Colour + Design Archives - Page 6 of 60

Flower Sugar Cookies

February 6, 2013 By Paola 1 Comment

We celebrated a very special birthday a couple of weekends back.

The Minx, would you believe, turned eight in January. No I don’t believe it either. I wonder if there are any of you around who remember her when she looked like this (oh, how innocent those blogging days were).

To celebrate we had to suffer through a party at the American Girl doll store in Seattle, followed by a birthday sleepover with eight of her closest friends and their dolls. I believe I deserve some sort of mothering Oscar.

(For those of you not in the US or in possession of an 8 year old daughter, American Girl dolls are something of a cultural phenomenon. They’re very high quality, INCREDIBLY expensive dolls – some dressed to be fictional historical characters and some from the present day – that come with every possible expensive accessory you can dream of. Even to my adult eyes, the store, with its teeny dolls’ hair salon and bistro with special chairs so the dolls can sit at the table, is faintly mind-blowing.)

Unfortunately a fancy cake came as part of the package at the store, so I was unable to emulate my birthday cake extravaganzas of yore, so I decided instead to apply myself to sugar cookies that the girls could have with milk while watching their American Girl movie. The tiny cookies are of course for the dolls.

As you can tell I’m a rather slapdash cookie icer. One day I’d love to learn how to ‘flood’ the cookies properly with icing and pipe neat intricate details on them, but this time round I made do with dipping the cookies in royal icing – the pink worked best because it was wetter and runnier – and then piped some rather wobbly outlines on them.

I used this trusty sugar cookie recipe from the Joy of Baking, which I highly recommend, together with their royal icing recipe.

For the record here is my baby blowing out the eight candles on her cake.

And here she is with her freaky ‘Look Like Me’ doll.

I do want to improve my cookie icing skills and so to that end I’ve purchased Decorating Cookies by Bridget Edwards which looks amazing. Not that I’ve actually used it yet mind you. I find it’s always easier to buy the craft book rather than actually DO the craft. The blog which inspired the book is here.

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WTF Friday: Versace Fall 2013

January 18, 2013 By Paola 6 Comments

I’ve finally got my head back into the blogging game and have much to share with you next week. However, I couldn’t let this Friday go past without a quick WTF?

Today, we are going to be discussing lacy underwear for men. As shown in Versace’s Fall 2013 Menswear collection.

By which I mean you will have to discuss it because I am rendered utterly speechless.

I do appreciate, though, that Donatella, in keeping with couture tradition, added a more bridal look at the end of the show.

A New Year, A New Kitchen

January 11, 2013 By Paola 18 Comments

I haven’t been blogging regularly for a while and nobody’s currently reading this blog, so hopefully I can get away with slipping this in without anyone noticing.

WARNING: I guarantee you will see nothing uglier on the Internet today than the following pictures. Get the eye bleach ready just in case.

Finally, this year we will be remodelling our upstairs kitchen. Our house has many fine features – a great location, a fabulous roof deck and spectacular views among them, but it is not blessed in its kitchens.

I say kitchens, because we have two of them, one upstairs and and one downstairs. The downstairs one is very tiny and in need of extensive remodelling, so we tend to mostly use the upstairs kitchen. Yes, the pictures you are about to see are of our nicest kitchen.

Ready?

Aren’t those burnt orange walls and green laminate countertops just GORGEOUS?

I bet you’re jealous of those fabulously inconvenient shelves.

You too, can revel in the lack of storage space. Now do you understand why you never see any ‘in progress’ shots on my recipes?

It gets worse in the other direction.

What about that LOVELY panelled ceiling?

The. fridge. will. go.

I am so embarrassed that we’ve been in this house for six years and done nothing about this hideosity.

We are on a tightish budget, so we can spend more on the downstairs kitchen, so it’s going to be Ikea or similar all the way up here, keeping most of the existing appliances and the existing layout intact. We already have half a ton of Ikea kitchen stacked up in our basement, bought in the recent sale, and the contractor is due to start at the beginning of February.

Wish us luck! I’ll be asking for lots of our opinions along the way. At the very least we know whatever we end up with can’t possibly be worse than this.

Advent Calendar Day 4: Separated At Birth

December 5, 2012 By Paola Leave a Comment

I wonder which came first.

This Anthology magazine cover?

Or these Country Living cookies? (via Design Crush)

People I Am Loving: Lotta Jansdotter

November 20, 2012 By Paola 1 Comment

There are some big changes happening round here, of which more anon, and I’m desperately trying to get myself more organised. My office (in a corner of our bedroom) has been a disaster area for a very long time now, and I’ve promised myself I’ll get it sorted by the end of the year.

I’ve been finding these pics of Lotta Jansdotter’s NYC atelier very inspirational. If you look closely there are so many little organisational tips and tricks in each one.

I love the hanging clipboards in this picture.

And as someone who can NEVER find scissors when she needs them, this picture below is dribblingly gorgeous.

Lotta has been a busy bunny recently.

Last month she launched a beautiful line of dishes and linens at NYC’s Fish’s Eddy, also available online.

And she’s just announced a range of beautiful fabric calendars, in all my favourite colours. I may have to order one of each.

So I’m sort of back. My back is definitely getting better – getting the inflammation down with heat, ice, and Advil is helping; together with chiropractic, stretching out the hip joint, some gentle yoga and not sitting at my desk too much.

Thanks for all your tips and messages!

WTF Friday : John Derian

November 9, 2012 By Paola 6 Comments

John Derian found and lovingly restored a dilapidated 1850s building in New York City’s East Village and in doing so thrilled me to my very soul.

Hey you guys, that’s not dirt in my house it’s a ‘patina’!

And now I can make a fortune selling ‘Pay Dirt’ – our own particular house-generated brand of dust and grey cat hair to New York City loft dwellers.

I have to admit though, that his house is GORGEOUS.

Full before and after slideshow here.

My back is much better today! It’s amazing what lack of chronic pain does to my mood.

The United Colors of Autumn

November 5, 2012 By Paola 3 Comments

There’s no denying that Seattle know how to change seasons BEAUTIFULLY.

WTF Friday: Mercedes Castro Menswear

October 19, 2012 By Paola 4 Comments

Since I’ve just finished knitting something for myself, I feel it’s only fair that I knit a little something something for the Husband don’t you think?

{Mercedes Castro Fall-Winter 2012 via Rose-Kim Knits}

Adventures in Knitting: Garden Party Socks

October 16, 2012 By Paola 6 Comments

Or why I *heart* Air Canada (and yes, Canadian readers, I have been told this is a controversial opinion).

Our flight back from the UK to Vancouver this summer was an eventful one, as we were returning on Air Canada flight chock-full of Canadian medal winners. I spent most the flight working on a pair of socks. I had started these socks back in Del Mar for Spring Break and had knitted the whole of the first sock and and was about three-quarters of the way through the second, representing hours and hours and HOURS of work. Towards the end of the flight, exhausted, I packed my knitting into its Ziploc bag and tucked into the seatback pocket in front of me (you can see where this is going can’t you?). AT the end of the flight we headed off into the maelstrom of an airport waiting to greet its returning Olympians and I didn’t give my socks another thought.

Of course, when we got home and I started to unpack, my knitting was nowhere to be found. I called Air Canada in a panic and spoke to a very friendly person in India who took all my details, but didn’t seem to have access to any lost and found information. I was told that lost items would be cleared from the plane and then sent to a central lost property facility and I would be informed if they turned up.

I have to admit to feeling disproportionately grumpy about the whole thing. It’s at times like this that you realise how much handmade things really mean; how very fond I had grown of my hippy clown barf socks made from one of a kind yarn; how certain I was that I could never be bothered to re-knit them; and how much of my time and myself I had invested in them.

Three weeks went by with no info, so I called again, spoke to another friendly person in India who had no access to specific details and was told that it was still possible the socks were making their way through the system. But by this stage I had sort of given up.

And then, about three weeks after that, a small package was left on my porch, with small Air Canada label on it. Could it really be? With my heart thumping I opened the package and there were my socks, returned to me courtesy Air Canada’s Central Baggage Office in Montreal. I tell you the Prodigal Son’s father wasn’t half as pleased to see him as I was to see them.

Here are my cuties in all their finished glory.

The yarn, Mansfield Garden Party by Madeline Tosh, is extraordinary. It changes colour every few centimetres through moss greens, sky blues, pastel pinks and lilacs and mustardy yellows and browns – yes, just like a garden in full bloom- and doesn’t pool excessively into huge splodges of colour. I used Cookie A’s BFF pattern which I thought worked fabulously with the yarn. It was interesting to knit , mixed up the yarn even more and was not overpowered by the variegated colour.

Goodness I love these guys. And how I LOVE Air Canada.

A friend was saying that a similar thing happened to her and now she always tucks a business card into her knitting bag. Why didn’t I think of that?

As a special bonus here are some pics the Canadian Olympians returning home. That was crazy fun.

Monthly Trend Report : Animal Print

October 15, 2012 By Paola Leave a Comment

Hi chaps, here’s Tina again with her monthly report on interiors trends. Seems we’re going a bit wild this month.

Hello again! It’s Tina here, back with your Monthly Trend Report. Fall is officially here and it’s quite chilly in New York. When it comes to fall design many like to use materials that are warm and soft to the touch. Which is exactly why I think that animal print is here to stay! (At least for the next few months.) Animal print has been making an appearance over the last year, in rugs, upholstery and accent fabrics.

Via Lonny // Lonny // New York Social Diary // Martyn Lawrence Bullard // Lonny // Beck Design // Tell Your Interior Designer

Zebra print is the most popular, and it may be because black and white are classic colors that can be placed into any space easily. If you are looking for more of a pop you may want to think about leopard and cheetah print, which is huge in fashion right now. If it’s fashionable for your clothes, it’ll be great for the home as well.

Via Robin Bell Interiors

Using actual animal hides can get expensive, and real hides may not be everyone’s cup of tea. If you love the look but want to keep it simple, there are many printed fabrics you can choose from to help you get the look.

What do you think of animal print? Love the trend or hate it? Do you think it’s here for the long run?

Please visit Tina’s blog Life in Sketch. I’m loving these monthly trend reports and want to make sure it’s worthwhile for her to stick around.