just something simple....

yassum, we're getting married.

let me not get carried away, all. dear lawd, keep me sane.

so i'm saying for the record, before the planning starts, i'd love nothing more than if our wedding dinner turns out to feel as intimate and simple as this one.

monogrammed linens....

Monograms are by definition totally kitsch, no? Most of the time, they look copy-cutter, completely un-ironic, which can be a bit scary! Finding an unusual monogram, on the other hand, makes a bed-set become something truly eccentric and wonderful. Leontine Linens, based in New Orleans, has some of the most unusual, unique, splendid, overscale monograms I've ever seen. With names like "Baron." "Monarch." (Such a fun wedding present!) ... Somehow I get the feeling Nick Olsen would dig these.


The masculine "Joseph" and "Claude..." from the Baron collection.





And the more refined "Helena 2" from the Monarch collection, and "Jules," & "Trey" from the Directoire collection.





Have a languid, relaxing Memorial Day weekend, all! & see you back on Tuesday with some musings about the wedding!

pattern: oversized dots and oblongs in silky neutrals

o . O o . O o . o O . 0 0o O o . o O0 oblongs

Joy's nantaka joy line is out and it's too delicious....! (image via d*s). was so inspired, i had to show a sample of other gorgeous oval and oblong patterns in textiles and ceramics.

Embroidered tambourine fabric by Minä perhonen via photos from IdN spotted on Elly's site.


brooch by scottish artist Ann Little.


"Martini" runner by madeline weinrib

beloved Arabia: Finland giraffes found here.

over the desk

what's over your desk? a personal composition?


a blank slate?


monochromatic photos?


2 mirrors?


or "lamper fra ikea"?



image sources will be up this afternoon.

our little kitchen that could!

we did it!


thanks so much to the AT: Kitchen community!


Bostonians, feel free to use comment space here to share kitchen info/tips in the boston/cambridge area.

sometimes it happens, i guess...

as you might have noticed, i've been otherwise occupied: i am in the middle of a rather long essay on my beloved elizabeth bishop and can't seem to think of anything else.

but I will be back on Monday with a full week of information and inspiration!

and meanwhile, check on Apartment Therapy: Kitchen to see more of our kitchen (we made the finals)!



image of Bishop in a Argentine-designed butterfly chair in her home in Brazil- via the Harvard Square Library

i love this girl on the sartorialist.

DIY art... black and white illustrations

this is one of the excellent illustrations by mary shepard from the dark classic by p.l. travers. (it feels Kate Spade-ish to me.. like an image from "Things We Love".) i like it a lot with the text hanging suggestively above, and am thinking of enlarging it massively and hanging up in our entry. . . or perhaps over our bed.



i have always adored this one too.

if silk felt soil had a brother... a dirt-under-the-fingernails, sandy-haired, freckled, grinning, reckless, tall and lanky, old-bike-riding and 501-wearing brother...

it would be reference library.






thanks to kelly from hoping for happy accidents for her great eye.

what is your visual DNA? test yourself...

thanks to Maryam, I just discovered Imagini's superb little visual DNA quiz.

Each question (eg, "What is Art"?) can be answered by clicking on one of the many tiles in the mosaic that appears for each question. At the end of the series, the program gives you an analysis of your results, that was spot-on for me. (No registration, no spam emails, no catch.)

I particularly enjoyed being able to see, at the end, how my choices had lined up with other peoples'.



beautiful dna image courtesy of this site run by a dr. john kimball of andover, ma.

dong kingman, zao wou ki: mid-century poster art and illustration

Mid-century illustration and watercolor touch me on a very personal level because i grew up reading over and over again the picture books of my parents' generation (1940s-1960s), which they had saved, and loved to see me enjoying as they had. So the chaos of color and the shapes and typefaces and all of it is like coming home.

Dong Kingman is one of our great mid-century watercolorists. I hope these travel posters give you a surge of excitement as they do for me.

(The first for sale here, and the second here; or try this ebay print for a more wallet-friendly version of the 2nd.)


I love this one too, so so much, a 1968 lithograph by the abstract painter Zao Wou Ki.


DIY tip: if you enjoy this style of mid-century graphic design and illustration, try scanning an image from a children's book of the period and framing it (I'll be doing this in the next couple of weeks!). There are so many possibilities; try checking out the wonderful Flickr group, Retro Kid; or browse the Japanese site, CurioShop, for thumbnails of a truly stunning collection of mid-century illustrators and their work.





... et finalement, joyeux anniversaire à mon cher papa, et à la belle mathilde aujourd'hui!