Wednesday, May 26, 2010

five blogs I read every day

Beyond the obvious ones, that is. I mean, beyond the usual big name design blogs like Apartment Therapy, SF Girl by the Bay, Decor 8 and Posey Loves Cozy, which of course I read everyday, but so does most everyone else. These are blogs that I like to think of as my little secret.



Does This Pen Write?. Devoted to office supplies, a great, secret love of mine, and particularly, pens.


Bohemian Hellhole. No, it's not updated every day, sadly, but I check every day to see if there's something new. I've never run across a design blogger who's aesthetic quite matches mine so closely.


Dottie Angel. It took me a little while to get used to the center justified format and the whimsicle, meandering text, but I just love every picture from this blog. She's doing a giveaway right now of the most gorgeous crocheted pillow. I didn't enter, because I can make my own, but so inspirational.


Lovely Bicycle. I think we all need more lovely bikes in our lives. And I just adore the pictures of the blogger's Pashley Princess.


The Mogg Blogg. Like Go Fug Yourself, but for interior design. Always screaming funny. Sometimes just makes you scream.

five things I love right now





I love this Sweet Garland Venice Dream. I might hang it up with my string of cherry blossom lanterns. Or I might wrap presents with it. Or just spend hours looking at all the little maps on each dot.












I love this vintage princess phone. When I was a little girl, what I wanted more than anything to complete my strawberry and red and white gingham themed room was a white princess phone. My mom, quite rightly I suppose, didn't think a little girl of nine needed her own phone in her room. Now that I'm grown up, we don't have a land line and rely on our cell phones, but there's still a part of me that thinks it would be more glamorous, more elegant to place my calls on a princess phone.









This bicycle pendant would be just what I need to complete today's outfit. I love jewelry which lets the world know about my great love for my bike and lets me carry a little bit of the freedom and joy of biking with me when I'm stuck at work or in the store or wherever. This particular pendant is already sold, but etsy being the magical thing that it is, I'm sure the seller would be happy to make me, or you, a pendant very similar.






This garden party bunting is so cheerful. It's all things springy and cheerful and bright. I think I would hang this one in my bedroom, once I've finished my new vintage sheet patchwork quilt. This particular bunting is sold, but it would be so easy to make my own out of one of the sellers fat quarter bundles of reclaimed vintage fabrics. How cute would it look if you used lots of bright stripes with the florals?







We all need a little more Patience in our lives. I love Lisa Congdon and I love this painting. Perhaps it's my favorite of hers ever. It manages to make me smile as it inspires. How gorgeous are her color choices, right?

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Back from vacation

Hello Lovelies-

I had a brilliant time in London and took tons of photos. Over 500 in fact. I'm just dreading going through them to see if any are worthwhile. It was kind of freeing, having my digital camera and the huge chip and a fully charged battery, knowing I could take pretty much as many photos as I wanted. Still, going through them all. That'll be a task and a half. The computer has already spent ten minutes copying the files from my camera to my folder and it's not done yet. Maybe there's a more efficient way to get pictures from folder a to folder b, but I don't know it.

I'm sorry I didn't make a post about my planned trip. Mr. Campion has ideas about internet privacy and particularly didn't want random people on the web to know that our place would be empty for nearly two weeks. I guess he has a point.

In any case, soon there will be pictures of bluebell woods and palaces and a summer house folly that's bigger than most people's homes, but was built so a queen could have picnics in the woods.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Two new projects



Both blankets. Of course, I need more blankets around this place like I need more holes in the head, but I can't help it, the crochet has me (ha ha) hooked. But so far I've only crocheted one afghan for the living room, this will be the second and I don't think you get into that special kind of crazy category until you've done more than five per room, right?

The stack of fabric is a bundle of vintage sheet fat quarters that I bought from Etsy. I'm slowly cutting them into 4 inch charm squares and the plan is to sew them into a simple quilt. I'm a little worried, because the last quilt I made was about fifteen years ago and I'm not known for patience in sewing. And a full size quilt takes plenty of patience. More pictures as I get further on.