sea dino pendant

I love this quirky aqua-dino eating necklace from Verameat. The site also has a bunch of other unique charms and jewelry. This would definately be a perfect conversation starter!

amour.

This table, with its energetic punch of colour, would look lovely in my future apartment. Although the price is a bit steep on the actual table pictured, it's definately a DIY idea...

(found via Dose of Design)

woodsy girl

I'm re-decorating my room over Holiday break, and lately I have been longing to put up some branches in my room. I just love when people use them for decorations. This one is so unique and adorable.

(photo from flickr- mrs. kara)

toast

Toast- This shop defines cozy/lazy/winter to me. I love it. Especially the name.

pour

Rainman Carafe.
(via justcooldesign)

my favorite time of year- the season of cheer!

It's finally Christmas time again. And with that comes all of my fondest memories by warm fires at my aunt's house, building snow forts after a fresh layer of snow at the park, the smell of peppermint and hot chocolate and, of course the welcoming down comfortor under which to dream the sweetest of dreams about what will be filling my Mickey Mouse stocking in the morning. I know this year, it seems that I am beginning my festive feelings a bit prematurely, but I guess that's due to the fact that the local Walgreens has an entire aisle dedicated to assorted candy cane flavours and a whole other aisle dedicated to other various types of Christmas goodies, and to the fact that my mom, brother, aunt and I went to see the New York Rockettes' Christmas Spectacular in Green Bay last night. The show was fantastic! Giant teddy bears dancing to the Nutcracker, live camel and donkeys, pair skating, a huge replica New York tourbus, and of course those energetic syncronized dancers adorned in all that glitters kicking their toes into the stratosphere. I'm a bit disheartned that I couldn't see them preform in the actual Radio City Music Hall. But, due to the fact that my brother and I simply cannot see eye to eye on any vacation, a 1.5 hour trip to Green Bay was about all I could handle of the little bugger anyways.
I bought my first round of candy canes on Monday night. I have been waiting all year for them to come around again- and I can confidently say that they satisfied my taste for Christmas and lived up to everything I remember them as from last year. Now, I just have to wait until Thanksgiving is over before the old tree gets assembled and takes its postition in our living room for the real thing to finally begin.

(Room from Pottery Barn Holiday 2008 Catalogue)

Song of the Day: BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE by Doris Day and Bing Crosby

things i like

Maison de la Vallette ribbon-covered chandelier
Mailable miniature book of Dog Names by deigner, Jamie Rugh

Cozy, warm interior photography by Michael Grimm

Felt acorn from auxpetitsoiseaux

silly scatterplot

I'm currently in statistics class, so all we do (when I'm not doodling in my notes..) is draw scatterplots. This one is much more amusing than the ones we're subjected to.

Song of the Day: NEW YORK I LOVE YOU BUT YOU'RE BRINGING ME DOWN by LCD Soundsystem.

Book by its Cover

I adore flipping through artist's sketchbooks and, on this site- Book by Its Cover, you can do just that with many talented artist's sketches photographed and displayed online. I love it!

Thanks Julia Rothman! (found via this blog)

cute advertisment

Here are some ads I saw and loved at the airport in San Francisco. They're for Dentayne Gum but I just think they're wonderful!

Song of the Day: LITTLE MISS PIPEDREAM by The Wombats

small space- good design

This simple little "wallflower" desk would be perfect for a small apartment or a dorm room! I love the simplicity of it and the little light attatched to the bottom of the top shelf.

Architonic

homes for today.

The home is where the heart is. This modern home blog steals my heart. I will definately bring this blog up to show my Int. Arch and design class come Monday.

the happiest time of the day- in color

Appreciate the small things in life. Two women, 3191 miles each appart snapped a picture in the morning every day for a year, posted them on a blog, and eventually assembled them into this photobook. Showing, although they are so far apart, mornings and the simple things are universal. Love it.

Check out their current project as a blog- 3191 A Year of Evenings

mini fancy pants

If I had a child, I would definately buy him/her a pair (or 7) of these adorable little suspender pants. They come in sizes 0-6 and about a hundred different, bright and cheery colors. They're made by Danish designer Mette and can be ordered off of her site, Floedehesten. Also, check out her adorable blog!

Poppytalk

I stumbled upon the poppytalk blog this morning. I loved the decorating ideas. Especially the style of the first picture- art studio meets classic bedroom. Check them out!

The blog also has links to many etsy-style handmade papercraft artists.

Song of the day: SHE LOVES EVERYBODY by Chester French

The Joy of an Old-Fashioned Letter

Since the creation of the internet and sites like facebook, myspace, and just plain "old" email, it's a rare occasion to actually recieve a hand-written letter. Although instant communication is a great accomplishment for our generation, I believe there is some romance about real, hold-them-in-your-hand, rip-open-the-tongue-licked-seal letters. Letters are how people have been communicating and have served as a way to get to know the greats of the past. Take Vincent van Gogh's letters to his brother Theo for example. Without their constant correspondance, people today wouldn't know nearly as much as they do about van Gogh. In fact, the time period that van Gogh lived with his brother Theo in Paris, is the time in van Gogh's life that we know the least about simply because it was unnecessary for van Gogh to write his brother.

Today, I wish that people would spend a little extra time and write out a true letter. I know I would feel a lot more though-of upon recieving a handwritten letter in the mail, as opposed to a quick "wall-comment" on facebook. And, as an additional note, I think most people today don't actually know how to write. Internet communication requires zero dollars so most people don't care if they spell things right or actually get an intelligent point across. However, in the "oldendays" when people had to invest hard-earned money and time into stationary, stamps, envelopes, etc, people spent a little more time and thought getting just the right words down on paper. Penmanship was also considered to be an intelligent trait of a person, and today, if someone were to write me a letter, most of the time it would be illegible because people depend so strongly on keyboards to spell out their thoughts.

Basically, I just wish letter-writing was still valued in society, as it was when Jane Austin wrote Pride and Prejudice when Mr. Darcy would spend time each day writing letters and was admired for his skill of craftmanship in such.

Besides, who doesn't love stationary shopping?

One dad, exibition designer, Robert Guest wakes up at the crack of dawn and writes each of his two children, Joanna and Theo, a note each day for the past 15 years of their childhood. Here are some of the letters he wrote:

[Esopus]



What a great father!

office space

I was flipping through the new(ish) PotteryBarn catalogue for the holidays and found my dreeeeam office space. The one pictured above isn't it, but that's the second best one in there. Please notice the loose art of the Eiffel tower and Collesseum. I would def have those, except, I would make them myself!

My dream office includes:

-travel books

-photography books

-great classic literature

-poetry books

-fashion mags for inspiration

-a NEW laptop

-a franklin covey planner

-a sketch book

-tea and scones

-travel momentos and souvenirs from around the world

-the best cookbooks

-herbs and soaps.

... so pretty random, but definately inspiring!

Song of the Day: SUNDRESS by Ben Kweller

(kind of an older one, but still worthy of its title. especially for a slightly sunny fall day)