Shopping Archives - Page 13 of 33

Pirates Ahoy!

March 23, 2011 By Paola 6 Comments

I’ve been receiving lots of lovely comments and emails – thank you all - about the Minx’s new loft bed and slide (it was featured on Apartment Therapy’s Ohdeedoh kids’ site yesterday – hi Ohdeedohers!) and had been feeling smugly pleased with myself.

Until a week or so ago, when a friend posted a link on Facebook and my smugness instantly evaporated. Now, this is what you call a loft bed and slide.

WARNING: Don’t read this with any trainee pirates, or trainee pirates at heart, anywhere in the vicinity of your computer.

The pirate ship was custom built for the six-year old client and features a rope bridge leading to a specially built ‘jail’. See that rope to the left of the crows’ nest? Slide down it and you end up in the closet below.

And as a final piece de resistance, see that intriguing orange hole in a secret hallway closet?

Well that turns out to be a DOUBLE. STOREY. SPIRAL. SLIDE acquired after the refurb of a local community centre.

Full details of the design and construction on MyModernMet.

Please don’t show this to the Minx.

Fancy Hotel of the Week–MyHotel Brighton

March 22, 2011 By Paola 7 Comments

Last week I was idly flicking through pictures of the MyHotel in Brighton, the English seaside town known affectionately as ‘London-by-the-sea’.

Designed by New Yorker Karim Rashid and opened in 2008, the design brief was apparently to create a space ‘where Freddie Mercury might meet the Maharishi’.

I really wanted to hate it after reading that, but unfortunately I just can’t. From the photos at least it’s a shiny, sexy, glamorous, somewhat pretentious shag palace, perfect for all the London media types that Brighton attracts and the sort of place that I adore staying in.

I’m sorry, just shoot me now.

I was very much enjoying my wander through Rashid’s trademark colours, curves and kitsch (and fishtanks) until I came across this picture.

Isn’t this the scariest, most nightmare-inducing hotel room you’ve ever seen? Imagine waking up and seeing that across the way. They’ll be decorating rooms with clowns next.

Help the Sun Rise Again

March 21, 2011 By Paola Leave a Comment

Like everyone else I have been watching events in Japan unfold and have been alternately horrified by the extent of the tragedy and destruction and amazed by the resilience, grace and charm of the Japanese people.

Many people throughout the design and crafting community are doing their bit to help the relief effort and here’s little round up of some of the most beautiful products available to purchase, with at least a portion of the profits going to disaster relief.

Jacob Cass from Just Creative Design is making the above image free for people who want to use it to create artwork and products to the help the relief effort. More details here.

thispapership is donating 90% of the proceeds on the above print to the American Red Cross

The Rusted Chain will be donating $10 from the sale of every ‘Blessed’ necklace to www.worldvision.org

Once these limited edition Land of the Rising Kitten block prints have sold out $1,000 will be donated to disaster relief.

100% of the proceeds from sales of the above tee-shirt will go to help the Salvation Army’s relief efforts in Japan.

Cassia Beck is donating 50% of the proceeds of her photographic prints.

All profits from the sale of the above poster to disaster relief.

All the profits from this limited edition lavender cologne “For Them’ by Parisian perfumer Libertin Louison will be donated to disaster relief. The cologne is dedicated to the town of Minami Sanriku which disappeared after the tsunami. Details here. Buy it here.

These are just a few of the things I’ve come across over the last week or so. Please feel free to add links in the comments if you spot other beautiful products being sold to help the disaster relief or if you’re donating a portion of the profits from your own shop.

Royal Wedding Watch – Knit Your Own Royal Wedding

March 16, 2011 By Paola 12 Comments

Are you looking forward to the Royal Wedding?

Even hard-bitten and cynical little me is getting very excited. What’s not to love – London and dresses and kisses and big hats. I was even thinking of going back for it until they inconsiderately decided to hold it in April, which meant we couldn’t really combine it with a summer vacation. Instead I’m going to have to get up at 3 am to watch coverage here on the West Coast.

Or else I may just knit these and replay the Royal Wedding for myself at a more civilised time of the morning.

Here’s the happy couple. Personally I’m a little disappointed in Kate’s dress.

The Queen and Prince Harry will be the other stars of the show and there will no doubt be a lot of royal corgis running round and tripping up the footmen. Though you could’ve worn a rather more spectacular hat, ma’am.

Here’s that poignant moment when William sees his beautiful bride for the first time – just loving Wills’ and Harry’s hair here. Note you can even knit yourself a mini Archbishop of Canterbury, though I’m not sure why you’d want to.

And here’s the kiss we’ll all be waiting for – with accompanying Prince Charles, Camilla (boo!) and Prince Philip figures.

The book Knit Your Own Royal Wedding is by Fiona Gable, and if I weren’t suffering from Carmen Banana fatigue I would be seriously tempted to buy it.

Lots more Royal Wedding coverage coming up. I can’t wait to do ‘Separated At Birth’ on the wedding guests.

Things I Am Loving – pEIpod Pet Bed

March 10, 2011 By Paola 4 Comments

After six weeks the kittens are starting to calm down a bit – in fact they’re not really kittens any more but rather small cats. Which is just as well, because they were turning me greyer than the Minx ever did.

By the same token I have calmed down in the purchase of expensive cat accessories, though I did want to share one last extravagance with you.

The pEipod (‘ei’ means ‘egg’ in German) is an egg-shaped plastic pod available in two sizes, three colours – pink, mint green or ivory - with a cotton padded cushion in your choice of either pink or yellow. So you should be able to find a combination which suits your decor.

The bed is suitable for small dogs, cats or even bunnies.

Ours has become one of the most commented upon bits of furniture in our house and I’m loving how it looks in our living room.

The best news of all, given how much it cost, is that the cats actually use it all the time – one or the other can generally be found sleeping there. Might even have to get two.

The pEIpod is available from here for $129.

Beefcakes & Doilies

March 8, 2011 By Paola 4 Comments

Uncle Beefy, as well as being one of the best bloggers on the Interwebulator, also makes the most incredible cupcakes I’ve ever tasted anywhere.

His cakes are perfection in a mouthful – not remotely dry and with a satisfying crumb that is neither too stodgy nor disappointingly ethereal. Each is topped with the precisely the right amount of not-too-sweet frosting, exploding with fresh authentic flavours. I truly have never had a better cupcake, my own sadly included.

And they are oh so pretty. On Sunday he gave me one box of lemon cupcakes with fresh strawberry frosting and another box of chocolate chip cakes with a creamy caramel frosting, which was brushed with golden lustre dust, and the same champagne colour as extremely expensive satin underwear.

Unless we can persuade Monsieur LeBoeuf to open a worldwide mail order business, you may never get to taste these beauties, but I though you might at least want to look and drool.

The beautiful linen tablemat is from Soraam on Etsy. I met its creator Soojin Yum at a recent Seattle foodie event. Her gorgeous linens are all handprinted using water-based inks on natural materials and come in lots of beautiful designs. Well worth checking out.

Cumming – the Fragrance

March 7, 2011 By Paola 5 Comments

So we interrupt normal blog programming (insofar as anything is ‘normal’ on this blog), to talk about fragrance.

This Sunday afternoon, following a delicious brunch at Spring Hill restaurant in West Seattle with my dear friends eM and Uncle Beefy, we stopped by the delightful Knows Perfume fragrance boutique on California Avenue to sniff a few scents.

Twenty minutes later our senses were reeling as owner Christen Cottam talked us through our scent preferences and sprayed paper strips with gay abandon. Knows Perfume specialises in small niche perfume ranges such as L’Artisan Parfumeur, Penhaligons and Juliette Has a Gun, rather than the big brands, and Christen has an encyclopedic knowledge of every one.

We were in between sniffs, when I spied a bottle of Cumming – the celebrity fragrance from sexy, funny, androgynous Scottish actor Alan Cumming. I’d vaguely heard that he’d produced one, but had thought it was entirely a joke, what was it doing in such serious perfume company?

Christen explained that it was actually fabulous – with notes of pine, peat, rubber, whisky, leather, dirt and moss. Uncle Beefy tried it at once, and out of the bottle it was horrible – like rolling on an old beer-stained, smoke-imbued leather sofa in a sweaty club which has been cursorily wiped down with a cheap pine-scented cleaner.

So we continued chatting and sniffing and experimenting until Uncle B suddenly said ‘you know, this is actually smelling rather wonderful’. And it was. Sexy and earthy and natural and woodsy.

So of course I had to try it. Same nasty whiff of stinky jockstrap to start, but then on me it dried down to a most deliciously complex mix of vanilla, earth, pepper and orange peel – not like some of those overwhelming vanilla scents which smell like you’ve been smearing yourself with custard - but more as if I’d been eating orange-scented sugar cookies and exuding them through my skin, with underlying sexy, sweaty undertones. Honestly my dears I was sniffing myself for the rest of the afternoon.

It smells EXACTLY like this video

The original commercially-produced Cumming has apparently been discontinued – the fact that it smells DISGUSTING out of the bottle probably doesn’t help - but has been reformulated for extra longevity by the original perfumer Christopher Brosius and is now included within his range. I know perfume is a highly subjective subject, but if it doesn’t work for you – and on eM’s skin chemistry it stayed resolutely ‘smelly wet sock’ – then chances are it will do wonders for your man, I couldn’t stop sniffing Uncle B either, though on him it smelled less vanilla-y and more earthy.

All proceeds from the perfume go to charity, so it really wouldn’t hurt to buy a little sample. I am utterly obsessed.

Things I Am Loving – Aviary Wallpaper

March 1, 2011 By Paola 9 Comments

Phew! I think I’ve just about got the Oscars out of my system. I was on the brink of comparing Nicole Kidman to an armadillo, but stopped myself just in time.

In other news, Liberty London Girl just tweeted about the fabulous wallpaper in the bathrooms at the Soho Grand Hotel in NYC.

It’s called Aviary by F Schumacher, and the pattern was designed by Saul Steinberg, who was a cartoonist for The New Yorker in the 1950s.

Here is is in situ at the Soho Grand. I may have to stay here next time I’m in NYC, just so I can sit in the bathroom.

This wallpaper needs to be in my life somehow as a matter of urgency. Time to work on the downstairs bathroom? It’s also available at Decorator’s Best.

{Found via Liberty London Girl’s Tumblr. Additional pictures via Remodelista and Tea For Joy}

Funky Loft Beds

February 25, 2011 By Paola 13 Comments

For the past few months we’ve been in the market for a cool loft bed for the Minx. The problem was a familiar one – all the beautifully designed loftbeds that I actually LIKED were phenomenally expensive, while the ones we could afford were all cheaply made, old fashioned, plain ugly or only available in Europe. Why does great design have to be so flipping spendy and why is all the funky stuff in the US imported from Europe in the first place? Where are the American designers doing cool contemporary design for kids?

Here are some of the beds we loved and had to reject because of cost. Next week I’ll post pictures of the bed we finally chose.

This is the Alex Loft Bed system by DucDuc. It’s available in a range of cool colours and is American designed and made, but you’ll have to fork out $2,850 for just the top bed and armoire before adding a the desk or a bottom bed etc.

All you get for $2,850

The felt-covered German-made Perludi ‘Amber in the Sky’ is also rather splendid, and available here for a cool $2599 (down from $3,450).

The Azor loft bed below is also imported from Europe but comes in at a slightly more reasonable at $2150, including, I think, the desk.

My absolute fave was this picture I found on OhDeeDoh. The link is now broken, it looks like the bed was also super expensive, and I haven’t been able to find it anywhere else, but I love the diagonal footprint, so am adding it here to sigh about what might have been.

Did I say my most favourite? Actually that accolade probably needs to go to these Tiramolla loft bedrooms from Tumidei of Italy which I believe are available through Roche Bobois. I didn’t even bother to enquire as to how much they cost (I’m sure the answer would be ‘your first born child’ which would rather defeat the object) but they sure are molto bello.

Images from the Minx’s new bedroom coming early next week. I know you can’t wait.

Cute Pet Tags – Blanket ID

February 10, 2011 By Paola 7 Comments

Unlike fancy pants litter boxes, here is a cat accessory we can all get behind.

Cate is a long time commenter on this blog and runs a Blanket ID which provides super smart ID tags for dogs and cats.

Her idea is as nifty as it is simple. Each tag comes with a unique code number which you use to register your pets details online. If anyone finds your pet, they simply go to www.blanketid.com, put in the code number and lo and behold, they can find all your pet’s contact details and any other useful information such as special diet or allergies and vet contact details.

It’s better than microchipping (though our cats came chipped from the shelter) as the tags can easily be read by members of the public, and the online data storage allows you to store a lot more information than would fit on a normal collar tag. It’s also easier to keep information such as phone numbers and email addresses up to date rather than having to have collar tags re-engraved.

As final bonus, if your pet does go missing, the online service means you can quickly print off ‘Lost’ posters, and BlanketID automatically contacts vets and shelters in your area. Your first year’s registration on the site is included in the price of your tag. Thereafter BlanketID charges a small annual subscription that includes a donation to their own pet charity.

Aside from all this goodness, the tags are also beautifully designed, and come in a bunch of colours and styles.

The Minx of course chose the girliest ones she could find for Flora and Harriet, which proved to be a bit of a mistake as we have recently found out that Flora is in fact Prince Florian, though we will still be calling him Flora for short (yep, you’re probably as confused as I am, and he is, by this).

Here’s Harriet modelling her tag.

I think Flora, on the other hand, may be rather embarrassed by his, as this was the only unblurry picture I was able to get.

Full Disclosure : Cate sent me a couple of tags to try for free. Don’t tell her but she didn’t need to do that as I think it’s a fabulous idea and would have bought some anyway. Thanks Cate!