Vintage Modern

Literally! I love when companies take an iconic product and truly update it for the modern user. Here are two stellar examples:

First:

Polaroid’s compact instant/digital camera, the Z2300. I love the race car model designations!

The Polaroid Z2300 (yes, them again) is an awesome instant/digital camera. How much fun would it be to have all the modern conveniences in a digital camera but still be able to make those cool old school instant prints that made the company famous? You can get the best of both worlds with this slick looking 10MP looker and at only $160, it isn’t going to break the bank.

Next up:

Seriously, Singer’s 160th Anniversary Limited Edition Computerized Sewing Machine made me swoon when I saw it. Thanks, Amazon!

This gorgeous sewing machine from Singer which takes it’s styling from the vintage turn of the 20th Century machines that started it all and upends it with a fully functional computerized interface. Let me tell you, this is WAY better looking than the boring white and blue machines that litter your local Joann’s. I’d go so far as to say this machine in sexay… If you can apply that term to a sewing machine!

Last but not least:

Michelle over at Sweet Suite 10 gave me a heads up on this one… At first I wasn’t feeling the flatter shape but I think it looks sportier, don’t you?

You can’t get more iconic than a classic Volkswagen Beetle, can you? There aren’t many people, whether they are 8 or 80, that don’t know this classic car from the shape alone. Well, for the new 2013 model they have stepped back even further to an earlier, slightly flatter body style but they’ve upped the ante with a LOT more power under the hood than ever before. I could see myself zipping through town in one of these, couldn’t you?

What’s your favorite new old design?

Lazy Days of Summer?

So, my plan was to write an awesome post about some cool things I’ve seen lately but life, in the form of six loads of laundry, intervened. I decided that I should stop procrastinating and get it done… Which I did.

I also finished the last book of the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy (more on that in another post)…

… downloaded a new eBook called The Black God’s War…

… signed up for the email list for my friend Robin Burks upcoming debut novel Zeus, INC…

… played around with a photo editing app called Pixlr…

edited and added to some of my boards on Pinterest

… checked out the girly glam blog, This Is Glamorous…

… made two playlists on Spotify and listened to Nero’s Welcome Reality…

Um, but not necessarily in that order! Anyway, that’s what I did with my day off. I didn’t really do anything but I feel like that was a lot for one day! Until next time…

4th & Sparkles

Have a sparkling Fourth of July!

My stepsister is moving to Nashville, TN tomorrow. Today we’re going to celebrate the 4th while sending her off with love. I hope everyone has an amazing holiday! Until next time!

Vintage Remix

Kishani Perera is an LA based designer who has risen, in the design world to rockstar recognition in just a short time. Her work is being featured all over the place, from magazines to blogs to tv… With good reason. Her eclectic mix of bold color, high and low brands, vintage and new is something to inspire or aspire to. I was excited when I found out (light years behind all the truly savvy decoristas) that Ms. Perera has a new book out. It’s called Vintage Remix: The Interiors of Kishani Perera. I’m aiming to make it a part of my collection now. In the meantime, I’ve been checking out more of Ms. Perera’s work online:

Kishani Perera design. Image via Project Pretty Blog.

Kishani Perera design. Image via Aphrochic

Kishani Perera design. Image via Color Sizzle.

Each of these bloggers has done a great feature on Ms. Perera’s work. There are more photos (and gushing… not unlike mine!) on each of these fab blogger’s sites. Please check out all the great pics they have of Kishani Perera’s work. Just click on one of the pics above.

Kishani Perera at her LA based store, Rummage.

There are some great pics of Kishani Perera’s store, Rummage, on the blog Brittany Stiles. Just click the photo above to take a look. You can also see some great shots of the Vintage Remix’s sections on The House of Fifty blog or pick up your own copy and make it a part of your collection. Isn’t Ms. Perera’s work fab?

I hope you’re having a fabulous day… and colorful day! Until next time. 🙂

A New Year!

I’m not a New Year’s resolution maker. I find that typically they don’t work. People rarely want to to do the day to day work required to make lasting change in their own lives. We all pretty much default to the path of least resistance. I’m guilty of it as well. So, I just tend to do what I’m doing and make changes as life comes at me.

This year I’m doing something different. Let me preface this by saying that I’m a late bloomer. I’m not twenty anymore and I’m just getting my confidence, my sea legs, for this adventure called life. It has been been scary, exhilarating, dangerous, painful, joyous, and fulfilling. And I’m not done yet…

In 2012 I’m going to take the time to cultivate my life. Make it as healthy as humanly possible. Weeding out the choking weeds, fertilizing my favorite hopes and dreams, planting new passions, nurturing maturing visions, and harvesting accomplished goals.

That’s my resolution for this year. I think with some hard work 2012 will be all anyone I can hope for in this new year.

Tablet? Thank you!

A quick share: my new tablet. I like my new gift lots! Until tomorrow!

Little Things…

The Thanksgiving Day crew at IKEA Charlotte. I’m the only one in a blue sweatshirt. What can I say? I’m a rebel. 😉

Sometimes, it is the little things in life that elicit the most pleasure. Today Patrick, a coworker from IKEA, sent me a copy of the group photo we took just before everyone arrived for Thanksgiving dinner a week ago. The pic put a smile on my face and reminded me of the great time I had doing it.

My sister’s new puppy, Bluey.

In the same batch of emails was this picture from my sister of her new pit bull puppy, Bluey. Isn’t he darling? She’s excited about the new edition and her kids are over the moon. He’s fitting in nicely, if all the cooing I hear over the phone during our convos is any indicator.

Yep, it’s the little things!

Autumn Lights

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!

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…

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!

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.

Got Rug? (The IKEA Edition)

If you’ve been following me for a bit, you know that I’m really picky about rugs. I find that lower end rugs tend lack the kind of style that I crave in a floor covering. So yesterday, after I got off work, I headed over to the textiles area at IKEA. I have to admit that textiles has become my favorite section at IKEA these days. They’ve got some really great stuff this year (a plethora of totally on trend items in purple/lavender being chief among them… but I digress). Anywho, I’m decided to see if they’d put any new rug styles up yet…

Whoa. I was struck by three styles in particular:

Gandrup rug (78″x118) IKEA – $299.

Graphic, black, gray, cream, and gold rug featuring stripes overlaid with an abstract daisy pattern. Love the chic color combo here! The really cool thing about this rug is that the color and pattern are crisp and clean, not murky or or muted like some IKEA rugs can be.

Broager rug (63″x94″) IKEA – $249.

This rug looks like a really cool gray in my pic (because of the lighting in the store) but is actually a warm, gray-brown with ivory flower sprays in the pattern. It is really lovely and soft in person. This would make a great choice for someone who wanted something with a feminine but clean edge to it.

Skoghall rug (78″x118″) IKEA – $249

The last rug is not offered in a colorway that I would usually get but it was so pretty, I had to share it here. This one has a rich, milky orange red (it literally reminds me of tomato soup) with a gorgeous abstracted flower pattern in a low contrast brown/tan. The tag says it is red/black but it definitely looked brownish tan in the showroom. The pattern on this is so beautiful! I wish they offered it in a cool colorway… like green and blue. Still, if you’re doing warm tones in your house this would be an awesome choice.

Have a great week! I hope your Monday is like a Friday! See you tomorrow. 🙂