hi! happy weekend!

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it's sunday, funday ;) sipping really good coffee (because life is too short to drink bad coffee right?), new york times open, reading book reviews, jazz is playing and i'm about to eat an amazing breakfast. i hope you are in a similar place and feeling this sunday! go pats! ;) enjoy........

fresh friday spaces.

yeah for us, it's friday!! i'm still eeking out this month off from classes and enjoying having no plan day to day. my plan today is to share these fresh, fab, friday spaces. i'd love to visit all of them this weekend, wouldn't you?...

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i keep thinking i'm going to get so much accomplished this month, so many creative projects finished. ah, no. but, i did begin my vintage bureau transformation (i posted about it a few posts below if you want to see), so today i'm heading to the basement again for a little more work.

it's grey today with super milky skies. every day i wake up this month i try to look at each day as a "a different shade of grey?" yikes. while i love some of the beautiful winter days, i'm already craving warmth, spring, swimming and sun tans. i may have to do a spring post next week, to ward off the greys! ;) enjoy your weekend friends. what are you doing?...........

provoking a smile. autumn products.

today, on this almost friday, i wanted to share some colorful, just for fun, they will provoke a smile products, from autumn products. i enjoy perusing their products and remembering that all design is not so super serious. sometimes it's just plain ol' fun!

this "united" stool is made of welded aluminum, doubling as a small side table when you flip it upside down. how versatile but also how fabulous?! i love the soft, bent lines this "united" stool exudes, adding movement and texture to your spaces.

these "splash" stools evoke just that, splashes of colorful water, or perhaps the opening of a flower bursting with color. just for fun. perfect for outdoors on a patio or deck, or in a children's room or a class room. perfect for class rooms!

the pendant lighting offered up from autumn products are part industrial, part creature~esque, part abstract and part super fun, to me anyway!

how oh~so~cute are these children's mobiles from autumn products? wickedly cute.

enjoy these products from autumn products today, they'll get you more excited to design with color and have fun doing it. ;)

what are you doing today? i'm heading to ikea with my sister to fulfill inspiration needs and pick up a few must haves or haves we didn't even know we needed! right? isn't that what happens when you visit ikea? yeah, that's right! i'll let you know what we find...enjoy! ;)

mid~week odds & ends & things i like.

well the snow and very new england weather has me indoors, perusing the pages of fab new design mags, books, on line sites. i wanted to share this mid~week, some favorite finds of mine. things i really liked. designers i really loved. products i really want!

gravity zone defies design gravity with their super fun, exceptionally unique line of rugs. i thought this "grass" design would be a bright addition to a child's room. cheery and who doesn't like bringing a bit of the outdoors, indoors!

how perfect are these pom~pom table linens? napkins, table runners. i want the whole set! offered thankfully from la gallina matta.

i'm really loving some beautifully designed chairs right now, beginning with the products by carl hansen. clean lines, flowing, they invite you, they comfort you. want, need & love.

i am also drawn to these chairs by designer jens risom for their vintage~esque yet modern appeal. you could dress them up or down. or, leave them as is. super versatile. love!

currently loving paintings by julie tooth. these namaste and virasana paintings are just so sweet. my friend maria, what do you think?

if you are looking to hang a pendant light and are unhappy with the cord that came with it, change it out! nud collection offers up a HUGE variety of cords, in colors you didn't even know existed and patterns too, like houndstooth and versions of stripes. wickedly fun!
loose, casual, drawn so free and impromptu, i'm adoring beyond words, carter kustera's soft silhouettes.

so there you have it friends, some of my current design finds. what have you been swooning over as of late? things within your grasp or things that are a dream away? it's fun to imagine both in your spaces, in your imaginations, especially whilst cooped up in a little cottage, with jazz playing in the background and plops of heavy snow hitting my rooftop! enjoy....

new etsy love. just a genius idea!

i happened upon this fab etsy site, dirtybils, with a up~cycled bunch of ideas, whilst contributing to our design world and offering up creative, simply genius ideas.




don't you just love this idea?! these pipe bookshelves, add interest and texture, a really fun conversation piece my friends. really fun. i love the industrial look/meets elegant when propped up under a chandelier as in the first image. i just love it. so i just shared it!

oooh...we are expecting beaucoup snow in our area tonight into tomorrow! you know what that means? i'll be sledding. flying down hills near my house and laughing until my stomach hurts. one of my favorite things is sledding. ;) be sure to look at my post below to see my before pics of my vintage bureau transformation. i'll be at it again today! enjoy!!

the perfect rug & a before project shot.

not only do i want to welcome a new sponsor to avant garde design, but a fab company with a brandy new concept and idea, the perfect rug! get this...you get to create your own rug on line, and since you do, it will be the perfect rug right? right!

the perfect rug company offers up hundreds of texture choices, pattern choices and color palette choices. plus...choices of materials such as wools, grasses and sisal's to high traffic choices as well as outdoor choices. so with the perfect rug, how can you go wrong?




i welcome the perfect rug as a sponsor and as a company offering do~it~yourself choices when it comes to designing or transforming your residential or commercial spaces. i love that!

now...for my promised before pictures of the vintage bureau i'm transforming while on break from classes. not sure if i'll finish by the end of january, but i've at least begun (instead of just talking about it! which is a start). what i did was literally pull it apart, removing worn parts, primarily in the wood where parts were warped due to moisture in the air etc. i removed the entire back and plan to replace it with a metal, perhaps sheet metal or copper or vintage tin ceiling tiles? something like that?

(click on image and you should see it larger)
the bureau has beautiful details which i uncovered after scraping off thick, thick layers of paint which someone had covered the bureau in, literally you could not see the carvings, the lines under all of that paint. so...stay tuned for updates and more thoughts on just where i'm going with it! enjoy your monday!!

saturday blog crush.

today i'm blog crushing over miss moss's blog. loving all of it! perfect too as our skies have turned milky, expecting a bit of snow tonight, so what's better than staying in, watching my love prepare a wonderful dinner and getting ready to open a bottle of red wine?...a brand new blog crush!

(photo found here)

what are you doing? are you lounging like me? hope so! enjoy ;)

a love story.

so on my last trip to the book store to peruse the pages of those, shall we say, exceptional interior design magazines, (which is one of my favorite things to do in a day with time off), i held in my hands interior design magazine and this apartment/designer love story stopped me...








photographed by eric laignel for interior design magazine and designed by ghishlaine vinas (who, if you don't know her work, will completely amaze you, no, she'll blow you away entirely!) i found to be the epitome of daring, of explosive artistic, clean, cheery, vibrant and seriously intriguing. this tri~becca space begs you to take chances, to experiment and to approach a space with not only a true artistic sense, but attack it, to drive the concept home. to this apartment. yeah. and wow.

with this incredible space to ogle, enjoy an artistic weekend then, get a little daring with color, whether in your wardrobe or for your interior spaces. we are in the middle of a milky~sky day here (snow is on the horizon they say) in new england so this amazing apartment has inspired me to think in color. how fun. enjoy!! happy, happy friday friends ;)

bodo sperlein.

i discovered bodo sperlein recently and boy am i glad i did. i just had to share!

Lladro jewelry, from bodo sperlein is super playful & oh~so~beautiful! doves playfully perching on various branches. bodo sperlein creates necklaces, rings and more. you have to view these here, they will give you a start.

bodo sperlein crafts these "eclipse" mirrors with dupont corian and swarovski crystals, which makes for a completely magical look. clean, elegant, very hollywood glam. i love these!

bodo sperlein's sensual, streamlined, sculptural furniture is more than design eye~candy, it's absolute artwork. even one piece placed in any space in your residential or commercial space would transform the mood, the look, the space really.



adding color, even better!

this "cascade" chandelier is made entirely from chrome plated tubes, inspired by cascading water fountains, reflecting the light as water does. simply amazing.

get ready to pick your jaw up off of the floor...these are lights. ah yeah. bodo sperlein make sure that staffordshire artists, dedicated to this craft of porcelain stay working, enlisting their services to create these illuminated flower lights. can you imagine?


everything that bodo sperlein offers is so very pleasing, so exquisite and anything you view on line here will help you to realize that again, there are so many options when considering design, when considering transforming your spaces. enjoy!