Holiday Spaces...

There is nothing like decorating for the holidays in my book...It makes me happy, to see others happy, and I love nothing more than sprucing the place up for my family and friends. I like to have treats all through the house for people to munch on, and as healthy as I try to be, super healthy eating kinda goes out the window for the month of December...I love the way these home owners have made their homes a warm and inviting place for their guests to linger.

Hope you are warm and happy.

Top Photo Via- Space for inspiration

Bottom Photo-Unknown

Waiting for Snow...

Here in Seattle, our first snow normally would have arrived by now. 
Unfortunately we are still waiting...
But our sleds are dusted off and ready to roll, and being that the hill to our 
house is about as steep, we are some seriously experienced sled nerds. 
We are so looking forward to using them!

Hope you are staying warm!

Photo Unknown

Going Home?

I am sure many of you are going home, or somewhere else for the holidays. 
Anyone driving? I love this image of this bad-ass car, ready to roll. 
I would totally hang it in my "entertainment" room.
 Question: Am I completely insane or do ya ever kinda wanna
 PEEL OUT of your driveway like this guy, full throttle, 
and blast down an empty country road??
 With all the presents that I have NOT purchased yet, and these ridiculously busy days, 
it  sounds kinda AWESOME. 

Merry, Merry...


Image Via here.

Artist of the Month : Anna-Wili Highfield

Owl Perched 

2010

      Ink, water colour, cotton paper, thread, brass rod, timber block

Anna-Wili Highfield is a Sydney based artist that
 makes sculptures from paper and copper pipe. 
The paper sculptures are painted, then sewn together to create the figure of an animal.
The copper pipe is bent and manipulated to create sculptural forms 
reminiscent of line drawings. 
These animals are quite a sophisticated lot of keepers, 
that anyone in their right mind would DIE to have on their mantel...

 Storm Petrel 

2011

             Ink, water color, cotton paper, cotton thread, brass.

Owl Descending  2011 ink, water color, archival cotton paper, cotton thread, brass rod, timber block

 Silver Gull 

2010

Ink, water colour, archival cotton paper. cotton thread, copper pipe, timber block

 Seahorse 

2011

  Ink, watercolour, archival cotton paper, copper rod, timber block

 Robin 

2010ink, water colour, archival cotton paper, cotton thread, brass rod, timber block

Pegasus for Hermes 

2011

ink, water colour, archival cotton paper, cotton thread, copper pipe

 Horse Masks for Hermes 

2011

 Cotton paper, ink, cotton thread, silk, copper pipe internals with hard hat.

Galah 

2010

Ink, watercolours, archival cotton paper, cotton thread, brass rod, timber plinth.

 Dove 

2010

               Archival cotton paper, thread, brass rod, timber block

 Brown Warbler 

2010

Ink, water colour, archival cotton paper, cotton thread, brass rod, timber block

 Barn Owl 

2009

               Ink, water colour, archival cotton paper, cotton thread

These are so amazing, I wanted to post about ten more images, but alas I restrained myself and tried to pick out my absolute favorites...It was hard let me tell ya...
These pieces are commission only.

Her commercial clients include Carla Zampatti,  Bianca Spender, Anthropologie and Hermes. However, Anna-Wili’s pieces have predominantly been commissioned by private clients, both within Australia and around the world.

See more of her amazing work here.

Simple, Subtle, Sexy.

I love this gallery wall, and the room in general, is smart and sexy. It reminds me of something that would have been in the now defunct Met Home.

Lately I have been drawn to a tad more clutter, but this is a perfectly simple beauty...

Image Unknown

There is a Plume for you...

Beautiful old books...

If only we had the amount of time left in our lives to finish reading them all...

New Work at Revival Home and Garden

 Here is a new encaustic piece I have been working on that is now at Revival Home and Garden in Seattle. I also have a few more pieces there that I will show you soon, but right now I need to stop eating for a minute cause I am starting to feel kinda gross. I have been working non-stop and now, after I have become a complete glutton, I can finally post some new work...

 The piece below is Oil on Canvas...

 I have said it before, and I will say it again, encaustic art, (really ALL art), needs to be seen up close because of the deep layers, and rich, translucent glow, that is hard to see in a photograph. Check it out at Revival Home to see it up close, and while you are in that happening hood' go to the Oddfellows for lunch...

Hope you all had an insanely fabulous Thanksgiving Holiday.

Photography by Janell Dedera

Video of the Month - Zebra

Stuffed and Still Eating...

As I write this, my belly is full, and ready to explode...And I have no intention of stopping the madness for a few more days, so here's to all the comforts of home and hearth,

(clink, clink).

Hope your holiday continues into the weekend!


Photo:Unknown

The Lost Art of the Magazine Cover

What an amazing time, when we were still able to put ART on the covers of magazines.
If we did that today, it would be the sign of death(unfortunately), for most mags, 
as it would not have the same selling power as Kim Kardashian's boobs...
Very few "artful" mags still exist, but I am completely devoted 
to the ones that are still around...

I LOVE these covers...

They make me want to take off my shoes, drink a cup of tea, and start baking pies.

 I hope you are having fun, preparing for some cozy, delicious days ahead in your home!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Via-Unknown

Winter Indulgences

 I am in the midst of some serious winter cravings of, fat, carbs, and sugar 

just in time for the holidays...

How about you?

Hope you have a delicious weekend...

Photo Via- Wet Behind The Ears

The Art of Keeping House, and The Perfectly Imperfect Home

Deborah Needleman is a genius...The Perfectly Imperfect Home is perfect.

What a PERFECT title for one thing, and for another, there are VERY few books that make me feel cozy, inspired, and happy, all at the same time. After years of editing, editing, editing, we can finally loosen our belts a bit, stop hiding the T.V.'s, stashing away the knickknacks, and have COMFY sofa's! Do you think we were all hiding who we were? Seriously...If you have an old collection of whatever, go get it out of the garage, dust it off and cluster it on a shelf...I have several clusters in my house, and so should you.... This is my coffee table with my idea of heaven perched upon it. English Breakfast tea with a splash of milk, a lovely,(natural smelling), candle, a cozy blanket, a roaring fire, and BOOKS!

Along with Deborah's book, my other favorite home book is Home Comforts, by Cheryl Mendelson. My copy is torn and battered from constant reading and reference.It has EVERY possible piece of information you could EVER need about "The Art and Science of keeping home". It makes me want to strive higher, yet it doesn't feel out of reach, or make me feel like a big,homekeeping loser...

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving for some rest and reprieve..

I hope you all find a way to unwind that makes you happy too...

Gratefully Yours....

Get your copy of these favorite home books of mine, here.

Icon of Style- Loulou de La Falaise

Elegant Bohemian...That's what I want to be when I grow up...

 The beautiful and stylish Loulou de la Falaise has left us. I had featured her home here on the blog before, and can honestly say, her home is probably one of my top 3 favorite interiors of all time. One thing that is not seen in many homes is a combination of style, elegance, creativity, AND a lived in, or, down to earth quality. It is a rare, and unusual combination in a person, let alone a home.
But when I see it I know it, and hers is/was just that...

 

 When I was backpacking through Europe, back in the day, I had the pleasure of running into Loulou's niece, (above), Lucie de La Falaise at a Yves St. Laurent show that was at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Paris. (Lucie had become a modern day muse for the designer.) It was a teeny tiny show and Lucie was running in looking like she may have been late, decked out in a long suede purple jacket , and immaculately put together. I remember her saying she liked my jacket, which was a pretty rad vintage number. 

Needless to say I still have the jacket, and always will, remembering fondly that it was noted by one of a long lineage of remarkably stylish women.

“It is fantastic to work beside Yves,” Loulou told Vogue after 20 years of collaboration, “We both believe fantasy is such a vital element of fashion. We tend to think of ourselves as gypsies who have just returned with a marvelous caravan of incredible finds from the exotic reaches of the earth. But we have to make the caravan ourselves. Our Orient is our imagination.”

I can relate Loulou.

I hope you are in your caravan with all of your fashionable friends having a blast.

R.I.P.


Photo's Via- Vogue

Interior Design Love : Celerie Kemble

 Tomorrow, I am finally going to have a moment to go to my local bookstore 
and purchase Celerie Kemble's book, Black and White, and I am giddy with excitement. 
It takes a lot for me to get excited in the world of interiors. It has to be a certain mix for me. My mind is open to it all, but I like to be surprised, and not necessarily by trends or shock value. Celerie Kemble has been on my radar for a while, but it was the Lonny Magazine article with the giant antiqued mirror, the yellow velvet chairs, and the green and blue peacock room that threw me over the edge. It was a mix of traditional, elegant boho, with a dash of casual glam, but most of all it still looked comfortable! 
That did it for me.
 This book makes me excited to see more.

What I think is really cool is that she chose to include images 
of other designers work as well,(my friend Grant Gibson is one of them). 
I think that is so cool of her. 
I love designers and people in general that spread the love...

Hope you other design nerds will enjoy it as much as I know I will!

After the books cover, the first two images are via Lonny Magazine and the last two are from Celerie Kemble's book, Black and White.

Salvador Dali and his Bone Hat

One of my favorite artists looked dashing in his cow skull hat, 

it must have kept the sun out of his eyes just enough. 

Have a great weekend.

Photo Via- Acid Sweat Lodge

The Art of the Scarf...

Ilana Kohn is a handmade line of clothing based in Brooklyn, New York.  These scarves are so beautiful, and I love these shots of the marbling process. The above gray, creamy orange and white is my favorite.

I love seeing the creative process of other artists. 

These are carried at one of my favorite online stores, Pretty Mommy.