Wednesday, February 29, 2012

happy leap year day


Hope everyone made the most out of having an extra day this month. I know that I most certainly did not, haha. I worked per usual and nothing else eventful was planned or scheduled. It's actually been a snowy, windy, rainy day here so I put my pajamas back on after showering this morning and worked in comfort. It's a nice perk on the days I get to work from home that I can put my pajamas back on after my shower if I want to. I actually don't do it very often but on a day like today - it was warm comfiness. 

Happy mid-week! 


Monday, February 27, 2012

MCMM #4


Ray and Charles Eames.

Over the weekend K and I watched a documentary on the life of Ray and Charles Eames - The Architect and the Painter.
  It was extremely interesting. I had no idea they were involved in half the projects that they were. They were much more than chair designers (I'm sure most of you knew that) they were truly amazing individuals. I highly recommend watching the documentary to learn more.



One of the movies that they produced was called "Tops". It's one of my favorites.




Most of us when we think of the word Eames think of their chairs and their relationship with Herman Miller. But did you know that Ray and Charles were able to come up with the molded plywood design first by making splints during the war?


After the war they continued on their quest of molding the plywood until they successfully were able to produce their molded plywood chairs that became a staple of MCM decor.



Another iconic chair they produced was the lounge and ottoman. One of my personal favorites. I hope to one day have one of these..

(images from the Herman Miller website)

A very interesting website full of information about their home and preservation is the Eames Foundation. It provides information on their amazing home - Case Study #8.




They were such a very sweet couple who almost molded into one person. Ray always seemed to have a beaming smile on her face. Sadly Charles passed away on August 21, 1978 - Ray outlived him for 10 years to the very day, passing away on August 21, 1988.








shop update





I'm so excited to share with you the projects I have been working on.. baby blankets! No, I am not going to be having a miniature human in my life anytime soon. I just really love making them. I have posted two blankets. The top blanket picture is one I'm currently working on and excited to see how it comes out.  I'm offering premade and also custom blankets

I'm also thinking that there may be a blanket giveaway in March. So if you know of anyone that is going to be having a baby - be on the lookout and check back in! Until then check out the updated shop.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

wss #4



I came across this amazing illustrator today. TUBIDU is an Etsy shop based in Paris and I am enchanted in each and every print.

It may be the colors, it may be the scenes.. but something about the prints make me get lost in Paris..





Please go check out her work.







shop update

some really amazing treasures have been added to my shop - more to be added tomorrow as well..


antiquing part 2- the spoils

The sun is shining today, the snow has stopped and I feel like I have a gazillion things to try and get done. Grocery shopping, check. Laundry, check (well it's in right now). Shop photos, check. Crocheting, half-check - I'm never actually done, there is always a project


Things left to do.

  1. Shop update
  2. Email Chantilly from MyGirlThursday with all my info as I am a March sponsor on her blog.
  3. Complete another blanket for my shop
  4. Work on a few little things on my blog
  5. Post a "window shopping Sunday" 
  6. Make dinner
Here are the pictures of my purchases from friday..


I LOVE this cake carrier and the best part is that I was able to get it for 10$! It is perfect. I had wanted a vintage cake carrier for a while, and my parents bought me a really nice round aluminum one last year. But this one...ah...i love my cake carrier... 


 As we walked around, I was starting to get bummed out. I had found some things I liked but most were out of my price range or just not really what I wanted to spend my money on. K had found a few things her was carrying around with him and I said " sucky, I'm not finding anything" As the words came out of my mouth I turned and saw this...
"AAAAAAWWWWWWWW" (I don't really know how you type out the "awwww" saying that people do as if the heavens were opening..but that was my moment. I LOVE Cathrineholm. I personally only have one piece of hers - a yellow skillet with a lid. Upon seeing this I hugged it and stated "you shall be mine". The price was reasonable plus we had a coupon that gave us 24% off everything priced over 10$ (so crazy!!) This little piece will remain with me..not going into the shop.

I actually have two other Cathrineholm pieces that I've gotten that are supposed to be for the shop- but I really don't want to sell them. This is when it's hard, when your shop features items YOU collect! 


Okie, doke. So much left to do today.. Hope everyone is having a great Sunday!


Saturday, February 25, 2012

antiquing

As I promised, a post full of pictures from our adventures yesterday. The day started with a yummy breakfast.

Then we were off..

Here are the highlight and some of our favorite finds from around the shop.

These jam n' jelly containers. They were one of Kevin's favorites. They were a tad out of my price range though, but super cute none the less:


I loved this pink elephant barware set. (it was actually from the same dealer as above)


This enormous rack of vintage linens.



This vendor has all things vintage Halloween. Such amazing things were in this display!


If I were to own a china set, it would be this one:


We found a fair share of very creepy/ disturbing items as well:


I fell in love with this ring. I have wanted a large amber ring for many years..one of these days I will finally buy one:


A gorgeous pair of 50's cat eyes that I am kicking myself for forgetting to go back to buy:


I think my most favorite brooch ever!


A really neat Sprite clock:


A beautiful MCM radio



This was mister's heaven, he spent lots of time in this corner!


Camera corner: These were the coolest miniature cameras I've ever seen. Little teeny spy cameras, on the bottom shelf they had the film for them



Mister getting up close and personal to another camera display: (he has his own collection of vintage cameras)


We came home with some really great items. It's a snowy wonderland today and I'm feeling extremely lazy, so when I take shop pictures tomorrow - I take pictures of our take-aways. We had a really fun day on  our adventure - but this antique center really needs to install either a bakery or food court! We spent over 4 hours there and were starving! They would make a killing if they installed some sort of eatery.

I'm so glad today is only Saturday and I still have tomorrow to get everything done that I wanted to get done today. Sometimes it's nice to just have a lazy day and just do nothing but play on your computer while watching random netflix documentaries!

happy weekend!

















Friday, February 24, 2012

ff#3


We had a very fun but very long day of antique shopping. Needless to say I'm a tad exhausted and feel like I walked miles and miles throughout a 1000 vendor shop. Tomorrow when I have recharged and have energy I will post the fabulous photos from the day of adventures. Sadly I didn't come home with a lot of goodies. I actually only bought two things (mister got a few things too) My finds were a cathrineholm bowl and a really awesome cake carrier. (pictures tomorrow)

So for now I will just post a few things I found throughout the week that made me smile and or made my "i want that" list..


This gorgeous blouse is a definite that is on my radar.


Wild olive wood tunnels. I just placed my first order with Omerica. I am in love with their plugs and recently a "street rep" for them. If you are in the market for some new plugs - use rep code "vera-20" and you will get 20% off your first order! I love their policies and once I start making my glass plugs I may try to implement something similar.


Mister loves old, gaudy gold frames. He actually bought another one today. This necklace reminds me of his obsession with frames while adding a bit of cuteness. I would love this necklace from Poppy and Fern


One of the rooms upstairs is going to be a walk-in closet. I can not wait to have a nice space to have all my clothes. This is definitely the look I am going for:


I found these great decals/DIY weekend project. 


It was a very good friday - lots of updates and photos tomorrow, and of course a shop update as well. Now it's time to relax and watch  a movie in bed.

xo












Thursday, February 23, 2012

date adventure for tomorrow..

I'm getting super excited for mister and I to go on our "date tomorrow" It's like Christmas Eve for me. We are heading out in the am to go HERE. We've only gone one other time before when we went on our adventure to pick up my amazing 10$ Craigslist table find for my studio. We spent well over 3 hours and actually rushed through some spots. So tomorrow we have no time limit .. just antiquing adventures. Last time I went I got my Bob's Big Boy and mt Hopalong Cassidy 1954 lunchbox!


These are some current pictures they have on their site. They have rooms and rooms and rows and rows of glass displays - then other areas of open displays. With over 1000 vendors, I'm sure to find something. 

Lots of photos and fun to be had tomorrow. Yay for long 3 day weekends! Shop update will also be this weekend. Good stuff I promise you will not be disappointed!




Wednesday, February 22, 2012

quick little update..

I'm beat- but so excited. I have a bunch of super awesome new things that will be posted up in my shop this weekend. Some things that are going to be really hard for me to sell because I want to keep them for myself- including 2 cathrineholm pieces - <sniffle sniffle>

I have also been busy crocheting. I have completed two baby blankets. They came out really cute and I'm really excited to get them posted. I will be listing the two of them and also a posting for custom blankets as well.

So this weekend will bring lots of great posts and pictures..

Right now I think I'm going to take the rest of the night off, veg out and play order up on my iphone.

Have a good night! (tomorrow is my friday, as K and I are going on a "date" and took friday off from work!) lots of pictures to be posted of that adventure as well!!

Monday, February 20, 2012

MCM #3


Today a little bit of history on a Danish designer that was the mastermind behind a few of my favorite MCM chairs.

Arne Jacobsen
1902-1971

Arne Jacobsen is the Danish architect who master the most personal and successful interpretation of the international functionalism. His architecture includes a considerable number of epochmaking buildings in both Denmark, Germany and Great Britain. Arne Jacobsen initially trained as a mason before studying architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts, Copenhagen, graduating in 1927.

From 1927 until 1930, he worked in the architectural office of Paul Holsoe. In 1930, he established his own design office, which he headed until his death in 1971, and worked independently as an architect, interior, furniture, textile and ceramics designer. He was proffessor of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts, Copenhagen, from 1956 onwards. His best known projects are St. Catherine´s College, Oxford, and the SAS Hotel, Copenhagen.

Arne Jacobsen´s designs came into existence as brief sketches and were then modelled in plaster or cardboard in full size. He kept on working until his revolutionary ideas for new furniture had been realized at the utmost perfection. The "Ant" from 1952 became the starting point of his world fame as a furniture designer and became the first of a number of lightweight chairs with seat and back in one oiece of moulded wood.
Model "3107" from 1955 is often merely called " The Number Seven Chair". It was launched in beech, black and white. The colour scale has through the years been further developed by a.o. the Danish architect Verner Panton and the Danish painter Poul Gernes 1925-96 and today includes a variety of colours in lacquer or lazure as well as beech, maple, ash, and cherry. "3107" has become the most important success in Danish furniture history - manufactured in more than 5 million copies.

The Royal Hotel 1956-61, situated in Copenhagen, is one of Arne Jacobsen´s masterpieces. For the decoration of the hotel he designed several pieces of furniture, lamps and fabrics, and also cutlery, glasses, and door handles. As significant counterpoints to the stiffly upright, monumental building his easy chair, the "Swan" and the "Egg", stand out as organic sculptures.

During the 1960´es Arne Jacobsen turned to forms as the circle, cylinder, triangle, and cubus. On the whole, his mind as an architect began to influence his design. Both the stainless steel tableware set "Cylinda-Line" and the lamp series "AJ" reflect this. Common to all Arne Jacobsen´s designs is that they have become international design classics.

"The Ant" and "The Number Seven" ´chairs made Arne Jacobsen world famous as a furniture designer and made Fritz Hansen an international manufacturer of design and quality furniture. Fritz Hansen´s collection of timeless furniture includes both well-known Danish classics and more recent furniture series designed by Danish and international designers.




the egg chair


the swan chair


the 3300 chair


the drop chair


The Egg chair is a definite on my personal wishlist. I can imagine curling up inside of it, it's just perfect from a design and functional standpoint. Someday I will have one.. some day...