle/stranded colourwork
36. Knit a complex lace shawl in silk lace
37. Get my blog professionally redesigned
38. Do one thing a month I’ve never done before (1/36) (yesterday I visited Ballard Locks in Seattle)
39. Organise at least 6 nights away with the Husband and without the Minx (0/6)
40. Get mirrormirror mentioned in at least 30 print (0/30) and 30 online publications (0/30)
41. Visit New England in the Fall
42. Go strawberry and apple picking
43. Continue learning Spanish in the car with the Minx
44. Get a professional photoshoot done of the whole family
45. Clear my email inbox
46. Get a piano or keyboard
47. Take piano lessons
48. Do the Susan B Komen 3 Day Walk for the Cure
49. Go away with just the Minx for 3 ‘Mummy & Daughter’ weekends (0/3)
50. Visit the upcoming Picasso exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum
51. Do the Theo Chocolate Tour
52. Get stock photos up on Getty Images or similar
53. Join a knitting group
54. Go razor clamming
55. Set up a mirrormirror fan page on Facebook and get over 1,000 fans
56. Make a felted handbag
57. Make a piece of jewellery
58. Go to ALT Summit and the International Food Blogger Conference
59. Start a compost bin
60. Go jetskiing
61. Listen to 10 albums by artists I’ve not listened to before (0/10)
62. Complete all 80 cryptic crosswords in the Times Cryptic Crossword Book 14 (1/80)
63. Be a vegan for a week
64. Tidy my office
65. Learn to make Italian ‘sott’olio’ preserves – melanzane and peperoncini
66. Learn a little Mandarin Chinese with the Minx in the car
67. Go the Maison & Objet and the New York International Gift Fair
68. Get eyes checked for feasibility of laser surgery
69. Attend 6 photography workshops (0/6)
70. Make ravioli from scratch without even a pasta machine
71. Take a flying trapeze class
72. Take a day OFF on my birthday every year (0/3)
73. Write a letter for the Minx to open when she’s 18
74. Get signed up with a Primary Care Provider and arrange for an all-over physical
75. See 6 bands live 0/6
76. Read 20 ‘classic’ books I haven’t read before (0/20)
77. Drink only water for one month
78. Watch 5 Oscar winners for Best Documentary (0/5)
79. Get basement finished and fully habitable
80. Don’t complain about anything for a week
81. Have a garage sale
82. Unplug for a whole weekend (not phone, Internet, TV etc.)
83. Go ice skating
84. See 10 ‘classic’ movies I’ve never seen (0/10)
85. Scuba dive/snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef
86. Go white water rafting
87. Go snowmobiling
88. Run a 5k
89. Go for a month without peanut butter
90. Get more of my photos mounted and displayed around the house
91. Workout for an hour a day, 5 days a week, for 4 weeks straight (0/4)
92. Powerwalk for 30 mins a day every day for a month (0/31)
93. Take a photo a day for a month
94. Get one utterly fabulous piece of personal PR (I’ll know it when I see it)
95. Eat at the French Laundry, the Herb Farm and Chez Panisse (0/3)
96. Take the Minx to Disneyland
97. Sign up for a spin class
98. Go swimming once a week for 3 consecutive months (0/12)
99. Get a photo on Flickr’s ‘Explore’ page again.
100. Put aside $50 for every I task I complete to buy myself a fabulous birthday present
101. Donate $50 to charity for every task I don’t complete
Or, more precisely, I’m loving the labelling, since I haven’t tried the foods themselves yet.
Jamie Oliver has just launched his Jme range of artisanal British foods in the US in conjunction with Williams-Sonoma. I’m definitely going to be trying the mango chutney, mint sauce and marmelade as it’s difficult to get good versions of these oh so British delicacies over here. (Though I’m also noting how flippin’ expensive they are in comparison with the same products in the UK.) I’m hoping that at some point his full range of British products finds its way over here.
What I’m most intrigued by, though, by the packaging. It looks very British – as in so many things American packaging can get very busy and very ‘more is more’ – whereas this is simple, old-fashioned in a modern way, if that makes sense and quite austere.
I love how the simplicity and retro styling makes everything hang together, despite using a mishmash of different packaging shapes, fonts, label styles and colours. It looks like a very idealised version of how my mother’s pantry might have looked in the Mad Men era (in her dreams haha!). Interestingly the actual branding is very subtle, the only thing the have in common is the sixties-style ’J’ on the labelling. I’m also loving that he’s calling a biscuit a biscuit.
I’m most intrigued by how this reads to an American audience. Does the styling make you want to buy the food? Or does it just seem too plain, too old-fashioned and unappealing?
One of the things I learned at Lara Ferroni’s food styling photography workshops is that food props should be small, so as to make the food look ample and luscious, and preferably have texture and colour help too, to add visual interest. (Check out also this fascinating series of guest posts on food props at Lucullian Delights.)
So I was delighted to come across these delightful little wobbly plates and bowls in dozens of bright intoxicating colours from Atelier BB on Etsy. Each bowl and plate is made of thick glazed ceramic and imprinted with different lacy designs for extra texture.
I bought a few little plates for my new ‘food styling prop cupboard’ (how VERY Martha Stewart of me) and will probably be buying quite a few more.
And yes, they DO make food look good. Here’s a very quick snap of some potato and beetroot gratin which we had for dinner last night and which was DIVINE. I’ll make it for you guys with pictures next time we get beets in the organic box.
Stones and beaches and kids and summer go together, like well, stones and beaches and kids and summer.
Everytime we hit the beach supposedly ‘beeyootiful’ stones get delivered with regularity to my beach towel. The heaviness of my bag is due not just to the sunscreen and goggles and bags full of cherries I carry everywhere but also to the stones I keep finding in the pockets.
A collection of large stones from French beaches even found their way into the Minx’s little roller suitcase to take back to Seattle, though, since we are cruel parents, these were surreptitiously removed from her bag and left in the hotel room and have remained studiously unmentioned ever since.
So, you can imagine how delighted I was to find a beautiful project requiring smooth round stones – heck, the next time we go to the beach I’m even going to send the Minx off on a stone hunting expedition.
Artist and photographer Margaret Oomen crochets little covers for her stones which make them look like sea urchins reimagined by a Victorian grandma and sells the stones themselves (though they disappear quickly and still-life photographs of them on Etsy.
Now you can make them too as she has put a tutorial up on the Purl Bee to make a basic version of her stones, though I would imagine that any number of doily patterns (Ravelry link) could be adapted for the purpose, once you’ve go the hang of the basic concept.
Will definitely have to try this at some point. I’m just wishing that there was more knitting/crocheting time in the day.
I haven’t done a ‘Come Into My Garden’ post for so long but since I spent all weekend macheteing my way through the jungle that had grown up while we were away I thought I might as well get a blog post out of it.
The oak-leaf hydrangeas, nandinas, lilies and lavender have all gone a little crazy as you can see, but there’s still plenty of pretty to be had. I think I’ve got some lemonade in the fridge.
It’s REALLY tricky to photograph the garden in summer I’ve decided. Either the sun is casting dark shadows over everything, making it look even messier than it is. Or else the it’s grey and overcast and looks like November. Seattle doesn’t do soft diffused sunlight at all.
Or, when designers don’t decorate.
I opened my new copy of Livingetc with some excitement as the front cover promised me an ‘at home with Sebastian Conran’. I knew he had one of those huge Victorian wedding cake houses in Notting Hill and this would surely provide some great material for a ‘Go Love Your Room’ post.
For those of you in the US who may be unaware of them, the Conrans are pretty much design royalty in the UK. Designer Sir Terence Conran founded the Habitat chain and the Conran Shop, has published a series of seminal works on interior design and owns a string of beautifully-designed, fabulous food-serving restaurants in London. He almost single-handedly dragged Britain out of the chintzy Fifties into the fab Sixties interiors-wise and has been a giant on the UK design scene ever since.
His children from various marriages are also successful designers and foodies in their own right – fashion designer Jasper, Notting Hill restaurateur Tom, interior designer and foodie Sophie and product designer Sebastian.
Sebastian is well-known as a product designer, probably most famously as the design brains behind Nigella Lawson’s Living Kitchen range, though as you can see from his website he has a number of great products to his credit.
And there’s no denying that he’s got some great STUFF. Wink chairs, Le Corbusier lounger, antique rugs, Arco lamp, interesting art, iconic Sex Pistols and the Clash poster artwork (designed by Conran as a student).
AND there’s no denying that he has, as you’d expect, paid a lot of attention to detail. The units, for example, are painted in a colour Sebastian created from a gouache of stainless steel, “I wanted a shade that had the same tonal value as the metal to give cohesion to the mix of materials”. A lot of remodelling has been done – hallways widened, door frames raised, huge French doors installed at the back and the sightlines adjusted to make sure the vistas through the house were perfectly aligned.
And yet, and yet, I can’t help feeling that this looks a bit like a student bedsit, with white walls, mismatched chairs, posters on the walls and rumpled rugs (albeit a student with access to a phenomenal amount of money).
Everything seems somewhat haphazard and studiously UNdecorated – no interesting curtains or cushions (except in the bedroom and you can bet they belong to the stylist), no unifying colour scheme or much colour of any description, no flashes of wit, no striking arrangements, no interesting light fixtures. It’s the home of someone who celebrates form and function over everything and as such seems both curiously sterile, strangely uncohesive and not particularly comfortable.
What do you guys think?
I realise it’s AGES since I updated you on any knitting, though I have been plugging away quietly in the background. I’ve finished a couple of other things but they need to be photographed and I’ve got a few more projects that should be coming off the needles in the next few weeks.
In the meantime though, this was an incredibly fun and satisfying knit, though I’m somewhat embarrassed by the outcome – tasteful it most certainly is not, though the Minx utterly adores it.
The pattern is Bobinsky (Ravelry link) which essentially knits up in three parts. The yoke and sleeves are knitted in the round in a variegated sock yarn (the Minx chose the ‘clown barf’ colourway, ShibuiKnits in Zinnia). Then the body is knitted in stranded colourwork using the variegated yarn and a contrasting plain colour (the variegation of the yarn makes this look much more complex than it really is) and finally a plain stocking stitch frill is added to the bottom in the contrast yarn (ShibuiKnits Blossom).
I hugely enjoyed knitting this – it was the first time I’ve done colourwork and was pleased that I mastered knitting holding the colours in each hand and knitting both English and Continental style (thanks to this video). It ended up being quite easy and it’s definitely inspired me to do more colourwork in future.
My only caveat if you want to make this, is to make sure that the contrast yarn contrasts strongly with ALL the colours in the variegated yarn. In this case the pale pink doesn’t contrast very well at all with the pale yellow of the variegated leading to some slightly strange effects in the body. But it works well enough and my ‘client’ has been wearing it non-stop.
