Ahhh....to have land....

Growing up, we used to spend our summers in the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina. It was idyllic, to say the least. It wasn't perfect, but it was as close to Halcyion as you can get, if you ask me.


So imagine my delight when I'm flipping through the latest Domino and see a little article on a company that makes tents which inspire - in me - that same carefree feeling.


They've got plenty of styles to meet your every need. I can just imagine the parties...and all of the lovely images that involve tents like these: The last day of the Raj...The Great Gatsby... the Little Princess. Delightful.

Another Thing I Want

From the September 08 Elle Decor. Take a moment, because you might need it to fully appreciate what you're looking at. The pine floors, the window panel, the funky door, the darling little vintage occasional table, the lovely Waterworks Tub...and what is that? It's a seashell-encrusted tub filler. It's from Fisher Weisman.

I, like Sylvia Plath in the Bell Jar, feel that there is nothing that can't be solved by a good soak in the tub. Having a tub filler (maybe not seashell encrusted) would only heighten that experience.

I have the new Domino, as well. I'm thinking that once a month I might just do a "Design Magazine Roundup" and feature a few of my favorite images from the magazines to which I subscribe.

My schedule changes next week, so here's hoping I'm able to blog a bit more regularly.

A Little Project

Years ago, when I worked at Macy's I picked up a magnetic knife strip on crazy sale. (You know those sales, it's 50% plus 25% plus employee discount = practically free.) Sometime around Christmas we outgrew it:


For the super curious - here's half of the kitchen setup:


So, a trip to IKEA provided me with this:


A little switcheroo and voila!



And because I'm not one to waste perfectly good items:

Bulletin Board

I'm in the midst of the very slow re-organizing/decorating of the home office. It started months ago when we smashed our desks together to make a partner's desk - which only works if you're not BOTH working from home.


I just noticed that I didn't take the picture right after it was set up and still all neat so I just took this one. You get the point, though. The far desk belongs to my husband - his setup is specifically for the purposes of composing straight to Garage Band, so that will likely always stay. But the shelves will be moved and replaced with art/diplomas/posters/etc. Also that's the least convenient place to store a bicycle. Still trying to figure that one out.

In the last setup (which I also don't have photos of) I had a bulletin board and a white board above my desk. The bulletin board is roughly 4,000,000,000 years old and badly in need of a facelift. Behold:

It actually looks better in this imafe than it did in real life. So I painted it bronze and trimmed it out with some pink and white ribbon. Then I took a package of clear push-pins, dipped their tips in glue and then in glitter, and poked them into the cork to dry.


And voila! A fresh, new, bulletin board:



Now if I can just get motivated enough to do the rest of the office...

A Nursery Idea and advice from Jonathan Adler

First, I was reading this morning (in the Huffington Post) that Mr. Adler has "a saying in my company: The wife is always right unless the husband is gay. This is an excellent saying and questioning your husband's sexuality is a great way to get him to shut up. Assuming that this is not the case and your husband is straight (is he?), you simply have no recourse other than to eliminate him from the process. Take into account some of his functional needs, and then ignore everything else."

This is how I managed to get a pink bathroom.

Next, I ran across these little cuties and immediately thought "these would be so cute in a nursery!"

That's a coelacanth, thought extinct for millenia until a live one was discovered off the coast of Cape Town. It's made of paper and available here, along with these other charming creatures and many, many more:

Giant Panda (did you hear about the Panda Baby Boom?)

A little Spotted Kiwi.

A Giant Armadillo.

And a Juan Fernandez Fur Seal.

They are available for download from Yamaha's Site as paper crafts. It would make a fun rainy day activity for the kids (or kids at heart) and, as my sister pointed out: would be great to do during the forest curriculum with 1st graders! Edutainment, as my husband calls it.

Enjoy!

Website is up!

Just a small announcement. The Embrita Design website is officially up and running!