It turns out that mama and I have share a common trait (not surprisingly): spending hours searching for the object(s) of our current obsession(s) on the internet. She tracked down an awesome retro sign site — check out these cool signs from American Heritage website below. They aren’t vintage, but, they don’t cost vintage prices which means you can afford all the more.

These signs below are from eBay, I ADORE the first “Please help keep this place clean.” I’m sure Tim would appreciate it in our home (since I’m the guilty party when it comes to doing my share of the cleaning in a timely fashion). And, really, HOT PEANUTS!!. It reminds me of being a kid for some reason. These signs are kitschy but maybe it just because I’m feeling really glad to be alive tonight, on this amazing planet, in our crazy times, but with a wonderful partner, that such lovely signs make me smile.

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I came across this wonderful garden ornament on the blog of South African designer Denise. I love the font, the rust, the outdoors-ness! Some day I’m going to have a lovely formal garden…

I was tagged by CozyNest to write 8 things I’m thankful for, just in time for fall:

1. for all the laughter in my life

2. for finding love

3. for my family’s grace and wisdom (that includes you, sister!)

4. for the kindness of strangers

5. for everything yet to learn

6. for the little things that keep me going: my garden; chocolate and coffee; a phone call from C. just when I need it

7. for flea markets everywhere

8. for this blog and all the amazing people I’ve connected with because of it: you are my tribe.

I tag:

Design for Mankind

Lsaspacey

Marta

Florid Disposition

It’s fall and beginning to bring our orange tree in at night makes me feel oddly in tune with the seasons, even in this always on, neon city I call home.

via [paddyjoe’s flickr stream]

Feeling like getting cozy with this bedding…but thoughts already are at spring and remembering I should plant some bulbs now.

Lusting after this bag… and wishing just for a second I had the bank account to match.

Loving Marta’s wonderful dear diary journals… and suddenly not needing the gleaming black patent it bag at all.

On the look out for illy espresso cups online even though we don’t have an espresso maker…

….and smiling at this zucchini dog (it is fall, after all).

Finally, wanting to share Mitchell Gold’s 20% all special order upholstery, I hope your inspired to do something lovely for your home.

When I saw this round up in the Guardian on writer’s rooms I was surprised at how much they had in common — a certain stillness, I think. And LOTS of books. And LOTS of red furniture. Wonderful. Any way, Margaret Drabble’s (below) is my favorite. The authors’ descriptions are full of detail and insight. What does your creative space look like?

As the daughter of a writer, the room where my father works has a mystical quality. It is where he has gone — day in, day out — to create every single day for the last 28 years I’ve been here to witness it. His room was tucked away in a far corner of the farmhouse in VT (only accessible through the attic). His work table was made by my mother from a piece of flooring from a bowling alley (it’s surface is slightly grooved from all the balls). He has almost no decoration or books. Just his computer, some pens, a framed butterfly my sister gave him a few christmas’ ago and like many of the writers featured, a comfortable chair for reading.

Recently a couple of people have said to me “where do you get your energy” I think referring to the fact that I’m working full time and going to school. This question always makes me uncomfortable because I don’t feel particularly energetic, I just feel that this is what I need to do right now. Anyway, I think that at least a particle answer lies in watching my father’s relentlessness in practicing his craft.

Our blue sofa has made the big time!…

I’ve written before about our lovely Hutton sofa from Room and Board (including our adventures getting it into our apartment). When we picked out a luscious blue velvet fabric for the sofa, the sales people were definitely a bit surprised. We weren’t going to let a few skeptics stand in the way and rightly so when we got it home, it was gorgeous. Blue velvet perfection.

Now, it seems everyone’s gone gaa-gaa for blue velvet. Maybe we’re trendsetters? Or at least early adopters! First, along came Nick Olsen with his great blue velvet sofa in his studio, which was featured in Domino a few months back.

And now, Traditional Home has some big-time blue velvet action in their pages. Here is a sample of their finds.

My parents moved from Vermont to North Carolina two years ago and recently bought a home in Hillsbourgh NC. After a childhood in the cool, green, liberal North I wasn’t sure that I’d like North Carolina or the South for that matter, but, I’m a huge fan of Hillsbourgh (a sweet, charming town with a lot of character) and love my parents’ new house (after an initial smarting at losing my childhood home (a homage to it below)). And, much to my surprise the South doesn’t seem that much different than the North (well, people are much friendlier in the South, that much is true!).

We went down last weekend to celebrate my mom’s birthday and spent a lot of time discussing the decorating of the house, nesting, how to make a home comfortable, welcome and lived in. One thing they are looking to do in the kitchen (which they feel lacks a bit of personality) is hang a vintage trade sign. My mother had found the red key trade sign above on Ebay (and it was my job to win it, and I lost it!). You can imagine my guilt! One lesson I learned is this: if an auction on ebay is a live auction someplace in the US, bid by phone! Your chances of winning are much, much, much higher.

To make it up to my mama, I’m on the hunt for a wonderful sign to give my parents for their new home.

I was inspired by this huge scissors trade sign via fresh Reference Library.

A quick trip to Ebay yielded the signs below. I’m looking for images of interiors with huge trade signs in them — if you find some or live with one, let me know and I’ll blog it! Think of it as inspiration for Mom.

I love this gallery of framed photos, art, wallpaper and delicious bits! (Via decor8 guest blogger via Elle Decor)

Loving this chair…

And these wall decals…

Which reminds me of this post from my new favorite blog Black*EiffelÂ

I’ve got entryways on my mind, with inspiration from the very talented Jordan at Oh Happy Day.

You see, our entry way/landing strip is a disaster (but I’m brave enough to post it!)

Tyesha asked if I was working on any decorating projects…. I think this definitely qualifies. We just haven’t focused on it and the corner seems to be a magnet for everything that doesn’t really have a place in our home. The desk above is Tim’s old desk, which we’ve been meaning to sell on Craigslist. Then, the tub is our paper recycling. Other jumble includes some stuff for Goodwill (I actually dropped it off last weekend!), umbrellas, grocery tote bags, a bike pump and a pile of mail.

I *love* this shot which is a detail from Jordan’s landing strip and am thinking of finding a similar console table and mirror (but need to figure out the recycling piece?). I really like how the mirror and console table work together with the green boxes, the horse tile, the ledge of the mirror which seems like a perfect spot for an ever-changing constellation of paper and the tiny things we all find and imbue with meaning.

The fantastic umbrella stand in the first photo is from Hold Everything (one of my favorite stores, which I think just couldn’t compete with The Container Store, which I love less — it always finds a way to make me feel like if I just tried harder, I could be neat…). I did a quick search on ebay to see if anyone was crazy enough to want to part with theirs… no. However, a bit of searching around the internet turned up this one from Gumps. Quite nice!

West Elm has the mirror (on sale, what am I waiting for?) and these lovely prints, for $20!

Okay, need to go read for class… have a lovely monday! Oh, and send any ideas your have for the landing strip, especially nice-to-look-at solutions for the recycling problem? UPDATE: Check out these entryways on new-to-me blog Fresh Palette!

Ohhhh the back to school, post labor day hustle! I’m caught up in the rush, but my thoughts are never far away from this place. It’s been a busy month and some thank yous are in order:

To Cozy Nest, My Pocket and Cowgirl you got that something for adding the lovely links to Abbey Goes Design Scouting!

To Oh Happy Day and DesignBoner for the links and for sharing my love of blue velvet and to Shelter for enjoying my post on picture walls.

To everyone who has left comments — I really appreciate it more than I can say!

In the meantime:

An amazing breakfast photography project…yummm!

This cheerful press…

…and a how-to on making DIY journals with photo covers (via Black*Eiffel).

A new tote bag (via AT LA) for a new school year …

…A daily bit of calm in my inbox.

Cool ornaments for Christmas (already!)…

…Repurposing shopping bags.

Inspiration found on Etsy here, here, and here.

And loving the new stuff up on my own etsy, here.

Found via lovely Camilla Engman (my favorite name: Camilla) the book Taking Things Seriously is a wonder cabinet (kunstkammer!!) of seventy-five objects that have been invested with significance and transformed into totems, talismans, charms, relics, and fetishes.

And, speaking of taking things seriously, I’m in a serious mood.   School has started back up.  I’m taking a class on the material culture of revolution, the history of glass and the history of textiles.  Delicious.   More later!

A couple of weekends ago Tim and I stumbled upon the Antiques Show Place which is worth checking out. With 135 dealers, there is a decent variety and it makes a nice airconditioned escape from the open air flea markets in the area. Of particular note was Frankly Scarlet… a fabulous, funky shop specializing in shells and other natural wonders. We had a nice chat with the owner Becky who just moved to NY this spring. It all remindered me of the Kunstkammer or collector’s cabinet. As the Met’s website says “ Collecting the extraordinary and mysterious had been part of human evolution since time immeasurable.” I purchased some mini starfish to start my own Kunstkammer.

Came across this photowall via Cup of Jo. (Joanna wrote the house tour for Cookie — check out the rest of the profile, it’s deliciously full of energy, silhouettes and lovely bits!) It’s different than the photowalls I blogged here, but more organic and authentic. I could see doing this with photos of your garden, friends, view out your window too. I wonder how the photos are attached to the wall — maybe just tape? UPDATE: Lexi pointed out that this lovely house is owned by this blogger.

After a summer in and out of flea markets, auctions, thrift shops too many to count, vintage snapshots remained frustratingly out of reach. Saturday on the phone with my mother, cranky that summer was ending, cranky in general, feeling cooped up my mom suggested we try the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market. We hopped on the bus, made a pit stop at my favorite City Bakery (my standard antidote to most stress) and then headed towards the West 25th Street Market between Sixth Avenue and Fifth Avenue. This weekend outdoor flea market features up to 125 vendors selling antiques, collectibles, and other types of vintage and retro decorative arts. It was just what I needed! There were photos galore, amid used clothings, vintage velvet love seats, gay porno, vintage militrialia, and tools. 7th heaven. Then, we headed towards the Garage across the street, an indoor market with slightly higher quality goods housed on two floors of a car garage. Beautiful prints, vintage stationery supplies (triple yum), postcards, stamps, china, lamps, lots of prints.

Now that our apartment is pretty well full of every decorative object T. can tolerate, I’ve decided to start selling some of my vintage finds on Etsy since I love the hunt so much.  The lifeguard snap above is for sale as are some other finds from this summer (glasswear and dish towels).  Give it a look and let me know what you think!