solid poetry

Stumbled upon this magical find on the site La Marquise des Anges...it's concrete that reveals designs when it gets wet, and then disappears once it becomes dry. Genius? I think yes. It was created by two art students at The Design Academy. This would be so perfect in a location like Rhode Island where the weather changes dramatically every 5 minutes...the designs would be coming and going all day long!

my new button ring *bling*

I won a RADICAL contest at Earth Friendly Weddings a little while back and one of my prizes was a vintage button ring from Beyond The Rockz...a crazy cool lil Etsy shop. I received it in the mail last week and I've been rockin' it everyday since! It is a bold splash of color in a simple shape that I totally dig...and the fact that it's a vintage button makes it EVEN COOLER! Don't you just love it? Lemme tell you...it looks really good on me. ;-)

clutch crush

I actually use clutches. For some reason, I'm the only one I know who actually does. A couple of times, I swear, I have seen the eyes roll from my girlfriends when I meet up at the restaurant or bar and I'm carrying one. What?! I love them. I'm girly. What can I say!?

Red Ruby Rose, another lil Etsy jewel, makes delicious clutch handbags. If I was made of a million bucks I would totally buy one for each of my best girlfriends. Maybe they just need a really really BEAUTIFUL clutch and they then will love and appreciate them too.

susie wright

My Love For You Is A Stampede of Horses leads me down the most righteous trails. I so enjoy finding those pieces that I need to rest my eyes on for awhile. Like this, a piece by Susie Wright...read her interview here.

panoramic picture perfection

Via Design*Sponge. Great way to display those crazy long panoramic photographs (those vintage pictures look amazing!). While sifting around my grandmothers attic when I was a kid I came across several photos like these....I wonder what happened to them.

words from billy boy

here

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves. - William Shakespeare

I am fully enchanted with this picture today.
Perhaps it's because today is my first day as a 4th year medical student *smile*

100 abandoned houses

Have you heard of this? 100 Abandoned Houses is worth a check-out...it is a compilation of images illustrating the remarkable dwindling population of Detroit. It went from a population of nearly 2 million and had plummeted to around 800,000. I was really captivated by these photos, they are so honest and haunting...and sad. I am always intrigued by old abandoned homes.

People use to live there. Someone called that place home, and made their own memories within those walls. Oh gosh, these images make me want to cry.

thrifting in sun city

This past week I worked in a neurology research clinic in Sun City, Arizona. Quite a drive from my downtown digs. A lil information about Sun City = it's more or less a retirement community, with a population that nearly triples in size during the winter months with Snow Birds (our term for people escaping the snow in their homestates!).

During lunch I went thrifting. You would not believe the NUMBER of thrift stores out there. Seriously. There were four within three minutes of my clinic!! So I went in a couple. I spent $7 and bought 11 Disney classic VHS tapes, and a few other lil goodies. The stuff that really blew my mind was the incredible assortment of rad vintage china plates! I like the idea of doing something quirky like this using funky vintage pieces.

tom's shoes

When I saw that AT&T commercial featuring Tom's Shoes, I had no flippin' idea it was a real company. But it is. And I'm terribly in love with their rad shoes, and their beautiful purpose. For every pair of shoes they sell, they GIVE a pair of shoes to a child in need. I'm becoming more and more in love with companies that do more for our global community. (it doesn't hurt that Blake Mycoski, the founder and chief shoe giver, is quite a cutie!)

attention goodwill goers...

My fave find: the Andy Warhal original signed sketch on the top row far left *omg!*

The Goodwill has made it's online debut with shopgoodwill.com. Now you can "bid" on worthy items from around the country instead of hit or miss at the Goodwill down the street (though I like the "hit or miss" adventure of thrifting actually). It's the first Internet auction site created, owned and operated by a nonprofit organization, and it's set-up a lot like eBay. The proceeds continue to fun Goodwill education programs. Kinda cool!!

our fugly loveseat

Dang. I see pictures like this and I'm SO inspired. We inherited a loveseat...possibly the ugliest loveseat in the history of furniture fabric design. The color is hunter green and there is a pattern of 6" colorful Kachina dolls all over it. I can't make this stuff up.

We have a lame excuse for a slip cover on it right now...but despite the fact that we went with a pricer cover, it continues to shift and look messy all the time. We aren't going to get rid of this lil sofa...it serves its function and we are all broke...so whatever. But this diy from Design*Sponge gives me hope.

easel envy

Self portrait with easel - Vincent van Gogh, 1888

I paint. Not well or anything, I was never trained in it...but I do it. I've given pieces away to family and friends for gifts and I painted a few small scaled pieces for the bedroom. I own nothing fancy, no easel, cheap brushes, have no idea how to stretch my own canvas, and buy my paints in small painters kits...I'm pretty much a poser. Whatever. I love it.

My little sister painted once in college for a class assignment. This must have been 4 years ago now. Yet, this Friday she comes home toting a huge brand new painter's easel, and a large beautiful painter's supply kit. She said she feels like taking up painting so she went and bought everything she needs to do so.

I'm just venting because I'm jealous.

the bright side project

This is my new fave blog: the bright side project. It features great contests almost everyday! The concept is cool: instead of just putting your name in the contents section it asks you to reflect on something particular and the "best answer" wins! Here's some of their recent fun contest prizes:

dana cowie

We have this one wall in our place that is screaming for a rad painting like one of these. Aren't these just spectacular!? Ohhhh I wish I was an artist...go check out Dana Cowie Gils...I have a thing for her vibrant art. She also has an etsy shop where she sells some of her art...here at DanaGils.

angels & demons

Bernini's Angel

Cannot cannot cannot wait to see Angels & Demons (hopefully today!). One of my favorite reads of all time...as a Catholic, an Art Historian, and a history-buff this book had it all for me! Though I didn't think the movie, The DaVinci Code was anywhere close to being as good as the book was, I don't anticipate Angels & Demons being a better flick than read. But, that's OK, that's normally how I feel about movies made from books.

I think mostly I'm excited about seeing all that glorious art on the big screen!!

Bernini's - The Ecstasy of St. Teresa

star trek adventure

here

So My Guy and I went to see Star Trek yesterday...it was ridiculously entertaining and I enjoyed all $7.25 of it. We really really wanted to see Angels & Demons too...but we totally wussed out and wouldn't sneak into the showing after Star Trek was out because the "movie cops" were out in droves monitoring the hallways with walkie talkies. Sometimes being a rule follower is kinda lame.

draw on your walls

her outcome...totally amazing

How often are you totally inspired by something you see in a magazine or catalog? It happens to me every time I flip through those glossy pages. I dog ear all the lil lovelies I see and then they get put aside, forgotten about and probably recycled. I guess I just never really thought about re-creating those looks because it seems like such a daunting task, not to mention so crazily out of my pricerange. I do consider myself quite crafty, but I am surely not an artist, so my talents can only take me so far. Except, after seeing this before and after, I am more inspired to try those projects I come across. Maybe I'll start tearing those glossy pages out and putting them in a notebook instead of trashing them next time.

Check these pics out from scraplog....one reader loved the wall design from an ad campaign and with the help of a gold pen, created the look on her own wall!! Too cool.

her inspiration

contest: delaney's world

So I won something from a blog contest last week. Now I'm obsessed and I've spent the evening scouring the web for more cool stuff. These people have a vase that I think would be fun to get...maybe you'd like it too!

if i had a ladder

I would consider doing something like this....given the wall space....which I don't have. So, I'll tuck it away in my file of awesome re-purposing. From my new *fave* blog, pH: poeticHome

a lil pillow talk

SarahFerguson

SarahFerguson

SarahFerguson

thetinderbox

I am feeling all sorts of creative these days. Perhaps it's because I keep thinking of fun projects to do for our future wedding. See, A.Mountain.Bride for all the jazz on that fun stuff! But this is not the space for wedding talk...nope...this is everything else...like my bedroom design.

Here's the deal. I refuse to spend money on any sort of decor for our house. Nothing really needs replacing, I mean, all of our furniture has been with me through my college years and was all hand-me-down free furniture to begin with. There are some great 80's pieces, like our huge slightly wobbly dining room table....but it's not broken...so why get something new? You get the idea. I'm also like this for decorative items. I have plenty of beautiful treasures to fill our space. Except when it comes to our bedroom. It's kindof the hodge-podge of where stuff goes when it doesn't harmonize anywhere else.

I want to make some pillows for the bed. We have our sleeping pillows of course, and a couple navy corduroy shams...but we are missing the style mark. I'm thinking about making some of these great bold felt embroidered pillows for our bed. Maybe three would do the trick to bring some of the rad colors out of our comforter (it's navy with striped down the very center in awesome shades of greens, yellows, oranges, and blues....oh Nautica rules.

bonjour teaspoon

Modernality


Sew English

high perch

Portal Films

Sometimes, I like to watch the people too.

perhaps it's prague

I want to visit where ever this print was inspired from. I bet there are some interesting things to see there. I hope it's Prague...it's currently at the top of my list.

via inspirazione.

window of love

I really really hope someday I take the time to do this. Think it looks so warm and charming...especially during that snowy day. Perhaps next January when I get sad that the Christmas decorations are all put away. Yea. I'll do that. Photo found here.