Feeling Inspired

From my blog post today on Apartment Therapy, I am feeling inspired to organize and clean up my kitchen and pantry area. This is my favorite kitchen from my roundup and I think it is due to the fab striped rug and color coordinated cookbooks!

Dressing up where the sun don't shine

As I was trolling the design blogs last night, the same ad for Cottonelle kept popping up. Alongside a roll of the toilet paper appeared the familiar face of Jonathan Adler promoting his designed toilet paper roll holders for Cottonelle. Seriously? I don't blame JA, since every designer needs to make money and licensing is a dream job. However, I just can't imagine the allure in one of these paper tp covers? Who really leaves their toilet paper out in plain sight and then thinks that dressing it up will enhance the look? Sorry but I will not be "respecting the roll" as Cottonelle wants buyers to do.

Color Story Monday: Mint Green and Poppy Red

This is a very bold color prediction to start off with in 2012, but I think that mint green and poppy red will become a combo with a soft grey as the great neutralizer. The bold nature of poppy red and mint green mixed makes the colors great for accessorizing.

1. One of Farrow and Ball's color prediction for 2012
2. The Lomo Diana Dreamer camera from Urban Outfitters
3. A hanging red clock from CB2
4. A fun under counter fridge from Big Chill in mint green
5. The classic Chinese garden stool in mint green from Wisteria.
6. Brighten up your morning coffee with a Marimekko mug in one of my favorite patterns.
7. Add some pop to your laptop with a Kate Spade laptop sleeve.
8. Mint Macarons
9. DesignSponge at Home adds some poppy to your bookshelf

Best Design Gifts from Xmas

I received some awesome design worthy gifts for the holidays that I have to share.
I am an obsessive collector of design books and those I love gifted me two great new books to add to my shelf.

1. American Fashion Designers at Home
2. Brilliant: White in Design

My Christmas gift to myself was the Kartell Cindy lamp for my nightstand in purple!

Happy Holidays!

I worked on a gingerbread house before and after for my holiday card and here are the final before and after shots! I will be taking a hiatus from blogging for the holidays and be back to blogging in the first week of the new year!
BEFORE

AFTER

Union Jacks

While out Christmas shopping in Covent Garden, we stumbled upon Jamie Oliver's newest restaurant, Union Jacks. It seems as if he is opening a new restaurant every week in London these days, so expectations weren't that high, but the interior decor is fun and has an American diner sort of feel.  The menu is all flatbreads with very British ingredients. We got a great seat at the bar overlooking the kitchen prep area, but the best part of our dinner was seeing Jamie Oliver dining there himself!

A tree adventure in London

This year we were determined to get a real tree for our flat in London since we are here for most of December. I even shipped over a ton of silver and mercury glass ornaments.

First Stop: Columbia Road Flower Market about a mile from our house, my fiance had full intentions of carrying our tree home over his shoulder. I had full intentions of claiming the largest tree on the lot. These two thoughts didn't mix well. I set my sights on a tree to which the salesman yelled out to everyone on the block that I picked the largest tree on the lot, I then relented and decided maybe that a 9' tree wasn't the best idea, but I had lots of ornaments and still needed a lot of tree real estate to handle the large baubles. So we settled on a full 7 1/2 ft. tree and luckily I was able to flag down a taxi and with the top hanging out of the side window we made it home in a few minutes.

On to the decorations...

The hardest part about decorating a tree in England is the lights are different from the U.S. and it isn't just the voltage. In the U.S. it seems all of the lights hook together so you can have endless amounts of lights on the tree plugged into one socket. Here every strand ends and they don't connect together, I was lucky to find one strand of 200 lights and it covered the whole tree.

The finished result:

My 2 favorite ornaments:

Holiday Greenery

I love baby pine trees and next year I'm thinking tons of them would be a lot easier than one large tree. Less shedding and so many possibilities...

12th day of Xmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,

twelve drummers drumming,

eleven pipers piping,

ten lords-a-leaping

nine ladies dancing,

eight maids-a-milking,

seven swans-a-swimming,

six geese-a-laying,

five golden rings,

four calling birds,

three french hens,

two turtle doves,

and a partridge in a pear tree.

The drum table is a versatile piece of furniture that can work well both indoors and outdoors. I have a roundup of some of my favorite drum tables for putting your cocktail on and kicking up your feet during the necessary R&R required after the rush of the holiday season.
1. A set of rustic drums from Lazy Susan that could be used as either planters outside or as side tables inside.
2. A limited edition hand carved piece from West Elm.
3. A Moroccan metal table from Serena and Lily mimics the Moroccan poufs that have become so popular.
4. A rain drum side table from Pottery Barn would be a perfect exterior accent.

11th day of Xmas

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,

eleven pipers piping,

ten lords-a-leaping

nine ladies dancing,

eight maids-a-milking,

seven swans-a-swimming,

six geese-a-laying,

five golden rings,

four calling birds,

three french hens,

two turtle doves,

and a partridge in a pear tree.

Antique instruments are becoming popular for use as objects of decoration in the home. They are great for someone who might have once played an instrument as a child and wants to display something that is personal but can still be admired by those not aware of the personal attributes of the object.
Above: an aluminum violin circa 1930's from ABC Modern