pencil sharpener redux

After seeing the post last week about pencil sharpeners, my friend Margaret Sweet sent me an image of this awesome collage she's done of a pencil sharpener. I love it! She did it a while ago--on a day when manual pencil sharpeners caught her fancy. Margaret is a painter (and collager too) who lives in MA. Last time I was at her house she had a great series of guinea hen paintings. This image makes me want to see more of her work!

buying rugs and antiques

I'll be headed to NYC tomorrow morning for some work and some fun...I may not get to post until later this week.

I wrote two articles for this weeks Dan's Paper on Long Island. One on books about buying antiques and the other on buying rugs. Am including them in case they are of interest.

Image of NYC above from www.allposters.com

manual pencil sharpener

I like the manual pencil sharpener sitting at the corner of my desk. Every so often I spend ten minutes or so sharpening all my pencils and this feels like big improvement in overall office organization. With sharp pencils I'm ready for anything.

It's got to be a manual pencil sharpener--I'll never run out of batteries this way. Also, I love the look: it reminds me of being in school.

Weed Hound

Some days, around lunchtime, I look around the house for W. and can't find him. Then I look outside and see him out waging his battle against the dandelions:

It seems to be his favorite way to take a quick break from work. His weapon of choice? A Weed Hound, it's this neat contraption that you put over a weed, step down, and voila!



Weed including tap root is removed. Yes, we have about a thousand little holes in the ground where weeds once were, but I threw some grass seed into those and think they'll fill in okay. The Weed Hound company also makes an Edge Hound--which is something I'd really like to get--then I can wage my own war against all those fuzzy edges and nebulous beds.

New Socks

I love this chick with chutzpah! More about it at bob shea's site.

Also, in general...I love the yellow, orange, black and white...so clean and crisp. It's decorating inspiration for bringing clean lines, warm colors, and lots of personality to a space.

area rugs on concrete floors

My friend Sara in San Francisco was asking me about concrete floors, as she's thinking of putting them into her new house. I said I thought they were great--though there are a couple of drawbacks to consider: concrete floors are hard so when a kiddo falls down (and she has three little kiddos) it might hurt; since the floors are hard they can tire your back and knees if you stand for long periods of time on them; and concrete floors are bound to start cracking at least a little bit, though since this is to be expected you just have to take it as part of the charm. The upsides are they look great, a kiddo can ride a tricycle on them, they are easy to keep clean and can be painted any color.

Then I started thinking about the great area rugs she could put on the concrete floor to designate seating areas and play areas. Some ideas for rugs are below. Does anyone have any concrete floor ideas or experience to add to what I said?

The Lulu Pool rug from Angela Adams



The Hankshaw rug from Angela Adams's State of Mind Collection of rugs.

The Festival Rug from anthropologie.

paper mache creatures

I saw these quirky paper mache creatures on the John Derian web-site, they are made by English artist Julie Arkell.

Here's an alarmed looking creature--not sure why, but I like it. Maybe it's the ridiculously big ears, or how serious such a silly looking creature appears. Anyway, this one is by the same artist, at Earth Angel Toys. I can see these in a bookshelf, above a desk, or on top of a bureau--just a little something to make you smile.

cheered up

I was just sitting at my desk feeling kinda of down in the dumps. Then I looked up away from my computer sceen and the things propped and hanging on the wall over my desk made me smile.

My friend Steph designed and printed this card and a bunch of others also propped on this shelf--I love the color against the blue wall. I love the card and I love that I have a friend who makes such pretty things.




And this is the resin deerhead I bought for myself last Christmas. He's wearing earrings (antler rings?) that I got for him in Turkey. These keep the bad energy away. Yay! Happy again.

Nesting Inspiration

At the Cookie site, on the Nesting blog is a house tour of a house I love. It's in Sweden. I love all the white and the shots of color. The old school chairs and uncluttered simplicity. Check out the whole house tour here. via A Cup of Jo.

art space

I spent last winter wanting to start painting and drawing again--but never found the space or the time to do it. Now, I've assembled this corner of the sun porch--light floods in, there's no distracting clutter, and all I've got to do is get to it. No matter how tiny, I think it's so nice to have a little creative space of your own in a house.

We painted the floor red--so warm and welcoming. It's one of my favorite things we've done to the house.

Lily playing the Building

Oh wait! Lily just sent me this picture, above, of her playing the building this past weekend. See post below for details about the David Bryne installation.

Playing the Building

It's not something that would fit in my house, nor anyone's regular house...but this installation from David Byrne is so cool. It's in NYC now through August. An organ connected to parts of the building, so when you press a key on the organ the water pipes get tapped. More details here.

We have a bit of water hammer at our house...pipes that vibrate when you shut off a faucet...instead of bemoaning it as a problem to deal with, maybe I can think of it as a mini-spontaneous installation similar to this one.

round mirrors

I've been looking for a round mirror to hang on a small blank wall in the house. Below are some of the ones that caught my eye.

This one above on etsy from artist Raquel Stanek.

This one above and the one below from Mecox Gardens.

Ferdinand the Bull

Sorry to have missed posting the last few days--we were out of town early this week and yesterday I spent getting a boat registered. I guess the means summer is officially here.

The light blue paper mache bull's head that we got at Perch in New Orleans has finally arrived! And we love it deeply. It comes from Stray Dog Designs which has a great selection of accessories and house stuff.

The bull's head is inspiring me to make something out of paper mache--my new empire will perhaps be built of paper mache. Will look up a recipe. The danger is feeling disappointed when my final products don't hold the same studly coolness as ferdinand. We'll probably rename him, Ferdinand (the name he came with) is a little obvious.