flowers that remind of me of a starry night

as you guys might know if you're longtime readers, i'm getting married in september! our wedding theme is "UP!" ( the monogram of our two first names ), so i'm loving all things glowy, twinkly, night-sky-y right now.

these flower arrangements are so inspiring.....!

first image from Grace Ha-Kim's studio, Vale of Enna (seen at Brooklyn Bride)...& second photograph by michiko kon (via moon river).

ah-yi's Nocturne 02 print

ah-yi's prints are simple on the surface, very lovely and crisp.. . but there's a wild messiness there too that I love. she contains the disorder of little thin fragmenting lines in the safety of whale-like, brain-like organic shapes, but the tumult is there, biding its time, ready to burst through. ah, let it burst and break, ah-yi.

let march march on

feeling inspired by little quick iced shots of deep blue and lots of texture these days....

(click for the closeup. so good.)

silk felt soil dips its toe into the waters of midcentury modern....and finds the temperature quite lovely!

news:

i bought a loveseat!

I'm only going to post this teeny weeny pic of it because I don't want to BLIND you guys. I admit, it's not its most charming self at the moment. But doesn't it have potential...? soo many ways we could go with this little one.

blogger's wishlists!

some treasures in the bloggers' wishlists on design*sponge... my picks are listed,
"the gilt rubs off the edges/ of the pages and pollinates the fingertips" - (elizabeth bishop)


as well as many inspiring gift ideas from around the web, like this etsy shop, bananasaurus rex that sells wine wraps and bibs from vintage fabrics.


and then, just some extraordinary surprises....
these are made by anneke harmsen, and look like something from another world.

Strike! Strike! er.... Ork! Ork!

I know it's looking like I've left the scene, everyone, but really my absence from silk felt soil has been carefully and ethically considered: in solidarity with my fellow writers in Los Angeles and New York, I have been on strike from sfs.

;)



But I can't help myself: I must give thanks to Ork Posters for their to-die-for regional poster. (and to Lisa Congdon who spotlighted them today at d*s's guest blog). Cannot wait for the Boston one: I'm all signed up.






................... -> note: After Thanksgiving, I'll be holding a Christmas ...................blogger's swap for charity! s t a y t u n e d

mini-project: gilding large stones for table-top book weights

Grace's mini-guide to paperweights excited me way more than is probably normal and/or healthy.

This particular knobbly gold nugget paperweight, priced at around $140, got me thinking... how difficult would it be to apply gold leaf to stones? and how beautiful and easy wouldn't that be?

One could do big, melon-sized stones and place them on books on a coffee table...! definitely my next project: headed off to Michaels this week for some gold leaf.

[gilded stones by Tessa Johnson. apologies, Ms. Johnson, for lopping off the little opalescent snail shells on top of the stones, but I rather prefer them without!]

why don't you... carve out a gallery space with painted stripes?

Spotting this image of built-in display shelves, (designed by Todd Romano, Jan '07 Elle Decor), I was suddenly inspired. One doesn't need built-ins to create a graphic display to showcase a collection -- probably not platters, but hats; mirrors; or prints/ photos.... It would be fairly simple to 1) put up some molding to frame a blank section of wall; 2) paint three wide stripes, and 3) display your pieces in 3 x 6 grid. Optional, 4) Take a cue from Romano, and center the largest pieces.

It would be really beautiful to paint light stripes on dark walls. . .

wanted? found...

on etsy! can't wait till it's delivered...

thanks to coco+ kelly, and to hoping for happy accidents for the link!

zzzip! while you {zzz.....}.

so i've gone a little pillows-mad. (dear old september, the month of all months where pillows seem most appealing and where you have least time to enjoy them.)

From unison home: love! the faux-tweed....



and love (to the nth degree) the racing stripe bolster.

might as well give the appearance of zzzip while you {zzzz.....}, no?

image of '60s pillow reverie via desire to inspire.

look before you sit! (salvor fauna)

I adore what Ross Menuez, of Salvor Fauna, says about his process: "Almost all the best work, anything that... that you will like, years later, has nothing of you in it."

Porcupine sien on water, available at Design Public. A whole menagerie may be found at Areaware.

hardcover

can't miss gift: blurb. make your own book...

thanks to joy for the tip, seen at bloesem's current weekend read, "wishgifts."


happy weekend, everyone. I'm off to the farmer's market!

copper suspension lighting from etsy

Gorgeous copper suspension lighting at François Legault's Etsy shop. This particular lamp is going for $265. I'll take the ceiling tile and that copper boiler too, please!

a tip.

When it comes to rifling through an assortment of prints, paintings, sketches, pillows, rugs, anything (whether online, e.g., on ebay, or even in a shop), and you can't decide how to choose, try out my pet strategy:




... ignore your knee-jerk favorites. Blast past the "pretty," and take a closer look at the "ugly": and by "ugly" I mean the one piece that you would ordinarily dismiss straight away, the item that you unconsciously register as the least appealing of whatever group of images you're looking through. (eg, with botanicals, blast past the peaches & give the dingy print of the warty gourd a little love.)

Rationale: the "pretty" is probably just what you're used to. The "ugly" is unfamiliar. Often that first jolt of "Hell no" is actually a good way to discover something new.

"Jolie laide" fish prints from The Old Print Shop (online, or stop in if you live in the NY area; looks like a great shop. 150 Lexington Ave between 29 and 30th).

(ok, now that you've heard me out, tell me I'm wrong. I can take it.)

back to school = cool online industrial supplies

In exploring the coolest online resource ever for affordable, modern shelving, etc, etc, etc; thanks Blueline!), i found this "map rail," lined in cork and full of fun clips and so on, which is $15 for 4'. I think the graphic stripes of cork and steel would actually provide a stunning and unexpected graphic pop, like a really great belt for your walls, in an entryway (stay tuned....!) or an office, & used all around the room. What a fun alternative to a traditional picture rail: easy to install, and a no-effort way to hang (and re-hang) your gallery .... kind of like a more yang version of mav's ethereal inspiration line, which I've never been able to get off my mind.

Julia Christie at Lumas: 21st century landscape photography

I've been reading a lot recently about 19th-century landscape painting... it's interesting to compare the perspectival confidence of Friedrich's 1818 "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog"

... with Julia Christie's bleached-out, 21st-century landscapes in which the small human figures are swallowed up even though the beach setting is ostensibly benign...



Seems in some ways similar to Zen Sekizawa's work,
although his take definitely feels more carefree (maybe because the figure, even though headless, is closer to us, and positioned at the top of the frame, like Friedrich's Wanderer)...

Julia Christie's starkly beautiful White Sands photograph series available for purchase at Lumas. Thanks to Angela for the great link to Lumas!

faded terra cotta pink and navy blue....

I am mad for this color palate of pale terra cotta pink and faded navy blue (spotted on Toast)--

Always did love Diana Vreeland for saying that "Pink is the navy blue of India..."! ... what better than to see the two collide in a bookshelf, or

on a dusky-colored sari that I saw walking away from me in Gujurat....


{welcome to all who are here via Design*Sponge! our contribution to the d*s blogger's guide to online shopping can be found here , along with contributions from 9 other inspiring bloggers.}

one of the best things i've ever read on a blog

if i had only one example to use in explaining to a being from outer space what a blog is, i would give this post as my example.






.

scandinavian ceramics in black and white

Madly Gorgeous Catherina Kippel Work Exhibit A:

(from Blås & Knåda)


Madly Gorgeous Catherina Kippel Work Exhibit B:

(from Design House Stockholm)

ebay watch: '50's ceramic table lamps

these are estimated to go between $100-$200. Not bad.



I'm getting verrrrry into the idea of getting a pair of vintage 50's ceramic lamps for our living room...

why don't you.... paint your floors white with black stripes, a la cecconis in london?

{s w o o n}.


see here for another take on black and white design with emerald accents.

our Twombly has arrived from Sotheby's! (kind of).

Back in December I mentioned that I was coveting a huge piece of slate to put up in the living room like a pseudo-painting. Well, we might be almost there!

Over the weekend, my mom and I took a roadtrip up to Maine, & on the way back home yesterday evening, we stopped in Kennebunk to check out Old House Parts, an architectural salvage shop, to see their inventory of vintage blackboards. Prices were a little bit prohibitive, but we still managed to bring back a decent sized piece of slate to hang up in living room over what will become a "games" table/ dining table. I figure it will look pretty all on its own, and when friends come over to play bridge (wink wink Roxy), we can use it to keep score.
Will post some pictures in August, when it's up!

(image of Mariette Himes-Gomez's kitchen blackboard via NYSD.)