mirrormirror - Part 76

These Do Make Me Happy

March 17, 2009 By Paola 4 Comments

Just wanted to share a couple of recent kitchen purchases.

The Minx takes a packed lunch to school every day, which has become the bane of my life (why am I always packing her lunchbox at midnight?). However I am greatly cheered up by these little washable reusable ‘ziploc’ bags from Etsy seller Evelyn Fields, made from unbleached cotton. I always feel bad using real Ziplocs, so these bags make me feel good in all sorts of ways.

And we all love our new melamine spoon from Zac Designs (though it’s not nearly so environmentally friendly).

More Adventures in Knitting

March 16, 2009 By Paola 1 Comment

Just another quick update before this turns into a knitting blog. Since I have no other projects which are remotely close to completion I promise no more knitting for some time.

The pain-in-the-ass socks are finished. And I don’t even like them very much. They’re very baggy and saggy – a combination of knitting a size too big (the pattern didn’t have instructions for Small Adult); very soft cashmere/silk yarn and a pattern with no real ribbing to it. But they’re nice enough for wandering round the house and GORGEOUS in bed.

Apologies for the extremely crap pictures. These were the last pics taken with the point and shoot. I’ve got my old camera back now – it’s unrepaired because the repair would have cost too much, we’ve decided to go for a camera upgrade instead! Though this will have to wait due to this month’s surprise $2,000 car repair bill.

The yarn barf is turning into this – a scarf knitted from silk and seaweed. I’m enjoying this as the pattern is piss easy and it knits up quickly as it’s mostly made of holes. The yarn itself is utterly gorgeous, has beautiful drape and sheen and the colour is amazing, imagine silk dipped in blue-black ink. It does seem ridiculous to be knitting this though, when it was snowing at the weekend and the sky is leaden grey.

We did manage a brief afternoon of sunshine yesterday though so I rushed out to take photos.

These Would Make Me Happy

March 16, 2009 By Paola 2 Comments

Flower radiators from Hellos. A mere £460 ($650 – good grief, the pound is crashing through the floor) for each flower.

Made of aluminium and available in a variety of coloured, matte and shiny finishes.

Yarn Barf

March 12, 2009 By Paola 7 Comments

This is what I am working on today.

Why oh why do people insist on selling me yarn in skeins? I am hopeless with them. The yarn is absolutely gorgeous though.

In other news, I have finished a project. Pics to follow when it has finished blocking. And I have just purchased a vintage yarnwinder thingamajig on Ebay at vast expense.

Light Up My Life

March 11, 2009 By Paola 5 Comments

Jona Hoad is a UK-based lighting designer, who specialises in wallpaper-like lighting panels and lighting installations for hotel bars, restaurants and your house if you’ve got enough money.

Here are some pictures from the DeVigne Bar in Marylebone and the Vanilla Bar in Soho. Sometimes I do like a bit of spangly overthetopness.

I also liked these pictures from his website, which reveal that things are not always as they seem in the world of interiors photoshoots.

Spreading a Little Love

March 10, 2009 By Paola 1 Comment

Whenever anyone links to the blog or, better still, the mirrormirror shop, I like to say ‘thank you’ by including a link in my right hand toolbar.

However, I thought I’d take a leaf out of MadeByGirl’s book and make my ‘thank yous’ a bit more prominent every so often, as it’s nice to spread a bit of link love around occasionally.

So here are a few recent mentions that haven’t yet made it to the side bar. This month it’s a nice mixture of old favourites and new discoveries, so do go for an explore. Please let me know by email or in the comments if you linked to me recently and I haven’t included you, you’ll definitely be on the next list.

First up is a great piece about the mirrormirror shop in NWSource, the website of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. If you’re a Seattle-based reader then this is a great source of shopping intelligence put together by shopping editor Alison Brownrigg (who used to run online boutique Petaline, so you know she knows her stuff).

Next is the ever-fabulous Not Martha, who mentioned my plans to make a chandelier on her blog, which lead to me getting lots of useful advice about light fittings from her ever-practical readers.

MaryT at Shelterrific linked to my post about hearts on furniture in her Valentines round-up.

Did you know that the fabulous Velocity shop in Seattle now has a fabulous Velocity blog – Simpatico? Well now you do, and thanks for a couple of recent shout-outs.

Finally Bijou Kaleidoscope wrote a fabulous post about Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and mentioned us.

Thanks to everyone!

Adventures in Crochet

March 9, 2009 By Paola 8 Comments

Holly at Decor8 has been writing a fabulous series about unleashing your creativity, which has made me decide that this is the year I learn to crochet.

I have a couple of super scary projects I’m contemplating (to be discussed when they’ve percolated a bit more) but have told myself that I can’t buy the yarn for anything big until I’ve finished the incredibly tedious blanket of doom. In the meantime I’m attempting a few simple projects, so I can see what this crocheting lark is all about and whether it really is for me.

My first project was a cover for the orchid the Minx gave me for Valentines Day. I adapted Erika Knight’s bottle covers from Simple Crochet and used some string I found in our useful drawer and a length of fine chartreuse ribbon I found at the bottom of my knitting bag which I must have bought for some project I can no longer remember.

It wasn’t difficult, though string and ribbon are not the most forgiving of media, and has encouraged me to persevere, though the Husband did take one look at the finished article and said, “Isn’t that all a bit macrame’?” and I couldn’t really disagree.

Here’s some crochet that actually looks good. Found via the Style Files and available here if you can read Dutch, these are all crocheted in polyester so are good for outdoors. I’d love some for the deck.

More details in my Ravelry notebook. Come and find me there.

Public Service Announcement – Matte Stephens Giveaway

March 4, 2009 By Paola 6 Comments

When we were talking paint colours recently (still dithering about that and waiting on a couple of samples) a couple of you mentioned my little Matte Stephens painting, which I picked up when Matte gave his talk at the Lab last year. It was originally intended for the Minx’s room, but I’ve decided that I love it far too much to waste it on her.

I bought the picture because, although it’s supposed to be a picture of Matte’s wife Vivienne, it reminds me of the Minx, and the fir trees and umbrella are just SO Seattle.

Those of you who spend a lot of time in the American blogosphere will certainly have seen Matte’s work before – much of his talk at the Lab was about how he had been quietly plodding along with his art for years, before becoming something of an overnight sensation, with lots of interesting projects in the works.

However, for those of you who don’t know him so well he has an Etsy shop here full of prints, and a blog here. You can also buy original works here at Velocity. And as of today he is giving away these three new pillows on his blog.

I hope you appreciate how much I love you, as by telling you this I am severely impacting my own chances of winning.

Here’s Matte and Vivienne at the Lab last year

Just updating to say that, just in case you’re not lucky enough to win, the pillows are on sale at Urban Outfitters at a very reasonable price.

mirrormirror on the telly?

March 3, 2009 By Paola 4 Comments

We knew it might happen, but it seems from customer feedback that the Hannah Tofalos stacking eggcups appeared on UKTV’s Market Kitchen.

I don’t suppose any of you saw it, or better still recorded it? We’d sort of given up on it happening so hadn’t been watching and I would love to see mirrormirror’s 15 seconds of fame.

Go Love Your Room – Victorian House in London

March 3, 2009 By Paola 10 Comments

I was awash with nostalgia after seeing these pictures on Crooked Shmooked of the quintessential London Victorian house. Most of our friends with kids in London live in houses like this and if we had stayed in London I’m sure it’s the sort of family house we would have ended up buying. (This particular house is not far from where we lived in Notting Hill in London and in an area we were definitely considering moving to).

Vast swathes of houses like these were put up in the 19th century all over London, and while this is certainly not on the cutting edge decor-wise it’s a very well done example of the genre, is quintessentially London and the sort of decor I love. If you want to use it for a photoshoot all details are here.

Come in! The encaustic tiiles inside and out are very Victorian and very typical, but the colour of the front door is fresh and modern and the beautiful stained glass is again a very Victorian idea, though I’m not sure if the glass in this particular door has been restored and modernised.

I’ve sat in so many rooms like this, with beautifully ornate fireplaces, a large bay window and an ugly telly tucked in the corner, because no one knows quite where to put it. Not sure about the sofa though.

Got to love the that Paul Smith ‘Love’ needlepoint from the Rug Company. It’s the companion piece to the one hanging in Carrie Bradshaw’s redecorated apartment and something I’d love to have here in Seattle, if only George Bush and Gordon Brown hadn’t stolen all our money.

I wish twinkly interior light strings were more prevalent in the US. We had them all over the flat in London and you can generally find good examples at Habitat and Graham & Green. Unfortunately the voltage is all wrong for the States (which we forgot about when we shipped some twinkly lights back for the Minx’s room last year).