Hi everyone,
Just a quick update on upcoming move. So much to do and so little time. Our move in date is June 2, and I have been pretty overwhelmed with the years of accumulation that have to be boxed and sorted and of course we will be having the expected garage sale. I have also been doing some furniture shopping and lots of browsing looking for inspiration like the gorgeous lanterns I found on Gumps today. Will try to check in with some of my finds as we count down to the big move. It's going to be sporadic here at Kstyle until we settle in so thank you in advance for your patience. k

Coink piggy bank via Modern Nursery.

The economic stimulus checks have started to arrive, putting anywhere from $600-1200 in your bank account. Politics aside, what are you planning to do with the cash? You could get an Eames rocker, buy yourself some art, or do some eBay shopping. Or maybe you’d prefer to put the money aside in case the economy takes an even more serious downturn. So what are your plans for the extra cash? (Thanks to reader patty bolgiano for suggesting this question!)

I used to love shopping for stationery… But I swear the cash registers at Target and Trader Joe’s are the only places I check out in person anymore, mostly due to my 3-foot shopping companion, whose idea of fun is removing absolutely every product from the shelves. Trust me, this type of behavior is not conducive to picking out a belated birthday card. Then a few months ago, my favorite stationery designer Cheree Berry told me about Redstamp.com, an online boutique that truly mimics the go-to neighborhood stationery shop?where the owners source all the best current designers (Cheree, of course, plus Thomas Paul, Snow & Graham, Egg Press, Russell + Hazel, Night Owl Paper Goods and dozens more), and will actually talk to you in person if you have pressing questions (no 1-800 number here).

As busy moms and business women, the owners Erin and Renee understand that service is as important as style, and that’s where Redstamp soars in my book. You just can’t top their “send for you” service, where an anonymous someone with impeccable penmanship will hand-write, hand-address, and mail your cards for you. Definitely worth an extra $5 if that belated birthday card is at risk of hitting way-beyond-belated status. ? Megan K.

We’re always on the lookout for new ideas for Mother’s Day gifts, and this new series of LOVE Candy posters from MadeByGirl could fit the bill nicely. Available in Lemon, Pretty Lavender, Cotton Candy and Sky Blue, the posters are 16 x 24 inches and $25 each at MadeByGirl’s Etsy shop. We really like the ABC Love poster, too! Look for more Mother’s Day gift ideas coming up.

I confess I buy toys made for adults — and no, not what you’re thinking! A collection of Kidrobot Gorillaz and Smorkin’ Labbits have a place in our china cabinet. So I asked Kristen Rask of Schmancy to talk to us about the explosion in collectible toys for adults. Here’s what she had to say. –Mary T.

“I would say since opening Schmancy that the ‘gateway’ toy is Dunny by Kidrobot,” says Rask. “Those who know nothing of the urban vinyl toy movement still are attracted to them. Those are always, without fail, a big seller.” Can’t get enough toys? There’s more.

“Other toys that I really like and have been popular in the last few months here at Schmancy are the Treeson toys, Heidi Kenney Yummy Breakfast key chains, and Toki Doki toys such as the Cactus pups and Moofia. I also specialize in plush toys mainly handmade by various artists around the globe. The popularity of those vary a lot depending on what is in the store.

“Some folks collect things because they are color coordinating a collection, some folks don’t need to get whole series, and some folks spend massive amounts of money to complete a set,” Rask says. “Some get really into certain artists such as Frank Kozik or Joe Ledbetter. Others buy toys simply for the collectible aspect of it all. There really is no rhythm or reason to selling toys.”

See and shop more of what’s new at Schmancy. (A note that Rask is in the process of moving the store to a new site. Get updates on that at her blog.)

We recently visited online art store Petaline and were pleased by their selection of affordable art. Most work hovers in the $100 range (and there are plenty of pieces for far less). Best of all, however, is the quality — these aren’t mass-produced mall-store posters but beautiful and engaging original paintings and limited-edition prints. We especially like the rogues’ gallery of giclee prints from Chris Crites — last-century mugshots that he originally painted on paper sacks. Elizabeth Soule’s “Little Zoo” series of photographs are colorful and fun, while paintings by Irene Wood are soothing and serene. See all of Petaline’s affordable art offerings here.

Update: Check out Leah’s expanded post on more of Chris Crites’ work.

Don't you love that anticipation after you've ordered something special, knowing that anytime your little bundle will arrive addressed to you? My order arrived from Restless Things and I just adore every bit of it...


...I had to share these pretty prints with you.

(image from holly becker for decor8.)

I'm still feeling a bit groggy from all the meds I'm on, but I can't stop thinking about you and your many emails and comments that continue to wish me a speedy recovery. Thank you so much for your caring words but it's just a virus, nothing major really! :) I thought that since I'm not up to blogging at my regular Holly speed, I will post a few things today and tomorrow to keep you inspired until I'm back on Monday. Since I have a few more posts from the What To Do When You Don't Know What To Do series, I think I'll start with these...


Today we'll hear from creative lady Paola Thomas who is a Seattle-based mother, wife, blogger, and online shop owner of MirrorMirror. She, alongside Velocity Art & Design, just recently launched a creative meet up in Seattle called The Lab, too. Busy lady! Let's talk to Paola, shall we?

How do you think a person can find their spot in the world of design?

Take a long hard look at yourself and what you can do and what you enjoy doing. What do you really LOVE to do? I guarantee the business you end up doing will not be the one you envisaged, so don?t wait for something fully formed to drop into your lap, start experimenting with something TODAY and then watch it unfurl and grow. Do a new thing to your baby business every day, and grab every opportunity with both hands. You can always stop and change direction if you?ve made a mistake.

Let's say a person found what they love to do, is there more to it than creating pretty things?

Oh yes! Be truly honest with yourself and also focus on what you CAN'T or don't want to do. emember if you want a real money-making business that there's an awful lot of selling and marketing and networking and finance that needs to be done. You can hire people to do some of those things if you've got the money, but you have to at least be able to manage those people. I happen to love that side of things, but if you don't, then I really would think long and hard about whether you want to turn your creative passion into your business. I've seen people end up hating their passions. Instead have a job that pays the bills and develop outlets for your creativity in your spare time.

One thing I've heard a million times over is to see if there's a market for your work. Just how important is this?

One should think seriously about whether there?s a market for what you do. Just doing what you love is not enough. Keep testing and experimenting to see what will get you an audience. If you make stuff, get an Etsy shop; if you take photos, get on Flickr; if you want to write, start a blog. If can get an audience in these challenging environments, then maybe you have the beginnings of a business.

Great advice. Speaking of blogging, I met you in 2005 long before you had a blog. Can you tell us how that came about?

I find my blog tremendously useful for exploring ideas. It started as a marketing tool for my shop, but has now become a way for me to experiment with ideas, practice my writing and photography, and act as a platform for the things I like doing such as cooking, knitting, decorating etc. I doubt very much I?m going to make money out of these things, but having that outlet for my personal creativity is enough. For example when I started my blog I didn?t possess a digital camera. Now photography is a huge part of the blog and of my life.

Do you feel that you've found your 'calling' as a web shop owner and blogger?

I'm definitely going in the right direction but I'm nowhere near where I want to end up. My background is in finance and business development ? I worked for many years as an investment banker and then management consultant, before losing my job at a small Internet company in the dotcom crash. I realised then that I liked cushions and colour more than spreadsheets and legal docs and started combining some freelance journalism with doing a home study course in interior design. I soon realised that I don?t think spatially enough to be a great designer (and I want to be great at what I do) and also really missed the commercial side ? I love marketing and I love the Internet. Which is why I decided to set up a business that's actually primarily all about selling and marketing and the Internet, but focused on a market I really understand (women like me) and brings me into daily contact with beautiful things and creative people. And along the way I've had to write a business plan, get a bank loan, manage the building of a complex e-commerce website, run a customer database and PR list and pay sales tax etc. It?s not all about cushions.

You mentioned you lost your job and launched your web shop, but how can one afford to do that?

The upside for me is that my husband's salary has been enough to support us in this ?experimental? phase ? every penny the business makes gets put straight back in - though we have far less money than we used to. The downside has been that I've been combining it with being at home with a baby/toddler, so am only doing this stuff very part time so far. But I love what I do, I have created myself a ?job? where reading design magazines counts as work, so therefore I'm happy.

Thank you Paola! If anyone has questions to ask Paola about running a web shop, etc. please use this as your opportunity and ask some questions in the comments section below...

I thought you'd be interested in checking out Whitney English Paper and Little Pretty Studio's new collection of hoop.de.doo bulletin boards. Aren't these adorable?


Thanks Whitney!

{update: This blogger wrote about her idea on how to make these in her post back in early March, so if you want to DIY a hoop for yourself -- instructions here. Thanks, Jessie!}

(image from hoop.de.doo)

These resin-and-paper trophy deer heads from Etsy seller Ruby's Lounge take the current craze for taxidermy and deer iconography to a surreal level. I love their colorfulness and humor -- and, of course, the fact that no actual deer was harmed in their creation.

Wilderness Project 4

Wilderness Project 11

Wilderness Project 6

Wilderness Project 9

Wilderness Project 5

Wilderness Project 2

Each made-to-order piece is generously sized at about 18 by 18 by 14 inches, and comes with a keyhole hanger on the back for easy mounting. They're $225 apiece in the Ruby's Lounge Etsy shop.

I don't know what the weather's been like in your neck of the woods, but here in Northern California it was blistering hot this weekend. (Is it global warming? Is the Bay Area the new Palm Springs? I'm busy plotting our move to Vancouver through the sweat over here ... )

Anyway, all this unseasonal heat has me itching to move mealtimes outside, where we can take shelter under the shade of our towering birch tree while praying for a cooling breeze. And what better way to dress the patio table than with these brand-new oilcloths (such as Family Tree, above) from Denmark's Ferm Living, the maker of some of the coolest modern wallpapers around?

Even if it's still chilly in your area or you don't have an outdoor dining space, these are a fun way to dress up your kitchen or dining table -- and are particularly great if you have spill-prone kids.

Take a look:

Branch

Walldots

Bindweed

Berry

Ferm's oilcloth is about $28 per linear meter, which is roughly 39 inches; the oilcloth comes in 55-inch widths, so if you want a tablecloth that's about four and a half feet wide by six and a half feet long, order two meters. It's available through the Scandinavian Design Center -- which also carries beautiful oilcloths from Marimekko, Pappelina, and Susanne Schjerning.

Check them out right here.

I've been a huge flickr fan of I Can't Live Without a Poni (aka Brooklyn artist, Parsons grad, and blogger Niki Kelce) for awhile now. So I was thrilled to discover that she recently opened an Etsy shop to sell her mindblowingly intricate and beautiful original drawings. Above: The Seeds Are Thinking, $300

My Frustration, $250

From the Capsules Came a Garden, $400

Floating, framed drawing, $400

Family Portrait 1, $300

Visit Niki Kelce's new Etsy shop right here -- and see more of her amazing work here.

(P.S. For those of us on a tight budget, Kelce promises to add prints to her shop soon. I'll let you know when she does.)

These paper mobiles are such a pretty way to bring color and dimension to a dead corner or to add movement in front of a window, where they'll flutter gently in the breeze.

The delicate mobiles from Portland's Frazier & Wing are made to order by owner Heather Frazier, who cuts each shape by hand from artist's paper or recycled magazine pages before stringing them with clear monofilament from a Plexiglas disc.

The colored mobiles come in three sizes: 5.5 by 28 inches ($85), 7 by 38 inches ($150), and 7 by 72 inches ($200).

The white mobiles are available in two sizes -- 5.5 by 30 inches ($95) and 7 by 38 inches ($150) -- with a choice of six accent colors: green, brown, red, blue, lavender, and coral.

See all of the lovely mobile designs in Frazier & Wing's online shop.

I was featured in the Wall Street Journal yesterday in a cool little article called "Crafty Hobbyists Create New Careers Using the Web". Though in the article it seems current, I actually started that wedding invitation business with a partner many moons ago...like 9 years ago and sold it about 3 years ago!

And I was also in another article back in February in the Washington Post and Entrepreneur.com that I forgot to mention. It was an article called "The Benefits of Pregnancy". I like how she used the term "blindsided" to describe my pregnancy (my tactful parents had a better word to describe it) --which just means that when you're crazy busy running your own business (and trying to go to grad school at the same time) you sometimes forget to take a certain daily dose of a certain something that stops surprises like this from happening. So take note women business owners! And seriously, I don't know what possessed me to think I could run a business and finish architecture school at the same time. Sometimes I overestimate my abilities to multi-task. Just a little bit. And I also have to point out that contrary to the article, I do not own a "craft store" (it might have been confused with the wedding invitation retail shop I used to own). I do have a studio in Berkeley, but please don't come knocking on my door looking to buy foam stamps or glue guns. Though I may part with my beadazzler for the right price.

it’s been a busy week here at d*s and today ac and i are heading off to savannah for a much needed break and a little wedding-location scouting. i’ll be blogging from savannah on monday and tuesday so stay tuned for some photos of the places we’re checking out while down in georgia. in the meantime, i’ll be posting a link to the good morning america segment i filmed as soon as it’s up, along with the date and time it will air on tv! i better run and finish packing so i’ll see you all on monday from sunny savannah. until then, here’s a summary of this week’s highlights. [image above: graham and brown wallpaper: $60 per roll at design public]

• thank you to TIME magazine for including d*s in their “the design 100″ list for design!
• d*s under $100 roundups at domino: decorating essentials and eco-friendly home products
• this weekend: the first ever brooklyn flea and the d*s collective
• 2008 d*s reader survey and alena hennessy print prizes!
• new york magazine shop-a-matic: design*sponge 100-product roundup
• new sneak peek: skinny laminx
• new before and afters: chair love (6 chair makeovers), natalie’s lamp, joanna and marc-peter’s amsterdam home
• new diy projects: subscription card art, bridget’s wood veneer lamp, kate’s leaning shelf
• new city guide: dublin design guide
• new in the kitchen with: mod green pod beet risotto
• new d*s guest blog: elka from popsugar
• interior inspiration: wonderful white
• interior inspiration: alma and nancy’s joshua tree home
• new: porcelain paper plates by virginia sin
• new: orla kiely stationery
• new: cave dwellers print by rachell sumpter
• new: textiles from anna drastik
• new: karen karlstrom pillows
• packaging by palatal collective
• wedding invites: white lettering on dark brown
• eco-friendly: bedding from plover organic

today’s in the kitchen with belongs to designer nancy mims of eco-friendly design company, mod green pod. if you’re new to the site, via new york magazine, each friday we share a recipe from one of our favorite designers. today i’m thrilled to share one of nancy’s favorite recipes, beet risotto. if you’re looking for a way to take advantage of spring’s green markets or just create a meal for vegetarian guests, this is a fantastic weekend meal. nancy has included some gorgeous photographs, as well as the full recipe instructions- click here for the full post, or just click “read more” below. [thanks, nancy!]

this sunday, april 6th is the first day of the 2008 brooklyn fleamarket! i’m so thrilled to be a part of this fantastic community project, organized by the gang at brownstoner. every sunday from now till later this fall, a wonderful range of vendors will set up shop in ft. greene from 10am-5pm, rain or shine. in addition to a great collection of vintage sellers, clothing, food and accessories, i’ll be curating a section of the flea called the design*sponge collective. if you’re a reader of the site you’ll probably recognize the names of our vendors (artists like lena corwin (image above), sian keegan, wayne pate and many more) but it will be even more fun to recognize them in person! so if you’re in the nyc area this weekend please stop on by and say hi to these incredible artists. i’ll be out of town for this weekend but i’ll be back, manning the section, every weekend (or as many as humanly possible) for the rest of the summer. hope to see you there! a sampling of the incredible artists and products in the d*s collective are below. want to attend? click here for details.

[image above: bags and pillow by lena corwin]

[image above: bracelet by mollie dash]

[image above: fabric radishes by sian keegan]

[image above: there will be fabrics cut and sold by the yard from repro depot in the d*s collective]

[image above: reupholstered and refinished chairs from chairloom]

[image above: new coasters from sesame letterpress]

[image above: prints and tshirts from wayne pate at good shape design]

[image above: stationery from moontree letterpress]

[image above: tshirt from jezebel design (stationery will be available, too)]

[image above: photographs by john murphy]

[image above: cards and prints from foxy and winston]

My fiancé’s dear friend Nancy moved to Joshua Tree, California, several years ago with her long-time love, sculptor and furniture maker Alma Allen. We visited the couple, in their newly built, nearly finished home, this past Christmas, and I immediately fell in love with their modern, bio-regionally designed, green home, which was built to suit the harsh, gorgeous desert climate. Nancy and Alma built the home together over the course of a couple years, with minimal outside help. Here, Nancy tells us about the trials, tribulations, and rewards of living, working, and building with your true love, and how their home has inspired their design sensibilities, future project ideas, and new, rural lifestyle.

Elka: Tell me a little about the process of designing your home.

Nancy: Alma had always wanted to build his own house and thought about the design for years. Joshua Tree provided a perfect climate to incorporate a large courtyard, which had always interested him. The protected outdoor area provides shelter from the wind and creates an area for plants that would be devoured by the local wildlife outside the walls. The design of the house continues to be a work in progress. The layout was changed from the original drawings in many ways while we actually built and we continue to explore possibilities.

E: What were your biggest challenges?
N: Living in a Streamline trailer for two and a half years as we built. The trailer is the polar opposite of the passive solar construction of our house. The trailer is hot when it?s hot and cold when it?s cold. Dealing with the Building Department and local water and power companies for new construction was also challenging. Building codes do not encourage or even allow some aspects of green building. Although you have to pick your battles, we learned to not take no for an answer from the power and water companies, who often give false information.

E: Now that your house is nearly finished, what are you especially pleased with?

N: We are especially pleased with the passive-solar construction of the house. With the large south facing windows (which face directly to Joshua Tree National Park) and more minimal east/west exposure, as well as the thick cement floors with radiant floor heating/cooling and a geo-thermal loop, the house stays cool in the summer and warm in the winter. We?re also delighted with the homemade solar water heater which heats 250 gallons up to 140 degrees in the day and is currently maintaining a temperature of 115 overnight. (If we run the heating all night the temperature does go down as the tank is drained.)

E: Why Joshua Tree?

N: We had a shop for a few years in Los Angeles but grew tired of the daily commute and paying rent for Alma’s studio in downtown LA, our apartment in Silverlake, and our retail space in Venice. Alma and I are both originally from Utah and love the red rock desert. We considered moving to Southern Utah outside of Zion?s National Park, but Las Vegas would be the closest big city and we like our beer and wine. In Joshua Tree we are now only two hours away from Los Angeles, so we can easily have continuity with our work in LA, such as studio visits with Alma?s collectors.

E: What sort of interior features did you consider from both an aesthetic and practical point of view?

N: The fir tongue and groove ceiling. More work in some ways and less in others because it doesn’t require drywall and paint. Once it?s installed it?s done. It also breathes. Due to our very steep driveway, we were required to put in fire sprinklers, which have proven to be very practical for hanging lights!

E: Can you describe your interior design style?
N: Chunky minimal

E: What are your favorite objects in the house?
N: Alma’s sculpture. Fritz & Clara [the dogs]!

E: How about favorite furniture?
N: Alma’s furniture made from salvaged wood! I also love some of the vintage George Nelson cabinets.

E: What’s the hardest part about living here? The most rewarding?
N: The hardest part about living in Joshua Tree is the lack of good food. We miss abundant farmer?s markets and great restaurants, especially sushi…although we have more time and motivation to cook and recently I made my own kimchi! The most rewarding parts are the open spaces, wildlife sightings and the night skies. A giant tortoise tried to walk into our living room this week.

E: What are your needs, business-wise, for this space?
N: The space is comprised of two buildings separated by a large courtyard. The south area is living space and the north building is the wood workshop and sculpture gallery/office. Alma is also building a separate building with a steel frame for stone carving, which will house our solar panels as well as allow for cranes to move heavy materials. Separating the workspace from the living space will hopefully allow us to take advantage of increased tax incentives for solar-powered businesses.

E: What are your future building and renovation plans?
N: We?re going to build an outdoor shower using the solar water heater and the stone carving building.

E: Any advice to folks looking to build or renovate together?
N: Don?t do it… kidding! My advice would be to enjoy the endeavors that go wrong or not as planned as an unexpected opportunity for wabi-sabi - the beauty of imperfection and/or incompleteness. The epoxy that didn?t polish out of the cracks in the cement, the giant tub of permanent black dye that exploded… some of the things that caused tears while in the process turn out to be quite charming in the end.

We all know what a few colorful prints can bring to our wardrobes; they inject verve, flair and a sense of fun, but rarely offer the mileage of a little black sleeveless dress. However, when it comes to upholstery, wild multi-color prints can be surprisingly versatile.


A lush paisley such as "Riviere's Enchantee," used above by Todd Romano, is loaded with possibilities. (House & Garden sourced it as Brunschwig & Fils.)


When a print contains five or more hues, you can pull any one of them for wall color, side chairs, pillows and so forth. An added bonus: in my experience dense patterns beautifully camouflage smudges from tiny fingers.

You can also layer pattern upon pattern, as Peter Dunham does so masterfully.

The downside of prints? For one thing cost. It typically takes 26 yards of a large-scale print to upholster sofas similar to the ones shown here. Nice simple solid cottons and linens are also easier to find at budget friendly prices. (This is why I tend to choose prints for ottomans or benches and opt for solid sofas.)

But if you have a sharp sense of your own aesthetic, know you truly love a certain print -- it's not just a crush -- and can afford the fabric, lavish prints can be an investment that will endure.

Fun link for textile fans: the Leman Album.

Credits: Milly tote shown top available through Shopbop; Milly dress is from Neiman Marcus; 1960s "It Girl," Penelope Tree, photographed by David Bailey for Vogue, February 1969; Todd Romano photos by Michael Mundy for House & Garden, March 2004; Dunham photo by Miguel Flores-Vianna for domino, April 2008.

This is a good week for Atlanta-based designer Mallory Mathison. Apart from being named one of the domino 10, her traditional-meets-chic Peachtree Road residence is expected to be featured in the AJC's Sunday home and garden section. I think the coverage will inspire anyone who dwells in a small space.


Mathison's style epitomizes that youthful Southern look I've been talking about this month. In her bedroom she liberally used an oh-so-trad Scalamandre linen floral, "Bantry House" in Aqua (if you've seen the latest Vogue Living you know this also very "now") but balanced the feminine print with rich faux lacquered espresso walls inspired by her heroes Billy Baldwin and Miles Redd.


Baldwin was legendary for using deep dark walls in tiny spaces. And this Redd-designed room above, published in Southern Accents, specifically influenced Mathison.

She says, "The bedroom was actually an experiment. I have always loved lacquer, loved the way Billy Baldwin used lacquer on walls, furniture, lamps, lampshades -- anything! I wanted to try it out in my teeny little condo and so I decided to do it in the bedroom, because it was the space with the most natural light and I could off-set the deep espresso-brown with light linens and porcelains."


"I used Farrow and Ball's "Mahogany" paint in full oil gloss to achieve a sort of "faux lacquer" effect -- of course not the same [as the real thing] but it worked and was a fraction of what it would cost to have the walls professionally lacquered."

By the way, her ceiling is a soft aqua. So all of her painted surfaces reflect light.


Mathison does doubt she would ever do such dark walls for her clients. She adds, "More likely in an entry, dining room or library -- very dramatic and rich!"

On blanc de chine (a French term usually reserved for all-white Chinese porcelain) she says she is especially obsessed with white porcelain Asian figures. "I pick them up wherever I can, estate sales, antique shops, etc. I have also started collecting lamps, vases -- anything in white. They are just so pretty and create amazing contrast against dark surfaces -- delightful!"

Be sure to look for editor Katie Leslie's piece this weekend in the AJC!


Related reading: Blanc De Chine: Divine Images in Porcelain

You may remember that the Downtown guys, known for their flamboyant modern edge and vintage furnishings, have embraced chintz. Here is a little peek at the fun, psychedelic spring windows of their chic L.A. shop. Included are flower-covered canopy chairs.

From Cody Hudson

From You Work for Them

From Tamara Shopsin

This is by far one of the most amazing stores I have ever stepped foot in... Fan Tan Gallery located in Victoria's historic Chinatown, just steps away from the famous 5-foot-wide Fan Tan Alley. Bette Patrick and her son Alan are the shopkeepers and maintain a superb home décor store. I don't think I have ever seen a more remarkable merchandise display that changes *weekly* (see a post I did back in February showcasing some fabulous examples).
It is always a treat to stop in for a browse whenever I go for a pitterpatter downtown. And Coal the gorgeous cat is sure to greet you at the door, or at the cash register (sooo darling!).