have a sweet summer weekend!

toss on a grass skirt!

stick your feet out of the window, any window! ;) (via, we hear it)

invite color in this weekend!

get outside this weekend! (via, rachel whiting)
get inside this weekend!

read books this weekend! (via rune guneriussen)

find your favorite quiet spaces this weekend, (via, polly eltes)


hey everyone...happy weekend on the way. and better yet, it's a super summer weekend. i hope you all have the best weekend ever!
just be in summer. party. sleep. eat well. blog. blog some more ;) and most of all, just enjoy!

wednesday~thursday post combined? why not...

it's been a hectic week at avant garde design all the way around. so many interesting, exhausting things going on between classes, my teenage son having his new summer job and add in work on top of all that and voila...hectic. not that i'm complaining. sometimes hectic is full of fun and inspiration, like now. so...for today, i'm posting about random wednesday~thursday things, products, color palettes that i'm lusting after.

super drawn to clean lines and pairing down, as in these spaces from loft life magazine. breathable spaces. sigh....


wanting these hand~made vases, from jersey pottery, for my summer table, indoor or out. imagine placing stems sticking right out of those holes as well as straight down the middle of the vase? would make for a stunning table display. or wedding idea? hmmmm....

how super fun are these "early bird" pendant lights from greener grass design? for either a nursery or above a small reading area in your home? ceramic, these pendants come in a variety of colors and are perfect for doing lighting differently!


i love the textural element and wonderful color palette offerings that objeti provides with these gorgeous "drop stools" (with eco~friendly wooden seats and aluminum legs) and these "soft tools" felt pendant lamps, hand~pressed and naturally dyed. really loving these!


i've been asked to produce a short film for the course i'm taking this summer, the subject matter being my choice. the course is anthropology and film. so, i've been visiting a local large fair that comes to my area each summer. the people that travel with the fair move around all over the north east. i've narrowed down two gentlemen who have allowed me to follow them from beginning to end, interviewing them, hanging out with them, getting to know them, setting up their area of the fair (they travel with a petting zoo, camels, goats, horses, you name it!) all the way to when the fair ends in 10 days and they break it all down. then they move on to the next venue. i've always wondered about what that lifestyle must be like and now i am finding out. creating a short ethnographic film on two guys. jason and tim. isn't that intriguing? i'm loving it. perhaps when it is complete i can post a link to it on utube for anyone who'd like to see the finished product? no laughing at my very non~technical self though, this is my first time producing a project like this. i'm using an ipod nano for my video taping. so far it's working out like a charm. anyway, that's why i've been so busy and hope to be back to regular posting soon...enjoy!

marie claire maison, salons.

i'm off an running today. after a morning walk/run (i'm literally reduced to a walk/run routine in the middle of the summer as the heat gets to me big time when i run my usual route), i'm off to continue work on a curious project for the summer course i'm taking. i'll fill you in tomorrow on the subject matter i've chosen for my assignment. in the mean time, enjoy these magnificent salons via marie claire maison. they are certainly drool~worthy!







enjoy your tuesday everyone in blogland! i'll be by your wonderful blogs soon to say hello ;) it's hot and sticky in my part of the world, hoping you are staying cool and enjoying these summer days...

design your wall.

i was driving around this weekend and happened by a beautiful home right smack dab on the ocean in my area. in the driveway was a papering/wall covering truck, in there, a talented hanger of wall coverings, papering away i imagine. so then of course my mind was wandering and racing, wondering, wishing that i could peek inside to see what his or her client had settled on. was it modern? traditional? super daring? or somewhere in between?

design your wall is a company that offers all of that! i adore perusing their pages, from traditional (although not your grandma's wall coverings) to completely off the charts unique...like these!



design your wall's vast metallic line is also sensational. you'd have to be daring to design differently (and i say, sometimes, you go for it!) to add these bad boys. but in just the right space, even a tiny wall space as an accent area to your residential or commercial space, you add edgy, you add flirty, you add...daring!


this exquisite wall paper is made of glass beads. imagine on one wall in a fabulous dining room? oh...i can!

this super fun wall covering appropriately named, bulldozers and palm trees, for a boys wall, even only one wall, would make for a super fun conversation piece. add a bit of shelving, holding his favorite toy trucks & matchbox cars? yes!

how pretty, pretty would this wallpaper be in a younger girls room...perhaps only on one wall, or on a wall behind a headboard! maybe adding a vintage large mirror, or a few smaller mirrors, hung at different heights? love!

has anyone recently taken the wallpaper plunge? i could do it in a second, if i could only settle on which one with all of the choices today! if you have, taken the plunge that is, fill me in. what did you go for? i would love to hear. in the meanwhile, if you have not, taken the plunge that is, check out design your wall's offerings. it will help, or drive you even more mad with choices ;) enjoy!!

friday, thankfully. random loves.

happy friday, happy summer colors, happy rainbow colors, as in this amazing setting by photographer rachel whiting. i'm super blurry~eyed this morning and couldn't put one theme together this morning, so instead my mind wandered to random things, places, ideas i've been drawn too. here are some of my thoughts and current attractions...

i'm most definitely not a carpet person. by that i mean, i prefer wood floors with rugs about. but these rug tiles from interface floor, via trendir, have me considering the possibilities. perhaps putting together a rug with just enough of these tiles? hmmmm...

i am drawn to many items at anthropologie (who isn't?) but these summer~toned tumblers really stopped me. i decided i need these!

surface view is a fabulous wall treatment company featuring mind blowing wall stickers, papers and murals. (via neat home.)

not sure why i posted this picture, except that i just loved it as a display feature. a propped open ladder, displaying baskets full of different grasses or your favorite plants. really like this alot! (via rum magazine.)

i just thought that in light of the volcano in iceland this year, that this pillow is just plain cool.

this cactus type plant caged in glass is amazing. this space has tons of texture, soft and prickly all at once. super fun!

ok, now i seriously want a chocolate croissant this morning. no, i really do!

(these 3 images via domosfera)
now that the big july 4th weekend has passed, does this coming weekend promise lazy days and putting your feet up? or are you off and running again? share your plans, i'd love to live vicariously through you this weekend! i have gobs of work to do, but in between that, and my 17 year old son's summer social life, i plan on sipping some wine, reading a bit of my current book, and staring blindly up into the trees or out towards the ocean. wherever you go, whatever you do...enjoy!

innermost. "quintessentially global style".

i am in love with the stone effect resin vases named "flood" by innermost. "with architectural influence, they are striking as singular units and also fantastic when clustered together to create cityscapes."

these "MNM" pendant lights are made with 100% wool shades and come in colors charcoal, natural, red or purple finishes. texture, texture, texture!

this eye~popping "buckle" hanging lamp is "a marriage of lighting and sculpture, consisting of differently sized rings cut from stainless steel sheets suspended and arranged in a spherical form." perfect textural and sculptural addition to any space in need of both. adding an element of texture, in my opinion is important. it adds interesting, it adds complexity and it adds unusual to your spaces.

compiled from oak and walnut laquered wood and glass, the "clinker" table is most definitely a new take on the coffee or side table. how fun right next to a traditional bed? remember, it's fun to throw a space off by entering in an unusual piece. no, it's really fun!


here, with an arieal view and below at eye level, this "origami" table by innermost will certainly make a table statement, whether in a residential or commercial space.


my heart pounded discovering these "jewel" lamps. "jewel is a modern rendition on the classic chandelier formed of light reflecting lens with a steel structure. available in a clear or spectrum finish." want, need, love!


this "lighthouse lamp" from innermost captures that fabulous magnification one notices when viewing the comforting glowing light at the top of lighthouses.

i hope you've enjoyed some of the eye candy that innermost offers this "almost" friday! what inspires me to keep blogging and what keeps the faith for me as a designer and artist, always in search of original, new material to work with, are companies and designers like those that make up innermost. without designers stepping out of the norm, pushing the limits, daring to be, well...daring, the world of interior design would be boring and typical. companies like innermost are why we cannot wait for the latest design magazine to come out. we want to see what's next, what have artists come up with? i love that! enjoy...