Busy Bee

I can't say Valentine's Day is one of my more celebrated events: I kind of forget about it most years, and I like to think every day is a chance to celebrate your love for another person (or fondness for a friend, a pet, a hobby, etc). And we're super busy at the moment: James is shooting weddings and I'm making stationery like a fiend - both for clients and for the upcoming wedding expo: It's A Date's debut into the exciting world of hired table cloths and general nervousness about being 'out there' as a stationery designer.

But should I feel inclined closer to the date, I'll be taking a whirl at this, once again, Jeff Rudell has come up with the goods:

How to make a Valentine from an Onion.

In other news, I had my eyes tested today for new glasses and it totally reminded me of the episode of "Arrested Development" where George Michael goes in for an eye exam and ends up with glasses that make him almost blind as he was too scared to say the wrong answer.



Optometrist: One or two?
George Michael: Two. No, no, one.
Optometrist: Okay, two... or three?
George Michael: Three. Unless three is too much of an improvement. I’m sorry, is one... is one in the mix still?

Domino Magazine is no more

To be honest, I had only jumped on the Domino bandwagon in the last twelve months, but what I saw from the blogs I read daily and from images online, I adored, and I can understand why everyone is in such sadness about the magazine folding. I never saw it here in newsagents, but I was an avid reader of the website, and was recently contemplating ordering a subscription.

From Media Week: "Condé Nast made the long-expected decision to close Domino, the publishing company's three-year-old, hip shelter magazine. The March issue will be the last.... The Web site, also will be discontinued."

Just one more reason the recession completely sucks and now I really wish I had looked into that subscription. Unique and well-crafted resources like this really need support.

Everyone's Waiting

We recently finished up a month-long, daily screening of Six Feet Under. For those uninitiated, it's an American television drama created by Alan Ball that was originally broadcast from 2001 to 2005 on the amazing HBO network, about a family living and working in a funeral home.



I had watched episodes here and there during its rather sporadic airing on Australian television, including the heart-wrenching finale, back in 2005, but it had always been a television show I wanted to revisit, and watch 'properly' - which in our home means, hire out all the box sets and watch it from start to finish with no other television shows in between if we can help it. James had not seen it, so it was also a bit of a thrill to watch it with someone who had no idea how it all ended up. What can I say: the ensemble is perfect: the acting, set design, dialog, the arch of the storyline, the makeup = all film quality. No show has gripped me and held me in quite the same way as Six Feet Under, and I feel really grateful I'm in an age where such a show was able to be made. The season finale, as many have said before me, is a masterpiece, and the perfect end to the show.



On a lighter note, we're now super huge fans of Richard Jenkins: for his work as Nathaniel Fisher Sr. and for giving me the best (allegedly improvised) monologue I've ever heard relating to dinosaurs.

Colour Trends: Turquoise and Black/Grey

I watch interior design sites with a keen eye for what is in "trend", even though I don't really like to follow trends too closely. I find interior design and fashion to be two of the most inspiring mediums to watch for their use of colour and texture, and most of what strikes me ends up in one of my designs. The big movements at the moment seem to be toward Turquoise and Black, Gray and Purple. As luck would have it, I'm designing two lines using these colours, so I'm very inspired to have spotted the following:

From Apartment Therapy:









Pictures above © Apartment Therapy.

From Style Files/Zara Home/Decor8:




Pictures above © Zara Home and Style Files.

More Turquoise, which works so well with gold, just beautiful:

Pictures above © Domino Magazine.

In a rose pattern:

Pictures above © Sunshine Baby Slings - Fabrics.

Living room interior:

Pictures above © Momoy.

Plates & Accessories:

Pictures above © Macys.

Chandelier Love

As a summer project I'm currently building a chandelier out of paper. It's one I've adapted from Jeff Rudell's - although I do not expect the end result to be anywhere near the standard of his paper masterpieces. I'm having such a lovely time making it though that I really look forward to working with paper and card more in the future. I'm also getting a little bit better with my Xacto blade which will no doubt assist with trimming projects in the future.

I adore chandeliers - my obsession started with wanting to hire some for our wedding and not being able to find them anywhere (or anywhere near our budget). I regret not trying to build my own this time last year, as I think they would have worked really well. Here are some inspiring uses of the chandelier silhouette that work really nicely in their spaces:

Traditional and Different Mediums:


Image from Girl Meets Glamour (a new favourite read).


Image from My Modern Metropolis


Image from Homebody


Image from Palindrome Press

Decals:


Image from Paper Chick

As Inspiration for Events:

Image from Tickled Pink Brides

I guess, like all trends, this one will be over soon, but I am loving it whilst it lasts.

Life in Technicolour

Another YouTube clip but I believe this is probably one of the better video clips I've seen in a while, for Coldplay's "Life in Technicolour" - very cute concept and really well executed:



Thankyou to my resident cool things finder.

Flume

The temperature is hitting 37 degrees Celcius here today, which is expected to continue over the next few days - yuck! Luckily, quite a busy day here to distract us - and a slice of Gossip Girl escapism over lunch with my sister Steph - although watching Manhattan's elite walking around in tailored jackets and scarfs makes me pine for winter.


We're off to see Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) tonight at the Forum, which is set to be quite the magical experience, even amid this heat. Ironically, "Bon Iver" is an Anglicization of the French "bon hiver" (good winter). A nice sentiment in the middle of an Australian summer.

Dark Was The Night

My new, most anticipated album of 2009 has to be "Dark Was The Night". I haven't been this excited about a line-up of musicians all giving their time and amazing skills to a great cause in quite a while:

"Dark Was The Night will be released on February 17th, 2009. Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National produced the album, and John Carlin, the founder of the Red Hot Organization was the executive producer. A total of 32 exclusive tracks have been recorded for the compilation. It will be available as a double cd/triple vinyl/download and will benefit the Red Hot Organization - an international charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS. Red Hot was founded on the premise that even without a cure, AIDS remains a preventable disease – and music is a great vehicle to raise money and awareness for it. This is the 20th year of Red Hot, and this is the 20th release!"

Just take a look at this list of contributors:
Andrew Bird
Antony + Bryce Dessner
Arcade Fire
Beach House
Beirut
Blonde Redhead + Devastations
Bon Iver
Bon Iver & Aaron Dessner
The Books featuring Jose Gonzalez
Buck 65 Remix (featuring Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti)
Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues
The Decemberists
Dirty Projectors + David Byrne
Kevin Drew
Feist + Ben Gibbard
Grizzly Bear
Grizzly Bear + Feist
Iron & Wine
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Kronos Quartet
Stuart Murdoch
My Brightest Diamond
My Morning Jacket
The National
The New Pornographers
Conor Oberst & Gillian Welch
Riceboy Sleeps
Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio)
Spoon
Sufjan Stevens
Yeasayer
Yo La Tengo

You can check out the album's MySpace page for a listen to a track a day. A definite highlight so far has been Feist & Ben Gibbard's unusual but oh-so-good pairing of vocals in "Train Song" (a Vashti Bunyan cover).

Plates from Anthropologie

Whitney at Brown Sugar Design (which is one of my new favourite blogs) posted these amazing plates that are available from Anthropologie, and I immediately fell in love.


Image above © Anthropologie.

Also, for a bit of a laugh (or cry): Murphy's Law: Graphic Design.

Never Had Nobody Like You

Whoops, missed a day of posting yesterday - it was a frantically busy day with little time for Internet-site reflection. I also went to my first Tupperware party, hosted by my friend Renate, which I feel is a rite of passage now that I'm married.... not really. We just had drinks and looked at plastic containers. I feel no more domestic than this time yesterday.



Anyhow, today I wanted to post about a new track my husband sent me the link to (that's right, we email in our own house) - the new M.Ward track, "Never Had Nobody Like You" available from Stereogum. It features She & Him's Zooey, which Stereogum theorizes is why this promo mp3 was released first off Matt Ward's upcoming album "Hold Time", as Zooey is much of an indie media darling and I guess it would draw all the right kind of attention. My love of Ms. Deschanel aside, this is a lovely track.

Listen to it here.

Confession: I Obsess over Oprah Guest Decorators

I was having lunch with my lovely friend Leah today when the conversation, as it often does, got onto the topic of home decorating. Leah's facing the exciting/daunting prospect of decorating her new house a bit later this year, and when we were talking about choosing colour schemes, I launched into a rant about how much I love Nate Berkus (of Oprah fame) and his style of decorating, in particular, a re-decorate he did of his small NYC apartment that featured black doors as a design accent - such a cool and classy look and one I intend to do one day when we have a 'grown up' house.



Pictures above © Small Place Style and William Waldron - I'm so pleased to find pictures of these doors as they were haunting my dreams!

I realized that I really do get fixated on Oprah's guest stars, so much so that I openly hope, when switching on the TV at around 1pm, that it will be a special that features the work of Nate or organization expert Peter Walsh... I even kind of find Dr. Oz charming. And don't even get me started on Colin Cowie - the day I came home on a lunch break and realised he was talking for a WHOLE. SHOW. about event design, I don't think I breathed for 40 minutes.

I don't know why I love these shows so much. They use products I can't buy because I'm in the wrong hemisphere and wage bracket. But I've always been intrigued by the notion that with a little inspiration, know-how, and enough plastic containers, you can transform any space into something beautiful and organised (my two favourite ideals).

I caught a little of a segment the other day where Peter and interior decorator Candice Olson (who does these incredible before/after sketches... please tell me she doesn't ACTUALLY predict the room that accurately?) were called in to de-clutter and makeover the space of a girl called Marin who was a little bit messy. I could actually relate to the state of her wardrobe, so I was keen to see what magic they could work.

BEFORE:



Pictures above © Oprah.com

And I'm totally in love with the AFTER:




Pictures above © Oprah.com

The wardrobe was set up like a clothing store's shelves. The lounge room was funky and sharp and looked like a great place to hang out. Her study space was beautifully organized, and I think I remember they moved her bed from one end of the apartment to the other and it completely opened it up. The result was this hip, lovely space - complete with wall decals by Blik (another addition to the Lyndsay & James dream house).

I wonder how one lands such a job - I doubt I could be one of Oprah's designer/decorator types as Peter Walsh is probably the token Australian, but I can always dream!

A Perfect Bow

It's still so hot! I'm up late as I cannot sleep, even with two fans going! Winter can't be too far away, can it?

As part of my job, something I do almost weekly is tie bows. I wish that read, "Tae Bo" instead, as the infomercials with Billy Blanks always got me feeling quite motivated, but no, I mean of the sit-down/minimal workout, ribbon variety. Everything from invitations to table favours to wedding arches and vases can be tied with ribbons, and you really can't go past a cute, good quality satin ribbon to inject a little bit of colour and whimsy into your decor.



The trick, however, is tying a perfect bow, one that is even and neat and looks like it should. I found some great links today which explained how to do so in a very simple fashion - in a way very similar to tying shoelaces, as a matter of fact. My old tactic always ended up with me tying the bow upside down, but it appears I was looping incorrectly. Silly me!

For your reading pleasure, instructions on how to tie bows (with pictures!)

- Lisa M. Pace's Scrapbooking Journal: Tying a Perfect Bow Everytime!
- The Container Store: How to Tie a Ribbon around a Box
- Bow Making 101: How to make a Tailored Bow (can't wait to try this one out, it looks pretty flash!)
- MarthaStewart.com: Three Perfect Bows

Images above © 2008 Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc.




Image above © Apartment Therapy.

Two other lovely things from Decor8 today: Orla Kiely is designing a line of home accessories for Target in the US, which looks so cute, and as Holly mentions on her blog, is super-extensive . I'm loving the over sized leaf and fruit silhouettes, the patterns are to die for, and I'm really digging the colours - there's lots of inspiration there for some upcoming stationery suites I'm working on.


Image above © Anthropologie.

Then there's mention of Anthropologie running craft classes - as a big fan of their line, I can't imagine anywhere more inspiring for crafting. Oh, to be in the Northern Hemisphere...

I Do Not Like the Hot Weather

Today it was 40 degrees in Bendigo. Quite normal for this part of Australia during summer but no more bearable, despite experiencing 26 summers worth of it. I think James, Oscar and I would have happily boarded the next plane to Iceland, if given the opportunity.

One thing I did find cool (oh, yes, that pun was intended) was spotting my favourite actress/songstress, the lovely (and soon to be Mrs. Ben Gibbard) Zooey Deschanel on the cover of Domino Magazine, which features a tour of her home.



Apart from usually being snapped impeccably dressed in a way it seems only she can get away with, Ms. Deschanel also seems to have fabulous taste when it comes to her colourful home (some girls are just blessed with all the right types of creativity...)



I always dreamed of having a room dedicated to music, and I could see myself quite happily pottering around in a cute vintage sundress, crooning away (badly). Domino mentions "bright blue walls, stripes and hounds tooth nod to '60s Brit rock, while vintage furniture and crisp paneling keep things ladylike." I like the sound of that!

Dear Santa, I'm getting in early, but I'd really like: a) blue walls b) a fringe and c) to be Zooey Deschanel when I grow up. Kthnx.

Photos above by Stewart Shining for Domino Magazine
February 2009
Image copyright Domino magazine, Conde Nast publications, New York, NY.

Gah!

Having slight issues today in an otherwise productive day which makes me feel a little frustrated - I dislike being on an unprecedented roll in some aspects of my work, and ridiculously held-up in others. It makes my brain feel like it's being stretched in two different directions!



Oh well. A small package showed up today which made me happy. I bought these two posters for our house whilst The Poster List was having a sale (sadly, with our Australian dollar, the sale doesn't help that much...) However, I adore these. I can't wait to have them framed and hanging someday.