Though in this case the W stands for ‘Wow!’
Yeah, I know these aren’t exactly wearable, unless you’re Lady Gaga, but the workmanship in these clothes is utterly breathtaking, and I suppose the half-finger gloves would be perfect if you bite your nails.
If you see me walking down the street wearing a jewelled head cage and pearly fishnets you know who to blame.
Enjoy the fabulous crazy.
Turns out I have a little bit of a notebook problem.
They’re just too pretty to resist and cheap enough for lots of impulse purchases on my travels round the web. Here are a few that have recently er, caught my eye, I have bought .
1) I won a Julia Kostreva journal at the Blogshop workshop last year and love the colours and graphic simplicity of her covers. Nice quality paper inside too. Really liking the colours and style of her new ‘Mon Petit Notebook’ range.
2) I’ve been following Greek graphic designer Tomy K on Instagram for a long time and ended up buying some of his small graphic notebooks. They come in complementary sets of three and are therefore very useful for bribing small similarly notebook-addicted daughters and including in cheesy Instagram vignettes of one’s desk ( though I rarely do this as it’s not often my desk is tidy enough for human consumption).
3) I recently bought a few Moleskine-alike Ecosystem notebooks. Beautifully made in the US from 100% post-consumer recycled paper, you get to choose your size, cover colour (from six juicy hues) and inside style (blank, lined or grid). Like Moleskines they have silk bookmarks, elastic closures and an inside back pocket and the paper itself is of beautiful quality. But unlike Moleskines they have perforated pages. This is a great organisational feature for me, as I’m always scribbling crap in the wrong notebook.
4) No notebook roundup would be complete without a selection from Rifle Paper Co. I have a couple of Anna Bond’s old pocket notebooks, but her new Botanical journals are the prettiest yet. I might have to do a little shopping.
Are you a notebook addict? Or have you moved over completely to tablets and such like? And if you are, seen any pretty ones recently? For research purposes only of course.
By great good fortune it was Modernism Week when we were in Palm Springs. Of course I wasn’t organised enough to book many of the house tours before they sold out, but I did manage to wangle a place on the tour of the Edris House, built for Marjorie and William Edris in 1954 by the renowned Palm Springs architect E. Stewart Williams.
It’s not a particularly large or grand house, but is a quite magnificent specimen of mid-century modern desert architecture with all the interior fixtures and fittings still intact and the most breathtaking views. We were lucky enough to go there on an absolutely perfect blue sky day and here’s what greeted us.
Come and have a peek inside.
The charming owner J.R. Roberts has kept all the original fixtures and incorporated his own furniture and art, all bought with the house in mind.
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I found the kitchen, with its original cooktop and ovens particularly fascinating. I suspect the previous owners of our house were going for a similar effect in our monstrous kitchen (because of course that makes total sense in a 1912 Craftsman house).
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The ceilings almost made me rethink my aversion to the wood panelling in our kitchen and bathroom. Almost. (I think it probably helps if you have amazing floor to ceiling windows with incredible views).
And here’s the lovely owner JR, who considers himself to be more of a custodian than an owner of the house. Mind you, you would be happy and charming if you had a huge walk-in bar at your disposal.
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I found this fabulous video of him talking about the house.
Tour of the Edris House from Marilyn Chung on Vimeo.
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Photoshop Week at CreativeLIVE absolutely kicked my butt literally, since we were sitting on the most uncomfortable chairs known to man and I was terrified of my piriformis syndrome returning, and figuratively. Who knew that Photoshop and Lightroom could be so riveting? If you are any sort of photographer it is probably worth you downloading at least a few of the courses. All the teachers were without exception fabulous – patient, thorough and clear, with an incredible breadth and depth of knowledge. It was a quite mindblowing experience for me and I know my photography will never be the same again. I can’t recommend it highly enough (and can’t believe how lucky we are to have CreativeLIVE here in Seattle).
Dear hearts I am BACK - full of eggy breakfasts, date shakes, sunscreen-induced acne and beautiful memories. We had an absolutely fabulicious time.
I have MUCH to share with you. By a triumph of meticulous planning (or possibly fantastic good luck) Winter Break this end happened to coincide with Modernism Week in Palm Springs. Of course, most of the events were sold out before I got my act together, but I did manage to go to one or two fun events, which I will share with you later this week.
Through a triumph of very bad planning however, our flight back from LA coincided with the Oscars, so I still haven’t watched the ceremony, though I understand from Twitter that it was all, how shall we say, not good.
As a result though mirrormirror’s usual in-depth Oscar coverage will not be happening this year. I am desolate, but I hope you will be able to cope.
Instead, here are some pretty pictures of our room at the Jonathan Adler-designer Parker where we stayed for three nights.
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The other reason for lack of Oscars coverage is that tomorrow I start six days of intensive Photoshop training courtesy of Creative Live as a member of their live studio audience.
My Photoshop skills suck big time, so I’m very excited to learn from the masters. Catch me on the live broadcast any day this week (except Thursday). Let me know if you’re watching and I will wave!
Oh and here is previous coverage from the Parker a couple of years back. It hasn’t changed a bit.
Dear hearts, Tina is back with her monthly trend reports! Do say thank you by showing her lots of love on her blog.
Hello mirrormirror readers! It’s Tina of Life in Sketch, back again with a Monthly Trend Report for February. Today I’d like to chat about the Sputnik Chandelier. I’ve had my eye on this type of lamp for about a year now, and it’s holding steady as one of my favorite chandelier looks! I know you’ve seen these around, but may not have identified them as Sputniks. Sputniks come in all shapes, sizes and heights. Some are very close to the ceiling and some hang much lower and take up more space. Some have long, pointy bulbs, and some have round, globe shaped bulbs.
{via Loft Life Mag}
Although the sputnik is trending right now, it’s not a new look. The original sputnik style lamps were made in the 1950s and 1960s, soon after the launch of the Russian Sputnik satellite. (Interesting note: the Sputnik was the first artificial satellite to circle the Earth.) Some of the first designers that created the sputnik type lamp were George Nelson and Gino Sarfatti.
{via Steven Gambrel}
The sputnik lamp works well in many settings. The one that comes to mind first is a “Mad Men” look of the 1960’s, because that was the way the lamp was first used. However, since it does come in many different shapes and styles you can pick the perfect sputnik for your room! There’s a wide cost range, too, so you can definitely find something that fits your budget. On the lower end of the spectrum, IKEA has come up with it’s version of the lamp which will cost you $90, and ZGallerie makes one for $300. Design Within Reach makes a satellite lamp for $1325. If you’re willing to spend a bit more you can find some originals and replicas at 1st Dibs.
Sources: Furnnish // Desire to Inspire // Elle Decor // Architectural Digest // Paloma 81 // Design Within Reach
Whatever your budget, you can definitely get this look, which I’m sure is here to stay. I’m curious, do you have a Sputnik chandelier in your home? If not, are you thinking of getting one? Do you love the look or hate it?
The first decision we had to make when it came to the kitchen was choosing the cabinets.
In the end it wasn’t a particularly hard decision – I wanted them to be white and they had to be from IKEA, since we wanted to spend what budget we had on things like countertops/worksurfaces (and fancy fridges, but that is another story).
We also had to take into account the age and style of the house. The horrible upstairs kitchen is essentially an 80s(?) extension on a 1912 craftsman house and the room itself has nothing particular to recommend it in the way of architectural features or mouldings. Which meant that we couldn’t go too modern, otherwise it wouldn’t look good with the rest of the house; and we couldn’t go too folksy, firstly because I’m just not that kind of a gal and secondly because we’re not exactly dealing with a charming country kitchen here.
As far as I could see that narrowed down the choices a lot. The Lidingo kitchen would be lovely if you DID have a charming country kitchen, but it was a little too fussy for this remodel.
{via Ikea USA}
I dithered about the high gloss Abstrakt – probably my fave – for a bit, but I think they would be a bit too space age for the rest of the house. It’s also one of the pricier options, and I was a bit worried about chipping the gloss finish. They sure are pretty though.
{via Design Crisis}
The panelled Stat might be a good choice if you didn’t already have a hideous panelled ceiling.
{via House to Home}
Which left us with the Adel cabinets. The lines are clean and modern, and classic enough to fit in with the rest of the house. I dithered about these a little – they’re coated with melamine and I was worried they’d seem too ‘plasticky’, but in the end they were the only option that really seemed to make sense.
{via Houzz}
I do admit to being hugely swayed by this lovely remodel which used them.
{via Little House Blog}
So there you are. Which ones would you choose? Remember you’re not allowed to say you hate the Adel doorfronts, because we have ten tons of Ikea boxes sitting in our basement, bought in the 15% off sale just before Christmas, and I would cry.
Here’s how the kitchen is looking at the end of week one. Yes, those are cabinets you spy being assembled.
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We’re off to spend Winter Break in Palm Springs to escape from the carnage and so I can work on my massive Vitamin D deficiency. When we get back next Monday the bathroom demolition will start. God help us all.
The sun is shining here in Seattle and the photography studio is calling me, but I quickly wanted to share the gorgeous present that I was lucky enough to receive yesterday for Valentines Day.
Pinterest may have set back cause of feminism by several hundred years, but it sure has made it easier to give husbands a list of acceptable presents.
This little carved walnut bird with the pink lacquer chest has been a cover picture on my Pinterest boards for a long time, so I was thrilled to actually get one in the ‘flesh’ yesterday – along with four little birdie friends.
As with most wooden things, these are so much more lovely than any picture can show – smooth, warm and tactile and most beautifully carved and finished. Exquisite craftsmanship at its very best.
The birds are handmade in the UK and are available at Gretel Home.
Here are my tweeties having a chat.
I haven’t had time this week to trawl the Internet for design WTF**ckery. If you chaps ever come across anything that you think might be suitable to feature, do please let me know.
As has become traditional round here, we’re all about the last minute Valentines. And since it’s Valentines’ morning already we are taking the definition of last minute to new extremes.
Still here are some things you can do to surprise the family this evening.
Get the kids to work on this cute colour mixing chart courtesy of Art Projects for Kids.
Or make or buy pink and white loaf cakes (pound cakes) and have fun with cookie cutters (courtesy of Matthew Mead).
Set the kids to work again. This time with buttons (courtesy of Hands On As We Grow).
Or let them get busy with heart-shaped doilies (from Say Yes to Hoboken).
Have breakfast for dinner tonight, and break out the squeezy pancake bottle (via Recipe By Photo)
Or if you’ve been organised enough to get a gift, but not any wrapping paper (er, that would be me), here’s a cute gift wrap idea from Babble.
Or maybe you could just arrange some fruit and make a pretty Valentines’ photo. From DaitoZen.
However, and with whomever, you are celebrating today, make sure you tell someone you love them. To all my lovely readers out there, I LOVE YOU very much!
(If none of these float your boat checkout last year’s last minute ideas round up here.)
I’m sitting here gently blogging to the sound of banging, the odd crash, and builders noisily chatting about skateboarding. Yes, the kitchen remodel is underway. We spent a glamorous weekend taking a huge mountain of STUFF out of our upstairs kitchen and making the downstairs kitchen one where actual food can be cooked (until now we’ve most used it to make breakfast).
I knew I had a lot of kitchen paraphernalia, but seeing it all boxed up is rather mindblowing. Anyway, onwards and upwards. April 26th can’t come quickly enough as far as I’m concerned.
Just time for a quickie today.
Saw these wooden Doodle Bowls and Plates from HappyDoodleLand on Pinterest (where else) and loved them. Unfortunately the artist doesn’t seem to be selling them at the moment (though her prints are also super cute).
But wouldn’t it be nice to be able to doodle as creatively as Flora Cha?
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This week we have a real WTF doozy.
I promised you pictures of the upstairs bathroom which we’re finally going to have remodelled. And here they are.
We have the same green laminate countertops as in the kitchen, this time paired with baby poop brown walls.
We have the same orange-y brown wood panelled ceiling as the kitchen.
And thoughtful design touches such as the green glass bricks, which match the green tiles in the bath surround and on the floor.
Together with some charming fixtures and fittings (and built in speakers in the ceiling and toilet ????)
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Obviously you’re all jealous of such gorgeousness, but seriously WTF were they thinking?
Kitchen remodel starts on Monday. Bathroom remodel starts a couple of weeks later. I so cannot wait.
