PHOTO | CAMP & BAN.DO

March 20th, 2012

Laure and I are excited to reveal that our first ever PHOTO | CAMP will be held this upcoming Saturday, March 24th, at the ever so shiny Ban.Do studio. It’s like we’re girls! Fancy sparkly girls or something!

Above are a few shots Laure snapped at Ban.Do, which happily has turned out to be the perfect space for this first workshop. Oh, and besides the tons of photo tips and step by step editing guides, we’re also going to have some sweet goodies from blurb books and At Your Leisure as well as an extra special treat waiting for campers. No big deal, but I’ve been looking over the great photos participants have already sent in and might be feeling incredibly impatient to meet everyone and start spilling all our go-to editing super duper top secret sweet-ass tricks.

There’s still a couple spots left, so if you would like to step up your photo-game and take better photos, please feel free to check out workshop details here or register over here.

HUSKY RANCH

March 19th, 2012

Not sure if you’ve already seen Grace’s fantastic home tour on Design Sponge, since per usual, I’m late in the sharing of stuff. Laure shot the pretty tour photos while Abby came with oodles of awesome props and I had a blast styling the house up. Always a good time working with these ladies and a better time when we end the day with some boozing, Huskies and tasty carb-loaded treats.

And then BOOM. Color.

See the whole tour and interview over here on Design Sponge.

RUGGY AGAIN

March 15th, 2012

Hello new rug.

Goodbye old rug.

There are those few rarities that habitual Craigslist trollers like myself don’t expect to bump into on the c’list, one biggie being the legendarily elusive vintage Moroccan Beni Ourain rug. Finding one of these for a bargain feels about as possible as a unicorn farting out Kofod Larsen chairs while throwing wadded up hundred dollar bills at your face. So, when a post for a ‘white wool rug’ with a ‘subtle abstract design’ popped up, I hurriedly emailed the seller as well as a few friends and then sought out the wisdom of the internets to confirm if I was crazy or if a unicorn just knocked on the door.

Well.

I went. I saw. I bought for $150.

Not quite the perfect unicorn, but maybe this rug is like a Llama with a carrot strapped to it’s head showed up and was like, ‘hey, here’s a coupon book for all that stuff you like and a nice sandwich.’ I’m not really sure what exactly this rug is, but I like it like I like sandwiches. A bunch.

This puppy sits about 8′ x 12′ and is in great vintage condition – super thick, softly wooly and nicely hand woven. The pattern coloration of umber, ochers and black was an unexpected surprise, but luckily I’m a big fan of browntown. Considering all the uneasiness and anxiety the other colorful antique rug stirred up in me, this hot piece of minimalist tribal action slid into the room so easily that it’s almost like it’s always been here.

On an unrelated note, I finally hung up and slammed a pencil cactus in this giant geodesic planter I grabbed at the flea over a year ago. No big deal really, this huge planter has just been sitting awkwardly on the bedroom floor for most of that year…so…great job me.

*Slow design.

I also switched out the leather butterfly chairs for my black rocker.

The Eames rocker is a better fit for sure, but the coffee table is still is waiting to be exchanged and the fireplace is still calmly waiting to redone. Why? Because I’m a lazy jerk who buys rugs.

The seventies are exploding up in here. Hey now.

Time’s come to reign in this 70’s textured wackiness and bring out the industrial modernist shiny minimal bits. Plants would help as well, but I gotta start doing some real renovation projects instead of slapping a rug band-aid on everything. There’s just no willpower or energy in my body to start some big messy time consuming projects right now. I’m pooped.

Bring it on, longer days and more sunshine! Let’s do this. Let’s rip stuff out and renovate! Or maybe go source stuff on Craigslist? Shut up, lazy part of me.

What’s strange is that Craigslist has really been a wasteland of nothing but beat up Ikea chairs and gross stained mattresses for months now and then suddenly it was like, oh hey, good stuff and BOOM-rug and then BOOM-rug again and oh, what now? BOOM-rug in your face. I’ve been some kind of rug magnet and for whatever inane reason, I can’t manage to seal the deal on anything else.

At. All.

Besides rugs.

The big rug experiment has gotten pretty stupid at this point and now I’m feeling officially burnt-out on fibers and rugs and textiles in general, despite the fact that I just picked up another rug like some kind of goddamn hypocrite rug addict.

No more rugs. I’m done. This one’s a keeper.

I swear.

And this time I mean it, possibly.