Blue On Blue

Spring, right? I walked 15 minutes from the bus stop to the shop this morning and my ears were frozen. One of my coworkers picked me up and saved me the last 5 minutes of wind. I got a proper dressing down for not dressing properly. But who can tell what clothes to wear these days? Wellies, sneakers, flip flops or ballet flats? A coat or a little jacket? Wool or cotton? Well, in my khaki jacket, cotton sweater, t-shirt and ballet flats I got it all wrong. And I heard about it in English and Spanish.

But when I came home from work the wind was gentle, the skies were so blue, and the garden was haphaphappy. The first blossoms on the ornamental plum are open, the brunnera is flowering the muscari at the base of the crepe myrtle are up and starting to open. I should have fallen to my knees rejoicing and weeding, but after a garden tour, I pulled a chair into the sun and read my book. Ahhhh. Last day of March!

Blog tip

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Check it out!

Waiting For You

By Brian

Every night i pray

that you'll come to me

Like this night

I'm waiting for you until the morning

but what a pity

everything is the same

I am still N/A

there is no update today

maybe tomorrow

the day after tomorrow, next week or next month, year

I am right here waiting for you

Newbie

Why don't you?

Why don't you refashion your chipped or broken china as beautiful desktop accessories? Here I'm using a chipped Wedgwood jasperware creamer to hold paperclips on my desk at work.

Waste not, want not; Definitely cheers up my day!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!

Slippery Slope

These look like a slippery slope to fun. I think taking a slide would be much more fun that taking the stairs, don't you? I've been seeing more and more images of the "slide" option in interiors and I think it looks crazy fun. Plus there's nothing more precious than watching this man enjoy this slide. Just precious.

Here is the slide sans the man. Its really quite beautiful; the gorgeous mahogany and the design. The architect Rodney Miller at Wood Innovations designed this millionaire for Scott Jones. It took 15 months to finish. Also check out his chevron patterned flooring. Swoon!

Win is right! I'm not sure where this one is but I like its "win" spirit!

Great way to enjoy the view, huh? You can see it from all angles and really really fast if you take the slide! The rest of the room need a little help though. Mini rugs and a kitty litter box? Time for a bit of spring cleaning! via wide open spaces.

See, hipsters aren't THAT miserable! This looks ridiculously fun but only looks wide enough for a child...or an unhappy hipster. I love the round window going down though. via penny rounds.

I hope this makes your Wednesday a little more fun and just know that this day is a "slippery slope" to Friday! Yeah I made it a pun, what of it? Maybe I can install one of these in my barn attached to my farmhouse in the country. You know, the one that I'll own by the time I'm 30.


Alicia B.

An unexpected visitor

We had an unexpected visitor coming to lunch with us today! He poured orange juice down his jumper so had to dine in the nude.

McLaggan Smith collaboration

We'll try and be creative and take some life style pics over lunch time, until then - here are the new McLaggan Smith cups we did!

My New Camera

You may remember I broke my old camera a few months ago and was on the search for a replacement. My replacement is a Canon Powershot SD1200 is and I can't say enough good things about it. I think the photographs have been excellent at 10 MP (judge for yourself though, the last 2 months worth of posts have used this camera); it's tiny and fits into my pocket and is super easy to use. My previous camera was also a canon powershot from 2002 but the difference is really amazing; Technology has come so far!Recently at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, I got a chance to see just how far camera technology has advanced. Above you see a number of cameras from the last century in all shapes and sizes.

This Ansco Cadet has the most enormous flash but is basically the 1960s version of my canon amateur powershot. You need luggage to tote this thing around though, definitely NOT pocket size!

This Thorton-Pickard Mark III Aerial gun from 1915 was used during WWI to spy on the enemy. I wouldn't advise this for everyday use unless you want an adventure in prison!

This little promotional velveeta camera was probably my favorite; so cute! I don't know if you had to save up UPC points from boxes or not to earn this, but it was definitely worth it!

Sidenote: this is not a paid advertisement of the Canon! Actually, the camera did have a fault in that it did not include a memory card and so was not 'ready to use' ! This is a very annoying thing to find out after you get it home and can't even try it out till you find an SD card!!! Canon - include basic memory cards with your cameras, please!

Making organization so pretty!

Over the weekend I dipped into the Lilly Pulitzer store on Madison ave and picked up some fun little file folders to file my taxes and some other paper work. I think that organization is just as much a part of design as anything else and i think that it really does matter what they look like. It just makes organization and paying your bill just a little bit more fun. It seems that other people agree because I've been seeing more and more of my favorite stores carry their own stationary lines. Take a look.
Vera Bradley has pretty stationary and I was given VB file folders a few years ago. I like this pink and brown Chinoiserie patterned one. $14 for 6 of them.

The Vera Bradley ones, like their bags, have a vast array of fun patterns. Sittin in a Tree HERE.

Jonathan Alder knows what's what and came up with his own stationary line too. PHEW. $9.95 for six of them.

Greek key, as you may know, is my newest love. I might have to go back to Mad Ave and pick up some of these ones at Jonathan Adler.

I found these on Etsy. The ones on etsy were pretty hit or miss (mostly miss), but I thought these were pretty and much simpler than the rest. From Whisker Graphics, 3 for $5 on Etsy.

These are the ones that I bought on Saturday. They're very tropical/preppy fun. $13 for 6 of them.

Lilly Pulitzer has a great stationary section as well as these adorable file folder. COME on! They have turtles on them!

Of course, the Container Store has a little collection of cute folders. A wee bit more affordable than some of the others, these are $6 for six folders--Bloom folders.

If you're into birds, these are really pretty from Kate's Paperie. Cavallini folders 12 folders for $18, woo! Though these aren't my favorite I kind of like the vintage postage feel to them.

I do love attractive organization but I really do think that it makes a difference to have something like these instead of blah manila folders. You know I'm right. Organization is also a great part of decorating and spring cleaning!

Alicia B.

More cups!

These are the new designs for a series of cups we have done together with McLaggan Smith. What do you think?

It Was All I Hope It Would Be

I had the nicest Sunday, minus the sun itself, but still.

We walked the Lab in the rain. She doesn't mind the weather, just trots on ahead and smiles.

We grocery shopped, good will hunted and scored these two pieces of stoneware. The little brown dish from West Germany maybe 70's? And this vase which finally encouraged me to get the flowers off the kitchen counter.

Then delicious housemade brautwurst sandwiches from The German Store covered in sauerkraut and mustard on chibatta rolls. I should have taken a picture, but my appetite got in the way of my camera.

There was a nap and reading and German girl made Pad Thai with beef for dinner.

We went to sleep with the windows open a crack and the sound of a gentle rain. I wish I could do it all over again.

Touches of Spring

Im on blog strike! I have nothing to post, nothing to share, plus I want a new camera and I have camera envy. My brother brought over his new SLR today and took some pictures of my front yard- I then took the same picture with my camera-I may never blog again! What a difference between his pictures and mine. Anywoo- here are some pics (taken with my sad shabby camera) of Spring-Time in da house.

AND THESE were taken with my brothers camera in my front yard. gahh! curse you SLR!!