mirrormirror

More Nice Mentions

 

(And believe me, when you’re as amply chested as I am,  you need it… )

I  haven’t done a More Nice Mentions for a bit, but I do like to share the link love.

My interior styling post was mentioned by Whorange and Shelterrific.

Not Martha is thinking of buying a Nook.

The Times (the real proper London version, not that New York based upstart) Online’s Alpha Mummy blog mentioned the Hello Kitty plane, as did A Modern Mother.

Urban Casita found us through the Homies. (UC is great by the way, do check it out).

Bushra at Fudgeit threatened to bake cupcakes using cupcake wrappers from mirrormirror but we never found out what happened in the end.

Anna Burns at Oh Hello Friend loves the Stacking Egg Cups and Stacking Storage pots.

Liz at Violet Posy thanked us for sponsoring her blog.

The Steel Cut Garland found its way onto House to Home (the website of Ideal Home, Livingetc, Homes and Gardens etc). It also appeared on Rdekko.

And some old links I’ve only recently become aware of. Design Crisis likes peacocks. Urban Nest also likes peacocks.  Ohdeedoh likes Miffy. My Pretty Penny wants a shower cap.

Thanks everyone for the mentions! I really appreciate all the support – especially those of you who link to the shop (links are SO precious for an online shop). If you’ve mentioned either the blog or the shop recently and I haven’t linked back to you, please let me know, so I can include you in the next round up.

{The card above is from Etsy-based Letterpress artist Kirtland House Press.}

Today I Am Mostly…

…watching things unfurl

It is ridiculous how excited I am that last year’s orchid has taken it upon itself to bloom again.  My orchids never ever ever rebloom despite a lot of cajoling. It has been overwintering in our bathroom and of course I have no idea what triggered it off this time.

If you’re not a green fingered orchid growing genius such as myself (ha ha!) then you may want to take a look at this comment thread on Shelterrific, which has loads of wonderful orchid advice.

For advice as to whether orchids have any place in interior decorating at all, I refer you to Decorno here.

And I can’t work out whether I like these Boskke sky planters available from Velocity – (I think I’m coming down on the side of ‘like’).

The images, from Sunset magazine, sure are pretty though.

Unhappy Hipsters

‘It became their routine. And so the evenings stretched out before him: still, gray, and gravel-strewn’

From Unhappy Hipsters, the most fabulous new blog since Stuff White People Like. And yes, I know this has been three times round the design blogosphere already.

Go Fug Your Windows

Well, I was very much liking the idea of a shop window decorating competition, until I actually saw the results.

Three designers, three windows in Bloomingdales NYC, three boring as hell rooms.

First up The Urbane Traveller by Eileen Joyce for Bloomingdales.

What is it about Americans and brown interiors?  It’s something that has really struck me since I’ve been living here. In the UK brown went out with the Victorians – thank goodness as it really doesn’t work with British light – but here it still seems to be the safe colour of choice.

This so bland, so dull, and so generic that words fail me. Except to wonder why a ‘sophisticated travel magazine editor’ would want to have two highly impractical stone orbs on her highly impractical coffee table.  Let me know if you see anything interesting in this snoozefest because it’s eluding me.

Next up The Writer’s Romantic Supper, by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan for Apartment Therapy.

This is where I destroy all my (fortunately nonexistent) chances of winning a ‘Homie’ next year.

It is criminal, yes, criminal, what Maxwell G-R, whose taste I normally quite like, has done to that absolutely gorgeous Neisha Crosland paper (speaking of which, we used to stock Neisha Crosland accessories in the shop and we must get some more in). 

He has totally ignored all the very wise advice on feature walls you give below – covering it up with two truly horrible portraits, overwhelming it with an astonishing amount of fuss and clutter and turning the whole into some dingy Victorian drawing room, complete with a quite spectacularly horrible repro armchair.  I know M G-R said he was going for a ‘steampunk-y’ vibe but honestly it’s because of rooms like his that minimalism was ever invented. And if my beau turned out to have an apartment like that I would feel too agitated and uncomfortable for any ‘romance’.

And finally we have The Modern Woman by our old friend Eddie Ross. 

And, much as it pains me to say it, I like this window by far the best of the three, though that’s not to say that I actually like it. But at least we can be grateful to him for avoiding brown.

It’s a more modern style than we’ve seen from him before and I really like what he’s done with the cushions, (except for the Miles Redd-ish faux leopard skin), colours and artwork, though the paint speckled walls and everything else leaves me pretty cold.

And of course he has to include his signature Kelly Wearstler–esque bust which seems to follow him around everywhere (see the link above for his house in Lonny magazine). Somewhat unnervingly the muse for this room is described as a ‘media mogul and mother of two’ and yes, every mother I know would just love to have half a hundredweight of statuary teetering on a precarious pedestal with kids around. It’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. Do young gay interior decorators actually ever meet kids?

Anyway, I was too bored/disappointed to bother voting, but if you’re inspired, full details of all three rooms are here. Do you like them?

Jessica Eskelsen - Photography

I love getting comments on the blog because then I get to read your blogs and you really  a gorgeous and talented bunch aren’t you? 

Last week ‘Jess’ commented about running, so I went to her blog and discovered that she’s a pretty amazing photographer. I love the moody otherworldly atmosphere she achieves.  It’s ‘atmosphere’ that transforms a technically competent photo (like the ones I take) into something special and I’d love to know how to achieve it more often in my own work. Check out more of her beautiful photography here. {All photos below copyright the very talented Jessica Eskelsen}

Speaking of comments, I’d love to get more commenting/conversations going on this blog. That way I can have one of those blogs like Decorno’s where she writes nice short posts and then gets lots of lovely and interesting discussion from her commenters while she puts her feet up and watches telly.

What makes you comment on blogs? Are there any things that stop you from commenting?  If you’ve been lurking on this blog but have never commented, why not? (<- she says, hoping to trick you into commenting :) Is there anything I can do to encourage more comments on this blog? Won’t it be embarrassing if this post gets no comments?

Calling All Stylistas

 

 

While we’re in a photography frame of mind, I just wanted to highlight Holly Decor8’s Interior Styling group over on Flickr. She also talks more about it here. It’s a place to post up any pictures of corners of your home that you’ve styled and photographed and is hugely inspirational. 

Anyone can join the group, and it includes some professional stylists, though be aware that Holly is curating the pool quite strictly and also making sure that images reflect her own particular aesthetic, which of course might not be yours.

Holly is also posting up a styling challenge every month which I’m hoping to do. January’s challenge is already up for the group, so make your way over there to check it out. I’ll post up my offering when it’s done.

Do let me know if you’re also going to take part. I’d love to see what you come up with.

Today I Am Mostly…

 

…watching the sunrise

 

Do you remember a couple of Januarys ago I started a photoblog called Today I Am Mostly? I didn’t have enough time then to keep it going then, but I’ve missed doing it so much.

This year I’m determined to really work on my photography and photo styling, so I thought it might be a good idea to revive TIAM.  I’m not going to commit to every day, but I’m hoping to post two or three photos every week throughout the year.  I’ll post them on ‘mirrormirror’  and also to www.todayiammostly.com and to my Flickr page f you want some unadulterated eye candy.

I’ve also retrospectively published a picture here.

The Homies 2009

Ooh, please vote for me. I know there’s not a snowball in hell’s chance that my peculiar little blog will get close to winning, but it would be good if it weren’t too embarrassing.  And at the same time you also get to check out a ton of fabulous proper home blogs.

Christmas Decorations on Tour

 

You’ve seen mine! Now show us yours.

This is a very lazy on vacation post with the idea entirely stolen from Liz at Violet Posy. 

If you’ve done a blog post about your Christmas decorations, lack of decorations, other holiday decorations, beautiful decorations that you’ve seen round and about or anything else festive that you’ve done and want to show off then use the fun widget below to post up a link to your blog.

It will be running from now until 6th January or Twelfth Night or the Epiphany, the day when decorations are traditionally taken down in the UK (or else you face a year of bad luck).

I’ve added a link to my post and to Violet Posy to get you started and show you what it will look like.

 

New Products, Lovely Mentions and FREE International Shipping

 

We’ve just had a new delivery from French design studio Atelier LZC and I will be adding several new products to the site over the next few days.

First up are two stunning new sets of teatowels – the Potager set, featuring vegetables and kitchen utensils

 

and the Nature set, with birds, butterflies and foliage

All four of these teatowels would also look wonderful framed (the Potager ones would look great in a kitchen I think) and I love the idea of using a pretty teatowel to wrap round a bottle of wine for a VERY acceptable hostess gift.

I’ve been having a mini blog PR blitz recently and the store has been mentioned by the following utterly fabulous and extremely discerning blogs Not Martha, Shelterrific,The Bedlam of Beefy and Violet Posy. Thank you all SO much for your help and support.

Stupidly I was so busy offering their readers FREE INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING on all orders that I forgot to offer the same to you, my lovely and very much appreciated readers.  So go to mirrormirror, place your order choosing ‘free shipping with offer code’ when you come to check out and then use the code ‘jingle bells’ in the ‘how did you hear about us box.

(Any overseas orders placed over the weekend will be shipped on Monday and should be with the recipient in time for the big day.  UK readers you still have the rest of the week.)

Get Your Holly On

Design bloggeuse extraordinaire Holly Becker over at Decor8 is running an e-course in January called Blogging Your Way  which will talk about becoming a more successful blogger and include tips on photography and styling. And I’ve signed up!

I really want to take this blog to the next level in the new year and work on my photography/product styling, so it seemed like a great way to do this in a focused way and kickstart the year. And get to meet other bloggers online.

There are apparently a handful of places left if you want to sign up  - all you need is a blog, a camera and $119 for the seven week course. All deets and registration here. I’ll keep you updated with how it’s going in January and maybe share some of the assignments on here, if they’re shareable.

{image via Decor8}

More Nice Mentions

My Charlotte Mann post continues to make the rounds, with mentions by her highness Not Martha, Urban Little House and Butterscotch Sundae. I reckon Charlotte owes me a small doodle by now.

The ever fabulous Shelterrific also picked up on the espaliered apples post.

If you’ve written a post linking either to this blog or the mirrormirror store and I haven’t mentioned you, please let me know.  I like to share the link love.

Packing Tape Art

Feeling inspired to create but can’t afford the materials?

Yes, paints and stuff are expensive, so go and rescue that sad and lonely reel of packing tape you’ve got stuffed in a drawer, pick off the bits of fluff and get to work.

Here’s the sort of thing you could be making.

The above are made from layers of tape stuck to plexiglass with light shining through. 

All images by Mark Khaisman. 

I came across this fabulous art via Flavorpill’s Daily Dose, where my post on Charlotte Mann’s wall art was also featured {via a mention on Fashioncopious.com).  As a result my blog stats have gone through the roof and it’s been fascinating to watch my post go slightly viral, with people blogging about it, linking to it on Facebook, Tweeting it and posting it on other social networking sites.

Such things don’t normally happen round these parts, though I suspect it has slightly more to do with Charlotte Mann’s fabulous art than my sparkling prose.  Anyway, thanks all for the mentions and I do hope Charlotte is getting some nice juicy commissions as result.

Go Fug Your Magazine - Lonny Mag

As you know I was never a big fan of Domino -  I’m becoming more American every day, but nothing has come remotely close to replacing the British shelter magazines such as Living etc and Elle Deco in my heart – but I was looking forward to the launch of Lonny, the online magazine brainchild of former Domino Market Editor Michelle Adams and photographer Patrick Cline.

Issue 1 was launched today and I’m afraid you’ll just have to colour me rather disappointed.

First the good news.

- The online reader tool is fantastic – clear, fast and making it very easy to flip between the pages (though it seems strangely old-fashioned to just duplicate a print magazine online – if you can add hyperlinks, for example on the shopping pages, why not just do it?)

- The photographs are aces.

- The styling, though completely not to my taste, is generally excellent.

- There’s lots to read, with plenty of home tours and not too many ads.

The bad news, unfortunately, is that the whole magazine is a celebration of the fussy, over-ornate, grandma’s old knickers style that dominates American interiors magazines and which I’m sure led partially to Domino’s demise.

The front cover is spectacularly meh. I know it doesn’t have to stand out on a newstand, but really couldn’t they do better than this?  If the cover of a magazine is supposed to tell you what a magazine is all about then this says is ‘fussy’ and ‘mumsy’ (do Americans understand what this means? Should I be writing ‘momsy’ instead?), which is not a decorating style I aspire to.

Inside the layout is full of the multiple fancy fonts, strange dotty lines and fussy boxes which we’ve discussed before about American magazines, though it is less busy and better organized that some.

The shopping pages feature some quite spectacularly ugly stuff.

 

The fashion pages are EXECRABLE. I have no words.

And there of course are loads of rooms cluttered with overdecorated repro furniture and table lamps in every direction (what is it with Americans and table lamps?)

Regardez

Table lamps outside? Seriously you guys are OBSESSED.

The one more modern home featured is about as imaginative as a Crate & Barrel catalogue

Even the home of Grace Bonney from Design*Sponge, whose taste I normally quite like, is made to look dull.

Finally our old friend Eddie Ross is back with his special brand of granny style, featuring even more zebra than he had in his New York apartment and a ton of fuss and clutter on every surface (a shame as the bare bones of his country house look absolutely amazing).

The very best news though is that we now have a great new source of ‘Go Fug Your Room’ fodder.  I thereforewish Lonny Magazine many, MANY years of success.

And now, having offended most of the American online decorating establishment, I will go and do some real work.

An App –and Some Owls

How on earth did I live before I had my iPhone?  It seems impossible to even contemplate now, though I still find the touch screen infuriating at times.

Here’s one of my current favourite iPhone apps.

Developed by Seattle photographer Chase Jarvis, The Best Camera allows you to add some cool effects to your iPhone photos and also upload them easily to social networking sites such as Facebook etc.

Here’s an untweaked iPhone photo

and here is the same image tweaked using four different filters – Jewel, Paris, Slate and Candy (there are some more standard filters such as B&W and warm up filters as well). You can also combine several different filters together.  Jarvis has set up a website www.thebestcamera.com where you can upload the images you’ve taken – loads of great pics up there already.

These cute (I have no idea why they’re cute and not scary or ugly, but they are) mama and baby owls come courtesy of a blog reader Bushra who – after our recent owl discussion – emailed me the link for these owls on Etsy.  Which was splendidly timed to arrive just when the Husband was casting about for a birthday present that his baby could give to her mama…

A Couple of Nice Mentions

 

Corine from Hidden In France has gone gaga for Babettes and Freshome has been inspired by the work of Charlotte Mann. Thanks so much for the mentions.

If you’ve mentioned the shop or the blog recently and I haven’t thanked you then do let me know.  I like to share the link love.

Separated at Birth?

Or, calling a Spade a Spade

Incredibly fashionable Kate Spade Fall 2009 bag 

Fantastically terrifying decoy owl

{via Making It Lovely and Whorange}  

So, let’s start as we mean to go on shall we?

This bag has been doing the rounds of the blogs in the last day or so. Much as we like an owl motif or two round these parts, and much as I hate to contradict two of my favourite design bloggers, I frankly find this bag both extremely ugly and utterly, bone-chillingly, terrifying.

It reminds me of the ferocious looking plastic decoy owl which you, dear readers, encouraged us to buy, and which was perched on our roof deck for the best part of the summer in an attempt to scare the birds from our cherry tree. I think it worked with the birds – there definitely seemed to be fewer around this year, and it certainly gave me the screaming heebie-jeebies every time I glanced it out of the corner of my eye.

Oh, and if you must buy this bag (and we would encourage you not to) the bag is available here.

We’re off to visit our friends’ cabin in the mountains this Labor Day weekend (oh how painful it is to write ‘Labour’ without a ‘u’ ) so I’ll be back on Tuesday.  Next week we’ll be talking about my new knitted cardigan and the new sofa.  How can you stand the excitement?

Reboot

Here’s the Minx enjoying her idyllic Pacific Northwest summer 

I’ve been waiting for this moment for nearly five years.

Yesterday the Minx went off to kindergarten (for UK readers that’s the equivalent of ‘infant school’) clutching her new Tinkerbell lunchbag in her sticky little mitt and I got my life back.

I fell pregnant with the Minx two months after deciding to start mirrormirror and was seven months pregnant when the website actually launched.  The Minx was three months old when my then business partner decided it wasn’t for her and eighteen months old when we moved lock, stock and barrel to Seattle while continuing the business in the UK.  So really I’ve never been able to work on the business without fitting it round the needs of a tiny child.

And although I’ve had varying amounts of childcare, since the Minx was born I have never before had the unbelievable luxury of five (albeit short) days a week at my disposal, instead of cramming in odds and ends and bits and pieces of work round the childcare.

So there are going to be some big changes round here.

- First up I really want to start developing this blog. Thanks to my diehard readers for sticking with it even when I’ve hardly been updating. I do love writing it though and now I’ll be able to update it at least daily. So stay tuned.

- Next, there are some changes happening with my poor neglected little shop back in the UK.  I’m not quite sure yet how they’re going to pan out, so no news yet, but stuff IS happening behind the scenes.

- Lastly and, most excitingly,  I hope to launch the US version of mirrormirror early next year, depending on when our green card comes through and I can legitimately work out here. Please keep you fingers crossed that it’s soon.

I’ve got tons of other ideas bubbling up, but we’ll start with this stuff for the moment and see how things pan out.  I’ve also got nearly five years of neglected filing and a disastrous email inbox to take care of.

Thanks for the Mention

A few nice mentions since I’ve been back blogging properly.

The Roasted Corn Soup was mentioned on Shelterrific

Amy Ruppel’s State Animals were much admired and mentioned on Shelterrific and the fabulous Whorange

My new sofa was also mentioned on Shelterrific.

And I was mentioned on local Wallingford Seattle blog Wallyhood – though that was on the occasion of my second car break-in this year (yep, I’ve had a ton of luck with cars this year), so we’re not too happy about that one.

If you’ve blogged about either the blog or the shop recently and I haven’t mentioned you, then do let me know.

Abigail Percy's Hyacinth Watch

One of our very favourite suppliers is Scottish jeweller Abigail Percy, who makes, among other things, our very popular Sweet Horse Chestnut Earrings.

She has a wonderful blog detailing her inspirations and the creative process in her tiny studio and has recently been taking us through a project she calls  'Hyacinth Watch'.

Together we've watched her hyacinths grow, seen her sketches, marvelled at the limited edition jewellery she created from the sketches of hyacinth blooms, and you can now buy her photo postcards, wrapped in a brown paper band printed from one of her hyacinth sketches.

Do yourselves a favour, wander over to her blog and see the process for yourself.  Or, even better treat yourselves to a necklace or a set of postcards.

  All photographs copyright Abigail Percy.  Find her Flickr here.

Cakespy

 

I've recently come to know Jessie Oleson of Cakespy. She is a Seattle-based artist and illustrator who does cute watercolours showing the adventures of Cuppie, an anthropomorphic cupcake, and  also writes the blog Cakespy, where Jessie hunts down various cakes and desserts.  At which point I fully understand if you've all fled there en masse and are no longer reading this post.

As part of this month's Wallingford Art Walk Jessie was exhibiting at Trophy Cupcakes showing pictures of Cuppie in various Seattle locations.  Given my borderline obsession with Trophy anyway, wild horses couldn't keep the Minx and I from attending.

I did buy a couple of little watercolours which Jessie will be sending to me. In the meantime the above is the promotional postcard for the event, which the Minx absolutely adores and which I will probably also frame for her. She particularly likes the 'Mummy and Minx buying a box of cupcakes' (yes she is fairly familiar with the appearance of a Trophy box) to the left.

If you're in Seattle, Jessie's work will be on display at Trophy through to June 1st.  She's also exhibiting at Schmancy in downtown Seattle on Friday evening.  For all non-Seattleites, her work is available online here. 

Secret Knitting- Part Deux

I'm sorry this week has all been about knitting and photo collages - still getting back in the groove after spring break.

I was a bit concerned that three knitted dishcloths was a somewhat mean present for Megan (though it seems from your comments that I needn't have worried) so I took up the tiny bit of blue Sea Silk I have left from the scarf I'm knitting and decided to knit her a lacy garter as well.

Actually this was a very selfish present as I've been dying to try out knitting lace and this seemed like the perfect size of project, and I could knit with Sea Silk all day, I love it so.  Here's what I came up with.  I found the pattern on Ravelry of course, and it seemed very appropriate since it's called 'Eloping'.

I also managed to knit a little Easter gift for the Minx, who is very fond of a soft-boiled egg for breakfast. I was going to make three - one for each member of the family - but the other two are going to have to wait until next year. All details on my Ravelry page. Come and be my friend.

Oh by the way, I've decided I LOVE lace knitting and have already embarked upon a lace project for ME.  

 

 

 

 

Secret Knitting Part One - Doctor Who Dishcloths

I mentioned last week that I'd been knitting secrets and now I can finally reveal all.

As you may know, Megan of Not Martha fame is eloping to Vegas with her fiance' Scott (check out her wedding blog here) and last Friday we attended a little soiree in their honour.

   

I decided to knit them some Doctor Who dishcloths as I know Megan is a fan.  The colour scheme was chosen to coordinate with their spatulas. The patterns for the Dalek and Tardis dishcloths were found on Ravelry of course, though I had to chart up the Cyberman myself using this fabulous software and a basic chart I found.  All details on my Ravelry page.

A propos of not very much I do like close up photos of knitting.  Don't you?  (More secret knitting to be revealed after I've picked up the Minx and planted some sweet peas. I know you hardly contain yourselves. )

We Have A Winner!

In its wisdom the all powerful Random Number Generator chose Jessica from Esthetic-Eclectic (which is a very fabulous new blog BTW) as its victim and she will shortly be receiving the four pretty puzzle books.

Jessica, if you're reading this, get sorting your receipts and please get in touch with your postal address (I'll also email you)

The rest of you - go and clean out your handbags and manbags immediately.

Giveaway! - Pretty Puzzle Books

Everyone seems to be doing pretty patterned bookcovers nowadays - I posted recently about the Virago special editions and Penguin has recently got in on the act with foiled hardbacks designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith, which I would dearly love to own. (More images here).

You too can now jump on the patterned book bandwagon with the new Spring collection of gorgeous little puzzle books from Andrews McMeel and the Puzzle Society. 

Each book is about the same size and shape as a Moleskine notebook but features a different, beautiful, embossed, foiled or flocked cover. It makes sense really - we take care to find pretty notebooks and pens to stash in our handbags, why should puzzle books be ugly?

To have a chance of winning all four of the books pictured, just tell me in the comments below what is the prettiest or ugliest thing you currently have in your handbag.  I'll keep the competition open for a week and choose the winner using an unbribable random number generator (though you are welcome to try bribing ME). I'm also happy to ship anywhere in the world. You will need to make sure you leave an email address with your comment so I can contact you if you win.

Good luck!

I am so tempted to keep these for myself, as they really are rather attractive, but the chances of me finding a spare moment for puzzling, are, shall we say, somewhat remote.

Spreading a Little Love

Whenever anyone links to the blog or, better still, the mirrormirror shop, I like to say 'thank you' by including a link in my right hand toolbar.

However, I thought I'd take a leaf out of MadeByGirl's book and make my 'thank yous' a bit more prominent every so often, as it's nice to spread a bit of link love around occasionally.

So here are a few recent mentions that haven't yet made it to the side bar.  This month it's a nice mixture of old favourites and new discoveries, so do go for an explore. Please let me know by email or in the comments if you linked to me recently and I haven't included you, you'll definitely be on the next list.

 

First up is a great piece about the mirrormirror shop in NWSource, the website of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. If you're a Seattle-based reader then this is a great source of shopping intelligence put together by shopping editor Alison Brownrigg (who used to run online boutique Petaline, so you know she knows her stuff).

Next is the ever-fabulous Not Martha, who mentioned my plans to make a chandelier on her blog, which lead to me getting lots of useful advice about light fittings from her ever-practical readers.

MaryT at Shelterrific linked to my post about hearts on furniture in her Valentines round-up.

Did you know that the fabulous Velocity shop in Seattle now has a fabulous Velocity blog - Simpatico? Well now you do, and thanks for a couple of recent shout-outs.

 

Finally Bijou Kaleidoscope wrote a fabulous post about Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and mentioned us. 

Thanks to everyone!

Public Service Announcement - Matte Stephens Giveaway

When we were talking paint colours recently (still dithering about that and waiting on a couple of samples) a couple of you mentioned my little Matte Stephens painting, which I picked up when Matte gave his talk at the Lab last year.  It was originally intended for the Minx's room, but I've decided that I love it far too much to waste it on her.

I bought the picture because, although it's supposed to be a picture of Matte's wife Vivienne, it reminds me of the Minx, and the fir trees and umbrella are just SO Seattle.

Those of you who spend a lot of time in the American blogosphere will certainly have seen Matte's work before - much of his talk at the Lab was about how he had been quietly plodding along with his art for years, before becoming something of an overnight sensation, with lots of interesting projects in the works.

However, for those of you who don't know him so well he has an Etsy shop here full of prints, and a blog here. You can also buy original works here at Velocity. And as of today he is giving away these three new pillows on his blog. 

I hope you appreciate how much I love you, as by telling you this I am severely impacting my own chances of winning.

Here's Matte and Vivienne at the Lab last year

 Just updating to say that, just in case you're not lucky enough to win, the pillows are on sale at Urban Outfitters at a very reasonable price.

Colour Therapy

I just wanted to point you guys in the direction of this fabulous giveaway on Shelteriffic. This nifty Color Helper machine lets you scan colours in from walls, fabrics or magazines and then either tells you the closest match from its inbuilt palette of manufacturers' paint colours or suggests complementary colours for you to use.

All you have to do is prove to Shelterrific how much you need one by sending them a photo of a room that needs help and the worst will win the prize.

Fortunately for you guys, I'm not going to be sending in this photo of our famously horrendous kitchen - yep, after living here nearly two years we still haven't painted the house and the kitchen still looks like this, though considerably more cluttered. Luckily for me, Mary T from Shelterrific is going to lend me her one of these machines, so I'll do an indepth review when I can.  And yes, doing up the house is VERY high on the list of resolutions this year.

Bits 'n' Bobs

A few small announcements.

Holly at Decor8 has excellent taste in blogs.

The next meeting of the Grassroots Business Association is this Thursday at 7pm at Vermillion in Seattle.  Set up by Megan of Not Martha and The Organized Knitter and Kristen Rask from Schmancy among others, it's for everyone currently owning or thinking of starting their own small business.  I hope to see lots of you there.

The fourth annual Urban Craft Uprising is taking place in Seattle on December 6th and 7th at the Seattle Center.  I last went two years ago and it was a typically Seattle mix of the homespun, the bizarre and the fabulous, so I'm much looking forward to going again.

Serendipity, Rings and Termites

Writing a blog is a bit like throwing stones into a pond - you throw something out there, but are never quite sure what is going to come rippling back to you.

When I wrote about my new coffee table back in the Spring, what came rippling back was a lot of rude comments about my furniture placement :) and a very nice email from MaryT enquiring whether my old coffee table was for sale.

So MaryT came round one afternoon with her husband DaveS and an envelope of used notes. It transpired that said MaryT is the temporary editor of the ever fabulous Shelterrific and we have since become friends, which is altogether the best reason for starting a blog.

DaveS is also hugely talented and Mary recently sent through photos of Dave's beautiful resin rings, which showcase interesting found objects such as beach glass, shells or fossils, or, if you prefer, real gemstones which seem to hover over your finger.  These rings are all unique and handmade - hand cast, hand coloured and hand polished - and I'm somewhat regretting that the ruby red one below has been sold.

Mary also writes a personal blog Straight From the Container which today featured horrific pictures of her termite infestation problem (houses shouldn't be made of wood, it just ain't natural), so please do all hurry along to Dave's Etsy shop and buy lots of things, so they can afford to sort out the problem.

 

I am a hydrangea

Apparently.

From This Garden Is Illegal.

I am a Hydrangea What Flower Are You?

Evidence that movie moguls don't read blogs...

So SATC  - The Movie generated opening weekend receipts of $55.7 million in the US alone and a further $39.2 million overseas, which has apparently shocked movie execs everywhere, who were predicting an opening more in line with The Devil Wears Prada''s $27 million.

Well, colour me surprised.  OF COURSE it was going to do well. Anyone who even reads blogs just a little bit would have hooked into the palpable anticipation surrounding the film and noticed just how many people were planning to go and see it.

If you read the news articles today it seems that finally all the male (of course!) moguls are acknowledging that maybe there is a market for films for grown-up women which deal, even obliquely, with grown-up issues and which are genuinely witty and funny; instead of the usual dreadful slapstick Cinderella remake starring J-Lo or Kate Hudson.  Or heaven forbid all the CGI-ed superhero claptrap aimed at teenage boys.

Which has to be a good, if somewhat belated, news to start the week.

The Lab - Chemistry

From left to right along the couch:  the back of John Tusher's head, me, Elaine Decorno, Mary Shelterrific, Megan Not Martha  (Photo courtesy of Eliza Truitt Photography)

So, guess who's the Italian in this picture?

The Lab was fab.  John and Ali from Velocity had done a spectacular job drumming up an even higher turnout than the first one (John's going to have to get a bigger showroom) and everyone had come armed with loads of thought-provoking questions so it felt just like chatting with old friends.  I hope I didn't come across as too drunk.

My fellow panellists were all fascinating and have fabulous taste in shoes.  John is the new Oprah.

Things I Learned:

- The way to drum up lots of comments on your blog is to write posts saying "xxxx - yes or no?" and/or write about bacon 

- Pink hoses make people very excited (!)

- I MUST HAVE Elaine Decorno's handbag

- People in Seattle are lovely and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

I didn't even begin to chat to all the people I wanted to meet, but it was lovely to speak to Still Dottie (who rocks the platinum blonde crop I've always wanted but never dared to have); Kim who makes stunning handmade books; the fabulous-as-always Stanford Blatch-alike Uncle Beefy (we were wondering where all the male design bloggers are?), the very lovely Danielle from Apartment Therapy (an Apartment Therapy Seattleite, who knew?) and meet, albeit briefly, the very cute Tula from Whorange.  I also talked to lots of other people who don't have blogs and therefore can't be linked to (how can this be? - get with the program!).

For more detailed notes on what we spoke about check out Megan's and Mary's posts.

June's Lab will feature Kristen Rask of Schmancy and a couple of other crafters talking about crafting and plush toys.  I have a horrible feeling though that I'm going to have to miss this as I'm due to be cruising to Alaska with my crazy Italian rellies.  Though in typical badly organised Italian fashion the cruise has not yet been booked, so there is still hope of a reprieve.

Chocolate Brownies and Design Blogging

We were invited to our first barbecue of the summer over the weekend and I decided to take some chocolate brownies, as it's been far too long since I made them.

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The best brownie recipe in the world is from Green & Blacks Chocolate Recipes.

 

The addition of dried cherries takes these into a different orbit of deliciousness.  I sprinkled some chocolate chips onto the finished brownie when it had just come out of the oven and pressed them in with a spatula - er, just because they weren't chocolate-y or fattening enough.

 

 

They turned out great, despite the Minx 'helping' out in her usual inimitable style.  

I mention these because I was going to bring some to tonight's Lab, but apparently can't because of pesky health & safety regs.  But do come along anyway and ponder what might have been...

I need to think of an acceptable giveaway.  Megan Not Martha has set the bar horribly high and I hear that Mary T from Shelterriffic will be bringing along a new design classic.  Also speaking is the delightfully scary Miz Decorno herself.  All details here.

The Lab - Design Blogging in Seattle

The next Lab is on Wednesday 28th May from 6-8pm (though the last one went on longer) at Velocity's showroom at 251 Yale Avenue N (opposite REI) and is starring ME!!! Talking about design blogging.

Actually I'm feeling like a bit of a fraud, but fortunately there will also be Seattle bloggers on hand who actually know their stuff, namely Megan Not Martha; Elaine Decorno and Mary T from Shelterrific.

So come and have all your questions about the ins and outs of design blogging answered; find out if we're really all rampant egomanics or just to sample some fab drinks from sponsors Dry Soda and have a nose around Velocity.  Remember the Lab is open to men and women and everyone who has even the vaguest interest in design. And if you're a Seattle blogger yourself we'd be hugely grateful if you could spread the word on your own blog.

If you do come, please be gentle with us.

I'm in a jolly mood today.  Have just discovered some superfab ambient house music podcasts by a Swedish DJ  - DJRiver (also available for download on iTunes), sort of high end Buddha Bar meets Hotel Costes. Not that this will be remotely of interest to anyone in Seattle, where hairy white rock music reigns supreme.

Now I know my ABCs

Just loving these ABC prints from Etsy shop Lucky Paperie

I think it's the two colourways I like mostly. (Found via black.white.bliss, one of my favourite design blogs)

The Lab

You know what it's like when you organise a party and you're not sure if anyone is going to turn up? Well, that's how I've been feeling over the last few days about the Lab. 

And then of course I was worried whether the people who did turn up would actually be NICE or not :)

But of course I had no reason to be anxious.  People CAME.  Everyone was fantastically friendly and charming and interesting.  There were even people who, scarily, read this blog.

Matte Stephens and his oh-so-cute wife and muse 'the real Vivienne' were everything you knew they would be and more, and hugely inspirational.  Matte has been plugging away at his art for the last thirteen years and, it seems, almost literally starving in a garret, before John Tusher from Velocity discovered him on Ebay of all places, became his friend and mentor and Matte turned into an overnight sensation.

Anyway it's late and time for bed now, so go and read Mary T's (who actually had her camera with her at the beginning of the evening) great write-up over on Shelterrific, Tim Gunn's alter ego Uncle Beefy has also written a splendid post.

Thanks as always to John and the Velocity gang, our literally gorgeous sponsors from Dry Soda, Matte and Vivienne for making the trek up to Seattle from Portland just after moving across country from Alabama.  And of course to the wonderful Grace, who was the catalyst who made everything possible.

Apologies for the very bad photos. I sensibly forgot my camera so had to wait until the Husband could bring it at the end of the evening, by which time I'd had too much champagne and everyone had gone home.

Apologies too for rushing off so quickly and not saying goodbye to everyone.  Due to monumentally bad planning on my part, I had a date with an egotistical rap  artist immediately afterwards.

Next month's Lab is going to take place on May 28th and will feature a panel of Seatttle's finest craft and design bloggers .  You would be mad to miss it.

John Tusher and knitting neurobiologist Jerylin indulge in a little interpretive dance while Megan Not Martha looks on. 

Matte Stephens holds court

Matte's work on display

Glow in the Dark - Kanye West

Kanye West in rehearsal at Seattle's Key Arena (all pics from Kanye's EXTREMELY cool blog)

One of the CDs I listened to while I was in labour was Kanye West's The College Dropout.  The midwife kept asking if I'd like to listen to something different (I think she hated it) but I found all the expletives to be just the thing. 

Notwithstanding the fact that it brings back memories of the most hellish hours of my life, I've always liked Kanye's music (yes, I know he himself can be a bit of a jerk).  So when I found that he was opening his Glow in the Dark tour in Seattle, and was promising the mother of all stage shows, with lights by the same guys who had created Daft Punk's kickass pyramid then I just had to get tickets.  I'm a sucker for a good light show.

The support was pretty awesome too - Lupe Fiasco, N.E.R.D and Rihanna.  We arrived in time to catch the last bit of N.E.R.D's set (Pharrell Williams is SO pretty and She Wants to Move was banging ) and all of Rihanna. She looked like a supermodel - all black PVC with dayglo pink and green accents and the most amazing neon pink lipstick. She can actually sing too and Don't Stop the Music and Umbrella were pretty hot.

Then we had to wait for about an hour for Kanye to hit the stage - he obviously doesn't have to worry about paying babysitters.   I have to add it wasn't because he was being a prima donna, but because they were clearly having issues with the set. 

When the show started, we could see why there'd been issues. The set was indeed incredible - a raised stage like the rolling hills of an apocalyptic landscape, the most enormous back screen and a hydraulic platform that tilted and moved up and down.  All accompanied by pyrotechnics, smoke machines, underlighting, overlighting, everywhere lighting, giant lit up globes, an anime blow up doll, a gold painted stripper hologram, a sexy computer and....just Kanye - the self-proclaimed brightest star in the universe - alone on stage for ninety minutes. 

In a act of either extreme hubris or bravery, what was apparently a huge contingent of musicians and backing singers (all his tracks have been reworked for the show) were dressed in black, hidden under the stage in an orchestra pit and practically invisible, leaving Kanye on his own, acting out a (very, very silly) hip-hop space soap opera with all the technology.

I'm not sure it entirely worked for me - call me old-fashioned but I like seeing musicians perform - but it almost did, and Kanye is the only hip-hop artist with enough ego and charisma to get anywhere close to pulling it off. And it all got very moving when he appeared to be close to tears after a stripped down version of Hey Mama. And there really is nothing that compare with seeing a state-of-the-art, money-no-object, no-technology spared stage show.

Just to bring this post vaguely close to on-topic for this blog, do check out Kanye's surprisingly fabulous blog - full of his design and creative inspirations.  He's got some really cool stuff on there.  Oh and couple of reviews of the show here and here. And goodness, the sound system at the Key is cr*p.

Polaroid Pearls and Photo Swaps

I was sad to hear that Polaroid was no longer going to make cameras or film, because somewhere deep down I had a vision of myself one day taking gorgeous photos like these. 

Digital cameras just can't get close to this sort of softness and subtlety.  Of course now I want one more than ever.

 

The photos come from Jen of Fieryeyed Photography who writes the blog Nectar & Light - truly one of the most beautiful blogs on the web.

Jen also runs a monthly photoswap through her site The Photo Trade.  The rules are simple.  Give her your name and address and she will tell you the monthly theme and match you up with your swapees.  Get your picture in the post before the end of the month and then wait for the postman to deliver wondrous things.

I joined in for the first time this month and this is what I sent to Susannah on the theme 'Morning Ritual' (I'm very glad that I didn't know beforehand that she is a freelance photographer).

And these are what I got back from Christine, which are currently looking very beautiful thank you on my inspiration board.

I think there was a teensy bit of confusion on the monthly theme, as I was told 'Morning Ritual' but lots of other people had 'Green'.

Anyway, you've got until April 4th to sign up for this month's swap, which is on the theme 'A Faerie Tale Told'.

Updating to say that my breadbin photo made 'Explore' on Flickr!  The first time anything I've taken has done so. 

Lisa in India

Photos of the 'Holi' festival from Lisa's blog

OK. This is completely and utterly off-topic, but my friend Lisa from Victoria BC is now in India and she's started a blog about her travels.

Which I strongly advise you to check out if you've ever wondered what it would be like to leave your job and go wandering for a year.  Fabulous and fascinating photos too.

Seattle Design Meet Up - Matte Stephens

So, get this in your diaries pronto quick.  The next meet-up will be on April 16th at Velocity's new location in South Lake Union and the guest speaker will be Matte Stephens!

Images from Matte's blog

Matte is moving from Alabama to Portland, Oregon, so we thought this would be a great opportunity to welcome him to the Pacific Northwest and hear him talk about being an independent artist. John from Velocity has been a long time stockist of his work, so we will also be able to get a retailer's perspective.

I'll post up details here closer to the time (when they've actually been finalised).  Please contact me here if you would like to be added to our event mailing list.

Here's a bit more scoop on Matte, who has been taking blogland by storm in recent months.

Podcast on Design*Sponge: Matte Stephens and Irving Harper

Podcast on Decor8: Matte Stephens

Matte's Etsy shop

Seattle Creative Meet Ups

After the Biz Lady meet up in Seattle, I left my email addy on Design*Sponge to see if anyone wanted to continue meeting up.

And lo and behold, one of the people who responded was John Tusher of Velocity, who wanted to keep the inspiration going and was offering the new Velocity store as a location!

So on Monday I had tea with John to have a chat about the format such meetings could take. 

We thought that it would be good to aim for monthly meetings and we would get a guest speaker or panel of speakers for each one (John's obviously got some great contacts he can tap).  We also wanted to set aside a bit more time for socializing and networking afterwards.

We thought it would have more of a general design focus rather than just a business focus, though we might touch on small business-related topics at some point.  Oh and given John's involvement, and the general design focus, we thought it would be odd if it were exclusively for women, though it would probably have a preponderance of women attending given what it has sprung from.

So I really just wanted to open this up to get people's thoughts and ideas on the above.  I've sort of ended up doing this by default and am keen to create something that everyone feels a part of and will enjoy.

All ideas, comments and suggestions are hugely welcome - either via email or in the comments below.  We'd particularly love to hear from you if you've got good ideas for a great name; know someone who would be a good guest speaker; can point us in the direction of wine/cheese/bakery sponsors; or want to get involved in any way.  If you're a Seattle-based blogger and think your readers might be interested it would be immensely helpful if you could point them in this direction.

Most importantly, email me if you would like to attend the first meet-up, which we're aiming to have organised for mid-April. 

The bad news is that John doesn't like the siting of the new coffee table either.(How weird is it when someone you've never met before, can tell you all about your interior decor? Sometimes this blog thing freaks me out.)

Editing to say that we've set a date and managed to line up an absolutely FANTABULOUS first guest speaker.  However, I'm going to leave the announcement until Monday, because no one comes here at the weekend.  I promise it's exciting though!

Design*Sponge Biz Ladies Meet Up - Seattle

 

Picture from Grace's Seattle Flickr set. 

Last  Thursday night I went along to the Design*Sponge Biz Ladies Meet Up in Seattle which was hugely inspiring. Who knew that there were that many creative women in Seattle?  The place was utterly heaving.

There were four guest speakers and we split up into four groups and then rotated between the speakers.  The format worked pretty well, though it would have been great to have more time just for general chat. See some pictures of the event here.

All the speakers were great, though I was particularly inspired Grace's talk about PR - I hadn't realised she used to work for an interiors PR company - which was full of really useful insights; and the Q&A session with John Tusher, founder of Velocity Art and Design . 

What a lovely man! From starting in a basement wrapping up orders himself, he has done what I dream of doing with mirrormirror and it was fascinating to hear him speak.  Read a great interview with him here on Decorno.

The cute thing was that Grace really loved Seattle! It's funny, I've only been here a year, but I feel very proprietorial of this city and it's so nice when people like it as much as I do.

You Make My Day

Barb of Pannifer's Food Blog and May December Home fame was kind enough to give my new photoblog Today I Am Mostly a 'You Make My Day' award.

I'm so enjoying doing TIAM - it's making me photograph more and observe more, which have to be good things - and  I'm glad it's getting a little bit of a following.

I now have to nominate five other blogs which make my day, which is almost impossible because I get inspiration from so many (and because so many of my faves,  - I'm looking at you  Cally Creates, Little Doodles, Cruststation, Designer's Block  and Hidden in France -  have already received this award).

Here, though, are five blogs which are full of visual inspiration, which I thought was appropriate given that my award was for my photoblog.

- Sprink takes the most beautiful, contemplative shots of London and her perfectly decorated flat and I know that I will get my fix of London nostalgia whenever she pops up in my Google Reader.

- Casapinka I'm so glad she's recently started posting again after moving house. Lots and lots of house-doing-up inspiration.

- Abigail Percy. Jewellery maker and one of our favourite suppliers.  I love her poetic photos of the jewellery-making process.

- Lola is Beauty - Fashion and France from another London blogger who helps me when I'm feeling homesick

- Making It Lovely.  Nicole has amazing taste and gets things done with enviable speed.  Her newly-decorated house is FAB-YOU-LOUS.

Editing to say that since Lola already has the award, I'm going to add Scrappy Girl - someone else who is doing wonderful things to her apartment  - to the list.

Ladies, if you wish to play, the rules are as follow...

a) nominate five other blogs which 'Make Your Day' on your blog

b) acknowledge the post of the award giver

c) let the recipients know in their comments

Book Review - The Gentle Art of Domesticity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've finally got round to reading a book which has been on my list for ages but which has been scaring me a bit.  I found the tweeness of the title and the cover picture tremendously off-putting, but have recently been enjoying Yarnstorm - the blog that inspired the book, and thought I'd give it a go. 

It's been the subject of quite a lot of controversy in the UK, mostly from those who think doing stuff around the house, indulging in crafts and enjoying cooking is somehow a betrayal of the feminist movement.  But as you know, I like to cook and potter in my house and garden and have tremendous admiration for people who can actually DO crafts, so I persevered beyond the horrible title and cover.

First the good bits.  The book is sumptuously produced and a hugely pleasurable read.  The chapters are short, so it's very easy to dip in and out of, and the book is absolutely chock-a-block full of photos, which are, actually, the best bit. Jane's photos are gorgeous and inspiring and I would post lots up here, but apparently I have to get her express written permission and I really couldn't be bothered, so just check out her blog instead.  But it is to her enormous credit that most of the photos in the book are taken by her and not by some anonymous stylist.

Jane's prose is also utterly beautiful, she has a very visual way of describing things and writes in a very intelligent and thoughtful way.  And the book is not just about knitting and baking and quilting, it also talks about domesticity in film and art and books, which is fascinating. It also contains an excellent list of 'Resources' at the back, including inspirational books, blogs and materials stockists.  Oh and there are lots of ideas about how to get kids involved in crafts and domestic projects.

So what didn't I like? Well the book is very personal to Jane. It is by no means an instruction manual, it is all about how she thinks about craft, how she gains inspiration, and the creative process behind her craft projects, though with no detailed instructions beyond a few recipes.  And unfortunately her aesthetic is just a bit too genteel and Radio 4 for me - the pink heart-shaped mousse on the front cover does absolutely sum it up (though the colour balance on the front cover is ghastly, there's a more subdued and nicer photo of it in the book itself). I'm a sure a ton of people will absolutely adore the stuff she makes but I'm just not an embroidered crinoline ladies sort of person. 

Does anyone know of crafters out there who are doing stuff which is a bit more well, 'fierce'? Not knitting plastic bags sort of fierce, but stuff you might want to put into a more contemporary home.

On the plus side, the book has inspired to pick up my knitting again!  Knitting is the only craft I can do. Here's the beginnings of a bag for the Minx.  Pattern, with tweaks, courtesy of this book.  Colour choice courtesy of the Minx (and only because they didn't do this yarn in bright eyeball-searing red).

Creature Comforts Blogroll

About a hundred years late as per usual - it's already been extensively raved about elsewhere in the blogosphere -  here's what mirrormirror  looks like on Ez's fabulous illustrated blogroll on Creature Comforts - easily the most beautiful blogroll on the web.

I was intrigued to see which images she would choose from all the random pics I've posted up, and whether they would capture the 'brand' that mirrormirror has - in my own head at least.

I LOVE what she's put together, if anything it's nicer than I would have put together myself.  It's very clever how she's pulled together the yellow, aqua and grey colour palette  (what a great and unexpected colour combination) and juxtaposed the silhouetted and cut-out leaf shapes

Interestingly I wouldn't have chosen those actual images,  but the use of colour and pattern, the mix of contemporary and girly and the clean lines are all what I would love mirrormirror to exemplify, so I'm so glad Ez picked up on them.  A career as a 'brand psycho-analyst' clearly beckons for her.

Windows Live Writer

Felicity at All Things Bright and Beautiful has put together a fabulous series of blogging tips for new bloggers, including many tips from various guest bloggers.

There's some fantastic stuff there, but I've been astonished at how many tips include very complex HTML instructions for things like setting up tables, resizing pictures etc. etc.

I've got a slightly vested interest in the following, since, as you know, the Husband works for Microsoft (though in a completely different part of the business) but a year or so ago he introduced me to a small downloadable app called Windows Live Writer which has transformed my blogging experience.

Essentially, it's gives you a WYSIWYG interface for blogging, much like Word in Microsoft Office.  So you can drag images and text round the page, line them up side by side, make them bigger and smaller, just with your mouse.  To insert a link, you just right-click on the link text and post in the URL.  It's all easy peasy lemon squeezy and doesn't require an ounce of HTML knowledge. (The only time I use HTML is to add polls and other widgets to my posts).

I use Windows Live Writer with Typepad but believe it's compatible with Blogger and Wordpress as well.  Don't think it works for Macs though.  It's also now just out of beta, and doesn't have any glitches that I've come across. It's also the most intuitive piece of software I've ever used (much better than the usual overcomplicated Microsoft offerings - and don't tell the Husband I said that.)

 

 

Here's what this post looked like in Live Writer, just before I hit 'Publish' . The toolbar is down the right hand side.

Blog Symposium

In which I meet up with Cathy Scrappy and Megan Not Martha, we have a lovely Seattle afternoon and I nearly spend too much money on a chaise longue.

I've met up with Megan a few times before but it was great to meet Cathy and really interesting to talk about her work - probably stupidly, I hadn't realised that she's also the web editor for Domino as well as writing her blog. 

It was just so nice to be able to talk about the whole bloggy design world - it's such a big part of my life and none of my other friends, either here or in London have much idea about it at all. 

And of course they are both very lovely people, but you knew that from their blogs.

We met up for brunch at Cafe Venus which was really rather fab, and not in the slightest bit WeightWatchers friendly and then wandered down to Velocity Art and Design where Cathy wanted to examine some Thomas Paul rugs in person. Please tell her to stop dithering on her blog and get this one because she clearly loves it.

When we were living in Belltown, I'd popped into Velocity's Belltown location quite a few times and thought it was the sort of shop mirrormirror would like to be when it grows up. 

 

 

I was excited to see its new, much bigger, location, but have to say I was a bit disappointed.  The shop is full to bursting with Tord Boontje and other Artecnica stuff, which has been around in Europe for about 5 years now and is starting to feel a bit 'last century, dahling'. 

We then made our way across downtown to one Seattle's hidden gems, Chartreuse,  which is a treasure trove of mid-century modern design - some vintage, some knock-off and some real, and I was excited to find a chaise longue I've been looking out for for ages. And it's in the 15% off sale!

It's incredibly comfortable and a good price - I've been trying to track down the originals on eBay but they sell for silly money and the shipping costs are always extraordinary.

The only thing I was slightly disappointed by was the range of fabric options - lots of browns and burnt oranges and terracottas, which are not really my thing at the moment. In an ideal world I would have liked it to be raspberry sorbet pink (not that I've cleared that with the Husband), but it looks like we're going to have to get some sort of off-white and pray that the Minx doesn't vomit on it too often. 

To round off our (glorious crisp and sunny) afternoon we went for a spin round the Sculpture Park and chatted some more.  It was fun, and I hope Cathy finds an excuse to come back to Seattle more often.

Another Secret Update

Some more nice online mentions. 

I am apparently an Alpha Mummy. It's very nice to be up on a national newspaper's website, even though I had to draw their attention to the blog myself.  Likewise a lovely link to the Matryoschka teatowels on the ever fabulous sfgirlbybay.  

It's probably because I'm British but I always feel awkward indulging in shameless self-promotion - but I need to learn to do it more often it seems.

The teatowels have also been mentioned on House to Home.  We sent some out to be photographed by Ideal Home earlier on this year, so I think it's as a result of that. Don't think they're in the magazine though as we would have been getting a flurry of orders for this product if it had been.

Now I really need the Universe to start focusing a bit more on the orders side of things as it's been slacking a bit in that direction this week.

By the way, if anyone sees a mention of 'mirrormirror' in the Press or online could you let me know?  Our PR company used to keep an eye on such things but now that we no longer use them I'm finding it very difficult to keep up.

Summer Teatowels

So Holly Decor8 threw a garden party this weekend and put together the most spectacular table-setting, featuring our Matrioschka teatowels by Atelier LZC.

Holly has always been a great friend to mirrormirror and I'd sent her a couple of teatowels as a thank you gift a few months back. 

It's so nice to see that she's putting them to good use and thought you'd like to see how wonderful they can look in a beautiful real-life setting.

Apparently this is Holly's idea of 'a very simple garden theme'.  I have no idea what might happen if she actually decided to make an effort.

Images by Holly & Thorsten Becker

Image by me

Available from www.mirrormirrorontheweb.co.uk