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Photo Friday

Peekaboo

The coffee table arrived today. We love it. It's perfect.



The living room is now almost complete. There's the art to finish. I have 2 Ikea frames that I am in love with. You can see one hanging in the background of this shot.



I have a great idea of how to fill them. It's a secret, though. You'll find out soon enough.

More Plum Blossoms

Plum Blossoms

The Side Table has Arrived!

The pug loves the new green chair.

And The Winner Is

The Peekaboo Coffee Table from cb2. It's perfect for our small space because it's practically invisible:



It's acryllic, yet it fulfills my lustful desire for a piece of lucite furniture, which is outside of our price range.

Thanks to another generous family member, I will also fulfill my lustful desire for a piece of mirrored furniture. I snapped up this awesome mirrored side table from West Elm.



Now all that's left is art and a new lamp. Thanks to everyone who helped make this living room possible. We really appreciate it!

Mariska Karasz

I first saw the work of Mariska Karasz in the book The Stitches of Creative Embroidery by Jacqueline Enthoven, which is my inspiration for much of the embroidery that I attempt to do. I'm not very good at it, but I still plug away at it.

Mariska was a Hungarian-American who started out as a clothing designer and then became an embroidery artist. The Georgia Museum of Art is currently showing a retrospective of her work as both a fashion designer and artist and I wish I could go. It's the first showing of her work in nearly 40 years.




Whip Up blogged about another inspiring textile artist named Tilleke Schwarz whose work reminds me of Mariska's in that it is eclectic and free with an understanding of a total mastery of embroidery stitches. Poetic license. Love it.

Jesse Edwards

I love Jesse Edwards still life's.
He paints anything from the beautiful:



To the mundane:



To the disturbing:



He's showing some new work at BLVD, my friend Damion's gallery, this saturday and the mister and I hope to check it out.

Goodwill

I've been hitting the motherload at the Goodwill the past few weeks.

I found this awesome Mack truck bulldog hood ornament ashtray:





As well as these golden birds (which the mister calls Angry Chickens):




The still life's in the background are also Goodwill scores. Yes, that is a pencil hanging from a string in the one on the left.

Oh My Cavalier

I ordered this super cool illustration from Oh My Cavalier last night to put in an incredible frame I got from Ikea. Can't wait for it to arrive.

Jacquard

I'm into Jacquard fabric right now, ever since I got turned onto Brocade Home.





I lucked out and found this great curtain panel at my local Goodwill the other day. I'm thinking of making pillows for my new sofa with it. A chartreuse velvet as a backing to the pillow would be yummy.

Old and New Favorites

A trip to the Seattle Gift Center now called The Pacific Market Center yielded a goldmine of new product lines and reminded me of some old favorites...

The newbies:

Pop Ink offers great paper.





Lavish candles from Joya, couldn't find an image, but a photo could never describe how divine these candles smell...

The Akhassa line of body care, inspired by Thai ingedients, these products are luxurious and unique. The Black Pepper bath oil is my favorite.




Old fave's:
La Compagnie de Provence Marseille is a French line that uses pure ingredients and has fresh, clean and elegant packaging.




Seattle company Rosanna can always be relied upon to produce vibrant and functional pieces.

Must Have

Those of you who were in middle and high school in the late 80's and early 90's have got to remember Sassy magazine - only The Greatest magazine of all time. It morphed into Jane, which I don't love, but I know many who do. Well, there's a tell-all book about life at Sassy mag coming out in April called How Sassy Changed my Life. Damn if I don't preorder that jessie.



Thanks to Megan at Not Martha for turning me on to this book.

New Blue Kitchen Curtains

I'm loving my sewing machine. I whipped these up from some linen napkins that I found in my fabric box. They look great in our orange kitchen.



Ignore the dishes in the sink.

File This Under "Cool Idea"

This is how Purl in Soho displays their new fabrics. I love this idea and may have to steal it for our bedroom. Or at least for my craft room in a future (larger than 700 square foot) house.

My Quest for the Perfect Cocktail Table

So, remember our new living room furniture? I'm so excited for it to come next saturday that I can hardly stand it. But, we NEED a cocktail table. The mister would say that we don't NEED one, but that I WANT one. This is true, and it's verging on obsession.

My first inclination was a modern glass topped table, a la Noguchi:



Then, I remembered that Ruby won't always fit in the Baby Bjorn and will eventually start to walk and that a glass table isn't really condusive to toddlerhood.

So, then I turned my covetous gaze towards the Eames plywood table:



This one is still in the running, although, I'm not 100% sold on it. Not sure why exactly becasue it's perfect in many ways: round edges, light wood, mid century modern look, and I could find an affordable replica somewhere. But it's not quite a slam dunk for me yet.

My new direction is to take it a little ecletic with this beauty from Tonic Home:



I love the Chinese Chippendale look and the punch of red on the top. Not sure the mister is sold on this idea. Not sure I am either.

Maybe we need a darker table, since the rest of the pieces are light. I found this one last night and the price is right. It's from Overstock.com, an unlikely source.



I'm just not sure which direction to go. I'm hoping once the furniture comes all will be revealed...