A friend sent me the paintings of Marie Laurencin, a French painter working at the turn of the century. I love the soft quality to these paintings and muted colors. I’d like a bedroom like this.

PS the woman in the portrait is none other than CoCo Chanel.

Thanks to AT Chicago, I came across this fantastic Dutch site Collected by Tas-ka that somewhat defies categorization.  They sell one of kind vintage items like this coffee pot along with more mass produced items. I love that that they say:

“Everything we think is beautiful and special and we would like to share with you, we will collect in our webshop. So you have an experience of being in a candy shop.”

I really like the mix and match, high/low asthetic and of course the coolness that comes from everyday things from a different country.

Like this rad greeting card!

and retro drinking cups.

More flower inspiration from Martha Stewart Weddings.  The great textured paper around the vases is called anaglypta and is basically a type of embossed wallpaper.  I found some rolls (see my favorite below) over at Wallpapers Plus, but $200 dollars — the cost per roll — doesn’t seem to justify a few cute vases.

However, I still thought this would be so nice for a birthday party decoration (I’m planning Tim’s 30th as I type this) so I looked around and found these embossed papers at PaperMojo and at $4.50 a sheet I’m sold!

I spied this sweet vintage inspired chandelier over at Land of Nod ($119). I could see this in a hallway or bathroom.

Loving this dress, found via Sometimes Dresses, Sometimes Jeans, a great new fashion blog.  (Thanks, M!).

Sometimes simple is all you need: these cutting boards from J.K. Adams make me sooooo happy.

But their novelty boards make me happier.

Gardens seem to be a theme today… Loving this image from Martha Stewart Living (scanned from my files). I like the centerpieces the most — they look like cake plates with pears and clematis.

Wouldn’t you like to wake up to this every morning?  Scanned from my files, Elle Decor

I love libraries. I’m a library addict. I guess I love libraries so much because I love books and research, so thank god I basically have one foot in academia. By its nature research is slow so I don’t post much about what I’m working on because in the day-to-day it rarely looks like much. However, I just discovered a amazing scanner in my favorite library and voila! here are some of the beautiful images I’ve been gorging myself on this summer. I’m researching a piece of silver made by Tiffany & Company in the 1870s. The design is Japanese inspired so I’ve been looking at the primary sources that the Tiffany designers might have been influenced by in the 1870s and 1880s.

These are a few of my favorites but you can see some 80 or so more here. Yes, I went a bit nuts with the new scanner (it is so fast!) but it was really all for you. Note to the fabric designers — there are some amazing designs here that I think would translate into modern fabric beautifully.

These chairs remind me of my favorite grown up chairs. I like the table, chairs, lamp. Just delicious! Scanned from my inspiration files, via Elle Decor

Just a bit of pink inspiration for you — I just really like this photo and all the details. The chair’s curved arm, the paisley bedspread and handbag. The tiny desk and lovely gold mirror. The awesome clothes butler.

I’m a huge fan of Black*Effiel and my favorite posts are the one she does on children’s books. See them all here.

I don’t want summer to end.  I love fall and crisp air, but I love green gardens MORE.  Someday I want to have these hedges, red brick pathways, green arbors and a yellow out building.  A girl needs her dreams, after all.  Scanned from my inspiration files, via Domino.

Loving this funky mantelscape… not totally my taste, but awesome none the less. Scanned from my files, from Elle Decor (I think!).

This image from Martha Stewart Weddings has been on my mind recently  — I love love love the chalk chandelier and am thinking of drawing something similar in our kitchen, since we have a loooooong wall (below) that just needs something .  And a chalk drawing would be basically free.