Works in Progress…

Paintings by UK artist Tom French.

Artist Tom French presents some of his new works in progress on his blog. They are beautiful black and whites with a kinetic sense of movement. I’m a huge fan… and hoping that at some point he offers prints for the budget conscious among us. In the meantime check out his post
Works in Progress…. You can also check out my previous ode to his work here.

Yucky yucky snow in Seatown. 😦

We’re getting acres of snow here in Seattle. That’s definitely put a damper on my storage clean out activities!

I hope you all are having an amazing and snow free Monday! Until tomorrow!

Best of the Week

What a week! I’ve feel like a whole year has passed. Really, it’s just a lot of life happening all at once. That’s life though, right? The ups, the downs, and everything in between. As the young Indian hotel clerk says in the trail for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: “Everything will work out in the end. If it hasn’t worked out, it’s not the end.”

This week:



I was really inspired by this great mood board from fellow Charlotte design blogger, Andrea. She is a designer and DIYer who moved here recently, like me. Check out her cool projects and inspiration on her blog, SpaceSays.



Caitlin Wilson Textiles.





Surfing through some links on Laura Casey Interiors, I discovered this link to Caitlin Wilson Textiles. I’d never heard of this star design blogger but I was delighted to discover her new line of textiles! They are so beautiful and the blue, pink, and linen colored chinoiserie inspired floral gave me ideas for a great living room scheme. A complete set of swatches is available for $20 and comes prettily packaged in a beautiful pink box.

I finished my lamps here, read the YA bestseller The Hunger Games, and tested out a new Android app called Eggdrop with much success.

I also want to take a moment to say something about SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act. This is a bill that will effect every blogger out there. See this great post about what the bill means for you and me. Sign a petition, call your reps, and get the word out to your readers and fellow bloggers! This is OUR internet.

Have a great holiday weekend everyone! See you next week!

Black Beauty

Adam’s Spooky Apples from Matt Bites.

I don’t really do Halloween. When I was in 2nd grade my mom became a Christian and that was that. I never really regretted not celebrating though, having a healthy theatrical streak, I did miss the dressing up in costume though.

Still, every now and then I’ll see something Halloween related and I kinda get a pang. Every now then, a little voice in my head will say ‘Jo, you’re totally missing out!’. This recipe for black and red candy apples for Halloween from food blog, Matt Bites, is just such a thing. These apples are so beautiful that they make me wish I did do Halloween.

I don’t do Halloween… so I won’t… but maybe you do? And maybe you hadn’t found this recipe yet (and believe me, it is a discovery)? And… maybe you needed that little extra something to make your Halloween party sing?

This is the it. Adam’s Spooky Apples @ MattBites.com.

Reading Room: The Illumination

The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier.

Kevin Brockheimer’s book details the emotional and physical wounds that are highlighted by a phenomena dubbed “The Illumination”. In the world he’s created, every wound shines with varying shapes and intensities of light dependent on the injury’s severity.

The book is broken up into six parts, each part from the viewpoint of a character that has come into contact with a journal from the first section if the book. In the first section a woman accidentally cuts herself while opening a box from her ex-husband containing her alimony check. When she gets to the hospital, her thumb starts glowing with light, which she assumes is a hallucination from the drugs she’s been given. It turns out that everyone in the world is experiencing these illuminated wounds. When she’s readmitted a little while later with complication arising from her initial visit, she makes the acquaintance of a womb dying from injuries sustained in a car crash. The woman assumes her husband, who was driving the car, is dead and bequeaths the journal she kept of his mash notes to her during their marriage to the woman that cut herself. From here every character comes into contact with the book. The dead accident victim’s husband. The neighbor boy who believes the book is wounded and steals it from the husband.

Each section is filled with precise little details about people’s daily lives and the ways in which we inflict pain on each other. I’m finding this book both haunting and beautiful in equal measure and can’t recommend it enough.

Art: Tom French

I signed up for Tumblr last night and while I was playing around with it, I ran across these portraits by UK artist Tom French. I think they are amazing… I totally wish he was offering prints but alas they’re originals and they’ve been sold. Still, pretty drool worthy, no?

Single Serving Sunday

Eye candy for your lazy Sunday viewing enjoyment: