Tag Archives: inspiration

Justin Timberlake + Estee Stanley

Designer Estee Stanley and musician, actor, fashion designer Justin Timberlake for their new home decor line, HomeMint.

I am a hardcore JT fan and I think it is beyond cool that he is (along with his interior designer Estee Stanley) launching a line of home decor items. They line will be available at HomeMint which is, from what I could see on the website, similar to One King’s Lane and other that offer specials to members.

The pictures at Elle Decor show a lot of blue items but there seemed to be some reds and other colors in the background of the website. I like what I saw at Elle Decor and I’m looking forward to seeing what else is available through the line.

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The HomeMint collection will offer a selection of curated art, tabletop, kitchen, textiles, and accent furniture. Read the article on Justin and Estee’s inspirations and collaboration here. Sign up for HomeMint here.

Until next time!

Picnic Anyone?

I’m off work today so I decided to go through some magazines and catalogs that I’ve only skimmed over because I’ve been so busy with work and life stuff lately.

ACME Party Company's Picnic Basket for Four. (Image from House Beautiful via Design Scouting.)

This gorgeous picnic basket is in the market section of the April issue of House Beautiful. it is available through ACME Party Box Company starting at $150 depending on the options you choose (with or without a knife or two styles of glasses). I would totally love to own this… though I’m not sure how much use I’d get out of it. As much as I want to be a Martha Stewart type, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I probably am really not that domestic. So actually planning a picnic menu, packing it up, and then taking it and a few friends out for a spin is probably super far off the list of realistic things I would be doing in life. Especially enough to justify a over a hundred dollar price tag. Still, this picnic basket is just beautiful enough to make me dream of moving it up the list a bit. 🙂

Hope you’re enjoying your Wednesday. Until next time!

Guilty Pleasures and Unlikely Inspirations

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Today, I was sort of racking my brain for what to post about. Attacking it head on was doing little to get me inspired so I took a mental detour or two… had a cuppa, made myself a bite, watched two movies – Fright Night & Crazy, Stupid Love, cleaned the kitchen top to bottom, started sanding the second lamp… and still nothing.

Halfway through my initial bout of sanding I decided to put on some music that never fails to make me happy, that I can sing along to, and that has one of my favorite “pick me up” tracks on it: N*Sync’s Celebrity.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Before you go making cracks about boys bands and how all the talent in that group just starred in a romcom with Mila Kunis, hear me out. I’m not a 80’s baby, so this wasn’t the group I liked when I was a teen (that would’ve been Duran Duran). This was the group that I mocked and made fun of as a late twentysomething for being too cheesy and commercial for words… Until that ill fated moment when I’d heard The Game Is Over for the umpteenth time on the overhead at Borders Books (hard to escape when you work in the music department) and found myself dancing and singing along to it because it was so catchy. I mean, what is not to love about a break up song with video game noises in it? Wait! Don’t answer that.

Anyway, I loved that song so much that I bought the CD. And I loved the whole thing (except for the too cheesy and commercial for words ballad, Someone Like You, that even I think is gag inducing). But the icing is this little track at the end called Do Your Thing. In it Justin and JC and the boys tell me how “there ain’t no excuse for losing your feet, drowning in your defeat on this road of life”… and they’re right. There is no excuse. Get up, dust yourself off, and get back in the fight. Like I told a friend who was down recently: sometimes we have to get bloodied to gain our victories.

I feel better now. I sang my little heart out. I’m about to spray paint (my new FAVORITE thing to do) and put on some Justin. Timberlake. Not Bieber. Hey, a girl’s got to have her standards, right?

Autumn Lights

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The inspiration piece: a print from Volume 25.

I apologize for the late post everyone but I worked today and, honestly, I had not prepared a post beforehand! So here is something that I’m quite proud of, that I’d like to share with you (in case you haven’t seen it): my second Etsy Treasury!

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Photograph of Versailles by Amanda Kay Photography.

OK, OK. Maybe I shouldn’t be so excited… but I just discovered the amazing amount of fun that can be had putting a Treasury together. And this one is getting such an awesome response…

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Gorgeous macro of (one of my favorites) a hydrangea by Chez Jolly.

Check out An Autumn Full of Light for yourself and let me know what you think!

Two more days til the weekend and some quality chair makeover time!

Oddhero

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In order to sooth my frazzled mood yesterday, I sat down and read through Grace Bonney’s book, Design*Sponge at Home, again. I noticed that in the dining room of her own home, she had hung this print by Oddhero.

It was a picture I have seen online before and even saved because I thought the print was amazing. So, after seeing the name of the shop that Grace had purchased it from, I looked them up online and found a shop full of graphic prints and tees that would look stylish in any design lover’s home. Here are some of my faves:

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Clockwise from top left: Why is the sky blue? – $40, Why is the sun yellow? – $40, Why are clouds white? – $40, Why is grass green? – $40, all at Oddhero.com.

These paper size prints explain why certain natural elements are the colors they are in simple language that children would love. The set would be a great addition to a nursery or school age kids room.

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Clockwise from top left: Aachen Bold – $180 (regular)/$380 (large), Tower – $220 (regular)/$430 (large), Helvetica – $220 (regular)/$380 (large), Futura – $380, all at Oddhero.com.

This set features fun and graphic homages to classic fonts. The jaunty angles and bold presentation would make these a great way to perk up a kitchen or the end of a hallway.

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Grace Bonney’s dining room.

Grace Bonney has the large size Tower poster featured in her dining room. The red in the poster playfully complements the bamboo dining room chairs.

Thursday is upon us already! The week is floating past. I hope your day is going well… and if it isn’t, there’s only one more day until the weekend. Perhaps a little time for some much needed r&r. It’s time for me to finish up my laundry and take some more staples out of the office chair so I can get to the reupholstery. Catch you tomorrow!

Etsy, eBay, and E-mail… Oh, My!

Today I’m sharing some of my recent acquisitions from online shopping. I can’t say that I do this regularly; I’m just getting started shopping on places like Etsy and eBay, but… I’ve seen some amazing things lately that made me give up just browsing. Here is my haul (some of these are still on the way so I’m posting the online pics from the seller’s site):

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Blue Sky Dreaming by Kim Davies @ Inspired Lines.

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Gray Laurel by Fire King cream and sugar set @ Jadeite Kate on Etsy.

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A Giannelli horse head bookends @ Vintage Retro Classics on eBay.

I’m also picking up a smallish, Asian style entertainment center with the hopes of converting it into an office armoire. More on that later!

Have you got any mail order treasures that you acquired recently? I’d love to see/hear about it!

Totally Inspiring Room

Whew! It is sweltering this Tuesday in the CLT. It feels like it’s in the 90’s… at least. Here’s a fresh, cool breeze of inspiration for you:

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via Lonny Magazine

This beautiful room is from the latest issue of Lonny Magazine. As soon as I saw it I fell in love with the handpainted chinoiserie wallpaper by Gracie that fills the back wall of the room. Other swank elements include: a leather covered card table scored from auction house Christie’s, bamboo style chairs, tan on white zebra striped fabric, and a pretty pale blue ceramic candlestick lamp on a leggy console. I could SO live here!

Hope you’re having a great ( and significantly cooler) Tuesday. 🙂

Don’t be embarrassed. Get better.

Or why Samuel Shane Worthington is my new personal hero.

Sometimes profound things can begin from total inanity. In my case it goes something like this:

I’m at Target with my mom and we’re looking at movies. She says “Hey, Jo, what about Terminator: Salvation?”. (Bear with me here, I really am going somewhere with this.) I nod in agreement. I probably made a comment about how I thought it was better than everyone made it out to be. I probably made another comment about how I thought both of the male stars were hot (under my breath though, cause this is my moms we’re talking about).

A few days later I put the movie in and Sam Worthington Mack Trucks me. Duh duh duh. Jo has celebrity crush #739. (In case you’re keeping score: that was the inane beginning…)

Of course, what does an obsessing Jo do with an internet connection and ridiculous amounts of free time? Yeah. I did. Here’s what I found: acres of Sam Worthington interviews. Now, while I’m listening to or reading or watching these interviews something curious starts to happen. I start getting really, really excited (and I’m not talking about in a ‘below the belt’ kind of way either). Something was bubbling up through all the f-bombs, table thumping, and beard scratching. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what “it” was but I felt like something crazy. Something free.

Here’s what Sam talks about, a lot: Work. Why. Work. Realness. Work. Honesty. Work. And in between the lines of these workaday themes is a burning desire to be present and true to things he’s chosen to do without changing his fundamental self, without playing the games people play. Straight and true.

I thought: Wow. I want this. I want to have that kind of focus. The kind that says, “I am insanely passionate about what I do. I will put every atom in my body to the task.”

It felt good to hear the power of such basic statements. Simple? Maybe. But not easy. Then again, that’s why I like it so much; there is no action toward the path of least resistance in anything he’s saying. I’ve always admired people who go their own way without a care for the rumblings of the crowd. I think this man stands on his own. He’s doing it without all the posturing and the pretense; he’s doing it with the kind of passion that draws comparisons to the fusion reactions in stellar objects. Sam Worthington is hitting “Be You Now” on the head with a 20 ton sledgehammer. Every day, fully, unequivocally committed.

So, yeah. Time to get committed without making apologies for being who you are. You have to have the courage to be able to measure yourself against… yourself. Comparisons to anyone else don’t matter, are arbitrary at best. The real test is: Can I look myself in the eye and not be embarrassed by what I see? And if I am? There’s an answer for that too.

“Don’t be embarrassed. Get better.”

That’s the sound of the hero getting back up after being knocked down. I LOVE that song. I’m going to sing it until it becomes my personal soundtrack. When it does it’ll go something like this: Passion! Work. Realness. Honesty. Work! That’s a fine tune to walk out a life to. I think it rocks.

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B/W Mood

I’m really loving black and white everything right now. I’d thought I’d share some of my camera photos which have been run through the Vignette Demo photo filtering app.

Do you take photos? I’d love to see what you’re doing with your camera! Have a wonderful, stress free Tuesday. 🙂

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Soft Touch

Its a soft, gray, rainy day here in Charlotte today. I was planning on putting these pics but the soft, muted colors seem especially appropriate given the melancholy Springs weather.

Here is a serving of rain washed colors for this not so sunny spring day:

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Soft pinks, gray, and white dominate this set. (Sources: unknown, Domino, Elle Decor, unknown.)

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Washed out bluish gray and Sterling rose lavenders create a moody ambience. (Sources: unknown, Domino, unknown, Champagne & Macarons blog.)

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Soft gray-browns, white, and silver. (Sources: Mallory Morrison Photography, Greige blog, unknown, Elle Decoration Australia.)

Have a great Friday and a (hopefully) sunnier weekend!