I saw this beautiful Duyos ensemble on Pinterest (thanks to Tami Ramsay) and immediately saw Eskayel's fabrics and wallpapers in both the blotted ink and the watery turquoise blue and pale yellow color palette. Soft & pretty in both fashion & interiors, no?
Artichokes
Artichokes are in season right now and are amongst my favorite spring & summer veggies. Do you love them too? So here's a question for you ... if you love to eat them, would you venture so far as to display them in your home? I think that either the botanical or the pillow would make quite a lovely (and unexpected) addition to a living room.
Hue: Carnival Wheel in Paris
The lyrical abstraction of Sarah Giannobile's artwork is entrancing. I could seriously stare for a long, long time at Carnival Wheel in Paris. The muted color palette and the geometric patterns are so right up my alley. But I also think that I subconsciously chose this ferris wheel for today's post due to the ride that I am currently on called life. Here's what's up... today we are moving out of our rental house where we've been living for the last year while gut rehabbing a beautiful old house into the home we hope to live in for the next 40+ years. Moving out of the rental would be a really good thing if, in fact, we were moving into our finished home. Alas, we are moving out because we must make way for its rightful owners who are moving back in, but our final destination is still about a month away from completion. Not able to find a suitable rental house that is furnished (turns out there lots of options for college kids here in Ann Arbor, but I have no desire to relive the glory days with two kids in tow!) we have opted to stay at a lovely B & B for 30 days. Less than ideal, yes. Loss of privacy, yes. But it's really cozy and very clean (ie - no moldy beer bongs lurking in closets) and the plus side is that I won't have to make breakfast for a whole month. I'm trying very hard to be "glass is half full" about this - is it obvious?!
Whatever. Enough whining out of me! How was your weekend? And what do you think of this crazy cool Carnival Wheel in Paris?
Good Reads: UPPERCASE
It was only very recently that I discovered UPPERCASE, a magazine for the creative and curious. Do you know it? It's the most inquisitive, inspiring, adventurous, eclectic and playful (those are their words, but I couldn't describe it better) magazine. I picked up my first copy this weekend in Anthropologie and quickly became engrossed. I instantly noticed the weighty and luxuriously matte paper that the entire magazine is printed on. This is something that too many magazines forgo because of cost. Most titles, you see, are beholden to their margins and because subscription costs for mainstream magazines have gotten lower and lower in order to incentivize people to subscribe, their profit gets smaller and smaller. Paper stock is often one of the first things that get cut, and cut again, and cut even farther until the pages are so thin, flimsy and yucky feeling that you wonder why you are even reading that magazine. It's a catch 22 and there's no right answer. But, by wonderful contrast, UPPERCASE feels like the most incredible thing in print. They've invested in their product wisely and the result is tangible from the very first page you touch. Sorry for my little rant there -- occupational hazard (I used to work in magazine publishing).
So, imagine my surprise when there was not one, not two, but three features on textile designers in the current issue (Issue 13). I devoured every creative word and image in the magazine, lingering especially long on the pieces about Lourdes Sanchez (p. 22), Eloise Renouf (p. 42) and Eva Franco (p. 68). What's even more amazing is that Janine Vangool's (she's the talented publisher, editor & designer of UPPERCASE) opening message was all about serendipity and happy coincidences, which is exactly how I felt when this issue found its way into my hands. UPPERCASE, you have a new subscriber (and you're worth every penny for your unique creative voice and ohhhh that paper stock!)
Image Credits: Covers via UPPERCASE. Lourdes Sanchez images taken by Krista Nye Schwartz via Instagram from UPPERCASE Issue 13.
The Weekend in Patterns
J. Crew // Neiman Marcus // Tibetan Saddle Blanket // Royal Cameroonian Textile
How was your weekend? Mine was full of so many colorful & exotic patterns! I want to share a few of them with you just because they are pretty, and because I hope they make you happy like they have made me all weekend long.
Fab Five: Serene Bedding
Steven Gambrel Lights It Up
The attention to detail and craftsmanship that these new lights from Steven Gambrel for Urban Electric Co. possess has me in awe. So it's no surprise that I enthusiastically watched (a couple of times, in fact) this video about what inspired Steven, and how he and UECo. collaborated to get every little detail just so. I think you might love hearing about it too...
Hue: Madame Butterfly
This lovely color palette, which I would use in a little girls room in a heartbeat, is inspired by Designer Guild's exotic Madame Butterfly fabric from their new Kimono Blossoms collection . The design, which is printed on pure linen, was sensitively reproduced from original calligraphy and watercolor artwork.
Role Models: .normaluisa
Neisha Crosland Tiles
The latest line of tiles from Ann Sacks is the super creative output of textile designer Neisha Crosland. Crosland is known for sophisticated and unusual color combinations, impeccable attention to balance and proportion, oversized graphics and symmetrical geometric motifs inspired by nature. I'm already a big fan of her fabrics & wallpapers, are you too?
This line of handmade & hand-painted tiles, titled Haveli (the Hindi word for private mansion), was inspired by Native American weavings. No wonder I'm so charmed! Which one is your favorite? Above: The Ann Sacks ad for this line. Great creative, and I love their tag line... Shouldn't all rooms be living? This is for sure getting pinned into my Pretty Print Ads board.