A weekend Pick Me Up

Visiting the Somerset House in London for the Affordable Graphic Art Fair, Pick Me Up is a must do activity for this weekend. If you are in the market for some new art for your abode or just want to check out an amazing area of London then you have no reason not to attend this show. With interactive areas for attendees to create their own graphic art this show is accessible to all.

Should you get ferociously hungry looking at all of the art, stop by Tom's Cafe or Kitchen for a bite to eat. I love the chef Tom Aitken's motto, "I want to encourage you to buy fresh foods, foods that are in season, preferably foods that are organic, and foods that are British."

Heart Copenhagen

My love is off on a business trip to Copenhagen today, so I thought that I would post some photos of this super stylish design city. Gotta love a city that has its own logo and design worthy food!

The Japan Society

I am a big fan of Joseph O. Holmes and I even own a few of his prints. If you want to donate some money to Japan and get something tangible in return you can purchase his gorgeous photo of Tokyo, seen below from 20x200. All proceeds from the sale go to the Japan Society, an earthquake relief fund.

JOY

There is a concept swirling around in the art and charity world recently that I am a huge fan of. A bunch of pieces are commissioned by famous and unknown artists and each piece is sold for the same price but the artist remains anonymous until the purchase is complete. This forces the purchaser to focus solely on the piece and not worry about the value or name behind a piece, and it also brings the focus back to the charity itself. The most important part about purchasing a piece of art whether it is $10 or $10,000 is that you as the owner falls in love with the piece and it really shouldn't matter if it is created by Jasper Johns or Joe from around the corner.

Ending today is a show at the Somerset House in London called Joy of Living which took on the anonymous art concept to raise funds for Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres. For this fundraiser each artist had to us an A4 size sheet of graph paper and turn it into their own work of art. Each piece is being sold for £250 and most have already sold. Some of the well known artists who have contributed include John Pawson, Ella Doran, Rob Ryan, and Terence Conran to name a few.

A Blog's Day of Silence

I spend a lot of time on this blog discussing shelter. Unfortunately Japan has experienced a tragic and massive loss of shelter as a result of last week's earthquake and tsunami. The girls behind Utterly Engaged and Lydia at Ever Ours came up with a way for bloggers to raise money for shelter and emergency supplies for the people of Japan by announcing a blogging day of silence on Friday. In just a matter of days a small community of bloggers have surpassed their fund raising goal by over 100%! To help give Japan temporary shelter, you can donate to Shelterbox USA. Each green box contains the basic necessities needed for a shelter which include a relief tent for a large family, blankets, water storage and purification tools, cooking stove, and other vital needs that have been destroyed by mother nature. To donate or help out in any way visit www.forjapanwithlove.com

The Green Scene

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I have chosen some of my favorite shades of green for paint.

From left to right: Farrow and Ball Cooking Apple Green, Benjamin Moore Dill Pickle, Benjamin Moore Wasabi, Benjamin Moore Richmond Green, Martha Stewart Caper Berry, Farrow and Ball Card Room Green, Benjamin Moore Army Green

A bit of luck

Bring a bit of Irish luck to your desk with this crystal paperweight from John Derian.

A Transformative Landscape

I owe credit to the amazing landscape designs of Bridget Skinner. Her ideas for the exterior work to complement the interiors and give the entire home a finished feel. These before and afters highlight how she can take something so drab and turn it into a gem.

Tulip Season

The sun is out and shining in London today and it really feels like Spring with the amazing tulips, anemones, and daffodils in season everywhere! My favorite collection of vases are a grouping of milk bottles from Alyssa Ettinger and they look fabulous grouped with the tulips.

Spring Forward

In honor of Daylight Savings Time, here is a round of some of my favorite clocks of the moment.

1) This sleek alarm clock from West Elm will look great on any bedside.
2) Go mid-century mod with CB2
3) This simple square clock from Restoration Hardware is perfect for a kitchen.
4) Place your time right on the floor with this rug from Z Gallerie.
5) A lovely and simple bias clock from MOMA

Pendant Gate

The pendants shown in the photo above were the subject of much frustration in my work in late December. I really never had time to blog about it, so now you get to hear how sometimes the most simple component of a room can cause lots of headaches, but often turn out better than imagined.

We were running up on a deadline to get the Nautilus project installed and completed for January 1st. Lighting is obviously a very important part of a room for practical and in this case decorative reasons. The kitchen is really a main focal point in this house and we had selected some gorgeous glass pendants back in September to hang above the center island. They were clean, simple, ad modern which is a staple element to my style and maybe not for everyone.

December came and it was time for the pendant installation. It was clear that our electrician was not a fan of them, he even flat out told us that we needed to use something fancier. So the next day when we arrive and the electrician announces that all three pendants got broken, it seemed rather suspicious, especially when he wanted to go pick something out better for us from Home Depot! This as well as a few other problems resulted in the electrician's termination. After a few days of trying to replace the glass housing on the original pendants, we realized it wouldn't be possible. With 2 weeks till completion finding three matching pendants that fit our style and didn't need to be a special order was nearly impossible. Nevertheless, we had to push on and keep up the frantic search for the perfect pendants. We turned to one of our favorite shops Gatehouse and talked them into selling their three pendants above their cash register! They were incredibly accommodating and had their electrician take them down on the spot for us, as we were waiting and watching him take them down out of pure accident one of the glass pendants crashed down shattering on the cash register and startling a customer. No one was hurt, but we were now back to square one with pendants and we absolutely felt like a curse was placed on us. This is when I began to call the whole situation pendant gate.

At the final last moment, we found these mercury glass pendants online and they were able to overnight them to us so that a new electrician could install them. In the end, I really love these pendants and I'm happier with how they look. So no matter how down you might feel when something with a remodel isn't going your way, everything always works out in the end.

Cote Bastide Style

After being in France last week, I thought that I would follow up with some French inspiration that we used for a bedroom during the last project. These twin beds were inspired by the Cote Bastide shop in Paris. The walls, headboards, and nightstands are all painted in various shades of grey. Each bed is topped off with simple white matelasse bedding and I felt that my black and white photo topped off the room.

This is the reason for my recent lapse in posts, skiing in the French Alps. Our chalet had the most amazing retro turquoise kitchen that I snapped a shot of with my hipstamatic.

I was running around London picking up some last minute things for a trip and just had to stop and take a snapshot of the gorgeous view from a shopping center next to St. Paul's Cathedral