tools of the trade

I know it feels like Christmas was yesterday (our tree is still up) but just in case anyone is wondering what to get me for Valentine's Day, I thought I'd mention a couple of things.

I really like this drill bit necklace, which could only be awesomer if you could use the drill bit.

And I love this cinder block necklace (that's a CMU (Concrete Masonry Unit) necklace to you, Steven. But if you get it for me I promise not to make fun of you for calling it that.)

Both by Kiel Mead for Areaware.

swinging

spring like weather (it's going to be 80º this weekend!) is making me think of hanging out outside and wish we had a porch swing.  We don't have any room on our porch for a swing so it's just a day dream.

I love this one made by Paola Lenti (it can go outside). Actually, I love pretty much everything her company makes.  But since everything they make is super expensive, having any of it is just a day dream too.  

hydrangea

I worked in the garden yesterday clearing leaves and dead things out, checking out what is sprouting up.  

I can't believe how much is growing, that groundhog was so wrong!  

As I pruned some dead wood off the hydrangeas I remembered how much I love these earrings by John Iversen.  (I also love these.)

available on twist.

pretty

We've had 3 thunderstorms in the past week.  I wish I had an umbrella this pretty, then I might keep track of it through more than one storm.  

a little bird told me

if I were shopping, which I am not, I would buy this photo of a stuffed albino bluejay at the Museum of Natural History in Providence, RI.  I saw it on dsbrennan's etsy shop that Chiara mentioned during her guest blogging on  ofifteen.

maybe i should make an exception for inexpensive art.....

how to

I don't remember where I saw the image, but this bedspread is why learning to crochet made me New Year's resolution list.  

(I know it would probably take me years to make something like this, even after I got good at crocheting, but that's ok, I love it!)

ruffled

I love this 3.1 phillip lim coat.  L-O-V-E, love it. 

puff

I know it's gotten freakishly warm in most of the country this past week, but it's still cold here and these photo of Maggie Gyllenhaal and her husband reminded me that I want a long puffer coat. 

you turkey

Ok, I don't eat meat but Steven does and I would be really happy when he cooked it if we had this delightful meat dome by Fabrica for the Roman store secondome.

via mocoloco 

color my world

I love these glasses from abitare. 

(but hate the song "color my world")

gift list

my friend Marie Gardeski makes delightful bags, soaps, stuffed animals and other things including wonderful drawings, sculptures and installations.  check her work out here and here.

not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse

I saw these on etsy.  I am not sure they actually are Christmas ornaments, but they should be and are hilarious.  (although a little pricey.)  

I need to learn how to sew.  

Vincent Van Gogh mouse

 

R2D2 mouse

and my favorites, Adam and Eve mice.

dutch tub

I was reading this article in the new york times today about a trend of people building smaller, greener vacation cabins with solar panels, reclaimed wood cabinets and floors etc.  They had a photo of a couple in a wood stove heated hot tub and it reminded me of the delightful, portable, wood fired hot tub, the Dutch tub.  

Maybe it's because there is nothing worse than the grey, slushy weather we are having right now (and are likely to have until March), but I'd really love to be in that pink one right about now. 

cold

Before we redid the siding and roof etc, we had a thermometer just outside out kitchen window above our sink.  It was nice, and sometimes depressing, to check it each morning while washing the coffee cups and see what kind of day it would be.  I'd put the old one back up but I can't find it and it was kind of ugly anyway, but if this one ever goes on sale I would like to get it.  Or better yet, maybe I can find a nice one at a flea market somewhere.  

I'd like it to have Celsius on it too so when I talk to my in laws about the weather I won't have to try and convert.  

back to black

I love these dishes.  They come pink, white and black.  

maybe I should make some pots.  

no, that'd be crazy.

from Stitch and Sew.

high school musical

I wish Penguin Classics had these when I was in high school and read some of these books because then maybe I wouldn't have tattered paperbacks lining my book shelves.  Then again I probably would have ruined them by doodling the names of cute boys and writing notes to friends in their margins too.  

via design sponge

think pink

I love this from interior designer Abigail Ahern's London store.  

I also love her house tour on Design Sponge.  

eye teeth

you know that saying, "I'd give my eye teeth for _____"?  Well, I'd give mine to live in this apartment.  They have 2 levels of beautiful roof top garden and chickens, in New York.

I gotta get me some chickens.  

 more info and pictures in New York Magazine.

to let

I have loved the Dairy House ever since it was featured in Architectural Record a little while back and I thought of it when we were at Rick and Toni's because of the mix of modern and old.

 
 (not to belabor the point but wouldn't a little garden shed that looked something like this look great in my back yard?)

And I just found out it's for rent!  Maybe we should move to England if things don't work out as I'd like them to (I'm not worried, just don't want to jinx it).  

now that's a shed

For about a year I have been trying to convince Steven that we don't need a garage and should just tear it down and put in a pretty little garden shed.  (just think how big our 1/4 acre would seem!)probably not that big.  


Maybe I'll convince him with this one from The Stenciled Home.  (these people are nuts, every inch of their house, the floor the walls, the fabrics, everything is stenciled. It's so far past too much, it's just the right amount.)

yup, that's the inside of the garden shed.  the garden shed.